The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Popular Handbook of the National Gallery, vol. 1, by E. T. Cook.

The National Gallery is open to the Public on week-days throughout the year. On MONDAYS, TUESDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, and SATURDAYS admission is free, and the Gallery is open during the following hours:—

On THURSDAYS and FRIDAYS (Students' Days) the Gallery is open to the Public on payment of Sixpence each person, from 11 A.M. to 4 P.M. in winter, and from 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. in summer.

On SUNDAYS the Gallery is open, free, from 2 P.M. till dusk, or 6 P.M. (according to the season).

☞ Persons desirous of becoming Students should address the Secretary and Keeper, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, S.W.

The National Gallery of British Art ("Tate Gallery") is open under the same regulations, and during the same hours, as those given above, except that Students' Days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

PREFACE BY JOHN RUSKIN

So far as I know, there has never yet been compiled, for the illustration of any collection of paintings whatever, a series of notes at once so copious, carefully chosen, and usefully arranged, as this which has been prepared, by the industry and good sense of Mr. Edward T. Cook, to be our companion through the magnificent rooms of our own National Gallery; without question now the most important collection of paintings in Europe for the purposes of the general student. Of course the Florentine School must always be studied in Florence, the Dutch in Holland, and the Roman in Rome; but to obtain a clear knowledge of their relations to each other, and compare with the best advantage the characters in which they severally excel, the thoughtful scholars of any foreign country ought now to become pilgrims to the Dome—(such as it is)—of Trafalgar Square.

We have indeed—be it to our humiliation remembered—small reason to congratulate ourselves on the enlargement of the collection now belonging to the public, by the sale of the former possessions of our nobles. But since the parks and castles which were once the pride, beauty, and political strength of England are doomed by the progress of democracy to be cut up into lots on building leases, and have their libraries and pictures sold at Sotheby's and Christie's, we may at least be thankful that the funds placed by the Government at the disposal of the Trustees for the National Gallery have permitted them to save so much from the wreck of English mansions and Italian monasteries, and enrich the recreations of our metropolis with graceful interludes by Perugino and Raphael.

It will be at once felt by the readers of the following catalogue that it tells them, about every picture and its painter, just the things they wished to know. They may rest satisfied also that it tells them these things on the best historical authorities, and that they have in its concise pages an account of the rise and decline of the arts of the Old Masters, and record of their personal characters and worldly state and fortunes, leaving nothing of authentic tradition, and essential interest, untold.

As a collection of critical remarks by esteemed judges, and of clearly formed opinions by earnest lovers of art, the little book possesses a metaphysical interest quite as great as its historical one. Of course[Pg ix] the first persons to be consulted on the merit of a picture are those for whom the artist painted it: with those in after generations who have sympathy with them; one does not ask a Roundhead or a Republican his opinion of the Vandyke at Wilton, nor a Presbyterian minister his impressions of the Sistine Chapel:—but from any one honestly taking pleasure in any sort of painting, it is always worth while to hear the grounds of his admiration, if he can himself analyse them. For those who take no pleasure in painting, or who are offended by its inevitable faults, any form of criticism is insolent. Opinion is only valuable when it

When I last lingered in the Gallery before my old favourites, I thought them more wonderful than ever before; but as I draw towards the close of life, I feel that the real world is more wonderful yet: that Painting has not yet fulfilled half her mission,—she has told us only of the heroism of men and the happiness of angels: she may perhaps record in future the beauty of a world whose mortal inhabitants are happy, and which angels may be glad to visit.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
WITH SOME
ACCOUNT OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY

Division into Volumes.—In arrangement and, to some degree, in contents the Handbook in its present form differs from the earlier editions. Important changes have been made during the last few years in the constitution and scope of the National Gallery itself. The Gallery now consists of two branches controlled by a single Board of Trustees: (1) the "National Gallery" in Trafalgar Square; and (2) the "Tate Gallery" or, as it is officially called, the "National Gallery of British Art" on the Thames Embankment at Millbank.[1] At the former Gallery are hung all the pictures belonging to Foreign Schools. Pictures of the British Schools are hung partly in Trafalgar Square and partly at Millbank, and from time to time pictures are moved from one Gallery to the other. It has therefore been decided to divide the Handbook into volumes according to subject rather than according to position. Volume I. deals with the Foreign Schools (National Gallery); Volume II., with the British Schools (National Gallery and Tate Gallery). By this division the convenience of the books for purposes of reference or use in the Galleries will not be disturbed by future changes in the[Pg xi] allocation of British pictures between Trafalgar Square and Millbank respectively.

How to use the Handbook.—The one fixed point in the arrangement of the National Gallery is the numbering of the pictures. The numbers affixed to the frames, and referred to in the Official Reports and Catalogues, are never changed. This is an excellent rule, the observance of which, in the case of some foreign galleries, would have saved no little inconvenience to students and visitors. In the present, as in the preceding editions of the Handbook, advantage has been taken of this fixed system of numbering; and in the pages devoted to the Biographical and Descriptive Catalogue the pictures are enumerated in their numerical order. The introductory remarks on the chief Schools of Painting represented in the Gallery are brought together at the beginning of the book. The visitor who desires to make an historical study of the Collection may, if he will, glance first at the general introduction given to the pictures in each School; and then, as he makes his survey of the rooms devoted to the several Schools, note the numbers on the frames, and refer to the Numerical Catalogue following the series of introductions. On the other hand, the visitor who does not care to use the Handbook in this way has only to skip the preliminary chapters, and to pass at once, as he finds himself before this picture or that, to the Numerical Catalogue. For the convenience, again, of visitors or students desiring to find the works of some particular painter, the full and detailed Index of Painters, first introduced in the Third Edition, has here been retained. References to all the pictures by each painter, and to the page where some account of his life and work is given, will be found in this Index. Finally, a concise Numerical Index is given, wherein the reader may find at once the particulars of acquisition, the provenance, and other circumstances regarding every picture (by a foreign artist) in the possession of the National Gallery, wherever deposited.

History of the National Gallery.—"For the purposes of the general student, the National Gallery is now," said Mr. Ruskin in 1888, "without question the most important collection of paintings in Europe." Forty years before he said of the same Gallery that it was "an European jest." The growth of the Gallery from jest to glory [2] may be traced in[Pg xii] the final index to this book, where the pictures are enumerated in the order of their acquisition. Many incidents connected with the acquisition of particular pictures will also be found chronicled in the Catalogue [3]; but it may here be interesting to summarise the history of the institution. The National Gallery of England dates from the year 1824, when the Angerstein Collection of thirty-eight pictures was purchased. They were exhibited for some years in Mr. Angerstein's house in Pall Mall; for it was not till 1832 that the building in which the collection is now deposited was begun. This building, which was designed expressly for the purpose by William Wilkins, R.A., was opened to the public in 1838.[4] At that time, however, the Gallery comprised only six rooms, the remaining space in the building being devoted to the Royal Academy of Arts—whose inscription may still be seen above a disused doorway to the right of the main entrance. In 1860 the first enlargement was made—consisting of one new room. In 1869 the Royal Academy removed to Burlington House, and five more rooms were gained for the National Gallery. In 1876 the so-called "New Wing" was added, erected from a design by E. M. Barry, R.A. In that year the whole collection was for the first time housed under a single roof. The English School had, since its increase in 1847 by the Vernon gift, been exhibited first at Marlborough House (up to 1859), and afterwards at South Kensington. In 1884 a further addition of five rooms was commenced under the superintendence of Sir John Taylor, of Her Majesty's Office of Works; these rooms (numbered I., II., III., V., VI. on the plan), with a new staircase and other improvements, were opened to the public in 1887; and the Gallery then consisted of twenty-two rooms, besides ample accommodation [Pg xiii]for the offices of the Director and the convenience of the students.[5] A further extension of the Gallery, on the site of St. George's Barracks, was completed in 1911; this consisted of six new rooms.[6] At the same time the older portions of the building were reconstructed, in order to make it fire-proof. The rearrangement of the Gallery is described below (p. xxv).

Growth of the Collection.—This growth in the Galleries has, however, barely sufficed to keep pace with the growth of the pictures. In 1838 the total number of national pictures was still only 150. In 1875 the number was 926. In 1911 the number of pictures, etc. (exclusive of the Turner water-colours) vested in the Trustees of the Gallery was nearly 2870. This result has been due to the combination of private generosity and State aid which is characteristic of our country. The Vernon gift of English pictures in 1847 added over 150 at a stroke. Ten years later Turner's bequest added (besides some 19,000 drawings in various stages of completion) 100 pictures. In 1876 the Wynn Ellis gift of foreign pictures added nearly another hundred. In 1910 the bequest of Mr. George Salting added 192 pictures (160 foreign and 32 British). Particulars of other gifts and bequests may be gathered from the Appendix. Parliamentary grants have of late years been supplemented by private subscriptions and bequests. In 1890 Messrs. N. M. Rothschild and Sons, Sir Edward Guinness, Bart. (now Lord Iveagh), and Mr. Charles Cotes, each contributed £10,000 towards the purchase of three important pictures (1314-5-6); whilst in 1904, Mr. Astor, Mr. Beit, Lord Burton, Lord Iveagh, Mr. Pierpont Morgan, and Lady Wantage subscribed £21,000 to supplement a Government grant for the purchase of Titian's "Portrait of Ariosto" (1944). In 1903 a "National Art-Collections Fund" was established for organising private benefactions to the Galleries and Museums of the United Kingdom; it was through this agency that the famous "Venus" by Velazquez (2057), in 1906, and the still more famous "Christina, Duchess of Milan," by Holbein (2475), in 1909, were added to the National Gallery. The same Fund contributed also to the [Pg xiv]purchase in 1911, of the Castle Howard Mabuse (2790). Mr. Francis Clarke bequeathed £23,104, and Mr. T. D. Lewis £10,000, the interest upon which sums was to be expended in pictures. Mr. R. C. Wheeler left a sum of £2655, the interest on which was to purchase English pictures. Mr. J. L. Walker left £10,000, not to form a fund, but to be spent on "a picture or pictures." In 1903 a large bequest was made to the Gallery by Colonel Temple West. The will was disputed; but by the settlement ultimately effected (1907, 1908) a sum of £99,909 was received, of which the interest is available for the purchase of pictures. In 1906 Mr. C. E. G. Mackerell made a bequest, and this will also was disputed. By the settlement (1908) a sum of £2859 was received, and a further sum will be forthcoming at the expiration of certain life-interests, of which sums, again, the interest will be available for the purchase of pictures. Appendix II. shows the pictures acquired from these several funds. This growth of the Gallery by private gift and public expenditure concurrently accords with the manner of its birth. One of the factors which decided Lord Liverpool in favour of the purchase of Mr. Angerstein's Collection was the generous offer of a private citizen—Sir George Beaumont.

Value of the Pictures.—Sir George's gift, as we shall see from a little story attaching to one of his pictures (61), was not of that which cost him nothing in the giving. The generosity of private donors, which that little story places in so pleasing and even pathetic a light, has been accompanied by public expenditure at once liberal and prudent. The total cost of the collection so far has been about £900,000 [7]; at present prices there is little doubt that the pictures so acquired could be sold for several times that sum. It will be seen in the following pages that there have been some bad bargains; but these mostly belong to the period when responsibility was divided, in an undefined way, between the Trustees and the Keeper. The present organisation of the Gallery dates from 1855, when, as the result of several Commissions and Committees, a Treasury Minute was drawn up—appointing a Director to preside over the Gallery, and placing an annual grant of money at his disposal.[8] The [Pg xv]curious reader may trace the use of this discretion made by successive Directors in the table of prices given in the final index—a table which would afford material for an instructive history of recent fashions in art. The annual grant has from time to time been supplemented by special grants, of which the most notable were those for the Peel Collection, the Blenheim pictures, the Longford Castle pictures, two new Rembrandts (1674-5), Titian's "Ariosto" (1944), Holbein's "Duchess of Milan" (2475), and Mabuse's "Adoration of the Magi" (2790) respectively. The Peel Collection consisted of seventy-seven pictures. The vote was proposed in the House of Commons on March 20, 1871, and in supporting it the late Sir W. H. Gregory (one of the Trustees of the Gallery) alluded to "the additional interest connected with the collection, for it was the labour of love of one of our greatest English Statesmen, and it was gratifying to see that the taste of the amateur was on a par with the sagacity of the minister, for throughout this large collection there could hardly be named more than two or three pictures which were not of the very highest order of merit." The price paid for this collection, £70,000, was exceedingly moderate.[9] The "princely" price given for the two Blenheim pictures is more open to exception; but if the price was unprecedented, so also was the sale of so superb a Raphael in the present day unprecedented.

Features of the Collection.—The result of the expenditure with which successive Parliaments have thus supplemented private gifts has been to raise the National Gallery to a position second to that of no single collection in the world. The number of pictures now on view in Trafalgar Square, exclusive of the water-colours, is about 1600.[10] This number is very [Pg xvi]much smaller than that of the galleries at Dresden, Madrid, and Paris—the three largest in the world. On the other hand no foreign gallery has been so carefully acquired, or so wisely weeded, as ours. An Act was passed in 1856 authorising the sale of unsuitable works, whilst another passed in 1883 sanctioned the thinning of the Gallery in favour of Provincial collections. There are still many serious gaps. In the Italian School we have no work by Masaccio—the first of the naturalisers in landscape; only one doubtful example of Palma Vecchio, the greatest of the Bergamese painters; no first-rate portrait by Tintoret. The French School is little represented—an omission which is, however, splendidly supplied in the Wallace Collection at Hertford House, now the property of the nation. In the National Gallery itself there is no picture by "the incomparable Watteau," the "prince of Court painters." The specimens of the Spanish School are few in number, though Velazquez is now finely represented; whilst amongst the old masters of our own British School there are many gaps for some future Vernon or Tate to fill up. But on the other hand we can set against these deficiencies many painters who, and even schools which, can nowhere—in one place—be so well studied as in Trafalgar Square. The works of Crivelli—one of the quaintest and most charming of the earlier Venetians—which hang together in one room; the works of the Brescian School, including those of its splendid portrait painters—Moroni and Il Moretto; the series of Raphaels, showing each of his successive styles; and in the English School the unrivalled and incomparable collection of Turners,—are amongst the particular glories of the National Collection. Historically the collection is remarkably instructive. This is a point which successive Directors have, on the recommendation of Royal Commissions, kept steadily in view; and which has been very clearly shown since the successive re-arrangements of the Gallery after the extension in 1887.

Scope of the Handbook.—It is in order to help visitors to take full advantage of the opportunities thus afforded for historical study that I have furnished some general introductions to the various Schools of Painting represented in the National Gallery. With regard to the notes in the Numerical Catalogue, my object has been to interest the daily increasing numbers of the general public who visit the National Gallery.[Pg xvii] The full inventories and other details, which are necessary for the identification of pictures, and which are most admirably given in the (unabridged) Official Catalogue—would obviously be out of place in a book designed for popular use. Nor, secondly, would any elaborate technical criticism have been in keeping—even had it been in my power to offer it—with a guide intended for unprofessional readers. C. R. Leslie, the father of the present Academician, tells how he "spoke one day to Stothard of his touching picture of a sailor taking leave of his wife or sweetheart. 'I am glad you like it, sir,' said Stothard; 'it was painted with japanner's gold size.'" I have been mainly concerned with the sentiment of the pictures, and have for the most part left the "japanner's gold size" alone.

Mr. Ruskin's Notes.—It had often occurred to me, as a student of Mr. Ruskin's writings, that a collection of his scattered notes upon painters and pictures now in the National Gallery would be of great value. I applied to Mr. Ruskin in the matter, and he readily permitted me to make what use I liked of any, or all, of his writings. The generosity of this permission, which was supplemented by constant encouragement and counsel, makes me the more anxious to explain clearly the limits of his responsibility for the book. He did not attempt to revise, or correct, either my gleanings from his own books, or the notes added by myself from other sources. Beyond his general permission to me to reprint his past writings, Mr. Ruskin had, therefore, no responsibility for this compilation whatever. I should more particularly state that the pages upon the Turner Gallery in the Second Volume were not even glanced at by him. The criticisms from his books there collected represent, therefore, solely his attitude to Turner at the time they were severally written. But, subject to this deduction, the passages from Ruskin arranged throughout the following pages will, I hope, enable the Handbook to serve a second purpose. Any student who goes through the Gallery under Ruskin's guidance—even at second-hand—can hardly fail to obtain some insight into the system of art-teaching embodied in his works. The full exposition of that system must still be studied in the original text-books, but here the reader may find a series of examples and illustrations which will perhaps make the study more vivid and actual.

Attribution of Pictures.—In the matter of attributions, the rule, in the successive editions of this Handbook, has been to follow the authority of the Official Labels and Catalogues. Criticism has been very busy of late years with the traditional attribution of pictures in our Gallery, and successive Directors introduce their several, and sometimes contradictory, opinions on such points. Thus more than One Old Master hitherto supposed to be represented in the Gallery has been banished, and others, whose fame had not previously been bruited abroad, have been credited with familiar masterpieces. Thus—to notice some of the changes made by Sir Edward Poynter (Catalogue of 1906)—among the Venetians, Bastiani and Catena have come into favour. To Bastiani was given the picture of "The Doge Giovanni Mocenigo" (750) which for forty years has been exhibited as a work by Carpaccio; that charming painter now disappears from the National Gallery. To Catena is attributed the "St. Jerome" (694), which for several decades had been cited as peculiarly characteristic of Bellini. To Catena also is given the "Warrior in Adoration" (234). In this case Catena's gain is Giorgione's loss. But elsewhere Giorgione has received compensation for disturbance. To him has been given the "Adoration of the Magi" (1160), which some critics attributed to Catena. The beautiful "Ecce Homo" (1310), which was sold as a Carlo Dolci and bought by Sir Frederick Burton as a Bellini, was ascribed by Sir Edward Poynter to Cima. One of the minor Venetians—Basaiti, who enjoyed a high reputation at the National Gallery—was deprived of the pretty "Madonna of the Meadow" (599), which went to swell the opulent record of Bellini. Among the Florentines, a newcomer is Zenobio Macchiavelli, to whom is attributed an altar-piece (586) formerly catalogued under the name of Fra Filippo Lippi. Cosimo Rosselli, hitherto credited with a large "St. Jerome in the Desert" (227), now disappears; it was labelled "Tuscan School," and was any one's picture. The attribution of pictures belonging to the group of the two Lippis and Botticelli is still very uncertain. A note on these critical diversities will be found under No. 293. Among alterations in other schools we may note the substitution of Zurbaran for Velazquez as the painter of "The Nativity," No. 232; the attribution to Patinir, the Fleming, of a landscape formerly labelled "Venetian School" (1298); and the discovery of Jacob van Oost as the painter of a charming "Portrait of a[Pg xix] Boy" (1137), which, but for an impossibility in the dates, might well continue to pass as Isaac van Ostade's.

Such were the principal changes made in the ascriptions of the pictures during Sir Edward Poynter's directorate. His successor, Sir Charles Holroyd, has recently made many others, as shown in the following list:

It will be observed that critical fashions are unstable, and that in several cases Sir Edward Poynter's changes have been reversed. The recent alterations were made just as this edition of the Handbook was going to press. The ascriptions in the body of my Catalogue remain, therefore, in conformity with the Official Catalogue of 1906 which embodied Sir Edward Poynter's views. The lists of painters and pictures at the end (Appendix I. and II.) have, on the other hand, been revised in accordance with Sir Charles Holroyd's alterations.

Additional Notes.—In the notes upon the pictures, a large number of additional remarks have been introduced since this Handbook first appeared. These, it is hoped, may serve here[Pg xxii] and there to deepen the visitor's impression, to suggest fresh points of view, to open up incidental sources of interest. Attention may be called, by way of example, under this head, to several notes upon the designs depicted on the dresses, draperies, and backgrounds of the Italian pictures. These designs, sometimes invented by the artists themselves and sometimes copied from actual stuffs, form a series of examples which illustrate the "art fabrics" of the best period of Italian decorative art, and which might well give hints for the decoration of textile fabrics to-day.[11] Another incidental source of interest in a collection of pictures such as ours, is the historical development of art as it may be traced in the several representations of the same subject by different painters, in successive periods, and in different schools. Such comparisons are instructive to those interested alike in the evolution of art and in the history of religious ideas. In the art of mediæval Christendom we find an unwritten theology, a popular figurative teaching of the sublime story of Christianity blended with the traditions of many generations. On the walls of the National Gallery we may see a series of typical scenes from the Annunciation to the Passion, from the childhood of Christ to His Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, together with ideal forms of apostles and saints. These pictures, contemplated in sequence and compared with one another, afford, as a writer in the Dublin Review (October 1888) has pointed out, a large and interesting field for thought. Very interesting it is also to trace the different types which prevail in the different schools. Thus at Florence, the Madonna is a tender, shrinking, delicate maiden. At Venice, she is a calm, serene, and pure-spirited mother. The Florentine "handmaiden of the Lord" often wears a mystic, and almost always an intellectual air. The Venetian type, seen at its central perfection in Bellini, has a neck firm as a column; the child is nude and plays with a flower or fruit; grandeur of mien and a noble type of motherhood are the ideals the Venetian painters set before themselves. The Lombard Madonna is less spiritual and severe than the Florentine. A refined worldly beauty replaces here the poetic idealism of the Tuscan artists. With the Umbrian painters the model of the Madonna is usually a softly-rounded and very girlish maiden. A certain mystic pensiveness informs her [Pg xxiii]features. Her feet tread this earth, but her soul is absorbed in the contemplation of the infinite.[12] A study of the successive characteristics of Raphael's Madonnas, passing from the vaguely divine to the frankly human, would form material for a volume in itself.[13] In another department of the painter's art, the comparative method of study is no less suggestive. It is one of the most curious points of interest in any large collection of pictures to notice the different impressions that the same elements of natural scenery make upon different painters. As figure painting came to be perfected, some adequate suggestion of landscape background was required. Giotto and Orcagna first attempted to give resemblance to nature in this respect. Subsequent painters carried the attempt to greater success, but it was long before landscape for its own sake obtained attention. When it did, the preferences of individual painters, now freed from conventionalism, found abundant scope, as we may see by pausing in succession before the flowery meadows of the "primitives," the "fiery woodlands of Titian," the savage crags of Salvator Rosa, the "saffron skies of Claude."[14] These are some of the incidental points of interest upon which additional notes have been supplied in recent editions. Many others will be discovered by the patient reader of the following pages.

Notices of Painters.—Lastly, the biographical and critical notices of the painters have been revised and expanded since the first appearance of the book. Many have been re-written throughout, nearly all have been re-cast, and a good many references to pictures in other galleries and countries have been introduced. The important accession to the National Gallery of the Arundel Society's unique collection of copies from the old masters affords an opportunity even to the untraveled visitor to become acquainted, in some sort, with the most famous wall-paintings of Italy. Mr. Ruskin, by whose death the National Gallery lost one of its best and oldest friends, once expressed a hope to me that the notices of the painters [Pg xxiv]given in this Handbook would be found useful by some readers not only as a companion in Trafalgar Square, but also for other galleries, at home and abroad. Nobody can know better than the compiler how far Mr. Ruskin's kindness led him in the direction of over-indulgence.

I can only hope that the later editions have been made—largely owing to the suggestions of critics and private correspondents—a little more deserving of the kind reception which, now for a period of nearly twenty-five years, has been given by the public to my Handbook.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Tate Gallery is ten minutes' drive or twenty minutes' walk from Trafalgar Square. It is reached in a straight line by Whitehall, Parliament Street, past the Houses of Parliament, Millbank Street, and Grosvenor Road.

[2] Mr. Ruskin himself was converted by the acquisition of the great Perugino (No. 288). In congratulating the Trustees on their acquisition of this "noble picture," he wrote: "It at once, to my mind, raises our National Gallery from a second-rate to a first-rate collection. I have always loved the master, and given much time to the study of his works; but this is the best I have ever seen" (Notes on the Turner Gallery, p. 89 n.).

[3] See, for instance, Nos. 10, 61, 193, 195, 479 and 498, 757, 790, 896, 1131, and 1171.

[4] The exterior of the building is not generally considered an architectural success, and the ugliness of the dome is almost proverbial. But it should be remembered that the original design included the erection of suitable pieces of sculpture—such as may be seen in old engravings of the Gallery, made from the architect's drawings—on the still vacant pedestals.

[5] The several extensions of the Gallery are shown in the plan on a later page.

[6] The total number should thus be 28; but in the reconstruction four smaller rooms were thrown into two larger ones. The plan thus shows 25 numbered rooms and one called the "Dome."

[7] This sum only includes amounts paid out of Parliamentary grants or other National Gallery funds or special contributions.

[8] In 1894, however, an alteration was made in the Minute, and the responsibility for purchases was vested in the Director and the Trustees jointly.

[9] Sir William Gregory relates in his Autobiography the following story: "In 1884, when the Trustees were endeavouring to secure some of the pre-eminently fine Rubenses from the Duke of Marlborough, Alfred Rothschild met me in St. James's Street, and said, 'If you think the Blenheim Rubenses are more important than your Dutch pictures to the Gallery, and that you cannot get the money from the Government, I am prepared to give you £250,000 for the Peel pictures; and I will hold good to this offer till the day after to-morrow.'"

[10] Of the 1170 pieces thus unaccounted for (the total number belonging to the Trustees being roughly 2870) the greater number are at Millbank. Others are on loan to provincial institutions (see App. II.).

[11] With this object in view, several of them have been published with descriptive letterpress by Mr. Sydney Vacher.

[12] These contrasts were worked out and illustrated by Mr. Grant Allen in his papers on "The Evolution of Italian Art" in the Pall Mall Magazine for 1895.

[13] See Raphael's Madonnas, by Karl Károly, 1894.

[14] Ruskin's Modern Painters is of course the great book on this subject. The evolution of "Landscape in Art" has been historically treated by Mr. Josiah Gilbert in a work thus entitled, which contains numerous illustrations from the National Gallery.

GUIDE TO THE GALLERY
AND
INTRODUCTIONS TO THE SCHOOLS OF PAINTING

The pictures in the National Gallery are hung methodically, so far as the wall-space and other circumstances will admit, in order to illustrate the different schools of painting, and to facilitate their historical study. Introductions to the several Foreign Schools of Painting, thus arranged, will be found in the following pages together with references to many of the chief painters in each school who are represented in the Gallery. Introductory remarks on the British School and British Painters will be found in Volume II.

At the present time (May 1912) the arrangement of the Gallery is in a transitional state, as some of the Rooms are still in process of reconstruction or rearrangement. When this work is finished, the arrangement of the whole Gallery will, it is expected, be as shown below:—

Archaic Greek Portraits: North Vestibule.

Italian Schools:—
Early Tuscan: North Vestibule.
Florentine and Sienese: Rooms I., II., V.
[Pg xxvi]Florentine (later): Room III.
Milanese: Room IV.
Umbrian: Room VI.
Venetian: Room VII.
Venetian (later): Room IX.
Paduan: Room VIII.
Venice, etc.: the Dome.
Brescian and Bergamese: Room XV.
Bolognese: Room XXV.
Late Italian: Room XXIII.

Schools of the Netherlands and Germany:—

Early Netherlands: Room XI.
Later Flemish (Rubens, etc.): Room X.
Dutch (landscape: Ruysdael, etc.): Room XII.
Dutch (Rembrandt): Room XIII.
Dutch: Room XIV.
German: Room XXIV.

Spanish School: Room XVI.

French School: Rooms XVII., XVIII.

British Schools:—

Hogarth, etc.: Room XXII.
Reynolds, Gainsborough, etc.: Room XXI.
Romney, Morland, etc.: Room XX.
Turner: Room XIX.

The rooms on the ground floor, hitherto occupied by the Turner Water-Colours (now for the most part removed to the Tate Gallery: see Vol. II.), will be arranged with pictures of minor importance, with the Arundel Society's collection and other copies, and with photographs and other aids to study.

It should, however, be understood that the scheme of arrangement set out above is provisional, and may be modified. It is also possible that the numbering of the rooms may be altered. Should this be the case, the visitor would have no difficulty in marking the changes on the Plan.

THE EARLY FLORENTINE SCHOOL

On entering the Gallery from Trafalgar Square, and ascending the main staircase, the visitor reaches the North Vestibule. What, he may be inclined to ask, is there worth looking at in the quaint and gaunt pictures around him here? The answer is a very simple one. This vestibule is the nursery of Italian art. Here is the first stammering of infant painting. Accustomed as we are at the present day to so much technical skill even in the commonest works of art, we may be inclined to think that the art of painting—the art of giving the resemblances of things by means of colour laid on to wood or canvas—is an easy one, of which men have everywhere and at all times possessed the mastery. But this of course is not the case. The skill[Pg 2] of to-day is the acquired result of long centuries of gradual improvement; and the pictures in this vestibule bear the same relation to the pictures of our own time as the stone huts of our forefathers to the Gallery in which we stand. The poorness of the pictures here is the measure of the richness of others. To feel the full greatness of Raphael's Madonna (1171), one should first pause awhile before the earliest Italian picture here (564), the gaunt and forbidding Madonna by

But even in the earliest efforts of infancy, there is a certain amount of inherited gift. First of all, therefore, one should look at a specimen of such art as Italians had before them when they first began to paint for themselves. With the fall of the Roman Empire and the invasion of the Goths, the centre of civilisation shifted to the capital of the Eastern Church, Byzantium (Constantinople). The characteristics of Byzantine art may be seen in a Greek picture (594). The history of early Italian art is the history of the effort to escape from the swaddling clothes of this rigid Byzantine School. The effort was of two kinds: first the painters had to see nature truly, instead of contenting themselves with fixed symbols—art had to become "natural," instead of "conventional." Secondly, having learned to see truly, they had to learn how to give a true resemblance of what they saw; how to exhibit things in relief, in perspective, and in illumination. In relief: that is, they had to learn to show one thing as standing out from another; in perspective: that is, to show things as they really look, instead of as we infer they are; in illumination: that is, to show things in the colours they assume under such and such[Pg 3] lights. The first distinct advance was made by Cimabue and Giotto at Florence, but contemporaneous with them was the similar work of Duccio and his successors at Siena, whose pictures should be studied in this connection. Various stages in the advance will be pointed out under the pictures themselves; and the student of art will perhaps find the same kind of pleasure in tracing the painter's progress as grown-up people feel in watching the gradual development of children.

But there is another kind of interest also. Wordsworth says that children are the best philosophers; and in the case of art at any rate there is some truth in what he says, for "this is a general law, that supposing the intellect of the workman the same, the more imitatively complete his art, the less he will mean by it; and the ruder the symbol, the deeper is its intention" (Ruskin's Lectures on Art, § 19). The more complete his powers of imitation become, the more intellectual interest he takes in the expression, and the less therefore in the thing meant. What then is the meaning of these early pictures? To answer this question, we must go back to consider what it was that gave the original impulse to the revival of art in Italy. To this revival two circumstances contributed. First, no school of painting can exist until society is comparatively rich, until there is wealth enough to support a class of men with leisure to produce beautiful things. Such an increase of wealth took place at Florence in the thirteenth century: the gay and courteous life of the Florentines at that time was ready for the adornment of art. The particular direction which art took was due to the religious revival, headed by St. Francis and St. Dominic, which occurred at the same time. Churches were everywhere built, and on the church walls frescoes were wanted, alike to satisfy the growing sense of beauty and to assist in teaching Christian doctrine. These early pictures are thus[Pg 4] to be considered as a kind of painted preaching. The story of Cimabue's great picture (see No. 565) well illustrates the double origin of the revival of art. It was to its place above the altar in the great Dominican church of Sta. Maria Novella at Florence that the picture was carried in triumphal procession; whilst the fact that a whole city should thus have turned out to rejoice over the completion of a picture, proves "the widespread sensibility of the Florentines to things of beauty, and shows the sympathy which, emanating from the people, was destined to inspire and brace the artist for his work" (Symonds: Renaissance, iii. 137).[15] The history of Giotto is no less significant. It was for the walls of the church of St. Francis at Assisi that his greatest work was done. It was there that he at once pondered over the meaning of the Christian faith (with what result is shown by Ruskin in Fors Clavigera and elsewhere), and learned the secret of giving the resemblance of the objects of that faith in painting. Thus, then, we arrive at the second source of interest in these old pictures of Florence—rude and foolish as they sometimes seem. "Those were noble days for the painter, when the whole belief of Christendom, grasped by his own faith, and firmly rooted in the faith of the people round him, as yet unimpaired by alien emanations from the world of classic culture, had to be set forth for the first time in art. His work was then a Bible, a compendium of grave divinity and human history, a book embracing all things needful for the spiritual and civil life of man. He spoke to men who could not read, for whom there were no printed pages, but whose hearts received his teaching through the eye. Thus painting was not then what it is now, a decoration of existence, but a potent and efficient agent in the education of the race" (ibid. p. 143). The message which these painters had to [Pg 5]deliver was painted on the walls of churches or civic buildings; and it is only there—at Assisi, and Padua, and Florence, and Siena—that they can be properly read. But from such scraps and fragments as are here preserved, one may learn, as it were, the alphabet, and catch the necessary point of view.

But why, it may be asked, did painting come to its new birth first at Florence, rather than elsewhere in Italy? The first answer is that painting thus arose at Florence because it was there that a new style of building at this time arose. The painters were wanted, as we have seen, to decorate the churches, and in those days there was no sharp distinction between the arts. Not only were architects sculptors, but they were often painters and goldsmiths as well. Giotto and Orcagna are instances of this union of the arts. But why did the new style of building arise specially in Florence? The answer to this is twofold: first, the Florentines inherited the artistic gifts and faculties of the Etruscan (Tuscan) race. Even in late Florentine pictures, pure Etruscan design will often be found surviving (see 586). Secondly, in the middle of the thirteenth century new art impulse came from the North in the shape of a northern builder, who, after building Assisi, visited Florence and instructed Arnolfo in Gothic, as opposed to Greek architecture. Thus there met the two principles of art—the Norman (or Lombard), vigorous and savage; the Greek (or Byzantine), contemplative but sterile. The new spirit in Florence "adopts what is best in each, and gives to what it adopts a new energy of its own, ... collects and animates the Norman and Byzantine tradition, and forms out of the perfected worship and work of both, the honest Christian faith and vital craftsmanship of the world.... Central stood Etruscan Florence: agricultural in occupation, religious in thought, she directed the industry of the Northman into the[Pg 6] arts of peace; kindled the dreams of the Byzantine with the fire of charity. Child of her peace, and exponent of her passion, her Cimabue became the interpreter to mankind of the meaning of the Birth of Christ" (Ariadne Florentina, ch. ii.; Mornings in Florence, ii. 44, 45).

The architecture of the Entrance Hall and Vestibule is worth some attention, for here is the finest collection of marbles in London. Many distant parts of the world have contributed to it. The Alps, from a steep face of mountain 2000 feet high on the Simplon Pass, send the two massive square pillars of light green "cipollino" which form the approach to the Vestibule from the Square. Their carved capitals are of alabaster from Derbyshire, whilst the bases on which they stand are of Corrennie granite from near Aberdeen. The square blocks of bluish gray beneath the upper columns come from New Zealand. Ascending the stone steps, the visitor should notice the side walls, built up of squares of "giallo antico," which was brought from the quarry at Simittu, in the territory of Tunis. It had long been known that Rome was full of the beautiful "giallo antico," sometimes yellow, sometimes rosy in colour, but always of exquisite texture and even to work. It had come from the province of Africa; and the quarry was rediscovered by a Belgian engineer working on the railway then being made from Tunis to the Algerian frontier. He observed at Simittu a half-consumed mountain with[Pg 7] gaps clearly marked, from which the last monoliths had been cut, and the work of the Romans was presently resumed by a Belgian Company. No more beautiful specimen of the "giallo antico" similar to that used in Augustan Rome could be desired than slabs in the entrance to the National Gallery. The cornice above the "giallo antico" walls is of "pavonazzetto" from the Apennines, near Pisa, and the same marble forms the base of the red columns. These splendid columns come from quarries near Chenouah, just west of Algiers, which were first opened by the French some years ago. Red Etruscan is the unmeaning trade name of this jasper-like stone, which is also used for door frames in many of the new rooms with very sumptuous effect.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] My references to this book are to the new edition of 1897.

THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL

"Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts;—the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others; but of the three, the only quite trustworthy one is the last." The reason for this faithfulness in the record of art is twofold. The art of any nation can only be great "by the general gifts and common sympathies of the race;" and secondly, "art is always instinctive, and the honesty or pretence of it therefore open to the day" (St. Mark's Rest, Preface). It has been seen from the remarks already made how Floren[Pg 9]tine art in its infancy was thus in a certain sense a record of the times out of which it sprang. In the later pictures, we may trace some of the developments which characterised the inner history of Florence in succeeding stages. The first thing that will strike any one who takes a general look at the early Florentine pictures and then at the later, is the fact that easel pictures have now superseded fragments of fresco and altar-pieces. Here at once we see reflected two features of the time of the Renaissance. Pictures were no longer wanted merely for church decoration and Scripture teaching; there was a growing taste for beautiful things as household possessions. And then also the influence of the church itself was declining; the exclusive place hitherto occupied by religion as a motive for art was being superseded by the revival of classical learning. Benozzo Gozzoli paints the Rape of Helen, Botticelli paints Mars and Venus, Piero di Cosimo paints the Death of Procris, and Pollajuolo the story of Apollo and Daphne. The Renaissance was, however, "a new birth" in another way than this; it opened men's eyes not only to the learning of the ancient world, but to the beauties of the world in which they themselves lived. In previous times the burden of serious and thoughtful minds had been, "The world is very evil, the times are waxing late;" the burden of the new song is, "The world is very beautiful." Thus we see the painters no longer confined to a fixed cycle of subjects represented with the traditional surroundings, but ranging at will over everything that they found beautiful or interesting around them. And above all they took to representing the noblest embodiment of life—the human form. Some attempts at portraiture may be perceived in the saints of the earliest pictures; but here we find professed portraits on every wall. This indeed was one of the chief glories of the Florentine School—"the open expression of the living human soul." This widening and secularising of art did not pass in Florence, as we know, without a protest; and here, too, history is painted on the walls. Some of the protest was silent, as Angelico's, who painted on through[Pg 10] a later generation in the old spirit; some of it was vocal, in the fiery eloquence of Savonarola, whose influence may be seen in Botticelli's work (1034).

But the development went on, all protests notwithstanding; for as the life of every nation runs its appointed course, so does its art; and the second point of interest in studying a school of painting is to watch its successive periods of birth, growth, maturity, and decay. In no school is this development so completely marked as in the Florentine, which for this reason, as well as for its priority in time, and therefore influence on succeeding schools, takes precedence of all others. The first period—covering roughly the fourteenth century, called the Giottesque, from its principal master—is that in which the thing told is of more importance than the manner of telling it, and in which the religious sentiment dominated the plastic faculty. In the second period, covering roughly the fifteenth century, and called by the Italians the period of the quattro-centisti,[16] the artist, beginning as we have seen to look freely at the world around him, begins also to study deeply with a view to represent nature more exactly. One may see the new passion for the scientific study of the art in Paolo Uccello (583), who devoted himself to perspective; and in Pollajuolo (292), who first studied anatomy from the dead body. It is customary to group the Florentine artists of this scientific and realistic period under three heads, according to the main tendencies which they severally exhibit. The first group aimed especially at "action, movement, and the expression of intense passions." The artist who stands at the head of this group, Masaccio, is, unhappily, not represented in the National Gallery, but the descent from him is represented by Fra Filippo Lippi, Pesellino, Botticelli, Filippino Lippi. The second group aimed rather at "realistic probability, and correctness in hitting off the characteristics of individual things," and is represented by Cosimo Rosselli, Piero di Cosimo, Ghirlandajo, [Pg 11]Andrea del Sarto, Francia Bigio. Thirdly, some of the Florentine School were directly influenced by the work of contemporary sculptors. Chief amongst this group are Pollajuolo, Verocchio, himself a sculptor, and Lorenzo di Credi. We come now to the third stage in the Florentine, as in every other vital school of painting. This period witnesses the perfection of the technical processes of the art, and the attempt of the painter to "raise forms, imitated by the artists of the preceding period from nature, to ideal beauty, and to give to the representations of the sentiments and affections the utmost grace and energy." The great Florentine masters of this culminating period are Leonardo da Vinci and Michael Angelo. The former is especially typical of this stage of development. "When a nation's culture has reached its culminating point, we see everywhere," says Morelli,[17] "in daily life as well as in literature and art, that grace[18] comes to be valued more than character. So it was in Italy during the closing decades of the fifteenth century and the opening ones of the sixteenth. To no artist was it given to express this feeling so fully as to the great Leonardo da Vinci, perhaps the most richly gifted man that mother Nature ever made. He was the first who tried to express the smile of inward happiness, the sweetness of the soul." But this culminating period of art already contained within it the germs of decay. The very perfection of the technical processes of painting caused in all, except painters of the highest mental gifts, a certain deadness and coldness, such as Browning makes Andrea del Sarto (1487-1531) be conscious of in his own works; the "faultless painter" as compared with others less technically perfect but more full of soul (see under 690). Moreover the very fascination of the [Pg 12]great men, the pleasure in imitating their technical skill, led to decay. Grace soon passed into insipidity, and the dramatic energy of Michael Angelo into exaggerated violence. One mannerism led to another until the school of the "Eclectics" sought to unite the mannerisms of all, and Italian art, having run its course, became extinct.[19]

The growth and decay of painting described above is connected by Ruskin with a corresponding growth and decay in religion. He divides the course of mediæval art into two stages: the first stage (covering the first two periods above) "is that of the formation of conscience by the discovery of the true laws of social order and personal virtue, coupled with sincere effort to live by such laws as they are discovered. All the Arts advance steadily during this stage of national growth, and are lovely, even in their deficiencies, as the buds of flowers are lovely by their vital force, swift change, and continent beauty. The next stage is that in which the conscience is entirely formed, and the nation, finding it painful to live in obedience to the precepts it has discovered, looks about to discover, also, a compromise for obedience to them. In this condition of mind its first endeavour is nearly always to make its religion pompous, and please the gods by giving them gifts and entertainments, in which it may piously and pleasurably share itself; so that a magnificent display of the powers of art it has gained by sincerity, takes place for a few years, and is then followed by their extinction, rapid and complete exactly in the degree in which the nation resigns itself to hypocrisy. The works of Raphael, Michael Angelo, and Tintoret, belong to this period of compromise in the career of the greatest nation of the world; and are the most splendid efforts yet made by human creatures to maintain the dignity of states with beautiful colours, and defend the doctrines of theology with anatomical designs." It is easy [Pg 13]to see how the progress in realism led to a decline in religion. "The greater the (painter's) powers became, the more (his) mind was absorbed in their attainment, and complacent in their display. The early arts of laying on bright colours smoothly, of burnishing golden ornaments, or tracing, leaf by leaf, the outlines of flowers, were not so difficult as that they should materially occupy the thoughts of the artist, or furnish foundation for his conceit; he learned these rudiments of his work without pain, and employed them without pride, his spirit being left free to express, so far as it was capable of them, the reaches of higher thought. But when accurate shade, and subtle colour, and perfect anatomy, and complicated perspective, became necessary to the work, the artist's whole energy was employed in learning the laws of these, and his whole pleasure consisted in exhibiting them. His life was devoted, not to the objects of art, but to the cunning of it; and the sciences of composition and light and shade were pursued as if there were abstract good in them;—as if, like astronomy or mathematics, they were ends in themselves, irrespective of anything to be effected by them. And without perception, on the part of any one, of the abyss to which all were hastening, a fatal change of aim took place throughout the whole world of art. In early times art was employed for the display of religious facts; now, religious facts were employed for the display of art. The transition, though imperceptible, was consummate; it involved the entire destiny of painting. It was passing from the paths of life to the paths of death" (Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret, pp. 8, 9, and Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. iv. § 11. See also under No. 744).

FOOTNOTES:

[16] It should be noted that the Italian terms quattro-cento and cinque-cento correspond with our fifteenth (1400-1500) and sixteenth (1500-1600) centuries respectively.

[17] Italian Masters in German Galleries, p. 124. My references to this work are to Mrs. Richter's translation, 1883; in the case of Morelli's Borghese and Doria-Pamfili Galleries in Rome, they are to Miss Ffoulkes's translation, 1892.

[18] Well said: but it remains to be asked, whether the "grace" sought is modest, or wanton: affectionate, or licentious (J. R.).

[19] Not by its own natural course or decay; but by the political and moral ruin of the cities by whose virtue it had been taught, and in whose glory it had flourished. The analysis of the decline of religious faith quoted below does not enough regard the social and material mischief which accompanied that decline (J. R.)

THE SIENESE SCHOOL

The school of Siena, though in the main closely resembling that of Florence, has yet an independent origin and a distinct character. There is a "Madonna" at Siena, painted in 1281, which is decidedly superior to such work as Margaritone's (564). But the start which Siena obtained at first was soon lost; and at a time when Florentine art was finding new directions, that at Siena was running still in the old grooves. This was owing to the markedly religious character of its painting, shown in the tone of the statutes above quoted. Such religious fervour seems at first sight inconsistent with the character of a people who were famed for factious quarrels and[Pg 15] delicate living.[20] But "the contradiction is more apparent than real. The people of Siena were highly impressible and emotional, quick to obey the promptings of their passion, whether it took the form of hatred or of love, of spiritual fervour or of carnal violence. The religious feeling was a passion with them, on a par with all the other movements of their quick and mobile temperament."[21] Sienese art reflects this spirit; it is like the religion of their St. Catherine, rapt and ecstatic. The early Florentine pictures are not very dissimilar; but in Siena the same kind of art lasted much longer. In the work, for instance, of Matteo di Giovanni (see 1155), there is still the same expression of religious ecstasy, and the same prodigal use of gold in the background, as marked the works of the preceding century; yet he was contemporary with the Florentine Botticelli, who introduced many new motives into art. Matteo was the best Sienese painter of the fifteenth century, and with him the independent school of Siena comes to an end. Girolamo del Pacchia (246) betrays the influence of Florence; whilst Il Sodoma (1144), who settled at Siena and had many pupils, was not a native, and shows in his style no affinity with the true Sienese School. Peruzzi (218), on the other hand, was a native of Siena, but belongs in his artistic development to the Roman School.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] See Dante, Inferno xxix. 121. There was, moreover, in Siena a "Prodigal Club," and a poet of the day wrote a series of sonnets (translated by D. G. Rossetti) "Unto the blithe and lordly fellowship."

[21] History of the Renaissance in Italy, iii. 161.

THE SCHOOLS OF LOMBARDY

The loose use of the term "school" has caused much confusion in the history and criticism of art. Sometimes the term is used with reference only to the place where such and such painters principally worked. Thus Raphael and Michael Angelo, together with their followers, are sometimes called the "Roman School." But Rome produced no great native painters; she was merely a centre to which painters were drawn from elsewhere. So too when the phrase "Milanese School" occurs, it generally means Leonardo da Vinci and his immediate pupils, because, though a Florentine, he taught at Milan. Sometimes, again, the term "school" is used as mere geographical expression. Thus under "Lombard School" are often included the painters of Parma, simply because Parma is contiguous to Lombardy. A third use of the term school, however, is that in which it means "a definite quality, native to the district, shared through many generations by all its[Pg 17] painters, and culminating in a few men of commanding genius." Such a definite quality is generally marked by "a special collection of traditions, and processes, a particular method, a peculiar style in design, and an equally peculiar taste in colouring—all contributing to the representation of a national ideal existing in the minds of the artists of the same country at the same time." This is the use of the term which is suggested by the main arrangement of the National Gallery, and which is at once the most instructive and the most interesting.

Following this principle in the case of the present chapter, we must first dispose of the "pseudo-Lombards"—the Cremonese, namely, and Correggio. The pictures belonging to artists of Cremona are, as will be seen below, practically Venetian. Correggio and his imitator Parmigiano are more difficult to deal with. The truth is that Correggio stands very much apart (see under 10); but if he must be labelled, it seems best to follow Morelli and class him, on the score of his early training, with the Ferrarese. Coming now to the genuine Lombard School, one sees by looking round the room that it is by no means identical with Leonardo da Vinci. He himself was a Florentine, who settled at Milan, and whose powerful individuality exercised a strong influence on succeeding painters there. But before his coming, there was a native Lombard School—with artists scattered about in the towns and villages around Milan, and with a distinct style of its own. Long before Leonardo came to settle at Milan, the Lombard Madonnas—with their long oval faces and somewhat simpering smile—have already what we now describe as a "Leonardesque character." Among technical points we may notice as characteristic of the Lombard School, in its earlier phases, a partiality for sombre tints and high finish in the rendering of detail. In spirit the School is characterised by great simplicity of feeling. It will be noticed that among the Milanese pictures there are few with any allegorical or mythological subject. Even after Leonardo came to Milan, bringing with him new motives and a wide curiosity, the native Lombard masters, such as Luini and[Pg 18] Gaudenzio Ferrari, adhered in the main to sacred subjects. The Lombard School, it should be observed, was late in arising. The building of Milan Cathedral and the Certosa of Pavia in the first part of the fifteenth century directed the art-impulse of the time rather to sculpture, and it was not till about 1450 that Vincenzo Foppa came from Brescia and established the principal school of painting at Milan. Other schools started with spiritual aims, which wore off, as it were, under the new pleasure of sharpening their means of execution; but the Lombards first took up the art when it had already been reduced to a science. And then most of the painters were natives, not of some large capital, but of small towns or country villages. Thus Luini was born on the Lago Maggiore, and the traditions of his life all murmur about the lake district. But he learned technique at Milan; and thus came to "stand alone," adds Ruskin, "in uniting consummate art power with untainted simplicity of religious imagination" (see references under 18).

With regard to the historical development of the school, it was founded, as we have seen, by Vincenzo Foppa, "the Mantegna of the Lombard School." Borgognone, his pupil, was its Perugino. Then came Leonardo from Florence, and the school divides into two sets—those who were immediately and directly his imitators, and those who, whilst feeling his influence, yet preserved the independent Lombard traditions. The visitor will have no difficulty in recognising the pictures of Beltraffio, Oggionno, and Martino Piazza as belonging to the former class. Solario, Luini, and Lanini are more independent. Lastly Sodoma, a pupil of Leonardo, went off to Siena and established a second Sienese School there, which is represented at the National Gallery by Peruzzi (218).

FERRARESE AND BOLOGNESE SCHOOLS

The Schools of Ferrara and Bologna, which, as will be seen, are substantially one and the same, are interesting both for themselves and for their influence on others. Two of the greatest of all Italian painters—Correggio and Raphael—may be claimed as "guests," as it were, of "this lordly" school. Correggio's master was Francesco Bianchi of Ferrara, a scholar of Cosimo Tura, and may possibly have afterwards studied under Francia at Bologna;[22] whilst as for Raphael, his master, Timoteo Viti, was also a pupil of Francia. The important influence of this school is natural enough, for the Ferrarese appear to have had much innate genius for art, and there is a note of unmistakable originality in their work.

"The Art of the Emilia, the region that lies between the river Po and the Apennines, has been unduly neglected. Here there once dwelt a vigorous and gifted race, as original[Pg 20] in their way as the Umbrians, Tuscans or Venetians, who found means of self-expression in form and colour under the political security of the Court of Este, and whose art forms an organic whole with stages of development and decay, characteristically differing, like their dialect, from that of other parts of Italy.... The traveller visiting the now deserted city of Ferrara, who meditates on its records of the past, may still in fancy see erected again the triumphal arches which welcomed emperors, popes and princes in the 'quattro-cento'; the gilded barges ascending the river to the city; the platforms draped with the arras, on which were woven in gold and silk stories of cavaliers in tilt and tourney; the duke in his robes, stiff with brocade of gold and covered with gems, bearing a jewelled sceptre in his hand; the magnificently caparisoned steeds; the princesses who came in their chariots of triumph, to be brides of the house of Este.... To trace the various processes, alike of thought, feeling and technique, which have gone to the making of a masterpiece of Correggio, L'Ortolano or Dosso is a fascinating pursuit. Only through knowledge of the tentative efforts of their predecessors at the splendid jovial court of the Este, is it possible to get a total impression. Born, as elsewhere, in bondage to rigid types and forms of composition, Ferrarese genius began by being profoundly dramatic and realistic. The masters of 1450 to 1475, well grounded in geometry, perspective and anatomy, painted rather what they saw than what they felt. Their aim was to conventionalise Nature rather than to transfigure her, and truth was more to them than beauty. The next generation, 1475 to 1500, developed technique so as to express movement and emotion, tempered by the eternal charm of antique ideals, till upon this sure foundation there arose men of high imagination and sentiment, who grasped and solved the mysteries of tone and colour, as distinguished from a brilliant palette" (R. H. Benson and A. Venturi in Burlington Fine Arts Club's Catalogue, 1894). Of the first or Giottesque period of the school no pictures survive, and the founder of the school, so far as we can now study it, is Cosimo Tura, who occupies[Pg 21] the same place in the art of Ferrara as Piero della Francesca occupied in that of Umbria, or Mantegna in that of Padua. Look at his picture (772): one sees at once that here is something different from other pictures, one feels that one would certainly be able to recognise that "rugged, gnarled, and angular" but vigorous style again. Doubtless there was some Flemish influence upon the school (see the notes on Tura, No. 772); and doubtless also the Ferrarese were influenced by the neighbouring school of Squarcione at Padua. But the pictures of Tura are enough to show how large an original element of native genius there was. The later developments of this genius are well illustrated in this room, with the important exception that Dosso Dossi, the greatest colourist amongst the Ferrarese masters, is very incompletely represented. His best works are to be seen at Ferrara, Dresden, Florence, and the Borghese Palace. He has been called "the Titian of the Ferrarese School," just as Lorenzo Costa has been called its Perugino and Garofalo its Raphael. Such phrases are useful as helping the student to compare corresponding pictures in different schools, and thus to appreciate their characteristics.

The early Bolognese School does not really exist except as an offshoot of the Ferrarese. Marco Zoppo (590) was "no better," says Morelli, "than a caricature of his master, Squarcione, and besides, he spent the greater part of his life at Venice;" whilst Lippo Dalmasii (752) was very inferior to contemporary artists elsewhere. The so-called earlier Bolognese School was really founded by the Ferrarese Francesco Cossa and Lorenzo Costa, who moved to Bologna about 1480, and the latter of whom "set up shop" with Francia in that town (see under 629). Remarks on the later "Eclectic" School of Bologna, formed by the Carracci, may more conveniently be deferred (see p. 35)

FOOTNOTES:

[22] See for Correggio's connection with the Ferrarese-Bolognese School, Morelli's German Galleries, pp. 120-124.

THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL

The Umbrian School, unlike the Florentine, was distinctively provincial; painting was not centralised in any great capital, but flourished in small towns and retired valleys—in Perugia, Foligno, Borgo S. Sepolcro, S. Severino, Rimini (see 2118), etc. Hence the older traditions of Italian art held their ground, and the religious feeling of the Middle Ages survived long after it had elsewhere been superseded. This tendency was confirmed by the spirit of the district. The little townships of Umbria begirdle the Hill of Assisi, the hallowed abode of St. Francis, and were the peculiar seats of religious enthusiasm. Art followed the current of life,[Pg 23] just as it did in Florence or Venice or Padua; and Umbria—"the Galilee," as it has been called, "of Italy"—thus produced a distinct type in painting, marked by a quality of sentimental pietism. The influence of Siena, whose artists worked at Perugia, must have made in the same direction, and it is interesting to notice in this room one picture of St. Catherine of Siena (249), and two of her namesake of Alexandria (693, 168). It is interesting, further, to notice how the "purist" style of landscape, identified with this pietistic art (see under 288), is characteristic of the district itself. "Whoever visits the hill-town of Perugia will be struck," says Morelli, "with two things: the fine, lovely voices of the women, and the view that opens before the enraptured eye, over the whole valley, from the spot where the old castle stood of yore. On your left, perched on a projecting hill that leans against the bare sunburnt down, lies Assisi, the birthplace of S. Francis, where first his fiery soul was kindled to enthusiasm, where his sister Clara led a pious life, and finally found her grave. Lower down, the eye can still reach Spello and its neighbouring Foligno, while the range of hills, on whose ridge Montefalco looks out from the midst of its gray olives, closes the charming picture. This is the gracious nook of earth, the smiling landscape, in which Pietro Perugino loves to place his chaste, God-fraught Madonnas, and which in his pictures, like soft music, heightens the mood awakened in us by his martyrs pining after Paradise" (German Galleries, p. 252). "All is wrought," says another writer, "into a quietude and harmony that seem eternal. This is one of the mysterious charms in the Holy Families of Raffaelle and of the early painters before him: the faces of the Madonnas are beyond the discomposure of passion, and their very draperies betoken an Elysian atmosphere which wind never blew" (Letters of Edward FitzGerald, i. 45). Such were the local circumstances of the art which, beginning with the almost grotesque pietism of Niccolò da Foligno (1107), led up to the "purist ideal" of Perugino and to the first manner of Raphael.

The scattered character of Umbrian art above referred[Pg 24] to makes it impossible for us to trace its course historically. From that point of view each of the local schools would have to be treated separately. Of the local schools which were the earliest to develop—Gubbio, Fabriano, and S. Severine—the first two are not represented here at all, and the third has only one picture (249). The taste for art amongst the people of Perugia was much later in developing itself. Even up to 1440 they had to rely on Sienese artists; and later still they sent for Piero della Francesca, of Borgo S. Sepolcro, who had studied at Florence and had greatly advanced the science of perspective. Many of the Umbrian masters—Melozzo, Palmezzano, Fra Carnovale, Giovanni Santi, and even perhaps Perugino, were pupils of his. The earliest native artist of Perugia in the gallery is Fiorenzo di Lorenzo (1103), who, however, owed much to the Florentine Benozzo Gozzoli. This Fiorenzo was probably the master of Pinturicchio. The latter worked for some time under Perugino, who had studied under Piero della Francesca and afterwards himself went to study in Florence. Perugino in his turn was the master, after Timoteo Viti, of Raphael. The development of Raphael's art, leading in its later periods to directions far removed from the Umbrian ideal, is traced under the biographical notice of that master (1171). We have thus completed the circle of the principal Umbrian masters. They are allied, as it will have been seen, by teaching, to the Florentines, but they retained a distinctive character throughout. The one exception in this respect is Luca Signorelli, who, though he was apprenticed to Piero della Francesca, was born nearer to Florence, and whose affinities are far more with the Florentine than with the Umbrian School.

THE VENETIAN AND ALLIED SCHOOLS [23]

The general characteristics of the Venetian School, as defined by Mr. Ruskin in the passage above quoted, may be traced both to historical circumstances and to physical surroundings. Thus the first broad fact to be noticed about [Pg 26]the Venetian School of painting is that it is later than the Florentine by some hundred years or more. From the point of view of art, Venice, from her intimate connection as a trading power with the East, was almost a Byzantine colony. St. Mark's is a Byzantine church, her earliest palaces are Byzantine palaces. And so, too, for painting she relied exclusively on a Byzantine supply. It was not till the latter end of the fourteenth century that the influence of Giotto's works in the neighbouring town of Padua began to rouse Venice to do and think for herself in art, instead of letting her Greek subjects do all for her.[24] But by the time Venetian painters had acquired any real mastery over their art, Venice was already in a state of great magnificence; her palaces, with their fronts of white marble, porphyry, and serpentine, were the admiration of every visitor. Painters paint what they see around them, and hence at the outset we find in the Venetian School the rendering of material magnificence and the brilliant colours that distinguish it throughout. Look, for instance, at the pictures by a comparatively early Venetian, like Crivelli (see 602); no other painter of a corresponding age showed such fondness for fruits and stuffs and canopies and jewels and brilliant architecture. And then, in the second place, there is the colour of Venice itself, caused by her position on the lagoons. The Venetians had no gardens; "but what are the purples and scarlets and blues of iris, anemone, or columbine, dispersed among deep meadow-grasses or trained in quiet cloister garden-beds, when compared with that melodrama of flame and gold and rose and orange and azure, which the skies and lagoons of Venice yield almost daily to the eye?" (Symonds's Renaissance, iii. 255). But, thirdly, the sea had a further influence on Venetian painting—it caused at once their love of bodily beauty and the kind of such beauty that they loved. Compare, for instance, a typical Venetian "beauty," such as Paris [Pg 27]Bordone's (674), with one of Botticelli's (915): how great is the difference between them! Well, the sea "tends to induce in us great respect for the whole human body; for its limbs, as much as for its tongue or its wit.... To put the helm up at the right moment is the beginning of all cunning, and for that we need arm and eye;—not tongue. And with this respect for the body as such, comes also the sailor's preference of massive beauty in bodily form. The landsmen, among their roses and orange-blossoms, and chequered shadows of twisted vine, may well please themselves with pale faces, and finely drawn eyebrows and fantastic braiding of hair. But from the sweeping glory of the sea we learn to love another kind of beauty; broad-breasted; level-browed, like the horizon;—thighed and shouldered like the billows;—footed like their stealing foam;—bathed in clouds of golden hair like their sunsets." Then further, "this ocean-work is wholly adverse to any morbid conditions of sentiment. Reverie, above all things, is forbidden by Scylla and Charybdis. By the dogs and the depths, no dreaming! The first thing required of us is presence of mind. Neither love, nor poetry, nor piety, must ever so take up our thoughts as to make us slow or unready." Herein will be found the source of a notable distinction between the treatment of sacred subjects by Venetian painters and all others. The first Venetian artists began with asceticism, just as the Florentines did; "always, however, delighting in more massive and deep colour than other religious painters. They are especially fond of saints who have been cardinals, because of their red hats, and they sunburn all their hermits into splendid russet brown" (see 768). Then again, through all enthusiasm they retain a supreme common sense. Look back, for instance, from the religious pictures in this room, from Titian's "Holy Family" (635), or Cima's "Madonna" (634), to those of the Umbrians, which we have just left. The Umbrian religion is something apart from the world, the Venetian is of it. The religion of the Venetian painters is as real as that of Fra Angelico. But it was the faith not of humble men or of mystics, not of profound thinkers or ecstatic visionaries, so much as of[Pg 28] courtiers and statesmen, of senators and merchants, for whom religion was not a thing by itself but a part and parcel of ordinary life. "Throughout the rest of Italy, piety had become abstract, and opposed theoretically to worldly life; hence the Florentine and Umbrian painters generally separated their saints from living men. They delighted in imagining scenes of spiritual perfectness;—Paradises, and companies of the redeemed at the judgment;—glorified meetings of martyrs;—madonnas surrounded by circles of angels. If, which was rare, definite portraitures of living men were introduced, these real characters formed a kind of chorus or attendant company, taking no part in the action. At Venice all this was reversed, and so boldly as at first to shock, with its seeming irreverence, a spectator accustomed to the formalities and abstractions of the so-called sacred schools. The madonnas are no more seated apart on their thrones, the saints no more breathe celestial air. They are on our own plain ground—nay, here in our houses with us." Cima places the Madonna in his own country-side, whilst at Venice itself Tintoret paints Paradise as the decoration for the hall of the Greater Council of the State. The religion of the Venetian School was not less sincere than that of others, but it was less formal, less didactic; for Venice was constantly at feud with the popes, and here we come to the last circumstance which need be noticed as determining the characteristics of the school. "Among Italian cities Venice was unique. She alone was tranquil in her empire, unimpeded in her constitutional development, independent of Church interference, undisturbed by the cross purposes and intrigues of the despots, inhabited by merchants who were princes, and by a freeborn people who had never seen war at their gates. The serenity of undisturbed security, the luxury of wealth amassed abroad and liberally spent at home, gave a physiognomy of ease and proud self-confidence to all her edifices.... The conditions of Florence stimulated mental energy and turned the face of the soul inwards. Those of Venice inclined the individual to accept life as he found it" (Symonds, iii. 259). Hence the ideal of Venetian painting[Pg 29] was "stateliness and power; high intercourse with kingly and beautiful humanity, proud thoughts, or splendid pleasures; throned sensualities; and ennobled appetites."

A speciality of the Venetian School arising from the characteristics we have described is its portraiture. "If there be any one sign by which the Venetian countenance, as it is recorded for us, to the very life, by a school of portraiture which has never been equalled (chiefly because no portraiture ever had subjects so noble),—I say, if there be one thing more notable than another in the Venetian features, it is their deep pensiveness and solemnity. In other districts of Italy, the dignity of the heads which occur in the most celebrated compositions is clearly owing to the feeling of the painter. He has visibly realised or idealised his models, and appears always to be veiling the faults or failings of the human nature around him, so that the best of his work is that which has most perfectly taken the colour of his own mind; and the least impressive, if not the least valuable, that which appears to have been unaffected and unmodified portraiture. But at Venice, all is exactly the reverse of this. The tone of mind in the painter appears often in some degree frivolous or sensual; delighting in costume, in domestic and grotesque incident, and in studies of the naked form. But the moment he gives himself definitely to portraiture, all is noble and grave; the more literally true his work, the more majestic; and the same artist who will produce little beyond what is commonplace in painting a Madonna or an Apostle, will rise into unapproachable sublimity when his subject is a Member of the Forty, or a Master of the Mint" (Stones of Venice, vol. iii. ch. iii. § lxxv.).

In its historical development the Venetian School may be divided, like other schools, into three main periods. First we have the Giottesque or heroic period, or, as it should in the case of Venice be called, "the Vivarini epoch, bright, innocent, more or less elementary, entirely religious art, reaching from 1400-1480." Next comes the Bellini epoch, sometimes classic and mythic as well as religious, 1480-1520. In this period Venetian art is[Pg 30] "entirely characteristic of her calm and brave statesmanship, her modest and faithful religion." "Bright costumes, distinct and sunny landscapes, broad backgrounds of architecture, large skies, polished armour, gilded cornices, young faces of fisher-boys and country girls, grave faces of old men brown with sea-wind and sunlight, withered faces of women hearty in a hale old age, the strong manhood of Venetian senators, the dignity of patrician ladies, the gracefulness of children, the rosy whiteness and amber-coloured tresses of the daughters of the Adriatic and the lagoons—these are the source of inspiration to the Venetians of the second period.... Among the loveliest motives in the altar-pieces of this period are the boy-angels playing flutes and mandolines beneath the Madonna on the steps of her throne. They are more earthly than Fra Angelico's melodists, and yet they are not precisely of human lineage. It is not, perhaps, too much to say that they strike the keynote of Venetian devotion, at once real and devoid of pietistic rapture" (Symonds, iii. 266.) Thirdly comes the epoch of "supremely powerful art corrupted by taint of death," 1520-1600.

This final transition may perhaps best be seen by tracing the similar progress in the technical feature which distinguishes the Venetian painters. They are the school of colour. Their speciality consists in seeing that "shadow is not an absence of colour, but is, on the contrary, necessary to the full presence of colour; every colour in painting must be a shadow to some brighter colour, and a light to some darker one—all the while being a positive colour itself. And the great splendour of the Venetian School arises from their having seen and held from the beginning this great fact—that shadow is as much colour as light, often much more. In Titian's fullest red the lights are pale rose-colour, passing into white—the shadows warm deep crimson. In Veronese's most splendid orange the lights are pale, the shadows crocus colour.... Observe that this is no matter of taste, but fact. It is an absolute fact that shadows are as much colours as lights are; and whoever represents them by merely the subdued[Pg 31] or darkened tint of the light, represents them falsely." But in the two earlier periods above specified, the Venetians are further "separated from other schools by their contentment with tranquil cheerfulness of light; by their never wanting to be dazzled. None of their lights are flashing or blinding; they are soft, winning, precious; lights of pearl, not of lime: only, you know, on this condition they cannot have sunshine: their day is the day of Paradise; they need no candles, neither light of the sun, in their cities; and everything is seen clear, as through crystal, far or near. This holds to the end of the fifteenth century. Then they begin to see that this, beautiful as it may be, is still a make-believe light; that we do not live in the inside of a pearl; but in an atmosphere through which a burning sun shines thwartedly, and over which a sorrowful night must far prevail. And then the chiaroscurists succeed in persuading them of the fact that there is mystery in the day as in the night, and show them how constantly to see truly, is to see dimly. And also they teach them the brilliancy of light, and the degree in which it is raised from the darkness; and instead of their sweet and pearly peace, tempt them to look for the strength of flame and coruscation of lightning." Three pictures may be noted in which the whole process may be traced. First in Bellini's "St. Jerome"[25] (694) is the serene light of the Master of Peace. In another Bellini (726) is a first twilight effect—such as Titian afterwards developed into more solemn hues; whilst in No. 1130 is an example of the light far withdrawn and the coils of shade of Tintoret. (For Ruskin's general remarks on the Venetian School see Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. iii.; Guide to Venetian Academy; Oxford Lectures on Art, §§ 134, 173-177.)

FOOTNOTES:

[23] With the pictures of Venice, those of many neighbouring towns—Brescia, Bergamo, Treviso, and Verona—are associated. All these local schools have certain peculiarities of their own, and some of them are well represented here. Nowhere, for instance, out of Brescia itself can the Brescian School be so well studied as in the National Gallery. But above these local peculiarities there are common characteristics in the work of all these schools which they share with that of Venice. It is only these common characteristics that can here be noticed. (Some interesting remarks by Dr. Richter, on the independence of the Veronese School, will be found in The Art Journal, February 1895.)

[24] It should, however, be remembered that "before the Venetian School of painting had got much beyond a lisp, Venetian artists were already expressing themselves strikingly and beautifully in stone, in architectural and sculptural works" (see Morelli's German Galleries, p. 5).

[25] Now ascribed, however, to Catena.

THE PADUAN SCHOOL

Padua, more than any other Italian city, was the home of the classical Renaissance in painting. It was at Padua, that is to say, that the principles which governed classical art were first and most distinctly applied to painting. The founder of this learned Paduan school [26] was Squarcione (1394-1474). He had travelled in Italy and Greece, and the school which he set up in Padua on his return—filled with models and casts from the antique—enjoyed in its day such a reputation that travelling princes and great lords used to honour it with their visits. It was the influence of ancient sculpture that gave the Paduan School its characteristics. Squarcione was pre-eminently a teacher of the learned science of linear perspective; and the study of antique sculpture led his pupils to define all their forms severely and sharply. "In truth," says Layard, "the peculiarity of this school consists in a style of conception and treatment more plastic than pictorial." This characteristic of the school is pointed out below under some of Mantegna's pictures, but is seen best of all in Gregorio Schiavone (see especially 630). A second mark of the classical learning of the school may be observed in the [Pg 33]choice of antique embellishments, of bas-reliefs and festoons of fruits in the accessories. For a third and crowning characteristic of the school—the repose and self-control of classical art—the reader is referred to the remarks under Mantegna's pictures. With Mantegna the school of Padua reached its consummation. Crivelli's pictures are hung with those of the Paduan school, for he too is believed to have been a pupil of Squarcione. But after Mantegna the learning of Padua must be traced not in native painters, but in its influence on other schools.

FOOTNOTES:

[26] The earlier Paduan School, represented in the National Gallery by No 701, was only an offshoot from the Florentine.

THE LATER ITALIAN SCHOOLS

The typical painters, with whom this chapter is concerned, are those of the "Eclectic School" of Bologna—the Carracci, Domenichino, Guido Reni; and Salvator Rosa, the Neapolitan painter of about the same period.

It may be noticed, in the first place, that the lower repute in which these Italian painters of the seventeenth century are now held is of comparatively recent date. Poussin, for instance, ranked Domenichino next to Raphael, and preferred the works of the Carracci to all others in Rome, except only Raphael's, and Sir Joshua Reynolds cited them as models of perfection. Why, then, is it that modern criticism stamps the later Italian Schools as schools of the decadence? To examine the pictures themselves and to compare them with earlier works is the best way of finding out; but a few general remarks may be found of assistance. The painting of the schools now under consideration was "not spontaneous art. It was art mechanically[Pg 35] revived during a period of critical hesitancy and declining enthusiasms." It was largely produced at Bologna by men not eminently gifted for the arts. When Ludovico Carracci, for instance, went to Venice, the veteran Tintoretto warned him that he had no vocation. Moreover "the painting which emerged there at the close of the sixteenth century embodied religion and culture, both of a base alloy.... Therefore, though the painters went on painting the old subjects, they painted all alike with frigid superficiality. Nothing new or vital, fanciful or imaginative, has been breathed into antique mythology. What has been added to religious expression is repellent, ... extravagantly ideal in ecstatic Magdalens and Maries, extravagantly realistic in martyrdoms and torments, extravagantly harsh in dogmatic mysteries, extravagantly soft in sentimental tenderness and tearful piety.... If we turn from the ideas of the late Italian painters to their execution, we shall find similar reasons for its failure to delight" (Symonds's Renaissance, vii. 232). For "all these old eclectic theories were based not upon an endeavour to unite the various characters of nature (which it is possible to do), but the various narrownesses of taste, which it is impossible to do.... All these specialities have their own charm in their own way; and there are times when the particular humour of each man is refreshing to us from its very distinctness; but the effort to add any other qualities to this refreshing one instantly takes away the distinctiveness" (Two Paths, § 58). It was not an attempt to unite the various characters of nature. On the contrary, "these painters, in selecting, omitted just those features which had given grace and character to their models. The substitution of generic types for portraiture, the avoidance of individuality, the contempt for what is simple and natural in details, deprived their work of attractiveness and suggestion. It is noticeable that they never painted flowers. While studying Titian's landscapes, they omitted the iris and the caper-blossom and the columbine, which star the grass beneath Ariadne's feet.... They began the false system of depicting ideal foliage and ideal precipices—that is to say, trees which are not trees, and cliffs which cannot be distinguished from cork or stucco.[Pg 36] In like manner, the cloths wherewith they clad their personages were not of brocade, or satin, or broadcloth, but of that empty lie called drapery ... one monstrous nondescript stuff, differently dyed in dull or glaring colours, but always shoddy. Characteristic costumes have disappeared.... After the same fashion furniture, utensils, houses, animals, birds, weapons, are idealised—stripped, that is to say, of what in these things is specific and vital"[27] (Symonds, ibid. p. 233).

With regard to the historical development of the declining art whose general characteristics we have been discussing, it is usual to group the painters under three heads—the Mannerists, the Eclectics, and the Naturalists. By the first of these are meant the painters in the several schools who succeeded the culminating masters and imitated their peculiarities. We have already noticed, under the Florentine School, how this "mannerism" set in, and all the other schools show a like process. Thus Giulio Romano shows the dramatic energy of Raphael and Michael Angelo passed into mannerism. Tiepolo is a "mannerised" Paolo Veronese, Baroccio a "mannerised" Correggio. Later on, however, and largely under the influence of the "counter-Reformation"—the renewed activity, that is, of the Roman church consequent on the Reformation,[28]—a reaction against the Mannerists set in. This reaction took two forms. The first was that of the Eclectic School founded by the Carraccis at Bologna in about the year 1580. This school—so called from its principle of "selecting" the qualities of different schools—includes, besides the Carraccis themselves, Guido Reni, Domenichino, [Pg 37]Sassoferrato, and Guercino. The last-mentioned, however, combined in some measure the aims both of the Eclectics and of the other school which was formed in protest against the Mannerists. This was the school of the so-called Naturalists, of whom Caravaggio (1569-1609) was the first representative, and whose influence may be traced in the Spanish Ribera (see page 220) and the Neapolitan Salvator Rosa. They called themselves "Naturalists," as being opposed to the "ideal" aims alike of the Mannerists and the Eclectics; but they made the fatal mistake—a mistake which seems to have a permanent hold on a certain order of minds, for it is at the root of much of the art-effort of our own day—that there is something more "real" and "natural" in the vulgarities of human life than in its nobleness, and in the ugliness of nature than in its beauty (see below under 172, and under Salvator Rosa passim).

The later Venetian pictures make a most interesting group. In the eighteenth century Venetian art experienced a partial revival, and the painters of this revival—Tiepolo, Longhi, Canaletto, and Guardi may here be well studied.

FOOTNOTES:

[27] It was this false striving after "the ideal," as Mr. Symonds points out, that caused Reynolds, with his obsolete doctrine about the nature of "the grand style," to admire the Bolognese masters. For Reynolds's statement of his doctrine see his Discourses, ii. and iii., and his papers in the Idler (Nos. 79 and 82); for Ruskin's destructive criticism of it, see Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. i.-iii.

[28] The realism and the morbid taint in the religious pictures of the Italian decadence were in some measure the direct outcome of ecclesiastical teaching. "Depict well the flaying of St. Bartholomew," said a Jesuit father, "it may win hearts to piety." The comment of Shelley on the Bolognese Schools was this: "Why write books against religion when we may hang up such pictures?"

THE EARLY FLEMISH AND THE GERMAN SCHOOLS

The Early Flemish and German schools are by no means so completely represented as the nearly contemporary schools of Italy; but there are enough pictures to bring out the characteristics of the northern art. Nothing can be more instructive, and convincing of the value of art as a means of national autobiography, than to compare the early pictures in these rooms en bloc with those in any of the Italian rooms (e.g. the Umbrian). No one can fail to be struck at once by the contrast between what Mr. Ruskin has called "the angular and bony sanctities of the North," and "the drooping graces and pensive pieties of the South." This is the first distinguishing character of the early northern art: there is little feeling, or care, for beauty as[Pg 39] such. Look round the rooms, and see whether there is a single face which will haunt you for its beauty. Look at the pictures which interest you most, choose out the brightest and the most exquisitely finished: and see if it is not an almost defiant absence of beautiful feature that characterises them. Coupled with their absence of feeling for the beautiful there is in the work of these artists a strange fondness for death—for agonies, crucifixions, depositions, exhumations. "It is not that the person needs excitement or has any such strong perceptions as would cause excitement, but he is dead to the horror, and a strange evil influence guides his feebleness of mind rather to fearful images than to beautiful ones,—as our disturbed dreams are sometimes filled with ghastlinesses which seem not to arise out of any conceivable association of our waking ideas, but to be a vapour out of the very chambers of the tomb, to which the mind, in its palsy, has approached" (Modern Painters, vol. iv. pt. v. ch. xix. § 16). Thus, in painting scenes from the Passion or stories from the book of martyrs, the Italians of the earlier time endured the painfulness, the northern artists rejoiced in it.

What, then, is it that gives these pictures their worth and has caused their painters to be included amongst the great masters of the world? Look at some of the best, and the more you look the more you will see that their goodness consists in an absolute fidelity to nature—in dress, in ornaments, and especially in portraiture. Here are unmistakably the men and women of the time, set down precisely in their habit as they lived. In this grim, unrelenting truthfulness these pictures correspond exactly to the ideal which Carlyle—himself a typical northerner—lays down, in the passage above quoted, for the art of painting.

Look at these pictures and at the Italian again, and another obvious difference is apparent. The Flemish pictures are on the whole much smaller. This is a fact full of significance. In the sunny South the artists spent their best energies in covering large spaces of wall with frescoes; in the damp climate of the North they were obliged to paint[Pg 40] chiefly upon panels. The conditions of their climate were no doubt what led to the discovery of the Van Eyck method (described under 186), the point of which was a way of drying pictures rapidly without the necessity of exposure to the sun. It was a method only applicable to work on a small scale, but it permitted such work to be brought to the highest finish. This precisely suited the painstaking, patient men of the Low Countries. Hence the minuteness and finish which characterise their work. Moreover, "every charm that can be bestowed upon so small a surface is requisite to intensify its attractive power; and hence Flemish painters developed a jewel-like quality of colouring which remained peculiar to themselves." ... Further, the Van Eyck method, requiring absolute forethought and forbidding any alterations, tended to a set of stock subjects treated more or less in the same way. "Thus the chief qualities of the Flemish School may be called Veracity of Imitation, Jewel-like richness of Colour, perfection of Finish, emphasis of Character, and Conservatism in design. These indeed are virtues enough to make a school of art great in the annals of time, even though they may never be able to win for it the clatter of popular applause. The paintings of Flanders were not, and were not intended to be, popular. Flemish artists did not, like the Italians, paint for the folk, but for the delight of a small cultured clique."[29]

Such are the general characteristics of the Early Flemish School. Passing now to its historical development and to its relations with the schools of Germany, we may distinguish three successive periods. (1) The birthplace of painting as a separate art in the North was on the Lower Rhine, at Maastricht and Cologne. Of this school of the Lower Rhine a characteristic specimen is No. 687. It is properly grouped with the Early Flemish School, because in the fourteenth century most of the Flemish artists were Germans from the valley of the Rhine. (2) Later on, however, the great development in the prosperity and wealth of the Low Countries—the land of the Woolsack and the Golden [Pg 41]Fleece, led to the growth of a native art. This was closely connected with the schools of illuminators patronised by the Courts of France and Burgundy, and many works of the Primitifs cannot be distinguished, with any complete certainty, as French or Flemish. Just as at Venice the people, busy with their trade, preferred for a long time to buy rather than produce their works of art, but afterwards settled down and made works for themselves, so in Flanders the German art came to be superseded by a native Flemish art. The Early Flemish School, covering roughly the period 1400-1500, was the result, the most important masters being Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, Bouts, David, and Memlinc. (3.) It was now the turn of this school to influence that of Germany. The Flemish masters were great travellers, and the German masters were no doubt attracted to Flanders by the great technical skill there in vogue. Hence we now come to a second period in German painting—marked by Flemish influence. There is less of the mysticism and more realism; but with the realism there is an element of brutality and ugliness. Nos. 707 and 1049 are typical German pictures of this period.

Finally, it will be noticed, as the visitor goes round the rooms, that many of the pictures are either altogether "unknown" or are attributed to artists whose names are not given, and who are merely described as the "master" of such and such other pictures. This is an interesting and characteristic point. Of individual painters of the Early German School, and for the most part of those of the Early Flemish, very little is known. They seldom signed their names,[30] and the works of the fifteenth century were in the next two centuries treated with neglect. Hence both the attribution of these pictures, and the lives of the painters to whom they are attributed, are still very uncertain. A second reason for this uncertainty is to be found in the Guild [Pg 42]system, which was very strict amongst the northern artists. Painting, to the mediæval mind, was a craft like any other, and was subject to the same rules. The Guild educated the artist and bought his materials, and even when he emerged into mastership, stood in many ways between him and his patron. Hence pictures were often regarded as the work not of this or that individual, but of this or that Guild. Hence too the quiet industry and the uncompetitive patience of these Early Flemish painters. "It was not merely the result of chance that the brothers Van Eyck invented their peculiar method of painting by which they were enabled to produce pictures of almost unlimited durability and of unsurpassable finish, provided sufficient care were bestowed upon the work. The spirit of the day and the method of the day were reflections one of another.... Take any picture of this old Flemish School, and regard it carefully, you will find that only so do its beauties strike you at all.... The old Flemish artists did always the thing that was within their powers, striving indeed by daily industry to increase the strength of those powers, but never hoping either by luck or momentary insanity to attain anything unattainable by patient thought and long-continued labour. 'Patient continuance in well-doing' was the open secret of their success" (Conway, ch. ii.)

Of the later German School, specially distinguished in portraiture, the Gallery has now some fine examples, and here again there is similarity between the German and the early Flemish painters. "If," says Ruskin, "the reader were to make the circuit of this collection for the purpose of determining which picture united in its modes of execution the highest reach of achievement with the strongest assurance of durability, we believe that he would finally pause before a small picture or panel, representing two quaintly dressed figures in a dimly lighted room." Turn from the portraits by Jan van Eyck to the portraits by Cranach and Albert Dürer, and much of the same minute fidelity and careful workmanship will be found. For Holbein's portraits, the reader is referred to the notes (pp. 613-4).

FOOTNOTES:

[29] Sir W. M. Conway: Early Flemish Artists and their Predecessors on the Lower Rhine, 1887.

[30] The letters often found on pictures, which for a long time excited the curiosity and imagination of critics, are now fully explained as the initials not of the painters but of the patrons (see Wauters: The Flemish School, p. 61).

THE DUTCH SCHOOL

The Dutch and Flemish schools were formerly hung together at the National Gallery. They are now separated, and with the early Flemish school we have already dealt. We take up the story here at the point where it leaves off there, and proceed to discuss the Dutch school; passing afterwards to the later Flemish school. The confusion between Dutch and Flemish art is, it may first be remarked, historical. Just as Flanders derived its earliest artistic impulse from German painters, so did the Dutch derive theirs from the Flemings. In the two first periods of Flemish art, Dutch art runs precisely parallel with it. During the sixteenth century a new development began in both schools. This is the period of Italian influence, of the "Romanists" or "Italianisers," as they are called, represented typically by Bernard van Orley and Mabuse.

At the end of the sixteenth century, however, a national movement began in both schools—corresponding closely to political changes. In 1579 the "Union of Utrecht" was effected, whereby the Dutch "United Provinces"[Pg 44] (= roughly what is now Holland) were separated alike from the Spanish Netherlands and from the Empire, and Dutch independence thus began. Within the next fifty years nearly all the great Dutch painters were born—Berchem, Bol, Cuyp, Frans Hals, Van der Helst, De Keyser, Rembrandt, Ruysdael. In characteristics, as well as in chronology, Dutch art was the direct outcome of Dutch history. This art has come to be identified in common parlance, owing to its chief and distinguishing characteristic, with what is known as "genre painting,"—the painting, that is, which takes its subject from small incidents of everyday life. Three historical conditions combined to bring this kind of painting into vogue. First, the Reformation. The Dutch, when they asserted their independence, were no longer Catholics; but Protestantism despised the arts, and hence the arts became entirely dissociated from religion. There were no more churches to ornament, and hence no more religious pictures were painted [31] whilst religious rapture is superseded by what one of their own critics describes as "the boisterous outbursts which betoken approaching drunkenness" (Havard: The Dutch School, p. 12).[32] Secondly, the Dutch were Republicans. There was no reigning family. There were no palaces to decorate, and hence no more historical or mythological pictures were in demand. This point of distinction may best be remembered by the supreme contempt which the great King Louis XIV. of France entertained for [Pg 45]the genre style. Eloignez de mot ces magots, he said, "take away the absurd things," when some one showed him some works by Teniers. But the "plain, simple citizens" of the United Provinces did not want their faces idealised—hence the prosaic excellence of Dutch portraiture,—nor had they any ambition to see on their walls anything but an imitation of their actual lives—of their dykes, their courtyards, their kitchens, and their sculleries. Thirdly, the Dutch were a very self-centred people. "With the Dutch," says Sir Joshua Reynolds (Discourse iv.), "a history piece is properly a portrait of themselves; whether they describe the inside or outside of their houses, we have their own people engaged in their own peculiar occupations; working or drinking, playing or fighting. The circumstances that enter into a picture of this kind, are so far from giving a general view of human life, that they exhibit all the minute particularities of a nation differing in several respects from the rest of mankind." "Those innumerable genre pieces—conversation, music, play—were in truth," says Mr. Pater, "the equivalent of novel-reading for that day; its own actual life, in its own proper circumstances, reflected in various degrees of idealisation, with no diminution of the sense of reality (that is to say), but with more and more purged and perfected delightfulness of interest. Themselves illustrating, as every student of their history knows, the good-fellowship of family life, it was the ideal of that life which these artists depicted; the ideal of home in a country where the preponderant interest of life, after all, could not well be out of doors. Of the earth earthy,[33] it[Pg 46] was an ideal very different from that which the sacred Italian painters had evoked from the life of Italy; yet, in its best types, was not without a kind of natural religiousness. And in the achievement of a type of beauty so national and vernacular, the votaries of purely Italian art might well feel that the Italianisers, like Berghem, Bol, and Jan Weenix, went so far afield in vain" (Imaginary Portraits, p. 99).

The same awakening of a national taste made itself felt in the native school of Dutch landscape—a landscape excellent in many ways, but cabin'd, cribbed, and confined, like their own dykes. "Of deities or virtues, angels, principalities, or powers, in the name of our ditches, no more. Let us have cattle, and market vegetables" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vi. § 11). But the Dutch School of landscape had the qualities of its defects. "The Dutch began to see what a picture their country was—its canals, and boompjis, and endless broadly-lighted meadows, and thousands of miles of quaint water-side; and their painters were the first true masters of landscape for its own sake" (Pater, ib. p. 98).

FOOTNOTES:

[31] This statement, like all others in so short and general a summary as alone can be here attempted, is of course only broadly true.

[32] It is interesting to note that this spirit of anti-religious revolt is what fascinated Heine in Dutch pictures. "In the house I lodged at in Leyden there once lived," he says, "the great Jan Steen, whom I hold to be as great as Raphael. Even as a sacred painter Jan was as great, and that will be clearly seen when the religion of sorrow has passed away.... How often, during my stay, did I think myself back for whole hours into the household scenes in which the excellent Jan must have lived and suffered. Many a time I thought I saw him bodily, sitting at his easel, now and then grasping the great jug, 'reflecting and therewith drinking, and then again drinking without reflecting.' It was no gloomy Catholic spectre that I saw, but a modern bright spirit of joy, who after death still visited his old workroom to paint many pictures and to drink" (Heine's Prose Writings, Camelot Series, p. 67).

[33] "The Dutch painters were not poets, nor the sons of poets, but their fathers rescued a Republic from the slime and covered it with such fair farms that I declare to this day I like Dutch cheese as well as any, because it sends one in imagination to the many-uddered meadows which Cuyp has embossed in gold and silver. What savoury hares and rabbits they had in the low blunt sand-hills, and how the Teniers boor snared them, and how the big-breech'd Gunn-Mann (I haven't any knowledge of Dutch, but I am sure that must be the Dutch for 'sportsman') banged off his piece at them, and then how the shining Vrow saw them in the Schopp and bargained for them. The Schopp had often a window with a green curtain in it, and a basso-relievo of Cupids and goats beneath, with a crack across the bas-relief, and iron stains on the marble, and a bright brass bulging bottle on the sill, and such pickling cabbage as makes the mouth water" (Letters of James Smetham, p. 172).

THE LATER FLEMISH SCHOOL

The early history of the Flemish school has been already traced (pp. 38-41). The birth of its later period is almost exactly contemporaneous with that which has been described in the case of the Dutch school. In 1598 the Archduke Albert and his consort Isabel established what was almost an independent State in the Spanish Netherlands (= roughly Flanders, or the modern Belgium). The "Spanish Fury" was at an end, the Inquisition was relaxed. Albert and Isabel eagerly welcomed artists and men of letters, and the exuberant art of Rubens responded to the call. This is the third and great period in the Flemish school—the succession being carried on by Rubens's pupils, Van Dyck and Teniers. Rubens, the greatest master of the Flemish School, was born in 1577 in Germany, but brought up at Antwerp, then the depository of western commerce, and he coloured every subject that he touched with the same hues of gay magnificence. It is by his pictures, and those of Van Dyck, that this room is dominated, and it is unnecessary to anticipate here the accounts of those masters given below (pp. 111, p. 130). They were painters of the Courts. The works of Teniers complete the picture of Flemish life and manners by taking us among the common people in country fairs and village taverns.

THE SPANISH SCHOOL

None of the great schools of painting is so scantily represented in the National Gallery as the Spanish, although the works in this room by its greatest master, Velazquez, are of exceptional excellence in quality and of exceptional interest as illustrating the progress of his art. The deficiency in Spanish pictures is not peculiar to London. "Spain," said Sir David Wilkie, "is the Timbuctoo of artists." The Spanish School of painters and their history are still only half explored, and can only be fully studied in Spain itself. "He who Seville (and Madrid) has not seen, has not seen the marvels great" of Spanish painting.[34]

There are, however, enough examples of the school here to make some few general remarks desirable. The first point to be noticed is this, that all the painters represented in the room (with two or three exceptions) are nearly contemporary. The period 1588-1682 covers all their lives.

They are four of the chief painters of Spain, and they all reach a high level of technical skill. This fact suggests at once the first characteristic point in the history of the Spanish School. It has no infancy.[35] It sprang full-grown into birth. The reason of this was its Italian origin. The art of painting, except as purely decorative, was forbidden to the Moors; and it was only in 1492, when the banner of Castile first hung on the towers of the Alhambra, that the age of painting, as of other greatness, began for Spain. But the very greatness of Spain led to Italian influence in art. The early Spanish painters nearly all found means of going to Italy (Theotocopuli,—1122—was born there in 1548), and the great Italian painters were constantly attracted to the Spanish court.

But though Spanish art sprang thus rapidly to perfection under foreign influence, it was yet stamped throughout with a thoroughly distinctive character. In the first place the proverbial gravity of the Spaniard is reflected also in his art. Look round this room, and see if the prevailing impression is not of something grave, dark, lurid. There is here nothing of the sweet fancifulness of the early Florentines, nothing of the gay voluptuousness of the later Venetians. The shadow of the Spaniard's dark cloak seems to be over every canvas. Then secondly, Spanish painting is intensely "naturalist." Velazquez exhibits this tendency at its best: there is an irresistible reality about his portraits which makes the men alive to all who look at them; Murillo exhibits it in its excess: his best religious pictures are spoiled by their too close adherence to ordinary and even vulgar types.

Both these characteristics are partly accounted for by a third. Painting in Spain was not so much the handmaid, as the bondslave, of the Church. As the Church was in Spain, so had art to be—monastic, severe, immutable. "To have changed an attitude or an attribute would have been a change of Deity." Pacheco, the master of Velazquez, was [Pg 50]charged by the Inquisition to see that no pictures were painted likely to disturb the true faith. Angels were on no account, he prescribed, to be drawn without wings. The feet of the Blessed Virgin were on no account to be exhibited, and she was to be dressed in blue and white, for that she was so dressed when she appeared to Beatrix de Silva, a Portuguese nun, who founded the order called after her. One sees at once how an art, working under such conditions as these, would be likely to lose free play of fancy. And then, lastly, one may note how the Spanish church tended also to make Spanish art intensely naturalistic. Pictures were expected to teach religious dogmas and to enforce mystical ideas. But, in the inevitable course of superstition, the symbol passed into a reality. This was more particularly the case with statues. Everything was done to get images accepted as realities. To this day they are not only painted but dressed: they have, like queens, their mistress of the robes. This idea of art—as something which was not to appeal to the imagination, but was to pass itself off as a reality—inevitably extended also to Spanish painting. How far it did so is best shown in a story gravely related by Pacheco. A painter on a high scaffold had just half finished the figure of the Blessed Virgin when he felt the whole woodwork on which he stood giving way. He called out in his horror, "Holy Virgin, hold me," and straightway the painted arm of the Virgin was thrust out from the wall, supporting the painter in mid-air! When a ladder was brought and the painter got his feet on it, the Virgin's arm relapsed and became again only a painting on the wall. One need not go farther than this story to see the origin of the realistic character of Spanish art, or to understand how Murillo, although often the most mystic of all painters in his conceptions of religious subjects, was also the most naturalistic in his treatment of them (see W. B. Scott: Murillo and the Spanish School of Painting).

FOOTNOTES:

[34] On the ground floor small copies of many of the famous pictures at Madrid may be seen.

[35] This statement, though broadly true, requires, of course, much modification: see the early Spanish picture (of the 15th century) on loan in this room from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

THE FRENCH SCHOOL

Of the pictures in this room nearly all the more important are the works of three masters—Claude and the two Poussins. It is of them, therefore, that a few general remarks will here be made. It should be noticed in the first place how very different this French School of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is from the French School of to-day. The latter school is distinguished for its technical skill, which makes Paris the chief centre of art teaching in the world, but, also, and still more markedly, for its "excessive realism and gross sensuality." "A few years ago," adds Professor Middleton, "a gold medal was won at the Paris Salon by a 'naturalist' picture—a real masterpiece of technical skill. It represented Job as an emaciated old man covered with ulcers, carefully studied in the Paris hospitals for skin diseases." There could not be a greater contrast than between such art as that and the "ideal" landscapes of Claude, the Bacchanalian scenes of Poussin, or the soft girl-faces of Greuze.

Confining ourselves now to Claude and the Poussins—with whom, however, the contemporary works of Salvator Rosa (in Room XIII.) should be studied, we note that in spite of considerable differences between them they agree in marking a great advance in the art of landscape painting. The old conventionalism has now altogether disappeared; there is an attempt to paint nature as she really is. There are effects of nature, too,—not shown in any earlier pictures, and here painted for the first time,—graceful effects of foliage, smooth surface of water, diffusion of yellow sunlight. In some of these effects Claude has never been surpassed; but when his pictures are more closely examined, they are often found to be untrue to the forms of nature. Trees are not branched, nor rocks formed, nor mountains grouped as Claude and Poussin represent. Their conception of landscape, and especially of its relation to human life, is governed by the "classical ideal," to which as far as possible they made their pictures approach. This "classical" landscape is "the representation of (1) perfectly trained and civilised human life; (2) associated with perfect natural scenery, and (3) with decorative spiritual powers. (1) There are no signs in it of humiliating labour or abasing misfortune. Classical persons must be trained in all the polite arts, and, because their health is to be perfect, chiefly in the open air. Hence the architecture around them must be of the most finished kind, the rough country and ground being subdued by frequent and happy humanity. (2) Such personages and buildings must be associated with natural scenery, uninjured by storms or inclemency of climate (such injury implying interruption of the open air life); and it must be scenery conducing to pleasure, not to material service; all cornfields, orchards, olive-yards, and such-like being under the management of slaves, and the superior beings having nothing to do with them; but passing their lives under avenues of scented and otherwise delightful trees—under picturesque rocks and by clear fountains. It is curious, as marking the classical spirit, that a sailing vessel is hardly admissible, but a galley with oars is admissible, because the rowers may be conceived as absolute slaves. (3) The[Pg 53] spiritual powers in classical scenery must be decorative; ornamental gods, not governing gods; otherwise they could not be subjected to the principles of taste, but would demand reverence. In order, therefore, as far as possible, without taking away their supernatural power, to destroy their dignity ... those only are introduced who are the lords of lascivious pleasures. For the appearance of any great god would at once destroy the whole theory of classical life; therefore Pan, Bacchus, and the Satyrs, with Venus and the Nymphs, are the principal spiritual powers of the classical landscape" (abridged from Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. v. §§ 1-8).

It may be interesting to point out how entirely this ideal accords with the prevailing taste and literature of their time. The painting of Claude and Salvator precisely corresponds to what is called "pastoral poetry, that is to say, poetry written in praise of the country, by men who lived in coffee-houses and on the Mall [36]— ... the class of poetry in which a farmer's girl is spoken of as a 'nymph,' and a farmer's boy as a 'swain,' and in which, throughout, a ridiculous and unnatural refinement is supposed to exist in rural life, merely because the poet himself has neither had the courage to endure its hardships, nor the wit to conceive its realities.... Examine the novels of Smollett, Fielding, and Sterne, the comedies of Molière, and the writings of Johnson and Addison, and I do not think you will find a single expression of true delight in sublime nature in any one of them. Perhaps Sterne's Sentimental Journey, in its total absence of sentiment on any subject but humanity ... is the most striking instance; ... and if you compare with this negation of feeling on one side, the interludes of Molière, in which shepherds and shepherdesses are introduced in court dress, you will have a very accurate conception of the general spirit of the [Pg 54]age.[37] It was in such a state of society that the landscape of Claude, Gaspar Poussin, and Salvator Rosa attained its reputation. It is the complete expression on canvas of the spirit of the time" (Edinburgh Lectures on Architecture and Painting, pp. 163-167). The reputation thus gained survived unimpaired almost into the present century, until Wordsworth in poetry and Turner in painting led the return to nature, and the modern school of landscape arose.

It is, however, the art of Constable to which direct influence must be attributed in the foundation of the modern school of landscape—paysage intime—in France (see Vol. II., pp. 93-4). Of this school, wholly unrepresented until lately in our National Gallery, a few examples—characteristic, if not very important—may now be seen in Room XVII. (see Nos. 2058, 2135, etc.).

☞ We have now concluded our survey of the Foreign Schools. The western doors in Room XVII. lead down a side staircase into the entrance Hall, and thus form an exit from the Gallery. On the staircases leading to the Hall and thence down to the basement, some foreign pictures are now placed. The visitor who wishes to see the British School should return into Room XVI. and thence proceed into the East Vestibule, where a few portraits by British masters are hung. Descending the steps and ascending those opposite, the visitor will come into the West Vestibule, which leads to the rooms of the British School—XVIII., XIX., XX., and XXI. Finally, at the east end of the Gallery, we reach Room XXII., devoted to the Turner Collection. For remarks on the British School see Volume II. From the Entrance Hall, the visitor reaches the West Basement, and by corresponding stairs on the other side the East Basement. In the Basement Rooms are collections of copies from Old Masters and the Turner Water Colours. For notes on the former, see end of this volume; for the Turners, see Volume II.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] Elsewhere Mr. Ruskin speaks of "Twickenham classicism" (with a side allusion, of course, to Pope) "consisting principally in conceptions of ancient or of rural life such as have influenced the erection of most of our suburban villas" (Pre-Raphaelitism, reprinted in On the Old Road, i. 283).

[37] In a later lecture on landscape (delivered at Oxford and reported in Cook's Studies in Ruskin, p. 290) Ruskin cited Evelyn (who was nearly contemporary with Claude) as another case in point: "We passed through a forest (of Fontainebleau)," says Evelyn, "so prodigiously encompass'd with hideous rocks of white hard stone, heaped one on another in mountainous height, that I think the like is nowhere to be found more horrid and solitary." It is interesting to note how long this ignorance of mountains lasted, even amongst painters. James Barry, the R. A., was "amazed at finding the realities of the Alps grander than the imaginations of Salvator," and writes to Edmund Burke from Turin in 1766 to say that he saw the moon from the Mont Cenis five times as big as usual, "from being so much nearer to it"!

NUMERICAL CATALOGUE, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES

N. B.—The pictures here described are pictures belonging to Foreign Schools only. The numerals refer to the numbers on the frames.

Pictures in the National Gallery to which, because they are deposited on loan or for other reasons, no numbers are attached, are described at the end of the Numerical Catalogue.

References to books in the following pages are, except where otherwise stated, to the works of Ruskin. Wherever possible, the references to his books are by sections and paragraphs, instead of by pages, so as to make them applicable to all the different editions. The references to Vasari are to Bohn's translation, 5 vols., 1855.

1. THE RAISING OF LAZARUS.

This famous picture is especially remarkable for its dramatic unity. It is crowded with figures, but all combine to concentrate attention on the central subject. The time chosen by the painter is after the completion of the miracle: "He that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin." Jesus in the middle of the picture is uttering the words, "Loose him, and let him go;" with his right hand Jesus points to heaven, as if he said, "I have raised thee by the power of him who sent me." The three men, who have already removed the lid of the sepulchre, are fulfilling Christ's command. The grave-clothes, by which the face of Lazarus is thrown into deep shade, express the idea of the night of the grave which but just before enveloped him; and the eye looking eagerly from beneath the shade upon Christ shows the new life in its most intellectual organ. To the left, behind Christ, is St. John, answering objections raised against the credibility of the miracle. Farther off, behind this group, is one of the Pharisees, whose unbelief is combated by the man who points in evidence to the raised Lazarus. Behind Lazarus is his sister Martha, sickening now at what she most desired; behind her[Pg 57] are other women—holding their noses.[38] At the foot of Jesus is the other sister, Mary, full of faith and gratitude—

2. CEPHALUS AND PROCRIS.

For the story of Cephalus, who is here receiving from Procris the presents of Diana, the hound Lelaps, and the fatal dart with which she was killed, see under 698. As for the landscape, Mr. Ruskin cites this picture as an instance of the "childishness and incompetence" of Claude's foregrounds.

"I will not," he writes, "say anything of the agreeable composition of the three banks, rising one behind another from the water, except only that it amounts to a demonstration that all three were painted in the artist's study, without any reference to nature whatever. In fact, there is quite enough intrinsic evidence in each of them to prove this, seeing that what appears to be meant for vegetation upon them amounts to nothing more than a green stain on their surfaces, the more evidently false because the leaves of the trees twenty yards farther off are all perfectly visible and distinct; and that the sharp lines with[Pg 62] which each cuts against that beyond it are not only such as crumbling earth could never show or assume, but are maintained through their whole progress ungraduated, unchanging, and unaffected by any of the circumstances of varying shade to which every one of nature's lines is inevitably subjected. In fact the whole arrangement is the impotent struggle of a tyro to express by successive edges that approach of earth which he finds himself incapable of expressing by the drawing of the surface. Claude wished to make you understand that the edge of his pond came nearer and nearer; he had probably often tried to do this with an unbroken bank, or a bank only varied by the delicate and harmonious anatomy of nature: and he had found that owing to his total ignorance of the laws of perspective such efforts on his part invariably ended in his reducing his pond to the form of a round O, and making it look perpendicular. Much comfort and solace of mind in such unpleasant circumstances may be derived from instantly dividing the obnoxious bank into a number of successive promontories, and developing their edges with completeness and intensity" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. iv. ch. iv. §§ 17, 18).

3. A CONCERT.

Perhaps it is indeed a travelling party of musicians practising for a serenade. Certainly one thinks of this picture as one reads of a supper party at Titian's house. "Before the tables were set out, we spent the time in looking at the lifelike figures in the excellent paintings of which the house was full, and in discussing the real beauty and charm of the garden, which was a pleasure and a wonder to every one. It is situated in the extreme part of Venice upon the sea, and from it may be seen the pretty little island of Murano, and other beautiful places. This part of the sea, as soon as the sun went down, swarmed with gondolas adorned with beautiful women, and resounded with varied harmonies—the music of voices and instruments till midnight" (Priscianese, describing a visit to Titian in 1540: cited in Heath's Titian, "Great Artists" series, p. 53).

4. A HOLY FAMILY.

One of the pictures which mark the advance made by Titian in the art of landscape. Look at the background of some earlier Holy Family—at the "purist" landscape, for instance, of Perugino (288),—and the change will be seen at once—a change from the conventional or ideal to the real and the actual. Titian was one of the first to "relieve the foreground of his landscapes from the grotesque, quaint, and crowded formalism of the early painters, and give a close approximation to the forms of nature in all things; retaining, however, this much of the old system, that the distances were for the most part painted in deep ultramarine blue, the foregrounds in[Pg 66] rich green and brown" (Lectures on Architecture and Painting, p. 158). In particular he was the first [43] to "apprehend the subduing pathos that comes with eventide" (see Gilbert's Cadore or Titian's Country, p. 33). Titian, says Ruskin (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ii. § 1, ch. vii. § 15), "hardly ever paints sunshine, but a certain opalescent twilight which has as much of human emotion as of imitative truth in it:

5. A SEAPORT AT SUNSET.

An instance of false tone (cf. under Cuyp, No. 53). "Many even of the best pictures of Claude must be looked close into to be felt, and lose light every foot that we retire. The smallest of the three Seaports in the National Gallery is valuable and right in tone when we are close to it, but ten yards off it is all brick-dust, offensively and evidently false in its whole hue." Contrast "the perfect and unchanging influence of Turner's picture at any distance. We approach only to follow the sunshine into every cranny of the leafage, and retire only to feel it diffused over the scene, the whole picture glowing like a sun or star at whatever distance we stand, and lighting the air between us and it" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. ii. ch. i. § 20).

6. DAVID AT THE CAVE OF ADULLAM.[44]

David, in front of the cave, "longed and said, 'Oh that one would give me to drink of the water of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!' And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines (seen in the valley), and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and [Pg 67]brought it to David" (2 Samuel xxiii. 15, 16). With regard to the landscape, the picture is a good instance at once of Claude's strength and weakness. Thus "the central group of trees is a very noble piece of painting" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. iv. ch. ii. § 8). On the other hand the rocks, both in the left corner and in the right, are highly absurd. "The Claudesque landscape is not, as so commonly supposed, an idealised abstract of the nature about Rome. It is an ultimate condition of the Florentine conventional landscape, more or less softened by reference to nature" (ibid., vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. xviii. § 27). So, too, "the brown foreground and rocks are as false as colour can be: first, because there never was such a brown sunlight, for even the sand and cinders (volcanic tufa) about Naples, granting that he had studied from these ugliest of all formations, are, where they are fresh fractured, golden and lustrous in full light, compared to these ideals of crags, and become, like all other rocks, quiet and gray when weathered; and secondly, because no rock that ever nature stained is without its countless breaking tints of varied vegetation" (ibid., vol. i. pt. ii. sec. ii. ch. ii. § 16).

7, 37. GROUPS OF HEADS.

Copies by Annibale Carracci from Correggio's compositions in the church of S. Giovanni at Parma (Layard's edition of Kugler's Italian School of Painting, ii. 631). These pictures have had an eventful history, and been connected with the fortunes of many sovereigns. They came to the National Gallery from Mr. Angerstein, who bought them from the Orleans collection. They had formerly been in the possession of Queen Christina, having been carried off to Sweden as part of the plunder of Prague when that city was captured by the Swedes in 1648. The pictures collected there by the Emperor Rudolph II. were removed to Stockholm.

8. A DREAM OF HUMAN LIFE.

The naked figure, typical of the human race, and reclining against a slippery globe,—with the world, we may say, before him,—is awakening, at the sound of a trumpet from above[Pg 68] from the dream of life to the lasting realities of eternity. It may be the sound of the "last trump" or the call to a "new life" that comes before. Behind his seat are several masks, illustrating the insincerity or duplicity of a world in which "all is vanity"; and around him are visions of the tempting and transitory hopes, fears, and vices of humanity. On the right sits a helmed warrior, moody and discomfited; his arms hang listlessly and his face is unseen—hidden perhaps from the cruelty of War. Above him are battling figures—emblematic of Strife and Contention. A little detached from this group is a son dragging down his parent by the beard—"bringing his grey hair with sorrow to the grave." On the other side sits Jealousy, gnawing a heart; and above are the sordid hands of Avarice clutching a bag of gold. On the left hand Lust and Sorrow are conspicuous; Intemperance raises a huge bottle to his lips; and Gluttony turns a spit (see Landseer's Catalogue of the National Gallery, 1834, p. 41). Thus all around the figure of Human Life there wait—

9. "LORD, WHITHER GOEST THOU?"

The Apostle Peter, according to a Roman tradition, being terrified at the danger which threatened him in Rome, betook himself to flight. On the Via Appia our Saviour appeared to him bearing his cross. To Peter's question: Domine quo vadis? ("Lord, whither goest Thou?") Christ replied, "To Rome, to suffer again crucifixion." Upon which the apostle retraced his steps, and received the crown of martyrdom. So much for the subject. As for its treatment, the note of almost comic exaggeration in St. Peter's attitude will not fail to strike the spectator; and "there is this objection to be made to the landscape, that, though the day is breaking over the distant hills and pediment on the right hand, there must be another sun somewhere out of the picture on the left hand, since the cast shadows from St. Peter and the Saviour fall directly to the right" (Landseer's Catalogue, p. 193).

10. THE EDUCATION OF CUPID.

One of the most celebrated works in the Gallery—"the two pictures which I would last part with out of it," Ruskin once said, "would be Titian's Bacchus and Correggio's Venus." It is a great picture first because it is true to nature. "Look at the foot of Venus. Correggio made it as like a foot as he could, and you won't easily find anything liker.... Great civilised art is always the representation, to the utmost of its power, of whatever it has got to show—made to look as like the thing as possible" (Queen of the Air, § 163). Notice, too, the roundness of effect produced in the limbs by the gradation of full colours, the reflected lights, and the trans[Pg 72]parent shadows. The "chiaroscuro" is so clever that you can look through the shadows into the substance.

As for the subject of the picture, Mercury, the messenger of the gods (dressed therefore in his winged cap and sandals), is endeavouring to teach Cupid (Love) his letters, of which, according to the Greek story, Mercury was the inventor. Venus, the Goddess of Beauty and the Mother of Love, looks out to the spectator with a winning smile of self-complacent loveliness and points us to the child. She has taken charge meanwhile of Cupid's bow (from which he shoots his arrows into lovers' hearts), and is herself represented (as sometimes in classical gems) with wings, for Beauty has wings to fly away as well as Time and Love. The picture is sometimes called the Education of Cupid, but Love learns through the heart and not through the head, and "if you look at this most perfect picture wisely, you will see that it really ought to be called 'Mercury trying, and failing, to teach Cupid to read,' for indeed from the beginning and to the end of time, Love reads without letters, and counts without arithmetic" (Fors Clavigera, viii. 238).

This famous picture has had a strange, eventful history. It was painted in 1521 or 1522, and a century later it was still in the Ducal Gallery at Mantua. In 1625 Charles I. of England despatched his music master, Nicholas Laniere, to Italy to buy pictures for him. Laniere communicated with a picture-dealer named Nys, who purchased several works from the Mantuan gallery. When the transaction became known, the citizens took it so ill that the Duke would have paid double the money to be rid of the bargain. But Nys would not relent, and the picture was included in the artistic freight which the ship Margaret took to London in 1628. On its arrival, our picture was hung in the king's private apartments in Whitehall. When he was beheaded, and his collection sold, the Correggio was bought for £40 by the Duke of Alva, and taken to Spain. It afterwards passed through several collections, and ultimately into that of Murat, King of Naples. Upon his fall from power his wife took it with her when she escaped to Vienna. During the congress of sovereigns in 1822 her chamberlain communicated with the ministers of all the Powers, with a view to the sale of this and another Correggio (15). Russia was negotiating for the purchase of them when Lord Londonderry, hearing by mere accident of the[Pg 73] affair, went to the chamberlain, paid the larger price against which Russia was holding out, and despatched his courier post haste to Vienna to convey the treasures to England. An attempt was made to stop him, but they reached this country almost before the Russians had heard of the purchase.[45] The picture has not come unscathed out of these changes and chances. "Repairs," says Sir Edward Poynter, "are visible in many places. Injudicious cleaning has done even more injury; and it has undoubtedly been deprived of much of that final delicate surface-painting which, in the hands of a great master, does so much to unite a picture into one harmonious whole. It remains, nevertheless, one of the most distinguished works in the collection" (The National Gallery, i. 4).

11. ST. JEROME.

12. ISAAC AND REBECCA, OR "THE MILL."[46]

This and the Claude on the other side of the door (14) are of peculiar interest as being the two which Turner selected for "the noble passage of arms to which he challenged his rival from the grave." He left two of his own pictures (479 and 498) to the nation on the express condition that they should always hang side by side—as they are hanging to-day—with these two by Claude.[47] To discuss fully the comparative merits [Pg 75]of the pictures would be beyond the scope of this handbook; the whole of the first volume of Modern Painters was written to establish the superiority of Turner. We can only select a few leading points.

"The greatest picture is that which conveys the greatest number of the greatest ideas." Take first what Ruskin calls "ideas of relation," by which he means "the perception of intellectual relations, including everything productive of expression, sentiment, character." Now from this point of view this picture is a particularly clear instance of Claude's "inability to see the main point in a matter" or to present any harmonious conception:—

Take next the "ideas of truth" in the picture—the perception, that is to say, of faithfulness in a statement of facts by the thing produced. And first (1) for truth of colour. "Can it be seriously supposed that those murky browns and melancholy greens are representative of the tints of leaves under full noonday sun? I know that you cannot help looking upon all these pictures as pieces of dark relief against a light wholly proceeding from the distances; but they are nothing of the kind, they are noon and morning effects with full lateral light. Be so kind as to match the colour of a leaf in the sun (the darkest you like) as nearly as you can, and bring your matched colour and set it beside one of these groups of trees, and take a blade of common grass, and set it beside any part of the fullest light of their foregrounds, and then talk about the truth of colour of the old masters!" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. ii. ch. ii. § 5). (2) Next for truth of chiaroscuro. Claude neglects that distinctness of shadow which is the chief means of expressing vividness of light. Thus "the trunks of the trees between the water-wheel and the white figure of the middle distance, are dark and visible; but their shadows are scarcely discernible on the ground, and are quite vague and lost in the building. In nature, every bit of the shadow, both on the ground and building, would have been defined and conspicuous; while the trunks themselves would have been faint, confused, and indistinguishable, in their illumined parts,[48] from the grass or distance" (ibid., ch. iii. § 4). (3) Thirdly, for truth of space. In nature everything is indistinct, but nothing vacant. But look at the city on the right bank of the river:—

(4) Lastly, the picture entirely ignores truth of mountains. And this in two ways. First, there is a total want of magnitude and aerial distance:—

13. THE HOLY FAMILY.

This picture—known as the Pedroso Murillo, from the Pedroso family, in whose possession it remained until 1810—is one of the painter's last works, painted when he was about sixty. The look of childlike innocence in the head of the young Christ is very attractive, although the attitude is undeniably "stagey." The heads of the Virgin and St. Joseph also are good instances of Murillo's plan of "supplying the place of intrinsic elevation by a dramatic exhibition of sentiment" (W. B. Scott). The picture is characteristic of what is known as Murillo's third, or vaporoso, manner. His first manner is called frio, or cold; his second warm, or calido, [Pg 82]and the third, from its melting softness, vaporoso. The first style is generally spoken of as lasting up to 1648, the second up to 1656, but he did not so much paint in these different manners at different times as adapt them to the different subjects severally in hand.

14. SEAPORT: THE QUEEN OF SHEBA.

This seaport—inscribed in the right corner La Reine de Saba va trouver Salamon,—is one of Claude's masterpieces. Like its companion, the picture was painted in 1648 for the Duke of Bouillon. "The spectator," says Sir Edward Poynter, "may almost imagine that he feels the freshness of the early morning, and the breeze which sends the crisp waves rolling in from the open sea, while the limpid purity of the sunlit atmosphere and the sparkle of the sun on the water, not only invite sympathy with the more exquisite aspects of nature, which is, perhaps, the highest achievement of this art, but are expressed with a simplicity and perfection of execution which surpass all the works of other painters in which similar effects have been attempted" (The National Gallery, i. 192). The picture which Turner selected to vie with this is not one of his best, but Ruskin makes a point out of Claude's poverty of invention in the details. The queen is starting for a distant expedition, and was going in great state (she went "with a very great company, and camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones"); yet the prominent incident in the picture is the carrying of one schoolgirl's trunk. She is going by sea, and is setting out in the early morning (for the sun is represented only a little above the horizon);[55] yet has no wraps, nor even a head-dress. For the rest, Ruskin notices the tameness of Claude's waves and a certain conventionality in his treatment of ships and seaports generally. "A man accustomed to the broad, wild sea-shore, with its bright breakers, and free winds, and sounding rocks, [Pg 83]and eternal sensation of tameless power, can scarcely but be angered when Claude bids him stand still on some paltry chipped and chiselled quay, with porters and wheel-barrows running against him, to watch a weak, rippling, bound and barriered water, that has not strength enough in one of its waves to upset the flower-pots on the wall, or even to fling one jet of spray over the confining stone"[56] (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. i. ch. vii. § 5). Claude's ships, too, and his conception of seaports generally, show a strange want of true imagination:

15. ECCE HOMO!

"Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the Man!"—Ecce Homo! (John xix. 5). Over the domain of tragedy Correggio—with his pretty grace and sentimentality—[Pg 84]had little sway. In this respect he has been called "the Rossini of painting. The melodies of the Stabat Mater are the exact analogues in music of Correggio's voluptuous renderings of grave or mysterious motives" (Symonds: Renaissance, iii. 248). Thus here it is rather a not-unpleasant feeling of grief than any profound sense of sorrow or resignation that the painter expresses; but within these limits the picture is a very effective one. "The features of Christ express pain without being in the least disfigured by it. How striking is the holding out of the fettered hands, as if to say, 'Behold, these are bound for you!' The Virgin Mary, who, in order to see her son, has held by the balustrade which separates him from her, sinks with grief into the arms of Mary Magdalene. Her lips still seem to tremble, but the corners of the mouth are already fixed, it is involuntarily open; the arched eyelids are on the point of covering the closing eyes; the hands with which she has held fast let go the balustrade" (Waagen: Treasures of Art in Great Britain, i. 327). To the right is a Roman soldier, robust and rugged, yet with a touch of pity in his look; whilst to the left, standing just within the judgment hall, is Pilate, the Roman proconsul, with a mild look of self-satisfaction on his face—as of the man who "washed his hands" of the affair and left the populace to do with Christ as they would.

This picture (which is supposed to have been painted in 1521) was formerly in the possession of the Counts Prati of Parma, and subsequently in the Colonna Palace at Rome. It was purchased of the Colonna family by Sir Simon Clarke, who, finding it impossible to take it out of Italy, sold it to Murat, then King of Naples. It was purchased, as already related, with No. 10 by Lord Londonderry in 1834.

16. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON.

A picture of particular interest in the National Gallery, being a representation by one of the greatest of artists of the patron saint of England. The fight of St. George with the dragon is familiar to every one, being on the reverse of our gold sovereigns, and in the "Jubilee" coinage on that of our silver crowns. "As a piece of mere die-cutting, that St. George is one of the best bits of work we have on our money," but a reference to its absurdities in design will serve admirably to bring out some of the imaginative merits of this picture. On our coins St. George's horse looks abstractedly in the air, instead of where it would have looked, at the beast between its legs. Here Tintoret has admirably brought out the chivalry of the horse. Knight and charger are alike intent upon their foe, and note that St. George wears no spurs: the noble animal nature is attuned to his rider. But, though un-spurred, St. George is every inch a knight. His whole strength is given in the spear-thrust which is to kill the dragon: compare this with St. George on our coins, "with nothing but his helmet on (being the last piece of armour he is likely to want), putting his naked feet, at least his feet showing their toes through the buskins, well forward, that the dragon may with the greatest convenience get a bite at them; and about to deliver a mortal blow at him with a sword which cannot reach him by a couple of yards." To understand the other touches of true imagination in Tintoret's picture, it is necessary to recall the meaning of the legend of St. George and the Dragon (identical with that of Perseus and Andromeda).[59] The dragon represents the evil of sinful, fleshly passion, the element in our nature which is of the earth, earthy. Notice with what savage tenacity, therefore, the beast is made to clutch at the earth. From his mouth he is spitting fire—the red fire of consuming passion. St. George is the champion [Pg 88]of purity; he rides therefore on a white horse, white being the typical colour of a blameless life. He wears no helmet—for that might obscure his sight, and the difficulty in this warfare is not so much to kill your dragon as to see him. In front of him is the dead body of another man:

Behind him is a long castle wall, the towers and battlements perhaps of some great city. In many pictures of this subject (see e.g. 75) there are crowds of spectators on the walls, who will cheer the knight in his struggle and applaud him in his victory. But here the walls are deserted, and but for the princess in the foreground, there are no spectators of the struggle: it is one which has to be fought alone and in secret places. The princess had been given, in the story, as a sacrifice to the dragon, and St. George, who comes to rescue her, is thus the type of noble chivalry. "She turns away for flight; and if her hands are raised to heaven, and her knees fall to earth, it is more that she stumbles in a woman's weakness, than that she abides in faith or sweet surrender. Tintoret sees the scene as in the first place a matter of fact, and paints accordingly, following his judgment of girl nature." But in another sense the princess of the allegory represents the soul of man, which has to be freed from subjection to the dragon of the flesh. And so perhaps Tintoret makes her fly, "from a certain ascetic feeling, a sense growing with the growing license of Venice, that the soul must rather escape from this monster by flight than hope to see it subdued and made serviceable" (St. Mark's Rest, Second Supplement, pp. 14, 21, 33; Fors Clavigera, 1873, xxv. and xxvi.)

17. THE HOLY FAMILY.

St. Elizabeth with her son, the infant John the Baptist, visiting the Madonna and infant Christ. It is "a Holy [Pg 89]Family," but except for the symbolical cross of the Baptist and the faint circlet of golden light surrounding the Madonna's head, there is no hint of divinity about this pretty domestic scene.

18. CHRIST AND THE PHARISEES.[61]

Christ is arguing with the Pharisees, but he wears the tender expression of the man who "did not strive nor cry, neither was his voice heard in the streets." The disputant on the extreme right, with the close-shaven face and firm-set features, has his hand on a volume of the Scriptures, and is taking his stand (as it were) on the letter of the law. The one on the extreme left, on the other hand, is almost persuaded. In contrast to him is the older man with the white beard, who seems to be marvelling at the presumption of youth. The remaining head is the type of the fanatic; "by our law he ought to die." This picture, besides its splendid colouring, is a good instance of that law of order or symmetry which is characteristic of all perfect art. The central figure faces us; there are two figures on one side, balanced by two on the other; the face in the left corner looks right, that in the right corner looks left, whilst to break any too obtrusive symmetry the head of Christ itself inclines somewhat to the left also. This famous picture, of which there are several old copies, was formerly in the Aldobrandini apartments in the Borghese Palace at Rome.

19. NARCISSUS AND ECHO.

Narcissus, a beautiful youth, was beloved by the nymph Echo, but he spurned her love, and when she pined away she[Pg 91] was changed into a stone which still retained the power of voice. But Narcissus, seeing his own image reflected in a fountain, became enamoured of it, and when he could never reach his phantom love he killed himself for grief, and the nymphs who came to burn his body found only the "short-lived flower" that bears his name. Here, half-hidden in the trees, we see the

This was one of Sir George Beaumont's Claudes which Constable so much admired when he was staying at Coleorton. "I am now going," wrote Constable to his wife, "to breakfast before the Narcissus of Claude. How enchanting and lovely it is; far, very far surpassing any other landscape I ever beheld" (Leslie's Life of Constable, 1845, p. 120). Ruskin, on the other hand, finds fault with some of the details, as showing Claude's ignorance of tree structure. "Take the stem of the chief tree in Claude's Narcissus. It is a very faithful portrait of a large boa-constrictor with a handsome tail; the kind of trunk which young ladies at fashionable boarding schools represent with nosegays at the top of them by way of forest scenery." Again, "Observe the bough underneath the first bend of the great stem, ... it sends off four branches like the ribs of a leaf. The two lowest of these are both quite as thick as the parent stem, and the stem itself is much thicker after it has sent off the first one than it was before. The top boughs of the central tree, in the 'Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca' (12), ramify in the same scientific way" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. vi. ch. i. §§ 7, 9).

20. IPPOLITO DE' MEDICI AND THE ARTIST.

In 1531 Sebastiano received from the Pope the office of Frate del Piombo, Monk of the Leaden Signet, which was affixed to the pontifical diplomas. An entertaining account of Sebastiano's appointment is given in Benvenuto Cellini's Memoirs (see Symonds's translation, i. 150). The painter is here dressed in the black robe of his office; on the table are[Pg 92] two parchment-deeds, with Sebastiano's hand on the seal of one of them, and the picture thus represents, perhaps, the ratification of the appointment by his friend and patron, the Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici. The artist's portrait of himself agrees very well with what Vasari says of his character. He was a painter more of necessity than of choice, and when once he received his valuable sinecure he forsook his palette for the lute, and people found it very hard to get any work out of him. He much preferred talking about pictures, says Vasari, to executing them. He was "of a very full habit," and young painters who resorted to him "rarely made any great profit, since from his example they could learn little beside the art of good living." But he was a thoroughly good fellow, and a kindly withal. A better or more agreeable companion never lived; and when he died he commanded that his remains should be carried to the tomb without any ceremony of priests and friars, and that the amount which would have been thus expended should be distributed to the poor, for the love of God: and so was it done. But in one branch of art, adds Vasari, Sebastiano was always ready to work, namely, in painting portraits, such as this, from the life. "In this art he did certainly surpass all others in delicacy and excellence—so much so that when Cardinal Ippolito fell in love with the lady Giulia Gonzaga, he sent Sebastiano with four swift horses to her home for the purpose of taking her portrait, and in about a month the artist completed the likeness, when, what with the celestial beauties of that lady, and what with the able hand of so accomplished a master, the picture proved to be a most divine one." No. 24 was formerly thought to be the portrait in question.

21. PORTRAIT OF A FLORENTINE LADY.

Notice the richly embroidered head-dress, resembling in form the Venetian rolled coif or turban which often occurs in pictures of Titian.

22. ANGELS WEEPING OVER THE DEAD CHRIST.

A comparison even of this little picture—in its somewhat morbid sentiment—with such an one as Crivelli's (602)—with its deeper because simpler feeling—well illustrates the nature of the change. This is, however, one of Guercino's best works. It was formerly in the Borghese Gallery, and Rumohr, in his account of that collection (1784), notices it as one of the productions of the painter's best time. "The figure of Christ is admirable in drawing and foreshortening, and painted with a broad decisive touch in really astonishing relief; while the weeping angels, if not of an elevated type, are marked by a real naïveté and sincerity of pathos. The[Pg 94] wonderful chiaroscuro is here not only rich, and well concentrated, too, beyond the painter's wont, but impressive, and duly accounted for by the supernatural luminosity of the body of Christ" (Portfolio, August 1891).

23. "THE VIRGIN OF THE BASKET."

A celebrated work of the master, and one of the principal treasures of the National Gallery—"a little gem of extraordinary tenderness," Mengs calls it; and Frizzoni, "an incomparable marvel of light, vivacity, and smiling sweetness." Alike in sentiment and in technique, it is very characteristic. A comparison of it with Raphael's great Madonna or any of those of the earlier masters (e.g. Bellini) will show in a moment wherein the peculiarity of Correggio consists. The mother has none of the rapt look of the woman who "laid these things in her heart," and the child has no prophetic sense of future suffering. There is nothing to mark the picture as representing the Holy Family except the introduction of Joseph, the carpenter, in the background. It is a picture painted solely in the "religion of humanity," and full only of artless grace and melodious tenderness. The child is full of play and fun; the mother (with the household basket which gives the picture its name—"La Vierge au panier") is dressing him, and has just succeeded in putting his right arm through the sleeve of his little coat, and is endeavouring by gentle stratagem to do the same with the left; but something has caught his fancy, and she shares in his delight, smiling with all a young mother's fondness at the waywardness of her curly-haired boy. "As a painting," says Sir Edward Poynter, "it is one of those masterpieces of perfect technicality, of brilliant purity of lighting and colouring, and of completeness of modelling in the flesh tints, combined with the utmost apparent ease of execution, which may well be the despair of painters for all time. As a design it is no less remarkable; for though of studied harmony in the arrangement of the forms it is so natural that all appearance of effort is lost, and we cannot conceive of the scene as being rendered in a more artless manner" (The National Gallery, i. 4).

The date of this picture is uncertain. Some, liking to find[Pg 95] in it a piece of the painter's own home-life, have dated it 1521-22, that is just after the birth of Correggio's first child. Others put it earlier in the artist's career, 1518. It is perhaps the picture which Vasari describes as in the possession of the Cavaliere Baiardi of Parma—"a marvellous and beautiful work by Correggio, in which Our Lady puts a little shirt on the Infant Christ." It was afterwards in the royal collection at Madrid, from which it passed by the gift of Charles IV. to Don Emanuele Goday, at whose instance it was subjected to a most rigorous cleaning. During the French invasion of Spain it fell into various hands, and in 1825 was bought for the National Gallery from Mr. C. J. Nieuwenhuys for £3800—a sum, it has been calculated, that would "cover the little panel with sovereigns just twenty-seven times over."

24. AN ITALIAN LADY AS ST. AGATHA.

The nimbus around the head indicates the saint; the palm branch and the pincers indicate St. Agatha, who was "bound and beaten with rods, and her tender bosom was cruelly torn with iron pincers; and as her blood flowed forth, she said, 'O thou tyrant! shamest thou not to treat me so—- thou who hast been nourished and fed from the breast of a mother?' And this was her only plaint." See also under 20.

25. ST. JOHN IN THE WILDERNESS.

"And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel" (Luke i. 80). In his left hand is the standard of the Lamb, the symbol of his mission, for which he is preparing himself in the desert solitude, while with his right he catches water in a cup from a stream in the rocks, symbolical of the water by which that mission, the baptism unto repentance, was to be accomplished.

26. THE CONSECRATION OF ST. NICHOLAS.

This picture, which was formerly in the church of San Niccolo de' Frari at Venice, represents the consecration of Nicholas (for whom see 1171) as Bishop of Myra, in Syria (hence the turbans of the attendants). Two dignitaries of the Church are presenting him to the patriarch, who holds aloft[Pg 98] the symbolical cross of the Redeemer, and with his right hand gives his blessing. The bishop-elect abases himself meanwhile that he may be exalted, while the angel descending with the mitre and crozier signifies that his "call" is from above. Clearly it is the pageantry of a Church function that fascinates the painter. "His art is seen at its best," says Sir Edward Poynter, "in the grouping and light and shade in this picture. The boy kneeling on the right is a masterpiece of silvery colour, and, with his red stockings, gives vivacity to the whole composition." We may also observe in this picture the employment of a "glaze." "The kneeling figure of the Saint is robed in green, with sleeves of golden orange. This latter colour is carried through as under-painting over the whole draped portions of the figure, the green being then floated over and so manipulated that the golden tint shows through in parts and gives the high lights on the folds" (Baldwin Brown's Fine Arts, 1891, p. 310).

27. THE POPE JULIUS II.

The portrait of a Pope of the church militant. "Raphael has caught the momentary repose of a restless and passionate spirit, and has shown all the grace and beauty which are to be found in the sense of power repressed and power at rest. Seated in an arm-chair, with head bent downward, the Pope is in deep thought. His furrowed brow and his deep-sunk eyes tell of energy and decision. The down-drawn corners of his mouth betoken constant dealings with the world" (Creighton's History of the Papacy). For it was in the temporal, not in the spiritual world that Julius lived and moved and had his being, and became, by his combination of military and diplomatic abilities, the most prominent political figure of his day. But, like other great princes of the time, Julius was a liberal and enlightened patron of the arts: it was he who laid the foundation-stone of St. Peter's, and who called Michael Angelo and Raphael to his court. On the green hanging which forms the background, the cross-keys of the pontifical office are indicated, and from the two corners of the back of[Pg 99] the chair rise two shafts, surmounted by gilt ornaments in the form of acorns—in reference to the armorial bearings of the Pope's family (della Rovere). "No amount of elaboration in the background could disturb the attention of any one looking at the portrait of Julius the Second, by Raphael, also in the Tribune, which I cannot help thinking is the finished portrait in the world. A portrait is the most truly historical picture, and this is the most monumental and historical of portraits. The longer one looks at it the more it demands attention. A superficial picture is like a superficial character—it may do for an acquaintance, but not for a friend. One never gets to the end of things to interest and admire in many old portrait-pictures" (G. F. Watts, R.A., in the Magazine of Art, January 1889).

28. SUSANNAH AND THE ELDERS.

A less objectionable rendering than most, of the story of Susannah in the Apocrypha—a story for all time, setting forth as it does the way in which minions of the law too often prey upon the innocent, and the righteous condemnation that the people, when there are just judges in the land, mete out to the [Pg 100]offenders. Two judges, "ancients of the people," approached Susannah and threatened to report her as guilty unless she consented to do their bidding. She refused, and was reported accordingly. Judgment had well-nigh gone against her, when Daniel arose to convict the elders of false-witness, and they were straightway put to death. It is the moment of Susannah's temptation that the artist here depicts. "It is," says Hazlitt (p. 5), "as if the young Jewish beauty had been just surprised in that unguarded spot—crouching down in one corner of the picture, the face turned back with a mingled expression of terror, shame, and unconquerable sweetness, and the whole figure, with the arms crossed, shrinking into itself with bewitching grace and modesty." But Hazlitt never took notes, and Susannah's arms are not crossed—nor is her expression quite so naïve as he describes.

29. "OUR LADY OF THE CAT."

An admirable example of the decline of Italian art. The old religious spirit has entirely vanished, and the Holy Family is represented as worrying a bird with a cat! John the Baptist holds the little goldfinch; while the Madonna expressly directs the attention of the infant Christ to the fun. "See, the cat is trying to get at it," she seems to say. Behind the bird, the painter, in unconscious irony, has placed the Cross. The visitor who wishes to see how far Italian art has travelled in a hundred years should compare this picture with such an one as Bellini's (280), or with one of Raphael's, of whom Baroccio was a fellow-countryman. The connecting[Pg 101] link should then be seen in Correggio (23). With Bellini or Perugino, the motive is wholly religious. With Raphael it is intermingled with artistic display. Correggio brings heaven wholly down to earth, but yet paints his domestic scene with lovely grace. Baroccio brings, one may almost say, heaven down to hell,[63] and uses all his skill to show the infant Saviour's pleasure in teasing a bird. But the artist only embodied the spirit of his time. Baroccio was one of the most celebrated painters of his day, and his biographer (Bellori) writes of him that "his pencil may be said to have been dedicated to religion: so devout, so tender, and so calculated to awaken feelings of piety, are the sentiments expressed in his pictures."

30. SEAPORT: ST. URSULA.

The best Claude in the Gallery, for it is a perfect example of his chief merit—the painting of quiet skies. Constable, in one of his lectures, refers to it as "probably the finest picture of middle-tint in the world. The sun is rising through a thin mist, which, like the effect of a gauze blind in a room, diffuses the light equally. There are no large dark masses, there is no evasion in any part of this admirable work, every object is fairly painted in a firm style of execution, yet in no other picture have I seen the evanescent character of light so well expressed" (Leslie's Life of Constable, p. 338). "The effect of the breeze upon the water and upon the trees," says Ottley, "and the freshness of the morning atmosphere, in this picture, are expressed with a closeness of imitation bordering on illusion" (Descriptive Catalogue of the National Gallery, 1826, p. 42).

As for the subject: St. Ursula, a beautiful and gifted Sicilian princess, was sought in marriage by a prince of Britain; but having already dedicated herself to Christ, she made a condition that before her marriage, she, with eleven thousand attendant virgins, should be permitted for the space of three years to visit the shrines of the Saints. This being permitted, the maidens started on a miraculous voyage. Guided by angels they proceeded as far as Rome, where pagans having plotted their death, on their further journey to Cologne they [Pg 102]were martyred by the barbarians besieging that city. Here in the picture they are represented as embarking.

31. THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC.

These remarks cannot be better illustrated than in the present picture. Abraham and Isaac—the former with a lighted torch, the latter with the wood—are ascending the hill on the right to the sacrifice; while Abraham's two servants await his return below. The whole spirit of the picture is "solemn and unbroken," in perfect harmony with the subject. But it is kept from being a really grand picture by the "hopeless want of imagination" in the forms of the clouds, the colour of the sky, and the treatment of the distant landscape. These painters, says Ruskin, looked at clouds, "with utter carelessness and bluntness of feeling; saw that there were a great many rounded passages in them; found it much easier to sweep circles than to design beauties, and sat down in their studies, contented with perpetual repetitions of the same spherical conceptions, having about the same relation to the clouds of nature, that a child's carving of a turnip has to the head of the Apollo.... Take the ropy, tough-looking wreath in the 'Sacrifice of Isaac,' and find one part of it, if you can, which is not the repetition of every other part of it, all together being as round and vapid as the brush could draw them" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. iii. ch. iii. § 8). Equally deficient is the colour of the sky:—

Lastly, the same want of truth is shown in the wide expanse stretching away to the distance:—

32. THE RAPE OF GANYMEDE.

Ganymede—so the Greek story ran—was a beautiful Trojan boy beloved of Jupiter, and was carried off by an eagle to Olympus to be the cup-bearer of the gods. Which things, say some, are an allegory—for "those whom the gods love [Pg 105]die young," and are snatched off, it may be, in sudden death, as by an eagle's swoop.

This picture was painted, like Tintoret's "Milky Way" (1313) and the four Veroneses (1318, 1324-6), for a compartment of a ceiling. It corresponds with a picture described by Ridolfi as painted by a scholar of Titian, though some connect it rather with Tintoret (see J. B. S. Holborn's Tintoretto, 1903, pp. 34, 35). It was formerly in the Colonna Palace: the background is a restoration by Carlo Maratti (see 174).

33. THE VISION OF ST. JEROME.

Leaving the visitor to form his own judgment, we may remind him that the subject is a supposed dream of St. Jerome when doing penance in the desert. He is asleep on the ground—doing penance, it might seem from his distorted position, even in his sleep, with a skull before him and a crucifix beside him. He is in the same desert where John the Baptist once preached, and thinking, we may suppose, of him, St. Jerome sees him in vision—with his camel skin about him—pointing upwards to the sky. There is the Virgin Mary seated as queen of heaven on a crescent moon, with a palm branch in her hand—the symbol now, not of martyrdom, but of victory over sin and death. And on her knee is the Divine Child, who rests his right hand on a little book on the Madonna's lap. It is a volume, we may suppose, of the Scriptures which St. Jerome had translated, and the vision thus foreshadows the time when it should be said unto him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

34. VENUS AND ADONIS.

Venus is endeavouring to detain Adonis from the chase; but the sun is up (see his chariot in the sky) and the young hunts[Pg 107]man is eager to be off with his hounds and his spear. The enamoured goddess caresses him, but it will be in vain. For Cupid, the god of love, is not there: he is asleep and at a distance, with his bow and quiver hanging on a tree; and all the blandishments of beauty, unaided by love, are as naught.

This picture (formerly in the Colonna Palace at Rome) is probably a studio-repetition of an original which is now at Madrid, and which was painted by Titian for Philip II. of Spain, then King-Consort of England. It was forwarded to him in London in 1554. The picture is thus forty years later than the "Bacchus and Ariadne," and critics find in it not unjustly a lack of the finer poetry which characterises the earlier classical works of the master. "That the aim of the artist was not a very high one, or this poesia very near to his heart, is demonstrated by the curiously material fashion in which he recommends it to his royal patron. He says that 'if in the Danaë (now at Naples) the forms were to be seen front-wise, here was occasion to look at them from a contrary direction—a pleasant variety for the ornament of a camerino.' Our worldly-wise painter evidently knew that material allurements as well as supreme art were necessary to captivate Philip" (Claude Philips: The Later Work of Titian, p. 80).

35. BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.

A picture which is at once a school of poetry and a school of art—"in its combination of all the qualities which go to make a great work of art possibly the finest picture in the world" (Poynter). It is a translation on canvas of the scene described in Catullus, where Bacchus, the wine-god, returning with his revel rout from a sacrifice, finds Ariadne on the seashore, after she had been deserted by Theseus, her lover. Bacchus no sooner sees her than he is enamoured and determines to make her his bride—

Nothing can be finer than the painter's representation of Bacchus and his rout: there is a "divine inebriety" in the god which is the very "incarnation of the spirit of revelry." "With this telling of the story," says Charles Lamb (Essay on Barrenness of the Imaginative Faculty in the Productions of Modern Art), "an artist, and no ordinary one, might remain richly proud.... But Titian has recalled past time, and made it contributory with the present to one simultaneous effect. With the desert all ringing with the mad cymbals of his followers, made lucid with the presence and new offers of a god,—as if unconscious of Bacchus, or but idly casting her eyes as upon some unconcerning pageant, her soul undistracted from Theseus, Ariadne is still pacing the solitary shore, in as much heart-silence, and in almost the same local solitude, with which she awoke at daybreak to catch the forlorn last glances of the sail that bore away the Athenian." But though as yet half unconscious, Ariadne is already under her fated star: for above is the constellation of Ariadne's crown—the crown with which Bacchus presented his bride. And observe in connection with the astronomical side of the allegory the figure in Bacchus's train with the serpent round him: this is the serpent-bearer (Milton's "Orphiucus huge") translated to the skies with Bacchus and Ariadne. Notice too another piece of poetry: the marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne took place in the spring, Ariadne herself being the personification of its return, and Bacchus of its gladness; hence the flowers in the foreground which deck his path.

The picture is as full of the painter's art as of the poet's. Note first the exquisite painting of the vine leaves,[67] and of [Pg 109]the flowers in the foreground, as an instance of the "constant habit of the great masters to render every detail of their foreground with the most laborious botanical fidelity": "The foreground is occupied with the common blue iris, the aquilegia, and the wild rose (more correctly the Capparis spinosa); every stamen of which latter is given, while the blossoms and leaves of the columbine (a difficult flower to draw) have been studied with the most exquisite accuracy." But this detail is sought not for its own sake, but only so far as is necessary to mark the typical qualities of beauty in the object. Thus "while every stamen of the rose is given because this was necessary to mark the flower, and while the curves and large characters of the leaves are rendered with exquisite fidelity, there is no vestige of particular texture, of moss, bloom, moisture, or any other accident, no dewdrops, nor flies, nor trickeries of any kind; nothing beyond the simple forms and hues of the flowers, even those hues themselves being simplified and broadly rendered. The varieties of aquilegia have in reality a grayish and uncertain tone of colour, and never attain the purity of blue with which Titian has gifted his flower. But the master does not aim at the particular colour of individual blossoms; he seizes the type of all, and gives it with the utmost purity and simplicity of which colour is capable." A second point to be noticed is the way in which one kind of truth has often to be sacrificed in order to gain another. Thus here Titian sacrifices truth of aerial effect to richness of tone—tone in the sense, that is, of that quality of colour which makes us feel that the whole picture is in one climate, under one kind of light, and in one kind of atmosphere. "It is difficult to imagine anything more magnificently impossible than the blue of the distant landscape; impossible, not from its vividness, but because it is not faint and aerial enough to account for its purity of colour; it is too dark and blue at the same time; and there is indeed so total a want of atmosphere in it, that, but for the difference of form, it would be impossible to tell the mountains intended to be ten miles off, from the robe of[Pg 110] Ariadne close to the spectator. Yet make this blue faint, aerial, and distant; make it in the slightest degree to resemble the tint of nature's colour; and all the tone of the picture, all the intensity and splendour, will vanish on the instant" (Modern Painters, vols. i., xxvii., xxx. (Preface to the Second Edition), pt. i. sec. ii. ch. i. § 5, pt. ii. sec. ii. ch. i. § 15; vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. ix. § 18; vol. v. pt. ix. ch. iii. § 31; Arrows of the Chace, i. 58). We may notice lastly what Sir Joshua Reynolds points out (Discourse viii.), that the harmony of the picture—that wonderful bringing together of two times of which Lamb speaks above, is assisted by the distribution of colours. "To Ariadne is given (say the critics) a red scarf, to relieve the figure from the sea, which is behind her. It is not for that reason alone, but for another of much greater consequence; for the sake of the general harmony and effect of the picture. The figure of Ariadne is separated from the great group, and is dressed in blue, which, added to the colour of the sea, makes that quantity of cold colour which Titian thought necessary for the support and brilliancy of the great group; which group is composed, with very little exception, entirely of mellow colours. But as the picture in this case would be divided into two distinct parts, one half cold and the other warm, it was necessary to carry some of the mellow colours of the great group into the cold part of the picture, and a part of the cold into the great group; accordingly, Titian gave Ariadne a red scarf, and to one of the Bacchantes a little blue drapery."

This famous picture was a commission from the Duke Alfonso I. of Ferrara. There were great delays in its delivery, the Duke and his agents resorting alternately to threats and cajolery in order to extract the promised canvas from the painter. Among other excuses Titian said he had no canvas for it. The Duke supplied the canvas, and sent at the same time a frame. But the picture did not come. Ultimately Titian took it with him to Ferrara in 1522, and finished it there. He seems to have been engaged on it, off and on, for some three years. The picture subsequently passed into the Aldobrandini collection at Rome, from which it was purchased for an English collector in 1806. Twenty years later it was acquired by the National Gallery.

36. A LAND STORM.

The one gleam of light breaking through the clouds falls on the watch tower of a castle, perched on a rock—"a stately image of stability," where all things else are bent beneath the power of the storm. The spirit of the picture is, however, better than its execution. Take, for instance, the clouds. They are mere "massive concretions of ink and indigo, wrung and twisted very hard, apparently in a vain effort to get some moisture out of them" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. iii. ch. iv. § 6). In the tree forms, again, Ruskin sees a concentration of errors. "Gaspard Poussin, by his bad drawing, does not make his stem strong, but his tree weak; he does not make his gust violent, but his boughs of Indian-rubber" (for details of this criticism see ibid., vol. i. pt. ii. sec. vi. ch. i. §§ 12, 13).

37. See under 7.

38. THE ABDUCTION OF THE SABINE WOMEN.

"A miracle of agitation. A flush tide of the richest colour, which positively seems to boil up in swirling eddies of harmonious form. Its whole surface is swept by lines which rush each other on like the rapid successive entrances of an excited stretto, till the violent movement seems to undulate the entire pattern of the picture" (R. A. M. Stevenson: Velazquez, 1899, p. 51). As for the subject, see for the story of the Sabine women under 644. But the subject in this case does not greatly matter. "Rubens in one of his most marvellous pictures, the Rape of the Sabines, which hangs in the National Gallery, did not even take the trouble to dress his Sabines in the costumes of their day. Without any more ado he dressed them in the style of the seventeenth century. One might rather think it a kidnapping of beautiful Antwerp women on a Flemish fair-day. But what difference does it make? He has made white shoulders that shine, sumptuous stuffs, warriors with glittering arms—all which is instinct with life, and blazes with the deepest colouring of the greatest of Flemish masters. The colourists have never considered the subject[Pg 116] otherwise than as a means of representing life under such and such actions, or such and such aspects, joyful or sad, or simply plastic" (Benjamin Constant in North American Review, Nov. 1900).

39. THE NURSING OF BACCHUS.

The wine-god is represented in infancy, nursed by the nymphs and fauns of Eubœa, and fed not on milk but on the juice of the grape. "The picture makes one thirsty to look at it—the colouring even is dry and adust. The figure of the infant Bacchus seems as if he would drink up a vintage—he drinks with his mouth, his hands, his belly, and his whole body. Gargantua was nothing to him" (Hazlitt: Criticisms on Art, p. 33).

40. LANDSCAPE: PHOCION.

"The work of a really great and intellectual mind, one of the finest landscapes that ancient art has produced"[75] (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. ii. ch. i. § 8),—its excellence consisting in the perfect harmony of the landscape with the subject represented, and thus marking the painter's sense of the dependence of landscape for its greatest impressiveness on human interest. In the foreground to the left is Phocion "the good"—the incorruptible Athenian general and statesman, contemporary with Philip and Alexander the Great, of whom it is recorded that he was "never elated in prosperity nor dejected in adversity," and "never betrayed pusillanimity by a tear nor joy by a smile." He wears an undyed robe, and is washing his feet at a public fountain, the dress and action being thus alike emblematic of the purity and simplicity of his life. In entire keeping with this figure of noble simplicity is the feeling of the landscape in which "all the air a solemn stillness holds." In detail, however, Ruskin finds the picture deficient in truth—false, indeed, both in tone and colour (see ibid., vol. i. pt. ii. sec. ii. ch. ii. § 5).

41. THE DEATH OF PETER MARTYR.

For the legend, see under 812—a more pleasing version of the same subject. The man was afterwards regarded as a martyr and canonised; and here, too, notice that he is made to see the angels as he dies.

42. A BACCHANALIAN FESTIVAL.

43. CHRIST TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS.

A sketch for a composition which Rembrandt etched and also drew. The drawing is in the British Museum. This sketch was formerly in the possession of Sir Joshua Reynolds, at whose sale it was bought by Sir George Beaumont.

44. A BLEACHING GROUND.

This little picture, which dates from the earliest days of the National Gallery, was for many years obscured with dirt and not exhibited to the public. It has recently been cleaned, and shows one of the painter's favourite subjects—the bleaching grounds in the neighbourhood of Haarlem. Before the discovery of chemical means of bleaching linen, these were a great source of income to the town. Linen was brought here from all parts of the continent to be bleached, and then went back as Dutch linen or Holland.

45. THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY.

A tour de force in the artist's speciality of contrasts of light and shade. Notice how a succession of these contrasts gradually renders the subject intelligible. "The eye falls at once upon the woman, who is dressed in white, passes then to the figure of Christ, which next to her is the most strongly lighted—and so on to Peter, to the Pharisees, to the soldiers, till at length it perceives in the mysterious gloom of the Temple the High Altar, with the worshippers on the steps" (Waagen: Treasures of Art in Great Britain, i. 353). "Beyond the ordinary claims of art, this picture commands our attention from the grand conception of the painter, who here, as in other pictures and etchings, has invested Christ with a majestic dignity which recalls Leonardo and no other" (J. F. White).

This picture, which was painted in 1644 for Jan Six, the well-known patron of Rembrandt, passed eventually into the possession of Mr. Angerstein. The poet Wordsworth, describing a visit he paid to the Angerstein collection, wrote to Sir George Beaumont in 1808: "Coleridge and I availed ourselves of your letters to Lawrence, and saw Mr. Angerstein's pictures. The day was very unfavourable, not a gleam of sun, and the clouds were quite in disgrace. The great picture of Michael Angelo and Sebastian (No. 1) pleased me more than ever. The new Rembrandt has, I think, much, very much, in it to admire, but still more to wonder at rather than admire. I have seen many pictures of Rembrandt which I should prefer to it. The light in the depth of the temple is far the finest part of it: indeed, it is the only part of the picture which gives me very high pleasure; but that does highly please me" (Memorials of Coleorton, ii. 49).

46. THE BLESSINGS OF PEACE

This picture was presented in 1630 to King Charles I. by Rubens, when he came to England as accredited ambassador for the purpose of negotiating a peace with Spain. After the death of Charles, the Parliament sold the picture for £100. It passed into the possession of the Doria family at Genoa, where it was known as "The Family of Rubens." It was afterwards bought by the Marquis of Stafford for £3000, and by him presented to the National Gallery.[80]

The circumstances under which the picture was painted gave the clue to its meaning. Rubens came to urge Charles to conclude peace, and here on canvas he sets forth its blessings. In the centre of the picture is the Goddess of Wisdom, with Minerva's helmet on her head, her right hand resting on her spear, now to be used no more. Before her flies War, reluctantly, as if he dared not resist Wisdom, yet employing his shield, in order still to shelter Discord, with her torch now extinguished. Last of all in the hateful train is Malice, whose very breath is fire, and who "endeth foul in many a snaky fold"—in the serpent's folds, which ever attend the hostilities of nations. Beneath Minerva's protection sits Peace enthroned, and gives the milk of human kindness for babes to suck. From above, Zephyrus, the soft warm wind, descends with the olive wreath—the emblem in all ages of public peace, whilst at her side stands the "all-bounteous Pan," with Amalthea's storied Horn of Plenty. A band of happy children, led by Love (whose torch, now that Discord's is gone out, burns aloft), approach to taste the sweets of Peace, and to minister to abundance. In the train of Plenty comes Opulence, bringing goblets, wreaths of pearl, and other treasures; whilst behind is Music, playing on her tambourine to celebrate the arts of peace. Last of all in the foreground is a leopard, not hurting or destroying any more, but playful as a lamb—

47. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.

A characteristic piece of "Bible by candle-light." There is, however, something spiritually instructive, as well as technically skilful, in the way in which such light there is all proceeds from Him who came to be the light of the world: compared with this divine light that in the lantern of the shepherds pales and is ineffectual. The picture is dated 1646. For the most part, however, the picture is a piece of pure realism, which may be contrasted in an instructive way with the essentially religious art of earlier schools. Here there is little, if any, symbolism, and "the decorative qualities with which a painter like Botticelli appealed to the imagination to heighten the impressiveness of the story have vanished also. In their stead we have pure naturalism,—naturalism of a very refined and cultured order, which appeals to the imagination as powerfully, but in a totally different way. The charm of the picture is independent of any exegetical qualities. Rembrandt treats the Nativity as a natural event, in a scientific spirit. The only connection between this picture and religious art is that it represents certain conventional attributes which are common to both. But just so much as we subtract from it as an exponent of strictly religious thought, just so much must we add to it as appealing to the intellect in general; its impressiveness, its sublimity, and its suggestiveness, and it has all these, are evolved out of the phenomena of natural effects by a poetical process" (J. E. Hodgson, R.A., in Magazine of Art, 1890, p. 42).

48. LANDSCAPE, WITH TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL.

Tobias, directed by the angel, is drawing out of the water the fish that attacked him. See the Book of Tobit, ch. vi. 4, 5, and the note on No. 781.

49. THE PORTRAIT OF RUBENS.

A portrait of special interest as having been much prized by Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom it formerly belonged. When Mr. Angerstein bought it, the great Burke is said to have congratulated him on possessing Sir Joshua's "favourite picture." It is commonly called "The Portrait of Rubens," but the principal figure does not greatly resemble the well-known face of Rubens; it is more probably a portrait of Luke Vostermann, a celebrated engraver of the time. He is discoursing, it would seem, on some point of art, suggested by the little statue which a man behind is holding.

50. ST. AMBROSE AND THEODOSIUS.

A copy, with some variations, of a large picture by Rubens now at Vienna. The subject is that described by Gibbon (ch. xxvii.). The Emperor Theodosius, for a massacre of the inhabitants of Thessalonica, was excommunicated by Ambrose, the Archbishop of Milan.

Observe as an instance of picturesque ornament properly[Pg 134] introduced in subordination to the figure subject, the robes of St. Ambrose. "Tintoret, Titian, Veronese, Rubens, and Van Dyck would be very sorry to part with their figured stuffs and lustrous silks; and sorry, observe, exactly in the degree of their picturesque feeling. Should not we also be sorry to have Bishop Ambrose without his vest in that picture of the National Gallery? But I think Van Dyck would not have liked, on the other hand, the vest without the bishop. And I much doubt if Titian or Veronese would have enjoyed going into Waterloo House, and making studies of dresses upon the counters" (Stones of Venice, vol. i. ch. xx. § 13).

51. A JEW MERCHANT.

One of the "heads of the people" whom Rembrandt saw around him; for the street in which he lived at Amsterdam swarmed with Dutch and Portuguese Jews. "In rendering human character, such as he saw about him, Rembrandt is nearly equal to Correggio, Titian, Tintoret, Veronese, or Velazquez; and the real power of him is in his stern and steady touch on lip and brow,—seen best in his lightest etchings,—or in the lightest parts of the handling of his portraits, the head of the Jew in our own Gallery being about as good and thorough work as it is possible to see of his" (Academy Notes, 1859, p. 52).

52. "PORTRAIT OF GEVARTIUS."

One of the most celebrated pictures in the Gallery. The title by which it is commonly known is incorrect; the sitter being not Gaspar Gevarts or Gevartius, but Cornelius van der Geest, an amateur of the arts and a friend of Rubens and Van Dyck. It is the grave learning of a scholar, the gentle refinement of an artist—notice especially "the liquid, living lustre of the eye"—that Van Dyck here puts before us. In point of execution this picture ranks as one of the finest portraits in the world. "From it," says Mr. Watts, R.A., "the modern student will learn more than from any I am acquainted with.[Pg 135] The eyes," he adds, "are miracles of drawing and painting. They are a little tired and overworked, and do not so much see anything as indicate the thoughtful brain behind. How wonderful the flexible mouth! with the light shining through the sparse moustache. How tremulously yet firmly painted. The ear: how set on ... so throughout there is no part of this wonderful portrait that might not be examined and enlarged upon; but I would ask my fellow-students to do this for themselves. Not a touch is put in for what is understood by 'effect.' Dexterous in a superlative degree, there is not in the ordinary sense a dexterous dab doing duty for honourable serious work: nothing done to look well at one distance or another, but to be right at every distance" (Magazine of Art, June 1889). Sir Edward Poynter is equally enthusiastic. "This wonderful portrait," he says, "is perhaps the most perfect head ever painted by this consummate painter. Not only for the brilliancy and purity of its flesh tints, the masterly drawing, and the vitality of the expression, does it rank as one of the masterpieces of portraiture existing; but for the brushwork, of which every touch expresses with supreme dexterity all the varieties of form, substance, and texture, it is unsurpassed, perhaps unrivalled, in the history of painting" (National Gallery, i. 152). Another P.R.A., Benjamin West, copied the "Gevartius," and at this day there is no picture in the Gallery more often copied by students.[82] Their preference is justified by that of the painter himself, who "used to consider it his masterpiece, and before he had gained his great reputation carried it about with him from court to court, and patron to patron, to show what he could do as a portrait painter."[83]

53. AN EVENING LANDSCAPE.

An interesting study in what is called "truth of tone" may be made with this picture—by which is meant the "exact relation and fitness of shadow and light, and of the hues of all objects under them; and more especially that precious quality of each colour laid on which makes it appear a quiet colour illuminated, not a bright colour in shade." Now with regard to this Ruskin says, "I much doubt if there be a single bright Cuyp in the world, which, taken as a whole, does not present many glaring solecisms in tone. I have not seen many fine pictures of his which were not utterly spoiled by the vermilion dress of some principal figure—a vermilion totally unaffected and unwarmed by the golden hue of the rest of the picture; and, what is worse, with little distinction between its own illumined and shaded parts, so that it appears altogether out of sunshine—the colour of a bright vermilion in dead, cold daylight.... And these failing parts, though they often escape the eye when we are near the picture and able to dwell upon what is beautiful in it, yet so injure its whole effect that I question if there be many Cuyps in which vivid colours occur, which will not lose their effect and become cold and flat at a distance of ten or twelve paces, retaining their influence only when the eye is close enough to rest on the right parts without including the whole. Take, for instance, the large one in our National Gallery. (Seen at a distance) the black cow appears a great deal nearer than the dogs, and the golden tones of the distance look like a sepia drawing rather than like sunshine, owing chiefly to the utter want of aerial greys indicated [Pg 138]through them" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. ii. ch. i. §§ 11, 19).

54. A WOMAN BATHING.

"Those who have been in Holland," says Mrs. Jameson, "must often have seen the peasant girls washing their linen and trampling on it, precisely in the manner here depicted. Rembrandt may have seen one of them from his window, and snatching up his pencil and palette, he threw the figure on the canvas and fixed it there as by a spell." More probably, however, this is one of Rembrandt's many pictures of his servant and model, Hendrickje Stoffels. "The finest of the whole series," says M. Michel, "is the study of Hendrickje in the National Gallery, the so-called 'Woman Bathing.' It bears the date 1654, and is undoubtedly a masterpiece among Rembrandt's less important works. The young woman, whose only garment is a chemise, stands facing the spectator, in a deep pool. Her attitude suggests a sensation of pleasure and refreshment tempered by the involuntary shrinking of the body at the first contact of the cold water. The light from above glances on her breast and forehead, and on the luxuriant disorder of her bright hair; the lower part of her face and her legs are in deep transparent shadow. The brown tones of the soil, the landscape background and the water, the purple and gold of the draperies, make up a marvellous setting alike for the brilliantly illuminated contour and the more subdued carnations of the model. The truth of the impression, the breadth of the careful but masterly execution, the variety of the handling, proclaim the matured power of the artist, and combine to glorify the hardy grace and youthful radiance of his creation" (Rembrandt: his Life, his Work, and his Time, ii. 70).

55. THE DEATH OF PROCRIS (see under 698).

"A most pathetic picture," says Constable (who made a copy of it when it was in Sir George Beaumont's possession). "The expression of Cephalus is very touching; and, indeed, nothing can be finer than the way in which Claude has told[Pg 139] that affecting story throughout. Procris has come from her concealment to die at the feet of her husband. Above her is a withered tree clasped by ivy, an emblem of love in death,—while a stag seen on the outline of a hill, over which the rising sun spreads his rays, explains the cause of a fatal mistake.... It is the fashion to find fault with his figures indiscriminately, yet in his best time they are so far from being objectionable that we cannot easily imagine anything else according so well with his scenes; as objects of colour they seem indispensable. Wilson said to a friend who was talking of them in the usual manner, 'Do not fall into the common mistake of objecting to Claude's figures'" (Leslie's Life of Constable, 1845, p. 339).

56. LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES.

57. THE CONVERSION OF ST. BAVON.

Bavon, a noble of Brabant, in the seventeenth century having determined to renounce the pomps and vanities of the world (his retinue is to be seen on the right), is met on the steps of the convent church by the bishop who is to receive him into his new life. To the left his goods are being given away to the poor, and above there is a group of ladies returning thanks for the noble penitent's conversion.

58. A STUDY OF TREES.

This picture, when in Sir George Beaumont's collection at Coleorton, was copied by Constable and called by him "The Little Grove." In 1823 Constable wrote to a friend, "I have likewise begun 'The Little Grove' by Claude; a noonday scene 'which warms and cheers, but which does not inflame or irritate.' Through the depths of the trees are seen a waterfall and a ruined temple, and a solitary shepherd is piping to some goats and sheep:—

59. THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

"It is interesting to observe the difference in the treatment of this subject by the three great masters, Michael Angelo, Rubens, and Tintoret.... Rubens and Michael Angelo made the fiery serpents huge boa-constrictors, and knotted the sufferers together with them. Tintoret makes ... the serpents little flying and fluttering monsters, like lampreys with wings; and the children of Israel, instead of being thrown into convulsed and writhing groups, are scattered, fainting in the fields, far away in the distance. As usual, Tintoret's conception, while thoroughly characteristic of himself, is also truer to the words of Scripture. We are told that 'the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people'; we are not told that they crushed the people to death. And, while thus the truest, it is also the most terrific conception.... Our instinct tells us that boa-constrictors do not come in armies; and we look upon the picture with as little emotion as upon the handle of a vase, or any other form worked out of serpents, when there is no probability of serpents actually occurring" (Stones of Venice: Venetian Index, "Rocco, Scuola di San," No. 24).

61. LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES.

The history of this picture is curiously interesting. It belonged to Sir George Beaumont, who valued it so highly that it was, we are told, his travelling companion. He presented it to the National Gallery in 1826, but unable to bear its loss begged it back for the rest of his life. He took it with him into the country, and on his death, two years later, his widow restored it to the nation. Sir George Beaumont was not the only artist who thought highly of this little picture. Constable, we are told, "looked back on the first sight of this exquisite work as an important epoch in his life.... It is called The Annunciation; but the spring by which the female is seated, and the action of the angel who points to the buildings in the distance, leave little doubt that Claude's intention was to represent the first flight of Hagar from the[Pg 141] presence of her mistress" (Leslie's Life of Constable, 1845, p. 6).

62. A BACCHANALIAN DANCE.

This picture, one of Poussin's masterpieces, is probably one of four Bacchanals painted for Cardinal Richelieu:—

63. LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES.

This picture was originally in the Giustiniani Palace at Rome; hence the figures are supposed to represent (as stated on the frame) Prince Giustiniani and his attendants returning from the chase.

64. RETURN OF THE ARK FROM CAPTIVITY.

This picture was a great favourite with Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom it once belonged. He cited it, together with a picture by Salvator Rosa, to the students of the Academy (Discourse xiv.) as an instance of the "poetical style of landscape," calling particular attention to the "visionary" character of "the whole and every part of the scene." The subject is the return of the ark by the Philistines to the valley of Bath-shemesh, as described in I Samuel vi. 10-14. The painter was one of the original twelve anciens of the old French Academy of painting, of which he died rector; he had formerly[Pg 142] been painter to Queen Christina of Sweden, to whose country he had fled as a Protestant.

65. CEPHALUS AND AURORA.

None of the "learned" Poussin's pictures in the Gallery shows so well as this how steeped he was alike in the knowledge and in the feeling of Greek mythology. Cephalus was a Thessalian prince whose love of hunting carried him away at early dawn from the arms of his wife Procris (see under 698). Hence the allegorical fable of the loves of Cephalus and Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, and her attempt to rival Procris in his affections. Cephalus here half yields to Aurora's blandishments, but a little Cupid holds up before him the portrait of his wife and recalls her love to his mind. Behind is Aurora's car, in which she is drawn by the white-winged Pegasus across the sky. But Pegasus, with that intermingling of many ideas which is characteristic of all Greek myths, is also "the Angel of the Wild Fountains: that is to say, the fastest flying or lower rain-cloud, winged, but racing as upon the earth."[85] Hence beside him sleeps a river-god, his head resting on his urn. But the mountain top is tipped with dawn; and behind, one sees a Naiad waking. Farther still beyond, in a brightening horizon, the form of Apollo, the sun-god whose advent follows on the dawn, is just apparent, his horses and his car melting into the shapes of morning clouds.[86]

66. A LANDSCAPE: AUTUMN MORNING.

Rubens "perhaps furnishes us with the first instances of complete, unconventional, unaffected landscape. His treatment [Pg 143]is healthy, manly, and rational, not very affectionate, yet often condescending to minute and multitudinous detail; always, as far as it goes, pure, forcible, and refreshing, consummate in composition, and marvellous in colour" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. i. ch. vii. § 15). Notice especially the sky. "The whole field of ancient landscape art affords, as far as we remember, but one instance of any effort whatever to represent the character of the upper cloud region. That one instance is the landscape of Rubens in our own Gallery, in which the mottled or fleecy sky is given with perfect truth and exquisite beauty" (ibid., vol. i. pt. ii. sec. iii. ch. ii. § 9). Rubens's skill in landscape was partly due to fondness for the scenery he depicted. This picture was painted when he was at Genoa, but it is a purely Flemish scene—a broad stretch of his own lowlands, with the castle of Stein, it is said, which was afterwards his residence, near Mechlin, in the background, with Flemish waggon and horses fording a brook, and with a sportsman in the immediate foreground, carrying an old-fashioned firelock, intent on a covey of partridges.[87] "The Dutch painters are perfectly contented with their flat fields and pollards; Rubens, though he had seen the Alps, usually composes his landscapes of a hayfield or two, plenty of pollards and willows, a distant spire, a Dutch house with a moat about it, a windmill, and a ditch" (ibid., vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. xiii. § 20). The Dutch painters agreed, in fact, with the Lincolnshire farmer in Kingsley's Alton Locke, whom Ruskin goes on to quote: "None o' this here darned ups and downs o' hills, to shake a body's victuals out of his inwards," but "all so vlat as a barn's vloor, for vorty mile on end—there's the country to live in!"

This picture is one of four "seasons." (Spring is in the Wallace collection at Hertford House, Summer and Winter are in the Royal collection at Windsor.) It was presented to the nation by Sir George Beaumont. The painter Haydon, describing a visit to Sir George at Coleorton, writes:

"We dined with the Claude and Rembrandt before us, breakfasted with the Rubens landscape, and did nothing morning, noon, or night but think of painting, dream of painting, and wake to paint again." The picture is referred to also by Wordsworth in a very interesting passage. "I heard the other day," he writes to Sir George Beaumont, "of two artists, who thus expressed themselves upon the subject of a scene among our lakes: 'Plague upon those vile enclosures!' said one; 'they spoil everything.' 'Oh,' said the other, 'I never see them.' Glover was the name of this last. Now, for my part, I should not wish to be either of these gentlemen, but to have in my own mind the power of turning to advantage, wherever it is possible, every object of Art and Nature as they appear before me. What a noble instance, as you have pointed out to me, has Rubens given of this in that picture in your possession, where he has brought, as it were, a whole country into one landscape, and made the most formal partitions of cultivation, hedgerows of pollard willows, conduct the eye into the depths and distances of his picture: and thus, more than by any other means, has given it that appearance of immensity which is so striking" (Memorials of Coleorton, ii. 135).

67. THE HOLY FAMILY AND ST. GEORGE.

On the left are the usual incidents of a "Riposo," or Repose in Egypt. St. Joseph is asleep, and the mule browses on the bank of the stream, while John the Baptist and attendant angels play with the Lamb. The Holy Child is on its mother's knee, and to them St. George is presenting his proselyte, the heathen princess whom he had saved from the dragon (see under 16). The dragon, now bridled with her girdle, follows her meekly, and St. George, as he introduces her to the mysteries of Christianity, plants the banner of the Faith. With the holy mother is St. Mary Magdalen—a penitent sinner herself, like the heathen princess, whom she now ushers into the Holy Presence.

Such appears to be the subject. As for the manner in which it is treated, it is interesting to know that the figures are portraits of the painter himself and his family. Rubens "is religious, too, after his manner; hears mass every morn[Pg 145]ing, and perpetually uses the phrase 'by the grace of God,' or some other such, in writing of any business he takes in hand; but the tone of his religion may be determined by one fact. We saw how Veronese painted himself and his family as worshipping the Madonna. Rubens has also painted himself in an equally elaborate piece.[88] But they are not worshipping the Madonna. They are performing the Madonna, and her saintly entourage" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vi. § 9).

68. A WOODY LANDSCAPE.

The scene is the beautiful avenue of oaks, called the "Galleria di Sopra," which skirts the upper margin of the Lake of Albano. Ruskin refers to this picture in illustration of his thesis that Turner's "truth of vegetation," in his representation of the exceeding intricacy of nature, is not to be paralleled among the old painters, and least of all in Gaspard Poussin with his regular "tree-patterns." The picture before us is "a woody landscape," which in nature would be a mass of intricate foliage—

A further "untruth of vegetation" is the perpetration of the bough at the left-hand upper corner. This is—

69. ST. JOHN PREACHING IN THE WILDERNESS.

The wild figure of the Baptist is well contrasted with the turbaned Pharisee and the rest of his audience:—

The preacher places his right hand on his heart as if to attest his own sincerity, while with his left he points to the Saviour, who is seen approaching in the distance: "This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me."

70. CORNELIA AND HER JEWELS.

Cornelia, a noble Roman lady, daughter of the elder Scipio Africanus, and mother of the Gracchi, was visited by a friend, who ostentatiously exhibited her jewels. Cornelia being asked to show hers in turn, pointed to her two sons, just then returning from school, and said, "These are my jewels."

71. A PARTY OF MULETEERS.

A reminiscence, doubtless, of one of Both's journeys in the Italian lake district. One may recall the reminiscence of Italy by another northern traveller—

72. LANDSCAPE WITH TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL.

73. THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

The confused character of this picture is sufficiently shown by the fact that whilst the official designation is as above, other critics have called it the "Destruction of Sennacherib." For a masterpiece by Ercole, see 1119. The ascription to him of this inferior work is decidedly doubtful.

74. A SPANISH PEASANT BOY.

Look at this and the other little boy near it (176), and you will see at once the secret of Murillo's popularity. "In a[Pg 149] country like Spain he became easily the favourite of the crowd. He was one of themselves, and had all the gifts they valued. Not like Velazquez, reproducing by choice only the noble and dignified side of the national character, Murillo could paint to perfection either the precocious sentiment of the Good Shepherd with the lamb by his side, or the rags and happiness of the gipsy beggar boy" (W. B. Scott's Murillo, p. 76)—

75. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON.

Compare this conventional representation of the subject with the imaginative one by Tintoretto (16). Amongst points of comparison notice the absence of anything terrible in the dragon, the crowd of spectators (on the walls in the distance), St. George's helmet; and where is his spear?

76. CHRIST'S AGONY IN THE GARDEN.

This is an old copy, or perhaps a replica, of the original picture in the possession of the Duke of Wellington at Apsley House. The treatment of the subject is remarkable, and characteristic of Correggio. "The angel hovers in mid-air with marvellous ease and lightness, and though he bears the healing message of approaching bliss, he cannot restrain his sense of pity. His face is at once radiant and sorrowful, expressing the mingled feelings with which he points on the one hand to heaven, on the other to the cross and crown of thorns. Christ, effulgent in his long straight robe and shining aureole, gazes upward with mournful resignation, the spasm of agony dying out of his face. The twilight landscape is calm and melancholy. The supernatural radiance sheds but a faint light on the grass and bushes, scarcely touching the figures of the sleeping disciples, and dying out completely in the dense foliage beyond. But in the distance a band of soldiers, scarcely visible by the faint glimmer of their torches, draws near, led by Judas, and over the mountains the sky whitens with the first pale streak of dawn" (Ricci: Correggio: his Life, his Friends, and his Time, p. 231). The effect of light,[Pg 150] Mengs points out, is peculiar: "the radiance of the Saviour's face lights up the picture. But this radiance comes from above, as if from Heaven, while the angel is illuminated by the light reflected from the Saviour." It is interesting to compare Correggio's version of the agony with the earlier one by Bellini (726) and Mantegna (1417). The earlier pictures impress us, but the manner of impression is quite different. There is no attempt either in the Bellini or in the Mantegna to win our sympathy by the beauty of the human type. This, on the other hand, is of the essence of Correggio's art. "The figure of Christ and the Angel represent the dignity of perfect humanity; and Correggio makes the pathos of the expiatory sacrifice of Calvary turn upon this consideration. This is the strictly Renaissance point of view" (J. E. Hodgson, R.A., in Magazine of Art, 1886, p. 215).

The original picture has a legend attached to it. "Correggio," says Lomazzo, "was accustomed always to value his works at a very low price, and having on one occasion to pay a bill of four or five scudi to an apothecary in his native city, he painted him 'Christ Praying in the Garden,' which he executed with all possible care." The picture was sold shortly afterwards for 500 scudi. It was subsequently in the royal collection at Madrid, and after the battle of Vittoria it was found in Joseph Bonaparte's carriage by one of Wellington's colonels. Wellington hastened to restore it to Ferdinand VII., who, not to be outdone in courtesy, presented it to the duke. The picture in our Gallery was part of the Angerstein collection.

77. THE STONING OF ST. STEPHEN.

78.[90] LANDSCAPE WITH RUINS.

81. THE VISION OF ST. AUGUSTINE.

A well-known incident in the life of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in Africa (A.D. 354-430), one of the "doctors" of the Christian Church whose writings have had a greater[Pg 153] effect than those probably of any one man on the beliefs and lives of succeeding Christian ages. Whilst busied, he tells us, in writing his discourse on the Trinity, he one day beheld a child, who, having dug a hole in the sand, was bringing water, as children at the seaside do, to empty the sea into his hole. Augustine told him it was impossible. "Not more impossible," replied the child, "than for thee, O Augustine! to explain the mystery on which thou art now meditating" ("Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea," Job xi. 7-9). The painter shows the visionary nature of the scene by placing beside St Augustine the figure of St. Catherine, the patron saint of theologians and scholars, and in the background, on a little jutting cape, St. Stephen, whose life and actions are set forth in St. Augustine's writings. The saint himself receives the child's lesson with the contemptuous impatience of a scholar's ambition; but all the time the heavens whose mysteries he would fain explore are open behind him, and the angel choirs are singing that he who would enter in must first become as a little child, "for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."

82. THE HOLY FAMILY.

84. MERCURY AND THE WOODMAN.

An illustration of Æsop's fable of the dishonest woodman who, hearing of the reward which an honest fellow-labourer had obtained from Mercury for not claiming either the gold or silver axe which the god first offered, threw his axe also into the water, hoping for like good fortune. Mercury—here seen standing in the stream—showed him a golden axe. He claimed it, and the god having rebuked him for his impudence, left him to lose his axe and repent of his folly. The painting of the picture is conspicuous for that want of sense for colour, noted above as fatally characteristic of Salvator:—

In connection with Salvator's want of sense for colour one should take his insensitiveness to other beauty. For instance, his choice of withered trees, which are here on both sides of us, "is precisely the sign of his preferring ugliness to beauty, decrepitude and disorganisation to life and youth" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. ii. ch. ii. § 4; vol. v. pt. vi. ch. viii. § 7).

85. ST. JEROME AND THE ANGEL.

For St. Jerome, see under 227. The apparition of the angel implies the special call of St. Jerome to the work of translating the Scriptures.

88. ERMINIA AND THE SHEPHERDS.

A scene from the "Jerusalem Delivered" by Carracci's contemporary, Tasso. Erminia from the beleaguered city of Jerusalem had beheld the Christian knight, Tancred, whom she loved, wounded in conflict. Disguised in the armour of[Pg 157] her friend Clorinda, wearing a dark blue cuirass with a white mantle over it, she stole forth at night to tend him. The sentinels espy her and give her chase. But she outstrips them all, and after a three days' flight finds herself amongst a shepherd family, who entertain her kindly. The old shepherd is busily making card-baskets, and listening to the music of his children. Their fear gives place to delight as the strange warrior, having dismounted from her horse and thrown off her helmet and shield, unbinds her tresses and discloses herself a woman—

This picture has sometimes been ascribed to Domenichino; as the latter was occasionally employed by Annibale to execute his designs, both masters may have had a share in the work.

91. VENUS SLEEPING.

93. SILENUS GATHERING GRAPES.

Silenus in a leopard skin, the nurse and preceptor of Bacchus, the wine-god, is being hoisted by two attendant fauns, so that with his own hands he may pick the grapes. This and the companion picture, 94, originally decorated a harpsichord.

94. BACCHUS PLAYING TO SILENUS.[92]

A clever picture of contrasts. The old preceptor is leering and pampered, yet with something of a schoolmaster's gravity, "half inclining to the brute, half conscious of the god." The young pupil—like the shepherd boy in Sidney's Arcadia, "piping as though he should never be old"—is "full of simple careless grace, laughing in youth and beauty; he holds the Pan's pipe in both hands, and looks up with timid wonder, with an expression of mingled delight and surprise at the sounds he produces" (Hazlitt: Criticisms upon Art, p. 6).

These two pictures—together with the "Lot" and "Susannah" of Guido (193 and 196)—used to hang in the Lancellotti Palace in Rome. Lanzi describes our picture, No. 94, as one of the principal treasures of that collection. It is exquisitely finished, he says; the figures are "at once designed, coloured, and disposed with the hand of a great master" (Bohn's translation, iii. 79).

95. DIDO AND ÆNEAS.

Dido, Queen of Carthage, enamoured of the Trojan Æneas, the destined founder of Rome, sought to detain him by strategy within her dominions. The goddess Juno, who had espoused Dido's cause, contrived that a storm should befall when the Queen and her guests were on a hunting party (Æneid, iv. 119). In front of the cave a Cupid holds the horse of Æneas, and two others are fluttering above. High in the clouds is Juno, accompanied by Venus, who had contrived all this for Dido's undoing.

As for the execution of the picture, "the stormy wind blows loudly through its leaves, but the total want of invention in the cloud-forms bears it down beyond redemption. Look [Pg 159]at the wreaths of cloud (?), with their unpleasant edges cut as hard and solid and opaque and smooth as thick black paint can make them, rolled up over one another like a dirty sail badly reefed"[93] (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. iii. ch. iv. § 23; vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. ii. ch. ii. § 18).

97. THE RAPE OF EUROPA.

(A study for a larger picture now at Vienna.) Jupiter, enamoured of Europa, a Phoenician princess, transformed himself into a white bull, and mingled with her father's herds whilst she was gathering flowers with her attendants. Europa, struck by the beauty and gentle nature of the beast, caressed him, and even mounted on his back. Two of her attendants are here assisting her, while a third remonstrates with her on her foolhardiness. Europa is replying that she has no fears. The amorous bull meanwhile is licking her foot. He is garlanded with a wreath of flowers, which is held by his master Cupid, forming thus the leading-string of Love. With the other hand Cupid has "taken the bull by the horn"; whilst above, two little winged loves are gathering fruit and scattering roses. In the middle distance Europa and the bull appear again, about to enter the sea; whilst farther on, the bull is swimming with her toward the land. For the story goes that as soon as Europa had seated herself on his back Jupiter crossed the sea and carried her safely to the island of Crete, and from this rape of Europa comes the name of the continent to which she was carried.

98. VIEW OF LA RICCIA.

This picture and the scene of it—the ancient town of Aricia, about fifteen miles from Rome, famous in Roman legend, and Horace's first stopping-place on his journey to Brindisi—are described by Ruskin in a celebrated passage of Modern Painters:—

Ruskin further instances the picture as an example of "untruth of trees." It is an elementary law of tree structure that stems only taper when sending off foliage and sprays:—

101, 102, 103, 104. THE FOUR AGES OF MAN.

These pictures, which are among the principal works of Lancret, are interesting historical records as showing the ideal of life at the French Court in the time of the regent Orleans and Louis XV. In "Infancy" (101) children, in the gayest clothes and garlanded with flowers, are at play under a stately portico—life being not so much a stage as a game, and all the men and women (in that sense) "merely players." To what should children, thus educated, grow up but to the pomps and vanity of life, as shown in "Youth" (102)? The adornment of the person is the chief occupation, it would seem, of the dwellers in "the Armida Palace, where the inmates live enchanted lives, lapped in soft music of adulation, waited on by the splendours of the[Pg 162] world." And "Manhood" (103) is like unto youth. The business of life is pleasure on the greensward, with shooting at the popinjay! "Old Age" (104) has no place in such a philosophy of life. One old man is indeed attempting a last amour. The other caresses a dog, while the old women sleep or spin. But in "Old Age" the painter changes his scene from the court to common life; the thought of old age is banished, it seems, from the high life of princes. "In short," wrote an English observer at the time when this picture was painted, "all the symptoms which I have ever met with in History, previous to all Changes and Revolutions in government, now exist and daily increase in France" (Lord Chesterfield: see Carlyle's French Revolution, bk. i. ch. ii.).

125. IZAAK WALTON (1593-1683).

A portrait of the retired city hosier who became famous as the author of the Complete Angler. It was painted for his family (with whom it remained till it was presented to the National Gallery in 1838), and was engraved in one of the later editions of the book (1836). Izaak Walton—"that quaint, old, cruel coxcomb" (as Byron, who was no fisherman, called him)—lived to be ninety: his fishing did something, one may expect, to keep him in the vigorous health which is here stamped on his face. "The features of the countenance often enable us," says Zouch in the Memoirs of Izaak Walton (cited in M. E. Wotton's Word Portraits of Famous Writers, p. 323), "to form a judgment, not very fallible, of the disposition of the mind. In few portraits can this discovery be more successfully pursued than in that of Izaak Walton. Lavater, the acute master of physiognomy, would, I think, instantly acknowledge in it the decisive traits of the original,—mild complacency, forbearance, mature consideration, calm activity, peace, sound understanding, power of thought, discerning attention, and secretly active friendship. Happy in[Pg 163] his unblemished integrity, happy in the approbation and esteem of others, he enwraps himself in his own virtue. The exaltation of a good conscience eminently shines forth in this venerable person."

127. VENICE: THE SCUOLA DELLA CARITÀ.

An interesting piece of "old Venice." Beyond the canal is what is now the National Gallery of Venice—the Academy of Arts—but was in Canaletto's time still the Scuola della Carità, the conventual buildings of the Brotherhood of our Lady of Charity. Notice the green grass in the little square: the Campo, as it is called (the field), is now covered with flagstones (there is a sketch of this spot among the Turner drawings given by Ruskin to the University Galleries at Oxford: see Guide to the Venetian Academy, p. 34).

134. A LANDSCAPE.

135. LANDSCAPE WITH RUINS.

The artist, "disgusted with his first profession (of scene painter), removed," we are told, "while still young to Rome, where he wholly devoted himself to drawing views from nature, and in particular from ancient ruins" (Lanzi, ii. 317).

137. LANDSCAPE.

138. A VIEW IN ROME.

140. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

146. A VIEW ON THE MAES.

147. CEPHALUS AND AURORA.

148. THE TRIUMPH OF GALATEA.

These are the cartoons made by Agostino for the frescoes referred to above. They formed part of Sir Thomas Lawrence's collection of drawings. In 147, Cephalus, while on a hunting expedition on Mount Hymettus, is forcibly carried off by Aurora. The aged Tithonus, her husband, is sleeping in the[Pg 169] foreground. In 148, the sea-nymph Galatea is borne on the ocean by Glaucus, preceded by Triton blowing his horn, and surrounded by Nereids and Cupids on Dolphins.

149. A CALM AT SEA.

150. A GALE AT SEA.

151. A RIVER SCENE.

152. AN EVENING LANDSCAPE.

Aart (Arthur) van der Neer is the Dutch painter of "the hues and harmonies of evening." Before the door of the country house are a lady and gentleman, who have come out as if to gaze on one of such effects. This is one of the largest of his pictures—which is the more valuable as the figures are by Cuyp, whose name is inscribed on the pail; but 239 is perhaps more attractive.

153. THE CRADLE.

154. A MUSIC PARTY.

This and the companion picture, 158, are characteristic specimens of the painter. The human specimens are ugly and vulgar; the pottery is pretty, and beautifully painted.

155. THE MONEY CHANGERS.

A man and his wife—usurers, we may suppose—counting their money. There is all the miser's misery in the withered careworn faces, all the miser's greed in the thin, tremulous hands. The man alone seems not quite to like some transaction which they are discussing; the woman—Portia's prerogative of mercy being reversed—seems to be thinking, "Come, man, don't be a fool: a bond is a bond."

156. A STUDY OF HORSES.

An interesting sketch as illustrating Van Dyck's affection for the horse. "In painting, I find that no real interest is taken in the horse until Van Dyck's time, he and Rubens doing more for it than all previous painters put together. Rubens was a good rider, and rode nearly every day, as, I doubt not, Van Dyck also. The horse has never, I think, been painted worthily again, since he died" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vi. § 22).

The particular choice of subject in this sketch shows further in its literary connection a lover of the horse. The subject, as we know from the words equi Achillis on a scroll[Pg 175] in the left corner of the picture, is the horses of Achilles, said for their swiftness to be the sons of the wind Zephyrus: in the upper part of the picture is a sketch of a zephyr's head. "The gentleness of chivalry, properly so called, depends on the recognition of the order and awe of lower and loftier animal-life, ... taught most perfectly by Homer in the fable of the horses of Achilles. There is, perhaps, in all the Iliad nothing more deep in significance—there is nothing in all literature more perfect in human tenderness, and honour for the mystery of inferior life, than the verses that describe the sorrow of the divine horses at the death of Patroclus, and the comfort given them by the greatest of the gods"[98] (Fors Clavigera, 1871, ix. 13).

157. A LANDSCAPE: SUNSET.

For Rubens's landscapes see under 66. "It is to be noted, however, that the licenses taken by Rubens in particular instances are as bold as his general statements are sincere.... In the Sunset of our own Gallery many of the shadows fall at right angles to the light" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. i. ch. vii. § 15).

158. BOORS REGALING.

159. THE DUTCH HOUSEWIFE.

"There are few pictures in the National Gallery," says C. R. Leslie (Handbook for Young Painters, p. 243), "before which I find myself more often standing than at this." Its great attraction, he adds, is "the delight of seeing a trait of childhood we have often observed and been amused with in nature, for the first time so felicitously given by art." The Dutch housewife sits intently engaged in scraping a parsnip, [Pg 176]whilst the child stands by her side "watching the process, as children will stand and watch the most ordinary operations, with an intensity of interest, as if the very existence of the whole world depended on the exact manner in which that parsnip was scraped." Note the Flemish kruik, or beer-jug, so often introduced into the pictures of Maes. Signed and dated 1655.

160. A "RIPOSO."

The Italians gave this title to the subject of the Holy Family resting on the way in their flight to Egypt,—"the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt."

161. AN ITALIAN LANDSCAPE.

Gaspard travelled largely in Italy in search of the picturesque, and this striking landscape may be a recollection of the mountain scenery in the North—possibly near Bergamo. The spray of foliage prominent on the left is characteristic of Gaspard's method:—

163. VENICE: A VIEW ON THE GRAND CANAL.

The Church, that of S. Simeone Piccolo, was built in Canaletto's time. "One of the ugliest churches in Venice or elsewhere. Its black dome, like an unusual species of gasometer, is the admiration of modern Italian architects" (Stones of Venice, vol. iii. Venetian Index, s. v. Simeone).

165. THE PLAGUE AT ASHDOD.

The Philistines having overcome the Israelites removed the ark of the Lord to Ashdod, and placed it in the temple of their god Dagon. "And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark ..." (seen here in the temple to the right). "But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he smote them with a loathsome plague" (1 Samuel v. 4, 6).

The picture—a ghastly subject ghastlily treated—is yet a good instance of Poussin's learned treatment. Everywhere the intention to express alarm is obvious, and in the foreground are figures fleeing the infection, with nose and mouth muffled. Others are engaged removing the dead and dying, while in the centre are the dead bodies of a mother and child; another child approaches the mother's breast, but the father stoops down to avert it. A similar group to this occurs in a design by Raphael, "Il Morbetto," and was also in the celebrated picture by Aristides which Alexander the Great, at the sack of Thebes, claimed for himself and sent to his palace at Pella (Wornum: Epochs of Painting, p. 47, ed. 1864). This picture is a replica of one, now in the Louvre, which was painted in Rome in 1630—Poussin receiving only 60 scudi (about 12 guineas) for it.

166. A CAPUCHIN FRIAR.

Michel ascribes this portrait to the year of Rembrandt's tribulations. "At this period, when his emotions were so[Pg 178] deeply stirred by the vision of a compassionate Saviour, he felt a kindred attraction for those mystic souls who sought in solitude and prayer a closer communion with the Christ to whom he felt himself drawn by his own sorrows. The 'Capuchin' in the National Gallery has suffered from time, but the devout gravity of the face is finely expressed" (Rembrandt: his Life, his Work, and his Time, ii. 126).

167. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

This drawing—of the same composition as we see in the picture No. 218—was made at Bologna in 1521 for Count Giovanni Battista Bentivogli. The drawing was presented to the National Gallery by Lord Vernon, together with a print from the plate engraved from it by Agostino Carracci.

168. ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA.

A perfect picture of saintly resignation. St. Catherine (for whose story see 693) leans on the wheel, the instrument of her martyrdom, and "looks up to heaven in the dawn of the eternal day, with her lips parted in the resting from her pain." Her right hand is pressed on her bosom, as if she replied to the call from above, "I am here, O Lord! ready to do Thy will." From above, a bright ray is seen streaming down upon her, emblematic of the divine inspiration which enabled her to confound her heathen adversaries. The studies existing show the pains Raphael took with the exquisite expression; but the result defies analysis. "It is impossible to explain in language the exact qualities of the lines on which depend the whole truth and beauty of expression about the half-opened lips of Raphael's St. Catherine."[Pg 179] But these lines should be noticed as exemplifying the principle of "vital beauty"—of beauty, that is to say, as consisting in the appearance in living things of felicitous fulfilment of function. Thus eyes and mouths become more beautiful precisely as they become more perfect means of moral expression. The mouth of a negro is ugly because it is only a means of eating; the mouth of St. Catherine is beautiful for the feeling it expresses (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. i. ch. vii. § 47; vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. i. ch. xii. § 10, sec. ii. ch. v. § 21). It may be noticed, lastly, how much the pathetic feeling of the picture is heightened by the herbage in the foreground, and especially perhaps by the carefully-painted dandelion "clock": "so soon passeth it away, and we are gone."

169. THE HOLY FAMILY.

The background and accessories here, as well as in 641, are particularly interesting as a record of the decorative art of the time. A few years before the date of these pictures the Pope Leo X. had unearthed the buried treasures of the Baths of Titus, and Giovanni da Udine rediscovered the mode by which their stucco decorations were produced. This method of modelling in wet plaster on walls and ceilings was extensively used in house decoration from that time down to the middle of the last century, but has since then been supplanted by the cheaper process of casting. No sooner was Giovanni da Udine's invention known than it must have been adopted by Ferrarese artists, for here we find Mazzolino[Pg 180] portraying it in the background of his picture. As in Tura's pilaster (see 772), the winged sphere plays a principal part in the design, for it was a favourite badge of the ducal house of Ferrara. Nor is it only in the plaster modelling that Mazzolino's interest in decorative art shows itself. The back of the bench on which the Madonna sits is crowned by the most delicate carving, whilst up aloft, peeping over the wall on which the plaster work occurs, there is a choir of angels playing on a portable organ, which is full of suggestions for decorative design (G. T. Robinson in Art Journal, May 1886, pp. 151, 152).

170. THE HOLY FAMILY.

Notice the rich cap in which the little St. John is dressed; it is not unlike those which French and Flemish children are still made to wear as a protection from tumbles. There is a grace in the figures of the Virgin and St. Elizabeth which recalls Raphael. A less happy effect of his influence may be seen in the vision of the heavenly host above, full of that exaggerated action which marks the decadence of Italian art. God the Father is represented gesticulating wildly, almost like an actor in melodrama. And so with the playing angels. In pictures of the great time they are shown "with uninterrupted and effortless gesture ... singing as calmly as the Fates weave" (Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret, p. 15), but here they are all scrambling through their songs, their hair floating in the breeze and their faces full of excited gesture.

172. THE SUPPER AT EMMAUS.

One notices first in this picture the least important things—the supper before the company, the roast chicken before Christ. Next one sees how coarse and almost ruffianly are the disciples, represented as supping with their risen Lord at Emmaus (Luke xxiv. 30, 31). Both points are characteristic of the painter, who was driven by the insipidities of the preceding mannerists into a crude "realism," which made him resolve to describe sacred and historical events just as though they were being enacted in a slum by butchers and fishwives. "He was led away," says Lanzi (i. 452), "by his sombre genius, and represented objects with very little light. He ridiculed all artists who attempted a noble expression of countenance or graceful folding of drapery." His first altar-piece was removed by the priests for whom it was painted, as being too vulgar for such a subject. "Many interesting studies from the taverns of Italy remain to prove Caravaggio's mastery over scenes of common life. For the historian of manners in seventeenth-century Italy, those pictures have a truly precious value, as they are executed with such passion as to raise them above the more careful but more lymphatic transcripts from beer-cellars in Dutch painting. But when he applied his principles to higher subjects, then vulgarity became apparent. It seems difficult for realism, either in literature or art, not to fasten upon ugliness, vice, pain, and disease, as though these imperfections of our nature were more real than beauty, [Pg 182]goodness, pleasure, and health. Therefore Caravaggio, the leader of a school which the Italians christened Naturalists, may be compared to Zola" (Symonds, vii. 221).

173. PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN.

A fine portrait—somewhat recalling Rembrandt in style—of a very refined face. In the vase beside him is a sprig of myrtle. This painter is fond of introducing such vases: see one in 277. In the principal street of Bassano, where the artist was born and, after studying at Venice, continued to live, such vessels may still be seen placed out for sale.

174. PORTRAIT OF CARDINAL CERRI.

176. ST. JOHN AND THE LAMB.

An interesting illustration of the substitution of the palpable image for the figurative phrase. The mission of St. John the Baptist was to prepare the way for Christ, to proclaim to the people "Behold the Lamb of God!" Murillo makes the standard of the Lamb, with those words upon it, lie upon the ground below; but he further represents the young St. John as embracing an actual lamb.

177. THE MAGDALEN.

Just such a picture as might have suggested the lines in Pope's epistle on "The Characters of Women"—

Just such a picture, too, as Guido turned out in numbers.[Pg 184] "He was specially fond," says one of his biographers, "of depicting faces with upraised looks, and he used to say that he had a hundred different modes" of thus supplying sentimentality to order.

179. VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED.

180. A PIETÀ.

(179) On the throne are the Virgin and her mother, St. Anne, who offers the infant Christ a peach, symbolical, as the fruit thus offered in these pictures originally was, of "the fruits of the spirit—joy, peace, and love." At the foot of the throne stands the little St. John (the Baptist), "one of the purest creations of Christian art," holding in his arms the cross of reeds and the scroll inscribed "Ecce Agnus Dei" ("Behold the Lamb of God"). The discovery of Benedetto Buonvisi's will has shown why the various saints were selected—St. Anne, because the Buonvisi chapel was dedicated to her; St. Lawrence as the patron of the founder's father; St. Paul as the patron of the founder's brother and heir; St. Sebastian as the saint invoked in plagues (from which calamity Lucca suffered in 1510); and St. Benedict as the patron of the founder (G. C. Williamson's Francia, p. 111).

(180) This picture, which was the "lunette," or arch, forming the top of the altar-piece, is a "pietà," i.e. the Virgin and two angels weeping over the dead body of Christ. The artist has filled his picture with that solemn reverential pity, harmonised by love, which befits his subject. The body of Christ—utterly dead, yet not distorted nor defaced by death—is that of a tired man whose great soul would not let him rest while there was still His father's work to do on earth. In the face of the angel at His head there is a look of quiet joy, [Pg 186]as of one who knows that "death is but a covered way that leads into the light"; in the attitude and expression of the angel at the feet there is prayerful sympathy for the sorrowing mother. The face of the mother herself, which before was pure and calm, is now tear-stained and sad, because her son has met so cruel a death—

Yet it bears a look of content because the world has known him. She rests His body tenderly on her knee as she did when he was a little child—thus are "the hues of the morning and the solemnity of eve, the gladness in accomplished promise, and sorrow of the sword-pierced heart, gathered into one human Lamp of ineffable love" (Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. ii. ch. v. § 21).

181. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. JOHN.

If really by Perugino,[104] this must be one of his early works. It is painted in tempera. The Flemish process of oil-painting found its way to Venice, where Perugino is known to have been in 1494, and where he probably learnt it. The superiority of the new method may be seen in a moment by comparing the cracked surface and faded colours of this picture with 288, which was painted when Perugino had obtained complete mastery over the new medium, and which is still as bright and fresh as when it was painted. The style of this picture is, however, thoroughly Peruginesque. It is interesting to compare the Umbrian type of the Madonna—innocent and girl-like, with an air of far-off reverie—with the types of other schools. The Umbrian Madonna is less mature, more etherealised than the Venetian. She is a girl, rather than a mother. Therein she resembles the Florentine type; but an air of dreamy reverie in the Umbrian takes the place of the intellectual [Pg 187]mysticism of the Florentine. In Perugino "the Umbrian type finds its fullest and highest representative. Dainty small features, all too babyish for the figures that bear them; a mouth like a cupid's bow; a tiny and delicate chin; eyes set well apart, with curiously heavy and drooping lids; faint pencilled eyebrows; a broad smooth forehead,—these are the main elements in Perugino's Madonnas" (Grant Allen in the Pall Mall Magazine, 1895, p. 620).

184. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG LADY.

"The picture is much obscured," says Sir Edward Poynter, "by a coarse brown varnish. A beautiful example of this master, in the collection of Lord Spencer, is remarkable for the purity of its colour, and doubtless this portrait had originally the same qualities" (The National Gallery, i. 294).

186. PORTRAITS OF JAN ARNOLFINI AND HIS WIFE.

This wonderful picture of a Flemish interior—dated 1434—is as spruce and clean now (for the small twig broom did its work so well that the goodman and his wife were not afraid to walk on the polished floor without their shoes), as it was when first painted five hundred years ago. This is the more interesting from the eventful history the picture has had. At one time we hear of a barber-surgeon at Bruges presenting it to the Queen-regent of the Netherlands, who valued it so highly that she pensioned him in return for the gift. At another it must have passed again into humbler hands, for General Hay found it in the room to which he was taken in 1815 at Brussels to recover from wounds at the battle of Waterloo. He purchased the picture after his recovery, and sold it to the British Government in 1842. "It is," says Sir Edward Poynter, "one of the most precious possessions in the national collection, and, in respect of its marvellous finish, combined with the most astounding truth of imitation and effect, perhaps the most remarkable picture in the world."

For the delicacy of workmanship note especially the mirror, in which are reflected not only the objects in the room, but others beyond what appears in the picture, for a door and two additional figures may be distinguished. In the frame of the mirror, too, are ten diminutive pictures of the ten "moments" in the Passion of Christ "as material for the lady's meditation while doing her hair." Notice also the brass-work of the chandelier. "There are many little objects about, such as an orange on the window-sill, placed there to catch the light. Through the window you can see a cherry-tree, with sunshine on the ripe fruit. In the treatment of these and similar details Jan van Eyck shows a liking for dots and spots of light" (Conway). Above the chandelier, elaborately wrought, is the painter's signature. This signature (in Latin), "Jan van Eyck was here," exactly expresses the modesty and veracity which were the keynote of his art. The artist only professed to come, to see, and to record what he saw. Arnolfini was the representative at Bruges of a Lucca firm of merchants, and Van Eyck gives us a picture of the quiet, dry, business folk exactly as he found them.

187. THE APOTHEOSIS OF WILLIAM THE TACITURN OF HOLLAND.

A sketch of a picture in the possession of the Earl of Jersey. This sketch was formerly in the possession of Sir David Wilkie, R.A.

189. THE DOGE LEONARDO LOREDANO.

A magnificent portrait of one of the greatest men of the Venetian Republic. Leonardo, the 67th Doge, held office from 1501 to 1521. He belonged to one of the most ancient and noble families in the State, and Venice, under his rule, was one of the Great Powers of Europe—as the league of Cambrai formed against him sufficiently shows. There is all the quiet dignity of a born ruler in his face—"fearless, faithful, patient, impenetrable, implacable—every word a fate" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. ix. § 1). In his capacity of State painter to the Republic it was Bellini's duty to execute the official portraits of the Doges. During his long life he saw no fewer than eleven Doges, and was State painter during the reigns of four. This, however, is the only portrait of a Doge by Bellini which has been preserved (Richter's Lectures on the National Gallery, p. 42). It is remarkable alike for strong characterisation, simplicity of conception, and brilliancy of colouring.

190. A JEWISH RABBI.

191. THE YOUTHFUL CHRIST AND ST. JOHN.

St. John is charming in the beauty of boyhood. In the youthful Christ the painter has striven after something more "ideal," and has produced a somewhat namby-pamby face.

192. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.

This fine portrait is painted (says Sir Edward Poynter) in a style unusually large and free for the master.

193. LOT AND HIS DAUGHTERS LEAVING SODOM.

This and the companion picture (196) are interesting as being two of the nation's conspicuously bad bargains. The purchase of them at very high prices, £1680 and £1260, was indeed one of the grievances that led to the Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1853, and to the subsequent reconstitution of the Gallery. "Expert" witnesses declared before the Committee that these two pictures ought not to have been bought at any price or even accepted as a gift. Ruskin had some time previously written to the Times about them as follows:—

194. THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS.

At the wedding of Thetis and Peleus an apple was thrown amongst the guests by the Goddess of Discord, to be given to the most beautiful. Paris, the Trojan shepherd, was ordered by Jupiter to decide the contest. He is here seated with Mercury, the messenger of the gods, at his side, about to award the apple to Venus. On the right of Venus is Juno with her peacock at her feet; on the left, Minerva, with her owl perched behind her. Paris thus chose Pleasure, instead of Power or Wisdom; and from his choice came, the story adds, all the troubling of domestic peace involved in the Trojan War. The Goddess of Discord, already assured of her victory and its consequences, hovers in the clouds above, spreading fire and pestilence.

This picture—one of Rubens's masterpieces and "evidently entirely the work of his own hand"—belongs to his latest period; "never did he show his intense appreciation of the beauty of flesh and the delights of colour more conspicuously than in the pictures of his old age." Characteristic also is the painter's treatment of the subject. The goddesses are as substantial as any figures of flesh and blood; the picture is realistic, not symbolic. An exactly opposite method of treatment was exemplified in Mr. Watt's "Judgment of Paris," exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1887. Paris was left out, for does not every lover have the same choice to make for himself? and the goddesses were soft visionary forms of purely ideal beauty (cf. Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. viii. § 7).

195. A MEDICAL PROFESSOR.

The interest of this picture lies in the history of its purchase. It was bought by the trustees in 1845, on the advice of the[Pg 196] then Keeper, as a Holbein. "The veriest tyro might well have been ashamed of such a purchase" (Arrows of the Chace, i. 65); and very much ashamed the trustees were, when immediately after the purchase the hoax was discovered. There and then they subscribed £100 between them, which they offered to M. Rochard, the dealer, "to induce him to annul the bargain, but he declined, and there was an end of it."[108]

196. SUSANNAH AND THE ELDERS.

"A work devoid alike of art and decency" (Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. i. ch. xiv. § 24). For the circumstances of its acquisition see above under 193.

197. A WILD BOAR HUNT.

A very interesting picture, both for the sparkling brilliancy of its execution and for the truth with which it reproduces the court life of the time. Philip IV. was as fond of the chase as he was of the arts; and here we see some state hunting-party in a royal enclosure (such as was arranged, no doubt, for the pleasure of our Charles I. when he visited Madrid), with an array of huntsmen and guards, and magnificent carriages for the ladies of the court. "The king has just thrown his horquilla [a kind of pitchfork] into the flank of a boar tearing furiously by.... Here the heroes of the day are [Pg 200]very slightly sketched, but we at once recognise Philip IV. from the few touches suggesting his face; he keeps to the right, owing to the proximity of the ladies, and by him stands Olivares as equerry-in-chief.... In the second carriage is Queen Isabella. Occasionally the boars made tremendous leaps; hence the ladies are also provided with pitchforks to turn them aside. Moreover, two huntsmen with spears keep watch by the Queen's coach. The groups of spectators deserve minute study. They contain studies of costume and character enough for a scrap-book of "Castilian Types of the Seventeenth Century." Thus, notice under the tree on the right a peasant resting with elbows and chest on the patient back of his beloved ass—verily, another Sancho Panza! And those two rogues on the grass, one holding the water-jug to his mouth, look like a sketch by Murillo. The mendicant, again, in the brown cloak, both hands resting on his stick, is surely a privileged speculator, who solemnly invites the rich folk to increase their stock in the next world by entrusting their investments to him. Elsewhere is a rider slashing at the hard flanks of his obstinate mule, while his escudero shoves from behind; two cavaliers paying each other formal compliments; a group of experts in "dog-flesh" near the master of the hounds, thronging round the fine boar-hound, who has been ripped up by the quarry. Notice, too, the isolated group of cavaliers in grey and scarlet cloaks, with the clergyman, perhaps the "chaplain to the hunt." They stand apart from the scene, having more weighty matters on hand." "The figures do not seem very numerous, as they are scattered about without a trace of conventional grouping. Yet, even without the heads that are merely suggested, there are over a hundred figures, some sixty outside and fifty inside the central enclosure. Sir Edwin Landseer declared that he had never seen so much large art on so small a scale" (Justi's Velazquez and his Times, pp. 212-14). Notice especially the two splendid dogs near the left-hand corner. Velazquez is very great in painting dogs; he "has made some of them nearly as grand as his surly kings" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vi. § 13).

With regard to the execution of the picture (which was bought in 1846 and was alleged to have been damaged in cleaning), Ruskin wrote: "I have seldom met with an example of the master which gave me more delight, or which I believed to be in more genuine or perfect condition....[Pg 201] (The critic's) complaint of loss of substance in the figures of the foreground is, I have no doubt, altogether groundless. He has seen little southern scenery if he supposes that the brilliancy and apparent nearness of the silver clouds is in the slightest degree overcharged; and shows little appreciation of Velazquez in supposing him to have sacrificed the solemnity and might of such a distance to the inferior interest of the figures in the foreground.... The position of the horizon suggests, and the lateral extent of the foreground proves, such a distance between the spectator and even its nearest figures as may well justify the slightness of their execution. Even granting that some of the upper glazings of the figures had been removed, the tone of the whole picture is so light, grey, and glittering, and the dependence on the power of its whites so absolute, that I think the process hardly to be regretted which has left these in lustre so precious, and restored to a brilliancy which a comparison with any modern work of similar aim would render apparently supernatural, the sparkling motion of its figures and the serene snow of its sky"[111] (Arrows of the Chace, i. 58-60).

198. THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY.

The legend of the temptation of St. Anthony, here realistically set forth, is the story of the temptations that beset the ascetic. In the wilderness, brooding over sin, he is tempted; it is only when he returns to the world and goes about doing good that the temptations cease to trouble him. St. Anthony lived, like Faust, the life of a recluse and a visionary, and like him was tempted of the devil. "Seeing that wicked suggestions availed not, Satan raised up in his sight (again like Mephistopheles in Faust) the sensible images of forbidden things. He clothed his demons in human forms; they hovered round him in the shape of beautiful women, who, with the softest blandishments, allured him to sin." The saint in his distress resolved to flee yet farther from the world; but it is not so that evil can be conquered, and still "spirits in hideous forms pressed round him in crowds, scourged him and tore him with their talons—all shapes of horror, 'worse than fancy ever feigned or fear conceived,' came roaring, howling, hissing, shrieking in his ears." In the midst of all this terror a vision of help from on high shone upon him; the evil phantoms vanished, and he arose unhurt and strong to endure. But it is characteristic of the love of horror in the Bolognese School that in Carracci's picture the celestial vision does not dissolve the terrors.

199. LESBIA AND HER SPARROW.

A picture in illustration of a Latin poem, as befits a painter whose father was headmaster of a Latin school (at Dort). Lesbia is weighing jewels against her sparrow, which she loved better even than her own eyes—

200. THE MADONNA IN PRAYER.

202. DOMESTIC POULTRY

"A beautiful brood of young chickens in the foreground. The cock was Hondecoeter's favourite bird, which he is said to have taught to stand to him in a fixed position as a model." (Official Catalogue).

203. CONVENTUAL CHARITY.

204. DUTCH SHIPPING.

205. ITINERANT MUSICIANS.

206. THE HEAD OF A GIRL.

Campbell's "Lines on a picture of a girl by Greuze" may be quoted of this picture:—

207. THE IDLE SERVANT.

In the background is the family at dinner. The waiting-maid comes to the kitchen to serve the next course—the duckling, perhaps, which a cat is stealing—and finds the cook of Sancho Panza's philosophy: "Blessings on him who invented sleep, ... the food that appeases hunger, the drink that quenches thirst, ... the balance that equals the simple with the wise." Signed and dated 1655.

208. THE FINDING OF MOSES.

209. THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS.

The landscape by Both, the figures by Poelenburgh. For the subject of the judgment of Paris, see under 194.

210. VENICE: THE PIAZZA DI SAN MARCO.

Notice the effect of light on the Church of St. Mark at the end of the square: "Beyond those troops of ordered arches there rises a vision out of the earth, and all the great square seems to have opened from it in a kind of awe, that we may see it far away;—a multitude of pillars and white domes, clustered into a long low pyramid of coloured light" (Stones of Venice, vol. ii. ch. iv. § 14).

211. A BATTLE-PIECE.

212. A MERCHANT AND HIS CLERK.

This picture—which is signed (on the mantelpiece) and dated 1627—is interesting as showing us, in a particular instance, the condition of social and political life out of which the Dutch art of the seventeenth century arose. The merchant has his globes before him: he was one of those who had built up the riches of his country by foreign trade. But he is a man of taste as well as of business, and the two things are closely united.[113] His office is itself hung with rich tapestry, and amongst the implements of his trade, his plans and books and maps, is a guitar. "The United Provinces, grouped together by the Convention of Utrecht (1579), ... concentrated the public functions in the hands of an aristocratic middle class (such as we see them in Terburg's historical picture, 896), educated and powerful, eager for science and riches, bold enough to undertake everything, and persevering enough to carry their enterprises to a successful conclusion. The brilliant heroism, implacable will, and indefatigable perseverance which had aided the people to recover their liberty and autonomy were now directed to other objects.... Their shipbuilders covered the seas with vessels, a legion of adventurous sailors went forth in all directions to discover distant shores or to conquer unknown continents.... Gold was now to be found in plenty in the country which hitherto had been poor, and with the influx of riches, taste, luxury, appreciation of the beautiful and love of Art were developed" (Havard: The Dutch School, p. 62).

213. THE VISION OF A KNIGHT.

A young knight sleeps under a laurel—the tree whose leaves were in all ages the reward of honour; and in a dream of his future career he sees two figures approach him, between whom he has to make his choice. The one on the left speaks with the voice of Duty; she is purple-robed and offers him a book and a sword—emblematic of the active life of study and conflict. The other is of fair countenance and is gaily decked with ribbons and strings of coral. Hers is the voice of Plea[Pg 210]sure, and the flower she offers is a sprig of myrtle in bloom—"myrtle dear to Venus." Raphael was thinking, perhaps, of the Greek story which told of the choice of Hercules. For Hercules, when he came to man's estate, laid him down to rest and pondered which road in life to take; and lo! there stood by him two women. And one of them took up her parable and said: "O Hercules, if thou wouldst choose the smoothest and the pleasantest path, then shouldst thou follow me." And Hercules said: "O lady, I pray thee tell me thy name." And she answered: "Those who love me call me Pleasure, and those who hate me call me Evil." Then the other woman came forward and said: "O Hercules, there is no road to happiness except through toil and trouble; such is the gods' decree, and if thou wouldst be happy in thy life and honoured in thy death, then up and follow me." And her name was Duty. And Hercules chose the better part, and went about the world redressing human wrong, and was reverenced by men and honoured by the gods—

214. CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN.

In pictures of this subject two distinct conceptions may be noticed. In some the coronation of the Virgin is, as it were, dramatic; the subject is represented, that is to say, as the closing act in the life of the Virgin, and saints and disciples appear in the foreground as witnesses on earth of her coronation in heaven. No. 1155 is a good instance of that treatment. This picture, on the other hand, shows the mystical treatment of the subject—the coronation of the Virgin being the accepted type of the Church triumphant. The scene is laid entirely in heaven, and the only actors are the angels of the heavenly host. Notice the carefully symmetrical arrange[Pg 211]ment of the whole composition, as well as the charming faces of many of the angel chorus.

215, 216. VARIOUS SAINTS.[115]

There is an air of settled peace, of abstract quietude, about this company of saints which is very impressive—something fixed in the attitude and features recalling the conventual life as described by St. Bernard and paraphrased by Wordsworth in his Ecclesiastical Sonnets—

218. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

There is a drawing by Peruzzi of this subject in possession of the National Gallery, No. 167. Girolamo da Treviso (623) made a copy of it, which is perhaps this work. The figures of the three magi are interesting as having been portraits of Titian, Raphael, and Michael Angelo.

219. THE DEAD CHRIST.

221. HIS OWN PORTRAIT.

Compare No. 672. That was painted when he was about thirty; this, some thirty years later. We see here the same features, though worn by age; the same self-reliant expression, though broken down by care. "In manner," says Sir Walter Armstrong, "it is amazingly free, irresponsible, and what in any one but a stupendous master we should call careless. It looks as though he had taken up the first dirty palette on which he could lay his hands, and set himself to the making of a picture with no further thought. To those who put signs of mastery above all other qualities, it is one of the most attractive pictures in the whole Gallery" (Portfolio, September 1891).

222. A MAN'S PORTRAIT (dated 1433).

One of Van Eyck's obviously truthful portraits, so highly finished that the single hairs on the shaven chin are given. On the upper part of the frame is the inscription, "Als ich kan"—as I can, the first words of an old Flemish proverb, "As I can, but not as I will,"—an inscription beautifully illustrative of a great man's modesty; accurately true also as a piece of criticism. No pictures are more finished than Van Eyck's, yet they are only "as he can," not as he would. "Let all the ingenuity and all the art of the human race he brought to bear upon the attainment of the utmost possible finish, and they could not do what is done in the foot of a fly, or the film of a bubble. God alone can finish; and the more intelligent the human mind becomes, the more the infiniteness of interval is felt between human and divine work in this respect" (Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt iv. ch. ix. § 5).

223. DUTCH SHIPPING.

224. THE TRIBUTE MONEY.

The Pharisee, hoping to entrap Jesus into sedition, asks him whether it is lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar. "Show me the tribute money" is the answer. "Whose is this image and superscription?... Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's." Titian's great picture of this subject (painted about 1514) is at Dresden.

225. BEATIFIC VISION OF THE MAGDALEN.

A semicircular fresco (formerly in the church of the Trinita de' Monti, Rome), showing the Magdalen borne upwards by angels to witness the joys of the blessed.

226. VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH ST. JOHN AND ANGELS.

This is a copy of a picture by Botticelli in the Rospigliosi Palace at Rome. In the background is a hedge of roses, Botticelli's favourite flower. "No man has ever yet drawn, and none is likely to draw for many a day, roses as well as Sandro has drawn them" (Fors Clavigera, 1872, xii. 2). And he painted them, just as he painted his Madonnas, from life, and from everyday life—for even as late as forty years ago, Florence was "yet encircled by a wilderness of wild rose." It should be noticed, further, that there was a constant Biblical reference in the flowers which the painters consecrated to their Madonnas—especially the rose, the emblem of love and beauty. The background in Madonna pictures is frequently, as here, a piece of garden trellis: "a garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse" (Song of Solomon, iv. 12).

227. ST. JEROME IN THE DESERT.

St. Jerome (A.D. 342-420) who first made the great Eastern book, the Bible, legible in the West, by translating the Hebrew into Latin, was one of the chief saints of the Latin or Western Church, and was a favourite subject in Christian art; there are a dozen pictures of him in the National Gallery alone. One of the chief events in his life is told in the left-hand compartment at the bottom of this picture. Jerome is tending a sick lion, and in all the pictures of him a lion appears as his constant companion. The story is that one evening a lion entered the monastery, limping as in pain, and all the brethren fled in terror, as we see one of them doing here, whilst the others are looking on safely behind a door; but Jerome went forward to meet the lion, as though he had been a guest. And the lion lifted up his paw, and Jerome, finding it was wounded by a thorn, tended the wild creature, which henceforward became his constant companion and friend. What did the Christian painters mean by their fond insistence on the constancy of the lion-friend? They meant to foretell a day "when the Fear of Man shall be laid in benediction, not enmity, on inferior beings,—when they shall not hurt or destroy in all the holy Mountain, and the Peace of the Earth shall be as far removed from its present sorrow, as the present gloriously animate universe from the nascent desert, whose deeps were the place of dragons, and its mountains, domes of fire. Of that day knoweth no man; but the Kingdom of God is already come to those who have tamed in their own hearts what was rampant of the lower nature, and have learned to cherish what is lovely and human, in the wandering children of the clouds and fields" (Bible of Amiens, ch. iii. § 54). The other compartments depict incidents in the lives of St. Damasus, St. Eusebius, St. Paula, and St. Eustache—saints associated with St. Jerome. The picture itself shows an earlier period of his life, when, before he settled in a monastery, but after a life of pleasure in Rome, he left (as he himself tells us) not only parents and kindred, but the accustomed luxuries of delicate life, and lived for ten years in the desert in the effort to obtain some closer knowledge of the Being and Will of God. The saints who are made by the painter to keep St. Jerome com[Pg 216]pany below are in sorrow; the angels above, in joy. The other kneeling figures are portraits of the patron for whom the the picture was painted.

228. CHRIST AND THE MONEY-CHANGERS.

Christ is driving out from the House of Prayer all those who had made it a den of thieves—money-changers, dealers in cattle, sheep, goats, birds, etc. A subject which lent itself conveniently to Bassano's characteristic genre style.

230. A FRANCISCAN MONK.

It is a transcript from the religious life around him that Zurbaran here sets before us. Seville was the most orthodox city in the most Catholic country—at every corner of the streets there were Franciscan monks, with prayers or charms to sell in exchange for food or money. "For centuries in Spain country people bought up the monks' old garbs, to use them in dressing the dead, so that St. Peter might pass them into heaven thinking they were Franciscans." It was in the streets and convents of Seville therefore that Zurbaran found his models. This picture was bought for the National Gallery from the Louis Philippe sale in 1853. When the gallery of Spanish pictures to which it formerly belonged was inaugurated in the Louvre, "what remained most strongly in the Parisian mind, so impressionable and so blasé, was not the suavity of Murillo, nor the astonishing pencil of Velazquez, making the canvas speak and palpitate with life; it was a certain 'Monk in prayer' of Zurbaran, which it was impossible to forget, even if one had seen it only once" (C. Blanc, cited in W. B. Scott's Murillo, p. 55). "Of his gloomy monastic studies," says Stirling-Maxwell, "the kneeling Franciscan holding a skull is one of the ablest; the face, dimly seen beneath the brown hood, is turned to heaven; no trace of earthly expression is left on its pale features, but the wild eyes seem fixed on some dismal vision; and a single glance at the canvas imprints the figure on the memory for ever."

232. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.

A characteristic and fine example of the naturalistic treatment of such subjects by the Spanish School; formerly supposed to be an early work of Velazquez, now attributed by the authorities of the Gallery, following M. de Beruete, to Zurbaran.[116] The affinity of the Spanish School in this [Pg 218]respect to the Italian naturalists may be seen by a glance at No. 172 in the late Italian Room. In the distance is the guiding angel as the star of the Epiphany. It is a pretty piece of observation of child nature that makes the painter show the boy offering his animals to the infant Christ. One remembers George Eliot's "young Daniel" (in Scenes of Clerical Life), who says to Mr. Gilfil, by way of making friends, "We've got two pups, shall I show 'em yer? One's got white spots." Zurbaran was noted for his successful delineation of animals. Palomino mentions with approbation his picture of an enraged dog from which chance observers used to run away, and of a yearling lamb, deemed by the possessor of more value than a hecatomb of full-grown sheep.

234. A WARRIOR ADORING THE INFANT CHRIST.

Observe, for the technical merits of this picture, the horse-bridle: "An example of true painter's work in minor detail; unsurpassable, but not, by patience and modesty, inimitable" (Academy Notes, 1875, p. 48). As for the subject, the warrior portrayed is nameless. This is suggestive; it is not a peculiar picture, it is a type of what was the common method of Venetian portraiture. "An English gentleman, desiring his portrait, gives probably to the painter a choice of several actions, in any of which he is willing to be represented. As for instance, riding his best horse, shooting with his favourite pointer, manifesting himself in his robes of state on some great public occasion, meditating in his study, playing with his children, or visiting his tenants; in any of these or other such circumstances, he will give the artist free leave to paint him. But in one important action he would shrink even from the suggestion of being drawn. He will assuredly not let himself be painted praying. Strangely, this is the action which, of all others, a Venetian desires to be painted in. If they want a noble and complete portrait, they nearly all[Pg 220] choose to be painted on their knees" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. iii. § 15). Notice also the little dog in the corner—"one of the little curly, short-nosed, fringy-pawed things which all Venetian ladies petted." "The dog is thus constantly introduced by the Venetians (in Madonna pictures) in order to give the fullest contrast to the highest tones of human thought and feeling.... But they saw the noble qualities of the dog too—all his patience, love, and faithfulness ...," and introduced him into their sacred pictures partly therefore in order to show that "all the lower creatures, who can love, have passed, through their love, into the guardianship and guidance of angels" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. iii. § 21, ch. vi. § 14; Fors Clavigera, 1877, p. 31).[118]

235. THE DEAD CHRIST.

The Virgin, accompanied here by St. John and Mary Magdalen, is weeping over the dead Christ—the subject termed by the Italians a Pietà. It is instructive to compare this Spanish treatment of it with an Italian Pietà, such as Francia's No. 180. How much more ghastly is the dead Christ here! How much less tender are the ministering mourners!

236. CASTLE OF SANT' ANGELO, ROME.

Past and present in the eternal city, as it was in Vernet's day. Behind is the castle which the Emperor Hadrian had built for his family tomb, in which were buried several of the Emperors after him, and the history of which in the Middle Ages was almost the history of Rome itself. In front is a fête on the Tiber, with a fashionable crowd in crinolines watching the boats tilting on the river.

237. A WOMAN'S PORTRAIT.

238. DEAD GAME.

A stag, a couple of hares (a speciality with this artist), a heron, and a fowling-piece.

239. A MOONLIGHT SCENE.

A good example of "the penetrating melancholy of moonlight"—an effect in which this painter excelled.

240. CROSSING THE FORD.

242. THE GAME OF BACKGAMMON.

"An example," says Mr. J. T. Nettleship in a comparison between Morland and some of the Dutch masters, "not only of the works that Morland loved, but of the life (alas!) he best loved too. In one respect it at once takes rank above the English painter, for every man must be a portrait; the two playing might indeed be English as well as Dutch, the man looking on is a degraded boor. In the chimney-place are several men farther off—one with his back to you is seated on a bench with his head against the chimney-jamb, a 'poor drinker,' he seems. The standing man, standing with his back to the fire, smoking a long clay, looks half-pitying, half-scornful at the feebler sinner" (George Morland, p. 23).

243. AN OLD MAN.

244. A SHEPHERD WITH A LAMB.

245. PORTRAIT OF A SENATOR.

The influence of Dürer was strong on Hans Baldung, and a similar spirit is discernible in the works of both painters. This old man, strong and yet melancholy, is precisely true to Dürer's favourite type of human strength founded on labour and sorrow. And the choice of this type is characteristic of his mind. With the Reformation came, says Mr. Ruskin, "the Resurrection of Death. Never, since man first saw him face to face, had his terror been so great." Nothing shows the character of men of that time so clearly as the way in which they severally meet the King of Terror. "It haunted Dürer long; and the answer he gave to the question of the grave was that of patient hope; and twofold, consisting of one design in praise of Fortitude, and another in praise of Labour.... The plate of 'Melancholia' is the history of the sorrowful toil of the earth, as the 'Knight and Death' is of its sorrowful patience under temptation" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. iv.).

246. MADONNA AND CHILD.

247. "ECCO HOMO!"

"Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!" (Ecco Homo) (St. John xix. 5). In the "glory" around the head are the Latin letters signifying "Jesus Christ of Nazareth"; on the outer edge of the background, "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth" (Philippians ii. 10).

248. THE VISION OF ST. BERNARD.

"St. Bernard was remarkable for his devotion to the blessed Virgin; one of his most celebrated works, the Missus est, was composed in her honour as mother of the Redeemer; and in eighty sermons from the Song of Solomon he set forth her divine perfection. His health was extremely feeble; and once, when he was employed in writing his homilies, and was so ill that he could scarcely hold the pen, she graciously appeared to him, and comforted and restored him by her divine presence" (Mrs. Jameson: Legends of the Monastic Orders, p. 152). Notice the peculiar shape of the picture, the upper corners of the square being cut away. The picture was painted in 1447 (the artist receiving 40 lire, equal now perhaps to £60, for it and another work) to fit a space over the door of the Palazzo della Signoria at Florence. "Have you ever con[Pg 226]sidered, in the early history of painting, how important is the history of the frame-maker? It is a matter, I assure you, needing your very best consideration, for the frame was made before the picture. The painted window is much, but the aperture it fills was thought of before it. The fresco by Giotto is much, but the vault it adorns was planned first ... and in pointing out to you this fact, I may once for all prove to, you the essential unity of the arts" (Ariadne Florentina, §§ 59, 60).

249. THE MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA.

St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) is one of the most remarkable figures of the Middle Ages. She was the daughter of a dyer, brought up in the humblest of surroundings, and wholly uneducated. When only thirteen she entered the monastic life as a nun of the Dominican order (St. Dominic is here present on the right), and at once became famous in the city for her good works. She tended the sick and plague-stricken, and was a minister of mercy to the worst and meanest of her fellow-creatures. On one occasion a hardened murderer, whom priests had visited in vain, was so subdued by her tenderness that he confessed his sins, begged her to wait for him by the scaffold, and died with the names of Jesus and Catherine on his lips. In addition to her piety and zeal she succeeded as a mediator between Florence and her native city, and between Florence and the Pope; she travelled to Avignon, and there induced Gregory XI. to return to Rome; she narrowly escaped political martyrdom during one of her embassies from Gregory to the Florentine republic; she preached a crusade against the Turks, and she aided, by her[Pg 227] dying words, to keep Pope Urban on the throne. But "when she died she left behind her a memory of love more than of power, the fragrance of an unselfish and gentle life. Her place is in the heart of the humble. Her prayer is still whispered by poor children on their mother's knee, and her relics are kissed daily by the simple and devout."

The mystical marriage which forms the subject of this picture, where the infant Christ is placing the ring on her finger, suggests the secret of her power. Once when she was fasting and praying, Christ himself appeared to her, she said, and gave her his heart. For love was the keynote of her religion, and the mainspring of her life. In no merely figurative sense did she regard herself as the spouse of Christ; she dwelt upon the bliss, beyond all mortal happiness, which she enjoyed in supersensual communion with her Lord. The world has not lost its ladies of the race of St. Catherine, beautiful and pure and holy, who live lives of saintly mercy in the power of human and heavenly love. (See further, for St. Catherine of Siena, J. A. Symonds, Sketches in Italy (Siena), from which the above account is principally taken.)

250. FOUR SAINTS.

The saints in this picture are Jerome (with his lion), Benedict (in the habit of his order), Giles (with his doe), and Romuald (founder of the eremite order of the Camaldoli).

251. FOUR SAINTS.

The saints in this picture are Augustine (with the heart transfixed with an arrow), Ludger (Bishop of Münster, Apostle of Saxony), Hubert (patron saint of the chase, see No. 783) and Maurice.

252. THE CONVERSION OF ST. HUBERT.

253. THE MASS OF ST. HUBERT.

For St. Hubert, see under 783. Here the saint, in his canonicals, is represented bending before the altar; while an angel from heaven is, according to the legend, descending with the stole.

254-261. FRAGMENTS OF AN ALTAR-PIECE.

In 259—a Head of Christ on the Cross—we have a fragment of the centre compartment of the altar-piece.

In 260 and 261 we have the saints who stood by the side of the Cross (hence their melancholy expression). In 260 the saints are St. John, St. Benedict, and St. Scholastica (the first Benedictine nun and the sister of St. Benedict himself). In 261 the saints are Sts. Cosmas and Damian (see under 594), and the Virgin.

In 254 and 255 we have other saints: in 254, St. Ambrose (see under 50), St. Exuperius (a Bishop of Toulouse), and St. Jerome (saying, as it were, "Down, down" to his lion); in 255, St. Gregory, St. Hilary, and St. Augustine.

On either side of the central groups in the altar-piece were represented various sacred subjects. No. 256, represents the Annunciation; No. 257, the Purification of the Virgin and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple; No. 258, The Adoration of the Magi.

262. THE CRUCIFIXION.

In the form of a predella or decoration of the base of the altar-piece. In the centre is Christ on the Cross; on either side are four Saints; on the left St. Scholastica, Mary Magdalen, St. Anne with the Virgin in her arms, who holds the Infant Christ; and the Virgin. On the right St. John the Evangelist, St. Andrew, St. Benedict, and St. Agnes with the Lamb. In the background is a representation of Jerusalem; here depicted as a little Westphalian town.

264. A COUNT OF HAINAULT AND HIS PATRON SAINT.

The count and the confessor. The count, attired as a monk, is praying. Behind him is his patron saint (St. Ambrose), holding a cross in one hand, a scourge in the other. More important, however, than the penitence of the count is the splendour of the robes. The picture is a good illustration of the love of jewellery characteristic of the time. "That this love of jewels was shared by the painters is sufficiently shown by the amount and beauty of the jewelled ornaments introduced by them into their pictures. Not only are brooches and clasps, sceptres and crowns, studded with precious stones, but the hems of garments are continually sewn with them, whilst gloves and shoes of state are likewise so adorned" (Conway, p. 121). This picture is by some ascribed to Gerard van der Meire (see under 1078).

265. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.

266. THE DEPOSITION FROM THE CROSS.

268. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

A striking example of the old symbolical conception, according to which the adoration of the Magi—the tribute of the wise men from the East to the dawning star of Christianity—was represented as taking place in the ruins of an antique temple, signifying that Christianity was founded upon the ruins of Paganism. This picture was painted in 1573 for the church of San Silvestro in Venice, where it remained until 1835. It is mentioned in most of the guidebooks and descriptions of Venice. One of these published in 1792 says, in describing the church of San Silvestro: "Many are the pictures by Tintoretto, by scholars of Titian, by Palma Vecchio, etc.; but among them all the famous Adoration of the Magi by Paolo Veronese deserves especial attention." The picture has recently been covered with glass, an operation which is noteworthy on account of the great size of the pane required, 11 ft. 7 in. by 10 ft. 7 in. The pane had to be obtained in France.

269. A KNIGHT IN ARMOUR.

This little panel is a study for the figure of San Liberale, the warrior-saint, in the altar-piece by Giorgione at Castelfranco—one of his acknowledged masterpieces, and according to Ruskin one of the two best pictures in the world.[126] Notice "the bronzed, burning flesh" of the knight—"the right Giorgione colour on his brow" characteristic of a race of seamen (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. v. ch. i. § 19). This "original little study in oil, with the delicately gleaming silver-grey armour is," says Mr. Pater, "one of the greatest treasures of the National Gallery, and in it, as in some other knightly personages attributed to Giorgione, people have supposed the likeness of his own presumably gracious presence." From a MS. memorandum on the back of the Castelfranco picture, it appears, however, that the warrior was said to represent Gaston de Foix. The only difference between this study and the picture is that in the altar-piece the warrior wears his helmet, while in the picture he is bareheaded. On this ground, and owing to the high finish of our picture, some have argued that it is not an original study for the picture, but a later copy from it (see e.g. Richter's Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 86). The argument does not seem conclusive. Do artists never make elaborate studies? and is not an artist as likely to vary his design as a copyist his model? Our picture, which was formerly in the collection of Benjamin West, P.R.A., was bequeathed to the National Gallery by Samuel Rogers.

270. "NOLI ME TANGERE!"

A picture of the evensong of nature and of the evening of a life's tragedy. "The hues and harmonies of evening" are upon the distant hills and plain; and whilst the shadows fall upon the middle slopes, there falls too "the awful shadow of some unseen Power" upon the repentant woman who has [Pg 235]been keeping her vigil in the peaceful solitude; at the sound of her name she has turned from her weeping and fallen forward on her knees towards him whom she now knows to be her master. "The impetuosity with which she has thrown herself on her knees in shown by the fluttering drapery of her sleeve,[127] which is still buoyed up by the air; thus with a true painter's art telling the action of the previous moment" (Quarterly Review, October 1888). She stretches out her hand to touch him, but is checked by his words; as Christ, who is represented with a hoe in his hand because she had first supposed him to be the gardener, bids her forbear: "Touch me not," "noli me tangere," "for I am not yet ascended to my Father:" it is not on this side of the hills that the troubled soul can enter into the peace of forgiveness.

This beautiful picture was bequeathed to the National Gallery by Samuel Rogers. It is usually ascribed to Titian's earlier or "Giorgionesque" period. "The Magdalen is, appropriately enough, of the same type as the exquisite golden-blond courtesans—or, if you will, models—who constantly appear and re-appear in this period of Venetian art" (C. Phillips: The Earlier Work of Titian, p. 52).

271. "ECCE HOMO!"

For the subject, see under 15, by Correggio. It was from Correggio that the Eclectics borrowed the type of face [Pg 236]for this subject—which was a favourite one with them; but notice how much more they dwell on the physical pain and horror, how much less on the spiritual beauty, than Correggio did.

272. AN APOSTLE.

274. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

"One of the choicest pictures in the National Gallery," exquisite alike in sentiment, in drawing, and in purity of colour. "Being in an admirable state of preservation, it enables us to become acquainted with all the characteristics of Mantegna's style, and above all to enjoy the refinement in his rendering of the human forms, the accuracy in his drawing, the conscientiousness in the rendering of the smallest details" (Richter). For the latter point notice especially the herbage in the foreground. Mantegna, says Mr. Ruskin, is "the greatest leaf-painter of Lombardy," and the "exquisite outlines" here show "the symmetry and precision of his design" (Catalogue of Educational Series, p. 52). The draperies also[Pg 239] are "of extraordinary beauty in design and colour. The rose-coloured dress of the Virgin is most delicately heightened with gold, and the draperies of the two saints are of materials shot with changing colours of exquisite harmonies" (Poynter). Very sweet is the expression of mingled humility and tenderness in the mother of the Divine Child. On her right stands St. John the Baptist, the great preacher of repentance; on her left Mary Magdalen, the woman who repented. The Baptist bears a cross and on the scroll attached to it are written the words (in Latin), "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." The Magdalen carries the vase of ointment—the symbol at once of her conversion and her love ("She brought an alabaster box of ointment, and began to wash his feet with tears.... And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven"). "Mantegna combines with the most inexhaustible imagination and invention and power, which include the whole range of art, from the most playful fantasy to the profoundest and most passionate tragedy, a skill of workmanship so minutely and marvellously delicate as to defy imitation. Look at the refinement with which the drapery is drawn, the wonderful delicacy of handling with which the gold-lights are laid on, the beautiful and loving spirit which has presided over the execution of the foliage in the background, and indeed of every detail in the picture, and you will begin to have an understanding of what I mean by workmanship as such, and how an artist proceeds whose hand has been thoroughly trained, and who is truly in love with his art" (Poynter's Lectures on Art, p. 127).

275. VIRGIN AND CHILD, ST. JOHN AND AN ANGEL.

A beautiful and characteristic work.[129] "At first glance you may think the picture a mere piece of affectation. Well—yes, [Pg 240]Botticelli is affected in the way that all men of his century necessarily were. Much euphuism, much studied grace of manner, much formal assertion of scholarship, mingling with his force of imagination. And he likes twisting the fingers of hands about"—just as he likes also dancing motion and waved drapery (see 1034) (Mornings in Florence, iii. 59). The picture is characteristic also of two faculties which Botticelli acquired from his early training as a goldsmith: first, his use of gold as a means of enriching the light (as here in the Madonna's hair); and, secondly, the "incomparable invention and delicacy" with which he treated all accessory details and ornaments (as here in the scarves and dresses). But chiefly is the picture characteristic of his "sentiment of ineffable melancholy, of which it is hard to penetrate the sense, and impossible to escape the spell." It may help one in understanding the spirit of such pictures to remember that in Botticelli there met in perfect poise the tenderness of Christian feeling with the grace of the classical Renaissance. He was "a Greek reanimate. The first Greeks were distinguished from the barbarians by their simple humanity; the second Greeks—these Florentine Greeks reanimate—are human more strongly, more deeply, leaping from the Byzantine death at the call of Christ, 'Loose him, and let him go.' And there is upon them at once the joy of resurrection and the solemnity of the grave"[130] (Ariadne Florentina, § 161; and Fors Clavigera, 1872, xxii.).

276. TWO APOSTLES.

These solemn heads seem to breathe the very spirit of the master; but the history of the painting forbids the supposition that we have here the handiwork, or even the direct influence of Giotto. It is a fragment from one of the wall-paintings in the chapel of St. John the Baptist in the church of S. Maria del Carmine at Florence. The frescoes were not executed till 1350, some years after the death of Giotto. The subject of the composition to which our fragment belongs was the burial of the Baptist. The history of these frescoes is typical of that of many a vicissitude, and recalls the idea suggested in one of Browning's Dramatic Lyrics, in which the soul of the painter watches the gradual decay and dispersal of his life's work:—

This and two portions from other paintings of the series, now in the institution at Liverpool, were saved from the fire[Pg 242] which destroyed this chapel in 1771, and became the property of Mr. Thomas Patch, the engraver. They were brought to England by Mr. Townley. This fragment was subsequently in the collection of the Right Hon. C. Greville, from whom it passed into the possession of Mr. Rogers, and at the sale of his pictures in 1856 was purchased for the National Gallery. Some other fragments are preserved in the Cappella dell' Ammannati, in the Campo Santo at Pisa, and one is in the town gallery at Pavia.

277. THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

The wounded Jew, who had fallen among thieves, is beneath the shadow of a great rock. The Levite is behind, engaged in sanctimonious prayer. The good Samaritan is busy in good works. He has brought out his flask and is raising the Jew to place him on his mule. The picture is of additional interest as having been a favourite with Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom it once belonged, and who is said to have kept it always in his studio. It was afterwards in the collection of Samuel Rogers.

278. THE TRIUMPH OF JULIUS CÆSAR.

One of the fruits of Rubens's visit to Italy. This picture was in Rubens's possession at his death, and is described in the inventory as "Three cloathes pasted upon bord, beinge the Triumph of Julius Cæsar, after Andrew Mantegna, not full made." Mantegna's procession (somewhat similar to the Triumph of Scipio, No. 902) was painted for the Duke of Mantua, and is now at Hampton Court.

Any one who cares to see by a single illustration what "classic purity of style" means, should compare Mantegna's original with this transcript by Rubens. "The Flemish painter strives to add richness to the scene by Bacchanalian riot and the sensuality of imperial Rome. His elephants twist their trunks, and trumpet to the din of cymbals; negroes feed the flaming candelabra with scattered frankincense; the white oxen of Clitumnus are loaded with gaudy flowers, and the dancing maidens are dishevelled Mænads. But the rhythmic[Pg 243] procession of Mantegna, modulated to the sound of flutes and soft recorders, carries our imagination back to the best days and strength of Rome. His priests and generals, captives and choric women, are as little Greek as they are modern. In them awakes to a new life the spirit-quelling energy of the Republic. The painter's severe taste keeps out of sight the insolence and orgies of the Empire; he conceives Rome as Shakespeare did in Coriolanus"[131] (Symonds's Renaissance, iii. 200).

279. THE HORRORS OF WAR.

"Mars, leaving the temple of Janus [132] open, is held back by Venus, while Europe bewails the inevitable miseries of war; but he is drawn on by the Fury Alecto, who is preceded by Plague and Famine; the figure on the ground with the broken lute represents Concord overthrown. Mars and the two female figures behind him are said to be the portraits of Rubens and his two wives" (Official Catalogue).

This is a sketch of the large picture painted by Rubens in 1637 for his friend Sustermans, and now in the Pitti palace at Genoa. This sketch, with the preceding one, was in the collection of Mr. Rogers, where Ruskin saw it, as recorded in the following extract from his autobiography, in which he describes "a lesson given to me by George Richmond at one of Mr. Rogers's breakfasts (the old man used to ask me, finding me always reverent to him, joyful in his pictures, and sometimes amusing, as an object of curiosity to his guests), date uncertain, but probably in 1842":—

280. THE MADONNA OF THE POMEGRANATE.

A prophetic sense of the Saviour's sufferings is signified by the symbol of the pomegranate—

281. ST. JEROME READING.

The scenery, says Gilbert (Cadore, p. 42), is that of Serravalle in Titian's country—Serravalle, "the true gate of the hills," with walls and towers rising steeply on the hill-side. The way in which the old masters thus consigned their saints and anchorites to the hill-country is very typical of the mediæval view of landscape. "The idea of retirement from[Pg 245] the world for the sake of self-mortification ... gave to all mountain solitude at once a sanctity and a terror, in the mediæval mind, which were altogether different from anything that it had possessed in the un-Christian periods.... Just in so much as it appeared necessary for the noblest men to retire to the hill-recesses before their missions could be accomplished, or their spirit perfected, in so far did the daily world seem by comparison to be pronounced profane and dangerous; and to those who loved that world and its work, the mountains were thus voiceful with perpetual rebuke.... And thousands of hearts, which might otherwise have felt that there was loveliness in the wild landscape, shrank from it in dread, because they knew that the monk retired to it for penance, and the hermit for contemplation" (Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. xiv. § 10).

282. THE GLORIFICATION OF THE VIRGIN.

The little angels are very pretty. Notice the three peering out from under the Virgin's robe. On the marble platform below one angel plays a white-headed pipe; the other, a six-stringed rebec, which is very accurately represented.

283. VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED.

This was a picture painted very much to order. The figure of the Virgin was specially directed—so it appears from the original contract, dated 1461, still in existence—to be made similar in mode, form, and ornaments to one by Fra Angelico, now in the Florentine Academy, and it was also stipulated that "the said Benozzo shall at his own cost diligently gild the said panel throughout, both as regards figures and ornaments." The prices paid for such com[Pg 247]missions in those days may be judged from the fact that in the case of his great frescoes at Pisa, Benozzo contracted to paint three a year for 10 ducats each (= say £100). As for Benozzo's own personal feelings, it is easy to see with what pleasure he put in the pretty flowers in the foreground for St. Francis, and the sweet-faced angels behind the throne, and with what gusto he shot the gold in their draperies. The figure on our extreme left is St. Zenobius. His embroidered cope is very rich. The details of needlework in the picture will well repay careful study. Compared with all this, the kneeling St. Jerome and St. Francis and the other saints appear somewhat perfunctory. Notice, too, the bright goldfinches on the alabaster steps, introduced, we may suppose, in honour of

284. MADONNA AND CHILD.

Of Bartolommeo Vivarini it is recorded that he painted (in 1473) the first oil picture that was exhibited in Venice. This one, however, is in tempera. "The figures in Bartolommeo's pictures are still hard in outline,—thin (except the Madonna's throat, which always in Venice, is strong as a pillar), and much marked in sinew and bone (studied from life, mind you, not by dissection); exquisitely delicate and careful in pure colour;—in character portraits of holy men and women, such as then were. There is no idealism here whatever. Monks and nuns had indeed faces and mien like these saints, when they desired to have the saints painted for them" (Guide to the Venetian Academy, p. 6).

285. MADONNA AND CHILD.

"A youthful production, in which glowing colour, delicately balanced, is combined with fine drawing and powerful modelling. Characteristic are the regular oval of the Madonna's head and the look of simplicity and charm which breathes in the features" (Dr. Richter in Art Journal, Feb. 1895).

286. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

287. LUDOVICO MARTINENGO.

A portrait of a young man, at the age of twenty-six (as the inscription tells us), in the costume of the Campagnia della Calza (the guild of the stocking).

288. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, MICHAEL AND RAPHAEL.

One of the most valuable pictures in the Gallery alike for its own beauty and for its interest in the history of art. For Perugino is the final representative of the old superstitious art, just as Michael Angelo and Raphael (in his later manners) were the first representatives of the modern scientific and anatomical art; the epithet bestowed on Perugino by Michael Angelo, goffo nell' arte (dunce, or blockhead, in art), shows how trenchant the separation is between these two forms of artists. One may notice, then, in this picture as a perfect [Pg 252]example of the earlier art: First, that everything in it is dainty and delightful, and all that it attempts is accomplished. Michael Angelo, dashing off his impetuous thoughts, left much of his work half done (see 790); Perugino worked steadily in the old ways and indeed repeated ideas with so little reflection that, according to Vasari, he was blamed for doing the same thing over and over again. But everything is finished, even to the gilding of single hairs. Notice also the beautiful painting of the fish.[136] Secondly, it is a work in the school of colour, as distinguished from the school of light and shade. "Clear, calm, placid, perpetual vision, far and near; endless perspicuity of space, unfatigued veracity of eternal light, perfectly accurate delineation of every leaf on the trees and every flower in the fields" (notice especially in the foreground the "blue flower fit for paradise" of the central compartment). "There is no darkness, no wrong. Every colour is lovely, and every space is light. The world, the universe, is divine; all sadness is a part of harmony; and all gloom a part of peace." In connection with the lovely blue in the picture (which was painted in 1494-98 for the Certosa of Pavia), one may remember the story told of an earlier picture, how the prior of the convent for which Perugino was painting doled out to him the costly colour of ultramarine, and how Perugino, by constantly washing his brushes, obtained a surreptitious hoard of the colour, which he ultimately restored to shame the prior for his suspicions. Thirdly, in its rendering of landscape, the picture is characteristic of the "purism" of older art as compared with the later "naturalism." "The religious painters impress on their landscape perfect symmetry and order, such as may seem, consistent with the spiritual nature they would represent. The trees grow straight, equally branched on each side, and of slight and feathery frame. The mountains stand up unscathed; the waters are always waveless, the skies always calm."[137] Notice also that the sentiment of the whole picture [Pg 253]is like its landscape; there is no striving, nor crying, no convulsive action; it is all one "pure passage of intense feeling and heavenly light, holy and undefiled, glorious with the changeless passion of eternity—sanctified with shadeless peace." Notice lastly, how in this, as in many sacred compositions, "a living symmetry, the balance of harmonious opposites, is one of the profoundest sources of their power. The Madonna of Perugino in the National Gallery, with the angel Michael on one side and Raphael on the other, is as beautiful an example as you can have" (Elements of Drawing, p. 258). The subject of the right-hand compartment is Raphael and Tobias (for which see 781); that of the left-hand one is "the orderer of Christian warfare, Michael the Archangel; not Milton's 'with hostile brow and visage all inflamed'; not even Milton's in kingly treading of the hills of Paradise; not Raphael's with expanded wings and brandished spear; but Perugino's with his triple crest of traceless plume unshaken in heaven, his hand fallen on his crossleted sword, the truth-girdle binding his undinted armour; God has put his power upon him, resistless radiance is on his limbs; no lines are there of earthly strength, no trace on the divine features of earthly anger; trustful and thoughtful, fearless, but full of love, incapable except of the repose of eternal conquest, vessel and instrument of Omnipotence, filled like a cloud with the victor light, the dust of principalities and powers beneath his feet, the murmur of hell against him heard by his spiritual ear like the winding of a shell on the far-off sea-shore." He is thus armed as the orderer of Christian warfare against evil; in his other character, as lord of souls, he has the scales which hang on a tree by his side (Ariadne Florentina, pp. 40, 265, 266; On the Old Road, i. § 529; Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. i. ch. x. § 4; sec. ii. ch. v. § 20.)

289. "THE NIGHT WATCH."

This is a copy, on a greatly reduced scale, of the famous picture by Rembrandt (painted in 1642), now in the State-Museum at Amsterdam. It is of interest as showing the pristine condition of its great original, which in the earlier part of the eighteenth century was maltreated on all four sides, and thereby shorn of some of its figures in order to suit the dimensions of a room to which it was at that time removed. The picture had so darkened by time or neglect, that it came to be called "The Night Watch." The real subject is the march out of a company of the Amsterdam Musketeers from their Headquarters' Hall, under the command of their captain, Frans Banning Cocq, who is seen advancing in the centre and giving orders to his lieutenant. The principal figures are all portraits, and the names were written on the back of the picture. Our copy was painted for Cocq himself, and after many vicissitudes reached England at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

290. A MAN'S PORTRAIT (dated 1432).

A portrait of a friend of the artist, for it is inscribed "Leal Souvenir"—and a true recollection it obviously is, and was the more acceptable, one likes to think, for being so. "It is not the untrue imaginary Picture of a man and his work that I want, ... but the actual natural Likeness, true as the face itself, nay, truer in a sense, Which the Artist, if there is one, might help to give, and the Botcher never can" (Carlyle, Friedrich).

291. PORTRAIT OF A GIRL.

"His female portraits have a sort of naïve grace that renders them very pleasing. There is one in the National Gallery, of a young girl in elaborate costume, which is entirely characteristic" (Bryan's Dictionary of Painters).

292. MARTYRDOM OF ST. SEBASTIAN.

How popular this "scientific art" was in its day may be seen from the following enthusiastic account which Vasari gives of this picture:—

The dominant motive in the picture is, it will be seen, interest in the mechanism of the human body; notice especi[Pg 257]ally the muscles of the executioners' legs and their efforts in stretching their bows. There are, however, other points worthy of notice. "The work is not less remarkable for the extent and variety of the landscape, and for the sense of aerial, as distinct from mere linear, perspective. Instead of standing up like a wall behind the figures it appears to recede to the horizon, as in nature. The study of the remains of classical art also is betrayed by the introduction of one of the Roman monumental arches in the background. The groups of soldiers and horses introduced at different distances further attest the variety of the designers' interests" (Monkhouse: In the National Gallery, 1894, p. 77).

293. VIRGIN AND CHILD: STS. JEROME AND DOMINIC.

This picture is identified by the arms of the Rucellai family below, as the one described by Vasari as "executed in the church of San Pancrazio for the chapel of the Rucellai family." After the suppression of the church, it was removed to the Palazzo Rucellai until it was purchased for the National Gallery.

294. THE FAMILY OF DARIUS.

This picture—"the most precious Paul Veronese," says Ruskin, "in the world"—is, according to another critic, "in itself a school of art, where every quality of the master is seen in perfection—his stately male figures, his beautiful women, his noble dog, and even his favourite monkey, his splendid architecture, gem-like colour, tones of gold and silver, sparkling and crisp touch, marvellous facility of hand and unrivalled power of composition."[139] The glowing colour [Pg 259]is what strikes one first; and next the dignity, life, and ease of the principal persons represented. It is a splendid example too of what the historical pictures of the old masters were. The scene represented is that of the Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great, surrounded by his generals, receiving the submission of the family of the defeated Persian King Darius; but in his treatment of the scene, Veronese makes it a piece of contemporary Venetian life.

Thus here Veronese simply paints a group of living Venetians of his time,[140] dog,[141] monkey and all. Alexander, in red armour, is pointing to his friend Hephaestion, who stands a little behind on his left, and whom the captives had at first mistaken for the king. The queen-mother implores his pardon, but Alexander tells her that she has not erred, for that Hephaestion is another Alexander. The principal figures representing these different characters are, however, all contemporary portraits of the Pisani family,[142] it is said, for whom the picture was painted, and in choosing this scene of Alexander in one of his best moments Veronese was expressing his ideal of Venetian nobility and refinement. "The greatest portrait painters," says Ruskin,—"Titian, Veronese, Velazquez, and Raphael,—introduce the most trenchant, clear, and complete backgrounds. Indeed, the first three so rejoiced in quantity of accessories, that, when engaged on important portraits, they would paint large historical pictures merely by way of illustration or introduction. The priceless Veronese, 'The Triumph of Alexander,' was painted only to introduce portraits of the Pisani; and chiefly to set off to the best advantage the face of one fair girl" (Academy Notes, 1857, p. 37). So too the dresses to which the picture owes so much of its splendour, are the Venetian dresses of the period. It may be interesting to remark that something of the magnificence in the picture itself attaches also to the circumstances of its painting. Veronese having been detained by some accident at the Pisani Villa at Este, painted this work there, and left it behind him, sending word that he had left wherewithal to defray the expense of his entertainment. As the Pisani family ultimately [Pg 261]sold it to the National Gallery in 1857 for £13,650, Veronese's words were decidedly made good. It may be interesting to add that the negotiations for its purchase extended over nearly four years. Vast sums had been offered for the picture in former centuries, and within the previous thirty years sovereigns, public bodies, and individuals had all been competing for it.

Some of the fame of the picture is due to its splendid preservation. Rumohr speaks of it as "perhaps the only existing criterion by which to estimate the original colouring of Paul Veronese." "The lakes, for instance, in the crimson cuirass and dress of Alexander, which form such a magnificent feature in the composition, are," says Sir Edward Poynter, "as fresh as when first painted, as, indeed, is the whole picture." James Smetham, in one of his eloquent letters, refers to this work in 1858, in illustration of the enduring qualities of a painter's "flying touches"—touches "destined to live in hours and moments when you have fled beyond all moments into the unembarrassed calm of eternity":—

205. OUR SAVIOUR AND THE VIRGIN.

These figures are remarkable for their serenity and dignity. Characteristic also is the care lavished on the jewellery and edgings. The figure of our Saviour somewhat resembles the "Salvator Mundi" of Antonella da Messina (673)—the Italian painter who introduced the Flemish influence to his country.

296. THE VIRGIN ADORING THE INFANT CHRIST.

This picture, whatever may be its authorship, is certainly one of the most beautiful examples of Florentine art in the second half of the fifteenth century. Of a very individual and fascinating type are the faces of the two angels; their sweet and childlike loveliness will haunt the memory of any visitor who has once studied them. Mr. Monkhouse suggests that they may represent some member of the Medici family: "It is at all events evident that the originals of these beautiful children, however elevated by the refinement of the artist,[Pg 264] belonged to no common stock. Nor can there be any doubt that this extremely elegant type, dainty to a degree unknown before, has a close affinity to the ideal of Leonardo da Vinci." The angels' hands in our picture are also very beautiful, though there is a touch of awkward affectation in the disjointed bend of the little finger in the angel on the left. The spectator will notice further the beautiful embroidery, and the jewelled brooches worn both by this angel and by the Madonna. The child holds a raspberry in one hand, some seeds of which he puts to his lips. The expression of the mother is very beautiful in its serene happiness of worship. Her head-dress is peculiar. "The light golden hair is entirely off the forehead, with but little showing, and is formed into a kind of pad, enclosed in an ornamental veil of thin material, which being tied round upon the top of the head, lightly forms a triangular curved peak upon the forehead, and hangs down gracefully on either shoulder." The entire picture is, as Kugler says, "a work of the most attractive character, from its careful finish, its rich and transparent colour, and its great beauty of expression."

297. THE NATIVITY.

Of this altar-piece—painted in 1525 for the church of St. Alessandro at Brescia—Mr. Pater gives the following description: "Alessandro, patron of the church, one of the many youthful patrician converts Italy reveres from the ranks of the Roman army, stands on one side, with ample crimson banner superbly furled about his lustrous black armour; and on the[Pg 265] other—St. Jerome, Romanino's own namesake—neither more nor less than the familiar, self-tormenting anchorite.... But the loveliest subjects are in the corners above—Gaudioso, Bishop of Brescia, above St. Jerome; above Alessandro, St. Filippo Benizzi, meek founder of the order of Servites to which that church at Brescia belonged, with his lily, and in the right hand a book, and what a book!... If you wish to see what can be made of the leaves, the vellum covers of a book, observe that in St. Philip's hands. The metre? the contents? you ask: What may they be? and whence did it come?—Out of embalmed sacristy, or antique coffin of some early Brescian martyr, or, through that bright space of blue Italian sky, from the hands of an angel, like his Annunciation lily, or the book received in the Apocalypse by John the Divine? It is one of those old saints, Gaudioso (at home in every church of Brescia), who looks out with full face from the opposite corner of the altar-piece, from a background which, though it might be the new heaven over a new earth, is in truth only the proper, breathable air of Italy. As we see him here, Saint Gaudioso is one of the more exquisite treasures of our National Gallery. It was thus that, at the magic touch of Romanino's art, the dim, early, hunted-down Brescian church of the primitive centuries, crushed into the dust, it might seem, was 'brought to her king,' out of those old dark crypts, 'in raiment of needlework'—the delicate, richly-folded, pontifical white vestments, the mitre and staff and gloves, and rich jewelled cope, blue or green.[143] The face, of remarkable beauty, after a type which all feel, though it is actually rare in art, is probably a portrait of some distinguished churchman of Romanino's own day: a second Gaudioso, perhaps, setting that later Brescian church to rights after the terrible French occupation in the painter's own time, as his saintly predecessor, the Gaudioso of the earlier century here commemorated, had done after the invasion of the Goths. The eloquent eyes are open upon some glorious vision. 'He hath made us kings and priests!' they seem to say for him, as the clean, sensitive lips might do so eloquently. Beauty and holiness had 'kissed each other,' as in Borgognone's imperial deacons at the Certosa. At the [Pg 266]Renaissance the world might seem to have parted them again. But here certainly, once more, Catholicism and the Renaissance, religion and culture, holiness and beauty, might seem reconciled, by one who had conceived neither after any feeble way, in a gifted person. Here at least, by the skill of Romanino's hand, the obscure martyr of the crypts shines as a saint of the later Renaissance, with a sanctity of which the elegant world itself would hardly escape the fascination, and which reminds one how the great Apostle St. Paul has made courtesy part of the content of the Divine charity itself. A Rubens in Italy!—so Romanino has been called. In this gracious presence we might think that, like Rubens also, he had been a courtier" ("Art Notes in North Italy" in New Review, November 1890).

298. THE TWO ST. CATHERINES.

For St. Catherine of Alexandria, see under 693; for St. Catherine of Siena, under 249. Each of them was proclaimed the spouse of Christ for the love they bore him.[Pg 267] And Borgognone here places them on either side of the Madonna's throne. "Their names are inscribed on the haloes which surround their heads. The Madonna—an exquisite example of the earlier and purer Lombard type—sits enthroned on a raised seat, which may be compared with that of the Blenheim Madonna and of many other Virgins in our collection. The Child, erect on her knees and short-coated after the earlier wont, is in the very act of placing the ring of His mystic wedding on the timorous hand of St. Catherine of Alexandria. The Saint herself, as the earlier and more famous of the two, stands at the right hand of Our Lady. In her left she grasps the palm of martyrdom. As Princess of Egypt the meek and beautiful lady wears a regal crown. Her long wavy hair, of the type which we usually regard as Leonardesque, but which Leonardo really acquired in Lombardy, is characteristic of this saint, even in pictures of other schools (cf. the Umbrian, No. 646). At her feet lies the wheel, with its conventional hooked spikes, which was the instrument of her torture. On the Madonna's left stands St. Catherine of Siena in her Dominican robes. Her face is pure saintliness—a marvel of beauty; her left hand holds the ascetic white lily of the Dominican order; her right the Madonna takes with a gentle, and one might almost say consolatory gesture. Our Lady seems to comfort her for her less favoured position; and if you look close you will see that the infant Saviour holds in His left hand a second ring, which He extends with childish grace towards the Nun of Siena" (Grant Allen in Pall Mall Magazine, June-December 1895, p. 66).

299. PORTRAIT OF AN ITALIAN NOBLEMAN.

This painter is conspicuous, says Lanzi (History of Painting [Pg 269]in Italy, Bohn's edition 1847, ii. 181), for his "skill in imitating every kind of velvet, satin, or other cloth, either of gold or silver." His portraits are remarkable, as is noticed under 1025, for their poetic insight. He is not content with producing an obvious likeness in the flesh; he strives at portraying or suggesting some spiritual idea in all his sitters. These characteristics are conspicuous in the present picture. Thus notice, first, the splendid brocades. Then secondly, how the painter tells you not only that this was what the sitter looked like, but what was his character. It is clearly the portrait of some one who combined with an important position the tastes of a dilettante, and who had an aspiring soul. On his cap is a label inscribed ιου λιαν ποθω, which being literally interpreted means "Alas, I desire too much!"—an inscription which accords with the yearning upward gaze and the pose selected by the painter. But the motto has also a punning reference. Reading the two first words as one, it becomes ιουλιαν ποθω, "I desire Julia," or with a further pun on the last word, "Julia Potho." We thus obtain a clue to the identity of the sitter. The Potho or Pozzo family was well known at the time in Brescia. Francesco dal Pozzo, 3rd Marquis of Ponderano (born 1494), had as his first-born a daughter Julia. She became the wife of Giacomo Gromo, Signor di Ternengo, who was a man of official status in Biella in 1539, having to do with the fiscal arrangements of the district. This may be indicated in our picture by the two coins of bronze and gold, and the die or seal. The sandalled foot on the table (an antique lamp?) may indicate his love of antiquities. "It is to be hoped, if our picture be a portrait of Monsignor Giacomo Gromo di Ternengo, that he had not long to wait before he became the devoted husband of Julia Potho, for whom he so yearned, and whose favour he wore in his hat." (W. Fred Dickes in Athenæum, June 3 and Aug. 26, 1893).[145]

300. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.

In the background, on the right, are the towers of Conegliano; on the left, the neighbouring castle of Colalto. There is something very pretty in the way in which the earlier Venetian masters placed their Holy Families in their own fields and amongst their own mountains (compare e.g. the Madonna in the Meadow, No. 599), thus imagining the Madonna and her child not as a far-away sanctity in the sky, but as an actual presence nigh unto them, at their very doors.[146] "There has probably not been an innocent cottage-home throughout the length and breadth of Europe during the whole period of vital Christianity, in which the imagined presence of the Madonna has not given sanctity to the humblest duties, and comfort to the sorest trials of the lives of women; and every brightest and loftiest achievement of the arts and strength of manhood has been the fulfilment of the assured prophecy of the poor Israelite maiden, 'He that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is his name'" (Fors Clavigera, 1874, p. 105).

479. THE SUN RISING IN A MIST.

For the circumstances under which this picture by Turner and the "Dido Building Carthage" (498) hang not in the Turner Gallery but beside the Claudes, see under 12.

This picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1807, and belongs therefore to Turner's first period, which was [Pg 272]distinguished by "subdued colour and perpetual reference to precedent in composition." This effect of sunrise in a mist was a favourite one with Dutch painters, and Turner, when he went to the sea-shore, painted it in the Dutch manner. A time was to come when he would paint the sun rising no longer in a mist. Yet from the first, the bent of his own mind was visible in his work. He paints no such ideal futilities as are pointed out above in Claude's picture, but fishermen engaged in their daily toil. One of his father's best friends was a fishmonger, whom he often visited: "which gives us a friendly turn of mind towards herring-fishing, whaling, Calais poissardes, and many other of our choicest subjects in afterlife." He was the painter not of "pastoral indolence or classic pride, but of the labour of men, by sea and land" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. ix.).

498. DIDO BUILDING CARTHAGE.

From the technical point of view this is not one of Turner's best pictures. It was exhibited in 1815, and belongs therefore to his first period, when he had still not completely exorcised "the brown demon." The picture, says Ruskin, "is quite unworthy of Turner as a colourist," "his eye for colour unaccountably fails him,"[147] and "the foreground is heavy and evidently paint, if we compare it with genuine passages of Claude's sunshine" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. i. ch. vii. § 45, sec. ii. ch. i. § 13, ch. ii. § 18).

But there is a noble idea in the picture. Dido, Queen of Carthage, surrounded by her people, and with plans and papers about her, is superintending the building of the city which was to become the great maritime power of the ancient world. "The principal object in the foreground (on the left) is a group of children sailing toy boats. The exquisite choice of this incident, as expressive of the ruling passion which was to be the source of future greatness, in preference to the tumult of busy stone-masons or arming soldiers, is quite as appreciable when it is told as when it is seen,—it has nothing to do with [Pg 273]the technicalities of painting; a scratch of the pen would have conveyed the idea and spoken to the intellect as much as the elaborate realisations of colour. Such a thought as this is something far above all art; it is epic poetry of the highest order" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. i. sec. i. ch. vii. § 2).

564. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH SCENES FROM THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS.

Both characteristics may be traced in almost every line of this picture. For instance, the humanity of Christ is not yet [Pg 274]even hinted at, his divinity alone being insisted upon. Thus the young God is here represented in the form of a man-child; erect, with the assumed dignity of an adult, as he raises his hand to bless the faithful. With his left hand he holds the roll in which are written the names of the faithful saved: it is as a judge that he comes into the world. The Virgin again is here shown as elect of God to be the mother of God: not as the mother of Jesus, the mother of man's highest humanity. She wears on her head the fleur-de-lys coronet, symbol of purity; and the glory, or aureole, around her represents the acrostic symbol of the fish, the Greek word for fish containing the initials of the several Greek words meaning "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour." Outside this "Vesica" (or "fish glory"), in the four corners, are four Jewish symbols (Ezekiel i. 10), adopted as emblems of the four Evangelists—the Angel (St. Matthew), the Ox (St. Luke), the Lion (St. Mark), and the Eagle (St. John). So again, in the scenes on either side of the central piece we see the same gloomy theology, in which the world is thought of solely as a place made hideous with evils, where saints are boiled by pagans, women slain by seducers, children devoured by dragons. By help of such pictured deeds of hell, men were taught by the early Church to "loathe this base world and think of heaven's bliss." The first subject (on the spectator's left) represents the birth of Christ in a cattle-shed; the second St. John the Evangelist, calm midst the cauldron of seething oil, the martyr's uplifted hand expressing the precept, "Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." The third subject depicts in a rude symbolic way incidents in the life of St. Catherine—her beheading, her soul's reception by angels, and the burial of her body by two angels on Mount Sinai. The fourth subject shows St. Nicolas appearing suddenly to some sailors, whom he exhorts to throw overboard a vase given by the devil. In the fifth is St. John resuscitating the body of Drusiana, a matron who had lived in his house previous to his departure, and whose bier he had chanced to meet on his return to Ephesus. In the next subject St. Benedict, founder of the Benedictine Order, is shown in the act of throwing himself into a thicket of briars and nettles, as he rushes from his cave to rid himself of the recollection of a beautiful woman he had once met in Rome, and whose image now tempts him to leave his chosen solitude. In the seventh, St. Nicolas[Pg 275] liberates three innocent men; and in the eighth is represented St. Margaret, patron saint of women in childbirth, whom the devil in the form of a dragon confronts to terrify into abnegation of her Christian faith. Unable to persuade her, he devours her, but bursts in the midst, and by power of the Cross she emerges unhurt. It is interesting to observe that the two consecutive acts are here shown as co-existent: a thing frequently done, as we have seen, in early art. Finally, another characteristic feature is the introduction of the "grotesque" in the animals that support the throne as a relief from the strained seriousness of the rest of the picture (A. H. Macmurdo in Century Guild Hobby Horse, i. 21-28).

The picture, signed by the painter, was an altar-front in the church of Santa Margherita at Arezzo. It is painted in tempera on linen cloth attached to wood, and even in Vasari's day its preservation was deemed remarkable. "It comprises," he says, "many small figures, of better manner than those of larger size, designed with more grace and finished with greater delicacy; and this work deserves consideration, not only because the little figures are so carefully done that they look like miniatures, but also for the extraordinary fact that a picture on canvas should have continued in such good preservation during 300 years" (i. 89).

565. THE MADONNA AND CHILD.

The changes which Cimabue introduced into the art of painting were twofold. In the first place, his pictures show an increase of pictorial skill. This picture has suffered much from time. Thus in the Madonna's face, which was originally laid in green and painted over thinly, time and restorations have removed this over-painting, and left the green exposed (see also Duccio's 566). The green and purple of her dress also have changed into a dusky tone; but even so, the advance in pictorial skill may be seen in the shading of the colours, and the attempt to represent the light and dark masses of the drapery, whereas in earlier pictures the painters had been content with flat tints. But the advance made by Cimabue was even more in spirit than in technical skill. He combined the contemplation of the South with the action of the North. He gave the populace of his day something to look at—and something to love. "Is she not beautiful," asks a critic before this picture, "in simplicity and solemn majesty? Is she not a real mother with a half sad and foreboding wistful look that goes straight to the heart?" Cimabue's Madonna is still a Mater Dolorosa—"our Lady of Pain," but there is an attempt alike in her and in the child, and in the attendant angels, to substitute for the conventional image of an ideal personage the representation of real humanity. It was this change that explains the story told of one of Cimabue's works, that it was carried in glad procession, with the sound of trumpets, from his house to the church, and that the place was ever afterwards called "Borgo Allegro" (the joyful quarter)—a name which it bears to this day. "This delight was not merely in the revelation of an art they had not known how to practise; it was delight in the revelation of a Madonna whom they had not known how to love" (Mornings in Florence, ii. 48). In telling this story, Vasari adds that "they had not seen anything better"; the rudeness and quaintness which are all that at first sight are now discernible would then, it must be remembered, have been unseen. We may recall the poet's protest against those who,

566. MADONNA AND CHILD.

The young Christ, for instance, instead of being depicted in the act of priestly benediction (as in 564), is shown as a true babe, drawing aside the veil that hides his Mother's face. In this little incident one may thus see the tendency which was to lead to the representation of the Mother and Child as a Holy Family (the spectator must have "charity of imagina[Pg 278]tion" to ignore the green hue of the Madonna's face, for reasons stated under 565). "A conception like this of the Infant Saviour is not met with, so far as I know, in the whole range of Byzantine art from the fifth century onwards. The relation of the Child to his mother, as here represented, the gesture of childlike love, contrasting with the expression of melancholy in her face, which, perhaps, constitutes the principal charm of the picture—is an innovation. This motive does not occur in the work of Niccola Pisano, the great sculptor who had executed a famous work in the cathedral of Siena some twenty years previously. We find it, however, in contemporary Gothic sculpture of France; a very characteristic example is in the South Kensington Museum, a charming little ivory of the Madonna standing with the Child in her arms" (Richter's Lectures on the National Gallery, p. 18). Above are seen the prophets, headed by David their king, while on either side St. Catherine [150] and St Dominic adore the vision of the mother of God. The Byzantine influence, on the other hand, may be seen in the Greek type of feature and long, slender fingers.

567. CHRIST ON THE CROSS.

A ghastly and conventional work by one of the early Sienese painters—a pupil of Duccio.

568. THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN.

It was Cimabue who first attempted to represent action as well as contemplation. Giotto went farther, and represented the action of daily life. "Cimabue magnified the Maid; and Florence rejoiced in her Queen. But it was left for Giotto to make the queenship better beloved, in its sweet humiliation." This picture is not by the master himself, but it is characteristic—in its greater naturalness and resemblance to human life—of Giotto's work. Cimabue's picture (565) is felt in a moment to be archaic beside it. Giotto is thus the first painter of domestic life—the "reconciler of the domestic with the monastic ideal, of household wisdom, labour of love, toil upon earth according to the law of Heaven, with revelation in cave or island, with the endurance of desolate and loveless days, with the repose of folded hands that wait Heaven's time." The corresponding development in the direction of greater naturalness which Giotto—himself a country lad brought up amongst the hills and fields—introduced in the art of landscape painting cannot, unfortunately, be illustrated from the National Gallery (see on this point Edinburgh Lectures on Architecture and Painting, ch. iii.). But a third development—the introduction, namely, of portraiture—is well seen in the Heads of St. John and St. Paul (276), a work in which Giotto's influence is very marked. There is no longer a mere adoption of conventional types: these apostles are individual portraits. "Before Cimabue, no beautiful rendering of human form was possible; and the rude or formal types of the Lombard and[Pg 281] Byzantine, though they would serve in the tumult of the chase, or as the recognised symbols of creed, could not represent personal and domestic character. Faces with goggling eyes and rigid lips might be endured, with ready help of imagination, for gods, angels, saints, or hunters—or for anybody else in scenes of recognised legend; but would not serve for pleasant portraiture of one's own self, or of the incidents of gentle, actual life. And even Cimabue did not venture to leave the sphere of conventionally reverenced dignity. He still painted—though beautifully—only the Madonna, and the St. Joseph, and the Christ. These he made living—Florence asked no more: and 'Credette Cimabue nella pintura tener lo campo.' But Giotto came from the field; and saw with his simple eyes a lowlier worth. And he painted the Madonna, and St. Joseph, and the Christ,—yes, by all means, if you choose to call them so, but essentially,—Mamma, Papa, and the Baby. And all Italy threw up its cap—'ora ha Giotto il grido' (now Giotto has the cry)." A fourth development which the art of painting owes to Giotto may be well seen in this picture. Notice the pretty passages of colour, as, for instance, in the dresses of the angels. "The Greeks had painted anything anyhow,—gods black, horses red, lips and cheeks white; and when the Etruscan vase expanded into a Cimabue picture, or a Tafi mosaic, still—except that the Madonna was to have a blue dress, and everything else as much gold on it as could be managed—there was very little advance in notions of colour. Suddenly Giotto threw aside all the glitter, and all the conventionalism; and declared that he saw the sky blue, the tablecloth white, and angels, when he dreamed of them, rosy. And he simply founded the schools of colour in Italy" (Mornings in Florence, pt. ii.).

569. AN ALTAR-PIECE.

"In San Piero Maggiore," says Vasari in his life of Orcagna, "he executed a rather large picture, the 'Coronation of the Virgin.'" This is the picture now before us. The principal portion is numbered 569. The other nine pictures (570-578) were originally portions of the same magnificent piece of decoration. A model of the church for which it was painted is held by St. Peter (among the saints adoring on the spectator's left). This altar-piece, though a handsome piece of church furniture, is not so favourable a specimen of the master's power as are the works referred to above. Nevertheless these panels are full of varied interest.

A certain quaint uncouthness should not blind us to Orcagna's wealth of expressive detail. Thus, "in the sensitive cast of the Mother's countenance, and in the refined pose of her figure,[Pg 283] there is a rare degree of eloquence, such as silently bespeaks a modesty which would shun, a humility which would disallow, any sort of self-adornment. Her Lord, to whose will she submits herself, is no less monumental in dignity of combined power and tenderness. And in the celestial band below, in the maidens that play and sing at the Mother's feet, despite their quaint little almond eyes, there is a naïveté of expression, a simplicity and animation unequalled at so early a date. In particular she who, singing behind the harpist, generously spends her soul in impassioned songs, while others, agreeable to nature's truth, are singing regardless of their song, interested only in what is around. Again, in that dual company of holy men and women sitting about the throne, reverence stills every feature, and a saintly singleness of purpose keeps each eye as they look in loving adoration on Him whose dying bought their soul's salvation, or as they lean towards Her whose human heart petitioned them to Paradise" (A. H. Macmurdo in Century Guild Hobby Horse, ii. 34). In the Hobby Horse (a different publication, No. 1, 1893), a musical expert calls attention to the instruments shown by Orcagna. Thus "in the central compartment note the portative organ, at that time in familiar use, with its gimlet-shaped keys all of one light colour, and apparently, even in that early date, chromatic in disposition. Five large drone pipes may be recognised, from their being out of scale with the melody pipes. The second instrument in the angelic band is the mediæval harp, the comb holding the wrest, or tuning, pins being held here in an animal's mouth. A third angel is furnished with a cither, also a favourite mediæval instrument. It is ornamented in ebony and ivory, and has a plectrum guard inserted in the belly, as in a modern mandoline. The fourth angel has a viol of a clumsy form; it took another 200 years to arrive at the graceful outline of the violin. The fifth has a psaltery. One angel has a bagpipe; the chaunter or melody pipe has eight holes, the same number the highland bagpipe has now." Variations of these instruments may be noted in the subordinate pictures (A. J. Hipkins). An expert in another art calls attention to the beauty of the patterns on the dresses of the central figures, on the ground upon which the angels kneel and stand, and also on the stuff hung at the back of the throne (Sydney Vacher: Italian Ornaments from brocades and stuffs found in pictures in the National Gallery).

570-2. THE TRINITY, WITH ANGELS ADORING.

One may notice here one of Orcagna's limitations. "He was unable to draw the nude. On this inability followed a coldness to the value of flowing lines, and to the power of unity in composition; neither could he indicate motion or buoyancy in flying or floating figures" (On the Old Road, i. § 78). Compare especially the flying angels in the two little pictures 571 and 572, with such figures as those by Botticelli (1034), and it will be seen at once how inferior Orcagna's knowledge was.

573-5. THE NATIVITY, ADORATION, AND RESURRECTION.

These panels are very rude and "conventional": nothing can be more absurd, for instance, than the sleeping sheep and shepherds at the top of the Nativity; but they are interesting, if only by comparison with later pictures of the same subjects. Such a comparison shows how constant the traditional ways of representing these events were, and how individual choice was shown in beautifying the traditions. From this point of view the Nativity is specially interesting. "This beautiful little picture," says Mr. Hodgson, R.A., "is a good example of the simplest and most perfectly symbolical treatment of the subject. In design and composition the painter has thought only how to convey the story with the utmost clearness and simplicity. It is what it was intended to be, a Scripture story made visible to those who could not read. Naturalism, i.e. the actual representation of the aspect of nature, is not thought of, no more at least than was necessary to make the meaning of the painted symbol equivalent to that of the word: rock for rock, ox for ox, and ass for ass. The degree of naturalism aimed at in such scenes can be tested pretty accurately by the treatment of the nimbus. A flat circular expanse of gold inserted into a picture must necessarily be destructive of all illusion—it is treated as a symbol, a thing non-existent, but as a necessary traditional observance. When naturalism was aimed at, the nimbus was looked upon as an actual existing corona of golden light which[Pg 285] the saint carried about with him, and it was drawn in perspective, according to the turn of his head" (Magazine of Art, 1890, p. 39). Turn next to the Nativity by Piero della Francesca (908)—a picture painted 100 years later. The symbolism is already mixed up with some conscious striving after objects beautiful in themselves. To a generation later still belongs Botticelli's "Nativity" (1034). It is full, as we shall see, of doctrinal symbolism, but it strikes the imagination also by the pomp and pageantry of the angelic host, and appeals to the senses by its flowing lines and gorgeous colourings. Yet in all these pictures of the Nativity there are certain fixed elements. One feature never absent is the introduction of the ox and the ass, suggested by a text from Habakkuk, iii. 4, "He shall lie down between the ox and the ass." A second point is that Joseph "sits apart, apparently weary or in meditation. Great care seems to have been taken to suggest that he in a certain sense held aloof, and was no participator in the interest of the scene; it was feared, perhaps, that were he to exhibit joy and surprise, it might convey the idea of paternity; he is always a mere impassive spectator." The scene of the Nativity is in the earliest pictures always represented as a cavern; a grotto at Bethlehem is to this day revered as the actual spot. In Margaritone's picture (564) we have a bare cave in the rock. In Orcagna's the cave remains, but a wooden portico or shed is added to shelter the Virgin and her Child. Next the cave disappears altogether, but the shed remains (e.g. 908, 1034).

The Adoration of the Magi (574) was a favourite subject with the Italian painters, for the three kings and their attendants gave them an excuse for the most elaborate and picturesque detail. In the picture before us Orcagna was restricted by the size and shape of the panel; but even making the necessary allowances on this score, we see that we have here a relatively simple treatment of the theme. Orcagna finds room, however, for "a perfect menagerie. There are the sheep, with a howling dog above; and below, an evil, badger-like dog, evidently much ashamed of himself and his deeds, is sneaking along into a hole in the rock. As for the amiable ox sitting upon his haunches, with his tail turned round like a cat's, and the shy ass, showing the whites of his eye: are they not delightful beauties?" (The Beasts of the National Gallery, by Sophia Beale, in Good Words, July 1895). For the rest,[Pg 286] Orcagna's "Adoration" is limited to the necessary characters. By way of contrast, look at Filippino Lippi's (1033), in which some seventy figures are introduced, and the whole picture is alive with gay colours and picturesque incident. Other representations of the same subject in our Gallery are by Fra Angelico (582), Foppa (729), Dossi (640), Peruzzi (167), and Veronese (268). A study of similarities and differences in these various examples will disclose an immense number of coincidences. The type survives, but each feature is the subject of elaborate variations.

576. THE THREE MARIES AT THE SEPULCHRE.

Mary Magdalen, Mary the mother of James, and Salome stand beside the vacant tomb (Mark xvi. 1); on the opposite side are two angels: "he is risen, he is not here, behold the place where they laid him." This subject, common with the earliest painters, is afterwards seldom met with.

577. THE ASCENSION.

This was a subject in which Giotto made a new departure. None of the Byzantine or earliest Italian painters ventured to introduce the entire figure of Christ in this scene. They showed the feet only, concealing the body; according to the text, "a cloud received Him out of their sight." This form of representation may be seen in some manuscripts in the British Museum. In the Arena at Padua, Giotto broke away from this tradition and introduced the entire figure of Christ; succeeding also in conveying the idea of ascending motion very skilfully. Orcagna's picture is modelled on the new type fixed by Giotto.

578. THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

The descent of the Holy Spirit is represented above; and below, the multitude confounded, every man hearing his own language.

579. THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.

In the centre is John the Baptist, baptizing Christ; on the left St. Peter, on the right St. Paul. In the pictures for the predella (the step on the top of the altar, thus forming the base of the altar-piece) is a saint at either end; and then, on the left, (1) the angel announcing the Baptist's birth, (2) his birth, (3) his death, (4) Herod's feast, and (5) Herodias with John the Baptist's head in a charger. The picture must have been the work of an inferior scholar; but it is interesting to notice that this attempt to tell a consecutive story in his picture, as in an epic poem, instead of a fastening on some one turning-point in it, as in a drama, is characteristic of early art (see under 1188). Notice further in the central picture "how designedly the fish in the water are arranged: not in groups, as chance might rule in the actual stream, but in ordered procession. All great artists ... have shown this especial delight in ordering the relations of self-set details" (A. H. Macmurdo in Century Guild Hobby Horse, i. 71).

579a. PARTS OF AN ALTAR-PIECE.

These three panels formed the cuspidi of the Baptism of Christ (579). In the centre is the Almighty, on the left the Virgin, on the right Isaiah, holding a scroll with the words (in Latin), "Behold a virgin shall conceive."

580, 580a and b. THE ASCENSION OF ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST.

Another of the altar-pieces (cf. 579, above), which aimed at giving the whole story of some subject, and thus recall the time when sacred pictures were (as it has been put) a kind of "Scripture Graphic." In the predella pictures (580b) are, on[Pg 288] the left, (1) St. John distributing alms and baptizing, (2) his vision of Revelation in the island of Patmos, (3) his escape from the cauldron of boiling oil; and then, as the subject of the principal picture, his ascension to heaven, for, "according to the Greek legend, St. John died without pain or change, and immediately rose again in bodily form and ascended into heaven to rejoin Christ and the Virgin." In the central picture, Mr. Gilbert finds "a glimpse of true landscape feeling in the brown platform of rock, carefully gradated in aerial perspective, in the colouring, coarse though it be, and especially in the long dark sea-line beyond" (Landscape in Art, p. 184). In the other small pictures and in the pilasters are various saints, and immediately over the central picture are (1) the gates of hell cast down, (2) Christ risen from the dead, (3) the donor of the picture and his family, being presented by the two St. Johns. Of the cuspidi, or upper pictures (580a), the centre piece is a symbolic representation of the Trinity (seen best on a large scale in 727); at the sides are the Virgin and the Angel of the Annunciation, divided as explained under 1139.

581. A GROUP OF SAINTS.

Certainly not an adequate, and perhaps not an authentic, specimen of the master. The saints are St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, and St. James the Greater.

582. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

For the subject see notes on No. 574. Angelico's picture is remarkable for the picturesque and sparkling costumes. "The art of Angelico," says Ruskin, "both as a colourist and a draughtsman, is consummate; so perfect and beautiful, that his work may be recognised at any distance by the rainbow play and brilliancy of it. However closely it may be surrounded by other works of the same school, glowing with enamel and gold, Angelico's may be told from them at a glance, like so many pieces of opal lying among common marbles" (Stones of Venice, vol. i. app. 15).

683. THE ROUT OF SAN ROMANO.

A picture of great interest in itself, both from a technical and from a moral point of view, and also deserving of note in the history of painting. (1) It shows the beginning of scientific "perspective" (i.e. the science of representing the form and dimensions of things as they really look, instead of as we conceive them by touch or measurement to be); the painter is pleased with the new discovery, and sets himself, as it were, the hardest problem in perspective he can find. Note the "foreshortening" of the figure on the ground (objects are said to be "foreshortened" when viewed so that we see their[Pg 290] breadth, and not their length—for example, the leg of Titian's Ganymede in No. 32). So devoted was Paolo to his science that he became (says Vasari) more needy than famous. His wife used to complain to her friends that he sat up all night studying, and that the only answer she ever got to her remonstrances was, "What a delightful thing is this perspective!" The sculptor Donatello is also said to have remonstrated with our painter: "Ah, Paolo, with this perspective of thine, thou art leaving the substance for the shadow." Paolo was fond, too, of geometry, which he read with Manetti. He had another and a softer passion: he was so fond of birds that he was called Paul of the Birds ("Uccelli"—his family name being Paolo di Dono), and he had numbers of painted birds, cats, and dogs in his house, being too poor to keep the living creatures. (2) This picture is remarkable, secondly, as the earliest Italian work in the Gallery containing portraits, and the first which endeavours to represent a contemporary event.

Our picture has hitherto been supposed to represent the battle of Sant' Egidio (1417) in which Carlo Malatesta and his nephew Galeazzo were taken prisoners by Braccio di Montone, lord of Perugia. Other battle-pieces belonging to the same series are in the Uffizi and the Louvre respectively; and it has been shown by Mr. Herbert P. Horne (Monthly Review, October, 1901) that these are the three pictures of the "Rout of San Romano," painted by Uccello for the palace of Cosimo de' Medici, as described in an inventory of 1492. The principal figure is Niccolo Maurucci da Tolentino, the leader of the Florentine forces, directing the attack against the Sienese at San Romano in 1432. "He is represented on horseback fully armed, except for his helmet, with the baton of command in his right hand. He wears on his head a rich cappuccio, or head-dress, of gold and purple damask; while his bascinet, covered with purple velvet, is carried by his helmet-bearer, who rides by his side [the 'young Malatesta' of previous descriptions]. Above the figure of Tolentino waves his standard powdered with his impress, the 'groppo di Salomone,' a knot of curious and intricate form, in a white field." The impress may be seen again, as Mr. Horne points out, in the memorial portrait of Tolentino by Andrea del Castagno in the Cathedral of Florence.

From the moral point of view, we may see in this picture, says Ruskin, what a gentleman's view of war is, as distinguished from a boor's, with mean passion and low fury on every face.[Pg 291] "Look at the young Malatesta,[151] riding into the battle of Sant' Egidio. His uncle Carlo, the leader of the army, a grave man of about sixty, has just given orders for the knights to close: two have pushed forward with lowered lances, and the mêlée has begun only a few yards in front; but the young knight, riding at his uncle's side, has not put his helmet on, nor intends doing so yet. Erect he sits, and quiet, waiting for his captain's order to charge; calm as if he were at a hawking party, only more grave; his golden hair wreathed about his proud white brow, as about a statue's" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. viii. § 9). Another point to notice is the type this picture affords of "the neglect of the perfectness of the earth's beauty, by reason of the passions of men. The armies meet on a country road beside a hedge of wild roses; the tender red flowers tossing above their helmets, and glowing between the lowered lances." In like manner, adds Ruskin, in the Middle Ages, when men lived for safety in walled cities, "the whole of Nature only shone for man between the tossing of helmet-crests; and sometimes I cannot but think of the trees of the earth as capable of a kind of sorrow, in that imperfect life of theirs, as they opened their innocent leaves in the warm spring-time, in vain for men; and all along the dells of England her beeches cast their dappled shade only where the outlaw drew his bow, and the king rode his careless chase" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. vi. ch. i. § 6).

585. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

This picture has been dethroned by Sir Edward Poynter from the high estate which it occupied in the catalogues of former directors, wherein it figured as a portrait by Piero della Francesca (see 665) of Isotta di Rimini, the wife of Sigismondo Malatesta. Our portrait "bears little resemblance," says the official catalogue, "to the well-known medallion portraits of that lady by Matteo de' Pasti." It is, says Dr. Richter, "an indifferent production, inferior to the master in outline, as well as in the execution of the ornamental parts. It may have been done by any forgotten painter of the time" [Pg 292](Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 17). "The curious stippled execution has little or nothing in common with the subtle technique of Piero" (Claude Phillips in the Academy, September 28, 1889). It is, however, interesting for its study of fashions of the time. Notice the high forehead and the sleeves and ornaments of the lady's gown.

586. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED.

A characteristic production of a school which, "orderly and obedient itself, understood the law of order in all things, which is the chief distinction between art and rudeness. And the first aim of every great painter is to express clearly his obedience to the law of Kosmos, Order, or Symmetry" (Fors Clavigera, 1876, p. 292). The four angel-faces on one side of the Madonna are matched by four on the other; the bishop and black monk on one side-compartment, by the saint and black nun on the other. Similarly at the foot of the throne the two angels are arranged symmetrically, one facing one way, the other the other. "You will at first be pained by the decision of line, and, in the children at least, uncomeliness of feature, which are characteristic, the first, of purely descended Etruscan work; the second, of the Florentine School headed afterwards by Donatello. But it is absolutely necessary, for right progress in knowledge, that you begin by observing and tracing decisive lines; and that you consider dignity and simplicity of expression more than beauty of feature" (Fors Clavigera, 1875, p. 308).

589. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.

Combined with Lippi's realism of representation, "there is also an unusually mystic spiritualism of conception. Nearly all the Madonnas, even of the most strictly devotional schools, themselves support the child, either on their knees or in their arms. But here the Christ is miraculously borne by an angel" (Fors Clavigera, 1875, p. 308).

590. A PIETÀ.

It is interesting to compare the various representations of the Dead Christ, or Pietà, which may be seen in the National Gallery. The subject, it may first be noted, was treated in very different ways. "Convention did not early harden down into fixity of composition or crystallise into rigid forms. A certain plasticity of imagination was permitted from the beginning; a certain indefiniteness of nomenclature and scope remained habitual to the end" (Grant Allen: see also Mrs. Jameson's History of our Lord, ii. 226). Sometimes the subject of the "Pietà" is the Mater Dolorosa, weeping over the body of the dead Saviour, and attended by saints (266, 1427) or angels (180). At other times the dead Saviour is supported by angels only (22, 219, 602), or, as in this picture, by saints. Sometimes the dead figure is represented lying at full length (22, 180); at other times it is a half-figure showing above a tomb or ledge (219, 266, 602, 590, 1427). Still more interesting is a comparison between these pictures for the illustration it gives of the different sentiment of different painters or schools. The picture before us is hard and dry; that of Crivelli (602) is full of tenderness. With some painters it is the physical horror, the bodily distortion that appeals to them in this subject. With others it is the pity and the sorrow (as, pre-eminently, in Francia's, 180).

591. THE RAPE OF HELEN.

The earliest picture in the Gallery which was painted for domestic pleasure, not religious service. One of the earliest also in which a classical subject is attempted. It probably formed the end of a coffer or cassone,[152] such as were often given for wedding presents, and was no doubt a commission to the artist for that purpose. Hence the choice of subject (which has been variously given as the Rape of Helen and the Rape of the Venetian Brides), and the (surely intentional) comic extravagance of the drawing: the bridegroom takes giant's strides in lover's eagerness, and the ships scud along with love to speed them. The ludicrous unreality of the rocks and trees, contrasted with the beautifully painted flowers of the foreground, is very characteristic of the art of the time (cf. 283 and 582). Rocks, trees, and water are all purely "conventional" still; and "the most satisfactory work of the period is that which most resembles missal painting, that is to say, which is fullest of beautiful flowers and animals scattered among the landscape, in the old independent way, like the birds upon a screen. The landscape of Benozzo Gozzoli is exquisitely rich in incident of this kind" (Edinburgh Lectures on Architecture and Painting, ch. iii.).

592. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

This picture, with its immense retinue of followers, is "full of [Pg 295]life and swarms with incident and expression, from the dignified gravity of St. Joseph to the fantastic humour of the dwarf. No two figures are alike, except perhaps the two shepherds who are approaching from the right, and they are different from all the rest" (Monkhouse).

593. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

594. THE "HOLY MONEY-DESPISERS."

This picture is the earliest in the Gallery (with the exception of the Greek portraits, see 1260)—not in order of time, but in order of artistic development. It is a genuine Byzantine picture, an example, therefore, of the art which prevailed in Italy from the sixth century down to about 1250, and the influence of which survived even when the Italian painters had developed an art of their own. The Byzantine style of painting is distinguished by its conventionality and its constancy. It was the recognised thing that such and such a subject should be treated in such and such a way and no other. There is a Byzantine Manual of Painting in a manuscript of the eleventh century in which instructions are given not only as to the subjects to be represented, but as to the costume, age, and lineaments of the characters. An art of this kind was naturally unchanging. This picture is probably only 200 years old, but if it had been painted 800 years ago, or if it had been ordered only the other day from the monks of Mount Athos, little difference of style would be perceptible. It is signed in Greek "The hand of Emmanouel, the priest, son of John," a painter living in Venice about the year 1660.

The picture is conventional in its choice of subject—the saints Cosmas and Damian being one of the subjects recognised in Byzantine art. They were martyrs of the fourth century—patron saints of medicine, which they practised without fees—hence their title, the "holy money-despisers." They are here receiving the Divine blessing. The picture is conventional also in its treatment. Thus the attitude of the hand is the recognised symbol whereby to express that a figure is speaking. So, too, the background is formed by a golden plain, which is meant to represent the air or the sky. The dark blue semicircle surrounding the bust of our Saviour, above the two heads of the saints, has more or less the form of the horizon, and is meant to represent the heaven in which Christ dwells (Richter's Italian Art, etc., pp. 5-7).

595. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

One of the many pictures in the Gallery from which the so-called "æsthetic" or "high art" gowns of the present day have been copied. Formerly ascribed to Battista Zelotti, a disciple of Paul Veronese.

596. THE ENTOMBMENT OF CHRIST.

This picture, originally of a semicircular shape, was the lunette of an altar-piece, painted in 1506 for the Cathedral of Forli, and now in the Gallery of that town. To the spectator's right is San Mercuriale, first bishop of Forli, holding the Guelphic banner of the church; on the left, San Valeriano with the standard of Forli.

597. "ST. VINCENTIUS FERRER."

"Our beautiful panel is, for its size, as characteristic and fine a specimen of the master as exists. The painting throughout is of fine quality, the modelling and expression of the head admirable, the colour strong and fine, but soft withal, and the abundant detail executed with great skill and patience, but kept in due subordination. The strange background, with its fantastic erections, half architecture half rock, is of less beauty, but equally characteristic of the artist" (Monkhouse: In the National Gallery, p. 167). The picture, once ascribed to Marco Zoppo, has been now recognised as the central panel of an altar-piece by Cossa, of which the wings are in the Brera at Milan, and the predella is in the Picture Gallery of the Vatican. The Dominican represented has at various times been supposed to be St. Dominic himself, St. Vincentius Ferrer, and St. Hyacinth. The predella pictures are of scenes in the life of St. Hyacinth, who therefore is probably the subject of our panel also. He was a member of the Dominican Order (whose habit he wears), a Pole by birth, and a missionary in Russia. St. Vincentius Ferrer was a Spaniard of Valencia, who in 1374, at the age of 17, entered the Dominican Order, died in 1419, and was canonised in 1455.

598. ST. FRANCIS WITH THE "STIGMATA."

The saint is here represented in glory; choirs of singing angels encompass him; for now "the wounds of his Master are his inheritance, the cross—sign not of triumph, but of trial, is his reward" (Mornings in Florence, i. 8, 13; iii. 64). Inscribed on the picture below are some lines from a Latin hymn to St. Francis, exhorting others to follow him, and to advance as he did the standards of their king ("Let those who depart out of Egypt follow him, and be united to him, in whom the standards of the King come forth for us in clear light").

The floating angels recall those by Botticelli, but the pupil's work is not here so good: these angels seem after all to be standing, Botticelli's to be indeed floating in thin air. Lippi, too, learnt no doubt from him the goldsmith's work, seen here in the indented background to the picture.

599. THE MADONNA OF THE MEADOW.

A very charming little picture, marred only by a certain insipidity in the expression of the Madonna—which contrasts markedly alike with the pathetic type of Bellini's early Madonnas (e.g. No. 288), and with the more stately type which he afterwards adopted (as in the altar-piece in the Academy at Venice). "The landscape is altogether interesting, and will well repay a long examination. The incident of the bird and the serpent should not be missed, and the Eastern sheep with the long ears and its stately attendant in the white burnous should be noted as an attempt to give some Oriental character to the scene" (Monkhouse: In the National Gallery, p. 220). "The exquisite opaline purity of its daylight, the delicacy and finish of every detail, the walls and towers of the little town serene in the rays of morning, and the mountain ranges, pure and lovely in definition—all these graces make the picture one of the joys of art" (Gilbert's Landscape in Art, p. 330).

This picture has at different times been given several different attributions, of which the most cautious was "School of Bellini." In earlier editions of the Official Catalogue it was ascribed to Basaiti (see 281); but now (1898) to Bellini. Sir Edward Poynter refers in support of this alteration to the close resemblance of the present picture to a signed work by[Pg 300] Bellini in the Giovanelli Palace at Venice, and, as regards the background, to No. 812 in our gallery. Sir Walter Armstrong (Notes on the National Gallery, p. 24) draws attention to the similarity in the baby's hands here and in 224, and would ascribe both pictures to Catena. The correct settlement of disputed points of attribution like this is highly important for the history of painting, but meanwhile the very fact of such disputes has a useful significance, as showing what is meant by the old "schools" of painting. Individual peculiarities are only discovered by minutest examinations; but beneath such differences there are in each school similarities of treatment and conception which come from common traditions and common teaching, and which cause critics of equal intelligence to attribute the same pictures to different masters of the school.

600. THE BLIND BEGGAR.

"A blind old man is standing in the sunshine by a church door: before him is a young girl, who is holding out her hand for alms to the passers-by; an old lady coming from the church is feeling in her pocket for a sou; some other figures are seen in the porch at their devotions before a crucifix. Painted at Antwerp, signed J. Dyckmans, 1853" (Official Catalogue). "The picture is painted in a tone of colour exceedingly low, but the whole is worked to an extreme finish; the heads in fact are elaborated with a care such as Denner's pictures show. In these days of light and glowing harmonies the eye is at once struck with the abstinence from colour which the artist has made a cardinal principle in the execution of his work" (Art Journal, July 1864). This picture was presented by Miss Jane Clark, who paid 900 guineas for it.

602. A "PIETÀ."

This little picture is part of an altar-piece formerly in a church at Monte Fiore, near Fermo: other portions are at Brussels. The picture is signed, but not dated; the piece of red watered silk which hangs over the edge of the tomb is characteristic of Crivelli's earlier period. Its prettily pathetic sentiment and brilliant tone make it one of the painter's most attractive works. For some remarks on the subject, see under 590.

621. THE HORSE FAIR.

"The magnificent stallions with their powerful forms pass before us at a trot, kicking up the dust under their feet. Full of life and movement, and thoroughly imbued with realism, but of a beautiful and noble realism. The composition is admirable, and brings out finely the energy and spirit of the horse. The scene represents the horses as having just reached the market, and as being in the act of falling back to re-form for their proper places. The fine trees in the background of the picture, under which, upon a rising ground, the dealers and buyers take up their position, are obscured on the left by the haze, and by the clouds of dust raised by the trotting horses; in the background, too, at the extreme left, is seen the small dome of the Salpêtrière. The Marché aux Chevaux of Paris was at that time situate in the Boulevard l'Hôpital,[Pg 304] not far from the Orleans railway; but in consequence of changes, the market has lost the picturesque aspect it wore in 1853. One looks in vain now for the large trees which then shadowed it, and the bold earth, covered in places by short dusty grass and broken up by the trampling of the horses.... A mingling of art and truth is very obvious in 'The Horse Fair.' The irregular order of the horses, their different movements bringing into play all their muscles; the different spots of their coats, so disposed as to set off one another, and furnishing at the same time a charming variety to the eye; the powerful dappled Perche horses, which pass in the foreground and constitute the centre of the picture, with the groups of black [154] and white horses which rear themselves up on their hind feet—all this shows a profoundly skilful arrangement, and results in a grand and harmonious ensemble. Yet the first impression which this picture gives is that of a scene taken from the life, and of intense realism. The freedom and breadth of the execution are equal to the beauty of the composition. The vigorous touch, and the powerful drawing also help to give this picture a spirited character and masculine vigour in perfect harmony with the subject it represents" (René Peyrol in the Art Annual on Rosa Bonheur). Ruskin, while bearing his testimony to the artist's power, calls attention to "one stern fact concerning art" which here detracts from her full success. "No painter of animals ever yet was entirely great, who shrank from painting the human face; and Mdlle. Bonheur does shrink from it.... In the 'Horse Fair,' the human faces are nearly all dexterously, but disagreeably, hidden, and the one clearly shown has not the slightest character. Mdlle. Bonheur may rely upon this, that if she cannot paint a man's face, she can neither paint a horse's, a dog's, nor a bull's. There is in every animal's eye a dim image and gleam of humanity, a flash of strange light through which their life looks out and up to our great mystery of command over them, and [Pg 305]claims the fellowship of the creature, if not of the soul.[155] I assure Mdlle. Bonheur, strange as the words may sound to her, after what she has been told by huntsmen and racers, she has never painted a horse yet. She has only painted trotting bodies of horses" (Academy Notes, etc. 1858, p. 32).

The original of this famous composition—probably the best-known and most popular animal picture of our epoch—was exhibited in the Salon in 1853. The painter had been engaged on it for a long time, and had made innumerable studies for it. She used to call it "her Parthenon Frieze." It was sold to Mr. Gambart, the picture-dealer, who brought it to England. It made a great sensation in London, and afterwards went on a provincial tour. It then travelled to America where it was sold, and is now in the New York Museum. Rosa Bonheur painted for Gambart two repetitions of it on a smaller scale. One of these, the picture before us, was bought by Mr. Jacob Bell, who bequeathed it to the nation in 1859. It was the first work by a living foreign painter to be admitted to the Gallery.

623. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED.

This picture, formerly the altar-piece of the Boccaferri chapel in S. Domenico at Bologna, is signed by the painter and is mentioned by Vasari (iii. 287) as "the best of his works: it represents the Madonna with numerous saints (Joseph, James, and Paul), and contains the portrait of the person by whom the painter was commissioned to execute the work." Girolamo, who, as we have seen, was a man of travel, "did not remain faithful to the tradition of art as professed at Venice and Treviso, and might be called rather a forerunner of the eclectic schools.... The head of St. Paul is apparently copied from Raphael's picture of St. Cecilia in Bologna. In the types of other figures, in the colouring and in the landscape, we perceive the influence of Dosso Dossi and of Garofalo" (Richter's Italian Art, etc. p. 87).

624. THE INFANCY OF JUPITER.

An illustration of the classic myth of the infancy of Jupiter, who was born in Crete and hidden by his mother, Rhea, in order to save him from his father Saturn ("all-devouring Time"), who used to devour his sons as soon as they were born, from fear of the prophecy that one of them would dethrone him. In the background are the Curetes "who, as the story is, erst drowned in Crete that infant cry of Jove, when the young band about the babe in rapid dance, arms in hand to measured tread, beat brass on brass, that Saturn might not get him to consign to his devouring jaws" (Lucretius, Munro's translation, ii. 629). This picture has been much admired by artists. Samuel Palmer, the friend of William Blake, wrote of it: "By the bye, if you want to see a picture bound by a splendid imagination upon the fine, firm, old philosophy, do go and look at the Julio Romano (Nursing of Jupiter) in the National Gallery. That is precisely the picture Blake would have revelled in. I think I hear him say, 'As fine as possible, Sir! It is not permitted to man to do better!'" (Memoir of Anne Gilchrist, p. 59). Elsewhere Palmer proposed to a friend as a compact test of taste the question: "Do I love the Julio Romano in the National Gallery?" (Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer, p. 250). Another distinguished artist, John Linnell, was also a great [Pg 308]admirer of the picture. He strongly urged its purchase for the National Gallery, declaring it to be "full of beauty and without any alloy" (Story's Life of Linnell, ii. 123).

625. AN ALTAR-PIECE.

The principal figure is St. Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444). He was one of the most celebrated preachers of his time: hence the words on the open book which he is represented as holding in his left hand, "Father, I have manifested thy name to men." The Gospel which he preached was "Salvation through Jesus Christ": hence the circle in his right hand with the Latin monogram "I.H.S." (Jesus the Saviour of mankind). He came of a noble family, but the secret of his power was his determination to live amongst the poor ones of the earth: hence at his feet are mitres inscribed with the names of the three cities of which he refused the bishoprics. The attendant saints are Sts. Jerome, Joseph, Francis (to whose order Bernardino belonged), and Nicholas of Bari. Above is a vision of the only crown to which St. Bernardino aspired—the company of the saints, the Virgin and Child, St. Catherine, and St. Clara. Into the pervading expression of simple and humble piety the artist has put, perhaps, something of his own character; for he was a man of great personal piety, and he is said to have always prepared himself (like Fra Angelico before him) by prayer and fasting for any important work of sacred art. Something, too, of this ascetic ideal may be seen in the attenuated figures of his saints.

"In those who already know Moretto, this altar-piece will," says Mr. Pater, "awake many a reminiscence of his art at its best. The three white mitres, for instance, grandly painted towards the centre of the picture, at the feet of St. Bernardino, may remind one of the great white mitre which, in the genial picture of St. Nicholas, in the Miracoli at Brescia, one of the children, who as delightfully unconventional acolytes accompany their beloved patron into the presence of the Madonna, carries along so willingly, laughing almost, with pleasure and pride, at his part in so great a function. In the altar-piece at the National Gallery those white mitres form the keynote from which the pale, cloistral splendours of the whole picture radiate. You see what a wealth of enjoyable colour Moretto,[Pg 309] for one, can bring out of monkish habits in themselves sad enough, and receive a new lesson in the artistic value of reserve" ("Art Notes in North Italy," in New Review, November 1890).

626. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.

This portrait was formerly ascribed in the Official Catalogue to Masaccio. The wish was perhaps father to the thought, for Masaccio is a very important person in the development of art (being the leader of the scientific movement in Florentine painting, and also "the first man," says Ruskin, "who entirely broke through the conventionality of his time and painted pure landscape"), and is not otherwise represented in the National Gallery. Mr. Wornum (the late Keeper) ascribed the portrait to Filippino Lippi; it is now ascribed to Botticelli, who was also distinguished in portrait-painting, which in his time was becoming increasingly fashionable. "The waving lines in the falling hair, and the drawing of the mouth, seem to leave no doubt that Botticelli alone is the author of this impressive, yet simple and unpretentious, likeness of an unknown Florentine" (Richter: Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 24).

627, 628. WATERFALLS.

Waterfalls are a speciality with the painter (the name Ruysdael appropriately signifies foaming water). "Ordinary running or falling water may be sufficiently rendered, by observing careful curves of projection with a dark ground, and breaking a little white over it, as we see done with judgment and taste by Ruysdael" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. v. ch. i. § 2). "Ruysdael's painting of falling water," adds Ruskin (ibid. §21), "is generally agreeable; more than agreeable it can hardly be considered. There appears no exertion of mind in any of his works; nor are they calculated to produce either harm or good by their feeble influence. They are good furniture pictures, unworthy of praise, and undeserving of blame." It is interesting to compare this damningly faint praise from Ruskin with the words of another critic. "Where is the traveller," asks M. Charles Blanc, "familiar with the impressive beauties of mountainous countries, who cannot find them in the pictures of Ruysdael? At the foot of those steep rocks how the water falls, foams, and writhes round the ruins it has brought down! It dashes forward from the right, from the left, and from the background of the picture towards the gulf which draws it in; it rushes down, I was going to say, with a hollow noise, for in fact one imagines one can almost hear it. We see it gliding down the slippery rocks, dashing against the rough bark of the trees, and gushing down the rugged bottom of the ravine. We fancy we feel the cold and humid spray falling on our faces.... But such is the power of genius, that after having seen in all its magnificent reality the spectacle which the artist has reproduced on a piece of canvas some few inches in magnitude, nature seems to us less grand and less startling than the work of Ruysdael."

629. MADONNA AND CHILD.

This picture (which is signed, and dated 1505) should be compared with the Perugino in the next room (288), for Lorenzo Costa has been called "the Perugino of Ferrara," and works of his are in many galleries wrongly attributed to Perugino. Every one will feel that there is a grace and a sweetness here which recalls Perugino. Lorenzo, too, has Perugino's fondness for a "purist" landscape (see 288); and note the curious device, peculiar to the Ferrarese School, by which he introduces it. The Madonna's throne is constructed in two parts, so that between the base and the upper part a vacant space is left, through which we look into the open air ("Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool"). One of Costa's weaknesses may be observed in the figures of the standing saints. "His figures are seldom planted firmly on the ground—a fault which he shared with Francia. The ill-understood folds of their garments obscure the form, and trail upon the ground in meaningless tags. This insensibility on the part of Costa to one of the noblest means of expression in art is remarkable, inasmuch as the works of Francesco Cossa might have set him an example of draperies carefully studied, true to fact, and often grandly disposed" (Burton).

630. MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS.

A picture of historical interest, as being the earliest in the Gallery of the Paduan School. Gregorio, the Sclavonian (i.e.[Pg 313] Dalmatian), though not, one must think, a very good artist, was proud of his master, and this picture is signed (on the little card below the throne) "the work of Schiavone, the pupil of Squarcione." That master's style was distinguished by its sculpturesque quality; and in the works of a somewhat clumsy pupil like Gregorio ("this Dalmatian clodhopper," Morelli calls him) one sees this tendency carried to excess; the outline of the Madonna's face here, and still more in 904, is quite grotesquely sharp. Another characteristic of the school is exemplified in both Gregorio's pictures—the choice, namely, of antique embellishments, of bas-reliefs, and festoons of fruit, in the accessories. Thus note here the bas-relief behind the Madonna's chair, and in 904 the festoons of fruit upon the arch.

631. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

By one of Bellini's pupils and imitators. Observe the rich dress of a Byzantine stuff embroidered with strange animals, such as one sees in the old mosaics at Venice. The lady wears too a long gold chain, as the Venetian women do to this day.

632, 633. TWO SAINTS.

634. THE MADONNA OF THE GOLDFINCH.

The Madonna here wears a graver expression than is common with Cima. There is the usual hilly background, with the ruins of a Roman temple introduced on the left.

635. THE "REPOSE."

The subject of this radiantly beautiful picture is the familiar "Repose" of the Holy Family during their flight into Egypt; "perfect serenity and repose" are the keynote of the composition. The introduction of St. John the Baptist, and St. Catherine [157] embracing the Holy Child, and in the distance the angel appearing to the shepherds, serve as the sign-manuals to mark the sacred subject. For the rest it is a simple domestic scene, laid amongst the hills of Titian's country, near Ceneda, on the way to Cadore:—

Mr. Gilbert makes another interesting remark, which may be verified in this picture with its flocks of sheep, as well as in 270, with its farm buildings:

The colour-scheme of this masterpiece is worth noting. It is in keeping with the effect of coolness and repose aimed at in the composition. "The dominant chord is composed by the cerulean blues of the heaven and of the Virgin's dress, the deep luscious greens of the landscape and the peculiar pale citron hue, relieved with a crimson girdle, of the robe worn by St. Catherine. With this exception there is not a trace of red in the picture. Contrary to almost universal usage, it might almost be said to orthodoxy, the entire draperies of the Virgin are of one intense blue. Her veil-like headgear is of a brownish-gray, while the St. Catherine wears a golden-brown scarf, continuing the glories of her elaborately dressed hair. The audacity of the colour-scheme is only equalled by its success; no calculated effort at anything unusual being apparent" (Claude Phillips: The Later Work of Titian, p. 10).

This picture, which is signed TICIAN, was formerly in the Sacristy of the Escurial; it has the Escurial mark on the back. A "Madonna with St. Catherine" by Titian is mentioned in a letter of 1530 written by Giacomo Malatesta to Federigo Gonzaga at Mantua. The reference is supposed by Crowe and Cavalcaselle to be to the "Vierge au Lupin" of the Louvre; but it may be to our picture (see Phillips: The Earlier Work of Titian, p. 82 n.).

636. "PORTRAIT OF A POET."

This picture was long ascribed to Titian; then for many years to Palma (of whom, therefore, some notice is here retained); now it has been restored by the officials to Titian. Others believe it to be the work of Giorgione (see below).

This fine portrait was formerly supposed to represent Ariosto (1474-1533), who was acquainted with Titian and commemorates him as one "who honours Cadore not less than Sebastiano del Piombo and Raphael honour Venice and Urbino." But the portrait bears little resemblance to the poet as he is known to us by authenticated likenesses. The title "Portrait of a Poet" is based partly on the character of the face, partly on the bush of laurel in the background. The evidence for the ascription to Palma is by no means conclusive (see Notes and Queries, Dec. 28, 1889). Mr. W. Fred Dickes has suggested—ingeniously, if not convincingly—that the portrait is of the famous "Liberator of Italy," Prospero Colonna (1464-1523), painted in 1500, when he was living in temporary retirement as a lay brother in a Benedictine monastery. Prospero is described as "tall in person, ruddy in countenance; his eyes were black, his beard reddish, and the locks of his hair of a chestnut character." The laurel would be appropriate to a victorious captain, no less than to a poet. Mr. Dickes ascribes the portrait to Giorgione (see Magazine of Art, March and April 1893). This ascription is accepted by Mr. Herbert Cook. "The conception is characteristic of Giorgione—the pensive charm, the feeling of reserve, the touch of fanciful imagination in the decorative accessories, but, above all, the extreme refinement.... Where can the like be found in Palma, or even[Pg 317] Titian? Titian is more virile in his conception, less lyrical, less fanciful; Palma, infinitely less subtle in characterisation" (Giorgione, p. 84).

637. DAPHNIS AND CHLOE.

Daphnis and Chloe, a shepherd and shepherdess, whose life and love were a favourite Greek story, are about to be crowned by Cupid with a wreath of myrtle.

638. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH SAINTS.

For more important pictures by this master, see 179 and 180. The saint with the palm-branch here will be recognised in one of the angels in 180.

639. "NOLI ME TANGERE!"

(For the subject see 270.) The three little pictures by Francesco (639, 1106, 1381) are all noticeable for their dainty detail, often selected for symbolic meaning. Thus, notice here the vine with purple grapes supported on a dead tree which hangs over the figure of Christ—an emblem of life and death. The vine is the most ancient of all symbols of Christ and his Church, being founded on His own words: "I am the vine, ye are the branches." On the other side a bird is seen defending its nest against a snake which has crept up the tree; on the left is a beehive.

640. ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

641. THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY.

A picture chiefly remarkable, like 169, for its accessories. Notice the ornamental sculpture, the paintings in imitation of bronze relievo, and the modelled plaster work on the walls.

642. CHRIST'S AGONY IN THE GARDEN.

It is interesting to compare this with other versions of the subject in the Gallery—e.g. 76, 726, 1417. What we may call the necessary component parts of the picture are all present—the angel with cup and cross, the sleeping apostles, a crowd[Pg 320] with torches approaching. But Garofalo's picture seems cold and unimaginative as compared with Correggio's, Bellini's, or Mantegna's.

643. THE CAPTURE OF CARTHAGENA.

In the upper compartment is represented the capture of New Carthage by the Roman general, Publius Cornelius Scipio, B.C. 210. He distinguished himself on that occasion by the generosity with which he treated the Spanish hostages kept there by the Carthaginians. This is the subject of the lower compartment. Among the hostages was a girl—hardly represented here as in the story, "so beautiful that all eyes turned upon her"—whom Scipio protected from indignity and formally betrothed to her own lover, who is here advancing to touch the great man's hand, and when they brought thank-offerings to Scipio, he ordered them, as we see here, to be removed again: "accept them from me," he said, "as the girl's dowry" (Livy, xxvi. ch. 50).

644. THE RAPE OF THE SABINES.

Romulus, the founder of Rome—so the story goes—had collected a motley crew of men about him, and demanded women from the neighbouring states wherewith to people his kingdom. And when they refused, he determined to take them by stratagem. He appointed a day for a splendid sacrifice, with public games and shows, and the neighbouring Sabines flocked with their wives and daughters to see the sight. He himself presided, sitting among his nobles, clothed in purple. As a signal for the assault, he was to rise, gather up his robe, and fold it about him. Many of the people wore swords that day, and kept their eyes upon him, watching for the signal, which was no sooner given than they drew them,[Pg 321] and, rushing on with a shout, seized the daughters of the Sabines, but quietly suffered the men to escape. This is the subject of the upper compartment of this picture. But afterwards the Sabines fought the Romans in order to recover their daughters. The battle was long and fierce, until the Sabine women threw themselves between the combatants and induced them to ratify the accomplished union with terms of friendship and alliance. This is the subject of the lower compartment—the intervention of the Sabine women in the right-hand part, the reconciliation in the left.

645. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

646. ST. CATHARINE.

This, and the companion picture (647), formerly deposited in the South Kensington Museum, were at the time of their purchase (in 1860) from the Beauconsin Collection "ascribed to Ridolfo Ghirlandajo."

647. ST. URSULA.

648. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

A pretty landscape background, with a ruin, and the angel appearing to the shepherds in the distance—the whole charmingly harmonious in its blue-grays. "A pure and simple-minded[Pg 322] man, Lorenzo delighted in pure, bright, and simple landscapes, in which one reads something of the gentle Angelico's feeling. Nature with Credi, as with the saint of Fiesole, must show no stain, no trouble, no severity, no sign of the transient. Far be it from him to introduce the jagged ranges that Leonardo reared upon his far, mysterious horizons. No, he must have all that is green and blue, and cheerful" (Gilbert's Landscape in Art, p. 225). With regard to the landscape backgrounds of the Italian painters, Mr. Mackail, in a letter to F. T. Palgrave (Journals and Memories, p. 256), raises the question "whether landscape painting has not lost as well as gained by being elevated from the background into the substance of a picture; whether, that is, the moral or human interest that is essential to all great art can exist in pure landscape painting without putting a greater strain on it than it will bear. Take, for instance, the landscape backgrounds of Lorenzo di Credi's pictures in the National Gallery, or of the great Perugino triptych. Have they not a moral or spiritual quality, as they stand in their place in the picture, that they can only have through this elusive (if one may say so) treatment?"

649. PORTRAIT OF A BOY.

This charming portrait was formerly attributed to Pontormo. Sir Edward Poynter, following Frizzoni, has transferred it to Bronzino. (See Arte Italiana del Rinascimento, p. 267.)

650. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

"In the rich costume of the sixteenth century," says the Official Catalogue,—and the picture therein resembles most portraits of the time. For it is a remarkable thing how much great art depends on gay and dainty gowns. Note first, in going round these rooms, how fondly all the best painters enjoy dress patterns. "It doesn't matter what school they belong to—Fra Angelico, Perugino, John Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoret, Veronese, Leonardo da Vinci—no matter how they differ in other respects, all of them like dress patterns; and what is more, the nobler the painter is, the surer he is to do his patterns well." Then note, as following from this fact, how much of the splendour of the pictures that we most admire depends on splendour of dress. "True nobleness of dress is a necessity to any nation which wishes to possess living art, concerned with portraiture of human nature. No good historical painting ever yet existed, or ever can exist, where the dresses of the people of the time are not beautiful; and had it not been for the lovely and fantastic dressing of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, neither French nor Florentine nor Venetian art could have risen to anything like the rank it reached" (see, e.g., under 294). And with regard to this nobleness of dress, it may be observed lastly how "the best dressing was never the costliest; and its effect depended much more on its beautiful and, in early times, modest arrangement, and on the simple and lovely manner of its colour, than on gorgeousness of clasp or embroidery" (Cambridge Inaugural Address, p. 11; A joy for ever, § 54).

651. AN ALLEGORY: "ALL IS VANITY."

Venus, crowned as Queen of Life, yet with the apple of discord in her hand, turns her head to kiss Cupid, whose[Pg 324] wings are coloured in Delight, but behind whom is the gaunt figure of Jealousy, tearing her hair. Folly, with one foot in manacles, and the other treading on a thorn, is preparing to throw a handful of roses—

A Harpy, the personification of vain desire and fitful passion, with a human face, but with claws to her feet and with a serpent's body, is offering in one hand a piece of honey-comb, whilst she holds her sting behind her in the other. In one corner, beneath the God of Love, doves are billing and cooing; but over against them, beneath Folly, there are masks showing the hideous emptiness of human passion. And behind them all is Time, with wings to speed his course and the hour-glass on his shoulders to mark his seasons, preparing to let down the veil which Pleasure, with grapes twined in her hair, and with the scowl of angry disappointment on her face, seeks in vain to lift—

This picture—in some ways harsh and vulgar—was originally painted for Francis I. of France. For a note on its crude colouring, see 270.

652. CHARITY.

The usual pictorial representation of Charity, as a woman surrounded by children and giving suck, is the same as Spenser's description of "Charissa"—

653. HUSBAND AND WIFE.

This picture, formerly ascribed to Roger van der Weyden, and called "The Painter and his Wife," is delightfully typical of the Flemish ideal both in man and woman—"the man shrewd and determined, the woman sweet and motherly." "They are not fine of figure nor graceful of limb, but, with hardly an exception, their faces tell us that they are men of tried capacity and learnt experience. Through the eyes of many of them glances a happy, childlike soul enough, but the mind is almost invariably a slow-moving, solid power ... and such as they, were the artists who painted them; they possessed the same industry, they admired the same qualities. The virtue of honest strength, which made the men of Flanders the merchant princes of Europe, was the virtue whose traces the artists of Flanders loved to observe.... They care little for mystery, little for pity, little for enthusiasm.... They love a man whose visage tells the strength of his character, who has weathered the buffetings of many a storm, and bears on his visage the marks of the struggle" (Conway's Early Flemish Artists, p. 104).

654. THE MAGDALEN.

Known for the Magdalen by the small vase at her feet—emblem, in all the religious painters, of the alabaster box of ointment—"the symbol at once of her conversion and her love." In these "reading Magdalens" she is represented as now reconciled to heaven, and magnificently attired—in reference to her former state of worldly prosperity. "It is[Pg 326] difficult for us, in these days, to conceive the passionate admiration and devotion with which the Magdalen was regarded by her votaries in the Middle Ages. The imputed sinfulness of her life only brought her nearer to them. Those who did not dare to lift up their eyes to the more saintly models of purity and holiness,—the martyrs who had suffered in the cause of chastity,—took courage to invoke her intercession" (Mrs. Jameson: Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 205). Hence the numerous Magdalens to be met with in nearly every picture gallery; in art decidedly there has been "more joy over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety-and-nine that need no repentance."

"This picture is undoubtedly by the unknown master who painted two remarkable panels formerly in the Abbey of Flémalle in Belgium, but now in the Städel Museum at Frankfort-on-Maine. They present respectively the standing figure of the Virgin with the Infant at her breast, and the figure of St. Veronica, as an elderly woman, holding before her the sacred napkin on which is the impression of our Lord's visage. These, and a third panel in the same museum, representing the Trinity, but, unlike the others, painted in monochrome, must have belonged to a large altar-piece in many compartments, of which it is quite possible the small picture above described may have formed one" (Official Catalogue). Mr. Claude Phillips, on the other hand, while admiring the delicate and exquisite colour of our picture and the enamel-like quality of its surface, sees in it no resemblance to the works described above (see Academy, Sept. 28, 1889).

655. THE READING MAGDALEN.

Notice the prettily designed cup in ivory and gold—symbolical of the box of precious ointment offered by the Magdalen to her Lord. For the subject see under last picture.

656: A MAN'S PORTRAIT.

The sitter here is of the Flemish national type, but the Italian influence may be seen in the Renaissance architecture of the background.

657. A DUTCH GENTLEMAN AND LADY.

Presumably a husband and wife—the donors, we may suppose, of an altar-piece. Their patron saints attend them. St. Peter lays his hand approvingly on the man's shoulder. The woman, as "the weaker vessel," seems to be supported by St. Paul. It should be noticed that in sacred and legendary art these two saints are almost always introduced together—St. Peter, with the keys, representing the church of the converted Jews, St. Paul that of the Gentiles: his common attributes are a book (denoting his Epistles), and a sword, signifying the manner of his martyrdom, and being emblematic also of "the good fight" fought by the faithful Christian with "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

658. THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN.

The "absolute joy in ugliness," which Ruskin finds most strongly exemplified in some of Schongauer's prints (Modern Painters, vol. iv. pt. v. ch. xix. § 18), is not altogether absent from this picture. A more unpleasant bedchamber, with its unseemly crowd of fat bustling apostles (notice the old fellow puffing away at a censer on the left), it would be hard to conceive. One is glad to escape through the open window to the pretty little view of the square.

659. PAN AND SYRINX.

The nymph Syrinx, beloved by Pan and flying from his pursuit, takes refuge among some bulrushes. The god, thinking to grasp her, finds only reeds in his hand—

He formed the reeds into a pipe, hence the name of Syrinx given to the "Pan's pipe," see 94. The background of this picture (which is executed on copper) is said to be by Jan Brueghel (for whom see 1287).

660. A MAN'S PORTRAIT.

661. THE MADONNA DI SAN SISTO.

A tracing from the original picture by Raphael at Dresden, by Jakob Schlesinger (1793-1855)—a Professor of Painting at Berlin.

663. THE RESURRECTION.

The weakness and the strength of the painter are alike well seen in this picture of Christ, with the banner of the resurrection surrounded by the Blessed. The representation of Christ Himself is weak and devoid of dignity; but what can be more beautiful than the surrounding angel choirs, "with the flames on their white foreheads waving brighter as they move, and the sparkles streaming from their purple wings like the glitter of many suns upon a sounding sea, listening in the pauses of alternate song for the prolonging of the trumpet blast, and the answering of psaltery and cymbal, throughout the endless deep, and from all the star shores of heaven" (Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. ii. ch. v. § 21).[159] No two of the 266 figures are alike in face or form, though each is perfect in grace and beauty.[160] In the central compartment the seraphim (red) are on Christ's right, the cherubim (blue) on His left. In the compartment to Christ's left are, amongst other patriarchs and [Pg 332]saints, Abraham with the sword, Noah with the ark, Moses with the tables of law, Aaron with his name on his mitre, and below them St. Agnes with the Lamb, and St. Catherine with her wheel. The martyrs bear palms in their hands; some wear wreaths of roses, others the crown of thorns. In the compartment to Christ's left are the Virgin, St. Peter with the keys, and the Evangelists. On the extreme ends on either side are those of the painter's brother Dominicans, in their black robes, who have joined the company of the "Blessed."

This picture was formerly the predella of an altar-piece in San Domenico at Fiesole. It was sold by the monks in 1826 to the Prussian Consul in Rome, from whose nephew it was purchased for our Gallery. "The price paid was £3500. The additional and incidental expenses, in consequence of the demands of the Roman Government before allowing the exportation, were unusually great. Those demands, ostensibly founded on the excellence and celebrity of the picture, were admitted to be partly also suggested by the state of the Papal finances." The British Consul finally paid £700 for the permission of exportation (Director's Report, 1861). The altar-piece to which our picture belonged remains sadly damaged in situ.

664. THE DEPOSITION IN THE TOMB.

This picture—"one of the most exquisite in feeling of the early Flemish school" (Poynter)—is full of sincere emotion. "Roger van der Weyden is especially known by his touching conception of some of the scenes of the Passion. He excelled in the lull of suppressed feeling. The picture of the Entombment by him in the National Gallery is as much more sad to the heart than the passionate Italian conception, as a deep sigh sometimes than a flood of tears. We could almost wish those mourners, with their compressed lips, red eyelids, and slowly trickling tears, would weep more—it would grieve us less. But evidently the violence of the first paroxysm of grief is over, and this is the exhaustion after it. The tide is ebbing as with all new sorrow, too soon to flow again. No finer conception of manly sorrow, sternly repressed, exists than in the heads of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who devote themselves the more strenuously to their task in order to conceal their grief. Strange that a painter of such exquisite refinement of feeling should adhere to so hideous a type of Christ as that which appears here" (Mrs. Jameson's History of our Lord, ii. 246). It is interesting to contrast the figure of Christ with that in Francia's picture (180). In painting such subjects the Italians of the best time endured the physical painfulness, the Northern temperament rejoiced in it. The painters in so doing were only meeting the wishes of their patrons. There is a contract, for instance, still in existence in which it is expressly stipulated that the form of our Lord in a picture ordered at Bruges shall be painted "in all respects like a dead man."

665. THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.

A picture of great interest from a technical point of view, as [Pg 336]showing an advancing skill, especially in perspective. The feet of Christ are finely "foreshortened"; the tops of the mountains are correctly reflected on the surface of the river in the foreground; in the middle distance there is a foreshortened view of a street leading to a fortified town, and the anatomy of the figure stripping himself for baptism is very carefully rendered. This very realistic figure of a convert strikes a curious note; Piero's paintings are "the working out of problems before our very eyes." In these technical respects Piero resembles Paolo Uccello, while there is also a striking affinity of style between the landscapes of the two painters. "The peculiar construction of these landscapes, with steep mountains of an uncommon type, is the more remarkable because they are the starting-point of all the later achievements in realistic landscape painting" (Richter's Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 16). "The study of natural phenomena," says Mr. Monkhouse, "is everywhere apparent. The pomegranate trees are the earliest attempt in the National Gallery to give what may be called the portrait of a particular tree—the habit of its growth, the special character of its leafage. The hedge in Uccello's 'Battle of St. Egidio' is the nearest approach to it. He has striven to imagine the scene as it actually might have happened. Sundry worthies, in strange rich costumes, look on from a further bank. Nothing is 'newer' in the picture than the carefully studied reflections of their garments in the water. The effect, so beautifully rendered by Burne-Jones in his picture of 'Venus's Looking-Glass,' Piero was the first to paint, if not to observe" (In the National Gallery, p. 106).

The subject is the baptism in Jordan. Christ, under the shade of a pomegranate tree, is being "baptized of John in Jordan; and straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him" (Mark i. 9, 10). The spiritual feeling of the scene is enhanced by the sweet presence of the attendant angels,—crowned with wreaths of flowers, instead of the nimbus. It is an old belief that angels watch over men's birth, and so too they are represented as presiding over the new birth, which is typified by the rite of baptism. "What solemnity in the bearing of Christ as He permits John to pour over Him the water of Jordan which is flowing in a shallow stream at his feet! How modest the deportment of the assistant angels at His side! How the trees, whose every leaf in the dense foliage[Pg 337] is distinctly outlined, seem even to hush their whispers that nothing may disturb the nearness of God, who looking down from heaven as out of the far distance, makes his presence felt" (Grimm's Life of Raphael, p. 46). This picture, which seems never to have been finished and shows the under-painting, was formerly the principal altar-piece of the Priory of St. John the Baptist at Borgo San Sepolcro.

666. THE ANNUNCIATION.

Here the traditional legend of the Annunciation is faithfully adhered to, and there is much "unusually mystic spiritualism of conception" in the dove, the Spirit of God, proceeding in rays of golden light from the hand of an unseen Presence; but the painter delights to elaborate also every element of human interest and worldly beauty. Note, for instance, the prettiness of the angel's face, the gracefulness of his figure, the sheen of his wings, and the dainty splendour of the Virgin's chamber.

667. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST AND SAINTS.

Lippi's general characteristics, noticed above under the companion picture (666), may again be seen here. The "other saints" are Sts. Francis (on the spectator's right, with the stigmata), Lawrence, and Cosmas; on the left Sts. Damianus, Anthony, and Peter Martyr—this last a particularly "human" saint. Lippi was a monk himself, and drew his saints in the human resemblance of good "brothers" that he knew. "I will tell you what Lippi must have taught any boy whom he loved. First, humility, and to live in joy and peace, injuring no man—if such innocence might be. Nothing is so manifest in every face by him as its gentleness and rest." It is characteristic of Lippi, too, that the saints should be represented sitting in so pretty a garden. Secondly,—"a little thing it seems, but was a great one,—love of flowers. No one draws such lilies or such daisies as Lippi. Botticelli beat him after[Pg 340]wards in roses, but never in lilies" (Ariadne Florentina, vi. § 9).

668. THE BEATO FERRETTI.

Gabriele Ferretti (to whose family Pope Pius IX. belonged) was Superior of the Franciscans in the March of Ancona, and died in 1456. Thirty years later his body was found incorrupt, and was deposited in a sarcophagus in the church of S. Francesco ad Alto at Ancona. It is conjectured that the present picture was painted for that church in commemoration of the discovery of the body. The artist shows us the holy man in enjoyment of the vision of the beatified. "The Beato (in Franciscan habit) 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 (surrounded by the Vesica glory, see No. 564). He has laid down his book, put off his sandals, and kneels in prayer and adoration.... The masterly treatment of the drapery, the perfection of the forms, the architecture, the sense of spaciousness in the landscape, all point to the maturity of Crivelli's art.... 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" (G. M. Rushforth: Carlo Crivelli, pp. 65, 87).

669. ST. SEBASTIAN, ST. ROCH AND ST. DEMETRIUS.

In the centre is St. Sebastian, tied to a tree, and pierced with arrows; whilst in the foreground is a cross-bow, lying uselessly. For the story is that Sebastian was a noble youth who was promoted to the command of a company in the Prætorian Guards by the Emperor Diocletian:

This legend was one of the special favourites with the[Pg 342] mediæval painters: "the display of beautiful form, permitted and even consecrated by devotion, is so rare in Christian representations, that we cannot wonder at the avidity with which this subject was seized" (ibid. p. 346). It is instructive to compare the noble use of the subject made in this picture, in which the great technical skill of the painter is subordinate to the beautiful display of a sacred legend, with the "St. Sebastian" of Pollajuolo (292), in which, as we have seen, the subject is used solely—and painfully—for the display of such skill. With St. Sebastian is here represented, on his left, his contemporary, St. Demetrius. He is clad in armour, for he also served under Diocletian, being Proconsul of Greece, and like St. Sebastian used his high office to preach Christ. On the other side is St. Roch (for whose legend see 735). He is a much later saint (about A.D. 1300), and is associated with St. Sebastian as another patron of the plague-stricken. Arrows have been from all antiquity the emblem of pestilence; and from the association of arrows with his legend, St. Sebastian succeeded in Christian times to the honours enjoyed by Apollo, in Greek mythology, as the protector against pestilence.

670. A KNIGHT OF ST. STEPHEN.

He wears the robes of his order (with a red cross bordered with yellow), an order established by Cosimo, Duke of Tuscany, and charged with the defence of the coasts against pirates. The knight is a good specimen of the courtier aristocracy with which Cosimo surrounded himself. The knights of St. Stephen afterwards won much honour by their prowess, but they were men of culture also: notice that this one holds a book in his hand, which rests on a table richly carved in the taste of the time. This portrait was presented to the nation by Mr. Watts, R.A.

671. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED

This fine picture was originally the principal altar-piece of the church of San Guglielmo (St. William) at Ferrara. Hence the introduction of that saint (on our left)—a beautiful face, into which the artist has put, one may think, all his local piety. The[Pg 343] saint is in armour, for William—the institutor of the hermit order of Guglielmites—was originally a soldier, and was "given," says one of his biographers, "unto a licentious manner of living, too common among persons of that profession." It was to escape from such temptations that he became a holy penitent, and fought thenceforward in mountain solitudes, as a soldier of Christ against the flesh and the devil. Beside him stands St. Clara, "the very ideal of a gray sister, sedate and sweet, sober, steadfast, and demure." She gazes on a crucifix, for she too had renounced the pomps and vanities of the world. Her wealth of golden hair was cut off, it is said, by St. Francis; her fortune she gave to hospitals, and herself became the foundress of the Order of "Poor Clares." St. Francis stands on the other side of the throne, and besides him is "good St. Anthony" (see under 776).

672. HIS OWN PORTRAIT.

"This portrait, dated 1640, describes the man well—strong and robust, with powerful head, firm and compressed lips and determined chin, with heavy eyebrows, separated by a deep vertical furrow, and with eyes of keen penetrating glance,—altogether a self-reliant man, who would carry out his own ideas, careless whether his popularity waxed or waned" (J. F. White in Encyclopædia Britannica).

673. "SALVATOR MUNDI."

Christ as the "Saviour of the World," stands with his finger on the edge of a parapet, giving the blessing and gazing into eternity. The picture, being dated 1465,[164] must have been [Pg 345]painted by Antonello in his twenty-first year. Both in conception and in the ruddy complexion peculiar to the school of Van Eyck (see 222 and 290) it suggests a Flemish influence. Notice also the pentimenti (or corrections): the right hand and border of the tunic were originally higher, and their forms, obliterated by the painter, have now in course of time disappeared. This again shows the hand of an experienced artist.

674. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

A splendid specimen of this painter's portraits, and a type of the face which meets one in nearly every Gallery of Europe; for Bordone, who had (as we have seen) a great vogue as a lady's portrait painter, had yet a way, says Ridolfi, of making such works appear more like fancy portraits than individual portraits. This one is of a girl of the Brignole family, aged eighteen, according to the inscription. In the Brignole Palace at Genoa (now the property of the town) are two magnificent portraits by Bordone. The type here is that of a cruel and somewhat sensual beauty—the eyes, especially, being, "like Mars, to threaten or command"—

Since the above note was written, Mr. H. Schütz Wilson has suggested, with some plausibility, that the portrait is of Bianca Cappello (1542-1587), "as pre-eminent in sumptuous voluptuous loveliness, as she was in the crime of her day in Italy." "In the deadly calm of the almost inscrutable lineaments of this remarkable portrait, in which charm and grace are shown behind so much that is terrible, so much that is earthly, sensual, devilish, in those awful eyes, and in that cruel 'red mouth, like a venomous flower,' we see, as I fancy," says Mr. Wilson, "not an obscure girl of a noble family of Genoa, but the counterfeit presentment of the romantically wicked Renaissance heroine, the fair and evil Grand Duchess of Tuscany" (Pall Mall Gazette, November 22, 1888).

679. THE PORTRAIT OF AN ASTRONOMER.

The sitter is conjectured to be an astronomer, from the globes on the table before him and from the look on his face as of a man dwelling among the clouds. The picture is signed, and dated 1652.

680. THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES.

Painted by Van Dyck from the large picture by Rubens at Mechlin, for an engraver to work from. "One of the too numerous brown sketches in the manner of the Flemish School, which seem to me rather done for the sake of wiping the brush clean than of painting anything. There is no colour in it, and no light and shade;—but a certain quantity of bitumen is rubbed about so as to slip more or less greasily into the shape of figures; and one of St. John's (or St. James's) legs is suddenly terminated by a wriggle of white across it, to signify that he is standing in the sea" (Art of England, p. 44). Ruskin notices the picture as an example of the art which was assailed by the Pre-Raphaelites. A word-picture of the same scene in the Pre-Raphaelite manner, with its literal and close realisation, will be found in Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. iv. § 16.

685. SHOWERY WEATHER.

686. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.

In front is a portrait of the donor of the picture. On the Virgin's left is St. George with the dragon—not a very dreadful dragon, either—"they do not hurt or destroy" in the peaceful gardens that Memlinc fancied. Notice how the peaceful idea is continued in the man returning to his pleasant home in the background to the left. The Virgin herself is typical of the feminine idea in early Flemish art. "It must be borne in mind that the people of the fifteenth century still lived in an age when the language of symbols was rich and widely understood.... The high forehead of the Virgin and wide arching brows tell of her intellectual power, her rich long [Pg 351]hair figures forth the fulness of her life, her slim figure and tiny mouth symbolise her purity, her mild eyes with their drooping eyelids discover her devoutness, her bent head speaks of humility. The supreme and evident virtue which reigns in all these Madonnas is an absolute purity of heart" (Conway's Early Flemish Painters, pp. 109, 110).

687. ST. VERONICA.

The subject of this picture is the compassionate woman whose door Christ passed when bearing his cross to Calvary. Seeing the drops of agony on his brow she wiped his face with her napkin, and the true image (Vera Icon: hence her name) of Christ remained miraculously impressed upon it—the Christ-like deed thus imprinting itself and abiding ever with her. The subject of the picture gives it a further historical interest as being suggestive of the mystics, the "Friends of God," as they called themselves, who were preaching in the Rhine Valley at this time, and under whose influence this early school of painting arose. "The mystic is one who claims to be able to see God with the inner vision of the soul. He studies to be quiet that his still soul may reflect the face of God"—even as did the cloth of St. Veronica (Beard's Hibbert Lectures).

690. "HIS OWN PORTRAIT."[166]

Browning's poem, in which he sets forth the pathos of the artist's life, is the best commentary on this beautiful portrait—so masterly in workmanship, so rich in suggestion of character. The real name of Andrea del Sarto—"Andrew of the Tailor," so called from his father's trade—was Andrea d'Agnolo: his monogram, formed of two inverted A's, may here be seen on the background to the left. The Italians called him "the faultless painter": faultless, they meant, in all the technical requirements of painting—

But men may be "faultily faultless"; and what he lacked was just the one thing needful—the consecration and the poet's dream, which lift many works by less skilful hands than his into the higher region of imaginative art—

And the self-reproach was not less bitter for the knowledge of "what might have been." There is a story that Michael Angelo visited his studio, and said afterwards to Raphael—

Yet Andrea himself too was once pricked on by kings. Two pictures of his had been sent to Francis I., who thereupon invited the painter to his court. And there for a time he worked and was honoured; but in the midst of it all he sat[Pg 354] reading the letters which Lucrezia, his wife, sent him to Paris. "You called me and I came home to your heart." It is her face which we see everywhere in Andrea's Madonnas, and if at any time he took his model from any other face, there was always a resemblance to hers in the painting—

But Lucrezia served as his model, not his ideal. She had been married before to a hatter, but was remarkable, says Vasari, who worked in Andrea's studio and had a grudge against her, "as much for pride and haughtiness, as for beauty and fascination."[167] And

It is in some such mood of communing with himself that we seem here to see the painter; yet there is a certain undercurrent of contentment below the look of melancholy. "The force of a beautiful face carries me to heaven": so sang Michael Angelo. Lucrezia dragged her husband down; his rivals overcame him—

691. "ECCE HOMO!"

602. ST. HUGO OF GRENOBLE.

The crozier shows him to be a bishop, and it is inscribed S. VGO. This is St. Hugo (died 1132), who was Bishop of Grenoble when St. Bruno founded the Chartreuse, and who often resided amongst the Carthusians. Doubtless he was [Pg 355]not an unwelcome visitor, for he had the power, it is said, of converting fowls into fish, which it was lawful to eat. For forty years, it is further told of him, he had haunting doubts on the old, old question of the origin of evil. The good bishop referred them at last to Pope Gregory VII., who greatly comforted St. Hugo by assuring him that such doubts were only sent to try his virtue and faith in the providence of God in permitting evil in the world.

693. ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA.

St. Catherine of Alexandria was of all the female saints next to Mary Magdalene the most popular: she meets us in nearly every room in the National Gallery, and even in London, churches and districts once placed under her protection still retain her name. Her general attributes are a book, a sword, and a wheel. The meaning of these will be seen from the legend of her which crusaders brought from the East. She was the daughter of a queen, and of marvellous wisdom and understanding. And when the time came that she should govern her people, she, shunning responsibility and preferring wisdom before sovereignty, shut herself up in her palace and gave her mind to the study of philosophy. For this wilful seclusiveness her people wished her to marry a husband who should at once fulfil the duties of government and lead them forth to battle. But she, to prevent this repugnant union, made one more spiritual by her mystical marriage with Christ. And for this and other unworldly[Pg 357] persistencies, the heathen tyrant Maximin would have broken her on a wheel, but that "fire came down from heaven, sent by the destroying angel of God, and broke the wheel in pieces." Yet for all this the tyrant repented not, and after scourging St. Catherine with rods beheaded her with the sword, and so having won the martyr's palm, she entered into the joy of her Lord.

694. ST. JEROME IN HIS STUDY.

Besides translating the Bible, St. Jerome (see 227) is famous as one of the founders of the monastic system, "of the ordered cell and tended garden where before was but the desert and the wild wood," and he died in the monastery he had founded at Bethlehem. This picture shows us the inside of monastic life. St. Jerome, with the scholar's look of quiet satisfaction, is deep in study; his room has no luxury, but is beautiful in its grace and order; the lion, who seems here to be sharing his master's meditation, and the partridge peering into the saint's slippers, speak of the love of the old monks for the lower animals; and the beautiful landscape seen through the open window recalls the sweet nooks which they everywhere chose and tended for their dwelling. The effect of the whole picture is to suggest the peaceful simplicity of the old religious life in contrast to the "getting and spending" with which we now "lay waste our powers."

The picture belongs to what Ruskin has called the "Time of the Masters," who desire only to make everything dainty and delightful. "Everything in it is exquisite, complete, and pure; there is not a particle of dust in the cupboards, nor a cloud in the air; the wooden shutters are dainty, the candlestick is dainty, the saint's blue hat is dainty, and its violet tassel, and its ribbon, and his blue cloak, and his spare pair of shoes, and his little brown partridge—it is all a perfect quintessence of innocent luxury—absolute delight, without one drawback in it, nor taint of the Devil anywhere" (Verona and other Lectures, § 26). For another specimen of this "pictorial [Pg 358]perfectness and deliciousness," see 288 (especially the compartment with Raphael and Tobit).

As for the partridge, this is frequently introduced into sacred pictures, especially those of the Venetian School. There is a pretty legend of St. John which perhaps accounts for it, and which makes its introduction very appropriate in the picture of a recluse. St. John had, it is said, a tame partridge, which he cherished much, and amused himself with feeding and tending. A certain huntsman, passing by with his bow and arrows, was astonished to see the great apostle, so venerable for his age and sanctity, engaged in such an amusement. The apostle asked him if he always kept his bow bent. He answered that would be the way to render it useless. "If," replied St. John, "you unbend your bow to prevent its being useless, so do I thus unbend my mind for the same reason" (Mrs. Jameson: Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 100).

695. MADONNA AND CHILD.

A characteristic example of the painter. The figure of the monk in adoration is somewhat hard. The landscape background is pleasant.

696. MARCO BARBARIGO.

He was Venetian Consul in London in 1449, and holds in his hand a letter addressed to him there. He was subsequently elected Doge, but died (in 1486), after holding the office for six months. It is recorded of him as Doge that he was a[Pg 359] specially mild-tempered and good man—a character which is not belied in this portrait of him in his earlier days. This portrait was formerly ascribed to Gerard van der Meire (see under 1078). It is now by some attributed to Petrus Cristus.

697. PORTRAIT OF A TAILOR.

A "speaking portrait." "The tailor's picture is so well done," says an old Italian critic, "that it speaks better than an advocate could." A portrait that enables one, moreover, to realise what was once meant by a "worshipful company of merchant tailors." Tagliapanni—for such is his name—is no Alton Locke—- no discontented "tailor and poet"; neither is he like some fashionable West-End tailor, with ambitions of rising above his work. He is well-to-do—notice his handsome ring; but he has the shears in his hands. He does the work himself, and he likes the work. He is something of an artist, it would seem, in clothes: his jacket and handsome breeches were a piece of his work, one may suppose; and the artist has caught and immortalised him, as he is standing back for a minute to calculate the effect of his next cut.

698. THE DEATH OF PROCRIS.

The subjects of Piero's pictures were generally mythological. In Romola he paints Tito and Romola as Bacchus and Ariadne; here he shows the death of Procris, the story in which the ancients embodied the folly of jealousy. For Procris being told that Cephalus was unfaithful, straightway believed the report and secretly followed him to the woods, for he was a great hunter. And Cephalus called upon "aura," the Latin for breeze, for Cephalus was hot after the chase: "Sweet air, O come," and echo answered, "Come, sweet air." But Procris, thinking that he was calling after his mistress, turned to see, and as she moved she made a rustling in the leaves, which Cephalus mistook for the motion of some beast of the forest, and let fly his unerring dart, which Procris once had given him.

Piero's treatment of the theme is, it should be noted, romantic, rather than classical; in which respect his picture is characteristic of the earlier Renaissance. "In creating his Satyr the painter has not had recourse to any antique bas-relief, but has imagined for himself a being half human, half bestial, and yet wholly real; nor has he portrayed in Procris a nymph of Greek form, but a girl of Florence. The strange animals and gaudy flowers introduced into the landscape background further remove the subject from the sphere of classic treatment. Florentine realism and quaint fancy being thus curiously blended, the artistic result may be profitably studied for the light it throws upon the so-called Paganism of the earlier Renaissance. Fancy at that moment was more free than when[Pg 362] superior knowledge of antiquity had created a demand for reproductive art, and when the painters thought less of the meaning of the fable for themselves than of its capability of being used as a machine for the display of erudition" (Symonds's Renaissance, iii. 187). Piero seems to have taken his background from Lake Thrasymene.

Piero's poetic fancy in this picture has aroused a responsive echo in the poets of our own day. The lines quoted above are from "The Death of Procris; a version suggested by the so-named picture of Piero di Cosimo in the National Gallery," in Mr. Austin Dobson's Old World Idylls. Another version of the picture may be found in Michael Field's Sight and Song:—

Mr. Ruskin also has written a piece around our picture, which he reads with a different eye from "Michael Field,"[170] seeing [Pg 363]in it not so much the inapprehensiveness of nature as the pathetic fallacy whereby the moods of nature are made to sympathise with human joy or sorrow:—

699. AGOSTINO AND NICCOLO DELLA TORRE.

Agostino was Professor of Medicine in the University of Padua; he holds a copy of "Galen," the most celebrated of the ancient medical writers, in his hand. It was for Niccolo, however, according to the inscription, that the picture was painted in 1515; and Signor Morelli (its former owner) thinks that Agostino's portrait must have been inserted at a later time, for "it is placed very awkwardly in the background" (German Galleries, p. 37 n.). "No one with a feeling for composition can doubt for an instant that Agostino was originally intended to be alone on the canvas, as he occupies all of it that a single bust ought to occupy. Morelli's inference seems thus to be well founded that Lotto, on his return from Venice to Bergamo, stopped at Padua and painted the portrait of Agostino, which he brought to Niccolo at Bergamo, who thereupon had his own portrait added.... Lotto's sitters were in no way remarkable. Nevertheless, he gives them a look of refinement and innate sweetness of nature which brings us very close to them" (Berenson, pp. 138, 321).

700. THE HOLY FAMILY.

Mr. Pater bids us notice in this picture the "pensive, tarnished silver sidelights, like mere reflections of natural sunshine" ("Art Notes in North Italy," New Review, Nov. 1890).

701. THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN.

None of the pictures in our Gallery by followers of Giotto is so satisfactory as this; "exquisite both in design and colour, though on a very small scale, it has," says Sir E. Poynter, "all the largeness of style which characterises the great Florentine fourteenth-century frescoes" (The National Gallery, i. 258). "The Virgin is of a fresh type, pretty and noble also. Amongst the saints in the centre picture that of St. Paul (on the extreme right) is distinguished by its natural bearing. There is, however, vigour and a sense of beauty and proportion throughout this charming little work." In the panel to the left, with the Nativity, "may be noticed the spirit of alertness in the attendant waiting to wash the child, and the statuesque design of St. Joseph"; in that to the right, with the crucifixion, "the figure of St. John, at the foot of the Cross, with its fine expression of grief, and beautifully-designed drapery" (Monkhouse, Italian Pre-Raphaelites, p. 23). Above is the Annunciation, with regard to which see notes on No. 1139. On the reverse side of the wings are other incidents from the life of the Virgin.

This and the pictures following (701-722) were presented by Queen Victoria to the National Gallery "in fulfilment of the wishes of H.R.H. the Prince Consort." They formerly belonged to the collection of H.I.H. Prince Louis of Oettingen-Wallerstein, and afterwards became the property of Prince Albert. It was his intention from the first to present them to the nation, but the gift was delayed owing to the uncertainty with regard to the site of the proposed new National Gallery. The Prince's purpose remained unaccomplished, but not forgotten, at his death, and in 1863 the best pictures from the collection were presented by Queen Victoria to the nation.

702. MADONNA AND CHILD.

703. MADONNA AND CHILD.

704. COSIMO, DUKE OF TUSCANY.

A contemporary portrait of the great Medici, the first "Grand Duke" of Tuscany (ruled 1537-1564), who was regarded in his day as the very incarnation of Machiavelli's Prince, "inasmuch as he joined daring to talent and prudence," and though "he could practise mercy in due season," was yet "capable of great cruelty." No one, who notices here that large protruding under lip of his, will doubt this last element in his character.

705. STS. MATTHEW, CATHERINE, AND JOHN.

Three figures full of innocent fervour and graceful sentimentality. St. Matthew as an evangelist holds a book and a pen, and is attended by the symbolic angel. St. John is attended by the eagle, which is the constant symbol of this evangelist, because he soared upwards to the contemplation of the divine nature of the Saviour.

706. PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE.

Characteristic of the German School after the Flemish influence. The sky background is gilt as in the old German pictures, but the types of the figures are Flemish. Notice the quaint pointed shoes, and the touch of realism in making the foot of Simeon, as he advances to receive the child from its mother, come half out of his slipper.

707. ST. PETER AND ST. DOROTHY.

Part of an altar-piece, the rest of which is in the Munich Gallery, by an artist whose name is unknown, and who is therefore called after his principal works (now in the Cologne Museum). It has been well said of him that "he succeeded in giving an intense expression of transient emotion to the faces; but by endeavouring to lend a sympathetic action to the whole figure, he has exaggerated the action into distortion" (History of Painting, from the German of Woltmann and Woermann, ii. 224). This is conspicuously the case here. Look, for instance, at the comic contrast between St. Peter's big foot and St. Dorothy's pointed little shoe—between what is almost a leer on his face and the "mincing" affectation on hers. St. Peter is distinguished of course by the keys; St. Dorothy by the basket of flowers—the flowers which she sent to Theophilus in token of the truth of the faith in which she died: "Carry these to Theophilus, say that Dorothea has sent them, and that I go before him to the garden whence they came and await him there" (see Mrs. Jameson; Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 336, ed. 1850).

708. MADONNA AND CHILD.

The Madonna offers Christ an apple—symbol of the forbidden fruit, and thus of the sin in the world which he came to remove.

709. MADONNA AND CHILD.

"In Flemish pictures the varnish was incorporated with the surface colours, and cannot be removed without destroying at the same time the very fabric of the work. For this reason all attempts to, what is called, restore, or clean pictures of the Flemish School, result only in the destruction of the work, and by this means many fine pictures have, for all practical purposes, perished.... (This picture) is a lamentable example" (Conway's Early Flemish Artists, p. 119).

710. PORTRAIT OF A MONK.

711. "MATER DOLOROSA."

712. "ECCE HOMO!"

"It was a common custom with Roger's followers to copy single heads out of their master's large groups. Such single heads always have gold backgrounds, usually dotted over with little black dashes" (Conway's Early Flemish Artists, p. 275). These companion panels are perhaps instances, and the heads selected for reproduction are typical of the overstrained pathos of this school. Notice how prominently the tears in the sorrowing mother, and the blood and tears in the "Ecco Homo" are made to stand out.

713. MADONNA AND CHILD.

One of the few specimens in the Gallery of the first period of Dutch art, when it was still following the traditions of the Early Flemish School.

714. MADONNA AND CHILD.

715. THE CRUCIFIXION.

"A high authority on early Flemish art, M. Henri Hymans, has stated that the figures in the 'Crucifixion' given to Joachim Patinir, and of which the landscape is undoubtedly his, are by the painter's friend, Quentin Matsys. Unquestionably these figures differ much in colour and execution from those contained in such other examples of Patinir in the National Gallery as the 'Nun' (945), or 'The Visit of the Virgin to St. Elizabeth' (1082)" (Claude Phillips in the Academy, September 28, 1889).

716. ST. CHRISTOPHER.

One of the earliest attempts in painting to tell the beautiful legend of Christopher (the Christ bearer), the hermit ferryman, who, "having sustained others in their chief earthly trials, afterwards had Christ for companion of his own." The best account of the legend of St. Christopher is to be found in Miss Alexander's Roadside Songs of Tuscany, edited by Ruskin, illustrated with "the most beautiful and true designs that have ever yet been made out of all the multitude by which alike the best spiritual and worldly power of Art have commended to Christendom its noblest monastic legend."

717. ST. JOHN ON THE ISLAND OF PATMOS.

The evangelist on the island of Patmos, writing the revelations out of an ink-horn held by an eagle, which an imp is attempting to steal. In the sky above are the revelations themselves: "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.... And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads" (Revelation xii. 1, 3).

718. CHRIST ON THE CROSS.

719. THE READING MAGDALEN.

720. A "REPOSE" (see No. 160).

721. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

722. A LADY'S PORTRAIT.

Formerly ascribed to Sigmund Holbein (1465-1540). A German housewife—with a characteristic mixture about her of sentimentality (for she holds a forget-me-not in her hand) and of austerity (for there is something forbidding, surely, in these terribly angular fingers of hers).

724. "OUR LADY OF THE SWALLOW."

Full of the dainty detail which characterises the Venetian pictures of this time. Notice the fruit placed everywhere[Pg 373] about the Virgin's throne; and above, the vases of flowers and the swallow—hence the name of the picture, "Madonna della Rondine." Notice also the beautiful dress patterns and the rich hanging brocades. The Virgin's dress is a lovely silk brocade, of a design which might well be copied for muslins and curtains. In this picture, however, "Crivelli's gift of characterisation has been overpowered by his interest in the accessories. St. Jerome, indeed, is a noble and dignified figure, but who could believe in the St. Sebastian? As a study of costume the figure is interesting, 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." The scenes of the predella, on the other hand, are full of animation, of feeling, and of force (Rushforth's Crivelli, p. 72). The picture is signed by Carolus Crivellus Miles, so that it is one of his later works. In the centre of the step is the escutcheon of the Odoni family, for whose chapel in the church of the Franciscans at Matelica the picture was painted.

726. CHRIST'S AGONY IN THE GARDEN.

An early work of the master, painted probably about 1459 (nearly half a century earlier than the Doge's portrait, 189), but interesting as showing the advance made by him in landscape. "We see for the first time an attempt to render a particular effect of light, the first twilight picture with clouds rosy with the lingering gleams of sunset, and light shining from the sky on hill and town—the first in which a head is seen in shadow against a brilliant sky" (Monkhouse: The Italian Pre-Raphaelites, p. 73). "In the figures of the Apostles, especially in the one on the left, the repose of sleep is expressed in so admirable and convincing a manner, that it would be difficult to name a second painter of the quattro-cento who could compare with Bellini in this respect" (Richter). Nor is the advance one in the technique of art only. The picture is one of the earliest in which art made use of what Ruskin calls "the pathetic fallacy"—in which,[Pg 374] that is, art represents nature as sympathising with human emotion. Bellini "called in nature," says Mr. Hodgson, R.A. (Magazine of Art, 1886, p 215), "to sympathise with human sorrows, or rather he was the first to point out that nature takes her colouring and her aspects from the conditions of our passions and sentiments.[173] That sombre sky, with its gleam along the horizon, that long dark hill, the wild plain over which the traitor and his accomplices are stealing, have exactly the aspect which they would present to one who stood there knowing that a horrible treason was going to be perpetrated." Compare, for this "pathetic fallacy" in painting, Titian's "Noli me tangere" (No. 270). Bellini's picture should be compared with Mantegna's of the same subject in an adjoining room (1417). Mantegna seizes only the sublimity of the idea of the Agony, Bellini's penetrating sympathy renders its infinite pathos. Mantegna's picture is in some technical respects the more accomplished; "but in all that concerns the imaginative conception of the subject, in the harmonising of all the accessories to produce a single profound impression on the emotions, above all in the large and reposeful spaciousness of the composition, Bellini is surely the more to be admired" (Roger Fry: Giovanni Bellini, p. 22). Both pictures may be profitably compared with Correggio's of the same subject, in which we are introduced to a new order of ideas (See notes on No. 76).

727. THE TRINITY.

This picture is perhaps the finest version extant of the conventional Italian representation of the mystery of the Trinity. The Son on a crucifix is supported by the Father, whilst the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove hovers over the head of the Son. The head of the First Person of the Trinity is a very majestic conception. "In this face, so full of beauty and power, of intensity and calm, as well as the careful modelling of the pathetic figure of Christ upon the cross, Pesellino touches heights which Lippi could not reach; but in the charming cherubim and seraphim with which the severity of the subject is softened and decorated, and in the beauty of the colour (though that has suffered much) we may recognise the influence of his master. We have only to compare this picture with the representations of the same subject by Landini (580a) and Orcagna (570) to show how the power to render the most august subjects had been increased by progress in technical accomplishment and the liberation of the artist's imagination, even when the elements and arrangements of the composition remained virtually unchanged from the traditional type" (Monkhouse, In the National Gallery, p. 62). The picture is referred to by Vasari: "At Pistoja is a work by Pesello, representing the Trinity, with figures of San Zeno and San Jacopo" (ii. 115). On the suppression of the religious congregation to whom the church of the Holy Trinity at Pistoja belonged, the picture was sold, and passed into the collection of Mr. Young Ottley. The side panels referred to by Vasari are still in private collections.

728. MADONNA AND CHILD.

Of Beltraffio's powers in the respect last mentioned this charming picture is perhaps the best specimen extant. The child with its quaint belly-band, and still more the noble but slightly languishing grace of the mother, at once recall Leonardo.

729. THE ADORATION OF THE KINGS.

Traces of the older style of work, from which Foppa freed his school, may here be seen in the embossed ornaments in gilt stucco. Notice the daintiness of the picture throughout: the pretty flowers in the foreground, the splendid brocades of the kneeling king, the birds and weeds in the ruined stable. In the background are the star and city of Bethlehem. "The general effect is dark and heavy, relieved by an abundant use of red; the flesh tones, as usual, are of ashen hue. The Madonna is of Foppa's characteristic type, of solid build. It is interesting to find that there is little or no direct trace of Leonardesque influence, a fact which shows that Foppa was too advanced in years to modify perceptibly his style on the advent of the mighty Florentine in 1481" (Catalogue of the Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, 1898, p. xxviii.).

732. A CANAL SCENE.

734. A MILANESE LAWYER.

A portrait (dated 1505) of the artist's friend, a Milanese lawyer, whose name, John Christopher Longono, is written on a letter in his right hand. He wears the gown and cap (not unlike that still worn by French "advocates") of his profession. Observe the landscape background—here quaintly peopled with prancing dogs and horses on the left, and servants in red pushing off boats on the right—with which the old painters, like some of our modern photographers, were fond of flattering their subjects. But in this case the subject is well entitled to his "setting," for he is a nobleman as well as a lawyer, and the background is perhaps studied from his country seat. On the bottom of the panel is a Latin inscription which, literally interpreted, runs, "Not knowing what you have been or what you may be, may it for long be your study to be able to see what you are," i.e. by looking at this picture of yourself—a[Pg 379] neatly-turned compliment at once to the painter and his subject: the picture is to last for many a long year, and the lawyer for many a long year is to grow no older. Or is the inscription also meant to describe the lawyer's character in words, as the portrait does in colours—a man not troubled overmuch with what has been or what may be hereafter, but one who is keenly alive to what he is, and who pours all his powers into the tasks and interests of the present?

735. ST. ROCH WITH THE ANGEL.

St. Roch is the patron of the sick and plague-stricken. The legend says that he left great riches to travel as a pilgrim to Rome, where he tended those sick of the plague, and by his intercession effected miraculous cures. Through many cities he laboured thus, until at last in Piacenza he became himself plague-stricken, and with a horrible ulcer in his thigh he was turned out into a lonely wood. He has here laid aside his pilgrim staff and hung his hat upon it, and prepared himself to die, when an angel appears to him and drops a fresh rose on his path. There is no rose without a thorn, and no thorn in a saint's crown without a rose. He bares his thigh to show his wound to the angel, who (says the legend) dressed it for him, whilst his little dog miraculously brought him every morning a loaf of bread.

736. A VENETIAN SENATOR.

A portrait—remarkable for vigorous execution, and strong individuality—of a senator, from the life, "in his habit as he stood,"—a branch of art in which this painter excelled. He has been called indeed "the modern Zeuxis," after the famous Greek painter whose painted grapes deceived the birds. For so lifelike were Bonsignori's pictures—says Vasari in his entertaining account of this painter—that on one occasion a dog rushed at a painted dog on the artist's canvas, whilst on another a bird flew forward to perch itself on the extended arm of a painted child. The portrait before us is executed in tempera. The study in chalk, for it is in the Albertina collection at Vienna.

737. A WATERFALL.

739. THE ANNUNCIATION.

Mary is kneeling in her chamber; while a golden ray from a glory above, piercing the house wall, has struck her head, over which is hovering a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. The angel of the Annunciation is outside in the court, but she cannot see him, for a wall stands between them—"a treatment of the subject which may be intended to suggest that the angel appeared to her in a dream." It also gives the painter an opportunity for introducing an additional display of incident and ornament. Beside the angel is St. Emidius, the patron saint of Ascoli, with a model of the city 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." The picture is very characteristic, in two features, of mediæval art. First, it was never antiquarian: it did not attempt to give a correct historical setting (cf. under[Pg 381] 294). No mediæval painter made the Virgin a Jewess; they nationalised her, as it were, and painted her in the likeness of their own maidens. So too their scenery was the likeness of their own homes and their own country. Here, for instance, is a picture of an Italian city in gala attire, somewhat idealised, no doubt, in splendour, but otherwise a "perfectly true representation of what the architecture of Italy was in her glorious time; trim, dainty,—red and white like the blossom of a carnation,—touched with gold like a peacock's plumes, and frescoed, even to its chimney-pots, with fairest arabesques,—its inhabitants, and it together, one harmony of work and life" (Guide to the Venetian Academy, p. 21). And secondly, the picture shows the pleasure the painters took in their accessories, and the frank humour—free at once from irreverence and from gloom—with which the Venetians especially approached what was to them a religion of daily life. Notice especially the little girl at the top of the steps on the left, looking round the corner. The whole of this side of the picture shows a naturalistic treatment which forms "a curious accompaniment and contrast to Crivelli's ordinary conventional manner. The group talking with a friar at the house door, 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" (Rushworth's Crivelli, p. 63). As a representation of the "Annunciation," the picture should be compared and contrasted with Lippi's (666). The Madonna and the Angel, "though essential to the work from the point of view of the patrons, who commissioned it, were merely its occasion from the point of view of that extraordinarily painstaking and detail-loving creature, its painter. There is endless profusion of decorative work; elaborate arabesques on the pilasters of the Madonna's lordly house, elaborate capitals, elaborate loggias, an elaborate cornice. The grain of the wood on her reading-desk is carefully painted; so are the planks in the wall of her bedchamber.... Besides the endless interest of its decorative work, this picture is useful as marking the difference between the spiritual and ideal motives which dominated Florence, and the worldly motives of richness and splendour which dominated Venice. Compare its purely adventitious detail with the poetical background of Filippo Lippi. In the Florentine, the detail is there[Pg 382] for the sake of the picture; in the Venetian, the picture is there for the sake of the detail" (Grant Allen, in the Pall Mall Magazine, July 1895). See under 1139 for further notes on the subject.

The picture is signed and dated, 1486, at the bottom of the pilasters of the Virgin's chamber. On the face of the step below is an inscription between three coats of arms (the Bishop's, the Pope's, and the town's)—Libertas Ecclesiastica, which is of some historical interest. In the year 1482 the city of Ascoli came to an agreement with the Pope, whereby, in return for an annual tribute and the acknowledgment of his suzerainty, the Pope issued a Bull in favour of its citizens, conferring on them municipal Home Rule. A new phrase—Libertas Ecclesiastica, Independence under the Church—was invented to describe the new settlement. The arrival of the Charter on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, was celebrated henceforth by ceremonies on that day, in which a procession to the church of the Annunziata was a prominent feature. Our picture was painted for that church, where it remained until 1790.

740. MADONNA AND CHILD.

741. THE DEAD ORLANDO.

The closing scene, according to one of the many legends, in the history of that "peerless paladin," Orlando, or Roland, who was slain at the battle of Roncesvalles, when returning from Charlemagne's expedition against the Saracens in Spain. Invulnerable to the sword, he was squeezed to death by Bernardo del Carpio. He lies, therefore, prostrate, but fully dressed and armed, his right hand resting on his chest, his left on the hilt of his famous sword. Over the dead man's feet there hangs from a branch a small brass lamp, the flame of which, like the hero's life, has just expired. On either side [Pg 383]are the skulls and bones of other "paladins and peers who on Roncesvalles died."

742. PORTRAIT OF A LAWYER.

An excellent example of the painter's third or naturalistic manner. There is an ease of attitude and an absence of constraint which makes the portrait transparently natural.

744. THE "GARVAGH MADONNA."

This picture—known as the "Garvagh Madonna," from its former owner, Lord Garvagh, or the "Aldobrandini Madonna," from having originally belonged to the Aldobrandini apartments of the Borghese Palace at Rome—belongs to Raphael's third or Roman period, and a comparison with the "Ansidei" shows the changes in feeling between the painter's earlier and later manners. The devotional character of the Umbrian School is less marked. In the "Ansidei Madonna" the divinity of the Virgin is insisted on; and above her throne is the inscription "Hail, Mother of Christ." But here the divinity is only dimly indicated by a halo. And as the Madonna is here a merely human mother, so is the child a purely human child. The saints in contemplation of the "Ansidei" are replaced by a little St. John, and the two children play with a pink. The expressions of the children, as indeed the whole picture, are full of sweetness and beauty.[176] Very beautiful too is the pyramidal composition of the group. Of the ultimate significance of the change marked by Raphael's third manner, Ruskin says that it—

It should, however, be remembered that the "Madonna di San Sisto," perhaps the most spiritual of all Raphael's conceptions, was the latest of the series.

745. KING PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN.

Few kings have left so many enduring monuments of themselves as Philip IV., whose face figures twice on these walls and meets one in nearly every European gallery. But nowhere, perhaps, has it been more supremely rendered than on this canvas, where the king seems to live and move before us. The picture is "perhaps the finest example of oil-painting accessible to the British student. Though one of the later works of the master, it is constructed out of a carefully wrought and smooth impasto, without any 'bravura' strokes. The lights are nowhere loaded. The hair is painted, not modelled; the jewels on the dress are easily touched in without relief-effect or juggling. The wonder of the thing is the infinite variety over a surface so simply treated. The face is in such broad, even light that one has to adopt some device which brings it freshly into the field of vision—as by [Pg 385]turning the head down or looking at it through the hand—in order to see how firm is the modelling. The flesh-tints are simple enough. Yet take almost any square inch of surface on the face—say the upper lip with its moustache—and note the effect of each one of the free brush-strokes which draw the pale, umber hair over the warm rubbing on the flesh; or in the cold, lack-lustre, blue eye, measure the apparent ease of the touches against their firm, incisive clearness. Everything is there—form, expression—in a word, the life; but it has all grown into perfection on the canvas so quietly, so smoothly, as if Velazquez had indeed painted with the will only and not with the hand" (Baldwin Brown: The Fine Arts, p. 319). "Velazquez fuses his colours in a way that baffles painters. They melt into each other by imperceptible gradations, as he deals with plane after plane in his subtly-modelled faces. Observe the action of light on the pallid face of the worn-out king, giving to the skin the breath of life in its delicate transparency" (Quarterly Review, April 1899).

The face is one which, once seen, is not soon forgotten. Velazquez, as we have said, caught its expression at once, and by comparing the face in its youth (1129) with its middle age here, one can almost trace the king's career. In youth we see him cold and phlegmatic, but slender in figure graceful and dignified in bearing, and with a fine open forehead. But the young king was bent on ease and pleasure, and his minister Olivares did nothing to persuade him into more active kingship. The less pleasing traits in his character have, in consequence, come to be deeper impressed at the time of this later portrait. He was devoted to sport, and the cruelty of the Spaniard is conspicuous in the lip—more underhung now than before. In the growth of the double chin and yet greater impassiveness of expression, one may see the traces of that "talent for dead silence and marble immobility" which, says the historian, "he so highly improved that he could sit out a comedy without stirring hand or foot, and conduct an audience without movement of a muscle, except those in his lips and tongue." It is not the face of a great ruler; but it is one which rightly lives on a painter's canvas, for no king was ever at once so liberal and so enlightened a patron of the arts as he. Himself too he was something of an artist; and the best-known piece of his painting tells a pretty story, which it is pleasant to remember[Pg 386] in front of Velazquez's portraits of him. Velazquez painted once his own portrait in the background of the king's family (the "Maids of Honour"—Las Meninas—now at Madrid). "Is there anything wrong with it?" Velazquez asked. "Yes," said the king, taking the palette in his hand, "just this"—and he sketched in on the painter's portrait the coveted red cross of the order of Santiago. "In all his portraits Philip wears the golilla, a stiff linen collar projecting at right angles from the neck. It was invented by the king, who was very proud of it. In regard to the wonderful structure of Philip's moustaches, it is said that, to preserve their form, they were encased during the night in perfumed leather covers called bigoteras" (J. F. White, in Encyclopædia Britannica).

746. A LANDSCAPE WITH RUINS.

747. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST AND ST. LAWRENCE.

St. Lawrence may nearly always be distinguished by his gridiron—the emblem of his martyrdom. He was a pious deacon of the Christian Church, who was put to death by the Romans. A new kind of torture was, says the legend, prepared for him. He was stretched on a sort of bed, formed of iron bars in the manner of a gridiron, and was roasted alive. "But so great was his constancy that in the middle of his torments he said, 'Seest thou not, O thou foolish man, that I am already roasted on one side, and that, if thou wouldst have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other?' Then St. Lawrence lifted up his eyes, and his pure and invincible spirit fled to heaven."

748. MADONNA AND CHILD, WITH ST. ANNE.

A picture "with a pedigree," being mentioned by Vasari. "In the church of the Scala (at Verona)," he says, in his life of the painter, "the picture of the Madonna with St. Anna is by his hand, and is placed between the San Sebastiano of Il Moro and the San Rocco of Cavazzola (Morando)." The latter picture (735) and Girolamo's now hang on the same wall of our Gallery. In the composition of this picture one may trace, perhaps, the influence of the dainty work Girolamo was first accustomed to. Thus the trefoil, or cloverleaf pattern, is followed both in the arrangement of the Virgin, St. Anne, and the Child, and in that of the little playing angels below. Notice the pretty trellis-work of roses on either side, and the slain dragon at the Virgin's feet, emblematic (the latter) of Christ's victory over the powers of evil, and (the former) of the "ways of pleasantness" and "paths of peace" that he came to prepare.

749. THE GIUSTI FAMILY OF VERONA.

Little is known of this painter except that he was a friend of Mantegna. The façade of his house at Verona was painted with frescoes, the upper part by Mantegna, the lower by Giolfino himself. He was probably a scholar of Liberale, to whose altar-piece in the cathedral at Verona he added the wings. One of his best works is a large altar-piece in S. Anastasia in that city.

Two groups of family portraits, chiefly interesting for studies in costume, originally in one picture, which formed the predella of an altar-piece: hence the upward look of some of the faces.

750. THE DOGE GIOVANNI MOCENIGO.

This picture was, until recently, ascribed to Carpaccio, of whom, therefore, some account is here retained. It was once inscribed with Carpaccio's name and the date 1479, but these, having been shown to be false, were removed. The work is now attributed, in accordance with the conclusions reached by Signor Molmenti and Dr. Ludwig [179] to Bastiani.

This is a votive picture commissioned by Giovanni Mocenigo (who reigned over Venice 1477-1485), to be presented by him, according to the custom with reigning doges, to the Ducal Palace. The scene selected represents the doge kneeling before the Virgin and begging her protection on the occasion of the plague of 1478. The gold vase on the altar before the throne contains medicaments, for which, according to the inscription below, a blessing is invoked: "Celestial Virgin, preserve the City and Republic of Venice and the Venetian State, and extend your protection to me if I deserve it." Behind the doge is his patron saint St. John, on the opposite side is St. Christopher. The setting thus chosen for the doge's picture is characteristic. "The first step towards the ennobling of any face is the ridding it of its vanity; to which aim there cannot be anything more contrary than that principle of portraiture which prevails with us in these days, whose end seems to be the expression of vanity throughout, in face and in all circumstances of accompaniment; tending constantly to insolence of attitude, and levity and haughtiness of expression, and worked out further in mean accompaniments of worldly splendour and possession; together with hints or proclamations of what the person has done or supposes himself to have done, which, if known, it is gratuitous in the portrait to exhibit, and, if unknown, it is insolent to proclaim.... To which practices are to be opposed ... the mighty and simple modesty of ... Venice, where we find the ... doges not set forth with thrones and curtains of state, but kneeling, always crownless, and returning thanks to God for his help; or as priests, interceding for the nation in its affliction" (Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. i. ch. xiv. § 19). The picture was bought in 1865 from the Doge's descendant, Aloise Count Mocenigo di Sant' Eustachio.

751. MADONNA AND CHILD.

"Worth study, in spite of what critics say of its crudity. Concede its immaturity, at least, though an immaturity visibly susceptible of a delicate grace, it wins you nevertheless to return again and again, and ponder, by a sincere expression of sorrow, profound, yet resigned, be the cause what it may, among all the causes of sorrow inherent in the ideal of maternity, human or divine. But if you keep in mind, when looking at it, the facts of Raphael's childhood,[180] you will recognise in his father's picture, not the anticipated sorrow of the Mater Dolorosa over the dead son, but the grief of a simple household over the mother herself taken early from it. This may have been the first picture the eyes of the world's great painter of Madonnas rested on; and if he stood diligently before it to copy, and so copying, quite unconsciously, and with no disloyalty to his original, refined, improved, substituted,—substituted himself, in fact, his finer self—he had already struck the persistent note of his career" (Pater: Miscellaneous Studies, p. 32).

752. MADONNA AND CHILD.

A picture by a Bolognese artist, of the Giottesque period, Lippo, son of Dalmasius, called also "Lippo of the Madonna," from the many pictures like this he painted: no Bolognese gentleman's family, we are told, was considered complete without one.

753. ON THE ROAD TO EMMAUS.

Two of Christ's disciples are walking after his death and burial to Emmaus. The risen Christ "drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden, that they should not know him" (Luke xxiv. 16). The painter makes excuses for the disciples not recognising their Master by naïvely dressing Him as a tourist with an alpenstock.

755. RHETORIC.}
756. MUSIC. }

These pictures are two of a series of seven, which were painted for the good Duke Frederick to decorate the library of the Ducal Palace at Urbino. The words on the frieze above our pictures are portions of a running inscription describing the Duke's style and titles. He was created "Gonfaloniere of the Church" (756) in 1465 and "Duke of Urbino" (755) in 1474. The series represented symbolically the seven arts—grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy—which, until the close of the Middle Ages, formed the curriculum of a liberal education. Notice in both pictures that the figures of the learners are kneeling—an attitude symbolical of the spirit of reverence and humility which distinguishes the true scholar ("I prayed, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me"); whilst the figures representing the sciences to be learned are seated on thrones—symbolical of the true kingship that consists in knowledge ("And I set her before kingdoms and thrones"), and are clothed about with pearls and other precious stones ("She is more precious than rubies").

In the picture of Rhetoric (755) the youth is being taught not to speak, but to read—"You must not speak," the Queen of Rhetoric seems to tell him, "until you have something to say." Notice, too, that Rhetoric is robed in cold gray. "You think Rhetoric should be glowing, fervid, impetuous? No. Above all things,—cool."

But Music (756) is robed in bright red, the colour of delight. The book now is closed. "After learning to reason, you will[Pg 394] learn to sing; for you will want to. There is so much reason for singing in this sweet world, when one thinks rightly of it." Music points her scholar to a small organ—"not that you are never to sing anything but hymns, but that whatever is rightly called music, or work of the Muses, is divine in help and healing" (Mornings in Florence, v. 128, 134). Hanging from the wall on the left, almost above the scholar's head, is a sprig of bay, the Muses' crown. Other pictures of this same series are in the gallery at Berlin and in the Royal Collection at Windsor. The latter is of peculiar interest in the history of the Renaissance. It shows the Duke, his son and the Court, and a black-robed humanist, seated in a sort of pulpit—"the unique representation of a scene of frequent occurrence in the Courts of Italy, where listening to lectures formed a part of every day's occupation" (see the description in Symonds, ii. p. 221).

757. CHRIST BLESSING LITTLE CHILDREN.

This is one of the nation's conspicuously bad bargains. It was bought in 1866 as a Rembrandt and at a Rembrandt price (£7000), but was soon recognised as being only a work by some pupil. It is easy to be wise after the event, but it certainly seems strange that the connoisseurs of the time, even if technical differences had escaped them, should not have seen a lack of Rembrandt's power about this work. A writer in the Times (June 24, 1888) has no hesitation in ascribing the picture to Nicolas Maes. He says: "If it was painted by Maes it would probably have been after the series of small works, mostly dating about 1656. Maes was a pupil of Rembrandt in 1650, at the time when the master's treatment of sacred subjects was more direct than in his earlier years. In this picture fanciful costume is discarded, and the figures are painted straight from the life. The figure of Christ is, indeed, weak and conventional, but it is not to be expected that a young man would here be successful in a figure so foreign to his general practice; and, if we admit the supposition that the composition followed the small panels, the relaxation of style pervading the entire work tallies with the known facts of the career of Maes, who between 1660 and 1670[Pg 395] appears to have devoted himself almost entirely to portrait painting; these representations of Dutch and Antwerp burghers, though solid and respectable, possess none of the charm and interest of the earlier works owing their inspiration to the direct influence of Rembrandt." (See, for instance, No. 1277.) Some ascribe the picture with equal assurance to Lievens (see 1095); see an article by Ford Madox Brown in the Magazine of Art, Feb. 1890; others to Eeckhout (see The Athenæum, Jan. 19, 1907).

758. PORTRAIT OF THE COUNTESS PALMA OF URBINO.

This and the other profile head once ascribed to Piero (585) "are probably the earliest specimens we have in the National Gallery of pure portraits, i.e. pictures devoted simply to record the likeness of an individual, first introduced as donors into votive pictures, and next as actors in scenes from sacred history and legend. Portraits have at length made good their claim to a separate existence in pictorial art" (Monkhouse: The Italian Pre-Raphaelites, p. 41). To Piero della Francesca also we owe "most precious portraits (at Rimini and in the Uffizi) of two Italian princes, Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta and Federigo of Urbino, masterpieces of fidelity to nature and sound workmanship" (Symonds).

766, 767. HEADS OF SAINTS.

These heads are from the niche or tabernacle which contained the Madonna and Child, No. 1215. The work was executed for the Canto (street corner) de' Carnesecchi in Florence. It is thus referred to by Vasari:—

For centuries Domenico's work was exposed to wind and weather. The heads, Nos. 766, 767, passed into the possession of Sir Charles Eastlake, from whose collection they were purchased for the National Gallery in 1867. The central fresco (No. 1215) was in 1851 detached from the wall and badly restored. It was subsequently acquired by Lord Lindsay, the author of Sketches of the History of Christian Art, whose son, James, Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, presented it to the nation in 1886.

768. ST. PETER AND ST. JEROME.

769. ST. MICHAEL AND THE DRAGON.

St. Michael, the angel of war against the dragon of sin, stands triumphant over his foe—emblem of the final triumph of the spiritual over the animal and earthly part of our nature. It is the most universal of all symbols. The victor is different in different ages, but the enemy is always the same crawling reptile. Christian art, from its earliest times, has thus inter[Pg 398]preted the text, "The dragon shalt thou trample under feet" (Psalm xci. 13); and in illustrations of Hindoo mythology Vishnu suffering is folded in the coils of a serpent, whilst Vishnu triumphant stands like St. Michael, with his foot upon the defeated monster.

770. LEONELLO D'ESTE.

Leonello (of whom also there is a medallion portrait in the frame of the picture just referred to), of the house of Este, was Marquis of Ferrara, 1441-1450. His mild and kindly face agrees well with what is known of his life. The one important action of his reign was that of a peacemaker, when he mediated between Venice and the King of Anjou. "He had not his equal," says Muratori, "in piety towards God, in equity and kindness towards his subjects. He was the protector of men of letters and was himself a good Latin scholar."

771. ST. JEROME IN THE DESERT.

St. Jerome (for whom see 773 and 227) is in the desert, deep in thought; his lion couched at his feet keeps his master's thoughts company as faithfully as a scholar's dog. The desert is here shown as the saint's study; notice, especially, the little table that the rock makes behind him for his books. Ruskin says of a similar modification of accessories to express supernatural character, in Bellini's "St. Jerome" at Venice: "The Saint sits upon a rock, his grand form defined against clear green open sky; he is reading; a noble tree springs out of a cleft in the rock, bends itself suddenly back to form a[Pg 399] rest for the volume, then shoots up into the sky. There is something very beautiful in this obedient ministry of the lower creature; but be it observed that the sweet feeling of the whole depends upon the service being such as is consistent with its nature. It is not animated, it does not listen to the saint, not bend itself towards him as if in affection; this would have been mere fancy, illegitimate and effectless. But the simple bend of the trunk to receive the book is miraculous subjection of the true nature of the tree; it is therefore imaginative, and very touching" (Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. ii. ch. v. § 8).

772. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED.

The decorative detail here deserves close attention. Compare, for instance, the ornament of the pilasters here with that of the pilasters in Crivelli's "Annunciation" (739), which was painted about the same time. "Crivelli follows the traditional lines common to all such features from later Roman times downwards, while Tura's accessories are full of inventiveness and are evidently designed for this especial picture. Thus the cup, balls, and wing-like appendages in the pilaster are quite original. The general scheme of colour in the picture, also, with its contrasts of red and green, is quite apart from anything existing in contemporary Italian art, and recalls rather a Flemish stained-glass window of the fifteenth century" (G. T. Robinson in Art Journal, May 1886, pp. 149, 150). The musical instruments are also worth notice. "One of the angels, on the left, holds an ornamental viol, having five strings, with a carved man's head; another angel, on the right, holds a similar viol, with a carved woman's head. In the centre is placed a positive organ—that is, a small organ not intended for removal. The player is on the left, in front of the organ; the blower is on the right, behind it. Only natural keys are visible, but there are three stops to be drawn out from the side, in the primitive way, by means of cords attached to them, to control the pipes, of which thirty are visible and three are drones. These pipes are grouped in columnar disposition, like an hour-glass, and not in the order of ranks usual with small organs. It is noticeable that the player uses both hands, held nearly in the modern position" (A. J. Hipkins in The Hobby Horse, No. i. p. 19).

773. ST. JEROME IN THE DESERT.

and schooling himself into renunciation of the world, the flesh, and the devil. In contrast to the wildness of the surroundings, the painter introduces quite a company of birds and beasts—an owl sits in sedate wisdom above the saint, his familiar lion is walking to the stream for water, and in the crannies and[Pg 401] ledges are other animals to keep him company. For it was his union of gentleness and refinement with noble continence, his love and imagination winning even savage beasts into domestic friends, that distinguished St. Jerome and formed the true monastic ideal (see 227).

774. MADONNA AND CHILD.

On the Madonna's right is St. Peter; on her left St. Paul, an arrangement common in early art, St. Peter and St. Paul being the two chief apostles on whom the Church of Christ is built. St. Paul offers a pink to the infant Christ. Flowers were consecrated to the Virgin, and the early painters chose those they liked best to be emblems of love and beauty. Notice the design on the stuff fixed at the back of the Madonna's throne; it is a beautiful example of the ornamental work of the time in northern Europe. The picture was formerly ascribed to Van der Goes—an artist whose only certainly known picture is the altar-piece in the hospital of S. Maria Nuova in Florence,—and is by some ascribed to Bouts (see under 783).

775. AN OLD LADY.

An old lady, eighty-three years of age (as the inscription shows). This splendid portrait is dated 1634, and was made therefore when Rembrandt was twenty-eight. His mother was from the first a favourite sitter of his, and hence, perhaps, the affectionate fidelity with which he always painted the wrinkled faces of old age. In the British Museum there is an Indian-ink copy of this portrait, from which it appears that the lady's name was Françoise van Wasserhoven. Rembrandt, says M. Michel, "is most individual and moving in those portraits of old women, in which by the accidents of form and feature he so admirably suggests the moral life."

776. ST. ANTHONY AND ST. GEORGE.

The subject of the picture—a meeting between St. George and St. Anthony, with a vision of the Virgin and Child above—is not to be found in the legends of the saints, and Pisano's conception is quite original. St. George appears to have been a favourite subject with the artist—probably because of the way in which his armour lent itself to medallion-like treatment. There is a good instance of frank anachronism in the large Tuscan hat of Pisano's own day which he quaintly makes St. George wear, "according to the everyday custom of the Italian noblemen at their country-seats in the summer."[181] Perhaps too the painter chose St. George partly because he involved a horse and a dragon, and Pisano, says Vasari, "took especial pleasure in the delineation of animals." This may have given him a weakness for the boar of good St. Anthony—the hermit saint whose temptations have passed into a proverb. The saint carries a bell, for "it is said that the wicked spirits that be in the region of the air fear much when they hear the bells ringen," and a staff, another means of exorcising the devil; whilst the boar, now tamed into service, is symbolical of the demon of sensuality which St. Anthony vanquished. And here perhaps we find the clue to the idea in the picture. For the dragon whom [Pg 404]St. George slew represents the same sensual enemy. St. George conquered by fighting, St. Anthony by fasting. The two saints now meet when "each on his course alone" has "worked out each a way." The old man, whose life has been spent in struggle, greets the triumphant youth with curious surprise; and St. George too, with the thoughtful look on his face, will have much to say and learn. But over them both, as to all who overcome, the heavens open in beatific vision; for though there be diversity of gifts, it is the same spirit. The signature of the painter (Pisanus pinxit) is fantastically traced by herbage in the foreground.

777. MADONNA AND CHILD.

A picture of great beauty, which goes far to justify the title of "the Raphael of the Veronese School" by which Morando has been distinguished. Every visitor will be struck by the unpretentious simplicity of conception, the rich colours and the sweet faces—with just a dash of Raphaelesque affectation. It is interesting to note that Morando was almost exactly contemporary with Raphael, while his art exhibits a maturity developed under totally different circumstances. For Morando never left Verona, and was thus, says Sir F. Burton, "a pure growth of the native Veronese School. His colouring, though often brilliant, is rather cold; the pale flesh-tints, glossy in surface, are shadowed with grey, and even the lake reds introduced in garments tend towards that purplish hue which the best colourists avoid."

778. MADONNA AND CHILD.

On the right of the throne is St. James, with his hand on the shoulder of the donor of the picture; on the left St. George, with the dead dragon at his horse's feet.

779, 780. FAMILY PORTRAITS.[182]

On the left (779) a group of nine men, above them a [Pg 406]hand, probably of some patron saint; on the right (780) a group of thirteen women, kneeling (apparently) by the side of a tomb—studies of character drawing. These pictures are painted on silk (now attached to wood), and were originally part of a standard. Mr. Pater says of Borgognone that "a northern temper is a marked element of his genius—something of the patience, especially, of the masters of Dijon or Bruges, nowhere more clearly [seen] than in the two groups of male and female heads in the National Gallery, family groups, painted in the attitude of worship, with a lowly religious sincerity which may remind us of the contemporary work of M. Legros. Like those northern masters, he accepts piously, but can refine, what 'has no comeliness'" ("Art Notes in North Italy," in the New Review, November 1890).

781. RAPHAEL AND TOBIAS.

The Hebrew legend of Tobit and his son Tobias (told in the Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha) was a favourite one with the Mediæval Church, and became therefore a traditional subject for painting; see e.g. in the National Gallery, 288, 72, and 48. Tobit, a Jewish exile, having fallen also into poverty, and afterwards becoming blind, prays for death rather than life in noble despair. "To him the angel of all beautiful life (Raphael) is sent, hidden in simplicity of human duty, taking a servant's place for hire, to lead his son in all right and happy ways of life" (Fors Clavigera, 1877, p. 31). Here we see Raphael leading the young Tobias into Media, where he was to marry Sara, his rich kinswoman, the daughter of Raguel. But she was haunted by an evil spirit, who had slain her seven husbands, each on their wedding-day, and the angel bade Tobias take the gall of a certain fish, wherewith afterwards to heal his father's blindness, and its heart and liver wherewith to drive away the evil spirit from his bride. Tobias is carrying the fish, Raphael has a small box for the gall. The "rising step" and the "springy motion in his gait" are characteristic of him who was the messenger of heaven, the kindly companion of humanity—

For the authorship of this picture, see under 296. "This picture," says a critic who gives both to Verrocchio, "may possibly be not entirely from his hand, but there is no doubt that it is essentially his, and that to his fancy for painting boyhood and opening youth we owe that curious misreading of the story of Tobias, representing him as a young lad instead of a grown man, which is to be found through all the numerous Florentine picture of him by the school of Botticelli, by Piero di Cosimo and the rest" (Times, October 26, 1888).

782. MADONNA AND CHILD.

Probably only a "school picture." Most of the old masters kept schools, or shops, in which several pupils served as apprentices and worked at pictures under the master's directions. The sale of such pictures under the master's name was (and is) a very common occurrence, and even in those days forged signatures were not unusual.

783. THE EXHUMATION OF BISHOP HUBERT.

St. Hubert was originally a nobleman of Aquitaine, much addicted to all worldly pleasures, and especially to that of the chase. But one day in Holy Week, when all good Christians were at their devotions, as he was hunting in the forest of Ardennes, he encountered a milk-white stag bearing the crucifix between his horns. Filled with awe and astonishment, he renounced the pomps and vanities of the world, turned hermit[Pg 408] in that very forest of Ardennes, was ordained, and became Bishop of Liège. So the legend runs, embalming, we may suppose, the conversion of some reckless lover of the chase, like the wild huntsman of the German legend. And at Liège he was buried, but thirteen years afterwards his body was disinterred, and lo! it was found entire; even the episcopal robes in which he had been interred were without spot or stain. A century later the body was removed from Liège and reinterred in the abbey church of the Benedictine monks of Ardennes. The Emperor Louis le Débonnaire assisted at the translation of the relics, and the day was long kept as a festival throughout this part of Flanders. This is the subject of the present picture, of which the scene is laid in the choir of a beautiful Gothic church. On the altar behind the principal group stands a shrine, on which is a little figure of St. Hubert with his hunting-horn. The royal personage assisting represents Louis le Débonnaire. The picture is of wonderful beauty, finished in every part (abridged from Mrs. Jameson: Sacred and Legendary Art, pp. 431, 432). Though it is thus an historical picture, the artist takes the figures from his own time, and the heads, like miniatures in character and delicacy of expression, are doubtless portraits—the whole scene being a picture of a Flemish Cathedral on some festival day. Notice, as a particularly interesting little piece of life, the man flattening his nose against the screen on the left, with a jeering expression, as if he "didn't half believe it all." It is a piece of living grotesque, exactly such as meets one in the sculptured stones of a mediæval cathedral itself—"peeping round the corner at you and lurking in secret places, like a monk's joke whispered in church" (Conway's Early Flemish Artists, p. 17).

788. AN ALTAR-PIECE.

This important picture is one of Crivelli's masterpieces and is very characteristic of his genius and its limitations. The work, it will be seen, is not so much a picture as a collection of panel pictures built up into a gorgeous piece of decoration. The panels in the two lower tiers were painted for the old church of San Domenico, at Ascoli; the central panel of the Madonna and Child is inscribed with the painter's name and[Pg 409] the date 1476. The church was rebuilt in 1776, and some years afterwards the picture came into the possession of Cardinal Zelada at Rome, who added the four upper pictures by the same painter. In 1852 the picture passed to Prince Anatole de Demidoff, at Florence, where it was put into its present magnificent frame. Crivelli's artistic aim, it has been said, was the development and perfection of isolated figures for elaborate altar-pieces of this kind, and those before us are among the best he ever did: "in them calm dignity, strength of character, gentleness, and grace, can all be treated by him with perfect success apart from the disturbing elements of emotion and action." The type of the Virgin here is very characteristic, with her high-arched eyebrows, small mouth, and hair tightly drawn back from the forehead. So too are the hands, with very long fingers, in which affectation borders on dislocation. Very natural, on the contrary, is the figure of 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 decorative details are characteristic. Note the dolphins on the base of the throne. The festoons are meant to represent real offerings of fruit, tied with string and fastened with nails. On one side of the Virgin is St. Peter, an impressive figure: his costume shows the use of raised ornaments and imitation gems, which is common in Crivelli's earlier works, but which he gradually dropped. Beyond St. Peter is St. John the Baptist in the wilderness: the hard and severe style of the figure is remarkable. "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." On the other side of the Virgin is St. Catherine of Alexandria, and beyond her St. Dominic—a figure "admirable in its expression of piety and humility and in the personality with which Crivelli has invested it." The half-length figures in the second tier are St. Francis, with the stigmata; St. Andrew, with cross and book—a very grand head; St. Stephen, with the stones of his martyrdom; and St. Thomas Aquinas, with book and the model of a church. In the top tier are St. Jerome, also carrying the model of a church; the Archangel Michael, trampling on the dragon and weighing in a pair of scales a man and a woman who are of light weight; St. Peter[Pg 410] Martyr, with the sword of his martyrdom, and St. Lucy, carrying a plate with eyes upon it. The reference is to the legend which relates that in order to discourage the suit of a youth who loved her for the beauty of her eyes, she plucked them out with her own hands and sent them to him in a dish. The youth, struck with remorse, became a Christian, and Lucy's sight was miraculously restored to her.

790. THE ENTOMBMENT OF CHRIST.

One of the many unfinished works, which, as Vasari tells us, Michelangelo left behind him in painting as in sculpture. Its history is interesting. It was formerly in the gallery of Cardinal Fesch, which was sold and dispersed after his death. From its unfinished state and neglected condition it attracted little attention, and was bought literally "dirt cheap" by Mr. Macpherson, an English gentleman established as a photographer in Rome. After the dirt upon its face had been removed, it was submitted to competent judges, who unhesitatingly pronounced it to be the work of Michelangelo. The discovery caused a great sensation. A law-suit was instituted against Mr. Macpherson for the recovery of the picture, which was sequestrated pending the decision of the Roman courts. After some years he obtained a judgment in his favour, removed the picture to England, and sold it to the National Gallery for £2000. Peter von Cornelius, the eminent German painter, in evidence in the law-suit declared it to be "una cosa preziosa—un vero originale di Michelangelo."[183]

However this may be, the picture is entirely characteristic of the school of Michelangelo. What we notice in it most is not the features of the Maries, but the rendering of the corpse, in all its flaccid limbs and muscles:—

The ideal of the painter has in fact changed. The picture is in its essence not a devotional work: it is a study in the dead nude.

794. A DUTCH COURTYARD.

The whole picture, in its cheerful colour and dainty neatness, seems to reflect the light of a peaceful and happy home, in which everything is done decently and in order. They are no rolling stones, these Dutch burghers, but stay-at-home folk, whose pride is in the trimness of their surroundings. Every day, one thinks, the good housewife will thus look to see that the dinner is duly prepared; every day the husband will thus walk along the garden, sure of her happy greeting. The picture is signed, and dated 1665.

796. A VASE OF FLOWERS.

Signed, and dated 1736-1737. Notice the bird's nest, with the greenfinch's eggs.

797. A MAN'S PORTRAIT.

This excellent portrait serves to remind us that, unlike most of his fellow landscape painters, Cuyp could paint his own figures. Indeed we have seen that he sometimes painted them in other landscapes, see No. 152. The picture is signed "Aetatis suae 56, 1649. A. Cuyp fecit." Cuyp is one of the most various of all the Dutch masters. "What universality in the hand that could paint skies more glowing than those of Both, clouds as vaporous as those of Van de Cappelle, water more luminous than Van de Velde's, cattle as true to nature as Paul Potter's, horses better than Wouverman's, horsemen more distinguished than Vandyck's! Sometimes, too—and there is a noble example in our National Gallery—we find Aelbert Cuyp painting portraits, not in the stiff precise way that the father painted them, but with a freedom of touch and a brilliancy of colour that place him between Van der Helst[Pg 418] and Rembrandt" (Quarterly Review, October 1891, and Fromentin's' Les Maitres d'autrefois, "Hollande," ch. viii.).

798. CARDINAL RICHELIEU.

This picture was painted for the Roman sculptor Mocchi to make a bust from, hence the two profiles as well as the full face. Over the profile on the right are the words (in French), "of the two profiles this is the better." In this profile the compressed lips, the merciless eyes, the iron-gray hair and prominent nose, bespeak the great Cardinal Minister of Louis XIII., and the maker of France, who summed up his policy and his character in the words, "I venture on nothing without first thinking it out; but once decided, I go straight to my point, overthrow or cut down whatever stands in my way, and finally cover it all up with my cardinal's red robes." In the full face one sees rather the man who was also a princely patron of the arts and artists (of De Champaigne amongst their number), and the founder of the French Academy.[184] The central head here was clearly used as a study for the full-length portrait, No. 1449.

802. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

This picture is ascribed by some critics to Giovanni Speranza, a painter of Vicenza contemporary with Montagna.

803. THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST.

An example which shows what wealth of interest there is in the National Collection. It is only by a second-rate painter of the Venetian school; but no picture in the Gallery is richer than this in decorative design. Note first the varied and beautifully-designed patterns in the mosaics of the church—recalling one of the domes of St. Mark's. Then the lectern, covered with a cloth, and the delicately-embroidered border, wrought in sampler stitch, deserve close examination. The cushion above [Pg 420]this, and the tassels, formed of three pendent tufts of silk hung on to a gold embroidered ball, offer good decorative suggestions to the trimming manufacturer. Attached to the front of the lectern is a label or "cartellino," setting forth that "Marco Marziale the Venetian, by command of that magnificent knight and jurisconsult, the learned Thomaseo R., made this picture in the year 1500." As it is probable that this was the first important commission Marco ever obtained on his own account, there is little wonder that he wrought the record so elaborately. This "Thomaseo R." was Raimondi, a knight of the order of Jerusalem—a man of considerable note in Cremona as a lawyer and poet. His portrait occupies the forefront of the right-hand corner of the picture, his set features recalling the lawyer rather than the poet. It is his mantle, however, which best repays notice—a sumptuous robe of raised red velvet, such a fabric as Venice was then winning industrial renown by weaving. The very pretty pattern is of the so-called "pomegranate form," and occurs also on the mantle of the donor's wife, who occupies a corresponding position on the left-hand side of the picture. In the South Kensington Museum there is a remnant of Italian silk brocade of this pattern (in the Bock collection). The robe of the High Priest is also evidently taken by the painter from a silk robe, and is very rich. The design, in which the wild pink is largely introduced, is unique. Ruskin had a wall-paper made for him in 1872 copied from this robe: it has ever since been used for the walls of the drawing-room and study at Brantwood. "It will thus be seen that this one picture brings before us a great number of suggestions in design for various technic arts; at least half a dozen patterns exist in the ornaments of the mosaic work of the vaults; five or six patterns of embroidered or woven borders will be found in it, as many designs for diapered or other surface decoration, examples of beaten metal-work and of bookbinding, besides the carved wood lectern." For notice of other points, see further the interesting article by G. T. Robinson in the Art Journal, June 1886, and cp. Vacher's Italian Ornament, No. 24.

804. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED.

This picture was painted seven years later (1507) than 803, which it resembles in the bright mosaics of the vault and the[Pg 421] interesting design on the robe of the bishop on the left. Notice the little angel playing the mandoline on the steps of the throne, characteristic of the earlier Venetian painters.

805. PEELING PEARS.

806. THE PROCESSION TO CALVARY.

807. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED.

This picture (like 724) is signed by "Sir Charles": it is dated 1491. It bears the painter's sign-manual also in the fruits and the vase of flowers. The giver of the picture (which was dedicated to the Virgin, and which, as recorded in a Latin inscription below, cost no inconsiderable sum) is kneeling, in the habit of a Dominican nun, at the foot of the throne. On the Madonna's left is St. Sebastian, pierced with arrows and tied to a pillar, but with the happy look of "sorrow ended" on his face. On her right is St. Francis. Near his feet are some flowers and a snail—typical of the kindness and humbleness of the saint, of whom it is recorded that "he spoke never to bird nor to cicala, nor even to wolf and beast of prey, but as his brother," and who thus taught the lesson "Never to blend our pleasure, or our pride, With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels" (Wordsworth).

808. ST. PETER MARTYR.

A fancy portrait of a jolly comfortable-looking Dominican monk—a faithful portrait doubtless. His face is painted as it really was, "wart and all," but it has pleased him to be represented in the character of Peter, a famous member of his order (see under 812).

809. THE HOLY FAMILY.

The Virgin mother is seen withholding from the child Saviour the prophetic writings in which His sufferings are foretold. Angelic figures beside them examine a scroll—

This picture was at one time attributed to Domenico Ghirlandajo; and Signor Frizzoni now attributes it to [Pg 423]Granacci. But, says Sir Edward Poynter, "the beauty of the figures, the nobility of the heads, and the fine qualities of drawing and modelling stamp it as the work of the great master himself." "In my judgment," says Symonds (Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti, i. 65), "this is the most beautiful of the easel pictures attributed to Michelangelo.... Florentine painters had been wont to place attendant angels at both sides of their enthroned Madonnas. But their angels were winged and clothed like acolytes; the Madonna was seated on a rich throne or under a canopy, with altar-candles, wreaths of roses, flowering lilies. It is characteristic of Michelangelo to adopt a conventional motive, and to treat it with brusque originality. In this picture there are no accessories to the figures, and the attendant angels are Tuscan lads half draped in succinct tunics. The types have not been chosen with regard to ideal loveliness or dignity, but accurately studied from living models. This is very obvious in the heads of Christ and St. John. The two adolescent genii on the right hand possess a high degree of natural grace. Yet even here what strikes one most is the charm of their attitude, the lovely interlacing of their arms and breasts, the lithe alertness of the one lad contrasted with the thoughtful leaning languor of his comrade. Only perhaps in some drawings of combined male figures made by Ingres, for his picture of the 'Golden Age,' have lines of equal dignity and simple beauty been developed."

810. PARDON DAY IN BRITTANY.

The scene is that of a fête held in honour of Notre Dame de Bon Secours of Guingamp in Brittany, on the 2nd of July in every year. Pope Paul V. in 1619 granted a plenary indulgence to all persons "who truly confessed and communicated, who shall visit the said church of Notre Dame de Guingamp on the day and fête of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which it is the custom every year to celebrate on the 2nd day of July; who shall devotionally pray for the preservation of concord and peace among all Christian princes;[Pg 424] who shall render hospitality to the poor pilgrims; who shall make peace with their enemies, and shall promote it amongst others—shall, in short, sweetly bring into the way of salvation some unfortunate and erring soul." An English visitor published a long account of the fête in the Standard of July 5 and following days in 1870, describing "the frank but sedate festivity and merry-making under the trees." That was twenty years after this picture was painted.

811. TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL.

For the subject of Tobias, who is in the water holding the fish, see 781. The wild rocky landscape conveys a general sense of savage power. Salvator, says Ruskin, is "a good instance of vicious execution, dependent on too great fondness for sensations of power, vicious because intrusive and attractive in itself, instead of being subordinate to the results and forgotten in them" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. i. sec. ii. ch. ii. § 9).

812. THE DEATH OF ST. PETER MARTYR.

This picture, one of the painter's latest works, is interesting, first, for its skill in landscape. It is a true piece of local scenery that Bellini paints,—"all Italian in masses of intricate wood and foliage, in plain, mountain, and buildings, and [Pg 425]glowing, not under direct sunshine, but with the soft suffusion of southern light" (Layard, i. 312). It is, says Ruskin, one of the six most beautiful landscapes in the earlier mediæval art, of the "purist" school, "being wholly felicitous and enjoyable." Every leaf is painted with loving care, and Bellini treats the incident in the foreground as "entirely cheerful and pleasing; it does not disturb or even surprise him, much less displease in the slightest degree." "You see in a moment the main characteristic of the school,—that it mattered not in the least to John, and that he doesn't expect it to matter to you, whether people are martyred or not, so long as one can make a pretty grey of their gown, and a nice white of their sleeves, and infinite decoration of forest leaves behind, and a divine picture at last out of all. Everything in the world was done and made only that it might be rightly painted—that is the true master's creed" (Verona and its Rivers, § 27, and Lectures on Landscape, pp. 22, 65, 73).[189] Notice, further, Bellini's compliance, as far as the subject admitted, with one of the conditions of the greatest art, "serenity in state or action." "You are to be interested in the living creatures; not in what is happening to them.... It is not possible, of course, always literally to observe this condition, that there shall be quiet action or none; but Bellini's treatment of violence in action you may see exemplified in a notable way in his "St. Peter Martyr." The soldier is indeed striking the sword down into his breast; but in the face of the Saint is only resignation and faintness of death, not pain—that of the executioner is impassive; and while a painter of the later schools would have covered breast and sword with blood, Bellini allows no stain of it; but pleases himself with most elaborate and exquisite painting of a soft crimson feather in the executioner's helmet" (Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret, p. 16).

814. DUTCH BOATS IN A CALM.

815. DUTCH BOATS AT FLUSHING.

816. THE INCREDULITY OF ST. THOMAS.

A picture interesting among other things for its history. It is signed and dated (1504), and was painted as a commission for a religious fraternity, for the altar of their patron saint, St. Thomas, in the church of St. Francesco at Portogruario (near Conegliano). The price paid for it was equal to about £17 sterling, at that time representing a considerable sum. The account of its cost and of a law-suit instituted by the painter against the fraternity is still preserved. For 328 years it remained in its original place; it was then removed by the local authorities, and in 1870 was sold to our Government. When bought it "was greatly disfigured by various repaints, and was otherwise in bad condition. Judicious cleaning and restoration (by Mr. Wm. Dyer) have brought out its fine qualities. The heads are highly expressive, and some of the figures ... of great dignity" (Layard, i. 325).

817. TENIERS'S COUNTRY-SEAT AT PERCK.

"A perfect type of the Unromantic Art which was assailed by the gentle enthusiasm of the English School of Land[Pg 427]scape. It represents a few ordinary Dutch houses, an ordinary Dutch steeple or two, some still more ordinary Dutch trees, and most ordinary Dutch clouds, assembled in contemplation of an ordinary Dutch duck-pond; or, perhaps, in respect of size, we may more courteously call it a goose-pond. All these objects are painted either gray or brown, and the atmosphere is of the kind which looks not merely as if the sun had disappeared for the day, but as if he had gone out altogether, and left a stable lantern instead. The total effect having appeared, even to the painter's own mind, at last little exhilatory, he has enlivened it by three figures on the brink of the goose-pond—two gentlemen and a lady,—standing all three perfectly upright, side by side, in court dress, the gentlemen with expansive boots, and all with conical hats and high features. In order to invest those characters with dramatic interest, a rustic fisherman presents to them, as a tribute,—or, perhaps, exhibits as a natural curiosity,—a large fish, just elicited from the goose-pond by his adventurous companions, who have waded into the middle of it, every one of them, with singular exactitude, up to the calf of his leg" (Art of England, pp. 209, 211). The group on the left comprise the painter and his wife, another lady, and his son.

818. COAST SCENE.

819. OFF THE MOUTH OF THE THAMES.

On representations of rough weather by this painter and Vandevelde, Ruskin writes as follows: "If one could but arrest the connoisseurs in the fact of looking at them with belief, and, magically introducing the image of a true sea-wave, let it roll up through the room,—one massive fathom's height and rood's breadth of brine, passing them by but once,—dividing, Red-Sea like, on right hand and left,—but at least setting close before their eyes, for once in inevitable truth, what a sea-wave really is; its green mountainous giddiness of wrath, its overwhelming crest—heavy as iron, fitful as flame, clashing against the sky in long cloven edge,—its furrowed flanks all ghastly clear, deep in trans[Pg 428]parent death, but all laced across with lurid nets of spume, and tearing open into meshed interstices their churned veil of silver fury, showing still the calm gray abyss below; that has no fury and no voice, but is as a grave always open, which the green sighing mounds do but hide for an instant as they pass. Would they, shuddering back from this wave of the true, implacable sea, turn forthwith to the papillotes? It might be so. It is what we are all doing, more or less, continually" (Harbours of England, p. 19). In default of the actual sea-wave, the visitor may be recommended to look next at Turner's rough seas (472 and 476). Such a comparison will show how much of the roughness in the Dutch pictures is due to mere blackness, how little to any terror in the forms of the waves, such as Turner depicts.

820. LANDSCAPE WITH RUIN.

821. A FAMILY GROUP.

Notice the youngest child in the go-cart, which is being pushed by another of the children, whilst the eldest sister, as befits her years, is playing the guitar. And the little dogs, as[Pg 429] befits them, are sporting in front. It is pretty of the painter or his sitters to include them in the family group.

822. AN EVENING LANDSCAPE.

An excellent example of the hazy, drowsy effect in which Cuyp excelled. "A brewer by trade,[190] he feels the quiet of a summer afternoon, and his work will make you marvellously drowsy. It is good for nothing else that I know of; strong, but unhelpful and unthoughtful. Nothing happens in his pictures, except some indifferent persons asking the way of somebody else, who, by the cast of countenance, seems not likely to know it. For further entertainment, perhaps, a red cow and a white one; or puppies at play, not playfully; the man's heart not going even with the puppies. Essentially he sees nothing but the shine on the flaps of their ears" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. chap. vi. § 12).

823. ON THE MEUSE.

Notice the reflections. Cuyp "is a man of large natural gift, and sees broadly, nay, even seriously; finds out—a wonderful thing for men to find out in those days—that there are reflections in the water, and that boats require often to be painted upside down" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vi. § 12).

824. A RUINED CASTLE.

The castle may be the same as that seen in No. 1289. Some lines from Beattie's "Scotland" have been applied to it:—

This picture was originally bought at Horn, in the Netherlands, of an old clothesman, for 1s. 3d. Sir Robert Peel paid 350 guineas for it.

825. THE POULTERER'S SHOP.

This picture, as an acknowledged chef d'œuvre of the master, has long been celebrated. It was purchased by Sir Robert Peel from the Fonthill Collection in 1823 for £1270. Mrs. Jameson, on seeing the picture at Sir R. Peel's, wrote: "All executed with such a nicety of touch—such an inconceivable truth and minuteness of imitation—as to render the picture a very miracle of art. A higher merit consists in the admirable painting of the heads, especially that of the old woman, which is full of life." "A wicker market-basket is a common homely thing, but look at its presentment here—every polished, well-used twig of it following the true undulations of form and colour, light and shade, through the marvellous patience and skill of the vanished Dutchman—and see if it does not produce an exquisite poetic tremor by the thoughts it evolves. There is a dead image of the barnyard cock which Mr. Darwin may compare with the barndoor fowl of to-day as accurately as if it were photographed. His once fiery eye is glazed and sightless as a dim pearl, his neck feathers ruffled but no longer in anger or pride; his pale, amber-coloured legs helplessly and ingloriously reversed, their impatient and masterful scratching among his dames in the stubble over for ever; the glossy purples, greens, and blacks of his tail-feathers rising sharp and delicate out of the speckled hazes of colour which it required days and days to lay side by side among the crushed and crowding plumes. The cock, the horologe of Thorpe's light, crows no more to the answering hill-farms. He is destined for the spit of the housewife who holds up the hare. But his fate was glorious, for by what tens of thousands since the year 1650 or thereabouts have his perfections been admired and praised. It was worth living for, and, to chanticleer, worth dying for, to become the occasion of such a miracle of art" (Smetham's Literary Works, p. 240).

826. FIGURES AND ANIMALS.

827. FORDING THE STREAM.

828. LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE.

It has been said of Du Jardin that his works are "excellent when they are not detestable," a remark which is well exemplified in these pictures. No. 827 is at once vulgar in incident and unpleasant in colour. No. 826, on the other hand, one of the pastoral idyls for which Du Jardin is famous, is a chef d'œuvre of the painter (Sir Robert Peel paid 930 guineas for it). No. 828 has a true Italian air, and there is a touch of almost pathetic humour in the contrast between the cow and the woman. It is the beast that has its eyes on the sunset and enjoys the benediction of the evening hour. The woman is cumbered with much serving, and spins with her back to the light.

829. A STAG HUNT.

830. THE AVENUE, MIDDELHARNIS.

Perhaps the best rendering of a Dutch village in the Gallery—beautiful alike in its general effect and in the faithful way in which every characteristic of the country is brought out. Note the long avenue, a High Street, as it were, of lopped trees, to lead the traveller to the village; the bright red roofs, suggestive already in the distance of the cheerful cleanliness he will find; the broad ditch on either side of the road—the land reclaimed from the water, and the water now embanked to fertilise the land; the neat plantations, allotments it may be, each as trim and well kept as a lawn; and lastly, the nursery-garden on the left, in which the gardener, smoking, like the true Hollander, as he works, is pruning some grafted trees. Middelharnis is one of several places that dispute the honour of being Hobbema's birthplace.

This picture—which is signed, and dated 16-9 (third figure illegible)—is generally recognised as the painter's masterpiece. The subject is unusual, showing a more open landscape and a wider expanse of sky than Hobbema ordinarily represented. The power and freshness with which he has treated the theme are remarkable. "Such daylight," says Waagen, "I have never seen in any picture." It is to be noted further that the artist makes no effort to attain the picturesque, and that the picture offends in some respects against the laws of composition. Thus "M. Michel complains of the road coming straight, at once cutting the picture awkwardly in two, of the slender trees with which it is symmetrically bordered, and which have on their tops only small plumes of foliage, of the parallel ditches which hold in the road on either side, and of the cross-road which cuts the picture horizontally, and lastly, the rose-trees and shrubs planted regularly in straight lines. All this, he says, does not make a very picturesque picture. For our own part, it is the fearless and truthful manner in which Hobbema has treated what must at first sight have appeared an unpromising subject, that is one of its greatest charms" (Cundall: The Landscape Painters of Holland, p. 53). Like Hobbema's pictures generally, this masterpiece was held in little honour in its own country. It was sold at Dort in 1815 for £90. Sir Robert[Pg 433] Peel bought it in 1829 for £800. It is said to have been restored and retouched by Reinagle (see Mrs. Jameson's Handbook to the Private Galleries of London, p. 354 n.).

831. THE RUINS OF BREDERODE CASTLE.

This fine picture also is somewhat unusual in subject for Hobbema, who was ordinarily content with humble village scenes. It affords a good instance of his literal truth to nature. M. Michel, in his monograph on the painter, gives side by side a reproduction of it and a sketch from his own pen of the ruins as they exist to-day, which, with the exception of the addition of a modern barbaric bell-turret and some battlements, preserve almost the identical appearance which Hobbema portrayed upwards of two centuries ago. "The ivy continues to entwine its garlands round the disjointed bricks, and, as formerly, the ducks sport in the stagnant waters of the moat, or take a luxurious siesta amidst the tufts of grass on its banks, while the rooks and crows, installed as masters in the recesses of the ancient walls, fill the air with their incessant cries" (quoted in Cundall's Landscape and Pastoral Painters of Holland, 1891, p. 52). The ducks [191] are ascribed to Wyntrank; the figures to Lingelbach. The picture is signed, and dated 1667. It was, however, at one time re-christened as a Wijnants, in order to procure a better price at auctions. In 1825 it sold for £880.

832. A VILLAGE WITH WATERMILLS.

This is one of Hobbema's most usual subjects—a cottage, a mill, a few trees. The effect is that of a summer sky, with light fleecy clouds, and gleams of sunshine seem to pass over the scene. Sir Robert Peel paid £525 for the picture. It should be compared with Ruysdael's of a similar scene (986).

833. A FOREST SCENE.

834. A DUTCH INTERIOR.

This picture is interesting as enabling us to discern the painter's technical process. "The more luminous parts of it, such as the costumes of the two men at the table, are painted in semi-opaque colour over a brilliant orange ground. Here and there the orange may be seen peeping out, and its presence elsewhere gives a peculiar pearliness to the tints laid upon it. De Hooch painted very thinly. In this picture the maid with the brazier is an afterthought. She is painted over the tiles and other details of the background, which now show through her skirts. Before she was put in, this space to the right was occupied by an old gentleman with a white beard and moustache, and a wide-brimmed hat, all of which can be descried under the brown of the mantelpiece" (Armstrong: Notes on the National Gallery, pp. 36, 37).

835. COURT OF A DUTCH HOUSE.

A courtyard at Delft: superbly painted, and a good picture of Dutch home life—of its neatness, its cleanliness, its quiet, and its content. Notice over the entrance a commemorative inscription, partly covered already by vine leaves, dated 1614. The day's work is done, and the wife stands in the porch, waiting for her husband's return; a servant brings down the child too into the courtyard to greet its father. "It is natural to think your own house and garden the nicest house and garden that ever were.... They are a treasure to you which no money could buy,—the leaving them is always pain,—the return to them a new thrill and wakening to life. They are a home and a place of root to you, as if you were founded on the ground like its walls, or grew into it like its flowers" (Fors Clavigera, 1876, p. 51). Such a home (says Mr. Pater in his Imaginary Portraits) "was, in its minute and busy wellbeing, like an epitome of Holland itself, with all the good-fortune of its thriving genius reflected, quite spontaneously, in the national taste. The nation had learned to content itself with a religion which told little, or not at all, on the outsides of things. But we may fancy that something of the religious[Pg 435] spirit had gone, according to the law of the transmutation of force, into the scrupulous care for cleanliness, into the grave, old-world, conservative beauty of Dutch houses, which meant that the life people maintained in them was normally affectionate and pure." This picture was much admired by Constable. "The least mannered," he said, "and consequently the best pictures I have seen, are some of the works of De Hooge, particularly one of an outdoor subject, at Sir R. Peel's. His indoors are as good, but less difficult, as being less lustrous" (Leslie's Life of Constable, p. 299). The picture is signed, and dated 1658.

836. A VIEW IN HOLLAND.

There is a repetition of this picture in the Royal Museum at the Hague. One may presume that Koninck's pictures had aristocratic purchasers; for, unlike the painters of "pastoral landscape," he is fond of introducing persons of distinction—here it is a hawking party; in 974 a carriage-and-six with outriders.

837. THE HAY HARVEST.

838. THE DUET.

839. THE MUSIC LESSON.

A picture that might serve as an illustration of "the gamut of Hortensio" (see Taming of the Shrew, Act. iii. sc. 1).

840. A LADY FEEDING A PARROT.

841. A FISH AND POULTRY SHOP.

Decidedly an "artistic" shop: notice the elaborate bas-relief (as also in 825), with marine subjects suitable to a fishmonger's, below the shop-window, and the handsome curtain ready to serve as shutters. The picture is sometimes called "The Cat," from the cat eyeing the duck whose head hangs from the window-sill.

842. A GARDEN.

843. BLOWING BUBBLES.

844. MATERNAL INSTRUCTION.

Notice in the background, over a cupboard, hanging in a black frame, a small copy of Rubens' "Brazen Serpent," now in this collection (59).

845. A LADY AT A SPINNING WHEEL.

846. THE ALCHYMIST.

Under the three-legged stool is a paper on which is written a warning of the vanity of the alchymist's labour—oleum et operam perdis: "you are wasting your cost and pains"—a warning not unjustified in a painter's mouth, for more than one old master devoted the end of his life to the fruitless task of making gold (e.g. Parmigiano, see 33). The English painter, Romney, too, dabbled in alchemy when he was a young man, and in his declining years sketched a melodrama representing the progress of an alchymist in quest of the philosopher's stone. The picture is signed (on a shovel hanging against the wall), and dated 1661. It is, says Mr. J. T. Nettleship in a comparison between Ostade and George Morland, "a marvellous example of the atmosphère de tableau. Everything takes its place, but is also a wonder of finish. The whole picture gives you a large feeling of space and tone. And there is no bogeydom, no straining after weirdness; the whole is a common workshop, the scene of the man's daily life; he feeds well, one is sure—if he has dreams his face does not betray them, it is just the face of a born craftsman. It is impossible to look at this picture without acknowledging the influence such work must have had on Morland. But Morland never achieved such delicacy united to breadth, such finish combined with harmony of effect, though before he took the wrong turn he came near achieving it" (George Morland, p. 23).

847. A VILLAGE SCENE.

This picture was bought by Sir Robert Peel for 400 guineas, and was esteemed, says Mrs. Jameson in her catalogue of his collection, "the masterpiece of the painter. The transparent, sparkling beauty of the execution was never surpassed. The figures, the foliage, the animals, the atmospheric effect, are all perfect."

848. A SKATING SCENE.

849. LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE.

850. A MAN'S PORTRAIT.

851. VENUS SLEEPING.

852. THE CHAPEAU DE POIL.

One of the best known and most be-copied pictures in the Gallery. Its fame among artists "depends to no slight extent on its being a tour de force. The head is painted in reflected light, so as to come as near as may be to Queen Elizabeth's shadowless ideal" (Armstrong: Notes on the National Gallery, p. 31). "No one who has not beheld this masterpiece of painting can form any conception," says Dr. Waagen, "of the transparency and brilliancy with which the local colours in the features and complexion, though under the shadow of a broad-brimmed hat, are brought out and made to tell, while the different parts are rounded and relieved, with the finest knowledge and use of reflected lights." The expression of the subject is as much a tour de force as the technical treatment—

The picture is a portrait of Susanne Fourment, an elder sister of Rubens's second wife, Helène Fourment. Susanne often sat to Rubens; other paintings and drawings of her by his hand exist. She afterwards married Arnold Lunden. The picture remained in the possession of the painter until his death, when it passed into that of Nicholas Lunden, who had married Isabella, a daughter of Rubens by his second wife, Helène Fourment. The picture remained in the Lunden family until 1822, when it was sold by auction for 36,000 florins and brought to England. After being offered in vain to George IV., it was bought by Sir Robert Peel for 3500 guineas. Why and when this picture of a lady in a beaver hat acquired the inappropriate title of "Chapeau de Paille" ("The Straw Hat"), by which it has hitherto been called, is unknown. Perhaps the title is a corruption of "Chapeau d'Espagne." An entirely different story about the picture was current in the Lunden family. According to this not very probable tradition, Miss Susanne had refused to sit to Rubens, so he painted her unawares whilst she was in her garden, wearing a large straw hat. When the picture was done, she pardoned the flattering indiscretion and accepted it as a gift. Rubens afterwards begged leave to take back the portrait, promising in return a work in which he would put all his talent. This was a replica of the same portrait, but instead of a straw hat (chapeau de paille) he introduced in the second version the beaver hat (chapeau de poil) that we see. The Lunden family had christened the original "Chapeau de Paille," and the present picture has ever since retained the same title. (See letter in the Times, August 6, 1886, from M. Jules Nollée de Noduwez, himself a connection of the Lunden family).

853. THE TRIUMPH OF SILENUS.

For the subject see under 93. "Rubens painted these subjects with a gusto in which there is something fearful, so wonderful is the skill, the felicity of execution, the life, the energy, the fancy displayed—so gross and so repulsive the sentiment. In Niccolo Poussin's Bacchanalian scenes we have the licence and the revels of gods and nymphs, and of the golden age. Rubens gives us, with perhaps a truer moral feeling but[Pg 444] more depraved taste, mere animal sensuality, with all its most brutal attributes" (Mrs. Jameson's Handbook to the Private Galleries of London, p. 362). This picture was in the artist's possession at the time of his death, and was then bought for Cardinal Richelieu. It was afterwards in the collection of Sir Robert Peel, who gave £1100 for it.

853. a-p.

These sixteen drawings by Rubens formed part of the rich collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., after whose death they were acquired for Sir Robert Peel. They were purchased for the nation in 1871 with the Peel Collection of pictures. The subjects are as follows:—

854. A FOREST SCENE.

Of this picture, when it was in Sir Robert Peel's collection, Mrs. Jameson tells a pretty tale. "'I cannot express to you,' said the statesman, 'the feeling of tranquillity, of restoration, with which, in an interval of harassing official business, I look around me here.' And while he spoke, in the slow, quiet tone of a weary man, he turned his eyes on a forest scene of Ruysdael, and gazed on it for a minute or two in silence, as if its cool, dewy verdure, its deep seclusion, its transparent waters stealing through the glade, had sent refreshment into his very soul" (Handbook to the Private Galleries of London, p. xix.).

855. A WATERFALL.

856. THE MUSIC-MASTER.

A work of some humour. The music-master is sadly bored with the exercises of his pupil at the harpsichord, but his disgust is fully shared by the young brother whose turn is to come next, and who is bringing a lute into the room. The picture is signed on the harpsichord.

857, 858, 859, 860. THE FOUR SEASONS.

Very interesting little pictures, as characteristic of the entire want of poetry in Teniers' art. Compare Mantegna's version of Summer and Autumn (1125), or recall Botticelli's lovely vision of Spring at Florence, and one sees in a moment the difference in art between poetical imagination and vulgarity. To Teniers, Spring—"the sweet spring, the year's pleasant king"—is only a man carrying a flower-pot. Summer—"all the sweet season of summertide"—suggests nothing but a man holding a wheat-sheaf. Autumn—"season of mists and mellow fruitfulness"—brings him only a first glass of wine; and Winter—"white winter, rough nurse, that rocks the dead cold year"—only a second. These pictures (which are painted on copper), were once in the possession of Prince Talleyrand, and Sir Robert Peel bought them in 1823 for £189.

861. A COUNTRY SCENE.

862. THE SURPRISE.

Hardly an instance in which "vice itself loses half its evil by losing all its grossness." It is a very vulgar intrigue. The husband courts without passion; the maid-servant "stoops to folly" without grace; the wife surprises the lovers without dignity.

863. THE RICH MAN IN HELL.

The sequel to the story of Dives and Lazarus. "And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried. And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments" (Luke xvi. 22, 23). A favourite subject with Teniers, giving him an opportunity for painting comic monstrosities.

864. THE GUITAR LESSON.

This is a characteristic example of the painter's conversation pieces. Sir Robert Peel bought it in 1826 for 920 guineas.

865. A COAST SCENE.

866. A STREET IN COLOGNE.

In the background is seen the then unfinished tower of Cologne Cathedral surmounted by the old vane. This was a favourite subject of the painter; there is another version of it in the Wallace Collection. The figures are attributed to A. van de Velde.

867. THE FARM COTTAGE.

This picture is signed, and dated 1658. The effect is that of a fine warm summer afternoon.

868. THE FORD.

"The figures and faces," says Mrs. Jameson in her catalogue of the Peel Collection, "are finished with inexpressible delicacy; the animals are painted with characteristic truth; the foliage of the trees seems stirred by the breeze;—in short, it is a most rare piece of work in every part, and full of pastoral sentiment, though there is certainly nothing Arcadian in the[Pg 450] personages introduced." Sir Robert Peel bought the picture in 1840 for 760 gs.

869. A FROST SCENE.

This picture—known as "Les Amusements d'Hiver"—is signed, and dated 1668. The men are playing hockey. Other figures are occupied with a sledge. On the left is a refreshment booth.

870. SHIPPING IN A CALM.

A dogger, with hanging sail, in the foreground; behind it a frigate—"and a variety of vessels, at every different gradation of distance, carry the eye back to the horizon. The air and ocean are still as sleep. Signed, and dated 1657, when the painter was only 24."

871. BATHING AT LOW WATER.

Incidentally a good study in the "philosophy of clothes." The painter hits off with much humour the essential difference between those who regard man as "by nature a naked animal"—seen in the naked bathers—and those who regard him as emphatically "a clothed animal"—seen in the prim old gentleman who gets himself carried on a man's back. Intermediate between these two classes are those who use clothes as a convenience, but are not entirely subject to them—such, for instance, is the comfortable old fellow smoking his pipe and wading home, not without obvious contempt for the old gentleman riding, as aforesaid, in ignominious slavery to his "Sunday best." Dated 1661; bought by Sir Robert Peel from the collection of the Duc de Berri.

872. A SLIGHT BREEZE.

873. THE COAST OF SCHEVENINGEN.

"A scene well known to those who have visited the Hague, and frequently represented by Van de Velde. There are the high sand-hills to the left, and above them are seen a few fishermen's huts and the little church of Scheveningen. Along the beach are numerous figures, variously grouped and employed; the most conspicuous are several persons near a post-waggon. The sea is quietly rolling in to the shore, impelled by a light breeze. The figures are painted with exquisite finish and spirit by Adrian van de Velde" (Mrs. Jameson). Sir Robert Peel bought this picture from the Pourtalès Collection for £800. It is a characteristic specimen of the master, showing how his version of the sea was coloured by that "mixture of sand and sea-water" which belongs to his native coasts. "I have come," writes Fromentin, "to Scheveningen. Before me is the calm, gray, fleecy North Sea. Who has not seen it? One thinks of Ruysdael, of Van Goyen, of Van de Velde. One easily finds their point of view. I could tell you the exact place where they sat, as if the trace of them had remained imprinted for two centuries: the sea is on the left; the ridged sand-hills stand out on the right, stretch away, diminish and are lost insensibly in the dim horizon; the grass is poor; the sand-hills are pale; the sea-shore is colourless; the sea is like milk; the sky has silky clouds and is wonderfully aerial."

874. A CALM AT SEA.

A Dutch frigate and a small English cutter becalmed. "There is a repose in the air, a clearness in the still, smooth sea, quite indescribable" (Mrs. Jameson).

875. A LIGHT BREEZE.

876. A GALE.

877. HIS OWN PORTRAIT.

That Van Dyck was at a very early age a portrait-painter of rare merit may be seen, from this likeness of himself while still quite young and beardless. In the Wallace Collection there is another early portrait of himself, in the character of Paris. Our picture is the portrait of an artist and a man of refinement. Notice especially the long, tapering fingers—delicate almost to the point of feminineness. They are very characteristic of Van Dyck's work, who, indeed, drew all his hands from one model: the same delicate fingers may be seen in the so-called "portrait of Rubens" (49). In giving this delicacy to all sitters Van Dyck fell no doubt into mannerism; in giving it to great artists such as himself he was entirely right. Palmistry assigns fine, tapering fingers to "artistic temperament," and rightly, for fine fingers are necessary for fine work. "The art of painting, properly so called, consists in laying on the least possible colour that will produce the required result; and this measurement, in all the ultimate—that is to say the principal—operations of colouring, is so delicate that not one human hand in a million has the required lightness" (Two Paths, Appendix iv., where much interesting matter on this subject will be found).

877 A. THE CRUCIFIXION.

877 B. RINALDO AND ARMIDA.

These drawings were bought with the Peel Collection. The former is the study for an altar-piece of the church of St. Michael at Ghent—"a most superb drawing," says Mrs. Jameson. The latter is a drawing prepared for the engraver, Peter de Jode, from the large picture of the subject in the Louvre. It was the sight of that picture that determined King Charles I. to secure the services of Van Dyck.

878. "THE PRETTY MILKMAID."

The picture is known after the milkmaid whom the officer is chucking under the chin, whilst the trumpeter takes a sarcastic pleasure, we may suppose, in sounding all the louder the call "to arms."

879. THE INTERIOR OF A STABLE.

The profusion of pleasurable incident in this picture has already been noticed (see under 878) in connection with Wouwerman's bent of mind; but notice also how the crowded composition spoils the effect of a picture as a picture. Clearly also will it spoil the stable-keeper's business. He eyes the coin which one of his customers is giving him with all the discontent of a London cabman, and has no eye to spare for the smart lady with her cavalier, who are just entering the stable. This is a good instance of what has been called "Wouwerman's nonsense-pictures, a mere assemblage of things to be imitated, items without a meaning" (W. B. Scott: Half-hour Lectures on Art, p. 299).

880. ON THE SEA SHORE.

This picture was formerly in the collection of Queen Elizabeth of Spain, whose arms are stamped on the back. Sir Robert Peel bought it in 1823 for 450 guineas.

881. GATHERING FAGGOTS.

882. A LANDSCAPE.

883. A BEGGAR BY THE ROADSIDE.

The picture is signed (on the trunk of the felled tree) and dated 1659. The figures in this and the next picture are ascribed to A. van de Velde.

884. SAND DUNES.

It is not uninteresting to notice—as strangely in keeping with the poor and hard country here depicted—that in nearly every picture by Wynants (see 883, 971, 972) there is a dead tree. That Dutch painters were alive to the beauties of vegetation, the oaks of Ruysdael are enough to show; but to Wynants at least nature seems to have been visible only as a destroying power, as a rugged and conflicting force, against which the sturdy Hollander had to battle for existence as best he might.

895. PORTRAIT OF A WARRIOR.

Francesco Ferruccio, of whom this is said to be a portrait, was the Florentine general whose skill and patriotism shed a lustre on the final struggle of Florence against the combined forces of the Pope and the Emperor. He was then in command[Pg 456] of the outlying possessions of Florence, and had there been a second Ferruccio within the city itself the fortune of war might have been different. Francesco was killed in a battle near Pistoia on August 3, 1530. In the background of this portrait there is a view of the Piazza della Signoria at Florence; and at the entrance door Michael Angelo's statue of David, which was placed there in 1504. The picture was formerly ascribed to Lorenzo Costa; the recognition of its true authorship is due to Dr. Richter and Dr. G. Frizzoni. The identification of the warrior with the celebrated general is considered doubtful by them (see Richter's Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 36; and Frizzoni's Arte Italiana del Rinascimento, p. 252).

896. THE PEACE OF MÜNSTER.

One of the "gems" of the National Collection—"priceless" because not only of its great artistic merit, but of its unique historical interest. It is an exact representation by a contemporary Dutch painter of one of the turning-points in Dutch history—the ratification, namely, by the delegates of the Dutch United Provinces, on 15th May 1684, of the Treaty of Münster, with which the eighty years' war between Spain and the United Provinces was concluded, altogether to the advantage of the latter. The clerk (in a scarlet cloak) is reading the document. The plenipotentiaries are standing nearest to the table. Six of them, holding up the right hand, are the delegates of the United Provinces; two, with their right hands resting on an open copy of the Gospels, are the representatives of Spain. One of the Dutch delegates and one of the Spanish hold copies of the document, which they follow as it is being read by the clerk. The brass chandelier, it is interesting to note, still hangs in the hall at Münster. The painter has introduced his own portrait among the figures on the left, in three-quarter face, behind the officer who stands with one arm resting on the chair of the third Dutch delegate (counting from the left).

During his lifetime Terburg did not part with the picture. It passed at one time into the possession of Prince Talleyrand, and by a curious coincidence was hanging in the room of his hotel, under the view of the Allied Sovereigns, at the signing of the treaty of 1814. After several more changes of hands it was[Pg 457] bought in 1868 by the late Marquis of Hertford for £8800—equivalent, the curious in such things may like to know, to nearly £24 per square inch of canvas; at his death it came into the possession of Sir Richard Wallace, who presented it to the nation in 1871. A curious story is told in this connection. At the De Morny sale in 1865 the picture had been sold for £1805. At the San Donato (or Demidoff) sale, three years later, Sir William Boxall, Director of the National Gallery, bid up to £6000 for it; but his mandate went no further, and his mortification was great when he found himself far outbid by the Marquis of Hertford. Three years later, an unknown gentleman, not too smartly dressed, was announced at the National Gallery, and began to open a small picture-case. Sir William was busy, and "could not go into the matter now." "But you had better just have a glance—I ask no more," said the stranger. Sir William refused. The stranger insisted. Boxall, struck dumb at the sight of the picture it had been his dream to add to the National Collection, raised his eyes to those of the visitor. "My name is Wallace," said the stranger quietly, "Sir Richard Wallace; and I came to offer this picture to the National Gallery." "I nearly fainted," said Boxall in recounting the story; "I had nearly refused 'The Peace of Münster,' one of the wonders of the world" (M. H. Spielmann: The Wallace Collection, p. 107).

901. A LANDSCAPE.

902. "THE TRIUMPH OF SCIPIO."

One of the grisailles, or pictures in gray and brown, of which Mantegna in his later years painted very many, and to multiply which he took to engraving. In its subject the picture is a piece of ancient Rome. No other works of the time, it[Pg 458] has been said, are so full of antique feeling as Mantegna's. Botticelli played with the art of the ancients and modernised it; Mantegna actually lived and moved in it (Woltmann and Woermann: History of Painting, translated by Clara Bell, ii. 378). Mantegna's classical scholarship, too, is abundantly shown in the details of this picture, which is full of allusions to Latin authors and history. The Triumph of Scipio, it may be briefly explained, consisted in his being selected by the Senate as "the worthiest man in Rome," by whom alone—so the oracle decreed—must Cybele, the Phrygian mother of the gods, be received. It was "an honour," says Livy, with the fine patriotism of Rome, "more to be coveted than any other which the Senate or people could bestow." On the left, the image of the goddess is being borne on a litter, and with it the sacred stone alleged to have fallen from heaven. It was an unusual fall of meteoric stones that had caused the Romans to consult the oracle in B.C. 204, during Hannibal's occupation of Italy, and the oracle had answered that the Phrygian mother must be brought to Rome. This goddess, worshipped under different forms in many parts of the world, was a personification of the passive generative power in nature, and from this time forward she was included among the recognised divinities of the Roman State. In the centre of the picture Scipio and his retinue are receiving her; whilst Claudia, a Roman lady, has thrown herself before the image. Some slur had attached to her reputation, but she had proved her innocence by invoking the goddess and then drawing off from a shoal in the harbour of Ostia, with the aid of only a slight rope, the vessel which bore the sacred image.

"The picture," says Sir F. Burton, "has a history of its own. It was undertaken towards the close of Mantegna's long and laborious career; and when that career terminated in the sadness and gloom which have too often awaited those whose imaginative powers had placed them above their fellow-men, it remained in his studio, probably not fully finished. It may have been the last, it was certainly one of the last, pictures which his pencil touched." An advance payment of 25 ducats had been made to Mantegna in 1504. His son Francesco made an unsuccessful claim to it as an inheritance from his father, offering to repay the amount received in advance. The picture, representing an event glorious in the history of the Scipios, was commissioned by a Venetian nobleman, Francesco[Pg 459] Cornaro, in order to throw lustre upon the genealogy of his family, which claimed to belong to the Roman gens Cornelia.

903. CARDINAL FLEURY.

A portrait of the famous tutor, and afterwards prime minister, of Louis XV. It is eminently the "pacific Fleury," who strove to keep France out of war and starved her army and navy when she was forced into it, that we see in this amiable old gentleman—the scholar and member of the Academy, who completed what is now the National Library of France—rather than the statesman. A similar picture is in the Wallace Collection (No. 130).

904. MADONNA AND CHILD.

905. THE MADONNA IN PRAYER.

Tura's type of the Madonna is perhaps the least pleasing in the whole range of Italian art.

906. THE MADONNA IN ECSTASY.

The latest of Crivelli's dated pictures in the Gallery (1492), and remarkable for the deep colours which mark the artist's highest powers. Notice the usual hanging fruit and the pot of[Pg 460] roses and carnations. The Virgin looks up to the Almighty and the dove, while two angels, with a scroll, support a crown over her head. On the scroll are inscribed (in Latin) the words, "As I was conceived in the mind of God from the beginning, so was I also made."

907. ST. CATHERINE AND ST. MARY MAGDALENE.

The figure of St. Mary Magdalene, with the vase of precious ointment, is characteristic of the painter's more affected style; notice especially the fingers elongated to the point of grotesqueness.

908. THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST.[193]

"The picture is a masterpiece" says Mr. Hipkins, "in musical delineation. It is the perfectly expressed singing of these characteristic angels that arrests attention first; but the archæologist in musical instruments values the two large lutes held by the outside angels of the group, who are accompanying the singers. The splendid lines and fine dimensions of these instruments suggest their sonorous tone. When this picture came from the Barker Collection, each lute had eleven strings, and the number of pegs in one of them seems to have this number; but in cleaning the picture the strings have disappeared. As the picture was not finished by the painter, it is supposed that the strings were a later addition. However, the number was right, according to the practice with large lutes at that time, to give six open notes; the highest, or melody, string being open"[194] (The Hobby Horse, No. 1, 1893). "The figures of the Virgin and Child are of the gentlest and fairest type, and show undoubted signs of the Flemish influence, [Pg 462]which made itself felt in Florence and throughout Central Italy after Hugo van der Goes set up his great altar-piece in the Ospedale of Santa Maria Novella" (W. G. Waters: Piero della Francesca p. 64).

This picture was formerly in the possession of the Marini-Franceschi family, of Borgo San Sepolcro, descendants of the painter. The wings and the predella once belonging to it are in the cathedral of that city.

909. THE MADONNA OF THE WHITE ROSE.

A charming combination of older and newer "motives." There is the gold background, true to the old Sienese traditions, but there are also the little fiddling angels, so common in Venetian and other pictures of the time of Benvenuto's later years. In the compartments on either side are St. Peter, and St. Nicholas of Bari (with various adornments referring to his story: see under 1171).

910. THE TRIUMPH OF CHASTITY.

In the foreground Cupid on his knees is bound by maidens; in the distance there are other two groups, in one of which the god of love is being captured, in the other he is led away in triumph with his arms pinioned behind him. This painting is a fresco which was transferred to canvas from the wall of a palace at Siena. It was injured in the process, and has been badly restored. It is signed LUCAS CORITIUS, and according to the official catalogue, "the hand of the master is visible enough in the less damaged parts." According to other authorities, the inscription is forged, and the picture "a weak production by Genga," Signorelli's assistant at Orvieto (Richter's Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 49).

911. ULYSSES AND PENELOPE.

Penelope was wife of Ulysses, King of Ithaca, whose wanderings after the Trojan war are told in Homer's "Odyssey," and shown in summary in the distance of this picture. Through the open window is seen the ship of Ulysses, with the hero bound to the mast; the sirens, whose coasts he passed unhurt, are sporting in the sea; and on an island near is the palace of Circe, who changed his companions into swine. In his absence Penelope was beset by many suitors, such as are here seen clad in joyous raiment, and was in sore straits to resist their importunity. But "some god put it into my heart to set up a great web in the halls, and thereat to weave a robe fine of woof and very wide; and-anon I spake among them, saying: 'Ye princely youths, my wooers, now that goodly Odysseus is dead, do ye abide patiently, how eager soever to speed on this marriage of mine, till I finish the robe ... even this shroud for the hero Laertes, father of Odysseus, against the day when the deadly doom shall bring him low, of death that lays men at their length.' ... So spake I, and their high hearts consented thereto. So then in the daytime I would weave the mighty web, and in the night unravel the same" (xix. 138-150: Butcher and Lang's translation). And for the space of three years Penelope's web was still unwoven, and the suitors were deceived; but afterwards, when they chid her loudly, she finished the web, and could neither escape marriage nor devise any further counsel, for that her son too chafed while the suitors devoured his livelihood. But Ulysses then returned; he is now in the doorway just entering; and presently Penelope will take down her husband's bow—now hanging with a quiver of arrows above her head—which the suitors could not bend, but was bent by Ulysses.

The painter makes no attempt at archæological reconstruction; he gives us a picture of the costumes of his own day. This vivacious picture is a fresco transferred to canvas. It was painted in the Pandolfo Petrucci Palace at Siena, which also Signorelli's "Triumph of Chastity" once decorated (now 910 in our Gallery).

912, 913, 914. THE STORY OF GRISELDA.

On these three panels (formerly ascribed to Pinturicchio),[195] which were probably destined to serve as decorations to a chest, the story of Griselda is told with much naïve awkwardness of drawing, but also with much naïve playfulness of incident. The story, told in Boccaccio's Decameron, and by Petrarch, is also to be found in Chaucer's Clerkes Tale.

In the first picture (912) we see (1) on the extreme left the Marquis of Saluzzo, who is out hunting with a great retinue. He meets Griselda, a peasant girl, who is drawing water at the well, and falls in love with her. Next (2) on the extreme right is her humble barn-like dwelling, with the marquis serenading his love from below. (3) He carries her off with him; and note how Griselda, who is to be modest and humble to the end, hangs her head in "maiden shamefacedness." (4) Then the marquis has her attired in gold and fine linen, fit for a prince's bride. Her pattens and perhaps her garters are lying discarded beside her. And so (5), in the centre of the picture, all is ready for the wedding:

Before the second act (913) a few years are supposed to have elapsed. (1) On the left Griselda's two children—a boy and a girl—(in the likeness of two very wooden dolls) are being carried off, as if by a villain in a transpontine tragedy. They are supposed to have since died miserably. (2) The marquis tires of his love for Griselda, and is divorced: in the centre of the picture we see her giving back the wedding ring. (3) Then she is stripped of her fine clothes, and (4) sent away to her father's house, but

Two young gallants, in absurd attitudes, look on in half-pitying amusement, while nearer to us two serving-men are disgusted at the cruel shame. (5) On the extreme right she is at home again, tending, as before, her father's sheep.

In the last act (914), a grand banquet is prepared for the marquis's second wedding, and Griselda is sent for to the castle to do menial work. On the left we see her sweeping; on the right she is waiting at table. Then, on the left again, it is discovered that the marquis's new bride is none other than Griselda's long-lost daughter, accompanied by her brother. They had all the while been tended in a distant city with the utmost care. Griselda is thereupon affectionately embraced by her husband, publicly reinstated in her proper position, and presented to all the court as a model of wifely obedience and patience—

915. MARS AND VENUS.

So the picture is usually called—Mars, the God of War, asleep, and the young satyrs playing with his discarded armour, while one of them attempts to rouse him by blowing a shell. The subject is almost identical with that which Spenser draws in the Faërie Queene, where Sir Guyon, the Knight of Purity, overthrows the Bower of Bliss in which Acrasia (or Pleasure) dwells—the last and worst of Sir Guyon's trials, for "it is harder to fight against pleasure than against pain." Note especially the expression of the sleeping youth: he is overcome with brutish paralysis, and they cannot awaken him. Note also the swarm of hornets issuing from the tree-trunk by his head—significant of the power that sensual indulgence has of venomously wounding. Visitors who have been in Venice may remember similar details in Carpaccio's picture of St. George and the Dragon (J. R. Anderson in St. Mark's Rest, Second Supplement, p. 20).

It has been suggested by Dr. Richter that the subject of the picture is not mythological, but an illustration of Angelo Poliziano's poem, "Stanze per la Giostra," "The Song of the Tournament," written in 1476 in glorification of Giuliano de' Medici, who had entered the lists in the preceding year, at the tournament given in honour of Simonetta Cattaneo. In this poem, Giuliano appears as a youth enamoured of the chase, and contemptuous of women. Cupid determines that he shall fall a prey to a pair of lovely eyes, and leads him to the presence of Simonetta. But night falls and Simonetta vanishes, whereupon Venus sends Giuliano a dream in which he is exhorted to enter the lists in honour of his lady-love. He foreknows that victory will crown his arms, and that love will reward his valour, but these joyful tidings are black with the shadow of death, for early in 1476 Simonetta died. According to Dr. Richter's interpretation, Giuliano in the picture before us lies sunk in deepest sleep. The little satyrs are whispering dreams into his ears, dreams from the realms of Venus. In his dreams, Giuliano is overcome with fear, because his lady is clad in the armour of Pallas: he cannot brook the gleam of her helmet and her lance. But Cupid whispers: "Lift thine eyes, Giuliano, to that flame which with its radiance blinds thee like a sun; for she it is who quickens noble minds, and from the breast all evil thoughts expels." He dreams again; a goddess comes to his aid leading him to battle and to victory. She divests his lady of the armour of Pallas, and leaves her robed in white (Lectures on the National Gallery, p. 51). The poem [196] may thus be made to fit the picture. It may, [Pg 467]however, be questioned whether the action of the little Cupids is not more appropriate to the accepted theory which sees in the armour the discarded weapons of a Mars or a knight, and Count Plunkett (Sandro Botticelli, pp. 44-5) refers to a passage in Lucian, with whose dialogues Botticelli was familiar. In describing a picture by Aëtion of the "Nuptials of Alexander and Roxana," Lucian describes how "on one side of it little Cupids play among Alexander's armour; two are carrying his spear, as porters do a heavy beam; two more grasp the handles of a shield, tugging it along with another reclining on it ... and then another has got into the breastplate.... All this is not idle fancy, on which the painter has been lavishing needless pains; he is hinting that Alexander has also another love, in War."

916. VENUS WITH CUPIDS.

The expression of melancholy characteristic of Botticelli's Madonnas is not absent from his heathen goddesses either. Notice also the roses—the painter's favourite flower (see 226). This picture is probably only a work of his school; the figure of the goddess is a not very successful repetition of the one in 915. The subject of the picture recalls the description of Simonetta in Poliziano's poem:—

920. ORPHEUS.

923. A VENETIAN SENATOR.

This picture "was ascribed to Giovanni Bellini before it entered the National Gallery, and dilettanti might well mistake it for a work of Antonello da Messina. There seems to be little doubt that the picture was painted by Solario at Venice, where he went in 1490 in company of his brother.... The firmly drawn portrait of the senator, with its minutely executed landscape in the background, reveals plainly that he there became an ardent follower of Antonello" (Richter's Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 99).

924. A GOTHIC INTERIOR

A group of figures is inspecting a conspicuous Renaissance tomb. Notice the dogs among the visitors.

927. AN ANGEL ADORING.

928. APOLLO AND DAPHNE.

The Greeks, seeing the perpetual verdure of the laurel, personified it in the story of Apollo and Daphne (= laurel), which told how the sun-god was enamoured of her. But she, praying to be delivered from his pursuit, was changed by the gods into a laurel—her two arms are here sprouting, just as the god has caught her in his embrace; and he, crowning his head with the leaves, ordained that the tree should for ever bloom and be sacred to his divinity (see further for the story of Apollo and Daphne under 520). The fact that Phœbus Apollo was also the god of song has suggested a pretty adaptation of the legend to the case of poets who sing for love and earn the laurel wreath—

929. THE "BRIDGEWATER MADONNA."

This is an ancient copy, probably by a Flemish painter, of the original, which is in the possession of the Earl of Ellesmere at Bridgewater House. It belongs to Raphael's second or Florentine period, and its exquisite grace has caused it to be known by some writers as "La Plus Belle des Vierges."

930. THE GARDEN OF LOVE.

Certainly not by Giorgione,[197] but a characteristic example of a class of composition of which, as we have seen, he was the inventor—one of those Venetian pastorals in which young men and women "disport in the open air, amuse themselves at random" (Asolando).

931. THE MAGDALEN.

The Magdalen—she who had sinned much, but who was forgiven because she loved much—is represented at the Saviour's feet, laying aside her jewels, and thus renouncing the vanities of the world.

932. A KNIGHT OF MALTA.

933. BOY WITH A BIRD.

Contrast with this child caressing a dove Baroccio's Christ teasing a bird. Padovanino lived much at Venice, and shared perhaps the Venetian's fondness for pigeons—the sacred birds of St. Mark's, which are kept and fed in the great square to this day at the public charge.

934. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

935. A RIVER SCENE.

936. THE FARNESE THEATRE, PARMA.

A scene in the theatre with Othello being played. The pit is unseated; it is a kind of "promenade play."

937. VENICE: SCUOLA DI SAN ROCCO.

The principal building is the Scuola of the religious fraternity of St. Roch—"an interesting building of the early Renaissance (1517), passing into Roman Renaissance," and, "as regards the pictures it contains (by Tintoret), one of the three most precious buildings in Italy" (Stones of Venice, Venetian Index). From the adjoining Church of St. Roch, the Holy Thursday procession of the Doges and Officers of State, together with the members of the Fraternity, is advancing under an awning on its way to St. Mark's. Notice the carpets hung out of the windows—a standing feature, this, in Venetian gala decorations from very early times (see, for instance, No. 739).[199] Notice, also, the pictures displayed in the open air[Pg 472]—a feature which well illustrates the difference between the later "easel pictures" and the earlier pictures intended to serve as architectural decorations. "A glance at this picture is sufficient to show how utterly the ordinary oil painting fails when employed as an architectural embellishment. Pictures which were to adorn and form part of a building had to consist of figures, separated one from another, all standing in simple and restful attitudes, and all plainly relieved against a light ground" (Conway: Early Flemish Artists, p. 270). Apart from one of the conditions of early art thus suggested, the picture is interesting as showing how in the eighteenth century in Italy, as in the thirteenth, art was part and parcel of the life of the people. Cimabue's pictures were carried in procession; and here in Canaletto's we see Venetian "old masters" hung out to assist in the popular rejoicing.

938. VENICE: REGATTA ON THE GRAND CANAL.

A state regatta—a pastime which owes its origin to Venice—in honour of the visit to the city of the King of Denmark in 1709. In the centre of the canal are the gondoliers, racing; to the sides are moored the spectators, the gala barges of the nobles conspicuous amongst them. The variegated building on the left is a temporary pavilion for the distribution of prizes. These regattas at Venice took the place of our royal processions here. "Wherever the eye turned, it beheld a vast multitude at doorways, on the quays, and even on the roofs. Some of the spectators occupied scaffoldings erected at favourable points along the sides of the canal; and the patrician ladies did not disdain to leave their palaces, and, entering their gondolas, lose themselves among the infinite number of the boats" (Feste Veneziane: quoted in Howells's Venetian Life, ii. 69). Another custom in which we have begun to imitate the Venetians, and which may be seen in this picture, is that of hanging out carpets and stuffs by way of decorations. "The windows and balconies," says the same account, "were decked with damasks, stuffs of the Levant, tapestries, and velvets;" a very old Venetian custom: see under 937.

939, 940. VENICE: THE PIAZZETTA, AND THE DUCAL PALACE.

Canaletto's representation of the central spot of Venice. In 939 is the Piazzetta, the little Piazza or square, in front the church of St. Mark, with its bell towers; on the left are the mint and library; on the right is the ducal palace. This appears again in 940, with the famous column of St. Mark, patron saint of Venice, while beyond it is the Ponte della Paglia, the prisons, and the Riva degli Schiavoni.

941. VENICE: THE GRIMANI PALACE.

This palace, situated on the Grand Canal and used until lately as the post-office, was built in the sixteenth century by San Micheli, and is "the principal type at Venice, and one of the best in Europe, of the central architecture of the Renaissance schools—that carefully studied and perfectly executed architecture to which those schools owe their principal claim to our respect, and which became the model of most of the important works subsequently produced by civilised nations.... It is composed of three stories of the Corinthian order (i.e. in which the ornament is concave, distinguished from Doric, in which it is convex), at once simple, delicate, and sublime; but on so colossal a scale that the three-storied palaces on its right and left only reach to the cornice which marks the level of its first floor" (Stones of Venice, vol. iii. ch. ii. §§ 1, 2). Buildings in the same style in London are St. Paul's and Whitehall.

942. ETON COLLEGE.

Painted during the artist's first English visit, 1746-1748, perhaps in the same year (1747) that Gray published his well-known ode—

943. A PORTRAIT.

This portrait, which is dated 1462, was formerly supposed to be Memlinc's portrait of himself, in the costume of the Hospital of St. John at Bruges, but is now called by others Bouts's own portrait. "It is," says Sir W. Armstrong (Notes on the National Gallery, p. 28), "pretty surely the work of Dirck Bouts. Compare it with the Madonna numbered 774, and ascribed to Van der Goes. In conception, in chord of colour, in technical manner, the similarity is so complete between them as to leave room, in my mind, for very little doubt as to the identity of their authors. And this Madonna is by Dirck Bouts, as no one who has examined his 'Last Supper' in the Church of St. Pierre at Louvain can doubt.... Sir Martin Conway, who was the first, I fancy, to recognise Bouts in all three of these pictures, drew my attention to a curious peculiarity of his: he goes out of his way to paint hands. In his 'Last Supper' many hands are displayed that might quite naturally have been hidden, and we find the same thing in this portrait." Whether of Memlinc or of Bouts, the face bespeaks a gentle, humble, pious, laborious soul. The painting of the hair is especially remarkable. It is touched with the utmost minuteness, and yet the silky, flowing texture is conveyed with the utmost freedom. This picture was formerly in the possession of Samuel Rogers.

944. TWO USURERS.

One inserts items in a ledger; the other puzzles over the particulars of some business transaction. It is a powerful realisation of what Ruskin calls the New Beatitude, "Blessed are the merciless, for they shall obtain money." "The picture is remarkable," says Sir Edward Poynter, "not only for its marvellous finish, and the energy of the expressions, but for its luminous quality and the purity of the colour."

945. ST. AGNES ADORING.

kneels before the infant Christ, "for knowest thou not that Agnes has been a Christian from her infancy upwards, and the husband to whom she is betrothed is no other than Jesus Christ?" The infant Christ holds a coral rosary in his hand, for he would crown her with jewels compared with which all earthly gifts are as dross. "It chanced that the son of the prefect of Rome beheld her one day as he rode through the city, and became violently enamoured, and desired to have her for his wife. He asked her in marriage of her parents, but the maiden repelled all his advances. Then he brought rich presents, bracelets of gold and gems, and rare jewels and precious ornaments, and promised her all the delights of the world if she would consent to be his wife. But she rejected him and his gifts, saying, Away from me, tempter! for I am already betrothed to a lover who is greater and fairer than any earthly suitor. To him I have pledged my faith, and he will crown me with jewels, compared to which thy gifts are dross" (Mrs. Jameson: Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 356.)

946. A MAN'S PORTRAIT.

947. A PORTRAIT.

Formerly hung with the French pictures. Now ascribed to the Flemish School of the 15th or early 16th century.

948. LANDSCAPE: A SKETCH.

949. LANDSCAPE WITH GIPSIES.

950. VILLAGE GOSSIPS.

951. THE GAME OF BOWLS.

952. "THE VILLAGE FÊTE."

So the picture is usually called, but the subject seems rather to be a pilgrimage to some holy shrine or miraculous well. A cross is seen on the right; the priest in charge of the pilgrimage stands somewhat lower down; on the left is a man selling little memorial flags with crosses on them. The hungry travellers are waiting for the meal which is being prepared for them in several huge cauldrons. The town of Antwerp is seen in the distance. This picture, dated 1643, is among the best works of Teniers, and includes 150 figures. "Truth in physiognomy, distribution of groups, the beautiful effect of light and shade, command," says Hymans, "our[Pg 477] warmest admiration." In the foreground are Teniers and his party, with his little boy leading a greyhound, and the girl of this party is almost the only pleasant face in the picture. The painter, one begins to suspect, had not much real sympathy with his "village scenes" after all; and perhaps the demand for such scenes on the part of his aristocratic patrons was only a kind of vicarious "slumming"—an anticipation of the fashionable craze of a later age.

953. THE TOPER.

This picture is signed with a T. within a D., which is the signature of the elder Teniers.

954. A LANDSCAPE.

955. WOMEN BATHING.

956. AN ITALIAN LANDSCAPE.

957. GOATHERDS.

958. OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF ROME.

959. A RIVER SCENE.

960. THE WINDMILLS.

961. DORT (THE "LARGE DORT").

962. DORT (THE "SMALL DORT").

Groups of Cuyp's favourite cows in the foreground. In the distance the Groote Kerk of Dordrecht, with its handsome tower.

963. A SKATING SCENE.

A scene such as Isaac van Ostade specially loved. (See Pater's Imaginary Portraits, cited under 1137.)

964. A RIVER SCENE.

965. RIVER SCENE WITH STATE BARGE.

966. A RIVER SCENE.

967. DUTCH SHIPPING.

968. THE PAINTER'S WIFE.

969. A FROST SCENE.

970. THE DROWSY LANDLADY.

971, 972. LANDSCAPES.

973. SANDBANK.

974. LANDSCAPE.

975. THE STAG HUNT.

976. A BATTLE.

In Wouwerman's battle-pieces, says Ruskin, there is "nothing but animal rage and cowardice"—with which he contrasts the noble battle-piece by Paolo Uccello (583). "It is very singular," he adds, "that unmitigated expressions of cowardice in battle should be given by the painters of so brave a nation as the Dutch. Not but that it is possible[Pg 480] enough for a coward to be stubborn, and a brave man weak; the one may win his battle by blind persistence, and the other lose it by a thoughtful vacillation. Nevertheless, the want of all expression of resoluteness in Dutch battle-pieces remains, for the present, a mystery to me. In those of Wouwerman, it is only a natural development of his perfect vulgarity in all respects" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. viii. §§ 8-10).

977. A SEA-PIECE.

978. A RIVER SCENE.

A state barge in the centre; trumpeters sounding a salute on either side in other vessels.

979. A STIFF BREEZE.

980. DUTCH SHIPS OF WAR.

"The best example we have of the painter—a delightful picture. The sky is so delicate and unobtrusive that it does not expose his weakness in cloud drawing" (J. Brett, A.R.A., on "Landscape at the National Gallery," in Fortnightly Review, April 1895).

981. A STORM AT SEA.

See also under 819. This picture is signed (on a floating spar) and dated London 1673.

982. A FOREST SCENE (dated 1658).

983. A BAY HORSE (dated 1663).

984. LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE.

985. SHEEP AND GOATS.

986. THE WATERMILLS.

987. A ROCKY TORRENT.

988. AN OLD OAK.

989. WATERMILLS, WITH BLEACHERS.

990. A WOODED PROSPECT.

"This picture with its large shadows sweeping over the landscape and its faint gleams of sunlight, suggesting an imminent rain-storm, is one of Ruysdael's most poetical works" (Poynter: The National Gallery, ii. 174).

991. THE BROKEN TREE.

992. ARCHITECTURAL SCENE.

Classic v. Gothic. An interesting picture of the architectural tendency of the time—the classical Palladian architecture of stone rising over the ruins of the red brick Gothic of earlier times. The same mixture of the old and the new—in juxtaposition not altogether unlike what is here represented—may[Pg 482] be seen in the town of Abingdon (Berks), where Inigo Jones's market-hall, built about the time of this picture, towers above the red bricks of the humbler and earlier styles.

993. A HOUSE AMONG TREES.

994. A STREET IN A TOWN.

995. A WOODY LANDSCAPE.

996. A CASTLE IN A ROCKY LANDSCAPE.

997. SCOURING THE KETTLE

In pictures of this kind by Dou and his followers you fancy, it has been said, that "you see and hear the very grit as it cuts into the yellow metal."

998. SINGING A DUET.

999. BY CANDLE-LIGHT.

"To give the most natural effect to his candle-light pieces, Schalcken is said to have adopted the following system:—He[Pg 483] placed the object he intended to paint in a dark room, with a candle, and looking through a small hole, painted by day what he saw by candle-light" (Bryan's Dictionary).

1000. THE ESTUARY OF A RIVER.

1001. HOLLYHOCKS AND OTHER FLOWERS.

1002. FLOWERS, INSECTS, AND FRUIT.

1003. DEAD PARTRIDGES AND OTHER BIRDS.

1004. AN ITALIAN LANDSCAPE.

1005. PLOUGHING.

"There is in this small picture," says Sir Edward Poynter, "a genuine feeling for nature, which is generally somewhat[Pg 484] wanting in the works of Berchem, whose manner, founded on the study of Italian landscape art, gives frequently an artificial effect to his composition" (National Gallery, i. 44).

1006. HURDY-GURDY.

Berchem, as we have seen, was an "Italianiser," and here introduces us to one of the exports of that country—

1007. A ROCKY LANDSCAPE.

1008. A STAG HUNT.

1009. THE OLD GRAY HUNTER.

1010. RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE.

A picture by a rare master—interesting to students of the history of architectural taste. In 992 we are shown the struggle between the old Gothic style and the new Renaissance architecture; here we see the full victory of the latter. Dirk van Delen loved to depict the costly and variegated marbles on splendid palaces in the style of the late Renaissance. He will not be defrauded, even by considerations of distance, of any of his details, and every statue and ornament is shown us as minutely as if it were on the level of the eye. The classical style has pervaded too the fountain; note the gilt bronze group of Hercules and the Hydra.

1011. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

A faithful imitation on a reduced scale of Van Dyck's ideal of feminine "elegance." There is a certain artificial simplicity very characteristic of the time, in the combination of the lady, with her sumptuous white satin and the elaborate architecture behind her, and her pet lamb.

1012. PORTRAIT OF A MAN.

This picture was formerly ascribed to Van Dyck. The man's dress is of black velvet, of the fashion of about 1665-70.

1013. GEESE AND DUCKS.

1014. THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. LAWRENCE.

St. Lawrence (for whose legend see 747) is being prepared for martyrdom. Beside him there is an image of Cæsar, unto whom will be rendered Cæsar's due—the saint's life; but over his head is an angel from heaven, for unto God will go the saint's soul. The emperor is crowned on earth; the angel brings the saint a palm branch, an earnest of the martyr's crown in heaven.

1015. FRUIT, FLOWERS, AND DEAD BIRDS.

Prominent amongst the flowers is the red cockscomb. A picture by the most distinguished flower-painter of his time, and characteristic, in an interesting particular, of Dutch pictures of this kind generally. "If the reader has any familiarity with the galleries of painting in the great cities of Europe, he cannot but retain a clear, though somewhat monotonously calm, impression of the character of those polished flower-pieces, or still-life pieces, which occupy subordinate corners, and invite to moments of repose, or frivolity, the attention and imagination which have been wearied in admiring the attitudes of heroism, and sympathising with the sentiments of piety. Recalling to his memory the brightest examples of these ... he will find that all the older ones agree—if flower-pieces—in a certain courtliness and formality of arrangement, implying that the highest honours which flowers can attain are in being wreathed into grace of garlands, or assembled in variegation of bouquets, for the decoration of beauty, or flattery of noblesse. If fruit or still-life pieces, they agree no less distinctly in directness of reference to the supreme hour when the destiny of dignified fruit is to be accomplished in a royal dessert; and the furred and feathered life of hill and forest may bear witness to the Wisdom of Providence by its extinction for the kitchen dresser. Irrespectively of these ornamental virtues, and culinary utilities, the painter never seems to perceive any conditions of beauty in the things themselves, which would make them worth regard for their own sake: nor, even in these appointed functions, are they ever supposed to be worth painting, unless the[Pg 488] pleasures they procure be distinguished as those of the most exalted society" (Notes on Prout and Hunt, pp. 10, 11, where Ruskin goes on to contrast with this Dutch ideal the simple pleasure in the flowers and fruits for their own sake which marks W. Hunt's still-life drawings).

Observe, as further characteristic of Dutch fruit-pieces, the butterfly, the fly, and the earwig: "There was a further tour de force demanded of the Dutch workman, without which all his happiest preceding achievements would have been unacknowledged. Not only a dew-drop, but, in some depth of bell or cranny of leaf, a bee, or a fly, was necessary for the complete satisfaction of the connoisseur. In the articulation of the fly's legs, or neurology of the bee's wings, the genius of painting was supposed to signify her accepted disciples; and their work went forth to the European world, thenceforward, without question, as worthy of its age and country. But, without recognising in myself, or desiring to encourage in my scholars, any unreasonable dislike or dread of the lower orders of living creatures, I trust that the reader will feel with me that none of Mr. Hunt's peaches or plums would be made daintier by the detection on them of even the most cunningly latent wasp, or cautiously rampant caterpillar; and will accept, without so much opposition as it met with forty years ago, my then first promulgated, but steadily since repeated assertion, that the 'modern painter' had in these matters less vanity than the ancient one, and better taste" (ib. pp. 14, 15).

1016. A PORTRAIT OF A GIRL.

The courtly affectation which distinguishes Lely's portraits is not absent from this little girl. She is feeding the parrot, but obviously takes no interest in it—not even troubling indeed to look at it. Her concern seems to be only to hold up her flowing frock (or "simar") prettily and to point her fingers gracefully.

1017. A WOODY LANDSCAPE.

The landscape is probably by Josse Mompers, an Antwerp artist who lived 1564-1635.

1018. A CLASSICAL LANDSCAPE.

A characteristic example of Claude's "classical compositions" as described in our chapter on the French School. It is one of his late works, being dated 1673; the names of Anchises and Æneas occur.

1019. THE HEAD OF A GIRL.

1020. GIRL WITH AN APPLE.

1021. PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN.

1022. AN ITALIAN NOBLEMAN.

His left foot appears to have been wounded, for it is attached by a kind of stirrup and black cord to a band above the knee. It is interesting to compare this portrait with the closely corresponding one by Moretto which hangs near it (1025). Both are excellent examples of the several masters. Both were, no doubt, good likenesses; but there is a suggestion of poetry in Moretto's which one misses in Moroni's. Both are believed to be portraits of members of the Fernaroli family.

1023. AN ITALIAN LADY.

Said to be the wife of the subject of the preceding portrait. Not so happy a production; Moroni's strength lay in portraits of the other sex.

1024. AN ITALIAN ECCLESIASTIC.

The letter in his hand is addressed to himself, and tells us that he is Ludovico di Terzi, Canon of Bergamo, and an Apostolic Prothonotary. These latter functionaries, of whom there are still twelve in the Roman Church, are the chiefs of what may be called the Record Office of the Church. It is their business to draw up the reports of all important Church functions, such as the enthronements of new popes and public consistories. It is an office of much dignity—as this holder of it seems to be fully conscious, and the prothonotaries rank with bishops in the Church.

1025. AN ITALIAN NOBLEMAN.

This picture, dated 1526, is one of Moretto's most elegant portraits. It is a true character portrait, a picture of a soul as well as of a face. It shows us an Italian nobleman with all the poetry and aspiration of chivalry. On his scarlet cap he bears his proud device—a medallion in gold and enamel of St. Christopher bearing the infant Saviour—the ideal of Christian chivalry: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of one of these, ye have done it unto me." The picture is no doubt a portrait of one of the Fernaroli family, from whose palace in Brescia it came.

1031. MARY MAGDALENE.

"A vein of realism, combined with the mystery of Savoldo's deep colours and half-lights, is seen in the picture of a woman shrouded in a mantle in the National Gallery" (Layard, ii. 585). The picture agrees with the description given by Ridolfi of a "Magdalene," "a celebrated work of which there are many copies." A very similar picture, signed with Savoldo's name, is in the Berlin Gallery. The Magdalen is here approaching the sepulchre, before which is a vase of ointment on a square stone—for she had "bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning ... they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun" (Mark xvi. 1, 2). Notice the daring anachronism in the Venetian background, which "gives with exquisite truth a very early dawn upon the Giudecca."

1032. CHRIST'S AGONY IN THE GARDEN.

An angel bearing a chalice flies towards Christ from above ("O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done"). On the right is Judas with a band of Roman soldiers. On the foreground are the three disciples sleeping ("What! could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch, and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak").

This picture was at one time ascribed to the young Raphael,[201] being identified with the work which he executed for Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino, and which is thus described by Vasari (iii. 8): "For the same noble, the master executed another small picture, representing Christ praying in the Garden, with three of the apostles, who are sleeping at some distance, and which is so beautifully painted that it could scarcely be either better or otherwise were it even in miniature." Vasari traces the history of the picture down to his time, when it was in the Hermitage of Camaldoli. Our picture was formerly in the possession of Prince Gabrielli at Rome. The greater portion of the original drawing for it is in the Uffizi, catalogued under Perugino.

1033. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

This picture [202] (like 592, q.v.) is often ascribed to Botticelli, from whom Filippino learnt his fondness for the circular form. Every one will recognise too the resemblance to Botticelli in the daintiness of the dresses, the trappings of the horses (especially in the middle of the foreground), and the other accessories (such as the head-dresses of the Magi on the right). Vasari, indeed, says of Filippino that "the ornaments he added were so new, so fanciful, and so richly varied, that he must be considered the first who taught the moderns the new method of giving variety to the habiliments, and who first embellished his figures by adorning them with vestments after the antique." Filippino and later painters give these embellishments to angels as well as to men; and Vasari, it will be seen, considered it altogether an improvement. Some remarks on the other side will be found in Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. ii. ch. v. § 14 ("Of the Superhuman Ideal"). "The ornaments used by Angelico, Giotto, and Perugino (see, e.g. 288) are always of a generic and abstract character. They are not [Pg 495]diamonds, nor brocades, nor velvets, nor gold embroideries; they are mere spots of gold or of colour, simple patterns upon textureless draperies; the angel wings burn with transparent crimson and purple and amber, but they are not set forth with peacocks' plumes; the golden circlets gleam with changeful light, but they are not beaded with pearls nor set with sapphires. In the works of Filippino Lippi, Mantegna, and many other painters following, interesting examples may be found of the opposite treatment; and as in Lippi the heads are usually very sweet, and the composition severe, the degrading effect of the realised decorations and imitated dress may be seen in him simply, and without any addition of painfulness from other deficiencies of feeling." In addition to the minor ornamentation, one may notice in this picture the crowded groups of spectators which Filippino was fond of introducing. But so harmoniously are they grouped in six principal groups that the spectator will at first probably be surprised to hear that there are as many as seventy figures in the picture.

1034. THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST.

The other pictures by Botticelli in the National Gallery (see 275, 1126, and 915) adequately represent his earlier phases; this one completes the story of his life—painted as it was under Savonarola's influence—

This beautiful and curious picture is very characteristic of Botticelli's genius. It is full of highly wrought emotion—note "the fervour of the still Madonna as she kneels before the Child, the extraordinary nervous tension which the artist has managed to suggest in the seated figure of Joseph, the rapture and ecstasy of the angels"; the picture is full also, as we shall see, of mystic symbolism, but all is crowned and harmonised by a sense of pictorial daintiness and beauty. The centre of the picture is occupied by the familiar subject of the Nativity, and the accessories suggest in symbolic fashion the effects of Christ's Advent upon the good and the evil respectively. The theological symbolism may be seen in the gesture of the divine Child pointing to his mouth—typifying that he was the Word of God. So at the bottom of the picture there are devils running, at Christ's coming, into chinks of the rocks (those who are Christ's must put away "the works of darkness"); whilst the shepherds and angels embracing signify the reconciliation such as Savonarola wished to effect between heaven and earth. On either side of the central group angels are telling the glad tidings "of peace on earth, goodwill towards men." Note the symmetry in this part of the picture; the three Magi on the left, the three shepherds in adoration on the right; and in colour, the red frock of the angel on the right, the red wings on the left. Meanwhile in the sky above is a lovely choir of Botticelli's floating angels, dancing between earth and heaven, on a golden background suffused with light. The picture is, says Ruskin, "a quite perfect example of what the masters of the pure Greek school did in Florence.... The entire purpose of the picture is a mystic symbolism by motion and chiaroscuro. By motion, first. There is a dome of burning clouds in the upper heaven. Twelve angels half float, half dance, in a circle, round the lower vault of it. All their drapery is drifted so as to make you feel the whirlwind of their motion. They are seen by gleams of silvery or fiery light, relieved against an equally lighted blue of inimitable depth and loveliness. It is impossible for you ever to see a more noble work of passionate Greek chiaroscuro—rejoicing in light" (Lectures on Landscape, § 58). The introduction in the same[Pg 499] picture of the solemn teaching below, with these beautiful angel forms above, suggests precisely what Ruskin has defined to be Botticelli's position among pictorial reformers. "He was what Luther wished to be, but could not be—a reformer still believing in the Church; his mind is at peace, and his art therefore can pursue the delight of beauty and yet remain prophetic." "He was not a preacher of new doctrines, but a witness against the betrayal of old ones."

The first and more obvious intention of Botticelli's painted sermon was, as we have seen, to show the effects of the Advent upon the good and the evil. But he has also a particular application, an esoteric meaning. The clue to this is afforded by the Greek inscription at the top, which, being interpreted, is—

"In the troubles of Italy, at the end of the year 1500." Now, on May 12, 1497, exactly three years and a half before the date of Botticelli's inscription, Savonarola was burnt alive (as depicted on the little panel, No. 1301); and his death, says the historian, "meant for Florence the triumph of all that was most corrupt; vice was everywhere rampant, and virtuous living was utterly despised." But in the faith of Botticelli, the reverent disciple of Savonarola, this tyranny of the Evil One was doomed to pass away. He saw "in the troubles of Italy" a fulfilment of the awful words to which his inscription refers us in the eleventh chapter of the Revelation of St. John the Divine:—

To the elect, then, Botticelli meant his picture to show the fulfilment of the prophecy by the Second Advent of Christ, and the final triumph of Savonarola. The men embraced by angels are in this reading of the picture the "witnesses" to whom the spirit of life was returned; they are welcomed back to earth by angels, ere they are rapt heavenward. They bear olive boughs, because in the Apocalypse olive trees are symbolical of the Lord's anointed ones. "There is but one point which seems at variance with the Biblical text: in it two witnesses are spoken of, here there are three. This deviation was doubtless intentional. When Savonarola died, two others shared his palm of martyrdom, Fra Domenico Buonvicini and Fra Silvestre Marussi. The three figures crowned with myrtle represent the three risen and glorified martyrs" (Richter's Lectures on the National Gallery, p. 61. See also Mr. Sidney Colvin's article in the Portfolio, Feb. 1879).

1035. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.

The young man wears on his breast the cross of the Knights of Malta. The letter in his hand bears the date 1514. On the parapet is an inscription: tar: vblia: chi: bien: eima (slowly forgets he who loves well)—

1036. A MAN'S PORTRAIT.

A picture, it might be, of Hamlet with the skulls: "That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once." In his left hand he holds a flower: "there's pansies, that's for thoughts."

1041. THE VISION OF ST. HELENA.

Here we see the saint in devout reverie, while through the open window two cherubim bear a cross through the air. This beautiful picture, in which Veronese gives us an ideal and mystic composition, treated with a simplicity unusual to him, seems to have been derived from a plate by Marc Antonio, the founder of Italian engraving (1480-1534), supposed to be after a drawing by Raphael. The design is identical, though an exquisitely airy angel with a slender cross in Marc Antonio's engraving is replaced in Veronese's picture by chubby cherubs with a more solid cross. (The engraving is reproduced in the[Pg 502] Art Journal, 1891, p. 376, with some critical remarks. "This wonderful picture," says the writer, "is at once a delight and a puzzle. If Veronese was capable of efforts like the 'Vision of St. Helena,' why have we not more such, seeing how many treasures of his art have survived to us? The engraving offers an explanation, curiously exact, of this difficulty. Whatever in the 'Vision' is Veronese's own—the drapery and the colour—is not more remarkable than in many other pictures of his; on the other hand, whatever is not distinctively of Veronese is Marc Antonio's.... What more natural than that Veronese should essay to clothe in the glory of his own colouring [206] some creation of the great Italian who learnt from Dürer how to interpret the art of Raphael to Italy?") Veronese's picture once formed the altar-piece of a chapel dedicated to St. Helena at Venice, and was afterwards in the collection of the great Duke of Marlborough.

1042. A MAN'S PORTRAIT.

1045. A CANON AND HIS PATRON SAINT.

The canon kneels in adoration, with his patron saints around him—St. Bernardino of Siena behind, St. Donatian in advance of him, and St. Martin to the left. It was St. Martin who shared his cloak with the beggar, and here in the distance to the left—in compliment to the canon's generosity—is a beggar limping towards the group, asking alms. Notice the wood through which he walks. The subdued light beneath the thick foliage of the trees is admirably rendered. David "was the first painter to think of the shadow-giving nature of trees. Trees had for many years formed a favourite subject for backgrounds, but even by Memlinc they were rather conventionally rendered, one by one, not grouped into woods, and seldom brought into the foreground. Here we have a wood brought near us, with its domed canopy of foliage above, and its labyrinth of trunks buried in sylvan twilight below" (Conway's Early Flemish Artists, p. 298). Notice also the beautiful and elaborate work on the robes of St. Martin and St. Donatian. They are fully described in Mr. Weale's monograph referred to below. This will repay the most minute examination. The crimson-velvet cope of St. Martin is a masterpiece. The portrait of the donor is admirable.

The history of this beautiful picture, and of the changes and chances it went through before finding a permanent home in the National Gallery, is very curious. In 1501 a colleague of Richard van der Capelle (see 1432) and one of the executors of his will, namely, Canon Bernardin Salviati (illegitimate son of a rich Florentine merchant who traded or resided in Flanders), was secretary of the chapter of S. Donatian at Bruges. Having obtained leave to restore and embellish the altar of SS. John Baptist and Mary Magdalene, he commissioned Gerard David to paint the shutters of the reredos. These shutters, together with those[Pg 504] of several other altar reredoses in the nave of the church, were, at the request of the sacristan, who complained that they were always breaking the wax candles, sold in a lot by order of the chapter in 1787 for an insignificant sum of money. What became of the others is not known, but the one before us was, as we learn from the letters of Horace Walpole, bought in 1792, by Mr. Thomas Barrett, of Lee Priory, Kent, and it figures in the catalogue of that collection as "a group of saints by John Gossart of Maubeuge." At the sale of the Lee Priory Collection in May 1859, it was knocked down to the late Mr. William Benoni White for 525 guineas. Sir J. C. Robinson drew Mr. Weale's attention to the picture, which he at once recognised as being the right-hand shutter of the reredos of Salviati's chantry altar. "I tried hard," says Mr. Weale, "but in vain, to persuade the late Sir Charles Eastlake to purchase it for the National Gallery, but Mr. White would not part with it for less than £1000. Oddly enough the latter, who bore the character of being a most penurious and miserly man, by his last will and testament proved a generous benefactor to the nation, and left this panel in July 1878 to the National Gallery" (W. H. James Weale: Portfolio monograph on Gerard David, 1895, p. 18).

1047. A FAMILY GROUP.

"Supposed," says the official catalogue, "to represent the painter, his wife, and two children." This cannot be the case, for Lotto seems to have had no close domestic ties. The picture is, however, full of interest for its own sake. "The man and the woman are, it is true, both looking out of the picture, but nevertheless the feeling we have is that the group before us is not, as is usual in Italian family pictures, a mere collection of portraits, but that it is composed of people who are intimately related to each other, constantly acting and reacting one upon the other, and that it is presented in a way which, while giving the individuality of each, makes it hard to think of them except as conditioned, and even determined, by each other's presence." We may in fact find in this domestic group an anticipation of the spirit of the modern psychological novel. "Far from being painted as such groups usually were in Italy—a mere collection of faces looking one like the other,[Pg 505] but with no bond of sympathy or interest uniting them—it is in itself a family story, as modern almost as Tolstoi's Katia. Lotto makes it evident that the sensitiveness of the man's nature has brought him to understand and condone his wife's limitations, and that she, in her turn, has been refined and softened into sympathy with him; so that the impression the picture leaves is one of great kindliness, covering a multitude of small disappointments and incompatibilities" (B. Berenson: Lorenzo Lotto, pp. 194, 227, 322). Mr. Berenson calls attention further to the historical significance of this page from contemporary life and manners. The artist "opens our eyes to the existence in a time and in a country supposed to be wholly devoted to carnality and carnage, of gentle, sensitive people, who must have had many of our own social and ethical ideas." He "helps us to a truer and saner view of the sixteenth century in Italy than has been given by popular writers from Stendhal downwards, who too exclusively have devoted themselves to its lurid side. Lotto's charity helps us to restore that human balance without which the Italy of the sixteenth century would be a veritable pandemonium." The Venetian costumes, etc. may also be noticed. The little girl is dressed in as "grown-up" a way as her mother. On the table is a Turkey carpet, reminding us of Venetian commerce with the East. A Turkey carpet figures also in No. 1105.

1048. PORTRAIT OF A CARDINAL.

Painted on copper, a material which seems first to have been used for painting in the School of Antwerp. M. Auguste Cartan, of Besançon, in a paper by him in the Courrier de l'Art (June 25, 1886), points out the resemblance between this portrait and one, also on copper, in the museum at Besançon, ascribed to Scipione Pulzone, surnamed Gaetano (1550-1558), a painter who has been called "the Van Dyck of the Roman School." A contemporary biographer speaks of Gaetano's portraits as being so conscientious that every hair is painted, and of his skill in rendering various stuffs; both these characteristics may be observed in the present picture. In the same paper M. Cartan identifies the Cardinal as Cardinal Sirleto, Librarian of the Vatican 1570-1585, and tutor of S. Carlo Borromeo. There is a bust of Cardinal Sirleto in the[Pg 506] church of San Lorenzo at Rome, and M. Cartan declares the resemblance between the bust and this portrait to be unmistakable. There is also in the Corsini Palace at Rome a bust portrait of the same personage by Scipione Gaetano.

1049. THE CRUCIFIXION.

A good example of the strength and weakness of this German art. What is good are the clothes, which are very quaint and various. The figures show a ghastly enjoyment of horror and ugliness: notice especially the crucified thief on the left.

1050. A SEA VIEW.

1051. OUR LORD, ST. THOMAS, AND ST. ANTHONY.

Our Lord extends his hand and foot to the doubting St. Thomas: "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; ... and be not faithless, but believing." To the right, resting his hands on the shoulder of the donor of the picture, is St. Anthony of Padua, another saint who doubted "till"—as the legend (painted by Murillo) describes—"in his arms," so it is told, "The saint did his dear Lord enfold, And there appeared a light like gold From out the skies of Padua." This picture appears to be by the same painter as No. 282, and both are now ascribed to Bertucci.

1052. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.

1053. A CHURCH AT DELFT.

Notice the anti-Pauline practice of the worshippers ("Every man praying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. But every woman that prayeth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head"—1 Corinthians xi. 4, 5). Here it is the women who are "uncovered," the men who are "covered."

1054. A VIEW IN VENICE.

1055. A VILLAGE CARD PARTY.

The game rests with the woman, who is not going to play, it would seem, till the score is settled.

1056. "A KISS IN THE CUP."

1057. A RIVER SCENE.

1058. VENICE: THE CANAL REGGIO.

One of the principal waterways, after the Grand Canal, in Venice. The picture is a good instance of this painter's method of representing water. He "covers the whole space of it with one monotonous ripple, composed of a coat of well-chosen, but perfectly opaque and smooth sea-green, covered with a certain number—I cannot state the exact average, but it varies from three hundred and fifty to four hundred and upwards, according to the extent of canvas to be covered, of white concave touches, which are very properly symbolical of ripple [207].... If it be but remembered that every one of the surfaces of those multitudinous ripples is in nature a mirror which catches, according to its position, either the image of the sky, or of the silver beaks of the gondolas, or of their black bodies and scarlet draperies, or of the white marble, or the green sea-weed on the low stones, it cannot but be felt that those waves would have something more of colour upon them than that opaque dead green.... Venice is sad and silent now to what she was in his time; but even yet, could I but place the reader at early morning on the quay below the Rialto, when the market-boats, full-laden, float into groups of golden colour, and let him watch the dashing of the water about their glittering steely heads, and under the shadows of the vine leaves; and show him the purple of the grapes and the figs, and the glowing of the scarlet gourds, carried away in long streams upon the waves; and among them, the crimson fish-baskets, plashing and sparkling and flaming as the morning sun falls on their wet tawny sides; and above, the painted sails of the fishing-boats, orange and white, scarlet and blue,—he would [Pg 509]not be merciful to Canaletto any more" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. v. ch. i. §§ 18, 19).

1059. VENICE: SAN PIETRO IN CASTELLO.

A humble church, typical of the humble origin of Venice, a city founded on the sands by fugitives. The church stands on one of the outermost islets, where, in the seventh century, it is said that St. Peter appeared in person to the Bishop of Heraclea, and commanded him to found, in his honour, a church in that spot. "The title of Bishop of Castello was first taken in 1091; St. Mark's was not made the cathedral church till 1807.... The present church is among the least interesting in Venice; a wooden bridge, something like that of Battersea on a small scale, connects its island, now almost deserted, with a wretched suburb of the city behind the arsenal; and a blank level of lifeless grass, rotted away in places rather than trodden, is extended before its mildewed façade and solitary tower" (Stones of Venice, vol. i. Appendix iv.)

1060. TWO VEDETTES ON THE WATCH.

1061. DELFT: SCENE OF AN EXPLOSION

One of the many views painted by this artist of the explosion of a powder mill at Delft, October 12, 1654. One might think the mill exploded specially to be painted, so neatly and in order is everything represented. In this explosion, a well-known painter, Carel Fabrizius, lost his life.

1062. A BATTLE PIECE

1063. A MAN'S PORTRAIT.

1074. AN OYSTER SUPPER.

1075. VIRGIN AND CHILD, ST. JEROME, AND ST. FRANCIS.

A very "Peruginesque" example—full, that is, of the peculiar sentiment and apparent affectation which caused Goldsmith to make the admiration of him the test of absurd connoisseurship.[208] But "what is commonly thought affected in his design," says Ruskin, "is indeed the true remains of the great architectural symmetry which was soon to be lost, and [Pg 511]which makes him the true follower of Arnolfo and Brunelleschi," the great Florentine builders (Ariadne Florentina, § 72). The picture displays also in perfection "that quality of tone in which Perugino stands unsurpassed; and the rich and liquid, but subdued colour is steeped in a transparent atmosphere of pale golden glow" (Burton).

The history of this picture affords a good instance of that enrichment of the National Gallery with "graceful interludes by Perugino," saved from "the wreck of Italian monasteries," of which Mr. Ruskin speaks in his preface to this work. It was painted by Perugino in 1507, to be placed over an altar in memory of a master-carpenter at Perugia. It afterwards passed into the possession of the monks who owned the church. They sold it, with the chapel in which it was placed, to the Cecconi family, from whom it passed by inheritance to the family Della Penna. In 1822 the head of this family removed it to his palace, leaving a copy of it in its place in the church, and in 1879 the picture itself was bought from the Baron della Penna for the Nation.

1077. ALTAR-PIECE (dated 1501).

A picture of the "man of sorrows." On either side of the infant Christ are shown the scenes of his suffering [209]—

For sacrifice—but also for redemption, and so above the throne are the angels of God, playing the glad music of death swallowed up in victory. In the right-hand compartment is Christ bearing his cross; in the left his agony in the garden. The three disciples are here crouched asleep lower down, and behind a wall are the Roman soldiers, whilst from above an angel brings a cup with a cross, two spears, and a crown of thorns in it: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And [Pg 512]there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him" (Luke xxii. 42, 43).

1078. THE DEPOSITION FROM THE CROSS.

1079. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

(1079.) It is interesting to compare this representation of the scene, almost childlike in its simplicity, alike with the treatment by later painters (see, for instance, Rembrandt's, No. 47), and with the more decorative and symbolic treatment of the early Italians (e.g. Botticelli, No. 1034). The picture before us "shows no particular felicity of rendering, no depth or insight; it carries little conviction of reality, but it has a homely charm. The painter was thoroughly convinced of the actual truth of what he represented, and thought only of bringing the same home to everyday experience. In the background he has placed a village, in which men are discussing what is going on" (J. E. Hodgson, R.A., in the Magazine of Art, 1890, p. 42).

1080. HEAD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.

The introduction of children's faces—in the character of mourning angels—to so ghastly a subject is very characteristic of the love of horror common to the Flemish and German Schools.

1081. A MAN AT PRAYER.

Probably a portrait of the donor of an altar-piece, of which this picture formed one compartment.

1082. THE VISIT OF THE MADONNA TO ST. ELIZABETH.

1083. CHRIST CROWNED WITH THORNS.

1084. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.

1085. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

A picture of the same school as 706, but the Flemish influence is here more discernible. In the background is a church lighted from within. The heads are very ugly (notice the saint in the left compartment), but the execution, especially of the accessories, is very delicate.

1086. CHRIST APPEARING AFTER HIS RESURRECTION.

Notice the empty tomb, visible through the half-opened door in the background—with the Roman soldier asleep beside, and an angel above it.

1087. THE MOCKING OF CHRIST.

Sir Martin Conway says of the Lyversberg Passion what is equally applicable to this picture, and indeed to most of the German art of the same period (cf. e.g. 1049). "The Passion, as conceived by this painter, was a scene for the display of brutality rather than the exhibition of heroism. The enduring Christ is not the subject of the pictures, but the torturing villains that surround him. The figure of Christ does not dominate the rest; the vile element seems always victorious" (Early Flemish Artists, p. 202).

1088. THE CRUCIFIXION.

An altar-piece in three compartments. On the side panels are two figures, probably the donor and his wife, kneeling.

1089. MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ST. ELIZABETH.

1090. PAN AND SYRINX.

1002. ST. SEBASTIAN.

This picture formed the chief panel of an altar-piece formerly in the church of the Carmine at Pavia, and thus described by Bartoli:

1093. OUR LADY OF THE ROCKS.

This beautiful picture is very characteristic of Leonardo in its effects of light and shade, in grace and refinement of delineation, in felicity of gesture, and in the curious beauty of the types. Leonardo makes out of his subject a charming idyll, into which the spectator may read his own meanings. "In St.[Pg 520] John the Baptist," says Lomazzo, writing in 1584, "we may see the motive of obedience and child like veneration, as he kneels with joined hands and bends towards Christ; in the Virgin, the feeling of happy meditation as she beholds this act; in the angel, the idea of angelic gladness, as he ponders the joy that shall come to the world from this mystery; and in the Infant Christ we behold divinity and wisdom. And therefore the Virgin kneels, holding St. John with her right hand and extending her left, and the angel likewise supports Christ, who, seated, regards St. John and blesses him." A modern poet, adding to the picture a beautiful thought of his own, has suggested that in the valley of the shadow of death the Virgin brings the soul of a dead child for her son's blessing (see an interesting discussion of "The Louvre Sonnets of Rossetti," by W. M. Hardinge, in Temple Bar, March 1891):—

The landscape from which the picture takes its title is remarkable. Leonardo, a pioneer in so many other things, was a pioneer also in Alpine exploration, and has even been credited with a first ascent in the Monte Rosa range. However this may be, it is clear from his pictures and drawings that his mineralogical and geological studies attracted him to the curious rocks and peaks which he had observed among the [Pg 521]mountains of North Italy.[213] "In him," says Mr. Pater, "first appears the taste for what is bizarre or recherché in landscape; hollow places full of the green shadow of bituminous rocks, ridged reefs of trap-rock which cut the water into quaint sheets of light; all solemn effects of moving water; you may follow it springing from its distant source among the rocks on the heath of the 'Madonna of the Balances,' passing as a little fall into the treacherous calm of the 'Madonna of the Lake,' next, as a goodly river below the cliffs of the 'Madonna of the Rocks,' stealing out in a network of divided streams in 'La Gioconda' to the sea-shore of the 'St. Anne.' It is the landscape not of dreams or of fancy, but of places far withdrawn." Notice also the flowers of the foreground. "Leonardo paints flowers with such curious felicity that different writers have attributed to him a fondness for particular flowers, as Clement the cyclamen, and Rio the jasmine; while at Venice there is a stray leaf from his portfolio dotted all over with studies of violets and the white rose." "This work," says Ford Madox Brown, "seems to have been laid in entirely with ivory black, which, as its wont is, has come through the upper painting to the extent of leaving only to look at a picture in black, heightened, in the lights, with a little faint yellow. So much is true, and also that the rocks, from which the picture takes its name, are of the most singular formations, such as no modern geologist would care to lecture on, the herbage being much the same as to its botanical value. But in spite of these and other [Pg 522]objections, such is the intrinsic power of the work in style of drawing and beauty of expression, that nothing known, not by the greatest masters, can do more than hold their own against it. Just stand a little way off, study the heads, and see what they tell you—most supreme master of the human face divine" (Magazine of Art, 1890, p. 135).

1094. PORTRAIT OF A MAN.

1095. PORTRAIT OF ANNA MARIA SCHURMANN.

This lady (born at Cologne in 1607) was one of the most remarkable personages of her time. So great was the renown of her learning that Queen Christina of Sweden went to visit her. She was familiar with German, Dutch, French, Italian, and English; and was a good scholar in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic. She corresponded with some of the most erudite men of the day, and excelled in many of the fine arts. Late in life she fell under the influence of the noted Pietist leader, Jean de la Badie, whose cause she persuaded the Princess Palatine Elizabeth to espouse. After his death (in 1674) she collected his disciples at Wierwerd, where she herself died four years later in complete destitution.

1096. A HUNTING SCENE.

1098. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

The Child lies asleep on a window-sill. The Mother stands in an attitude of devotion. A picture of fine feeling, and characteristic of the artist's "exalted naturalism."

1100. A SCENE IN A PLAY.

The engraved portrait on the wall is inscribed "Gerardo Sagredo di Morei," and perhaps the picture is a group of the Sagredo family, for whose palace in Venice Longhi painted some frescoes in 1734. The family preferred, perhaps, to be taken in the characters of a scene in a play of Goldoni's or some other popular writer—just as in the "Vicar of Wakefield" they resolved to be drawn together, in one large historical[Pg 527] piece. "This would be cheaper, since one frame would serve for all, and it would be infinitely more genteel; for all families of any taste were now drawn in the same manner."

1101. MASKED VISITORS AT A MENAGERIE.

A characteristic glimpse of Venetian life a hundred years ago. "At that time," it has been said, "perhaps people did not amuse themselves more at Venice than elsewhere, but they amused themselves differently. It is this seizing on peculiarities, on local and characteristic details, that makes Longhi's little canvases so curious." Here he shows us two ladies in dominoes, escorted by a cavalier, at a menagerie. The trainer exhibits a rhinoceros to them.

1102. THE CHEVALIER ANDREA TRON.

The portrait of "a procurator of St. Mark's," a dignity in the Venetian State second only to that of Doge. The procurators were charged with the legal administration of all the affairs of St. Mark's, and their official palaces (the Procuratie) adjoined the church. They were further charged with the care of orphans, and with the administration of others who cared to put themselves "in chancery." The office was thus not unlike that of an English Lord Chancellor, and there is a "grandmotherliness" about this procurator that makes one think he must have discharged some of his duties well. The broad golden stole over his shoulder shows him to have been also a knight of the order of the Stola d'Oro, as the Procurator's stole was of crimson velvet. The picture is in its original frame, surmounted by the armorial bearings of the Tron family.

1103. VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH SAINTS.

The accompanying figures are—in front of the throne, St. Francis (on the right of the Child), St Bernardino, a saint of Siena (on the left), and in smaller size the donor of the altar-piece. This is one of the earliest examples in the Gallery of the introduction of portraits in this way. In the left-hand compartment St. John the Baptist; and in the right-hand one St. Bartholomew, carrying his familiar attribute—a blood-stained knife, the instrument of his martyrdom. The compartments containing the figures of St. John the Baptist and St. Bartholomew were originally at one side of the central panel, but have been placed on each side for symmetry, the corresponding twin panels being lost. Notice the beautiful pattern engraved on the gold background.

1104. THE ANNUNCIATION.

Notice the quaint "arabesques" on the Virgin's prie-dieu, or praying-stool; they are characteristic of this painter.

1105. THE PROTHONOTARY-APOSTOLIC, JULIANO.

See for the subject under 1024. "A smooth-shaven old man with a face that one would not be in the least surprised to see to-day anywhere, and least of all in England. As a portrait, it is the quietest of all those by Lotto known to me, and—if I may be allowed the word—the most 'gentlemanly'" (Berenson: Lorenzo Lotto, p. 189).

1106. THE RESURRECTION.

Notice the classical sarcophagus of marble. The resurrection banner is affixed to a tall rod surmounted by a cross composed of golden balls.

1107. THE CRUCIFIXION.

In this picture the artist seems to revel in the depiction of emotion, and (as it were) in "piling up the agony." There is the same pleasure here in the use of a new gift—that of expressing emotion—as in 583, in that of expressing perspective. The central scene of the Crucifixion is surrounded by the Agony in the Garden, Christ bearing his Cross, the Descent from the Cross, and the Resurrection. Note as characteristic of the genius loci in the Umbrian School that St. Francis of Assisi is kneeling at the foot of the cross.

The acquisition of this picture by the National Gallery (in 1881) had a curious history. It was formerly in the convent of Santa Chiara at Aquila, and on the suppression of the convent became the property of the State. But by the Archbishop's orders it was successfully secreted. On his death, some years later, it was conveyed to the house of one of the canons of the cathedral, by whom it was sold to a dealer in Rome. The dealer made a good thing out of it; he bought it[Pg 530] for £260, and sold it (with another small picture) to our National Gallery for £1200. The Italian Government instituted a prosecution for theft, which, however, was subsequently dropped for civil proceedings for damages against all the persons concerned, "except the Englishman who, it is believed, bought the picture in good faith."

1108. THE VIRGIN ENTHRONED.

1109. THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN.

"Remarkable, amongst other things, for the wonderful elaboration of the gold ornaments on the dresses, and the attempt to give an Oriental character to the scene by the introduction of the palm-tree, the carpet, and the dark-faced player on the kettledrums. It is interesting also for its notes from real life in the figure of the child, the faces of some of the spectators in the background, the window-openings with their poles, the figures on the right under the blind, and the flower-pot on the sill on the left" (Monkhouse: The Italian Pre-Raphaelites, p. 17). For some remarks on the subject, see under 1317.

1109a. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

1113. A LEGENDARY SUBJECT.

Probably illustrative of some incident in the life of a saint—of Bishop Sansovino, perhaps, the patron saint of Siena—in which the forces of the Christian and pagan religions were opposed. On one side is a pagan priest bearing a statue, supposed, from the apple in its hand, to be that of Venus. On the other is a Christian bishop engaged in some ecclesiastical function.

1114-1118. THE FIVE SENSES.

Coques pays a pretty compliment to one of his fellow-artists Robert van Hoecke (who, like a greater man, Leonardo, was an authority on fortifications as well as a painter), in painting his portrait as typical of "Sight." The figures in the rest of the series, if portraits, have not been identified.

1119. MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS.

A picture notable alike for its central idea and for its wealth of decorative detail. In the group of the infant Saviour (a very finely drawn figure) standing on the Virgin's knees in the act of benediction, with St. William on the right of the throne and on the left St. John the Baptist, is an imaginative representation of Christianity—the soldier of Christ, with his armour on him, but bareheaded, and with his hand on the sword, on one side; the saint, with the Cross and the Book, on the other. The accessories are full of decorative inventiveness, but every detail is full of thought; they are an epitome, as it were, of all the decorative arts of the time. Note first, in the walnut wood pedestal of the throne, that the frieze at the top is a graceful arrangement of dolphins, emblems of love and affection, and the base, of stags and swans ("As pants the hart for cooling streams, so pants my soul for thee, O God"). In its central panel is an alto-relievo in ivory, with Adam and Eve on either side of the Tree of Knowledge. On each of the receding panels is a white marble medallion of the turbaned head of a prophet. On the predella below there are, (1) beginning on the spectator's right, the Nativity, (2) the Presentation in the Temple, (3) the Massacre of the Innocents, (4) the Flight into Egypt, and (5) Christ disputing with the Doctors. The ornamental details of the marble baldacchino (or canopy), like those of the throne, are all symbolic; thus the archivolt is composed of choiring cherubim separated by pots of lilies, and the spandrils of the arch are occupied by medallions of the angel Gabriel and the Virgin (G. T. Robinson in Art Journal, May 1886, p. 150).

1120. ST. JEROME IN THE DESERT.

Another of the numerous St. Jerome pictures: see under[Pg 533] 694 and 227. The saint has his usual company of animals. His lion is frowning, somewhat with the same expression as in 227—as if to deprecate the penance which his master is about to inflict on himself. On the branch of the tree above is a hawk, looking on with the expression of a superior person—one quite too sagacious to countenance such madness. Notice also the serpent which crawls from beneath the rock on which the Cross is placed. The picture, says Mr. Gilbert, "is rich, even brilliant, in colouring, and if there is a touch of oddity in the house perched upon a crag, there is loveliness in the mountain range, and in the amber and lemon tints that streak the evening sky" (Landscape in Art, p. 340).

1121. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.

This portrait, when it hung in Hamilton Palace, used to be called a Leonardo. Sir W. Armstrong (Notes on the National Gallery, p. 24) gives it unhesitatingly to Basaiti (see 599).

1122. ST. JEROME.

This picture passed when in the Hamilton Collection for the work of Titian. The inscription on the book, "Cornaro aet suae 100-1566," is interpolated. The picture appears to be one of those realistic representations of St. Jerome of which there are other examples by Theotocopuli.

1123. VENUS, ADONIS, AND MYRRHA.

A picture of the golden age, entirely in the Giorgionesque spirit, and often attributed to Giorgione himself [214]—a vision of a [Pg 535]land bathed in perpetual light and sparkling with golden sunshine. The legendary subject which forms the theme of this characteristic pastoral is the story of Myrrha, which may be read in Dryden's translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The principal group is Venus and her favourite Adonis (see under 34). He was the son of Myrrha, whose legend is the subject of several small groups. On the right is a woman fleeing from a man who pursues her, sword in hand; these represent Myrrha and her father Cinyras. Farther on the woman is on her knees; here Myrrha is praying to the gods to transform her—

A third group shows the answer to her prayer: she is transferred into the myrrh tree, whose "precious drops her name retain," while the wood-nymphs receive her new-born babe, Adonis. In the background on the left is represented the death of Adonis; Venus is lamenting over his body and changing his blood into the anemone. The group in the clouds may represent Cupid accidentally wounding his mother.

1124. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

For two other more highly-finished pictures of the same subject also ascribed to this master see 592 and 1033. This picture, with others from the Hamilton Collection, was in the "Old Masters" Exhibition of 1873. "The 'Adoration of the Magi,'" wrote Ruskin to Mr. Fairfax Murray, "had prettiness in it, but was poor stuff."

1125. SUMMER AND AUTUMN.

Summer holds a sieve for sifting the corn which she ripens. Autumn raises a goblet of wine to her lips.

1126. THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN.

A picture with an interesting history. It was painted by Botticelli [217] when he was a young man, for Matteo Palmieri (a prominent Florentine citizen). This Matteo and his wife are here represented on either side of the tomb in the foreground. The patron assisted Botticelli in working out the design; and between them they made some modifications in theology, which brought them into trouble—so early did Sandro's reforming work begin. The story is thus told, and the picture described, by Vasari:—

Matteo Palmieri was the author of a poem called "The City of Life,"[218] in which he adopted Origen's thesis that the human race was an incarnation of those angels who in the revolt of Lucifer were neither for God nor for his enemies, and explained how the soul of man could work its way back through the spheres to the very seat of deity. This "heresy" interprets (says Mr. Pater) much of the peculiar sentiment with which Botticelli infuses his profane and sacred persons,—neither all human, nor all divine (see above under 275). It was ingeniously suggested, as we shall see, in this picture, and was entirely in accord with those "Neo-Platonic" ideas in which Botticelli, as a member of the Medici circle, was well versed. Matteo seems to have been afraid that his poem might bring him into trouble owing to its heretical views on the nature of angels, for he presented his MS. to the Art of the Notaries in Florence, sealed and under the express condition that it should not be opened, "so long as he lived imprisoned in this body." He died in 1478, and his poem fell under the expected censure. Botticelli's picture, as Vasari says, shared this fate. The painting bears evidence of intentional injury, the faces of the donor and his wife having been scored through; nor did some of the apostles escape the wrath of these icono[Pg 538]clasts. Attempts at restoration were made at some subsequent period. As the portrait of a heretic might not be exhibited in a Roman Catholic church, the picture was covered up, and the chapel in which it stood was closed to public worship. Ultimately the book was declared innocuous, and the chapel was re-opened. The picture, however, had already been, or was afterwards, removed from the family chapel of the Palmieri to their villa. On the death of the last heir, it passed into the hands of a Florentine dealer who sold it to the 11th Duke of Hamilton. At the disposal of the Hamilton Collection in 1882 it was bought for the National Gallery.

The picture was doubtless designed as an illustration of the closing canto of "The City of Life," in which Matteo supposes himself conducted by the Cumæan Sibyl through the Elysian Fields to Heaven. The ostensible subject is the Assumption into Heaven of the Virgin. On earth the apostles are represented gathered around the Virgin's tomb, from which "annunciation lilies" are growing; while she is in heaven kneeling in adoration before the Saviour, who has an open book inscribed with the mystic letters Α and Ω: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." Around the Virgin and Christ are all the hierarchies of heaven, arranged, according to the scheme of the theologians, in three separate tiers. Nearest to Christ are the seraphs (red), cherubs (blue), and thrones (gold); these are conceived as absorbed in perpetual love and adoration round the throne of God, and are represented therefore as with heads only (the attribute of spirit) and wings ("swift as thought"). In relation with mankind come the remaining orders—the dominations, virtues, powers (these last with sceptres in their hands), and in the lowest of the three, tiers, archangels, princedoms, and angels (with their wands). "The black vases with golden borders in the hands of some of the angels are probably meant for the 'golden vials full of the wrath of God' (Revelations xv. 7). Near them there are other angels, who in the attitude of expectation point upward with their sticks; while those in the lowest circle point down, and at the same time seem to invite those who hold vials to pour them out upon the city of Florence" (Richter's Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 28). Everywhere amongst the angelic host are the blessed dead, and it is here that the views of Matteo's poem found expression. We have seen in Botticelli's "Nativity" (1034) the same inter[Pg 539]course of men and angels, with reference there to the reconciling power of the "Logos." Among the cherubs, we may decipher St. James with the pilgrim staff, St. Andrew with his cross, St. Peter with the key, and St. Mary Magdalen with the casket. It is interesting to note Botticelli's estimate of degrees in the scale of spiritual excellence. For instance, St. Catherine of Siena is in the lowest ring among the Angels, but St. Bernard is in the third with Principalities; Moses is among Powers, so are St. Lawrence, St. Stephen, and St. Catherine of Alexandria; Virtues hold St. Bonaventura, St. Dominic, and St. Paul; St. Francis with the Evangelists is higher, in Dominations; in the highest Triplicitie, as Spenser puts it, there are men—including the Baptist—mingled with the Cherubim. The angels are represented throughout as ministering spirits; and nothing in the picture is prettier than the way in which the angels are calling upon the saints to "enter into the joy of their Lord"; note, for instance, the white angel on the right in the lowest tier, and the saint in black and red. She will teach to him

There are many charming single figures; note, for instance, two angels in the lower tier in the centre; and all are characteristic of the new type of angels which Botticelli introduced—forsaking entirely the conventional idealism of earlier religious art, and substituting the waving garments and flowing hair (suggestive of atmosphere and swiftness of motion) which we see in Perugino and Raphael.

Finally, the picture is of topographical interest for the beautiful view of Florence and the Val d' Arno in the background—

The precise point of view has been identified by Miss Margaret Stokes in her Six Months in the Apennines, pp. 261-264. Turning off the high road, on the descent from the hill of Fiesole—

Miss Stokes prints side by side with her copy of Botticelli's background a topographical plan of the present scene. The house on the hill above the Mugnone beyond the bridge is the Villa Palmieri, where Queen Victoria stayed in 1888. Boccaccio selected it for one of the homes of his fair storytellers in the Decameron. Matteo Palmieri bought it in 1450. There, no doubt, Botticelli was often a guest, and there the two friends may have planned this great altar-piece. "It is perfectly in keeping with the poetic instincts of sacred painters of the time that this great vision of Heaven should be represented as bursting on the poet in his own very home. Gazing upwards from his cypress groves into the unfathomable blue above, it is as if the sky had slowly opened, and the interior of a vast dome were revealed, rising above three iridescent bands of light, peopled with nine successive zones of sacred forms, all gazing in absorbed ecstasy on the figure of the Divine Mother, lowliest of women, kneeling at the feet of the Redeemer" (pp. 261-264).

1127. THE LAST SUPPER.

A very dainty little work. Notice especially the painting of the bas-reliefs and of the decanters. The attitudes of the disciples betoken respect or veneration, except that of the nearest figure, Judas, who turns away his head.

1128. THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST.

Our picture is thus described by Vasari,—for the fact that he calls it a fresco is no argument against the identification, since he often makes such mistakes: "In the church of San Francesco, in Volterra, this master painted a fresco, representing the Circumcision of Christ. This also is considered a wonderfully beautiful picture, but the Child having been injured by the damp, was repaired by Sodoma, whereby the beauty was much diminished. And, of a truth, it would often be much better to retain the works of excellent masters, though half-spoiled, than suffer them to be retouched by less capable artists." Vasari, however, seems to have been "anxious to place Sodoma in a bad light whenever he could. Damp was in all probability not the cause of the restoration of the infant Christ. It was very likely repainted because the public[Pg 543] of Volterra disliked the realism with which Signorelli seems to have treated the subject" (Richter, p. 48). Signorelli's children are curiously ugly: it seems as if he had no sympathy except in the painting of figures of powerful maturity. Of the fact of the repainting recorded by Vasari there is no doubt; for the position of the legs has been altered, their original action being distinctly shown by the incised outline still visible through the deep blue colour of the Virgin's robe. The painting of the other figures is "bold and resolute, the draperies sweep in broad folds round them. The attitude of the standing woman to the right is grand, and the earnest concentration of the faces on the ceremony, and the absence of any connecting link between them and us, give dramatic reality to the scene" (Cruttwell, p. 40). It is interesting to note that the figure of the operator is like the portrait of himself which Signorelli introduced into his frescoes of the Preaching of Anti-Christ at Orvieto: the figure is, moreover, clothed in the dress of the period and of the rich materials in which, Vasari says, the artist took much pleasure in dressing himself. Behind the central group is the aged Simeon, who blessed God and said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word."

1129. KING PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN.

The king is younger here than in 745; hanging from his chain is the order of the Golden Fleece. Notice also that the head is not so minutely painted here as in 745; that being a bust portrait would be seen near, this being a full-length would naturally be placed above the level of the eye. The smaller picture might be called, in the art-slang of to-day, "a harmony in black and gold"; this, from the shimmer on its lace and the flashing on the rapier hilt, "a harmony in black and silver."

"Strange lot," exclaims a biographer of Velazquez, with reference to the painter's portraits of the king, "to be the Apelles of this inactive Alexander. For thirty-seven long years always painting the same effigy! For throughout all these years Philip's features preserved a marvellous, a startling uniformity. In the black silk court dress, in the hunting suit, in the military uniform, in the white satin robe of state, in the gilded steel armour, in the festive religious attire—kneeling,[Pg 544] standing, mounted—the same stereotyped head is still there with its everlasting steadfast gaze. It may change from lean to full, from the fresh smooth features of youth and those of manhood, marked by the lines of passion, to the leaden, swollen, and rigid lineaments of age; but even at a distance it is still instantly recognised. Who can mistake the long oval, with its pale whitish complexion, and cold phlegmatic glance of the great blue eyes under the high forehead, and light stiffly-curled hair, strong flat lips and massive chin, the whole overcast with an expression of pride that repels all advances and suppresses all outward show of feeling? He is said to have laughed but thrice in his life; and although the statement might be questioned, it was still good enough to point a sally in one of Calderon's plays" (Justi's Velazquez and his Times, pp. 107, 108).

1130. CHRIST WASHING HIS DISCIPLES' FEET.

Some remarks made by Ruskin on another version by Tintoret of the same subject are not inappropriate to this dark and probably faded picture.[220] "One circumstance is noticeable as in a considerable degree detracting from the interest of most of Tintoret's representations of our Saviour with his disciples. He never loses sight of the fact that all were poor, and the latter ignorant; and while he never paints a senator or a saint, once thoroughly canonised, except as a gentleman, he is very careful to paint the Apostles in their living intercourse with the Saviour in such a manner that the spectator may see in an instant, as the Pharisee did of old, that they were unlearned and ignorant men; and, whenever we find them in a room, it is always such a one as would be inhabited by the lower classes.... We are quickly reminded that the guests' chamber or upper room ready prepared was not likely to have been in a palace, by the humble furniture upon the floor" (Stones of Venice, Venetian Index, under "Moisé, Church of St.") In front is St. Peter, placing his foot in a brazen basin and bending forward with a deprecating action—in contrast to which is the look of cheerful and almost amused alacrity on the part of Him who came not to be ministered [Pg 545]unto, but to minister. Behind are other disciples pressing forward with reverent curiosity. Another, in the right-hand corner of the foreground, has raised his foot on a bench and is drying it with a cloth. To the left a female attendant holds a taper, whilst in the background are other figures, one of whom reclines before a fire.

1131. JOSEPH AND HIS KINDRED IN EGYPT.

This crowded and fantastic composition contains a drama in five acts describing incidents in the life of Joseph in Egypt (see Genesis xlvii. 1-6, 13-26; xlviii. 1-14). (1) On the left Pharaoh, in a white turban, and surrounded by attendants, is met by Joseph and his brethren, who stand before him in[Pg 546] attitudes of supplication. The youth sitting on the steps with a basket in his hand is a portrait (Vasari tells us) of the painter's pupil, Bronzino. (2) On the right of the foreground Joseph, seated on a triumphal car drawn by naked children, stoops forward towards a man who kneels and presents a petition. (3) In the middle distance there is an animated group of men ("Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land?"). (4) On the steps leading up to the circular building on the right, Joseph is leading one of his sons to see the dying Jacob; he is followed by the "steward of the house," a conspicuous figure in a long crimson robe. The other boy appears at the top of the steps and is embraced by his mother. (5) Inside the room Jacob is represented as giving his blessing to the two boys, Ephraim and Manasseh, who are presented to him by their father. The antique statues which adorn the building were often given by mediæval artists as characteristic of Egypt, from which the art of Greece was believed to have been derived (see Richter's Italian Art in the National Gallery, pp. 36-40).

The removal of this picture has been blasted by a woman's curse. It was painted for a Florentine noble, named Borgherini; and when he was exiled, the civic authorities sent to his house to buy up all its works of art, which were to be sent as a present to the King of France. But Borgherini's wife received the official with "reproaches of intolerable bitterness," says Vasari, "such as had never before been hurled at living man: 'How then! Dost thou, vile broker of frippery, miserable huckster of twopences, dost thou presume to come hither with intent to lay thy fingers on the ornaments which belong to the chambers of gentlemen? despoiling, as thou hast long done, and as thou art for ever doing, this our city of her fairest ornaments to embellish strange lands therewith? Depart from this house, thou and thy myrmidons.'" The lady's anger preserved the picture—only to be afterwards seduced away, by English gold, into the Duke of Hamilton's Collection, from which it was bought for the National Gallery in 1882. Borgherini's commission for the works in question is thus described by Vasari:—

Ubertino's paintings for this sumptuous bedroom as well as that of Pontormo have now found their way into our Gallery (see 1218, 1219).

1132. THE VESTIBULE OF A LIBRARY.

A picture for architects to look at. It is the interior of a vestibule giving access to a library, and is full of inventiveness. Notice, too, how beautifully the accessories—the tablecloth, the vase of flowers, etc., are painted.

1133. THE NATIVITY.

A dramatic representation in one canvas of the Gospel story told in Luke ii. 1-17. Scene 1. "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled." This is represented by the Roman portico behind the central group, under which, at a long table, is seated a row of scribes, who are entering the names of the people. Scene 2. "And Joseph went up ... to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife ... and she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in the manger." This is the subject of the central scene. But the artist, no longer bound by conventional rules, treats his text freely. There is no manger, but the stable is suggested by the heads of the ox and the ass at the side; and instead of the Babe being found "wrapped in swaddling clothes," it is naked. Joseph, in orange and[Pg 548] crimson robes, is full of benevolence. The shepherds on the left are in deep reverence. The Virgin is robed in deep blue and green, typical of the depth and mystery of her divine love. In the interstices of the central group are three angels with golden hair and rainbow-hued wings—"calm shining sons of morn." Scene 3. On the left is a group of shepherds: "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night." The angel of the Lord is appearing unto them from heaven, and they are sore afraid, shielding their eyes from the heavenly light. Scene 4. On the right of the spectator, and seen through an arch of natural rock, is a shepherd playing on the pipe. This figure suggests the antique; he is crowned with ivy leaves and might almost be Orpheus. Thus, instead of representing the "Glory to God in the highest" being sung by "a multitude of the heavenly host," Signorelli gives us a Greek singer—a variation thoroughly characteristic of the classical revival of his time.

The landscape is also thoroughly characteristic of the mediæval mind, which loved the fields but dreaded the mountains. See here, for instance, how lovingly the flowers in the foreground are painted, and note the trailing ivy in the centre of the picture, as well as the flowers and ferns; whereas the rocks upon which these latter grow are altogether impossible in form and position (see Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt. iv. chs. xiv. and xv., where the landscape of Dante, of whom Signorelli was a close student, is analysed). The artist's signature is inscribed on the frieze of the portico. Some, however, have questioned its authenticity and declare the picture to be a weak imitation of the master.

1134. MADONNA AND CHILD.

One of "the small spiritless Madonna pictures which he produced carelessly and hastily in his old age, and supplied for niggardly pay to the citizens of Verona. They served as wedding presents, and Liberale has only himself to thank if this degenerate practice should have spoilt his reputation" (Dr. Richter in the Art Journal, Feb. 1895).

1135, 1136. THE CLEMENCY OF TRAJAN.

These two panels, which clearly formed two sides of an ornamental box, represent a favourite subject with Italian painters of the period. The story is that an ancient widow of Rome stopped the Emperor Trajan as he was about to proceed on one of his foreign expeditions, and asked for justice against the murderers of her son, who is here seen lying dead on the roadway. Trajan suggested that she should wait till his return. She replied that the emperor might be killed in battle. "Then," said Trajan, "my successor will attend to the business." "But why," she urged, "not decide the case at once?" The emperor on second thoughts did so, and the second panel shows him on the judgment seat. He called the culprits before him, spared their lives, but made them pay heavy damages to the widow. This incident was engraved, together with the record of his victories, on Trajan's column.

1137. PORTRAIT OF A BOY.

A boy of eleven—so the inscription on the right-hand corner states—Mr. Pater's Sebastian van Storck, it might be.

"It was a winter scene, by Adrian van de Velde, or by Isaac van Ostade.... Sebastian van Storck, confessedly the most graceful performer in all the skating multitude moving in endless maze over the vast surface of the frozen water-meadow, liked best this season of the year for its expression of a perfect impassivity, or at least of a perfect repose. The earth was, or seemed to be, at rest, with a breathlessness of slumber which suited the young man's peculiar temper.... Yet with all his appreciation of the national winter, Sebastian was not altogether a Hollander. His mother, of Spanish descent and Catholic, had given a richness of tone and form to the healthy freshness of the Dutch physiognomy, apt to preserve its youthfulness of aspect far beyond the period of life usual with other peoples. This mixed expression charmed the eyes of Isaac van Ostade, who had painted his portrait at one of those skating parties, with his plume and squirrel's tail and fur muff, in all the modest pleasantness of boyhood" (Imaginary Portraits, p. 92).

1138. THE CRUCIFIXION.

This picture is impressive in its solemn gloom. The impenitent thief writhes in agony, the suffering Christ casts his last glance at his mother, who, with St. John the beloved disciple, stands below in speechless grief. "The most beautiful in colour of all early works" (Ford Madox Brown in Magazine of Art, 1890, p. 134). Andrea's treatment of the subject, as also Antonello's (1166), is remarkable for simplicity and realism. In most representations of the Crucifixion the central tragedy is partially lost in the large groups of bystanders (e.g. 718, 1048, 1088), and various symbolical figures are introduced—as, for instance, flying angels around the cross. Even in Giotto's fresco at Padua this feature is introduced. Indeed "in all the pictures of the Crucifixion by the great masters, with the single exception perhaps of that by Tintoret in the church of San Cassiano at Venice, there is a tendency to treat the painting as a symmetrical image, or collective symbol of sacred mysteries, rather than as a dramatic representation" (Ruskin's Giotto, p. 149). For an example of a symbolic representation, in contrast to the severe simplicity of the picture before us, see No. 1478.

1139. THE ANNUNCIATION.

This picture shows us the side of Duccio on which the early School of Siena still adhered to the traditions of Byzantine art. For instance, the Greek method of symbolising light on drapery is seen in the gold lines of Mary's dress, a decorative method which Duccio was the last to use. So, too, in the gold background, which was universal in Byzantine mosaics. This survival may be seen in all the early Sienese pictures in the Gallery. In 1188, for instance, all the landscape background is gold; so in 1140 are all the spaces between the houses; whilst 1113 resembles a brilliant mosaic with gold for its groundwork.

We have here the earliest representation in our Gallery of one of the most frequent subjects in mediæval art, and a few remarks on its development may be interesting. The subjects which artists had at their disposal in those days were prescribed to them by religious uses and religious conventions. Not in novelty of subject, but in individuality of treatment, was scope for the artist's ingenuity to be found. Hence a comparison of[Pg 552] pictures of the same subject by different artists and different schools affords a suggestive study in the evolution of art. One may trace by such comparisons something of the same process of "descent with modification" that Darwin has exhibited in the case of fish and insect, fern and flower.[222] Thus we may compare the present picture—the earliest and simplest "Annunciation" in our Gallery—with Crivelli's (739), which is the most ornate, and which was painted 200 years later. Two pictures of the same subject could hardly be more unlike. Duccio's is severe and simple; Crivelli's, florid and picturesque. The one is rigidly confined to the main matter in hand; the other is crowded from corner to corner with dainty detail and lively incident. Halfway, as it were, between the two stands Lippi's "Annunciation" (666); there also there is much lovely detail, but we see in a moment that "in the Florentine, the detail is there for the sake of the picture; in the Venetian, the picture is there for the sake of the detail." Crivelli's picture shows us the furthest point of departure from the original type. Yet observe how much of the original survives. First, and this point is absolutely fixed in all mediæval representations of the subject, the angel Gabriel occupies the left-hand side, and the Blessed Virgin the right-hand side of the picture. Often (as in Giotto's frescoes in the Arena at Padua) the subject is divided into two halves by the intervention of the choir arch. In Italy, the Annunciation was always the subject employed for the decoration of the main entrance of church. For this purpose, the convenient architectural arrangement was to place a relief of the angel on one side, a relief of the Madonna on the other, and the doorway between them.[223] Similarly inside, the Annunciation was constantly employed to decorate the blank space beside an archway, and hence arose the custom of dividing the treatment. We may see examples in our Gallery in the wings (interior [Pg 553]side) of the "Coronation" by Justus of Padua (701), and in the terminal panels of Landini's altar-piece (580A). To this peculiarity is perhaps due the wall, barrier, or column which so often marks off the figure of the Virgin from that of the angel. We find it here in the Duccio; also in Fra Angelico's picture (1406), and again in Crivelli's. Sometimes, however, there is no such division. See, for instance, Lippi's picture (666), and Manni's (1104). There is a reason for this difference. Lippi's, no doubt, was painted to fill the space over a doorway; Manni's was the apex of an altar-piece. The decorative function of the pictures governed their composition. Returning to the Duccio, we may notice as a third and nearly constant element, the angel's lilies—Annunciation lilies, as the Italians call them. Sometimes they are in a vase as here; sometimes (as in the Crivelli), the angel bears a lily in his hand. Next, it is noticeable that the action almost invariably takes place in a loggia—an arcade or cloister. The lectern or prie-dieu, which in Crivelli's picture and in very many others of the subject stands beside the Madonna, is a refinement on the earliest type as seen in Duccio and Fra Angelico. But whether with lectern or without, the Virgin is always represented with a book engaged in her devotions. Visitors who desire to trace the evolution of this subject should conclude their studies at the Tate Gallery, where, in Rossetti's "Ecce Ancilla Domini" and Mr. Hacker's "Annunciation," modern versions of the old subject are given. Rossetti's is one of the most imaginative in the whole range of art (see Ruskin's analysis cited in vol. ii. of this handbook, No. 1210).

1140. CHRIST HEALING THE BLIND.

The departure from conventional forms, which was characteristic of Duccio, is conspicuous in this picture. Each of the disciples has an individual character, the entire group representing not conventional forms but living types of men. There is a piece of symbolism in the blind man who has already been healed which should not escape notice. Duccio is not content to represent the bare act of healing, but insists further upon the efficacy of the touch of Him who was the Light of the World, by making the blind man drop the staff of which he has no longer need. There is another piece of symbolism[Pg 554] in the gradated scale by which he draws attention to the respective dignities of his characters—Christ being the tallest in the picture, the blind man the shortest (A. H. Macmurdo in Century Guild Hobby Horse, 1886, p. 119).

1141. SUPPOSED PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST.

A portrait in Antonello's second or Venetian manner. The portrait is the more interesting from the probability that it is of the painter himself. The inscription which so stated is said to have been sawn off by a former owner to fit the picture into a frame.[224] "It is the likeness of a man who is entirely self-possessed, nowise an idealist, yet one who would never be prompted to impetuous action. He has plenty of intelligence; nothing would escape those clear gray eyes;—scarcely, however, do they seem as if they would penetrate below the outward show of things. Considered from a technical point of view, the same subdued feeling is apparent. In the Louvre masterpiece (which this picture at once recalls), Antonello evidently braced himself for a supreme effort; in the National Gallery portrait we have an excellent example of his powers at his best period" (Times, May 31, 1883).

1143. THE PROCESSION TO CALVARY.

One of the pictures in the Gallery which are additionally interesting from being mentioned and praised by Vasari—who, by the way, was himself a friend of Ridolfo:

It is interesting in this connection to notice that the procession to Calvary was one of the regulation subjects with mediæval painters (see for a picture of it, some two hundred years earlier, 1189), and familiarity bred contempt for the pathos of the scene; it became a mere opportunity for variegated compositions, and curiously enough two of the brightest pictures in the Gallery (this and 806) are of this subject. For the story of St. Veronica see 687.

1144. MADONNA AND CHILD.

This picture, which is hardly a satisfactory example of the painter, is one of those supposed by some critics to have been painted in the years 1518-20, during which he is believed to have revisited Milan. Others place it later in the artist's career. "Probably one of his late 'pot-boilers.' It was originally in the Rossini Collection at Pisa, and may have been painted there during the last years of the artist's life, while he was working at the choir decorations in the cathedral" (Sodoma, by the Contessa Priuli Bon, 1900, p. 92).

1145. SAMSON AND DELILAH.

Samson, whose giant's strength lay in his hair, fell into the toils of Delilah (Judges xvi.), who delivered him to his enemies by cutting off his hair as he lay asleep. On the trunk of the olive tree behind, Mantegna has carved the moral he drew from the tale: "Foemina diabolo tribus assibus est mala peior" (woman is a worse evil than the devil by the three pennies which bind you to her).[227] But though Mantegna has taken his subject from the Bible, his treatment of it is in the classical spirit. "Apart from the fact that her attention is directed to the mechanical operation, Delilah's expression is one of absolute and entire unconcern. Look of cunning, or of deceit, or of triumph there is none. Mantegna was not the man to shirk expression when he deemed the subject required it; probably, therefore, he left the features impassive in obedience to the formula of a certain school of antique sculpture, that all violent emotion should be avoided" (see Times, June 18, 1883).

1147. HEADS OF NUNS.

The work before us is a mere shattered fragment of fresco (from a church in Siena), but it is enough to show the artist's feeling for the true portraiture that identifies character with likeness. The nuns' faces are typical of the strong yet tender qualities developed in a life of seclusion and self-sacrifice.

1148. CHRIST AT THE COLUMN.

An intensely dramatic rendering of the central lesson of Christianity. The scene depicted is an episode from the Passion between the scourging and the crowning with thorns—a scene not given in the Gospels, and invented to produce a more vivid effect than representations of familiar scenes. The absence of all decorative accessories concentrates the attention at once on the figure of the Divine sufferer—bound by the wrists to the column. His hands are swollen and blackened by the cords; the blood has trickled down the shoulder—so terrible was the punishment—and the scourges and rod have been flung contemptuously at his feet. Yet abnegation of self and Divine compassion are stamped indelibly on his countenance, as he turns his head to the child who is kneeling in adoration. The guardian angel behind bids the child approach the Redeemer in prayer (hence the alternative title that has been given to the picture, "The Institution of Prayer"). From the wise and prudent the lessons of Christianity are often hidden, but Christ himself here reveals them unto babes. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." A thin white line, a ray, reaches from the position of the heart to the Saviour's ear—

The angel is a portrait (a preparatory study from a model is included amongst the collection of drawings made by Cean Bermudez). The downcast eye, the slightly pouting lips, as if about to weep, betray the harrowing expression of the moment. This expression shows fine invention, for it might have been more natural for the eye to follow the hand directing the child's attention to the figure. But the angel fears himself to look, lest he be overcome with grief. The tone of the picture is in keeping with its theme. There probably exists no other painting executed in such a decidedly gray, blackish-gray tone, although it is by no means colourless, as seen in the orange-brown and dull crimson of the angel's costume, which are peculiar to Velazquez. It is as if, after the terrible event that[Pg 560] has here taken place, mourning Nature had strewn the scene with a fine shower of ashes, as after some tremendous volcanic outburst (Justi's Velazquez and his Times, pp. 241-248).

1149. MADONNA AND CHILD.

This is a characteristic example of the painter's work. He succeeded in catching a little of Leonardo's smile, "chilled as it were on the way" (Logan). The study in chalk for the Virgin's head is in the Dyce Collection in the South Kensington Museum.

1150. PORTRAIT OF A MAN.

1151. THE ENTOMBMENT.

1152. ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST.

Compare the type of countenance and form of the rocks with those in Leonardo's picture, 1093. For the subject of this picture see under 25.

1154. GIRL WITH A LAMB.

An unfinished study—characteristic of the touch of affectation often visible in Greuze's pictures of simplicity. Children fondling pet lambs are a favourite motive in art, but its treatment is seldom free from affectation. See, for instance, Murillo's St. John, 176.

1155. THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN.

A picture in which the artist concentrates all he could command of gaiety and joyousness in colour, expression, action, and sentiment; and thus typical of the personal feeling, approximating to that of a lover to his mistress, which entered into Madonna worship. These pictures of coronations and assumptions of the Virgin are not merely tributes of devotion to the mother of God, but are poetic renderings of the recognition of women's queenship, of her rule not by force of law but by tenderness and sacrifice—

One may read the same spirit, perhaps, in the legend of St. Thomas and the Madonna, introduced in this picture—of St. Thomas, who ever doubted, but whose faith was confirmed by a woman's girdle. For the story is that the Virgin, taking pity on his unbelief, threw down to him her girdle, which he is here raising his hands to catch, as it falls from her throne, in order that this tangible proof remaining with him might remove all doubts for ever from his mind—

1157. THE NATIVITY.

1159. THE CALLING OF ABRAHAM.

A very impressive picture in spite of the somewhat grotesque angel who accosts Abraham and points him to the Almighty seated in the clouds above (Genesis xii.). And indeed it is in his skies that Gaspard points us to the Infinite—in the open[Pg 563] sky, stretching far away into that yellow horizon. To what does this strange distant space owe its attractive power?

1160. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

This picture—ascribed by Morelli and others to Catena (see 234)—is by some connected with the name of Giorgione. It displays, says Sir Edward Poynter, "the qualities which we should expect to find in a picture by Giorgione, and does not seem so far removed from the only absolutely authenticated work by him—the altar-piece at Castelfranco—as to make it impossible to attribute it to his hand. In qualities of drawing and composition it is superior to what we know of the work of Catena" (The National Gallery, i. 23). "The figures are Bellinesque, yet with that added touch of delicacy and refinement which Giorgione always knows how to impart. The richness of colouring, the depth of tone, the glamour of the whole, is far superior to anything we can point to with certainty as Catena's work; and no finer example of his 'Giorgionesque' phase is to be found than the sumptuous 'Warrior adoring the Infant Christ' (234) which hangs close by. Catena's work seems cold and studied beside the warmth and spontaneity of Giorgione's little panel" (Herbert Cook's [Pg 564]Giorgione, p. 54). "Whoever painted it, it is worth many much larger canvases. The simple, flowing cast of the drapery, the general scheme of colour, and the quality of individual tints, such as the mellow yellow shaded with red, and the greenish-blue of the Virgin's mantle, are not like what I know of Catena. The lively, well-drawn child, with its supple limbs; the faces of the women, with full faces, short noses, and square jaws; the straight-necked horses, and many other things in this charming picture,—seem to me to proclaim a distinct, if unknown, master. Above all things distinct, perhaps, is the particular tone of reverence—naïve, quiet, but deep—that pervades the picture, a feeling which can scarcely have been imitated, but must have proceeded from the very character of the painter himself" (Monkhouse, In the National Gallery, p. 224).

1165. ST. HIPPOLYTUS AND ST. CATHERINE.

Two saints who were not divided in the manner of their martyrdom, and who are united therefore on the painter's canvas. Each holds the martyr's palm. St. Catherine places her left hand on the hilt of a sword—the instrument by which she was ultimately beheaded, whilst her foot rests upon the wheel on which she was to have been torn to death, had not an angel from heaven broken it. St. Hippolytus's death was not unlike that which had been devised for St. Catherine. He is clad in armour, for he was the soldier stationed as guard over St. Lawrence (see 747), but he is represented as bareheaded, and with his face upturned in reverence, for that "he was so moved by that illustrious martyr's invincible courage and affectionate exhortations that he became a Christian with all his family." Wherefore he was tied to the tails of wild horses and torn to death. On the fragment of stone in the foreground is an inscription in Latin, telling by what death the two saints glorified God—"Membris dissolvi voluerunt ne vinculis divellerentur aeternis:" they chose to be torn limb by limb rather than by renouncing their faith to be thus torn hereafter by eternal chains. The members of the body are the chains of the soul, and the martyrs freed themselves from temporary fetters rather than submit to the fetters of everlasting punishment.

1166. THE CRUCIFIXION.

Signed, and dated 1477, two years later than the very similar picture at Antwerp. Notice the harmonious colouring, and the expression of abandon and lassitude, following more poignant grief, in the Virgin's attitude, with her arms falling down on each knee. "The subject was never more truly felt, and the little figure of the Virgin at the foot of the cross contains in it an expression of concentrated grief I never saw equalled. The eyes are shut, the hands simply rest on the knees, but this very simplicity gives it a truth which far surpasses the extravagant attitudes of the later painters" (from a letter by Louisa, Lady Waterford, from whom the picture was purchased in 1884; see Hare's The Story of Two Noble Lives, iii. 77). This picture shows, says Mr. Gilbert, "the dawning loveliness of Venetian colour, as distinguished from the vivid beauty of the early Flemish. Instead of the minute definition of every object characteristic of the Van Eyck School, we find, spread over a scene of the utmost simplicity, a delicious silvery haze, melting into the warm tones of a shadowless foreground. In this small picture we may see already what Venice owed to Flanders—how Venice would enrich the gift" (Landscape in Art, p. 311).

1168. PORTRAIT OF A JESUIT.

An admirable portrait. The Jesuit father, here depicted with so much quiet truth and skill, is a good representative of the great order which had at that time saved the Papacy. He is a student, but the crucifix is ever on his books. "The Jesuits appear," says Macaulay, "to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation." But he turns round from his book and looks with a smile of tender sadness on the spectator—he is ready to read your heart and to give you sympathy in return for confidences.

1169. MRS. ROBERT HOLLOND.

A portrait of the lady—an English resident in Paris, and a friend of Ary Scheffer—who sat to him for St. Monica. The two pictures were bequeathed to the Gallery by her husband.

1170. ST. AUGUSTINE AND ST. MONICA.

To illustrate the popularity which Ary Scheffer enjoyed [Pg 567]forty years ago, it may be interesting to cite what Mrs. Jameson said of this picture: "I saw in the atelier of the painter, Ary Scheffer, in 1845, an admirable picture of St. Augustine and his mother Monica. The two figures, not quite full-length, are seated; she holds his hand in both hers, looking up to heaven with an expression of enthusiastic undoubting faith;—'the son of so many tears cannot be cast away!' He also is looking up with an ardent, eager, but anxious, doubtful expression, which seems to say, 'Help thou my unbelief.' For profound and truthful feeling and significance, I know few things in the compass of modern art that can be compared to this picture" (Sacred and Legendary Art, 1850, p. 186).

1171. THE "ANSIDEI MADONNA."

The "Ansidei Madonna," so called from having been painted for the Ansidei family at Perugia,[230] was bought from the Duke of Marlborough by the nation for £70,000—more than three times the highest price ever before paid for a picture, and equal to more than £14 per square inch. The importance of the picture to the student has been partly described above; but to this must be added its unusual size and excellent state of preservation, and the fact that whilst on the one hand the National Gallery had before no chef d'œuvre of Raphael, the number of such works not already placed in foreign galleries was very small.[231] On its own merits the [Pg 571]"Ansidei Madonna" is by common consent one of the most perfect pictures in the world. It has all the essentials of the greatest art. First it is "wrought in entirely consistent and permanent materials. The gold is represented by painting, not laid on with real gold, and the painting is so secure that nearly four hundred years have produced in it no harmful change." "The exquisite purity of the colour and the silvery and luminous quality of its tones"[232] are as remarkable to-day as they must have been when the panel left the painter's easel. Secondly, "the figures are in perfect peace. Those are the two first attributes of the best art. Faultless workmanship and perfect serenity; a continuous, not momentary, action, or entire inaction; you are to be interested, in the living creatures, not in what is happening to them. Then the third attribute of the best art is that it compels you to think of the spirit of the creature, and therefore of its face, more than of its body. And the fourth is that in the face you shall be led to see only beauty or joy—never vileness, vice, or pain" (Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret, pp. 14, 15). In fulfilling these essentials of the highest art, the picture becomes also one of the noblest embodiments of Christianity. Raphael is above all the painter of motherhood and childhood—of the self-[Pg 572]forgetting love of the one, and the fearless faith of the other—the human relationship which of all others is the most divine. On either side are two saints—types both of them of the peace of Christianity. In the figure of St. John the Baptist on the left—with his rough camel skin upon him, and an expression of ecstatic contemplation on his face—the joy that comes from a life of self-sacrifice is made manifest; in that of the good Bishop Nicholas of Bari, the peace that comes from knowledge. The three balls at his feet are a favourite emblem of the saint; typical partly of the mystery of the Trinity, but referring also to the three purses of gold which he is said to have thrown into a poor man's window that his daughters might not be portionless. Further we may notice how the same impression of infinite peace is conveyed by the landscape, and especially by the open sky visible on either side of the throne. This open sky "is of all visible things the least material, the least finite, the farthest withdrawn from the earth prison-house, the most typical of the nature of God, the most suggestive of the glory of His dwelling-place. For the sky of night, though we may know it boundless, is dark; it is a studded vault, a roof that seems to shut us in and down; but the bright distance has no limit: we feel its infinity, as we rejoice in its purity of light" (Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. i. ch. v. § 5).[233]

It has been said above that the Ansidei Madonna is "by common consent one of the most perfect pictures in the world." Criticisms which have been published since its acquisition by the National Gallery require that statement to be modified. Thus, Mr. G. A. Storey, R.A., in the course of a public lecture, has remarked that "as compared with Raphael's other works, the Ansidei Madonna lacked the touch of nature, the play and harmony that were characteristic of the master. All the heads were looking in the same direction, and the figure of the Virgin was scarcely graceful. Nor was there the unity necessary to a complete composition, for each figure seemed unconnected with the rest, and, indeed, they seemed to be almost unconscious [Pg 573]of each other's existence." Mr. Ford Madox Brown (Magazine of Art, Feb. 1890) is more severe still. "The Bishop saint of Bari," he says, "is certainly a fine figure, worthy of the master it is attributed to. The Virgin and Child, however, are for sentiment just like two wax doll lay figures, making it hard to conceive how the same mighty hand can have produced anything so tame; while the figure of the Baptist, with ill-drawn legs, is positively repulsive both for pose and for expression of countenance. Surely Raphael could have had no hand in it." Mr. Pater, on the other hand, commends the Ansidei Madonna to students of Raphael as more worthy of admiration than any other work of the master: "I find there, at first sight, with something of the pleasure one has in a proposition of Euclid, a sense of the power of the understanding, in the economy with which he has reduced his material to the simplest terms. He is painting in Florence, but for Perugia, and sends it a specimen of its own old art—Mary and the babe enthroned, with St. Nicholas and the Baptist in attendance on either side. The kind of thing people there had already seen so many times, but done better, in a sense not to be measured by degrees, with a wholly original freedom and life and grace, though he perhaps is unaware, done better as a whole, because better in every minute particular, than ever before. The scrupulous scholar, aged twenty-three, is now indeed a master, but still goes carefully. Note, therefore, how much mere exclusion counts for in the positive effect of his work. There is a saying that the true artist is known best by what he omits. Yes, because the whole question of good taste is involved precisely in such jealous omission. Note this, for instance, in the familiar Apennine background, with its blue hills and brown towns, faultless, for once—for once only—and observe, in the Umbrian pictures around, how often such background is marred by grotesque natural, or architectural detail, by incongruous or childish incident. In this cool, pearl-gray, quiet place, where colour tells for double,—the jewelled cope, the painted book in the hand of Mary, the chaplet of red coral,—one is reminded that among all classical writers Raphael's preference was for the faultless Virgil. How orderly, how divinely clean and sweet the flesh, the vesture, the floor, the earth and sky! Ah, say rather the hand, the method of the painter! There is an unmistakable pledge of strength, of movement and animation in the cast of the Baptist's coun[Pg 574]tenance, but reserved, repressed. Strange, Raphael has given him a staff of transparent crystal. Keep, then, to that picture as the embodied formula of Raphael's genius. Amid all he has here already achieved, full, we may think, of the quiet assurance of what is to come, his attitude is still that of the scholar; he seems still to be saying, before all things, from first to last, 'I am utterly purposed that I will not offend'" (Miscellaneous Studies, p. 53).

1172. CHARLES THE FIRST.

This famous picture was one of many equestrian portraits of Charles I. which Van Dyck painted at his court. It is, however, unique among them. In all the others,—the Windsor picture, the replica at Hampton Court, and the pictures in the Earl of Warwick's and the Marquis of Lothian's Collections, the king faces the spectator, and rides, as it were, straight out of the picture, the horse being white. The size, proportions, and composition of this picture are different. The horse is dun-coloured, and the king is seen in profile. A small picture at Buckingham Palace was probably the original design or sketch of it. It was sold after Charles's death for £150 by the Parliament, and in 1885 was bought by another Parliament—from the Duke of Marlborough—for the great price of £17,500 (see under 1171).

It is a courtier's portrait of the idol of the cavaliers—a portrait of the good side of a bad king. Notice first the prominence given to the noble horse (cf. under 156), almost to the point of clumsiness. Then in Charles himself, note the stately bearing, the personal dignity, the almost feminine refinement. It is a portrait of personal courage—with no suspicion of any fatal want of presence of mind; of dignity—with the obstinacy, which was its reverse side, left out. In such a portrait "of a Cavalier by a Cavalier" Van Dyck's work is invested with an enduring pathos for all Englishmen. One remembers only, in looking upon this picture of him, Charles's graces, not his faults. One thinks of him as the man who "nothing common did, nor mean, upon that memorable scene." And so considered, how eloquent becomes the isolation in which the painter has here left him. With him, indeed, is Sir Thomas[Pg 575] Morton, his equerry, but the king does not see him. Bareheaded he sits, gazing into futurity.

1173. AN UNKNOWN SUBJECT.

Another picture of the golden age (cf. 1123) such as Giorgione, we are told, loved to paint,—"men and women enjoying the golden tranquillity; here is seen the haughty lion, there the humble lamb; in another part we behold the swift flying hart, with many other terrestrial animals." The picture before us precisely agrees with this general description, but the particular subject of it is unknown.[234] A child, it would seem, is being initiated into some order of the golden age—he is being dedicated, perhaps, to a life of song, for the stately personage on the throne wears the poet's crown of wild olive, whilst the young man on the steps below him lightly touches a lute, and has books by his side. The page bears a rich dish of fruits and herbs, for the golden age is vegetarian; whilst fawns and a leopard, with a peacock and other birds, attend the court of the king of song. When in the Bohn Collection, this picture was ascribed to Giorgione. For some interesting remarks on its possible authorship and subject, see the Times, [Pg 576]December 22, 1885, where resemblances in this picture to pictures of Carpaccio and Pordenone, as well as of Giorgione, are pointed out. Sir Edward Poynter says that the picture "has considerable affinity with the two pictures attributed to Giorgione in the Uffizzi Gallery at Florence, but is weaker in execution and effect, especially in the landscape" (The National Gallery, i. 26). "True," says Mr. Herbert Cook, "the landscape has been renovated; true, the Giorgionesque depth and richness is gone, the mellow glow of the 'Epiphany' (1160) is sadly wanting; but who can deny the charm of the picturesque scenery, which vividly recalls the landscape background elsewhere in the master's own work? who can fail to admire the natural and unstudied grouping of the figures, the artlessness of the whole, the loving simplicity with which the painter has done his work? Sincerity and naïveté are too apparent for this to be the work of any but a quite young artist, and one whose style is so thoroughly 'Giorgionesque' as to be none other than the young Giorgione himself. In my opinion, this is one of his earliest essays into the region of romance, painted probably before his twenty-first year" (Giorgione, p. 92).

1188. THE BETRAYAL OF CHRIST.

1189. THE PROCESSION TO CALVARY.

Notice in 1188 that the disciples are not mere conventional types, but that an attempt is made to give them each an individuality, and to express their characters on their faces. The same expressions may be noticed again in 1189. It is[Pg 577] interesting, too, to observe how the first attempts of painting (as of poetry) to express action were epic, rather than dramatic. The painter tries to tell the whole story at once; here is Judas giving the traitor's kiss, there is Peter cutting off the ear of the high priest's servant, and beside them are all the other characters of the story (cf. under 579). As art advances, it becomes on the other hand dramatic; the painter seizes on the essential point and makes his picture out of that. The difference may be seen by contrasting Ugolino's picture with one of the same subject at Florence by Giotto, which Ruskin thus describes: "See what choice Giotto made of his moments. Plenty of choice for him—in pain. The Flagellation—the Mocking—the Bearing the Cross; all habitually given by the Margheritones, and their school, as extremes of pain. 'No,' thinks Giotto. 'There was worse than all that. Many a good man has been mocked, spitefully entreated, spitted on, slain. But who was ever so betrayed?' ... He paints the laying hands on him in the garden, but with only two principal figures—Judas and Peter, of course: Judas and Peter were always principal in the old Byzantine composition,—Judas giving the kiss, Peter cutting off the servant's ear. But the two are here not merely principal, but almost alone in sight, all the other figures thrown back; and Peter is not at all concerned about the servant, or his struggle with him. He has got him down, but looks back suddenly at Judas giving the kiss. 'What!—you are the traitor, then—you!' 'Yes,' says Giotto; 'and you, also, in an hour more'" (Mornings in Florence, ii. 41).

1190. A BOY'S PORTRAIT.

This picture was presented to the Gallery by Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A., and it is interesting to note the sage-green background which Mr. Watts has himself sometimes employed.

1192, 1193. SKETCHES FOR ALTAR-PIECES

"Touched in with all the brilliant, flashing, dexterous bravura of the last of the rear-guard of the Venetians. The pictorial art of Venice finished with Tiepolo, and it seemed as if he was resolved that it should not die ignominiously, for in spirit and gaiety he was little inferior to Veronese himself. He had not the stronger qualities of his model; Veronese's grasp of character, his air of nobility, his profound and imaginative harmonies of colour, are wanting in the eighteenth century painter" (Times, December 22, 1885).

1194. CHRIST DRIVING OUT THE TRADERS.

There are drawings by Michelangelo in the British Museum for the figures in this composition. Notice how everything is sacrificed to violent action and contorted position—the money-changers whom Christ is driving out of the Temple are composed as it were for a ballet of limbs. Notice also the "debased" architectural background—the absurdly distorted pillars with their puerile capitals.

1195. THE BIRTH OF VENUS.

This design, which was sold at the Hamilton sale (1882) for £1680, was bought for the nation three years later at the Beckett Denison sale for £672.

1196. A COMBAT BETWEEN LOVE AND CHASTITY.

Chastity clothed only in white innocence is assailed by Love. She receives his arrows on a shield of polished steel; the points of the arrows break and burst forth into tiny golden flames—each temptation only causing the sacred fire of Chastity to burn more brightly. The scene is laid in a romantic landscape where everything is pure and beautiful. The field is enamelled with flowers—

Beyond, in the bend of a river, two swans float on its tranquil surface: a tall oak sapling rises straight and firm, and over all rests a clear blue sky. The picture recalls the scene in Milton's Comus—

1199. MADONNA AND CHILD.

On the right is St. John; on the left an angel crowned with a chaplet of roses and bearing the annunciation lily. Notice that the frame ornamented with modelled stucco forms part of the picture, and is indeed part of the same panel.

1200, 1201. GROUPS OF SAINTS.

In the first group (1200) are St. Peter Martyr (for whom see 812), with the knife and plenty of blood on his head, and a bishop in full robes. In the second (1201), St. Thomas Aquinas looking with an almost comic squint at a crucifix, and John the Baptist. On the pages of St. Thomas's book are the words in Latin, "I have kept the commandments of my father"; on those of St John the Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world."

1202. MADONNA AND CHILD, WITH SAINTS.

A composition belonging to a class which Palma Vecchio[Pg 582] brought into favour, and which the Italians call Sante Conversazioni—groups, in restful attitudes, framed in sunny landscapes, with blue mountain distances. Bonifazio's landscape backgrounds are very fine, and he was fond, like Titian, of introducing into them the scenery of the Dolomite mountains. On the right is St. Catherine holding a fragment of her wheel, while the youthful St. John the Baptist, standing on another fragment, stoops to kiss the infant Christ's foot—an action symbolical of the kingship of the Saviour ("Thou hast put all things under him"). On the left is St. James—with his staff, borne always by him as the first of the apostles who departed to fulfil the Gospel mission, and dressed as a pilgrim—Campostella, where his body was reputed to be, being in the middle ages a favourite place of pilgrimage. Behind St. James is St. Jerome. Notice the significance of the incident in the middle distance—a shepherd asleep, while a wolf is devouring a sheep ("But the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep").

1203. MADONNA AND CHILD.

Notice the rustic type of the Madonna; she is a daughter of the mountains—the mountains above Bergamo, from which the painter came, and which figure in the background. The picture is a characteristic piece of provincial art; the expression of "a simple, sturdy, energetic mountain-folk who do not[Pg 583] always know how to unite refinement and grace with their inbred strength and vigour" (Morelli, ibid. p. 4). The picture is "interesting mainly," says Mr. Monkhouse, "for its costumes, its light-heartedness and florid colour, and as another of those Sante Conversazioni of which his master, Palma, was the inventor, and which took the place of the more holy 'Holy Families' of an earlier art,—pictures in which the Virgin became a simple woman of a wholly mundane beauty, and the saints but her friends in rich costumes, enjoying themselves somewhat sadly in the open air" (In the National Gallery, p. 248).

1206. LANDSCAPE AND FIGURES.

A good example of Salvator's scenic effects in landscape. The sense of power in the painting, the "vigorous imagination, the dexterous and clever composition" of Salvator are well shown; but "all are rendered valueless by coarseness of feeling, and habitual non-reference to nature." (See for further examination of Salvator's deficiencies in this respect Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. i. ch. vii. § 5, sec. iii. ch. iii. § 7, sec. vi. ch. i. § 11; vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. ii. ch. ii. § 19.)

1211, 1212. SCENES AT A TOURNAMENT.

Possibly scenes from the fêtes at the marriage of Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua.[235] Domenico [Pg 584]Morone, called Pellacane, the dog-skinner, from his father's occupation, may have been present at the marriage ceremony, which took place in 1490; but at any rate these little pictures are of historical interest as contemporary illustrations. The scene in both is a tilt court, with its seat of honour in the middle. In the first the knights are tilting, the marquis being on his throne and the seats filled with ladies. In the second the tilting is over, courtiers and ladies are dancing in the side compartments; whilst in the centre a knight in full armour, but bareheaded, awaits his award of victory from Isabella and her husband, who are standing on the dais. There is much artistic merit in the sprightly way in which such momentary actions as that of the page going to spring over the partition in 1212 are rendered (see Times, July 24, 1886).

1213. PORTRAIT OF A PROFESSOR.

Supposed to be a portrait of Girolamo Malatini, Professor of Mathematics in Venice (notice his brass compasses), who is said to have taught Gentile and his brother Giovanni the rules of perspective. "The portrait fully justifies the fame that Gentile had acquired as a painter of portraits, and shows him the forerunner of Titian" (Layard's edition of "Kugler," i. 306). The prominence given in this picture to the sitter's hands should be noticed. The older tradition strictly limited portraiture to the representation of the head only, or at most to the bust. Afterwards the expressiveness of the human hand per se came to be recognised (see Mr. Herbert Cook's Giorgione, p. 19, and compare the portraits Nos. 808 and 1440).

1214. CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, AND VETURIA.

Coriolanus, a noble Roman, so called from Corioli, a city of the Volscians he had taken, bore himself haughtily, and was banished. Nursing his revenge, he threw himself into the arms of the Volscians, determined henceforth to bear himself "As if a man were author of himself, And knew no other kin," and advanced at their head upon Rome. The Romans, in terror, endeavoured in vain to appease him, and at last sent out his wife, Volumnia, with her child, here kneeling before him, and his mother, Veturia (Volumnia in Shakespeare's play), to intercede. In their presence "the strong man gave way; he throws himself on his knee, and is restored once more to human love"—

1215. MADONNA AND CHILD.

For the history of this picture (now withdrawn from exhibition) see under 766. The restorations of 1851 there referred to were in great part removed after the acquisition of the picture by the National Gallery. But "it was found, late in 1904, that its state threatened its immediate destruction, and it was hoped that the mischief might be arrested by re-lining. The pigment was, however, found to be falling from the plaster ground in such a way that re-lining, which would affect only the adherence of the ground to the canvas backing, was useless, and very reluctant recourse was had to the process of transferring the picture itself to canvas. This transfer resulted in such a loss to the picture that it has been withdrawn from public exhibition, and, for the present, it is thought better to leave it as a genuine picture, of interest to connoisseurs, rather than subject it to the extensive repainting without which it would hardly be intelligible to the ordinary visitor" (Director's Report, 1905). A small copy of the picture is exhibited among the Arundel Society's Collection.

1216, 1216 a & b. THE FALL OF THE REBEL ANGELS.

These fragments of a fresco, now transferred to canvas, are of particular interest from the following mention of it by Vasari. He relates how Spinello Aretino, after executing important works in various cities of Italy, returned to his native city, Arezzo, and very shortly settled down to decorate the church of S. Maria degli Angeli. The subject chosen was certain stories from the life of St. Michael. "At the high altar," says Vasari, "he represented Lucifer fixing his seat in the North, with the fall of the angels, who are changed into devils as they descend to the earth. In the air appears St. Michael in combat with the old serpent of seven heads and ten horns, while beneath and in the centre of the picture is[Pg 587] Lucifer, already changed into a most hideous beast. And so anxious was the artist to make him frightful and horrible that it is said—such is sometimes the power of imagination—that the figure he had painted appeared to him in his sleep, demanding to know where the painter had seen him looking so ugly as that, and wherefore he permitted his pencils to offer him, the said Lucifer, so mortifying an affront." Vasari attributes a fatal result to this vision. "The artist awoke," he says, "in such extremity of terror that he was unable to cry out, but shook and trembled so violently that his wife, awakening, hastened to his assistance. But the shock was so great that he was on the point of expiring suddenly from this accident, and did not in fact survive it beyond a very short time, during which he remained in a dispirited condition, with eyes from which all intelligence had departed" (i. 269). In fact, however, Spinello lived many years and executed several important works after the date in question. Some years ago the church of the Angeli was dismantled, and the greater portion of the frescoes perished. Sir A. H. Layard, who was passing Arezzo at the time, was fortunately able to secure a large piece of the principal fresco. The fragment is from the centre of the composition, and contains a portion of the figure of Michael and six of the angels following him. The archangel, with raised sword, is striking at the dragon; his attendants, armed with spears and swords, thrust down the demons. Besides these figures, Sir A. H. Layard was able to save a portion of the decorated border of the fresco (1216 A & B). These he presented to the nation in 1886.

1217. THE ISRAELITES GATHERING MANNA.

"The lithe and sinewy form in the nude figure of the young man, the accurate draughtsmanship, the firm modelling, the care and study bestowed even on the tiny figures in the background, the dramatic intention and impression of vitality, indicate a familiarity with the works of Mantegna" (Times, July 24, 1886). The artist exhibits, adds Sir F. Burton, "no less appreciation of natural grace in the female figures than of dignity in the principal male personages."

1218, 1219. JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN.

The present panels decorated the room in the house at Florence, from which Pontormo's picture of Joseph also comes (see under 1131); they were doubtless painted for "cassoni," or large chests which were used by the Italians of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries as wardrobes. "In those palmy days art was welcomed everywhere in Italy, and had a share in all the concerns of men, and in all the events and festivities of daily life. The nobles took a delight in enriching their palaces, their country houses, and the chapels in their churches, with paintings and sculpture, and even required that their household furniture should, whilst useful, be grace[Pg 589]ful and beautiful." Our panels were purchased many years ago from the heirs of the Borgherini.

Several incidents occur in each of the two pictures, but the main figures constantly recur, and we recognise them by their dress and look. (1218). On the left, in this picture, are Joseph's brethren travelling in search of corn towards the land of Egypt, quaint figures in fantastic dresses, with little Benjamin, a child in a blue frock, and Reuben weeping, and another brother trying in vain to console him. "And the famine was sore in the land.... And the men took ... Benjamin; and rose up, and went down to Egypt" (Genesis xliii. 1, 15). On the right in the same picture is Joseph welcoming his brothers in the portico of the palace, Pharaoh's armed guard outside looking rather grimly and inhospitably on the intruders. The landscape is green and picturesque. It is noticeable that blue (the colour of hope) is here made sacred to Joseph and Benjamin, the children of promise, who are in every instance dressed alike.

(1219). In the companion panel the further history of Joseph and his brethren is depicted in three scenes or compartments, divided by pillars. On the left are the brothers unloading the donkey of the empty meal-jars, now to be filled through Joseph's kindness. In the centre is Joseph making himself known to his eleven brethren. He is gazing tenderly on little Benjamin, who advances towards him in the foreground. "And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph: doth my father yet live?" (Genesis xlv. 3). On the right are seen the brethren departing homeward, and the mule laden with Benjamin and the filled meal-bags is being driven off.

1220. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD

1221. "DARBY AND JOAN."

1222. A STUDY OF FOLIAGE, BIRDS, ETC.

Formerly ascribed to Otto Marseus; but the defaced part of the signature has recently been deciphered as being that of Hondecoeter, dated 1668.

1227. VIRGIN AND CHILD

Also St. Joseph and St. John the Baptist, with the skin of a wild beast quaintly treated as a head-dress. A picture from a composition by Michael Angelo, known as "Il Silenzio."

1229. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

1230. PORTRAIT OF A GIRL.

The girl is of the same type—with the same hair, "yellow as ripe corn," and the same dainty primness—as the lady in Mr. Willett's picture (for some years on loan in the National Gallery, and now in the collection of M. Rodolphe Kann at Paris), but she was perhaps of humbler station—a simple flower in her hair and a coral necklace being her only ornaments.

1231. PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN.

"A man in the prime of life, attributed to Sir Antonio Moro; the signature is perhaps apocryphal. There is little doubt, however, that the attribution is correct; the manipulation shows all the prodigious power of Moro. His capacity for seizing character and the fine tone of his flesh colour are all here. The execution suggests the brilliant study of Hubert Goltzius, by Moro, in the Brussels Gallery. That masterpiece was stated to have been painted in an hour; the present head bears every indication of almost equally rapid brush work" (Times, September 19, 1887).

1232. PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN.

1233. THE BLOOD OF THE REDEEMER.

A devotional picture recalling such reminiscences of mediæval mysticism as are found in many of our hymns—

"A cold sky with underlit clouds suggests the still and solemn hour of early dawn, a fitting time for the advent of this weird and livid apparition. Gaunt, bloodless, and with attenuated limbs, the Redeemer, we recognise, has passed through the Valley of 'the Shadow of Death'—not victoriously; there is no light of triumph in the lustreless eyes; no palm nor crown awaits this victim of relentless hate, the type of infinite despair and eternal sacrifice" (Times, September 19, 1887)—

The looks and gestures of the Saviour seem to demonstrate that the blood which pours from His riven side is freely given for the redemption of the world. In the details of the picture, which careless observers might mistake for mere chance accessories, there is an allegorical meaning. The paved terrace with the open doorway symbolises the Paradise regained by the Blood of the Sacrificed, the ideal Church, the Church of the New Covenant, in contradistinction to the Hortus Inclusus, the garden enclosed, without a door, which was the type of the Old Covenant. The antique reliefs are pagan prototypes of the Christian sacrifice. On the right is Mucius Scaevola, before Lars Porsena, thrusting his hand into the fire,—the ancient type of heroism and readiness to suffer; on the opposite side is a pagan sacrifice, with Pan playing the pipes, signifying the propitiatory sacrifices of the ancients, and thus foreshadowing the Sacrifice on the Cross. The landscape background carries out the same ideas. On[Pg 594] the right is a barren hill with leafless trees, and at its base some ancient ruins and a crumbling fountain. In contrast to this on the opposite side is a prosperous and well-fortified city, lying amid meadows; a church tower; the sky above is rosy with the light of early dawn. Figures are seen turning from the ancient ruins and making their way along the path which leads to a new and better home, the Christian city (Richter's Lectures on the National Gallery, p. 37).

This little picture is among the earliest of Bellini's works. The abnormal length of the figure of Christ and the exaggerated length and straightness of the forearms are points which should be noticed in this connection, resembling as they do characteristics of other early works by the painter, and also the drawings of his father, Jacopo. But "already, in spite of the archaism of form, he shows a feeling for atmospheric tonality; the ruin to the right and the two figures near it are, as painters say, in their place; that is to say, the treatment as regards relations of tone is such as the linear perspective would lead us to expect. Still more surprising is the way in which the eye is led down the valley to free spaces of luminous air" (Roger Fry: Giovanni Bellini, p. 18). The subject is a rare one in Italian art. Mr. Fry gives a reproduction of a similar figure in a picture by Crivelli in the Poldi Pezzoli Collection at Milan; and Dr. Richter, one from a woodcut in Savonarola's treatise on "Humility," first printed in 1492.

1234. "A MUSE INSPIRING A COURT POET."

Called a "court poet" because, one may suppose, of his sleek and uninspired appearance; but poets do not always look their parts, and 'tis the function of the Muse "to mould the secret gold." But perhaps the artist had some gently sarcastic intention, for it is but a small sprig that the Muse has spared to the poet from her garland. The head of the poet is clearly a portrait. That of the Muse "is as fine in technique and condition as anything in the whole range of Dossi's work" (Benson).

1239, 1240. THE MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS.

These works probably formed the wings of a triptych. In the former scene Herod directs the massacre which has already begun; in the second, the massacre is at its height.

1241. CHRIST PREACHING IN THE TEMPLE.

The subject of this "celebrated picture" (as Lanzi calls it) is "The Magdalen led by St. Martha to the Temple, to hear the preaching of Christ." Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, is identified in legend with the Magdalen, and her conversion is said to have begun with the incident here depicted. The kneeling figure of the Magdalen is conspicuous amongst the women listeners; she is encouraged by Martha, who points to the preacher (see Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and[Pg 596] Legendary Art, p. 219, ed. 1850, for other representations of this subject).

1243. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.

1247. THE CARD PLAYERS.

This picture, purchased in 1888 at the sale of the Gatton Park (Lord Oxenbridge's) Collection, was stated by the auctioneer to be by Rembrandt, but there is little doubt that it is really by his disciple, Maes; though, as it is larger than most of the known works by that master, other critics have ascribed it to another pupil of Rembrandt, Carl Faber, or Fabricius. "In any case it is unmistakably of the Rembrandt school, and owes its inspiration to the method of presentation peculiar to the master. From every technical point of view it is first-rate. It is infused with the largeness of style, the just appreciation of character, and the glowing colour, to be found in Rembrandt's matured works. It is the turn of the girl to play. She regards her hand in evident perplexity, doubtful which card to throw down. The man is apparently sure of his game" (Times, June 4, 1888).

1248. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

The sitter belonged to the Braganza family. So prematurely demure is this plain little girl that, in spite of the fact that her hair is "down" and that she wears a round nursery cap, she is dignified with the title of "A Lady." She is certainly every inch a grown-up lady in her rich brocade dress, pearl necklace, and costly feathers. Van der Helst gave special attention, says Sir F. Burton, to "the discrimination of stuffs, and his skill in reproducing the lustre and shimmer of jewellery or gold embroidery and the delicacy of the lace-worker's art has never been equalled." The picture is signed, and dated 1645.

1251. PORTRAIT OF A MAN.

It is only at Haarlem that the full power of Hals can be seen; but this picture shows something of his dash and facility. There is, indeed, upon it a stamp of power and individuality, alike in conception and treatment, which makes it one of the most interesting portraits in the Gallery. It is signed with the painter's monogram, and dated 1633. Possibly it is a portrait of the painter himself; and certainly it shows the type of a man to which Hals belonged—Hals, the dashing volunteer who fought in the military guilds, the good-for-nothing, daredevil fellow who loved his glass and was none too faithful in his domestic relations, whose excesses brought him finally to penury, but whose high spirit and unfailing dash enabled him to remain true, through it all, to the calling of his art.

1252. A FRUIT-PIECE.

1255. A STUDY OF STILL LIFE.

1256. A STUDY OF STILL LIFE.

1257. THE BIRTH OF THE VIRGIN.

A sketch for the large picture now in the Louvre (No. 540). "Like so many of the sketches of Murillo, it is so light in touch," says one of the critics, "so exquisite in colour, as to be, from an artistic point of view, preferable to the finished picture." This, however, is not the only advantage which Murillo gains from smallness of scale. There is a prettiness, and even a sentimentality, permissible on a small scale which offends the dignity of a large canvas. Thus, the "affectation" of the attendant angels is far less "absurd" here than in the large picture. "One of the cherubs shrinks back," adds Mr. Eastlake in his Louvre catalogue, "frightened at a dog, which seems a strangely human act of weakness; another holds up a piece of baby-linen, with a provokingly fantastic air." But herein we have the very characteristics which make the religious sentiment of Murillo's pictures interesting. In the early[Pg 599] Italian pictures the Virgin is a great lady, living in a fine house or spacious cloister. But in Spain the symbols of devotion passed into realities; and a combination of mysticism in conception with realism in treatment is the distinguishing "note" of the Spanish religious school. One could not wish for a prettier presentment of this mingled note than is afforded by this little sketch, with its angels half in ecstatic adoration over the "Lily of Eden," and half in human playfulness—a sketch which seems to combine with the frank realities of a humble nursery the religious sentiment of Keble's Christian Year:—

1258. A STUDY OF STILL LIFE

Chardin's pictures show that instinctive "power of reticence" which is one of the secrets of fine art. "It is what gives value to such humble efforts as the study of still-life subjects, and raises them—as in the works of the French painters, Chardin especially, and of some of the Dutch painters—above the level of mere mechanical imitations, and transforms them into works capable of giving us real pleasure" (Poynter's Lectures on Art, p. 195).

1260-1270. EARLY GREEK PORTRAITS.

These eleven portraits are part of the find by Mr. Flinders Petrie, in his excavations at Hawara, in the Fayoum (Middle Egypt), and are of great interest as supplying a fresh link in the historical development of art as exhibited in the National Gallery. Here is portraiture in its infancy. But even these portraits, done probably by Græco-Egyptian artists in the second or third century A.D., are later developments from an earlier stage. They were affixed to the outside covering of mummies in a position corresponding to the head of the corpse:[237] the exact arrangement can be seen in two mummies from the same "find," now in the British Museum. "They are derived," says Miss Amelia B. Edwards, "by a clearly traced process of evolution from the portrait-heads first modelled in stucco upon Egyptian mummy cases, and then painted. From coloured portraiture in high relief to coloured portraiture on flexible canvas, where a certain amount of relief was obtained by the prominence of the bandaged face beneath, was one step; and from the flexible canvas to the panel upon which the semblance of relief was given by light and shadow and foreshortening was another and far more important step. It marked the transition from the Eastern to the Western school of painting." The portraits are painted with pigments of rich colour on thin panels of cedar wood, wax being the medium employed. "The rather lumpy surface or impasto which comes from the use of a wax medium is very obvious. The melted wax rapidly hardened when the brush touched the cold surface of the panel, and so prevented the pigment from [Pg 601]being laid in a smooth, even manner. The wood was not, like stucco, sufficiently absorbent for the subsequent application of heat to get rid of the lumpy surface by driving the superfluous wax below the surface" (Middleton's Remains of Ancient Rome, i. 100). The persons buried with these panel portraits were mostly of Greek origin; but some—as, for instance, the man (No. 1265, presented by Mr. Haworth)—seemed rather to be of the Roman type. The faces exhibit all variations, from living grace to the emptiest vacuity. It has been suggested that "the better portraits were painted from the life, whilst in other cases the painter was perhaps only sent for after death, and this may account for the vague and lifeless looks of many of the portraits, inanimate in spite of the wide, open, and vacuous smile." It will be noticed that "the style of the portraits is usually conventional precisely in those details which make the difference between one living face and another. The eyes, which more than any other feature should impart the living expression in all these cases, are executed in a perfunctory and formal manner. And they are, moreover, in many cases too large for the face. This is not merely due to the inability of the artists, for many of these portraits show a real grasp of character and a distinct technical skill in the modelling, notably in that, perhaps, most difficult of tasks, the indication of the play of muscles around the mouth. Under these circumstances I think no one will deny that the measure of success achieved in some of the best of these portraits is very remarkable. The old man in particular (1265) shows a breadth of style and a quiet humour which reminds us of some of the Dutch masters of the Teniers school. Of course there are good and bad among them; the quality probably depended to some extent upon the price which the relative could afford to pay. One wonders what the price may have been, especially when we read of the enormous sums which great pictures fetched in the palmy days of Greek painting. Most of these people seem to have been well to do, as the gold wreaths of the men and the jewellery of the women prove" (Cecil Smith, ch. vi. of W. M. F. Petrie's Hawara, Biahmu, and Arsinoe: 1889). No. 1261 retains the greater part of a gilt gesso border, stamped or modelled with a wavy tendril and bud pattern.

1277. A MAN'S PORTRAIT.

Signed, and dated 1666. A singularly lifelike portrait of a singularly unattractive face.

1278. A CONVIVIAL PARTY.

An ordinary scene of the kind, but there is a pleasant touch in the little dog who furtively licks the hand of its half-tipsy master.

1280. CHRIST APPEARING AFTER HIS RESURRECTION

The Virgin Mary sits on the edge of an old-fashioned bedstead. Christ, with the marks of the wounds in breast and feet, faces her, and behind him is a great company of saints, kneeling. Highly finished throughout.

1282. SAN ZENOBIO RESTORING TO LIFE A DEAD CHILD.

St. Zenobio (died A.D. 417) was a Bishop of Florence, famous in his time for his eloquence and good works, and a[Pg 603] favourite saint with the Florentines in after ages. The following is the legend painted in this picture:—"A French lady of noble lineage, who was performing a pilgrimage to Rome, stopped at Florence on the way, in order to see the good bishop Zenobio, of whom she had heard so much, and having received his blessing she proceeded to Rome, leaving in his care her little son. The day before her return to Florence, the child died. She was overwhelmed with grief, and took the child and laid him down at the feet of St. Zenobio, who, by the efficacy of his prayers, restored the child to life, and gave him back to the arms of his mother" (Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 415).

1284. ST. FRANCIS AND ST. MARK.

A companion panel to the one already in the Gallery; see 768. The design of the pedestal is, it will be seen, the same in both.

1285. PORTRAIT OF NAPOLEON I.

Less ideal than the beautiful sketch which David made of Napoleon as First Consul, or the later conventional pictures painted for a generation which had not seen the original. There is no dreamy intensity in the eyes, and no engaging smile. The famous lock in the centre of the forehead is there, and the face is still handsome, imposing, and resolute; but there is already something of the heaviness which presaged his fall.

1286. A BOY DRINKING.

"The boy is resting his left arm on a table and holding a square bottle, like one of those used for schiedam. The head is finely modelled, with a firm, broad touch; the bright eyes are deep set under the brow, and they betray eager delight in the draught he is taking. The flesh tones are unusually pure and bright for Murillo. The picture seems to be that which, named 'A Spanish Youth Drinking,' was sold in 1836 with Lord Charles Townshend's collection for £414. With the Earl of Clare's pictures was sold, in 1864, 'A Peasant holding a Bottle and drinking from a Glass,' which had belonged to Prince Talleyrand and Lord C. Townshend,' for £1365" (Athenæum).

1287. INTERIOR OF AN ART GALLERY.

Of interest alike for its technical skill and for its historical information. No less than forty-two pictures hang upon the walls of the "Art Gallery," and the collection is very interesting as showing the taste of an amateur of the period. In addition to these, there are globes, gems, maps, engravings, nautical instruments, pieces of sculpture, and other "objects of vertu"—all painted with miniature-like delicacy. Especially charming is an elaborately inlaid cabinet with china and other "curios" upon it. Notice also the fine Persian carpet. The art treasures are being eagerly scanned by several groups of connoisseurs, whilst—with a touch, perhaps, of satiric intent—a monkey is perched on the window-sill, criticising the critics. It is interesting to note that with only three exceptions all the paintings depicted in the Art Gallery are in black frames. This was the common practice with the Low Country painters. Several of the latest additions to the Dutch pictures in the Gallery are in their original black frames. The famous Teniers at Vienna of "The Archduke's Gallery" is an equally apt illustration of the taste of Dutch and Flemish painters (Athenæum, 2nd January 1892).

1288. FROST SCENE.

1289. LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE.

A characteristic little work. In the distance is a ruined castle-keep in the water, which may be the same building as that depicted in No. 824.

1291. THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN.

In the present picture Valdes Leal has picked sweet fruit too; indeed it is over sweet. The donatrix of the picture and her son are shown in either corner, while in the midst the Virgin ascends to Heaven, surrounded by bands of angels. The picture is thoroughly characteristic, in its florid type of sentiment, of the Spanish school.

1292. A FAMILY GROUP.

They are plain old people, truth to tell, this group of two Dutch housewives and a Dutch burgher, and they are somewhat too obviously sitting for their portraits. How prim and neat all the surroundings are! how pretty is the trailing rose on the balustrade! and with what quiet, unobtrusive fidelity the whole picture is painted!

1293. MUSICAL PASTIME.

This picture (which is signed on the side of the foot-warmer) is a capital example of the artist. "The fair faces of the singers are very spontaneously expressive of their gaiety, and have something of the animation of Jan Steen without his vulgar types and occasional grimace."

1294. AN ALLEGORICAL SUBJECT.

The subject is perhaps a "Vigil of Arms," and may depict a knight or king passing the night before his investiture in the seclusion of a private chapel. On the altar before which he stands are a globe, two crowns, and several documents. His left hand is turned slightly forward, as if to call attention to the action, while in his right hand he holds a sceptre with its point resting on the globe. On the floor in front of the altar lie his arms and armour; behind, hangs his banner. On his head is a laurel wreath; and over a bright breastplate he wears the richly embroidered robe of his order.

1295. MADONNA AND CHILD, WITH SAINTS.

The Virgin and Child are flanked by the kneeling figures of two men, perhaps brothers, who were doubtless the donors of the picture. Behind each of them stands his patron saint, patting the devotee approvingly on the back. The Virgin's face is charming; so also are two little angels, who are quaintly perched up aloft, one on either side sitting on ledges of the canopied throne. The picture is a good example of symmetry—almost exaggerated, one may think—in composition.

1296, 1297. LANDSCAPES.

Amusing examples of the so-called "pastoral landscape," which found favour in the last century—the landscape painted "in praise of the country by men who lived in coffee-houses." Zais was nearly contemporary with Longhi, and shows us the same Venetians in villeggiatura whom Longhi shows us in town (see 1100 and 1101). In 1286 we see some "picturesque" farm-buildings on one side of a stream, with a "picturesque" cow-herd asleep; whilst on the other side is a party of gay ladies—dressed in crinolines and bows, and devoid of hats, shawls, or wraps—flirting with beaux. The companion picture (1297) is conceived in the same style; but the ladies are here fishing, though, to judge from the amateurishness of their proceeding, they are not likely to catch fish.

1298. LANDSCAPE: RIVER SCENE.

This picture, acquired in Florence in 1889 together with two by Zais (1296, 1297), was for some years attributed to the[Pg 608] Venetian school. It is now recognised as a work of Patinir. The heavy blue tone of that painter's distances here gives way to a lighter colour; but the fantastic landscape has strong resemblances to No. 716. If by Patinir, the work is unique in being one of pure landscape, with no scriptural incident. "The earliest independent landscape that we possess by an old master, the first admission that inanimate nature pure and simple is worth making a picture of. In the left corner is the artist sketching, which is a sort of guarantee that he worked in the open air, and that he had been struck with the beauty of some such prospect.... He has been so used to regard landscape as an accessory that he does not dare to paint it except from a distance, or on any but a minute scale, and he enlivens it with signs of human industry in the raft and the limekiln. It is as though a landscape had stepped out of the background of some old picture, and asserted its independence with fear and trembling" (Monkhouse: In the National Gallery, p. 202).

1299. PORTRAIT OF A YOUTH.

It is interesting to compare this portrait with Botticelli's of a somewhat similar subject (No. 626). Both were probably "good likenesses"; but Ghirlandajo's is less forcible and impressive than Botticelli's.

1300. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

1301. PORTRAIT OF SAVONAROLA.

A portrait of the great patriot-priest of Florence (1452-1498), whose strange career is familiar to all readers of George Eliot's Romola. Ultimately he was condemned to death, with his two disciples; and on the back of the portrait is a representation of their execution. They were hung on a cross, and burnt.

1302. THE SOUL OF ST. BERTIN.

1303. A CHOIR OF ANGELS.

These two panels are the uppermost portions of an altar-screen painted for the Abbey Church of St. Bertin at St. Omer. The remaining portions are now in the King's Palace at the Hague. These shutters, and a diptych belonging to the Duc d'Aumale, are the only works that have come down to us of Marmion, a painter of Valenciennes, worthy (according to the chroniclers of his time) of great admiration. The two panels before us had been reposing for thirty years in a lumber-room at the South Kensington Museum.

1304. MARCUS CURTIUS.

The subject is supposed to be that of the Roman youth who sacrificed himself by leaping into a chasm which (said the oracle) would never close until Rome threw into it the most precious thing she had. What did Rome possess more precious than her arms and courage, said Curtius as he prepared to leap, in full armour, into the gulf. If this be the subject here represented, the picture shows in an interesting way the frank anachronism of the early painters, for the local colour is certainly not that of the Roman Forum, where Curtius took his self-sacrificing leap. The picture bears strong resemblance to Raphael's earlier manner, as any visitor will see who compares it with the "Vision of a Knight" (213). "Michael Field" has put the sentiment of the picture into verse in Sight and Song:—

1305. A FAMILY GROUP.

Portraits of Jan van Hensbeeck and his wife, Maria Koeck, with their infant child between them.

1308. PORTRAIT OF A MAN.

A very short thick-set figure; possibly a portrait of one of Philip IV.'s court dwarfs.

1309. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.

A young man with feminine features. His black gown, lined with gray fur, is left open at the chest and discloses a[Pg 611] gold chain and pendant. On the stone plinth whereon he leans is an inscription, "Stephanus Nani. abavro XVII. MDXXVIII·Lycinivs. P."

1310. "ECCE HOMO!"

This picture was sold as a Carlo Dolci; but the attribution was an obvious absurdity. There is no resemblance whatever between the affected sentimentality of Dolci and the sincere pathos of this picture. Its deep and rich colouring also is very different from Dolci's. Sir Frederick Burton labelled his trouvaille "Giovanni Bellini." But its attribution to Cima is now accepted. "This type of Christ," says Mr. Claude Phillips, "of a perfect, manly beauty, of a divine meekness tempering majesty, dates back not to Gian Bellino but to Cima. The preferred type of the elder master is more passionate, more human. Our own Incredulity of St. Thomas, by Cima, shows in a much more perfunctory fashion a Christ similarly conceived" (The Earlier Work of Titian, p. 31 n.). To the same effect a writer in the Academy (July 26, 1890) says: "The modelling—not precise or searching enough for Giambellino—resembles that of his gifted pupil, the parted lips being one of his especial characteristics, as may be noted in his great 'Incredulity of St Thomas' (816). The treatment of the heavy wig-like masses of the hair, with its fine lines, is very similar to that of the Saviour's parted locks in the larger work, while a certain want of flexibility in the muscles of the face is also a distinguishing mark of the master. More striking still is the coincidence that from the head of Christ issue in both instances single rays, disposed in three distinct and separate fasciculi—an arrangement not found, as far as we are aware, in the works of Giovanni Bellini, and never common in Italian art. The peculiarly brilliant blue of the drapery is paralleled by that of the little 'St. Jerome' from the Hamilton Palace Collection, and approached by that of the 'Virgin and Child'—both these panels being sufficiently representative examples of Cima. Comparison has in these remarks been restricted to works in the National Gallery, as being most readily available for purposes of verification. The influence of Antonello—from whom Bellini himself borrowed so much—is, in the new acquisition, undeniable, and may[Pg 612] account for a virility and an intensity of pathos not often reached even in the better productions of the sympathetic Bellinesque painter to whom we would attribute it."

1311. A WINTER SCENE.

The castle is that of Muiden, between Amsterdam and Naarden. The fortified village is in the distance. On the left is the Zuyder Zee. Signed in the foreground, and dated 1658.

1312. THE VILLAGE COBBLER.

1313. THE ORIGIN OF "THE MILKY WAY."

This work, acquired from the Earl of Darnley, is a particularly welcome addition to the National Gallery; for the two works by Tintoret previously in the collection,—the "St. George and the Dragon" and "Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet,"—though fairly representative of his more sombre mood, give no idea whatever of such radiant forms and sweeping harmonies as those with which he decorated the Ducal Palace at Venice. This picture immediately recalls these last-men[Pg 613]tioned works, for it was doubtless designed as the centre-piece for some painted ceiling. The picture is a very beautiful representation of a classic myth of the Milky Way. Hermes, it is told, carried the infant Hercules to Olympus, and put him to the breast of Juno while she lay asleep; but, as she awoke, she pushed the child from her, and the milk thus spilled produced the Milky Way. In this picture, however, we see Jupiter himself descending through the air and bearing the child in his arms. Juno is rising undraped from her couch, surrounded by little loves, and attended by peacocks—emblems of her royal state as Queen of Heaven; while in the deep-blue firmament is the eagle carrying the thunderbolt of Jupiter. From her bosom issue long lacteal jets that seem, as it were, to crystallise into stars. Sumptuous draperies float around the ground, and in most poetical composition Tintoret has thus "mingled with their gorgeous dyes The milky baldric of the skies." There is a study for the picture in the Accademia at Venice.

1314. THE AMBASSADORS.

This celebrated picture is, says Mr. Sidney Colvin, the most important among Holbein's works—after the Darmstadt Madonna—that are extant in good preservation, important[Pg 615] alike as to scale, and as to richness and multiplicity of accessories and costumes. It is also one of those most characteristic of the master, both in his excellences and in his faults. "There are more completely satisfying works among his single-figure portraits, in some of which we find a greater artistic unity—as, for instance, in the portrait of 'Christina, Duchess of Milan.' Among the faults in the present work may be noticed the short proportions of the figures in relation to the heads—an effect exaggerated in the case of the personage on our left by the fashion of the broad surcoat with its great puffed sleeves. It must further be admitted that Holbein, who in decorative and ornamental design was one of the most inventive, adroit, and powerful composers that ever lived, has in this instance seemed to let his composition take care of itself.[239] The figures are placed at either end of the desk, with a certain naïf stiffness almost recalling the pose of a photographic group. Moreover, masterly and energetic as are the heads in modelling, in expression they are somewhat rigid, harsh, and staring. Yet, all deductions made, with what an effective and potent grasp does the picture hold us! The colouring is richer and more varied than in any other painting of the master." The accessories are painted with "such strong minuteness of reality and diligent, though never paltry, emphasis of detail, that their due subordination to the whole and to the personages would seem impossible. But the subordination is there all the same, and how it comes is Holbein's secret. The total effect is one of singularly rich, if somewhat rigid grandeur;[240] the persons dominating as they should; the faces and hands remaining the master features of the picture. The heads, with their hard gaze, lay hold on the spectator masterfully, so that he cannot forget them after he has passed away" (Art Journal, January 1890). The brilliance of the picture, now that the discoloured varnish which formerly concealed many of its beauties has been removed, is very remarkable.[241] Every colour [Pg 616]appears to have stood; and after 370 years the picture remains in its pristine freshness.

The identity of the personages portrayed in the picture had long been a subject for critical conjecture among the ingenious. The picture was traditionally known as "The Ambassadors," and the name of almost every ambassador of the period had at one time or another been suggested; while other critics, maintaining that the traditional title rested on no good authority, went further afield and sought to identify the personages with various poets and men of letters, to whom the accessories in the picture seemed appropriate.[242] The matter has now, however, been finally set at rest by the discovery of a seventeenth-century manuscript, which gives a description of the picture and records its history during the first 120 years of its existence.[243] This manuscript, presented by Miss Mary Hervey (who discovered it), is now hung in another part of the Gallery (in the small room marked A on our plan). The traditional title of the picture is confirmed, for the portraits are of Jean de Dinteville (on the left), French Ambassador in England, and George de Selve (on the right), Bishop of [Pg 617]Lavaur, and subsequently Ambassador at Venice. The two men, we learn from the MS., were friends; and in 1533, the year in which the picture was painted, George de Selve came to England, by permission of the French king, on a visit to Jean de Dinteville: "and the two, having there met with an excellent painter of Holland, employed him to make this picture, which has been carefully preserved in the same place at Polizy up to the year 1653."

The document itself is convincing, and its identification of the personages agrees with what may be learnt from an examination of the picture. There are three inscriptions on it. One is on the sheath of the dagger which hangs from the girdle of the personage on the spectator's left. This inscription is: "ÆT. SVÆ 29." On the edges of a clasped book, upon which the second personage leans, is another inscription: "ÆTATIS SVÆ 25." Thirdly, in the shadow cast on the floor by the chief personage is the inscription: "Iohannes Holbein Pingebat, 1533." Jean de Dinteville, Seigneur of Polizy, Bailly of Troyes, Chevalier de l'Ordre du Roi,—the order of St. Michael, which he wears in the picture,—was born September 21, 1504, and was, therefore, in his 29th year, or just the age required by the picture, at the time of his first Embassy to England in 1533. He remained in this country from February to November of that year, returning again as Ambassador in 1536. At a later period of his life he became paralysed and retired to his estate at Polizy, where he occupied the enforced leisure of his ill-health in building and embellishing the château, of which a vaulted undercroft and a few other striking fragments, including an inscription and some dates, yet remain as a monument to his tastes. He died in 1555. On the globe, which stands on the lower shelf of the what-not, the names are all of continents, countries, or great cities,—Paris, Lyons, Bayonne, Genoa, Rome, Nuremberg,—with the single exception that, in the east of France, we find the name of what is little more than a village. This name is Polizy.

George de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur, was one of six brothers, nearly all of whom attained distinction as Ambassadors. In 1526, at the early age of 18, he was appointed to the See of Lavaur, but he was not consecrated until 1534, when he was 26. It follows from these dates that in 1533, the year in which he sat to Holbein, he was 25 years old, or precisely of[Pg 618] the age recorded in the picture. His non-episcopal dress is explained by the fact that he was only consecrated in the following year, the same in which he was appointed Ambassador at Venice. In 1536 he was transferred to Rome, where he remained two years, and in 1540 we find him intrusted with an important mission to Charles V. Having voluntarily returned to his diocese when at the zenith of his career, in order to devote himself completely to his episcopal duties, he died in 1542 (N.S.) at the early age of 34. His profound learning, his piety, his keen interest in all intellectual pursuits, make him one of the remarkable figures of his day.

Some further description of the details may assist the spectator in his examination of the picture. The background is hung with green damask, which in the upper left-hand corner reveals a silver crucifix. Jean de Dinteville, the figure on the left, habited in the rich costume of the period of Henry VIII. and Francis I., wears a heavy gold chain with the badge (as already explained) of the French Order of St. Michael. In his right hand he holds a richly-chased gold dagger, "the design of which is manifestly Holbein's own; and beside it hangs a large green and gold silk tassel, in itself a miracle of painting." In his black bonnet is a jewel formed of a silver skull set in gold. The other personage is more soberly attired. He wears a loose, long-sleeved gown of mulberry and black brocade, lined with sable, and the four-cornered black cap, "which was in that age the common headgear of scholars, university doctors, and ecclesiastics in undress." "The contrast between the swordsman on one side and the gownsman on the other is characteristic of the era and profession of the two ambassadors." The upper shelf of the stand, or what-not, between the two figures is covered with a Turkish rug, very beautifully painted, and on this are several mathematical and astronomical instruments, and, close to the principal personage, a celestial globe. Conspicuous on the lower shelf is a lute, of which one of the strings was broken and curled up over the unbroken one. On the lower shelf also are a case of flutes; an open music-book, containing part of the score and words of the Lutheran hymn, "Komm, heiliger Geist";[245] a smaller book on arithmetic, kept partly open by a small square, a pair of [Pg 619]compasses, and a terrestrial hand-globe (in direct line below the other globe). On this globe the famous line drawn by Pope Alexander VI. in 1493 between the spheres of influence of Spain and Portugal is marked. Underneath the what-not is the lute-case; and a fine mosaic adorns the floor. The design of this is (as Miss Hervey points out) an accurate copy of the well-known mosaic pavement in the Sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, for the construction of which marbles and workmen were brought from Italy by Abbot Richard Ware in the reign of Henry III. "Nothing brings the English sojourn of the great painter more closely home to us than to fancy him wandering through the aisles of the venerable Abbey—venerable even then—to sketch the outlines of the historic pavement trodden by so many generations before and since that time."

On the floor is a mysterious-looking object, which puzzled the connoisseurs for centuries. Even the late Mr. Wornum could make nothing of it; and in his book on Holbein (1867) dismissed it as "a singular object which looks like the bones of some fish." The puzzle was first solved by Dr. Woodward in 1873, when the picture was hung in the "Old Masters" Exhibition. The curious fish-like object is simply the ana[Pg 620]morphosis—the distorted projection—of a human skull. It was probably drawn from the reflection in a cylindrical mirror; and it is seen to be an accurate representation when viewed from the proper point. If the spectator cannot discover this for himself, the attendant will readily assist him. One must stand at a little distance off and look in the direction of the length of the object from the right hand in order to "find the skull." Pictorial puzzles such as the skull were at the time not uncommon. Allusions to such things are to be found in old inventories of pictures; and Shakespeare in Richard II. says:

Similarly, Canon Ainger has pointed out that in Twelfth Night, when the Duke first becomes aware that Viola and Sebastian, who had up to that time from their exact likeness been thought the same person, are really two, he cries out that here is a puzzle in nature corresponding to those in art, where an object varies according to the point of view from which it is regarded:

As to the interpretation and significance of the puzzle, authorities differ. Some see in the skull only a punning signature of the painter's name (hohl bein, hollow bone, holbein). Others discover in it a recondite allusion to Cranmer (crâne-mère). Others again, when the identity of the personages was still in dispute, sought to connect the skull with the death of one or other of them; most ingenious and far-fetched theories were elaborated by Sir F. Burton and others with this object. Probably, however, the distorted skull is only a variant on the memento mori, which occurs very frequently in portraits of the time (see, for instance, No. 1036). It may be (as Miss Hervey suggests) that Dinteville had adopted the death's-head as his personal badge or devise. He suffered from ill-health, and in a letter to his brother describes himself as "the most melancholy ambassador that ever was seen."

There is still a field open to conjecture with regard to the elaborate accessories described above. Mr. Sidney Colvin thinks, indeed, that the globes, quadrant, music-book, etc., are probably simply introduced by the painter to show his skill of hand for the satisfaction of his patrons, the choice of objects[Pg 621] having been made partly in compliment to them as persons interested in music and the sciences, partly because they were the properties readiest to hand in the society of such men as Kratzer, the astronomer, and the German merchant goldsmiths of the Steelyard, among whom Holbein lived (Times, Dec. 10, 1895). Miss Hervey sees in the accessories "a record, probably unique in the domain of art, of the thoughts and studies, the hopes and fears, which swayed the country and generation of Jean de Dinteville. The objects selected for illustration precisely represent the pursuits and occupations most in vogue at the time in France. Geometry and Mechanics, the foundations of the builder's art, just then attaining classical expression in the lovely creations of the French Renaissance; Music, especially that of the lute, which was so fashionable that every Frenchman of exalted position carried a lutist in his train; the ingeniously contrived and artistically rendered devise; these, as the literature of the period abundantly testifies, were among the favourite studies and pastimes of the Court of France." Dinteville "must have devoted many an hour to thinking out with the painter the elaborate details." A different contention has been argued with much ability by Mr. Alfred Marks:—

Mr. Marks discovers in support of his theory that in 1533 (the date of the picture) some agreement was arrived at between King Henry VIII. and the French Ambassador with regard to certain grievances of French merchants. George de Selve, as we have seen, came over to England with the French King's permission and assisted Dinteville, it is suggested, in the arrangement, the conclusion of which is celebrated by Holbein's picture (Times, Dec. 7, 12, 23, 1895).

With regard to the provenance of the picture, in the year 1653 it was still, as we have seen, at the château of Polizy. The next known notices of it occur in a Rouen catalogue of 1787, and in the Galerie des Peintres (1792) of J. R. P. Lebrun (husband of the artist Vigée-Lebrun), who had the picture in his possession, and states that he had sold it, and that it was then in England. It seems probable that it came into the hands of the dealer Vandergutsch, and that from him it was purchased by the second Earl of Radnor about 1808 or 1809, in whose family it became an heirloom. In 1891 it was purchased from the present earl for the nation.[246]

1315. THE ADMIRAL PULIDO PAREJA.

One of the master's most famous works. "In the year 1639," says Palomino, "he made the picture of Don Adrian Pulido Pareja, a native of Madrid, Knight of the Order of Santiago, Admiral of the Fleet of New Spain, who about that time was here transacting various official matters with His Majesty. This portrait is life size, and is among the most famous painted by Velazquez, on which account he put his name to it, which he otherwise seldom did: Didacus Velazquez fecit; Philip IV. à cubiculo eiusque Pictor, anno 1639." The painter's signature was not the only thing which served at the time to stamp the picture as one of special [Pg 623]excellence. The King one day was paying his customary visit to the painter; Philip mistook the picture for the admiral himself, and rebuked him for tarrying in Madrid when he had been ordered away. Perceiving his mistake, he addressed Velazquez with the words: 'I assure you I was deceived.' "This, of course," says Mr. Colvin, "is one of the common legends which abound in the art history of all countries, from Greece to Japan; but it is almost possible to believe the tale when we look at the picture. Something of the rugged flashing power and fierce eagerness of the sitter seems to have passed into the painter's hand, and the method of execution he has chosen emphasises and harmonises with the character of the subject. The rude soldier-sailor in his handsome suit stands in bodily and spiritual presence before us, and seems snorting with impatience to be off to the fight once more."

Pulido, the subject of the picture, was a captain who distinguished himself greatly during the siege of Fontarabia, in the war with France. "The browned face with gleams of white light belongs," says Professor Justi, in describing the picture, "to a not uncommon Castilian type, of which this is an exceptionally stout, sturdy, grim specimen. The thick black shady eyebrows, very bushy and nearly meeting above the nose, the perpendicular wrinkle right in the middle of the forehead, the up-twirled mustachio,—the whole enframed in an abundant mass of black hair parted on one side and profusely crowning the defiant head,—bespeak the dauntless soldier as he stood on the ramparts of Fontarabia, as he will yet stand on the quarter-deck of the Admiral's ship in the hottest of the fight. There is nothing of the courtier in the attitude, for he stands bolt upright, like a soldier before his commanding officer. We see at once that he is not the man to hesitate about risking his own life or that of others in the deadly jaws of a breach. Both hands wear the yellow leather gloves, the right holding the Admiral's staff, the left a very broad-brimmed felt hat. On his breast is the red, gold-hemmed scarf and the red enamelled decoration of the Order of Santiago"—which the King had bestowed upon him for his gallantry in the siege.

With regard to the technique of the picture, Palomino tells us that Velazquez painted it with brushes of unusual length, in order to work with greater force and effect standing[Pg 624] at a distance. "It appears in fact (says Professor Justi) to have been very broadly treated, with more fiery vigour than delicacy. The light yellow-gray ground—dark above, and without any relation to the limits of wall and floor—has been specially prepared with reference to the black velvet costume. Don Adrian stands a little to the left, his glance directed towards the observer, legs [247] brought close together, feet almost at a right angle. The colour is applied more freely than usual, the otherwise rarely employed dazzling white patches on the deep lace collar, flowered satin sleeves, plumes, bows on the knees, and accoutrements, helping the illusion."

1316. AN ITALIAN NOBLEMAN.

Inferior in charm and interest to some of the other Moronis previously in the National Gallery, and to many of the master's marvellous pictures in the Carrara Collection at Bergamo. "Only," says a recent critic, "in the expressive look in the dreamy eyes, and in the drawing and painting of the left arm, clothed in chain-armour, do we find interest." Another, and more favourable, critic (Mr. Sidney Colvin) says: "Dignity and directness of presentment, richness of quality and mellowness of tone, with a colour-sense never more powerfully shown than when the scheme is one of flesh-colour with simple black and white on gray—these are the universal qualities of Venetian portrait-painting.... This is a thoroughly characteristic example in an excellent state. We already possess a portrait by the same hand, composed of much the same elements (1022): a man in a close-fitting black suit, showing [Pg 625]chain-armour on the sleeves, a broken column, a wall, and a glimpse of sky. The two will make admirable pendants."

1317. THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN.

This is one of the stock subjects in which the evolution of Italian art may be most clearly traced. Everybody knows the beautiful and celebrated "Sposalizio" of Raphael at Milan, which in its turn was copied, with some characteristic modifications, from Perugino's picture, now at Caen. Comparing those versions of the subject with an early one such as this, every one will be struck by the difference in general effect, but not less remarkable are the resemblances. The type, so far as the component parts are concerned, remains constant. The basis of the tale which Italian painters told for century after century is found in two of the apocryphal gospels. In them we read how the "Virgin of the Lord" was brought up, like Samuel, within the precincts of the temple, and how the High Priest summoned the suitors to an ordeal. Every man of them was to take a rod, and he whose rod should miraculously put forth leaves and blossom was to be chosen as husband. The common features of all "Sposalizio" pictures adhere closely to this legend. Thus the action always takes place within or just outside the temple. In the centre stands the High Priest with a long gray beard and (almost always) a high-peaked mitre, the Italian painters' idea of a Jewish ephod. He joins the hands of the pair in betrothal. The rod of Joseph blossoms, and above its foliage hovers the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. One of the suitors is about to strike Joseph in his passion; another is engaged in breaking his rod in vexation. Raphael makes the mien of the suitors much more gentle. He leaves out "the passionate suitor" altogether, but gives to the "disappointed suitor" a prominent place as an opportunity for a graceful attitude. In this picture he is very much in the background (in the extreme left-hand corner).

1318. "UNFAITHFULNESS."

1319. VIEW IN ROME.

On the right of the composition are an ancient Ionic portico (seen from the side) and a statue of Apollo, surrounded by trees. On the left is a wooded slope, beyond which, in the middle distance, is seen the church of Sta. Trinita de' Monti with other buildings.

1320, 1321. A MAN AND HIS WIFE.

The man is Aglonius Voon; the woman (presumably his wife), Cornelia Remoens: the names are inscribed above their heads.

1323. PIERO DI MEDICI.

A portrait of Piero, son of Cosimo the elder—surnamed "Il Gottoso," The Gouty—who died in 1469. Bronzino was employed to paint the portraits of many members of the Medici family. No. 704 is a contemporary portrait of one of the later Dukes.

1324. "SCORN."

1325. "RESPECT."

1326. "HAPPY UNION."

The four Veroneses (1325, 1324, 1318, and 1326), acquired from Cobham Hall, "obviously formed a series, or portions of a series, of enrichments for a ceiling, and must be looked at accordingly. They exhibit the decorative power of Veronese at a very high pitch in respect to colour, composition, and action, while his characteristically large and bold style of design and draughtsmanship are most fortunately employed upon them. One may readily conceive the magnificence of the saloon for which they were executed, and of which they must have been the chief ornaments. Sumptuous as they are now, their superb qualities would be enhanced if they could be seen with all their original accompaniments of gilding, carved frames, and magnificent furniture" (Athenæum, August 16, 1890).

The subjects of the pictures are moral allegories, and they go in pairs. Thus we have first "Respect" (1325) and "Scorn" (1324). In the former picture, a nude female figure—whose beautiful face recalls that of the "St. Helena" (see No. 1041)—is seen recumbent on a couch, asleep or lost in dreams. Cupid is leading a warrior, clad in sumptuous costume, but he turns aside, held back by an older man, in chivalrous respect. He is contrasted in the companion picture with another male figure, who lies prostrate while a Cupid tramples in scorn upon him. On the left two females (contrasting with the two men in the former pictures) are hurrying away. The elder carries an ermine, the emblem of purity, and guides the younger and more beautiful woman whom she has rescued from peril.

In the other two pictures the faithfulness and unfaithfulness of woman are similarly contrasted. In "Unfaithfulness" (1318) a nude female figure, seated on a bank with her back turned to the spectator, extends her arm towards a man who grasps her right hand, while she with her left is employed in furtively delivering a letter to a more youthful lover on the other side. He is of the same type as the figure of Alexander[Pg 628] in the Family of Darius (294). Finally, in "Happy Union" (1326) the painter shows us the reward of faithfulness. Here a Cupid is introducing a warrior to a queenly figure—whom we may take to personify Fame or Fortune—seated on a globe at the entrance to some palace. She is placing a wreath upon the man's brow; he is led by a beautiful woman who carries a palm which she is about to present to him. She in her turn is guided by a little Love who has hold of a golden chain around her waist. A dog is also in attendance. It is a pretty trait of the Venetian schools, the frequency with which a pet dog is introduced into scenes of domestic felicity.

The prices paid for these pictures are interesting. They belonged at one time to Queen Christina of Sweden, and afterwards passed into the Orleans Collection. At the sale of that collection, the Tintoret fetched £50, and the four Veroneses £198. Lord Darnley made a handsome "unearned increment" out of them. For the Tintoret and one of the Veroneses (1318) the nation paid £2500. For two more of the Veroneses the same price was paid. The fourth Veronese (1325) was presented by Lord Darnley.

1327. A WINTER SCENE.

The scene is an arm of the Maes, near Dordrecht; the ice being covered with skaters, hockey-players, and others. The figures are treated with considerable humour. In the distance rises the tall ruin, which is shown in so many of Cuyp's pictures. Van Goyen's signature and the date 1642 are conspicuous on a sleigh in the foreground.

1329. AN INTERIOR.

1330. THE TRANSFIGURATION.

"Clinging more closely to Byzantine traditions than any other of the works of Duccio in the Gallery, is the panel of 'The Transfiguration,' with the folds of the drapery indicated by gold lines. The elements of this ancient design, like those of nearly all the Byzantine conceptions of scenes of sacred history, were never wholly departed from; they remain still quite recognisable in 'The Transfiguration' of Raphael" (Monkhouse: In the National Gallery, p. 16).

1331. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

The style of this painter is dismissed by Lanzi as "dry," and by another authority as "dry and stiff." There is a certain stiffness, undoubtedly—due probably in part to religious symbolism—in the hands of the Virgin and in the upraised finger of the Child, and in those of the otherwise human and chubby cherubim. But there is nothing dry or stiff in the pretty faces of these children, or in the gracious and beautiful face of the mother. She is clad in a white-and-gold brocade of very beautiful pattern. "One of the finest of the kind known to us, it appears," says the Athenæum, "to be of Venetian origin, and is a pure and perfect diaper, instinct with the choicest Gothic grace and harmony of line, and betraying but the slightest touch of Orientalism. This circumstance attests that the brocade did not come from a Sicilian loom, while other elements prohibit us from ascribing[Pg 630] it to an ultramontane craftsman." The landscape background, which has sadly darkened, has many quaint figures—on one side Mary, Joseph, and a cow; on the other, the Three Kings and their attendants.

1332. GEORGE, 1ST EARL OF BERKELEY.

The first Earl of Berkeley—a man of considerable note in his day, and the author of a religious work to which some complimentary couplets by Waller have given a kind of immortality—was born in 1628 and died in 1698. He was one of the Commissioners nominated in 1660 to proceed to the Hague to invite Charles to return to the kingdom, and shortly afterwards he received various important appointments. In 1688, after the flight of the King, he was one of the lords assembled at the Guildhall to draw up the celebrated declaration constituting themselves a provisional government until such time as the Prince of Orange should arrive.

1333. THE DEPOSITION FROM THE CROSS.

1334. THE FORTUNE-TELLER.

A girl, in the hooped dress and three-cornered hat of the 18th century, is having her hand read by a fortune-teller, while a cloaked cavalier, standing near in a white domino, watches the result.

1335. THE MADONNA.

The face is most delicately executed; the white head-cloth and gown are covered by a blue mantle, which is jewelled and embroidered at the edge. The originally gold background is now brown; the nimbus of the Virgin is punctured in a beautiful foliated design.

1336. THE DEATH OF DIDO.

Painted probably to adorn the front of a cassone or marriage-chest. "The buildings of the forum in which the pyre stands are copied from well-known monuments at Verona. In the background on the left are seen two spectators in the everyday costume of the artist's contemporaries. The one on the left-hand side seems from his dress to be a German. Dürer has portrayed himself in an exactly similar way. The identity of the person thus represented will always remain hypothetical; nevertheless, the soldier leaning on his lance, on the extreme right, points directly to Dürer, for the figure is taken from a well-known engraving by him" (Dr. Richter in the Art Journal, February 1895).

1337. "ECCE HOMO!"

Probably part of a picture of Christ bearing His Cross. The face wears a gentle, grave, and dignified expression on features of a noble type.

1338. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.

1339. THE NATIVITY OF ST. JOHN.

(1338). The subject is treated with Dutch directness. It is a Dutch interior with Dutch peasants. An opening in the roof discloses a peep of landscape in the light of early dawn.

(1339). Somewhat more academic in treatment. The infant saint lies in a wicker cradle, at the foot of which lies St. Elizabeth, who offers an apple to another child standing by the side of its nurse or mother. To the right of the picture St. Zacharias writes on a tablet the record of the birth.

1340. LANDSCAPE.

1341. A WOODLAND SCENE.

1342. LANDSCAPE.

1343. AMSTERDAM MUSKETEERS ON PARADE.

Formerly attributed to Govert Flinck (1615-1660), who was a pupil of Rembrandt, and was commissioned to paint many considerable works for the Town Hall of Amsterdam. Observe the group of officers on the left; one bears a standard embroidered with the arms of that city.

1344. A LANDSCAPE.

There is in this picture "a peculiarly sharp, clear, and firm touch, very like that of Stark of Norwich. The warm, deep-toned evening sky is admirable" (Athenæum). The picture is signed, and dated 1659.

1345. LANDSCAPE.

1346. A WINTER SCENE.

1347. FARMYARD SCENE.

The crisp touch and golden light in this Cuyp-like picture will please all lovers of Dutch art.

1348. LANDSCAPE WITH GOAT AND KID.

1352. LANDSCAPE.

The signature of the artist is on the cornice of one of the buildings. Possibly Lingelbach (see 837), who often worked with Moucheron, painted the figures.

1353. LANDSCAPE WITH SATYRS.

1375. CHRIST IN THE HOUSE OF MARTHA.

A picture of the earliest, or Seville period of the painter. Though professedly a religious subject, it is in reality one of the bodegones, or tavern-pieces, which had come into favour at Seville during the end of the sixteenth century—naturalistic studies of the tavern and the kitchen. "They are certainly to be valued," says Pacheco, "when painted as Velazquez paints them, for in this branch he has attained such an eminence that he has left room for no rival. They deserve high esteem; for with these elements and with portraiture he discovered the true imitation of Nature." In the background, shown through a window or square opening in the wall, is seen an inner chamber with Christ addressing Martha, who stands, and Mary, who kneels before Him.

1376. A DUEL IN THE PRADO (A SKETCH).

Note that some of the figures in the foreground closely resemble the group in "The Boar Hunt" (No. 197).

1377. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.

Formerly ascribed to Savoldo (see 1031). "In its deep[Pg 635] and striking chiaroscuro it reminds one of a greater and later artist, Bassano, and even of the earlier works of Velazquez. It is a very interesting picture, full of imagination, especially in its landscape, and generally in fine condition. For light and effective painting, look at the pigeons in the basket on the right" (Monkhouse: In the National Gallery, p. 261). This picture was bequeathed by the late Sir William Gregory, one of the Trustees of the Gallery, who secured it for the paltry sum of £12: 10s., and was (as we know from his "Autobiography") justly proud of his bargain.[248]

1378. AN INTERIOR WITH FIGURES.

Another of Sir William's bequests, and, like the preceding, "a bargain." "A French dealer," he wrote, "offered me £250 the day after I had bought it for £2: 3s." An itinerant musician enters the kitchen in a village inn or country farmhouse, and salutes the buxom lady of the house with a fantastic gesture of courtesy. A flute sticks out of his pocket.

1380. FRUIT AND FLOWER PIECE.

1381. THE HOLY WOMEN AT THE SEPULCHRE.

For the subject, see 576. Notice the pool in the foreground on which are two water-fowl, while a tortoise crawls towards it. This picture is the same size as 639 and 1106, and the three beautiful little panels doubtless formed a series—now at last brought together again, having been long separated in three different collections.

1383. "LA JEUNE FEMME AU CLAVECIN."

This picture is a good example of the qualities described[Pg 637] above.[249] "The head, however, has unfortunately suffered from over-cleaning, showing the gray under-painting which gives the picture a colder aspect than it would otherwise have" (Official Catalogue). The picture has a very good "pedigree," Bürger, to whom it once belonged, having traced it back, through the Solly and Danser-Nyman Collections, to an anonymous sale catalogue of 1714.

1386. SOLDIERS QUARRELLING OVER THEIR BOOTY.

1387. PLAYERS AT TRIC-TRAC.

These pictures are by one of the rarest of the Dutch masters—William Cornells Duyster, a painter of Amsterdam. They were acquired from a family in whose possession they have been ever since they were brought over to this country by an officer in the army of William III. The fine execution and brilliant condition of the pictures make them decidedly attractive. They are both signed; 1386, on a box in the foreground; 1387, on the border of the beautifully-painted tablecloth.

1390. A SEA-PIECE.

An excellent example of Ruysdael's sea-pieces, in which he was not surpassed by any painter of the time. The view represented is the shore at Scheveningen. This picture, for which the sum of £3045 was paid by the nation, changed hands in 1872 for £68 as one of a pair!

1393. A MEDITERRANEAN SEAPORT.

The frigate is flying the Dutch tricolor flag. At the foot of the fortified wall is a party of Turkish or Albanian merchants.

1397. AN OLD WOMAN SEWING.

On the wall behind is an engraved portrait of a gentleman, with an inscription in which the name, Jan van Aach, and the date 1655 occur. The name is possibly that of the unknown painter.

1399. PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN.

This and the following picture were in the collection of the late Sir Charles Eastlake. By the provisions of his will, they were to be offered to the National Gallery at the prices he paid for them, viz. £25 and £75.

1400. CHRIST BEFORE PILATE.

This sketch is the original study for the etching of the same subject done in 1636. It is signed with the artist's name underneath the clock which is above the arched entrance on the right.

1401. A FRUIT-PIECE.

Fowls, cray-fish, artichokes, lobsters, peaches, plums, strawberries, asparagus, radishes, and peonies—"all represented of natural size and distributed in picturesque confusion." The artist's signature is included, as if embroidered on the corner of the tablecloth.

1406. THE ANNUNCIATION.

"Through an arched opening behind the Virgin we see a sort of cloister garth. There are daisies on the sward, and in a pot stands a tall lily. A similar opening behind the Archangel reveals another part of the garth, enclosed on all sides by a rose trellis. Beyond the trellis are visible a hill and a convent resembling that of San Miniato, rows of cypresses, and more distinct peaks in fuller light. The embroideries, the angel's plumage, and both the nimbi, are represented in real gold, while the last are incised in radial lines, so that, like the wings, their brilliance is distinct, and they shimmer in the light. On the capitals of two of the columns of the cloister the red annulets upon a silver shield of the Albizzi family are seen" (Athenæum). The composition of this not very attractive picture recalls the Annunciations by Fra Angelico, at Cortona and in the Madrid Gallery respectively.

1409. THE MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE.

"The conjecture that Andrea Previtali is identical with Andrea Cordelle Agii seems to me," says Morelli, "untenable. Both were fellow-scholars in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini, and it is undeniable that in some of their works they closely resemble each other; but this may be explained by the fact that the one probably copied the cartoons or even the pictures of the other. The few signed works which I have met with by Cordelle Agii appear to me, however, to be more refined and lifelike in expression, and his landscapes are warmer and less vividly green in tone, than those of Previtali" (Roman Galleries,[Pg 640] p. 237 n.). As a picture by Previtali hangs close by (No. 695), the reader is in a position to consider the justness of the critic's remarks for himself.

1410. VIRGIN AND CHILD

The nimbus which surrounds the Virgin's head is inscribed in gold with the words AVE. MARIA. GRATIA. PLENA. DOM. The background is interesting. On the right is no doubt a faithful view of part of the old façade of the Certosa of Pavia before it was completed. On the left are other buildings which appear to be part of a convent, with Carthusian friars walking in front. This picture is earlier in date than Borgognone's "Two St. Catherines" (298); it is "more rigid in style and a capital example of the painter's less ambitious work" (Catalogue of the Burlington Fine Arts Club's Exhibition, 1898, p. xxxvii.).

1411. A DIPTYCH.

On the left the Adoration of the Shepherds. There is much natural charm in the figure of the Virgin bending over the manger. On the right the dead figure of Christ, with St. Jerome and St. Francis in the middle distance receiving the stigmata. Very delicately finished.

1412. VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH ST. JOHN.

Formerly ascribed to Botticelli.[250] Notice the beautifully painted white eglantine and jasmine blossoms in the vase on the balcony. The youthful St. John is an attractive figure, very characteristic of this group of painters.

1415. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

"An old inscription on the back of the panel states that this picture is a portrait of Anna Maria van Schurmann; but it will [Pg 641]be observed that the portrait by Jan Lievens (1095), supposed to represent the same lady, differs in the colour of the hair, and has other points of variation, which preclude the possibility of both having been painted from the same person" (Official Catalogue).

1416. VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH SAINTS.

This picture is in its original frame, of early cinque-cento pattern, richly carved, gilt, and painted. A somewhat similar frame has recently been given to the "Vision of St. Eustace" (1436).

1417. CHRIST'S AGONY IN THE GARDEN.

A celebrated picture (painted in 1459 for Giacomo Marcello, Podestà of Padua), and a specially interesting acquisition to our Gallery—first, as belonging to an earlier period of the master than his other important works here; and secondly, for its strong family likeness to the picture of the same subject by his brother-in-law, Giovanni Bellini, which, hangs in an adjoining room (No. 726). At the time when these pictures were painted Giovanni and Andrea were working at Padua under the influence of Giovanni's father, Jacopo Bellini (Vasari has some family gossip on this subject, ii. 265); and the original suggestion for the treatment of the subject in both pictures appears in Jacopo's sketch-book, now in the British Museum. A prominent object in the distance (an Italian version of Jerusalem) is a little gilt equestrian statue, which was evidently suggested by Donatello's equestrian statue of Gattamelata,[Pg 642] still to be seen at Padua. The foreshortening of the apostles suggests the work of Uccello (see 583), who is known to have painted in that city. The picture has been described as "a marvellous combination of the fantastic and the realistic"; note for curious details the rabbits and storks, and the cormorant on the withered tree. This picture is more quaint than Bellini's; but Bellini's is the more original. "Mantegna's," says Mr. Monkhouse, "exhibits only a strong personal treatment of old conventions: Bellini's proclaims the dawn of a new world of art. What was old in the pictures—the Christ kneeling on a little hill, with the sleepy apostles in foreshortened attitudes in the foreground, the angelic vision on a cloud, and the suggestion of a neighbouring city—are common to both pictures. What was new—the fresh observation of nature for its own sake—is found only in Bellini's. We see this in the smouldering clouds of sunset, the light thrown on the distant buildings, the half-shade on the cliffs, the bringing-out of the figures into something like the real open, sun-illumined air, the attempt at solution of the problem of the tone of a face and figure relieved right against the sky" (In the National Gallery, 1895, p. 192).

1417a. ILLUMINATED INITIAL LETTER.

The letter D: enclosed within it is painted "The Agony in the Garden," copied from the preceding picture by Mantegna. The picture and this letter were both in the collection of Lord Northbrook.

1418. ST. JEROME IN HIS STUDY.

A celebrated little picture, with a long critical history, for as early as 1529 the writer known as the "anonimo of Morelli" mentions it as being variously attributed to Van Eyck, to Memlinc, and to Antonello, while he himself ascribed it tentatively to "Jacometto" (Jacopo de' Barbari). The influence of the Flemish School is obvious, says Sir Edward Poynter, "in the Gothic character of the architecture, the general arrangement of the picture, and the finish of the details. But the head of the saint has an energy of character highly characteristic of Antonello, and the buildings in the glimpse of landscape seen[Pg 643] through the window on the left are distinctly Italian in character" (The National Gallery, i. 14). It is interesting to compare this picture with the version of the same subject commonly ascribed to Bellini (694). Observe, here, "the lion walking along the cloister, holding up a suffering paw, and the puss curled up on a platform at the saint's feet. Evidently this St. Jerome was a lover of animals, and, like Canon Liddon, more especially of cats" ("The Beasts of the National Gallery," by Sophia Beale, in Good Words, July 1895).

1419. THE LEGEND OF ST. GILES.

Here we see the saint, clad in hermit's robes, protecting the doe, which has fled from the hunting party towards him; his right hand is transfixed by an arrow, intended for the animal. The King kneels to implore forgiveness. He is attended by a companion, who is supposed to represent the painter of the picture. Notice the irises in the foreground, and to the right a plant of mullein, finished with great delicacy. "Remarkable as an example of extraordinary finish and enamel-like splendour of colour. Remarkable also for the flood of even, gay daylight diffused over it, such as makes us think of the more moderate among recent plein air transcripts from nature. But the painter shows more of that intense humanity, of that command over delicate shades of character and facial expression which are the highest characteristic of the great Netherlandish masters of his time" (Claude Phillips, in National Review, Dec. 1894).

1420. A VIEW IN HAARLEM.

A view of the painter's favourite subject, the market-place of Haarlem. The picture is signed, and dated 1674.

1421. A TERRACE SCENE.

1422. THE HOLY FAMILY.

This little picture is a good example of the painter's characteristics—with its somewhat crude colour, but considerable gracefulness, especially in the figure of the Virgin.

1423. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

1424. TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL.

A favourite subject with this painter. It was etched in 1613 by Count Gondt, who was the painter's chief benefactor; he purchased some of Elsheimer's choicest pictures, and engraved seven of them. The copper-plate of this subject fell into the hands of Rembrandt, and was partly erased and altered by him into another subject.

1425. PORTRAIT GROUP.

1427. THE DEAD CHRIST: A PIETÀ.

Signed and dated "Hans Baldung, 1512." The Virgin's attitude is expressive of intense sorrow. "Her mouth is drawn convulsively down in the manner usual in the pictures of Burgkmair and the school and epoch to which he and Baldung belonged. On our right is St. John. Behind the group is Joseph of Arimathea. Behind, God the Father appears, robed in blue under a red mantle, and holding across His knees the drooping corpse of the Redeemer. Clouds form the background, and among them the Holy Ghost is hovering. The heads of all the figures bear plain nimbi of metallic gold. The draperies, except the loin-cloth of Christ, are somewhat tortured in the manner of the German painters of the fifteenth century. On the front of the balcony in which they are placed are depicted[Pg 646] the donor and his family; in one corner is their escutcheon, bearing three money bags and a broad bar" (Athenæum, Jan. 11, 1895).

1429. THE ROTUNDA AT RANELAGH.

The interior of the Rotunda in Ranelagh Gardens (at Chelsea), which were opened as a rival to Vauxhall in 1742, and at once became the rage. "Ranelagh has totally beat Vauxhall," wrote Walpole in 1744; "nobody goes anywhere else." "When I first entered Ranelagh," said Dr. Johnson, "it gave me an expansion and gay sensation in my mind such as I never experienced anywhere else." Smollett describes it in his novels as an "enchanted palace." "Ranelagh," said Rogers ("Table-Talk"), "was a very pleasant place of amusement. There persons of inferior rank mingled with the highest nobility of Britain. All was so orderly and still that you could hear the whisking sound of the ladies' trains as the immense assembly walked round and round the room. If you chose, you might have tea, which was served up in the neatest equipage possible." The dining boxes under the arcade on the ground level are shown in the picture, as well as the orchestra, the musicians, and the numerous gaily-dressed promenaders. On the back of the original canvas was an inscription by the artist, recording that the picture was painted in London in 1754.

1430. ARCHITECTURAL SUBJECT WITH FIGURES.

A picture corresponding in general character to several described by Vasari. It is probably intended as a fantastic treatment of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, or of Esther before Ahasuerus.

1431. THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.

Around this little picture of the Umbrian School, bought by Sir Edward Poynter at Rome in 1894, a fierce battle of the critics has raged. Sir Edward's own description may first be cited:—"A perfectly genuine work by a scholar of Perugino, probably done in his studio, and, in my opinion, possibly by the young Raphael. The most characteristic point, besides the beautiful painting of the figure of the Saviour, is the drawing of the hands, which is precisely Raphael's. On the other hand, the heads are not specially Raphaelesque, nor is the colour as pure and transparent as is usual even in his early work; at the same time, such characteristics as do not agree with what we know of his work might possibly be due to its being a youthful performance. The painting of the trees is quite peculiar, and different from the treatment to be found in the works of Perugino, or, indeed, of any work of the school that I had seen. Some two or three years afterwards I saw the predella painting of 'St. John Preaching' by Raphael, belonging to the Marquis of Lansdowne, and was very interested to find in it the same treatment of the leaves of the trees—that is to say, that, instead of the minute and delicate sprays of foliage, so[Pg 648] characteristic of Perugino's own work and of, so far as I know, most of his followers, the trees have only a few sprays of large and freely painted leaves." According to many of Sir Edward's critics, the picture is a "detestable little production"; while one of them ascribes it, as a work of the nineteenth century, to Micheli, "a maker of old masters." (See a copious correspondence in the Athenæum and the Times, during March and April, 1907).

1432. THE MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE.

This picture (formerly ascribed to Hugo van der Goes) was, like No. 1045, painted for the Collegiate Church of St. Donatian at Bruges. Until the end of the last century it adorned the altar of St. Catherine in that church. The details of the picture are carried out with marvellous care and finish, and the whole displays the utmost perfection of execution. The expression of the figures, is, however, hardly so animated or idealised as in No. 1045. But "the Canon's intelligent head is admirably modelled and painted, and the figure of St. Catherine is executed with rare perfection. The jewellery, stuff, and draperies are all rendered with David's usual skill; while the background, with its rich vegetation, vigorously coloured trees, and picturesque buildings, is hardly surpassed by that of any of his other pictures." The scene of the mystical marriage (for the subject, see under 249) is laid in the emblematic walled garden ("a garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse"), surrounded by a vineyard (in which is an angel gathering grapes). On the right of the picture are seated St. Barbara, holding an open book, and St. Mary Magdalene with the vase of precious ointment in her lap. In front of St. Catherine kneels the donor of the picture, Richard de Visch van der Capelle, Canon and Cantor of the Church; he is accompanied by his greyhound, on whose collar is a shield bearing the Canon's arms. Before him, on the floor, lie a breviary of blue velvet and his precentor's staff. The workmanship of this staff is a good instance of the painter's minute precision. The staff is surmounted by a group representing the Holy Trinity adored by a monk and a cardinal. It was painted from a staff presented to the church in 1338, and the picture precisely corresponds to a description of the staff, to be found in an old inventory of[Pg 649] the church property (see authorities cited in the Official Catalogue from Mr. Weale's description in the Academy, xiv. p. 391).

The picture was exhibited at Paris in 1881 under the name of Hugo van der Goes, and was sold for 54,100 francs. It ultimately passed into the possession of Mr. Lyne Stephens, by whom in 1895 it was bequeathed to the National Gallery.

1433. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

Notice the transparent starched muslin head-dress which, coming down as low as the eyebrows and covering the ears, yet allows the forehead and ears, and a high cap of gold and white brocade, to be seen through its thin texture.

1434. A BETROTHAL.

An unfinished picture once in the possession of Sir Edwin Landseer, and presented to the Gallery by Lord Savile, who has given a very interesting surmise of the subject: "It is evidently the representation of a betrothal in a private family, probably that of Velazquez himself. If this surmise be correct, the principal male figure would be Velazquez as a Knight of the Order of Santiago, the red cross of which, though half concealed, is seen on his cloak; the mother presenting her child would be his daughter, the wife of the artist Del Mazo, his pupil and son-in-law, and the girl, their daughter, the grandchild of Velazquez. The foreground is occupied on the right by a half-length figure of the poet Quevedo, with a huge pair of horn spectacles, as he is represented in his portrait by Velazquez at Apsley House, though here he is a much older man. He was a great friend of Velazquez, and in this picture may represent the witness to the betrothal of the artist's grandchild. On the right is a negro, probably Juan Pareja, the favourite slave of Velazquez, who is conveying a basket of fruit to his young mistress. Velazquez himself is waiting, pen in hand, for the 'promesso sposo,' who, though not shown in the picture, may be entering the room by the portière which an attendant is raising; but he is seen by the little bride elect,[Pg 650] who waves a salute to him with the flower in her hand. [Contrast, as a pretty little incident, the dog who is running towards the door and barking at the stranger.] It is not surprising that a painting of this unusual character should give rise to doubt as to the correctness of its attribution, and it has been suggested that it is the work of Del Mazo, the pupil of Velazquez; but if that artist had been commissioned to paint the portrait of a knight of Santiago, his sitter would scarcely have been satisfied with the scanty indication of that celebrated order shown in this picture. If, however, as I believe, the knight of Santiago represents Velazquez himself, the half-hidden cross of that order assumes an aspect that may have an important bearing on the questions of the authorship of the picture, the date of the work, and the cause of its being unfinished. Stirling-Maxwell, in his admirable and exhaustive Annals of the Artists of Spain, relates that Philip IV. in 1658 conferred on Velazquez the habit of the Order of Santiago; but it was not for many months later that the artist was invested with its insignia, owing to the formalities required by the Order to prove his pedigree. The King, impatient at this delay, sent for the President of the Order and the documents connected with the case, and having looked at them his Majesty said to the President, 'Place on record that the evidence satisfies me.' The half-concealed red cross of Santiago in the picture was sufficient for Velazquez to show that he was entitled to the Order, but, with the modesty and conscientiousness that distinguished him, he did not design the insignia on his breast, where it is worn, apparently not feeling justified in so doing until after his investiture. This, however, did not occur till November 1659. It is evident, therefore, that the picture must have been painted in 1658, after he had received the habit, but not the insignia, of the Order. That the picture was left unfinished was doubtless due to the onerous duties with which Velazquez was charged by the King in preparing the meeting on the Bidassoa, in 1660, of the French and Spanish Courts, to celebrate the nuptials of Louis XIV. and the Infanta Maria Teresa. These duties doubled the official fatigues and shortened the life of Velazquez, who died shortly after his return to Madrid in August of the same year. There is, therefore, good reason to believe that the picture in the National Gallery is the last ever painted by Velazquez" (letter to the Times, May 11, 1895).

1436. THE VISION OF ST. EUSTACE.

"The minute but unobtrusive finish of the picture is," says the Official Catalogue, "astonishing. Of the coats of the horse, dogs, stag, and other wild animals introduced every hair is drawn; and of the wild birds, every feather; nor are they less remarkable for the beauty of the drawing and the admirable character displayed, in which it may be truly said this painter has never been excelled. Numerous studies of animals of the highest beauty are to be found in collections of drawings throughout Europe, some of them evidently done in preparation for this picture." St. Eustace, whose name before his conversion was Placidus, was a Roman soldier, a captain of the guards in the reign of the Emperor Trajan. He was a great lover of the chase, and "one day, while hunting in the forest, he saw before him a stag of marvellous beauty. He pursued it eagerly, and the stag fled before him, and ascended a high rock. Then Placidus, looking up, beheld, between the horns of the stag, a cross of radiant light, and on it the image of the crucified Redeemer; and being astonished and dazzled by this vision, he fell on his knees, and a voice, which seemed to come from the crucifix, cried to him, and said, 'Placidus! why dost thou pursue me? I am Christ, whom thou hast hitherto served without knowing me. Dost thou now believe?' And Placidus fell with his face to the earth, and said, 'Lord, I believe!' And when he looked up again the wondrous vision had departed. And he returned to his house and was baptized with his wife and children" (Mrs. Jameson: Sacred and Legendary Art, 1850, p. 466). For a representation of the very similar legend of St. Hubert, see No. 783. This beautiful picture (from Lord Ashburnham's Collection) has been placed in a very elaborate frame in the Italian style: compare No. 1416.

1437. THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST.

A specimen, very well preserved, of the Giottesque period of Italian art. The painter, a native of Modena, appears to have worked chiefly in Piedmont and Pisa. Examples of his work may be seen in the Galleries of Pisa, Turin, Frankfort,[Pg 652] and Berlin. It is pointed out as noticeable, in the Official Catalogue, that the drapery of the Virgin Mary is treated in the hieratic or Byzantine manner, while that of the Apostles is in the naturalistic manner of Giotto. For a similar instance of transitional treatment, see Duccio's "Transfiguration," No. 1330.

1438. HEAD OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST.

A head of great beauty and much pathos of expression. An inscription on the background gives the date of the picture, 1511.

1439. FISHING IN THE RIVER.

An early work. Signed, and dated 1631. "The sky is partly covered with soft, gray clouds, and the whole scene gives the impression of a still and peaceful summer's day."

1440. ST. DOMINIC.

The portrait of a monk (on the parapet is an inscription recording that it is a likeness of Brother Theodore of Urbino) in the character of St. Dominic. He wears the Dominican robe, and the name of the saint is inscribed on the label of the book which he holds, and carries the usual attributes of the saint, the lily and a book (on the label of which are the words "Sanctus Dominicus"). The inscription is dated 1515, so that if genuine this must be one of the painter's last works. No. 808 is another portrait of a monk ascribed to the same painter—in character as one of the saints (St. Peter Martyr). Signor Frizzoni attributes both of them to Gentile Bellini.

1441. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.

This fresco from the church at Fontignano, near Castello della Pieve, was left unfinished when the painter died there in[Pg 653] 1523, in his 77th year; it is believed to be his last work (see Vasari, ii. 323). The fresco was transferred to canvas and removed in 1843. It was purchased in 1862 from Mr. Spence of Florence, by the South Kensington Museum. "The hand had not lost its cunning, and there is much of the early sweetness in this huge fresco. There is the charm of its faded blues and purples, the haze of its shimmering sunshine, and the tender reverence of the kneeling figures" (G. C. Williamson: Perugino, o, p. 110).

1442. SHIPS IN A GALE.

1443. INTERIOR OF A CHURCH.

A funeral service is being celebrated in the nave, while in the foreground is a christening procession.

1444. PEASANTS WARMING THEMSELVES.

1445, 1446. STUDIES OF FLOWERS.

1447. A HUNTING PARTY.

The present picture (signed, and dated 1662) shows us some such scene in the life of the Court. The suite is bareheaded, and it is clearly some personage of importance—possibly Louis XIV. himself—who is seated at the window of the carriage. The background of open country with blue distance is very pleasantly rendered.

1448. A VILLAGE GREEN IN FRANCE.

Signed, and dated 1869, at Verberie—a pleasantly-situated spot in the department of the Oise, eleven miles north-east of Senlis.

1449. CARDINAL RICHELIEU.

"The central head in No. 798 was evidently used as a study for this portrait. The Cardinal, in the crimson silk robes of his office, with the cross of the Order of St. Louis hung by a blue ribbon round his neck, stands as if just risen from the chair of state behind him."

1450. THE HOLY FAMILY.

"In the mixture of the Venetian element," it has been said, "with the severe forms and masses of the Michelangelesque feeling consists the charm of Sebastiano's best works" (Layard, ii. 562). The "superb composition" before us, says Sir Edward Poynter, "shows the influence of Michelangelo in every line." It was formerly in the collection of the late Mr. Thomas Baring, and was purchased from the Earl of Northbrook in 1895. It was Mr. Baring's favourite picture in his collection.

1451. INTERIOR OF A CHURCH.

The nave of a Gothic church in Holland, during sermon-time (the preacher is in the pulpit against one of the columns on the right). The women sit on chairs; the men in seats raised in tiers. Some stand listening to the sermon, and an elderly man on the left is warning two children to be quiet. In the centre a boy is playing with a dog, to which a woman directs the attention of the child with her. On the pavement is the artist's signature, dated 1673.

1454. A GONDOLA.

1455. THE CIRCUMCISION.

A picture of Bellini's earlier period, the original of numerous versions and copies in private and public galleries, presented[Pg 656] to the National Gallery by one of the trustees, the Earl of Carlisle. The Virgin is "one of those magnificent Venetian women whose morbidezza profoundly moved the painters of their country, marked by a grave, suave, and restful expression, instinct with unconscious dignity; this is the countenance of a Venetian woman to the life, not over refined, but full of repose, the repose of vigour and conscious strength, not the languor of debility" (Athenæum). The diaper of the High Priest's robe contains figures of antelopes, a curious instance of the straightforward mode of the artist, who, no doubt, employed as a model a veritable robe, and one of Oriental or Sicilian origin. Embroideries of this category were frequently used in Venice of old. The same Oriental embroidery is to be seen in pictures by other Venetian artists in which the High Priest is introduced.

1456. VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH ANGELS.

Below is a portion of the original frame with three small quatrefoil medallions in which are half-length figures of the Saviour, the Virgin, and St. John. The picture, which was presented to the Gallery by one of the trustees, Mr. J.P. Heseltine, is ascribed to the school of Gentile da Fabriano (about 1360-1440), "the Umbrian Fra Angelico," whose delight in splendour and gold ornaments is so naïve.

1457. CHRIST DRIVING THE TRADERS OUT OF THE TEMPLE.

1459. THE WINE CONTRACT.

A group of the four chiefs of the Wine Guild of Amsterdam seated in conversation over some deeds. The picture is signed, and dated 1657.

1461. ST. SEBASTIAN.

This and No. 247 by the same artist are, says Sir Edward Poynter, "excellent examples of tempera painting of the fifteenth century, in good preservation and unvarnished." The panel is surrounded by the original gilt mouldings.

1462. SEA-PIECE WITH SHIPPING.

1465. CHRIST RISING FROM THE TOMB.

Christ, holding the resurrection banner in His hand, rises from a marble tomb. The painter, who was a child of the mountains, gives us a background of blue hills. The picture was the centre compartment of an altar-piece in a church at Magianico, near Lecco, on the Lake of Como. This composition was copied with variations by Gaudenzio's follower Giuseppe Giovenone in a picture now at Turin.

1466. THE WALK TO EMMAUS.

There is an element of picturesqueness and almost modern romanticism in this picture. Christ and the disciples wear broad-brimmed hats and the dress of Italian peasants (cf. No. 753).

1468. THE CRUCIFIXION.

A picture, some 500 years old, in excellent preservation, retaining its bright colours and the varied expressions of the faces. It is in its original frame, surmounted by a Gothic canopy. Two upright panels on each side contain figures of St. John the Baptist and St. Paul (left), St. James the Greater and St. Bartholomew (right). In circular medallions below are the Virgin and Child, with saints.

1469. STILL LIFE.

1470. A BATTLE SCENE.

1471. THE PICNIC ("MARIENDA CAMPESTRE").

From the collection of the Duke of Ossuna at Madrid. Théophile Gautier described Goya—in the language of hyperbole—as "a combination of Watteau and Rembrandt," and in this picture we have a Watteau-like subject, treated, however, in a more grotesque fashion than that of the charming French painter of rural fêtes.

1472. "THE BEWITCHED."

A scene from a play ("El hechizado por fuerza"), showing a player on the stage, dressed as a padre in complete black, and in the act of pouring oil into a lamp which is held by an obsequious demon, while a team of ghostly and affrighted mules are rearing in the background. Goya, who has been called the Hogarth of Spain, specially delighted in satirising the clergy, whose enchantments and incantations he parodied, and whom he was fond of portraying in the form of asses or apes.

1473. PORTRAIT OF DOÑA ISABEL CORBO DE PORCEL.

"The lady was evidently a plump and rosy voluptuous woman, having large and liquid eyes with much dilated pupils, as well[Pg 662] as coarse and full lips, and wearing her loose brown tresses about her eyes and ears, while a black mantilla fell from a lofty comb upon her shoulders. It is obvious—and this accounts for the lady's flushed carnations and glittering pupils, not frequent elements in Goya's work—that she prepared herself for sitting, not only by blacking her eyelids with kohl, but using belladonna to dilate her eyes, and rouge for her cheeks" (Athenæum, July 4, 1896). This portrait, says Sir Edward Poynter, "is perhaps as good an example as could be found of the brilliancy of execution and vivid portrayal of character which characterise Goya at his best."

1476. JUPITER AND SEMELE.

The picture illustrates the myth which told how Jupiter came to Semele, whom he loved, attended by clouds, lightning, and thunderbolts. This panel was doubtless painted, as described above, for some piece of furniture.

1478. THE CRUCIFIXION.

This picture—which is not a very ambitious or characteristic illustration of the painter—gives a symbolic representation of the Crucifixion. "In front of an architectural screen—on the right and left of which is an open tabernacle in sculptured stone, enclosing, instead of the usual statue of the Virgin or a saint, an angel singing, and holding an instrument of the Passion of our Saviour—lie the spear, and the sponge upon the reed. Between these is a Majesty of the usual type, the flesh of the Redeemer being, doubtless owing to the partial fading of the carnations or the fact of the under-paint coming through, more greenish and opaque than the Venetian artists, especially the school of Bellini, affected. At the foot of the group the Magdalen kneels in the act of kissing the Saviour's feet. On her left stands the Virgin, and on the same side are two men, representing, of course, the Magi and the shepherds who attended the nativity of our Lord. On our right stand SS. John the Baptist and Peter, in front of whom kneels a man who holds the pincers as an implement of the Passion. The picture, as becomes its origin, is bright in colour as well as in its effect and local tints, very carefully and almost laboriously as well as timidly drawn; the architecture would not discredit Peter Neeffs" (Athenæum, 24th October 1896). The picture is signed, and dated 1492.

1479. A WINTER SCENE ON THE ICE.

A winter scene such as Mr. Pater describes in his Imaginary Portraits (p. 91), with "all the delicate poetry together with all the delicate comfort of the frosty season," in "the leafless branches, the furred dresses of the skaters, the warmth of the red-brick house fronts, and the gleam of pale sunlight."

1481. A PHILOSOPHER.

This picture, executed throughout with extreme care and finish, is signed, and dated 1663.

1489, 1490. PORTRAITS OF VENETIAN SENATORS.

Transferred from the South Kensington Museum, where the portraits were attributed to Tintoret.

1493. LANDSCAPE, WITH VIEW OF THE CARRARA MOUNTAINS.

The scenery of the Carrara Mountains is a favourite subject of the painter. In his pictures of these mountains, "seen across a broad expanse of plain through a misty atmosphere, he invests forms undeniably grand in themselves with a more solemn splendour and a deepened poetry."

1495. CHRIST DISPUTING WITH THE DOCTORS.

This brilliant and characteristic little picture, containing twenty-eight delicately and elaborately finished figures, is enriched with one of Mazzolino's usual backgrounds of marble bas-reliefs. The lower of them represents Moses showing the Tables of the Law to the Israelites. The upper, the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines, with David beheading Goliath.

1653. PORTRAIT OF HERSELF.

This portrait was painted by the artist in her 27th year. Its acquisition for the National Gallery is specially interesting, for it was painted in emulation of the celebrated "Chapeau de Paille" of Rubens (No. 852). She had seen and admired that work at Antwerp in 1782, and determined to represent herself in a similar effect of shadow and reflected light. The portrait had so great a success that it gained her admission to the Académie, where she was received in the following year, 1783.

1660. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.

In our picture "the courtly painter of polished, lascivious nudities faces the spectator in a wig of the period of Louis Quatorze, looking as dignified and impersonal as the painters of that particular age did manage to look in their portraits." The statue of Fame, holding a wreath, is characteristic. The portrait is signed, and dated 1685.

1661, 1662. WINGS OF THE ALTAR-PIECE, No. 1093.

The angel in 1661 may, as suggested above, have been designed, or begun, by Leonardo himself; that in 1662 must be entirely the work of Ambrogio. These paintings remained in their place, as we have seen under 1093, up to 1787. They were purchased in 1878 from Duke Jean Melzi d'Erie at Milan for £2160.

1664. "LA FONTAINE."

1665. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.

In his right hand he holds a scroll which bears the painter's signature AM. PR., the date 1494, and the words AN. 20. Formerly in the possession of the Archinti family, and supposed[Pg 669] to represent Francesco di Bartolommeo Archinto (1474-1551), who was Governor of Chiavenna. A very refined portrait; but Morelli points out that the hand is "coarse and wanting in life."

1674. A BURGOMASTER.

"The costume and rapid execution of this magnificent picture point rather," says Sir Edward Poynter, "to its being a study than a portrait painted on commission." Probably also the title by which the picture has long been known is a mistake: a Burgomaster would not be painted in such dingy and fantastic garb. The old man was no doubt a model dressed up by Rembrandt in studio "properties." The knotted stick which he holds in his hands may be recognised in the painter's portrait of himself in Lord Ilchester's possession (No. 61 in the Academy Exhibition of 1899). That portrait is dated 1658, and this picture probably belongs to the same period. The picturesque but nondescript headgear worn by the "burgomaster" may have belonged to the master himself in those latter days when all relics of the former splendours had vanished. Whoever he may have been, the "Burgomaster," as he lives for ever on Rembrandt's canvas, is a striking personage; the refined, intellectual face recalls to some spectators one of the late ornaments of the Episcopal Bench in our own day. The portrait is a masterpiece alike of character-reading and of modelling.

1675. PORTRAIT OF AN OLD LADY.

A noble portrait. Rembrandt was a painter who reverenced old age, and gave its dignity and beauty to faces the least promising. We may notice especially the pathetic eyes,—with an expression at once so living and so sorrowful, and the character in the hands which Rembrandt never failed to give his sitters. The old lady wears a large white ruff, "evidently clinging to the costume of her earlier years, for ruffs had long been out of fashion at the time when the picture was painted." The picture has been known as the Burgomaster's Wife, but this description is without authority or probability. There is[Pg 670] another portrait of the same old lady in Lord Wantage's possession (No. 15 in the Academy Exhibition, 1899). Lord Wantage's picture is dated 1661.

The two magnificent pictures just described, which hold their own triumphantly even on a wall of masterpieces,[251] were formerly in possession of Sir William Middleton, Bart., great-uncle to Lady de Saumarez, and were exhibited at the British Institution in 1858. Since that date they had been lost to sight until they were purchased for the National Gallery in 1899.[252] They are believed to have been in possession of the Lee family, Lady de Saumarez's ancestors, from the time that they were painted, but they may have come into the family with a certain John van Enkoren, a Dutch gentleman, who married a second cousin of Sir William Middleton.

1676. CHRIST DISPUTING WITH THE DOCTORS.

A work in the painter's less impetuous style, but marked by the vigour characteristic of the Spanish and Italian "naturalists."

1680. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.

An admirable portrait of a young man with long golden hair, looking out at the spectator. The picture is signed J. Karel du Jardin. It has sometimes been attributed to the well-known painter of that name (see 826), and been said to be a portrait of the artist by himself. But the initial J. does not confirm this theory.

1682. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

"This quaint little picture represents the Virgin in the attitude of walking, leading the Infant Saviour by the hand. She wears a white dress, shaded blue, with a small gold pattern delicately painted upon it, and a rose-coloured mantle lined with dark green, and holds in her right hand a branch of roses. The drapery falls with much grace, and she looks down with a sweet expression to the Child" (National Gallery Report, 1899).

1683. STUDY OF A HORSE.

1686. STUDY OF FLOWERS.

Late summer flowers, chiefly roses, in a vase on a wooden table. The background, as usual with this painter, is of a flat tone of warm gray.

1689. A MAN AND WIFE.

Portraits, uncompromising in thoroughness, of a severe and uncompromising couple. "This masterpiece," says Sir Edward Poynter, "combines with a high perfection of finish and modelling, every detail being finished with the utmost care, even to the stubble of the man's beard, great breadth of effect and a beautiful quality of light and shade" (National Gallery Report, 1900). The portraits, formerly in the collection of Captain A. F. Dawson, used to be attributed to Quentin Matsys. Some authorities ascribe them to his brother, Jan. Others believe that the work belongs to the German school. The attribution to Mabuse is made in the Director's Report for 1900.

1694. VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. JOHN.

Fra Bartolommeo's pictures "sum up," says Ruskin, "the principles of great Italian religious art in its finest period,—serenely luminous sky,—full light on the faces; local colour the dominant power over a chiaroscuro more perfect because subordinate; absolute serenity of emotion and gesture; and rigid symmetry in composition." And elsewhere he speaks of "the precious and pure passages of intense feeling and heavenly light, holy and undefined, and glorious with the changeless passion of eternity, which sanctify with their shadeless peace the deep and noble conceptions of the early school of Italy—of Fra Bartolommeo, Perugino, and the early mind of Raffaelle" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. ii. ch. i. § 22, and epilogue of 1883 to vol. ii.). Some trace of these characteristics may be found in the present picture. It is bright in colour, balanced in composition, simple in feeling, and shows a charming Tuscan landscape. Thoroughly Tuscan also is the type of peasant Madonna, with her brown hair tied up in a blue handkerchief. The infant Christ is almost grotesque, but the little St. John[Pg 675] may take his place among Fra Bartolommeo's collection of sweet child-faces. Our picture [253] is ascribed to the years 1507-9. In the Corsini Gallery at Rome is a repetition of it done at a later period, with the figures, life-sized, reversed, and with St. Joseph added to complete the pyramidal composition.

1695. LANDSCAPE WITH NYMPHS.

From the South Kensington Museum: very characteristic of the Venetian school is the beautiful blue distance.

1696. MADONNA AND CHILD.

A fragment of a fresco, painted in 1481 and originally brought from the church of Magre, near Schio, in the neighbourhood of Vicenza. The work, if by Bellini, is somewhat earlier than the "Madonna and Child" (280) of our Gallery.[254] "We have," says Mr. Roger Fry, "no example of Bellini's fresco work by which to judge it. It may therefore be argued that the weak construction of the Virgin's figure and the poor drawing of the child are the result of Bellini's want of familiarity with the medium, nor can it be denied that the weaknesses are exaggerations of certain peculiarities of Bellini's own design. This is particularly noticeable in the drawing of the child, which approaches very nearly in type and expression the child of the 'Madonna between the Magdalen and St. Catherine' of the Academy at Venice. But in no undoubted work by Bellini is the drawing so clumsy as this. Much, however, may be attributed to restoration, particularly in the Infant Christ, and it is impossible to deny the great beauty of the colour—a peculiar golden glow which is very unusual in fresco, and is indeed a translation into that medium of the golden richness of Bellini's tempera and oil pieces. [Pg 676]The Madonna's expression has a certain tenderness and charm which is characteristic of Bellini, but it lacks the definite realisation of a mood which he almost invariably compassed" (The Pilot, Jan. 5, 1901). On the other hand, according to a well-known critic, writing in the Daily Telegraph, "the wistfulness of the Virgin is not the wistfulness of Giambellino, but rather that of Bartolommeo Montagna or some kindred painter of the school of Vicenza. Again, the type of the Virgin and the adjustment of her headgear recall the severe yet passionate master of Vicenza just named, under the influence, not so much of Giovanni Bellini as of the elder school of Venice—that of the Vivarini."

1699. THE LESSON.

A "symphony in black and white"; cool in effect, almost to the point of austerity and chilliness. The faces are full of expression. The master turns in expectation to the pupil, as much as to say "Come, don't you know?" The pupil is ready with his answer, and seems to appeal for encouragement: "That is right, is it not?" There is a severe absence of details; everything in the picture is made to contribute to the colour scheme. "The play of cool light on the faces and hands, on the man's black dress, and the gray tablecloth with its patches of blue shadow; the design of the man's large hat against the dark background, the almost pathetic charm of the fair-haired boy's expression, the regular black and white of the tiled floor,—all seem chosen for their pictorial value alone and skilfully composed into this grave, almost austere harmony. The largeness of design and rejection of all superfluous detail in this picture connect it with Vermeer's more daring compositions" (M. H. Witt, in the Nineteenth Century, October 1900). Only one life-size group by the master is certainly authenticated—the signed "Courtesans" at Dresden. The attribution of our picture to the master is uncertain.

1700. PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN.

A strong face, finely painted. The iron-gray of the man's hair combines harmoniously with the lawn collar and cuffs; a harmony in black and gray.

1701. LANDSCAPE WITH WATERMILL.

1776. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.

A predella picture; characteristic of the master, and in good preservation. Formerly in the possession of Count Colonna Ferretti (a nephew of Pius IX.) at Cortona.

1786. THE LAKE OF THUN.

1810. PORTRAIT OF A BOY.

1812. THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN.

"The figure of the Saviour and the angel are identical with those in the picture by Lo Spagna in the National Gallery[Pg 679] numbered 1032, but the execution of the work points to possibly a different hand. It was ascribed by Passavant to Raphael. On the back of the panel are incised the initials G. D. H. in a monogram surmounted by a crown, and an inscription on paper of probably the 18th century; 'All' Ill^mo et Ecc^mo Giovanni Hiccolini (sic) Imbascatore (sic) di Toscana in Roma.' It was exhibited in the Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester in 1857 (No. 146) under the name of Raphael, when it belonged to Mr. Henry Farrer, who had it from Russia" (National Gallery Report, 1900).

1842. HEADS OF ANGELS.

1843. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

There is much naïvete in the surprised expression of the seated Sir Joseph, and much dainty charm in the youths with their vessels of gold.

1845. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

The Saviour holds in his hand a scroll inscribed "Ecce sum lux mundi," but the expression is vapid.

1847. THE VIRGIN CROWNED BY ANGELS.

This important picture, in a splendid frame of the period, is of special interest from the record of authenticity which it[Pg 680] bears. On the cartellino at the foot, is an inscription informing us that "the noble picture before us was an offering of devotion by Master Aloiusius, a French physician, and Thomasina his wife," that "Luca Signorelli, the illustrious painter of Cortona" was the artist, and that the date was 1515. In the archives of the little town of Montone, near Umbertide, a deed, dated September 10, 1515, has been discovered, which informs us further that the picture was painted for Master Aloiusius, living at Montone, for the chapel of St. Christina at that place, by Luca Signorelli "on account of their mutual and cordial friendship, and in consideration of the free services which he had received, and in future hopes to receive, from the said Aloiusius." The physician on his part undertakes in the same deed to give free medical attendance henceforth to the said Luca, and to any member of his household. The place for which the picture was painted accounts for the figure of St. Christina, on the right of the Virgin. Among her adventures was being tied to a millstone and cast into the Lake of Bolsena, but angels upheld the millstone, and she floated back to land. The legend explains also the charming view of a lake seen beneath the feet of the Virgin. The altar-piece was discovered by Signor Mancini in a cellar at Montone, much obscured by neglect, and was for some time in his collection at Città di Castello. It has now been cleaned, and is apparently in fine condition.

The date of the picture shows that it was painted towards the end of the artist's life, when he was 74 years of age, and some critics have found in the work signs that the master's hand was losing its cunning. Certainly the composition of the principal lines—with the upper figure at each side in line with the lower—is somewhat awkward, and the St. Christina is a heavy figure with a meaningless expression. That of St. Sebastian, however, is vigorous; the central group of the Madonna and Child borne by cherubims is impressive; the angels above are very fine, and St. Jerome and St. Nicholas of Bari are good. The details of St. Nicholas's robe and mitre deserve study. It is amusing to note that two of the critics who scarify the picture single out the landscape—the one, as the worst part of it, the other, as its redeeming feature.

1848. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.

The picture is signed, and dated (1657), at the top of the oval on the left, and is the only known signed work of the painter in existence. It shows us a pleasant-looking, if somewhat characterless youth, aged 18 (as the description states), whose coat, shirt, and collar make a delicate study in cool grey tones.

1849. THE NATIVITY.

"He appears to have studied Raphael," says Lanzi, "with the greatest care; and there are heads and whole figures so lively, and with such grace in the features, that to some connoisseurs they seem to possess the ideal." Certainly there is a liveliness and an appropriateness of expression about the figures in this picture which distinguish it from the stiff mannerism of earlier Sienese pictures. Kneeling in adoration are St. John the Baptist and St. Jerome (with the stone, in his character as penitent). St. Stephen, behind St. John, carries on his head the stone, as symbol of his martyrdom. Behind St. Jerome is St. Nicholas of Bari, a finely rendered portrait of venerable age. Of the figures in the niche-shaped panels in the frame, that, at the top on the left, of the Angel of the Annunciation is particularly graceful. The panels of the predella show the Agony in the Garden, the Betrayal, the Crucifixion, the Deposition, and the Resurrection.

1850. A SCENE ON THE ICE.

1851. THE INTERIOR OF A STABLE.

1860. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

1872. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

This picture (which is signed on a cartellino on the parapet) is, says Mr. Berenson, "delightful as a composition. The Madonna is seen down to the waist, holding the Child on a parapet, while behind her, to the left, a window opens out on a charming landscape. The Madonna's face has a tinge of almost Botticellian melancholy, as in Lotto's Recanati altarpiece. The Child is almost the putto on the right in the Redentore picture, but somewhat more bony. The draperies already have the freedom of Alvise's latest works." The picture, formerly in the Manfrini Gallery, was presented by Mr. Charles Loeser in 1898.

1895. BARON WAHA DE LINTER OF NAMUR.

The name of the sitter is on the frame; his coat of arms and crest, with the inscription "Aetatis suae 63, 1626," are on the upper corner of the picture. It is a fine portrait, characteristic of the exuberance and vigour which mark the work of Jordaens.

1896. INTERIOR OF A CHURCH.

The church is the Domkerk at Utrecht. Notice the boy making a caricature on the wall; underneath this is the artist's signature.

1897. THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN.

Something of these qualities may be seen in the long and slender figures of our picture. The decorativeness of its patterns, and the architectural details, should also be noticed.[Pg 684] The picture, formerly in a church at Certaldo, is in its original Gothic frame. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (vol. i. p. 554) suppose the picture to have formed part of a larger altar-piece of which the two wings are in our gallery, ascribed to the school of Taddeo Gaddi (Nos. 215, 216). But the different scale of the figures in them negatives this supposition.

1903. LANDSCAPE, WITH DOGS AND GAME.

1909. THE EXECUTION OF LADY JANE GREY.

The scene is in the Tower, February 12, 1554. Lady Jane Grey, condemned for treason, has been blindfolded, and is being led to the block by the Lieutenant of the Tower.

1914. A ROYAL CHÂTEAU IN HOLLAND.

1915. A DUTCH CHURCH AND MARKET PLACE.

The château in the former picture is "The House in the Wood" (Huis ten Bosch), built in 1647, in which the first Peace Conference was held at The Hague.

1917. AN ITALIAN LANDSCAPE.

A fine example of the "soft golden tones" noted in our account of Both as characteristic of his best works.

1918. MARKET PLACE AT THE HAGUE.

1925. PORTRAIT OF A MAN.

Upon the shield to the left is the painter's crest, as in No. 291; with the date 1524. The head is fine and full of character; the hands are less successful.

1930. PORTRAIT OF A LADY AS ST. MARGARET.

Zurbaran, it has been said, was "a great though not a professed, portrait painter." The lady is St. Margaret only in virtue of the dragon, the emblem of the saint; otherwise this is a portrait of a young lady in a fanciful country costume.

1937. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

This picture, said to be a portrait of a lady of the house of Braganza, was formerly in the collection of Mr. Beckford[Pg 686] at Fonthill. It is signed, and dated 1645. The "careful finish," which Sir Joshua Reynolds commended in the work of Van der Helst, may be well studied here in the rich and beautiful costume and jewellery.

1938. PORTRAIT OF HIS FATHER.

The best commentary on this picture is the description of his father which Dürer wrote in a history of his family:—

It is just such a man that the painter here sets before us. "The face is pathetic with the deep furrows ploughed in by seventy years of labour and sorrow. Yet as he stands there, so quietly, for his son to paint him, there is just a trace of pleasure and pride lurking in the kind old face" (Conway's Literary Remains of Dürer, p. 35). An inscription on the top of the panel records that it was painted in 1497, when the father was seventy and the son twenty-six. There are three other versions of the picture—at Munich, Frankfort, and Syon House respectively, and the question which is the original has been much disputed. The present picture (exhibited at the Old Masters, 1903) was bought, with No. 1937, for £10,000 from the Marquis of Northampton.

1939. VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH SAINTS.

A little picture almost as delicately wrought as an illuminated page in a missal. The donor is kneeling in the door of the Gothic chapel. The Virgin and Child are in "a garden enclosed," where columbines spring up at her feet; at the top of the picture are two small figures of St Michael driving out Satan.

1944. "PORTRAIT OF ARIOSTO."

This superb portrait, though traditionally called "Ariosto," bears no resemblance to the poet. It is the picture of an Italian aristocrat of the Renaissance that the painter sets before us; of a man refined and luxurious, unimpassioned, and somewhat cynical. Immortalised by art, he looks out upon us with a somewhat scornful glance; the handsome head is one of those thoroughly individualised representations which, once studied, fix themselves indelibly in the memory. Sober and yet sumptuous in colour, the picture is enveloped in a luminous haze; and the costume, with the quilted sleeve of steely grey, is a masterpiece of technique.

The picture, which is signed on the parapet Titianus V. (with another V. at the further end of the parapet), belongs to Titian's earlier period, when he was under the influence of Giorgione, to which master indeed it is sometimes attributed.[256] There are several versions of the picture, including one in Lord Rosebery's collection at Mentmore.[257] The present picture (Old Masters, 1895) was bought by Sir George Donaldson from Cobham Hall (Lord Darnley) for £30,000, and sold by him for the same price to the nation; a portion of the sum (£9000) being contributed by Mr. W. W. Astor, Mr. Alfred Beit, Lord Burton, Lord Iveagh, Mr. Pierpont Morgan, and Lady Wantage.

1951. PORTRAIT OF DR. PERAL.

"Perhaps as good an example as could be found of the brilliancy and execution and vivid portrayal of character which characterise this artist at his best" (Official Catalogue).

1952. MR. AND MRS. EDWIN EDWARDS.

A fine example of this artist's portraiture, representing old friends of the French painter, with whom he stayed when in this country. Mr. Edwards, landscape painter in water-colours and etcher (1823-1879), is examining a print with an expert's eye. His wife, perhaps less happily posed (because seemingly disconnected with the other figure), looks out at the spectator with her arms folded. Mrs. Edwards who presented this picture to the nation in 1904 died in 1907. "Nearly every one of Fantin-Latour's pictures in this country passed through her hands, and have her private marks, by which she was able to identify them after a lapse of many years."

1953. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.

In the background is the festoon of fruit, familiar to us in Crivelli's pictures.

1969. A GREEK CAPTIVE.

2057. VENUS WITH THE MIRROR.

This celebrated picture—commonly called "Venus and Cupid," but known in Spain as the "Venus del Espejo"—is one of the master's rare studies of the nude, and it is characteristic of his genius. The subject is professedly mythological, but Velazquez seeks no adventitious interest from legendary association or idealistic grace. Here, as everywhere, his standpoint is frankly realistic, whilst the work is saved from commonness by purity of colour and sincerity of artistic purpose. It has been truly said that the flesh-painting here makes many another picture in the Gallery look lifeless and unreal. The face of "Venus" in the mirror—with broad features enframed in plainly dressed hair—does not realise the promise of the pretty outline of the head with the brown hair tied in a knot; and it has been suggested (by Dr. Justi) that[Pg 690] "perhaps the damsel did not wish to be recognised." However this may be, the very plainness of the face emphasises the artist's intention. The picturesqueness of the outline and modulations of the back in a youthful female figure was the artistic effect which he set himself to render.

The history of the picture is well authenticated.[258] It was painted about 1650, and passed into the possession of the Duke of Alba on his marriage in 1688 with Doña Catalina de Haro of Guzmom, Condessa-Duquesa de Olivares, the picture forming part of her dowry. It is mentioned in an inventory of the paintings belonging to her family as "a Venus of life size reclining nude with a child who holds up for her a mirror into which she gazes. This picture is an original work by Don Diego Velazquez." In an account of the Duke of Alba's palace in 1776 it is described as "the very celebrated Venus depicted from the back, in the reclining posture, with her face reflected in a mirror towards which she directs her gaze." Subsequently the picture became the property of the Spanish statesmen, Godoy. In 1808 it was sold and brought to this country; and purchased through Mr. Buchanan for the sum of £500, by Mr. Morritt, the friend of Sir Walter Scott. It became an heirloom in Mr. Morritt's family at Rokeby Hall, Teesdale. "Twice," says Dr. Justi in his life of Velazquez, "in 1879 and 1885 I had the privilege of seeing it there and convincing myself of its faultless preservation and the original brilliancy and freshness of its colour." It was exhibited in 1857 among the "Art Treasures" at Manchester and in 1890 at the "Old Masters." It was ultimately sold under an order of the Court of Chancery, the price obtained being £30,500. It passed into the hands of Messrs. Agnew, and its sale out of this country was believed to be imminent when the National Art Collections Fund came to the rescue and raised by subscription the amount now necessary for its purchase.

The sum paid was £45,000,[259] and the picture was presented by the Fund to the nation.

2058. SUNNY DAYS IN THE FOREST.

The acquisition of this sparkling little picture of a glade in the forest of Fontainebleau, lit by the afternoon sun, marked [Pg 692]somewhat of an era in the history of the National Gallery. It was the first illustration on its walls of the modern French school of landscape.

2062. CHRIST TEACHING FROM ST. PETER'S SHIP.

The scene is the Lake of Gennesaret; the people are assembled on the shore to hear the words of Christ who is seated in St. Peter's ship (Luke v. 1-3).

2069. THE "MADONNA OF THE TOWER."

This picture is attributed to the earlier portion of Raphael's "Roman period" (see p. 569); to about the same time, that is, as that of the "Garvagh Madonna" (No. 744). It takes its commonly accepted name from the small tower which may be seen in the distance of the landscape background; it is sometimes referred to as "The Madonna with the Standing Child," or "The Virgin with the Downcast Eyes," or "The Rogers Madonna." It is painted on canvas, and has suffered much from accident and repainting; but the feeling of the picture is thoroughly Raphaelesque in purity of colour and charm of expression. The mother's face is full of affection, sweet and yet serious; while the Child looks out of the canvas, "as if unconscious of all but the joy of the moment."

The picture was formerly in the Orleans collection, whence it was purchased by Mr. Willett in 1792 for £150. It next passed into the collection of Mr. Henry Hope, at whose sale in 1816 it was bought for 59 guineas by Samuel Rogers, the poet. "In the atmosphere of St. James's Place," says a chronicler of the works from the Orleans Collection which passed into the possession of Rogers, "they may safely be said to have been worshipped with a purer incense than they ever received before. We may be pardoned for recalling a few of them. Foremost was a Raphael, one of the master's sweetest[Pg 693] compositions, the Child standing with one foot on his mother's hand. It had been reduced by ruthless rubbings to a mere shadow, but the beauty was ineffaceable: hanging—how well remembered!—in the best light on the left-hand wall in the drawing-room. Then two glorious Titians—one of them, Christ appearing to the Magdalene" (Quarterly Review, Oct. 1888). The picture last mentioned is also now in the National Gallery (No. 270) which possesses further from his collection, Nos. 269, 271, 276, 279. At his sale in 1856 the Raphael was bought for 480 guineas by Mr. R. J. Mackintosh, son of the historian, who exhibited it at Manchester in the Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857; it was also shown at the Old Masters in 1902. From him it passed to Miss Eva Mackintosh who has now (1906) presented it to the nation. In the British Museum there is a cartoon of the picture.

2078. THE HARBOUR OF TROUVILLE.

A view from within the harbour looking out to the open sea "between the piers." Signed and dated "E. Boudin, '88," with the title on the back in the artist's handwriting, "Entre les jetées, Trouville." This picture by a fine sea-painter was presented by the National Art Collections Fund.

2081. LULLI AND HIS FELLOW MUSICIANS AT THE FRENCH COURT.

Jean Baptiste de Lulli (or Lully) was the celebrated composer (1633-1687) for whose music Louis XIV. had a great predilection. For him the King created a new company of musicians called Les Petits Violons or La Bande des Seize. Lulli composed also the incidental music for Molière's plays. The portraits of Lulli, says a contemporary, are fairly like him, but he was smaller and stouter than they show.

2082. A FLORENTINE LADY; on the reverse, A SYMBOLIC ANGEL.

The portrait is supposed to represent the unknown artist's wife; the angel holds an armillary sphere.

2083. PORTRAIT OF DR. BATTISTA FIERA.

The portrait, "warts and all," of a theologian, physician, and poet of Mantua. So he is described under the engraving of this picture, which is the frontispiece to a book published at Padua in 1649 and entitled Baptistae Fierae Mantuani Medici sua aetate clarissimi Coena notis illustrata a Carolo Avantio Rhodigino. The portrait, a chef d'œuvre of a painter whose portraits are rare, was shown at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1894.

2084. A YOUNG MAN IN BLACK.

"This picture has been attributed to Piero Pollajuolo and to the painter known as 'Amico di Sandro'" (National Gallery Report, 1906).

2085. BIANCA CAPELLO.

2086. THE GATE WITH A ROUND TOWER.

2087. A PASTORAL LANDSCAPE.

2088. CHRIST TEACHING.

The face, attitude, and design are the same as in the Christ of No. 18; but the beautiful expression is absent.

2089. MADONNA AND CHILD.

2090, 2091. ANGELS.

Companion figures, with wreaths of roses, inscribed (on the first) Ave Regina, (on the second) Coelorum.

2092, 2093. ST. JOSEPH AND ST. JEROME.

2094. IL CAVALIERE.

2095. A MAN IN BLACK.

A fine portrait, hitherto attributed to Antonello da Messina, but now assigned to Vivarini, on the analogy of similar busts attributed by Mr. Berenson to that painter.

2096. THE MAN WITH A BEARD.

2097. THE LADY WITH THE CARNATIONS.

2098. S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE, VENICE.

2099. THE DUCAL PALACE, VENICE

2100. THE MARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK I.

It is mentioned in the account of Tiepolo (under Nos. 1192, 1193) that he executed wall-decorations in the Royal[Pg 696] Palace, formerly the episcopal residence, at Wurzburg. The present picture is almost the same in composition as one of those. The subject—the marriage of Frederick Barbarossa in 1156, to Beatrix, daughter of the Count of Burgundy—lends itself well to Tiepolo's "feeling for splendour," and swift mastery of decorative effect. The Imperial banner, emblazoned with the black eagle, is borne by a warrior. The bishops of Wurzburg were princes of the Empire.

2101. ESTHER AT THE THRONE OF AHASUERUS.

An illustration of the Book of Esther (xv. 7-16); "Then lifting up his countenance that shone with majesty, he looked very fiercely upon her, and the queen fell down and was pale and fainted," etc.

2102, 2103. TOWN AND RIVER SCENES.

2104. A MAN WITH A WIDE COLLAR.

2105. A MAN WITH A POINTED BEARD.

2106. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST.

2107. HAGAR IN THE DESERT.

2118. MADONNA AND CHILD.

2127. PORTRAIT OF THE MARCHESE GIOVANNI BATTISTA CATTANEO.

It has been said in our notice of Van Dyck that many of his best works are to be seen in Genoa. Two of the portraits made during his "Genoese period" are now in our Gallery; having found their way to Paris and thence to England from the palace of the Marchese Cattaneo in Genoa, and having been bought by the Trustees from Messrs. Colnaghi. The price paid for the picture before us was £13,500. The portrait has not the pathetic charm of the "Gevartius" (52), to which it now forms a pendant; but in strength and vitality it is one of the painter's masterpieces. The Marchese lives before us, instinct with nervous energy; seeming, as has been well said, "at once to interrogate the spectator, and haughtily to repel interrogation."

2129. UNE PARADE.

2130. THE WATER LANE.

2133, 2134. "ROSES" AND "APPLES."

2135. THE MARSH OF ARLEUX-DU-NORD.

This little picture is characteristic of one of Corot's tastes. "He loved," we are told, "water in indetermined clearness and in the shining glance of light, leaving it here in shadow and touching it there with brightness. He loved morning before sunrise, when the white mists hover over pools like a light veil of gauze; he had a passion for evening which was almost greater; he loved the softer vapours which gather in the gloom." (Muther.) The picture was painted in 1871, and was purchased by Fantin-Latour at the posthumous sale of Corot's works.

2136. ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF LULLY, THE MUSICIAN. See 2081.

2143. LADY STANDING BY A SPINET.

A beautiful example of a painter, by whom pictures in good condition are rare—a harmony in pink and grey and brown. There is poetical feeling, too, in the lady's attitude and the man who looks up intently at her; as also some humour in the dog turning his attention to an intruder.

2144. LA MARCHESA CATTANEO.

2162. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST.

2163. THE MAGDALEN.

2204. INTERIOR OF A CHURCH.

Dated 1615. The nave of a Gothic church; in the distance a funeral procession is entering the choir; beggars and dogs in the foreground.

2205. INTERIOR OF A CHURCH.

A night scene in a church of Renaissance architecture. On a tomb on the floor is an inscription—"632 Hier legt begraven Henri Steenwick."

2206. VESPERS.

2207. AFTER VESPERS.

2209. ULRICUS SIROSENIUS, DUKE OF EAST FRIESLAND.

The title is written on the back of the oak panel. The Duke's sword is inscribed—"Victor est qui nomen Domini pugnavit." Among other versions of this portrait is one in the Oldenburg Gallery, attributed to Lucas van Leyden. Another (in the Duke of Rutland's collection) has Dürer's monogram.

2211. JACQUELINE DE BOURGOGNE.

The beautiful costume and jewellery should be noticed; the girl holds an orrery. This picture was shown in the Golden Fleece Exhibition at Bruges in 1907.

2216. "LA MAIN CHAUDE."

2217. ELISA BONAPARTE, GRAND DUCHESS OF TUSCANY.

A vigorous portrait-sketch of Elisa, sister of Napoleon, whom he made Duchess of Tuscany, with the titles of Duchess of Lucca and Princess of Piombino. She was born in 1777 and died in 1820. We see her here in white empire costume.

2218. MADAME MALIBRAN.

A study of the famous singer; attributed to Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, a pupil of David, who imparted a grace of his own to the Classical School.

2251. PORTRAIT OF BONA OF SAVOY.

This striking full-length figure of a lady, richly attired and wearing jewels, was No. 7 in the exhibition of pictures by Milanese masters at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1894. It was then described as a portrait of Beatrice d'Este.

2256. RIVER SCENE.

2257. ILEX TREES, VILLEFRANCHE.

2258. A WOODLAND SCENE.

2281. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.

The Virgin, a pretty woman prettily dressed, is seated between St. Jerome and St. Anthony of Padua, who holds in his hand a "Madonna lily." This bright and dainty picture belongs to the year 1522 (see Berenson's Lorenzo Lotto, 1895, p. 187).

2282. THE BOHEMIANS.

2283. DAWN.

2285. A FAMILY GROUP.

An important accession to the Gallery, as an example of the large portrait-groups in which Hals excelled. The composition whereby the ten figures are all brought into a group is ingenious—the part played by the direction of the elder boy's attention to the other being in this respect important—though in colour the harmony is somewhat disturbed by the emphatic lights of the lace and linen worn by each member of the group. There is individual character in all the portraits; among the figures which most compel admiration are those of the mother, full of quiet dignity, of the eldest daughter, standing on the right with a work-basket in her hand (both beautifully painted), and of the little girl seated in front. The picture unknown to the connoisseurs before its acquisition for the National Gallery—was purchased in 1908 from Lord Talbot de Malahide for £25,000.

2288. PORTRAIT OF DR. FORLENZE.

Dr. J. N. B. Forlenze (1769-1833) was a physician and man of fashion in Naples. He had visited England and[Pg 704] studied under John Hunter; and practised as an oculist in Paris. This portrait was exhibited at the Salon in 1808.

2289. ATTILA: AN ALLEGORY.

In this characteristic design the spirit of Ruthless Conquest is personified in the figure of Attila, the leader of the Huns, called "The Scourge of God." He drives before him, beneath a blood-red sky and amid the ghosts of the slain, figures emblematic of Beauty, Art, and Pleasure.

2290. PARC DE SANSAC, INDRE-ET-LOIRE.

This picture of autumn in the walks of a French château was presented by the artist.

2291. PORTRAIT OF CARDINAL DE RETZ.

A portrait, in Cardinal's cape and skull-cap, of Jean François Paul de Gondi (1614-1679), Archbishop of Paris, and afterwards Cardinal de Retz. As Archbishop, he aided the rising of the Fronde against Mazarin. In 1652 he was arrested and imprisoned; he escaped, and for some years wandered abroad. In 1662 he was received into favour by Louis XIV., and in his later years was often employed as an envoy to Rome. He is described as having been in his youth short, near-sighted, ugly, and exceedingly awkward.

2292. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

This lady's stomacher embroidered with rows of pearls and pleated lace ruff are finely painted.

2293. HOLY FAMILY.

2294. PORTRAIT OF GALILEO.

The great astronomer (1564-1642) is represented with astrolabe, books, diagram, and compasses.

2295. PORTRAIT OF A MILITARY COMMANDER.

2423. LITHOGRAPHS OF HORSES.

2439. A RIVER SCENE.

Rousseau was the most various of the landscape painters of his time. In the present picture we see him in a peaceful mood; another picture (2635) is of a stormy sky.

2475. CHRISTINA, DUCHESS OF MILAN.

Amongst Holbein's duties as painter to Henry VIII. was that of taking portraits of the ladies whom he proposed in turn to wed. After the death of Jane Seymour, the first favourite was the lady before us, "the demure half-smile not[Pg 708] yet faded from her eyes"—Christina, daughter of Christian II. of Denmark, niece of the Emperor Charles V., and widow of the Duke of Milan. Reasons of state suggested her marriage to Henry VIII., and Holbein was sent to Brussels, where the Duchess was residing. Our portrait was painted a few years later than "The Ambassadors," from a sketch made at Brussels on March 12, 1538. The circumstances are entertainingly told in the letters of the English envoy, John Hutton, to Thomas Cromwell. On the 10th August Hutton had sent off a portrait by another artist to Henry VIII., that he might judge of the appearance of the young Duchess before making her a proposal of marriage. The next evening "Mr. Haunce" (i.e. Hans Holbein) arrived in company of a servant of the king, whereupon Hutton sent off an express-courier to fetch back the picture he had already despatched, "for that in my opinion," he said, "it was not so perfect as the case required, neither as the said Mr. Haunce could make it." "The next day following at one of the clock in the afternoon, the said Lord Benedick came for Mr. Haunce, who, having but three hours' space, both showed himself to be master of that science, for it is very perfect; the other is but slobbered in comparison to it, as, by the sight of both, your Lordships shall well perceive."

The original—the study, sketch, or miniature, the result of three hours' hard work—has disappeared; but the picture which the master made from it after he came home is now before us. The portrait, it would seem, did not make the king less anxious for the match—which, however, was broken off, it will be remembered, after long negotiations, by the hostility of the emperor. The duchess, in spite of her tender years, seems—and the picture does not belie the supposition—to have had a character of her own. The story of her reply, "that she had but one head, but that if she had two, one should be at the service of his majesty," is, indeed, now discredited; but her actual answer, "You know I am the Emperor's poor servant and must follow his pleasure," was, in the light of subsequent events, equally to the point. The English envoy specially reported "her honest countenance and the few words she wisely spoke."

The beautiful portrait before us was retained by Henry VIII., and through the Lumley, Pembroke, and Arundel Collections it passed into that of the Dukes of Norfolk. "Whether as a pictorial record of an interesting chapter of our history, or as[Pg 709] an example of the presentment of a fresh and winning young personality by the most masterful and at the same time most reserved and refined methods of the painter's craft, the picture counts among the very noblest of the art treasures still left in England. That it is so left is mainly due to the splendid generosity of a small group of private donors, the chief of whom elude our public thanks by choosing firmly to remain anonymous. At the eleventh hour, when the picture was on the very point of leaving our shores to enrich a private gallery in America, these benefactors came forward and enabled the Committee of the National Art-Collections' Fund to present the masterpiece to the nation." The price paid was £72,000. (Report of the National Art-Collections' Fund, 1909; Froude's History of England, ch. xv.) The picture had for many years been lent to the National Gallery by the Duke of Norfolk.[261]

2480. THE FISH MARKET.

2482. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

2483. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

2484. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

The donor and his wife kneel in adoration before the Virgin and Child enthroned between St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena. The picture was formerly in Lord Dudley's collection.

2485. SALOME.

The daughter of Herodias, with a face of haunting beauty, points to a vase, over which the executioner holds the head of John the Baptist. The table on which it rests has sphinxes for supports. This picture is a replica with variations of the one by Cesare in the Vienna Gallery, and is said to have come from the Barberini Palace in 1799.

2486. A CONCERT.

This picture was No. 14 at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1894, where it was ascribed to Lorenzo Costa. "In type, the woman resembles one of the daughters of Bentivoglio II., and it may be that this group of musicians contains family portraits of the reigning house of the Bentivogli at Bologna."

2487. BARTOLOMMEO BIANCHINI.

This picture, an early work by Francia, is an admirable example of the artist as a portrait-painter. It is "a marvel of fine condition, and betrays the technique of the goldsmith seeking for the quality of enamel. Bianchini was a Bolognese[Pg 711] senator, collector, poet, and friend of Francia." Upon a "Holy Family" in the Berlin Museum is inscribed—

Bartholomei sumptu Bianchini maxima matrum
Hic vivit manibus, Francia, picta tuis.

Our portrait, from the collection of the Princesse de Sagan, was No. 23 at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1894.

2488. THE HOLY FAMILY.

2489. THE YOUNG FLORENTINE.

The portrait of the man in his red-coloured robe and black skull-cap is set against a landscape background. Many other examples of a like treatment will have been noticed by the visitor; as, for instance, in the fine portrait by Ridolfo Ghirlandajo (2491). And it is interesting to observe how long this convention survived, though with variations. The advantage of introducing an object of locally dark colour behind the head was perceived, and a background of curtain or other drapery was used; but a piece of it was drawn back, so as still to display landscape. See, e.g., Basaiti's portrait (2498). Or, again, a window was opened with the same purpose. See, e.g., Piombo's portrait of a Venetian lady as Salome (2493) and Cariani's of a Venetian magnate (2494). A corresponding development may be traced in Madonna pictures. Often the Virgin and Child are placed in an open landscape, as in the beautiful "Madonna of the Meadow" (599). When they are brought indoors a curtain is drawn back (2503), or a window opened—e.g. 2496, 2609, and (Flemish School) 2595.

2490. COSTANZA DE' MEDICI.

The inscription records that the lady was the wife of Francis, Duke of Gaeta. This portrait was formerly ascribed to D. Ghirlandajo.

2491. GIROLAMO BENEVIENI.

This fine portrait is of "a very learned man," and an intimate friend of Lorenzo di Credi, who also, as Vasari relates, painted him. The background is studied from that in Leonardo's "Mona Lisa."

2492. VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ANGELS ADORING.

2493. SALOME.

2494. AN ITALIAN GENTLEMAN.

A vigorously-painted portrait of a personage of some importance or self-importance; perhaps, as the official catalogue suggests, "the principal citizen of some provincial town." His robe is of gold brocade, and he handles his gold chain. It may be a view of his town that is shown through the open window.

2495. "OUR LADY OF THE LAURELS."

This fine picture, known as La Vierge aux Lauriers from its background of a laurel-bush (and roses), was formerly in the Leuchtenberg Collection at St. Petersburg, where it was ascribed to Giorgione.

2496. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

2497. VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. JOHN.

2498. A YOUNG VENETIAN.

Signed on the parapet. The young Venetians, it will be noticed, wore their hair long, and carried great weights of it at the sides of their faces: compare, e.g., No. 1121 (Catena), 2509 (Vivarini).

2499. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

This picture, if No. 599 be indeed by the same hand, must be an early work; the face and figure, both of mother and of child, are ugly and ungainly. The picture is signed in the left corner.

2500. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

2501. SALVATOR MUNDI.

2502. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

The beautiful painting of jewellery, and the fine patterns, should not escape notice.

2503. HOLY FAMILY.

This beautiful picture is signed on a cartellino "Antonius da Solario V"(enetus).

2504. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

2505. DAVID AND JONATHAN.

This little picture, of David (carrying the head of Goliath) walking with Jonathan, was formerly in the Modici collection at Naples.

2506. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

2507. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

2508. VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ANGELS.

Two charming angels, of whom one is garlanded with roses, hold the child before the Virgin. The scene is laid within the walls of the mystical garden ("a garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse"), behind which rise "Noah's ark" trees.

2509. PORTRAIT OF A YOUTH.

"The portrait of a boy of fifteen or sixteen, a little defiant or shy, yet frank in look, with a blond zazzera (head of hair) cropped short over the eyebrows, wearing a coat of pale turquoise blue. Formerly in the Duchatel collection at Paris, where it was seen by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle." By them ascribed to Andrea da Solario (see 734); formerly, to Antonello (see 673); now, on the authority of Mr. Berenson, to Alvise: see Berenson's Lorenzo Lotto, pp. 110-1.

2510. A PORTRAIT.

2511. A MUSICIAN.

2512. THE MAGDALEN.

"The art of Correggio with its deep sense of beauty and its tender sensibility was peculiarly fitted," says Signor Ricci, "to give life and grace to the figure of the Magdalen. He introduced it in many of his large compositions, and made it the subject of several separate studies, but not one of the latter has survived." If this be an authentic work, the statement requires correction; but the head of the Magdalen is not convincingly Correggiesque.

2513. VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH SAINTS.

2514-2516. VIEWS IN VENICE.

No. 2514 shows the Grand Canal, with the church of the Scalzi; No. 2515, the square of St. Mark's, seen through an archway; No. 2516, the Colonnade of the Procuratie Nuove. The white spots with which the figures are picked out are not a happy instance of Canaletto's workmanship.

2517-2523. VARIOUS VIEWS.

No. 2517, "Buildings and Figures"; 2518, "Gothic Archway and Figures"; 2519, "Venetian Courtyard"; 2520,[Pg 716] "Quay-side with Warehouses"; 2521, "Ruins"; 2522, "Treasure-Seekers"; 2523, "View through an Archway."

2524. THE TOWER OF MESTRE.

It was at Mestre that travellers in old days took gondola for Venice, and the tower was a familiar landmark. Ruskin mentions it in his description of the approach to Venice (Stones, vol. i. last chapter).

2525. VENICE: PIAZZA DI SAN MARCO.

A good example of the deep, rich colour which Guardi gives to his Venetian subjects: see under 210.

2526. PEASANT AND CHILD.

2527. CHARLES MORDAUNT, EARL OF MONMOUTH.

2528. THE MAN WITH THE GLOVE.

An excellent example of the "irresistible verve" which Hals brings to his portraits, especially to those of men: see under 1021. To what is there said, it may be interesting to add[Pg 717] the opinion of Sir Joshua Reynolds. "In the work of Frank Hals, the portrait-painter may observe the composition of a face, the features well put together, as the painters express it; from whence proceeds that strong-marked character of individual nature, which is so remarkable in his portraits, and is not found in an equal degree in any other painter. If he had joined to this most difficult part of the art, a patience in finishing what he had so correctly planned, he might justly have claimed the place which Vandyck, all things considered, so justly holds as the first of portrait-painters" (Sixth Discourse).

2529. THE LADY WITH THE FAN.

2530. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

Sir Joshua Reynolds has some interesting remarks on the technique of Janssens. "There is a kind of finishing," he says, "which may safely be condemned, as it seems to counteract its own purpose; that is, when the artist, to avoid that hardness which proceeds from the outline cutting against the ground, softens and blends the colours to excess: this is what the ignorant call high finishing, but which tends to destroy the brilliancy of colour, and the true effect of representation; which consists very much in preserving the same proportion of sharpness and bluntness that is found in natural objects. This extreme softening, instead of producing the effect of softness, gives the appearance of ivory, or some other hard substance, highly polished. The portraits of Cornelius Janssen appear to have this defect, and consequently want that suppleness which is the characteristic of flesh; whereas, in the works of Vandyck, we find that true mixture of softness and hardness perfectly observed" (Eleventh Discourse).

2531. CHURCH OF ST. BAVON, HAARLEM.

In No. 1451 (by Berck-Heyde) we see the interior of the same church; in the present picture, no public service is going[Pg 718] on. In each case a dog is a church-goer; here in front of the pew on the left, where a man kneels down in prayer, a dog kneels up.

2532. A WOMAN DRIVING SHEEP.

2533. A SANDY LANE.

2534. RIVER SCENE, WITH HORSEMAN.

2535. JUDITH.

2536. MOONLIGHT.

2537. LANDSCAPE: WITH A CART IN THE FOREGROUND.

2538. DIANA BATHING.

A characteristically "Rembrandtesque" effect, the light concentrated on the principal figure.

2539. A MAN WITH A CAP.

This fine portrait-study was formerly in the collection of the Duke of Sutherland.

2540. THE HURDY-GURDY.

Peasants listening to a man playing the hurdy-gurdy. Signed in the left foreground "A. V. Ostade, 1653." Formerly in the collection of Lord Dudley (at whose sale in 1892 it fetched £1470).

2541. THE COBBLER.

2542. COURTSHIP.

2543. A MAN WITH A JUG.

2544. THE CART.

2545. RIVER SCENE.

2546. LADY AND CHILD IN A LANDSCAPE.

2547. CATTLE WITH HERDSMEN.

2548. BOY HOLDING A GREY HORSE.

2549. THE TAILOR'S SHOP.

2550. THE AFTERNOON NAP.

2551. A WOMAN SCOURING PANS.

2552. REFUSING THE GLASS.

Formerly in the collections of Pierre de Grand Pré (Paris) and the Earl of Shaftesbury.

2553. A LADY AT HER TOILET.

2554. SADDLING A HORSE.

2555. WOMAN ASLEEP.

2556. THE PEDLAR.

2557. MERRY MAKERS.

2558. GRACE BEFORE MEAT.

Steen, though he loved scenes of rollicking conviviality and was fond of sly humour, by no means confined himself to such moods. His brush traced every episode of family life, and this little piece is as pretty as one of the "Graces for Children" in Herrick's Noble Numbers:—

2559. THE OYSTER FEAST.

2560. THE SKITTLE PLAYERS.

2561. VIEW NEAR HAARLEM.

A beautiful example of the master, who has signed it in full in the centre of the foreground. It will be noticed that the point of view is much the same, and that the effect of sunlight in the middle distance is the same, as in the large picture, No. 990. One may ask the question which Fromentin puts of a like instance: "The two landscapes are, the one on a large scale, the other on a small, a repetition of the same subject. Is the little canvas the study which served as text for the large? Did Ruysdael design, or did he paint from nature? Was he inspired, or did he copy directly? That is his secret. In any case the two works are charming."

2562. COUNTRY SCENE, WITH RUINED CASTLE.

This is one of the best known of Ruysdael's small pictures, much prized for its luminous quality: its pedigree has been traced through famous collections for over 100 years. In the Bredel sale (1875) it fetched £2310; in the Dudley sale (1892), £1470. It is No. 786 in vol. iv. (1912) of Smith's Catalogue Raisonné.

2563. THE ENTRANCE TO THE FOREST.

2564. A COTTAGE ON A ROCKY HILL.

2565. COTTAGE AND HAYSTACK.

2566. SKIRTS OF A FOREST.

2567. A STORMY SEA-PIECE.

2568. A LADY AT THE VIRGINALS.

No. 15 at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1900, where it was thus described: "A lady seated on the right facing to left; she wears a yellow skirt with blue overdress, the sleeves trimmed with lace, and turns her face to the spectator as she plays. Her clavichord stands upon a marble table and is open, showing a landscape painted inside the cover; a viol da gamba and bow are in the left-hand bottom corner, and a blue and yellow curtain above; a picture with three figures hangs on the wall behind. Signed to the right of the lady's head, J V Meer."

2569. THREE BOORS DRINKING.

2570, 2571. WOODY LANDSCAPES.

2572. THE LITTLE FARM.

No. 57 in the Exhibition of Dutch Masters at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1900, when it was thus described: "In the centre, among sparse trees in leaf, stands a small farm; to left a man accompanied by a woman on horseback, driving a flock of sheep to pasture; in the left foreground a pool of water, with a cow drinking; in the centre, two herdsmen, with cows, sheep, and goats lying down and feeding. Cool daylight with light clouds spreading over blue sky." Signed in the centre "A. v. Velde 1663."

2573. SEA-SCAPE: WINDY DAY.

2574. CALM: SHIPPING.

2575. A MUSICAL PARTY.

2576. A FAMILY GROUP.

2577. A STIFF BREEZE.

2578. A WINDMILL BY A RIVER.

2579. SCENE ON THE ICE.

2580. RIVER SCENE.

2681. A. VAN LEEUWENHOEK, F.R.S.

A portrait of the eminent Dutch savant (1632-1723) who has been called "the father of scientific microscopy." He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1680.

2582. FRUIT AND FLOWERS.

Except for the snail, this brightly-coloured arrangement of oysters, a lemon, a plum, cherries and nuts, with a glass of wine, is not unlike the kind of arrangement of actual eatables and drinkables which one may see to-day in the shop-windows of Italian restaurants in London. Nor, in all probability, was the motive of the picture different. "The painting of still-life in Holland," says M. Havard, "was originally sign-painting. Inn-keepers and game-dealers had real pictures as signs, painted upon their shop-fronts, and we know of several of these simple masterpieces which have found their way into important collections" (The Dutch School, p. 260).

2583. CATTLE IN A STORMY LANDSCAPE.

2584. A LADY HOLDING A MIRROR.

2585. ST. MARY MAGDALEN.

This picture of the Magdalen, before whom an angel holds a crucifix, was in the Exhibition of the Primitives at Bruges in 1902. The artist's careful execution may be noted in the beautifully illuminated MS.

2586. COAST SCENE.

2587. A CALM.

2588. A DUTCH GALLIOT.

2589. THE YOUNG ASTROLOGER.

2590. A WOMAN AT A WINDOW.

2591. THE FORGE.

2592. FRUIT PIECE.

2593. PORTRAIT OF A MAN.

Acquired by Mr. Salting from the Earl of Northbrook's collection; No. 10 at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1892—remarkable for the preciseness and microscopic minuteness of hand displayed in it. The portrait of a devout and studious young man. He holds an open book; and on the wall of his chamber there is hung a board on which an illuminated sheet[Pg 727] of vellum, edged with a narrow red riband, has been nailed. The miniature at the top of it represents the Vernacle (our Lord's head with cruciform nimbus and rays); and below is a rhymed prayer, headed Incipit oratio ad sanctam Veronicam, and continuing "Salve sancta facies Nostri redemptoris," etc.

2594. THE DUKE OF CLEVES.

2595. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

2596. ST. JEROME.

2597. THREE VENETIAN GENTLEMEN AND A CHILD.

2598. DIANA AND ENDYMION.

2599. A VISIT TO THE DOCTOR.

2600. CARD PLAYERS.

2601. AN OLD WOMAN READING.

2602. A MAN WITH A RING.

2603. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

By the master of the "Death of the Virgin" (a picture in the Munich Gallery), a painter of Cologne, the teacher, it is said, of Bruyn. The donor of the picture, with spectacles and a large straw hat, stands at a desk, reading. (The curious in such matters may consult Notes and Queries, 1890, for other early instances of spectacles in art.) The picture was No. 48 (Plate 23) in the Burlington Fine Art Club's Exhibition of Early Netherlandish Pictures, 1892.

2604. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.

2605. DR. FUCHSIUS.

A portrait of the celebrated German physician, Leonhard Fuchs (1501-1566), one of the fathers of scientific botany. He has obtained, says Hallam, a verdant immortality in the familiar flower which bears his name, the fuchsia. He espoused the doctrines of the Reformation; in our portrait he holds a paper inscribed (in German) "The word of the Lord endureth for ever."

2606. THE MADONNA ENTHRONED.

In the centre of the triptych, the Virgin sits on a throne of Flemish renaissance design. On the right, St. Ambrose; on the left, St. Louis of Toulouse. The royal rank of the latter Saint (nephew of St. Louis, King of France, and son of Charles of Anjou, King of Naples), who renounced his succession and became Bishop of Toulouse, is commonly indicated as here, by fleur-de-lys upon a blue ground.

2607. A MAN WITH A MEDALLION.

2608. VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ANGELS.

2609. VIRGIN AND CHILD IN AN APARTMENT.

The Virgin is of the same unlovely type as in the picture ascribed to Bouts, No. 2595. Behind her head is a screen of plaited straw.

2610. ANTOINE DE BOURBON.

2611. A MAN IN BLACK.

2612. LOUIS XI., KING OF FRANCE, 1423-1483.

2613. PHILIP AND MARGARET OF BURGUNDY.

2614. A LADY AS MARY MAGDALEN.

2615. MARY, QUEEN OF FRANCE.

2616. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

2617. THE DUCHESS D'ANGOULÊME.

2618. VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ANGELS.

2619. LANDSCAPE.

2620. THE HAPPY MOTHER.

In 1769 Fragonard had married Marie Anne Gérard, the miniature painter; and to the succeeding years belong, says his biographer (the Baron de Portalis), many pictures of which the theme is the cradle. Our picture is of that kind.

2621. WILLOWS.

Sunset effect on a lake; with brilliant colours piercing through the trees to the water. Signed, and dated 1874.

2622. THE BANKS OF A RIVER.

An earlier picture (signed, and dated 1859). The small house-boat or barge in the foreground may be the painter's floating studio, mentioned above.

2623. ALDERS.

2624. THE GARDEN WALL.

2625. THE BENT TREE.

This beautiful picture was formerly in the collection of the late Mr. Alexander Young, one of the earliest purchasers of Corots in England, and was generally considered the gem of his collection of works by that master. The writer of an account of the Young Collection calls attention, in describing this picture, to "the wonderful gradation of tones in the trees and foreground, the subtle beauty of the distant view, the massing and treatment of the trees against the luminous sky, the dignified restraint of the colour scheme" (Studio, vol. 39).

2626. THE WOOD GATHERER.

2627. EVENING ON THE LAKE.

Formerly in the collection of Lord Leighton. That Corot liked the effect of trees stretching out a graceful arm across the water may be seen by comparing this picture with No. 2625.

2628. NOON.

2629. A FLOOD.

2630. COWS STANDING IN A MARSH.

How simple are the ingredients out of which Corot makes a picture! A marsh, two cows with a herdsman, and four willows; but all are suffused in a beautiful haze, and wrought into an exquisite harmony of tone and colour. Like all Corot's pictures, this should be seen from some little distance; the more it is observed, the more will its charm be felt.

2631. THE FISHERMAN'S HUT.

2632. THE STORM.

2633. COMMON WITH STORMY SUNSET.

2634. RIVER SCENE.

2635. SUNSET AT AUVERGNE.

2636. THE WHISPER.

This little "pastoral," in which a girl reclines on a rock, while a naked child whispers in her ear, belongs to the painter's earlier period.

2669. ST. CLEMENT AND DONOR.

St. Clement, in cope and mitre (as Bishop of Rome), rests his right hand on the shoulder of the Donor; and in his left hand carries an anchor (the emblem referring to the legend of the Saint having been cast into the sea bound to an anchor). Londoners are familiar with the emblem, as it surmounts the steeple of St. Clement Danes in the Strand.

2670. LADY HOLDING A ROSARY.

2671. A PIETÀ.

2672. A VENETIAN GENTLEMAN.

This striking and powerful portrait is signed by the artist on the parapet. It was formerly in the Bonomi-Cereda Collection at Milan (see Berenson's Lorenzo Lotto, p. 107).

2673. NARCISSUS.

This pretty little picture was shown at the Old Masters' Exhibition of 1870, where Ruskin noted it as an example of the phase in Italian art in which "pictorial perfectness and deliciousness" were sought before everything else (Works, xix. 444-5). "The same model reappears in the profile portrait of a youth (also in the character of Narcissus) in the Uffizi Gallery; again in a profile of San Sebastian in the Frizzoni Collection at Bergamo; and again in a profile drawing in the Louvre" (No. 47a at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1898).

2709. MOTHER AND CHILD.

2710. THE DRAWBRIDGE.

2711. WATERING HORSES.

This picture is a good example of the luminous skies in which Mauve excelled. The sky shines, it has been said, even on a dull day (see an appreciation of Mauve by Frank Rutter in the Studio, vol. 42).

2712. THE INTERIOR OF HAARLEM CHURCH.

2713. THE PHILOSOPHER.

There are passages in Browning's Grammarian's Funeral which will suggest themselves to many readers as they study this picture of an old student writing by the light of a single candle. The picture may be compared with an earlier Dutch one of a like subject—"The Philosopher," by Bega (1481).

2714. GRANDFATHER'S BIRTHDAY.

A characteristic example of the elegant facility with which the painter rendered scenes involving gay attire.

2715. FISH MARKET, DIEPPE.

2723, 2724. LANDSCAPES.

These landscapes, only recently included in the official numbering of the collection, were presented by Mr. P. Pusey in 1849.

2725. CHRIST BLESSING.

2727. LE PONT DE LA TOURNELLE, PARIS.

2731. LANDSCAPE.

2732. THE SHIPWRECKED MARINER.

This celebrated picture—one by which the master often said he would like to be judged—created a great sensation at the International Exhibition of 1862. It was, said one critic, the most moving picture in the exhibition; before it, said another, crowds daily linger. The storm has passed, the waves have subsided, the greyish-black thunderclouds have vanished, and greenish, pallid sky smiles upon the earth once more. But upon the waves a shattered boat still rocks, and men and women and children have come down to see what victim may have been cast up by the tide—"For men must work, and women must weep, Though storms be sudden, and waters deep, And the harbour bar be moaning." Two fishermen reverently bear home the body of their dead comrade. His disconsolate wife and two awestruck children walk in front, and his old mother beside him. A man with a boat-hook, a woman pointing to the wreck on the reef, and others follow the procession, in the rear of which is the pathetic figure of a dog.

2757. TARTARUS: A SATIRICAL DESIGN.

2758. A SQUALL FROM THE WEST.

2759. STORMY LANDSCAPE.

2764. A FAMILY GROUP.

This picture once formed part of No. 1699; the right arm of the seated child and the tablecloth here are continued there.

2767. THE SEA.

2790. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

This famous picture was acquired for the National Gallery from Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle, in 1911, for £42,776.[262] The picture was painted in about the year 1500 for the Abbey of Grammont in East Flanders. In 1600 it was bought for 2000 florins by the Archduke Albert to decorate the high altar of the Court Chapel in Brussels. A story which is recorded of it in those days is a tribute to its bright attractiveness. During Lent it used to be concealed by the hanging in front of it of a picture of the Crucifixion as less likely to interfere with the penitential thoughts proper to the season. In the 18th century the picture passed into the collection of Prince Charles of Lorraine, Governor-General of the Netherlands, and thence into that of the fifth Earl of Carlisle. For more than a century it remained at Castle Howard, and many connoisseurs who saw it there wrote of it as one of the chief art-treasures of Great Britain. "I do not think," wrote W. Bürger (Thoré), "that there is anywhere else a picture by Mabuse so brilliant, so well preserved, so capital as the Adoration of the Kings, belonging to the Earl of Carlisle." "For variety of character, glow of colour, and finished execution, quite unsurpassed," said Mrs. Jameson of it.

The pride of the artist himself in his work is shown by the fact that he has signed his name upon it in two places—i.e. on the head-dress of Balthasar, the black king, and on the metal collar of his attendant. The signature Jennin Gossart (diminutive, Little John), was that under which Mabuse was inscribed as a member of the Guild of St. Luke at Antwerp. In the history of Flemish art the picture is of interest as one of the last works painted before the "Italianising" influence became marked. It is one of the finest specimens of Mabuse's first period (see under 656); but it will be noticed that the architecture of the ruin is no longer Gothic, but already shows the influence of the Renaissance. The picture is after 400 years in perfect preservation. It has an artistic unity, for the parts are [Pg 745]subordinated to the whole; but it is full of incident, which adds not a little to its attractiveness and curious interest.

The Adoration of the Magi affords a remarkable instance of the way in which the Bible text, first expounded by Church legends, was then embroidered by the painters; and this example of "evolution in art" may be studied very fully in the National Gallery, which contains pictures of the subject painted in various schools and at various periods. The starting-point of the whole development is the second chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel where it is related that "wise men came from the East to Jerusalem"; that a star guided them to Bethlehem; and that "when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him; and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts—gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." Legend set itself to work on this narrative. The Wise Men, it was decided, were three in number; and the Psalmist's prediction—"the Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents, the Kings of Sheba and Saba shall offer gifts"—showed that the Magi were kings. Later writers identified their realms as Tarsus, Saba, and Nubia; whence one of the kings is commonly represented as a Moor or Nubian. Their names also became known—Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. Further developments of the legend—how their remains were discovered by the Empress Helena at Constantinople, and taken by Milan to Cologne—do not here concern us; it will be seen that by the time art was ready to take up the story, the painters had much material around which to let their fancy play.

The earlier painters in each school treated the story simply. Then as technical resources increased, and artistic effect rather than mere religious instruction became the motive, the theme was ever more and more expanded, until it became the most gorgeously rendered of all the Gospel scenes. Many readers will remember the severe and simple treatment of the subject by Giotto in the Arena Chapel at Padua; with which may be compared in our gallery Orcagna's small picture (574). If the visitor after looking at that will turn to the splendid pageant (1033), with its seventy figures, by Botticelli (or Filippino Lippi), he will see at a glance how the theme became embroidered and enlarged. The picture by Fra Angelico (582) represents an intermediate stage. A similar[Pg 746] contrast may be noted in the Flemish room. The picture attributed to David (1079) is simple, earnest, and homely; far less gorgeous and various than the Mabuse. The fact is that, in the more elaborate pictures of the subject, it was taken as an excuse or occasion for displaying whatever elements of pomp or circumstance appealed to the individual artist. Thus Peruzzi (167 and 218) elaborates the architecture and the horses, and introduces portraits. The Tuscans made out of the subject a Florentine pageant. Mabuse's picture is interesting, amongst other reasons, as a kind of epitome of the arts and crafts of his time. Note, for instance, the cups and chalices in which the kings bring their presents; their jewelled robes and head-dresses; and, for a minor detail, the pretty bag worn by the Black King's page: it might well be copied for a lady's reticule to-day.

No less remarkable than the variety of treatment in pictures of the Magi is the large measure of uniformity of type which may be found in them all. A few remarks on these common elements, which were for the most part symbolic, will serve the double purpose of directing attention to further details in Mabuse's picture and of connecting it with other examples in the Gallery. The scene of the drama is in the earliest pictures a stable or a shed; in the later, it is almost invariably the ruins of a temple or other ancient building—a symbol of the triumph of Christianity over paganism. The ox and the ass will be noticed among the ruins here, and the shepherds are seen approaching. The idea is to mark the event as a manifestation alike to the Jews (the shepherds) and to the Gentiles (the Magi). Angels hover above, singing the "Gloria in Excelsis," and the composition is crowned by the Star with the Dove. The background almost invariably includes a mountainous landscape, through which the retinue of the kings may be discerned winding its way—a reminder that they journeyed from a far country. This is a feature, indicated sufficiently by Mabuse, which may be seen more emphasised in the picture by Foppa (729). The Kings are nearly always shown as old, middle-aged, and young respectively, and one of them is black: when the Gentiles were called to salvation, all ages, continents, and races were included. In Mabuse's picture the equality of the races is emphasised in a further way; the Black King, conspicuous on the left, has his train borne by a white page. The eldest of the kings[Pg 747] offers a vase of gold, out of which Christ has taken a piece, which He holds in His hand. The king uncovers his head. "To most mediæval painters the Adoration envisages itself essentially as an act of feudal homage." Conspicuous in the foreground are two dogs. "The one on the right," says the Official Catalogue, "is similar to a dog by Albert Dürer in his engraving of St. Eustace, that on the left is reversed from a print by Martin Schongauer." The dog is often thus included in the "Adoration"; as, for instance, in one of the earliest (Orcagna, 574) and in one of the latest (Peruzzi, 218) of our versions; and everybody will have noticed how frequently in other religious pictures also the dog is introduced. "This custom of putting either the dog, or some inferior animal, to be either in contrast, or modest companionship, with the nobleness of human form and thought, is," says Ruskin, "a piece of what may be called mental comparative anatomy, which has its beginning very far back in art" (Eagle's Nest, ch. 8; see also Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. chs. 3, 6). The place of Joseph in the scene differs a good deal in different pictures, for the early legends varied. Orcagna (574) shows him receiving one of the presents from the hands of the Child: he plays, as it were, the part of royal treasurer or chamberlain. Dosso Dossi (640) shows him kneeling in the background. In the present picture he stands, in a red dress, under an archway, listening devoutly to the heavenly harmony. All the figures in Mabuse's picture (there are some thirty) will repay examination. The Virgin's expression is well given; and, as a study in contrasts, the reverent figures behind the kneeling king may be compared with the man on the extreme left who, catching hold of a pillar, is leaning out in curiosity to see the sights. There is much other detail which might be described—the plants, for instance, in the foreground and on the ruins; but enough has been said to indicate the wealth and variety of interest which is to be found in this picture.

2856. A CAVALIER AND A LADY.

2862. ST. JOHN GUALBERTO.

This picture represents St. John Gualberto, the Florentine (died 1073), establishing the Order of the Vallombrosans, whose proper habit is of a pale ash colour. He was Abbot of San Miniato, from which he retired to Vallombrosa, establishing there the Order called after the place of its original home.

2863. VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH ANGELS.

FOOTNOTES:

[38] It is worth noting that a similar incident (which in this picture has greatly shocked some of the critics) is introduced in Orcagna's great fresco of the Triumph of Death. "The three kings of the German legend are represented looking at the three coffins containing three bodies of kings, such as themselves, in the last stage of corruption.... Orcagna disdains both poetry and taste; he wants the facts only; he wishes to give the spectator the same lesson that the kings had, and, therefore, instead of concealing the dead bodies, he paints them with the most fearful detail. And then, he does not consider what the three kings might most gracefully do. He considers only what they actually, in all probability, would have done. He makes them looking at the coffins with a startled stare, and one holding his nose" (Lectures on Architecture and Painting, pp. 209, 210).

A comparison of the various opinions expressed on this picture would form a diverting chapter in the history of art criticism. Thus in Kugler's Handbook we are told that it is "in many respects one of the noblest pictures existing"; Sir Henry Cole ("Felix Summerly") called it "doubtless the greatest Italian painting in this country"; Hazlitt said it was "one of the best pictures on so large a scale that he was acquainted with"; Waagen pronounced it to be "the most important specimen of Italian art in England"; Solly called it "the second picture in the world"; and Mrs. Jameson saw in it a combination of "the characteristic power and beauty of the finest school of design and the finest school of colouring in the world." For an equally uncompromising condemnation see Landseer's Catalogue, pp. 92-119. It is interesting to note that in some cases the admiration excited by the picture was due to the dirt with which by long neglect and lapse in time it had come to be discoloured. Thus Hazlitt says that "the figure of Lazarus is very fine and bold. The flesh is well-baked, dingy, and ready to crumble from the touch, when it is liberated from its dread confinement to have life and motion impressed on it again" (Criticisms on Art, 1843, p. 9). Thus it was inferred that Sebastiano stooped to the trivial artifice of imparting an appearance of half putrefaction to the exhumed corpse. The absurdity of this criticism is well exposed by Henry Merritt, the famous picture restorer, in his essay on "Dirt and Pictures Separated" (Art Criticism and Romance, i. 69). The fact is that the whole picture was sadly darkened with time, and that it had become "embedded beneath a thick covering, compounded of half opaque varnish, patches of modern paint, and dirt." It has only been found possible partly to remove this covering. It may not be uninteresting to add that the picture was a favourite with Charles Darwin. "Many of the pictures in the National Gallery," he wrote, "gave me much pleasure; that of Sebastian del Piombo exciting in me a sense of sublimity" (Life, i. 49).

The poet Tennyson was another great admirer of the picture. His son, describing visits with the poet to the National Gallery, says, "he always led the way first of all to the "Raising of Lazarus," by Sebastian del Piombo, and to Titian's "Bacchus and Ariadne."" "The Christ I call Christlike," said Tennyson on one occasion to Carlyle, "is Sebastian del Piombo's in the National Gallery" (Memoir, ii. 235). It is possible that the poet may have written the stanzas cited above with his eye on Sebastiano's picture.

[39] "When they went to nature, which I believe to have been a very much rarer practice with them than their biographers would have us suppose, they copied her like children, drawing what they knew to be there, but not what they saw there" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. ii. ch. iii. § 7).

[40] The "Claude Lorraine glass"—a convex dark, or coloured hand-mirror used to concentrate the features of a landscape in a subdued tone—"gives the objects of nature," says an old writer, "a soft mellow tinge like the colouring of that master."

[41] But Ruskin does not quite keep his promise. "If Claude had been a great man he would not have been so steadfastly set on painting effects of sun; he would have looked at all nature, and at all art, and would have painted sun effects somewhat worse, and nature universally much better" (Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. xviii. § 23).

[42] The passages quoted from Sir F. Burton are to be found in his edition of the Official Catalogue (unabridged) of the Foreign Schools. That work, which occupied the late Director's leisure for many years, is a worthy monument of his wide learning and fastidious taste. A large-paper edition was issued by the Stationery Office in 1892.

[43] See, however, the sunset picture of his predecessor, Bellini (726). Connoisseurs should note that this picture is referred to by Richter as bearing on the vexed question of Palma Vecchio's relation with Titian, and showing that the latter imitated the former rather than vice versâ (Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 85. See also Morelli's German Galleries, p. 25).

[44] Called also "Sinon before Priam" (Æneid, ii. 79).

[45] The two pictures were bought by the nation in 1834 for £11,550. The sum was then thought a very large one, and the trustees fortified themselves with the opinion of experts. Amongst these Sir David Wilkie, R.A., wrote, "It is certainly a large sum for two pictures; but giving this difficulty its due weight, I would decidedly concur in giving this sum rather than let them go out of the country, considering the rarity of such specimens even in foreign countries, and their excellence as examples of the high school to which they belong, to which it must be the aim of every other school to approach."

[46] The picture is inscribed "Mariage d'Isaac avec Rebecca," but it is a repetition with some variations in detail of the Claude known as Il Molino (The Mill) in the Doria palace at Rome. Ruskin characterises this version of the subject as a "villainous and unpalliated copy." "There is not," he adds, "one touch or line of even decent painting in the whole picture; but as connoisseurs have considered it a Claude, as it has been put in our Gallery for a Claude, and as people admire it every day for a Claude, I may at least presume it has those qualities of Claude in it which are wont to excite the public admiration, though it possesses none of those which sometimes give him claim to it; and I have so reasoned, and shall continue to reason upon it, especially with respect to facts of form, which cannot have been much altered by the copyist" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. iii. ch. i. § 9, sec. iv. ch. ii. § 8).

[47] The following is the text of this portion of Turner's will: "I give and bequeath unto the Trustees and Directors for the time being of a certain Society or Institution, called the 'National Gallery' or Society, the following pictures or paintings by myself, namely Dido Building Carthage, and the picture formerly in the De Tabley collection. To hold the said pictures or paintings unto the said Trustees and Directors of this said Society for the time being, in trust for the said Institution or Society for ever, subject, nevertheless, to, for, and upon the following reservations and restrictions only; that is to say, I direct that the said pictures or paintings shall be hung, kept, and placed, that is to say, always between the two pictures painted by Claude, The Seaport and Mill." The "picture formerly in the De Tabley collection" is the "Sun rising in a Mist," 479. Turner bought it back at Lord de Tabley's sale at Christie's in 1827 for £514: 10s., and ever afterwards refused to part with it. The other picture, the Carthage (498), was returned unsold from the Academy, and Turner always kept it in his gallery. His friend Chantrey used to make him offers for it, but each time its price rose higher. "Why, what in the world, Turner, are you going to do with the picture?" he asked. "Be buried in it," Turner replied—a remark he often made to other friends.

[48] "So in N. Poussin's 'Phocion' (40) the shadow of the stick on the stone in the right-hand corner, is shaded off and lost, while you see the stick plainly all the way. In nature's sunlight it would have been the direct reverse: you would have seen the shadow black and sharp all the way down; but you would have had to look for the stick, which in all probability would in several places have been confused with the stone behind it" (ibid.).

[49] Compare on this point G. Poussin's "Abraham and Isaac" (31).

[50] One may compare with Ruskin's description the similar one by Tennyson of a distant view of Monte Rosa—

How faintly-flush'd, how phantom-fair,
Was Monte Rosa, hanging there
A thousand shadowy-pencill'd valleys
And snowy dells in a golden air.

The Daisy.

[51] "In some of the convents (in Mexico) there still exist, buried alive like the inmates, various fine old paintings ... brought there by the monks" (Dublin National Gallery Catalogue). The Spanish influence gave birth, moreover, to a native Mexican School of painting, said to be of considerable merit.

[52] "Murillo, of all true painters the narrowest, feeblest, and most superficial, for those reasons the most popular" (Two Paths, § 57 n.)—"The delight of vulgar painters (as Murillo) in coarse and slurred painting merely for the sake of its coarseness, opposed to the divine finish which the greatest and mightiest of men disdained not" (Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. i. ch. x. § 3).

[53] The French partiality for Murillo is traditional, dating back to Marshal Soult's time, from whose collection the "Immaculate Conception" was bought. Murillos were his favourite spoils from the Peninsular War. "One day, showing General G—— his gallery in Paris, Soult stopped opposite a Murillo, and said, 'I very much value that, as it saved the lives of two estimable persons.' An Aide-de-camp whispered, 'He threatened to have both shot on the spot unless they gave up the picture'" (Ford's Handbook).

[54] "He was not a bad painter," continued Ruskin, "but he exercises a most fatal influence on the English School, and therefore I owe him an especial grudge. I have never entered the Dulwich Gallery for fourteen years without seeing at least three copyists before the Murillos. I never have seen one before the Paul Veronese.... I intend some time in my life to have a general conflagration of Murillos." Ruskin would have been relieved to know that of late years at the National Gallery Paul Veronese—and especially his St. Helena—has been very frequently copied.

[55] Amongst the curiosities of criticisms are the differences between experts as to whether this is a morning or an evening effect. Contradictory opinions on the point were submitted to the Select Committee of 1853, but as the picture had been "restored," each side was able to impute the difficulty of deciding to the "ruinous" nature of that operation.

[56] It may be interesting to note on the other side that Dr. Waagen (whose experience of the sea is given under No. 149) finds the waves in this picture to "run high," and to be "extraordinarily deep and full."

[57] Compare for equally defective perspective the covered portico in 30.

[58] Visitors to Venice may like to be reminded that most of Ruskin's criticism upon Tintoret's works there is now easily accessible in (1) The Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret, (2) The Stones of Venice, travellers' edition, and (3) the reissue of the second volume of Modern Painters. Mr. Ruskin always accounted his "discovery" of Tintoret as one of the chief works of his life. "I have supplied," he wrote in Stones of Venice (1853), "somewhat copious notices of the pictures of Tintoret, because they are much injured, difficult to read, and entirely neglected by other writers on art." "I say with pride," he wrote in the epilogue to the second volume of Modern Painters (1883), "what it has become my duty to express openly, that it was left to me, and to me alone, first to discern, and then to teach, so far as in this hurried century any such thing can be taught, the excellency and supremacy of five great painters, despised until I spoke of them;—Turner, Tintoret, Luini, Botticelli, and Carpaccio. Despised,—nay, scarcely in any true sense of the word, known." For the Pre-Ruskinian view of Tintoret, the reader may consult Kugler's Handbook of Painting.

[59] For an exhaustive and interesting history of the legend see Mr. J. R. Anderson's Supplement to St. Mark's Rest. One account, it seems, places both Perseus and St. George in the Nile Delta. Politicians who say that England has gone to Egypt to save that country from itself may perhaps see some significance in this. The superstitious in such things will not forget either that one of Gordon's names was George.

[60] It is proper to mention that most of the critics dispute the genuineness of this picture, and consider it a copy by some scholar or imitator. "It is but a school repetition of a signed picture in The Hermitage, with the omission, however, of a charming figure of St. Catherine." In connection with this disputed point, it may not be out of place to recall the famous forgery in which Andrea himself played the chief part. The Duke of Mantua coveted Raphael's portrait of Leo X., and obtained permission from the Pope to appropriate it. The owner determined to meet force by fraud, and employed Andrea to make a copy which was sent to the Duke as the original. The copy, when at Mantua, deceived even Giulio Romano, who had himself taken part in the execution of the original—a fact which might well induce some modesty of judgment in connoisseurs.

[61] The title usually given to this picture, "Christ Disputing with the Doctors," cannot be correct, for the figure of Christ is too old for an incident which occurred when he was twelve years old.

[62] In the little-known collection in the library of Christ Church, Oxford, there is a powerful but unpleasantly realistic picture of a group in a butcher's shop, by one of the Carracci, which is perhaps a family portrait.

[63] See Blake's Auguries of Innocence.

[64] Gaspard was particularly unfaithful to the variety of nature in his representation of leaves (see 98). It is interesting therefore, as showing how long it passed for truth, to note that Lanzi (i. 481) singles out this point for special praise: "Everything that Gaspard expresses is founded in nature; in his leaves he is as various as the trees themselves."

[65] Compare on this point Claude's "Isaac and Rebecca," No. 12.

[66] This anecdote is a modern counterpart of that of Protogenes, the rival of Apelles, who worked continuously, we are told, during the siege of Rhodes by Demetrius Poliorcetes, notwithstanding that the garden in which he painted was in the middle of the enemy's camp. Demetrius, unsolicited, took measures for the painter's safety, and when he was told that one of the masterpieces by Protogenes was in a part of the town exposed to assault, he changed his plan of operations.

[67] "If you live in London you may test your progress accurately by the degree of admiration you feel for the leaves of vine round the head of the Bacchus in Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne" (Elements of Drawing, p. 82). Another technical beauty referred to in the same book (p. 77 n.) is "the points of light on the white flower in the wreath of the dancing child-faun." Similarly, "the wing of the cupid in Correggio's picture (10) is focused to two little grains of white at the top of it." Elsewhere Ruskin calls attention to "the leaves which crown the Bacchus, and the little dancing faun: every turn of the most subtle perspective, and every gradation of colour, is given with the colossal ease and power of the consummate master" (Academy Notes, 1855, p. 22).

[68] Ruskin's analysis of Rubens's technical method, which is here omitted as foreign to the scope of this handbook, will be found in his review of Eastlake's History of Oil Painting, now reprinted in On the Old Road, i. §§ 98-136.

[69] "The conditions of art in Flanders—wealthy, bourgeois, proud, free,—were not dissimilar to those of art in Venice. The misty flats of Belgium have some of the atmospheric qualities of Venice. As Van Eyck is to the Vivarini, so is Rubens to Paolo Veronese. This expresses the amount of likeness and difference" (Symonds: Renaissance, iii. 265 n).

[70] See, for a further instance of this, what is said of Rubens's landscapes below, under 66.

[71] Dr. Elisabeth Denio, in her monograph on Poussin (1899), adduces good reason for altering the commonly accepted date 1594 to 1593.

[72] See Lanzi, i. 477, and a paper by Mr. R. Heath in the Magazine of Art for September 1877, where Poussin's theory is illustrated from his pictures in the Louvre. English readers may be reminded that Poussin is particularly well represented in the Dulwich Gallery.

[73] Elsewhere Ruskin says of Poussin, "Whatever he has done has been done better by Titian." Also, "the landscape of Nicolo Poussin shows much power, and is usually composed and elaborated on right principles, but I am aware of nothing that it has attained of new or peculiar excellence; it is a graceful mixture of qualities to be found in other masters in higher degrees. In finish it is inferior to Leonardo's, in invention to Giorgione's, in truth to Titian's, in grace to Raphael's" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. i. ch. vii. § 14).

[74] "He feared the fascinations of colour, and once wrote from Venice that he must flee from a place where they lured him too much. He did not know how needless was the alarm" (Sir F. Burton).

[75] Constable, who made some studies from this picture, was of the same opinion. In a letter to Fisher he describes it as "a noble Poussin: a solemn, deep, still summer's noon, with large umbrageous trees, and a man washing his feet at a fountain near them. Through the breaks in the trees are mountains, and the clouds collecting about them with the most enchanting effects possible. It cannot be too much to say that this landscape is full of religious and moral feeling" (Leslie's Life of Constable, p. 90).

[76] "Hang these pictures in a very strong light," said Rembrandt of his early work. "The smell of paint is not good for the health," he said many years afterwards, when a visitor came close up to one of his later pictures.

[77] Baldwin Brown's The Fine Arts, p. 298, where Mr. Whistler's beautiful description of a "nocturne" on the Thames is cited as being in direct artistic descent from Rembrandt. "To Rembrandt," said the late Mr. Wornum (Epochs of Painting, 1864, p. 421), "belongs the glory of having first embodied in art and perpetuated [such] rare and beautiful effects of nature" as are referred to above. Ruskin took up the sentence, and replied with characteristic emphasis: "Such effects are indeed rare in nature; but they are not rare, absolutely. The sky, with the sun in it, does not usually give the impression of being dimly lighted through a circular hole; but you may observe a very similar effect any day in your coal-cellar. The light is not Rembrandtesque on the current, or banks, of a river; but it is on those of a drain. Colour is not Rembrandtesque, usually, in a clean house; but is presently obtainable of that quality in a dirty one. And without denying the pleasantness of the mode of progression, which Mr. Hazlitt, perhaps too enthusiastically, describes (in a criticism upon the present picture) as obtainable in a background of Rembrandt's, 'you stagger from one abyss of obscurity to another,' I cannot feel it an entirely glorious speciality to be distinguished, as Rembrandt was, from other great painters, chiefly by the liveliness of his darkness, and the dulness of his light. Glorious or inglorious, the speciality itself is easily and accurately definable. It is the aim of the best painters to paint the noblest things they can see by sunlight. It was the aim of Rembrandt to paint the foulest things he could see—by rushlight,"—a statement from which, of course, deduction must be made, in forming a general idea of Ruskin's estimate, for his appreciation of Rembrandt's portraits. See, e.g. under 51.

[78] To further understand Rembrandt's principle of choice, contrast that of Veronese. See the passage quoted under No. 26.

[79] Yet Rembrandt's pictures are often more deceptive—look more like reality—than others which are really more true. Why? It is because "people are so much more easily and instinctively impressed by force of light than truth of colour.... Give them the true contrast of light, and they will not observe the false local colour." The references to Ruskin are Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. iii. § 16; vol. iv. pt. v. ch. ii. §§ 11-19; vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vi. § 10; On the Old Road, i. 498-505.

[80] Ruskin, writing to the Times in 1847, said of the then condition of the picture: "I have no hesitation in asserting that for the present it is utterly, and for ever partially, destroyed. I am not disposed lightly to impugn the judgment of Mr. Eastlake (that is, the then Keeper and subsequent Director, the late Sir C. L. Eastlake), but this was indisputably of all the pictures in the Gallery that which least required, and least could endure, the process of cleaning. It was in the most advantageous condition under which a work of Rubens can be seen; mellowed by time into more perfect harmony than when it left the easel, enriched and warmed, without losing any of its freshness or energy. The execution of the master is always so bold and frank as to be completely, perhaps even most agreeably, seen under circumstances of obscurity, which would be injurious to pictures of greater refinement; and though this was, indeed, one of his most highly-finished and careful works (to my mind, before it suffered this recent injury, far superior to everything at Antwerp, Malines, or Cologne), this was a more weighty reason for caution than for interference. Some portions of colour have been exhibited which were formerly untraceable; but even these have lost in power what they have gained in definitiveness,—the majesty and preciousness of all the tones are departed, the balance of distances lost. Time may, perhaps, restore something of the glow, but never the subordination; and the more delicate portions of flesh tint, especially the back of the female figure on the left, and of the boy in the centre, are destroyed for ever" (Arrows of the Chace, i, 56, 57).

[81] The magnificent portrait No. 52 is by some critics ascribed to Rubens. Van Dyck hardly ever signed his pictures.

[82] Not all artists have learnt from this great work gladly. It was exhibited at the first exhibition of "Old Masters" at the British Institution in 1815, and B. R. Haydon tells the following story: "Lawrence was looking at the Gevartius when I was there, and as he turned round, to my wonder, his face was boiling with rage as he grated out between his teeth, 'I suppose they think we want teaching!'" (Autobiography, i. 292).

[83] Such is the tradition. By many modern critics the picture is, on internal evidence, taken away from Van Dyck and given to Rubens. Mr. Watts in the article cited above says: "Attributed to Van Dyck, but hardly, I think, suggesting his work, though it would be difficult to attribute it to any other painter, unless, perhaps, on some occasion Rubens might have been inspired with so fervent a love for art that he forgot his satisfaction in scattering his over-ripe dexterity."

[84] The statement found in many biographies of the painter that he was a brewer is a mistake. It arose from the fact that his daughter married a brewer, and that the painter himself was buried from his son-in-law's brewery.

[85] See Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. vii. ch. iv. § 13.

[86] Ruskin (ibid., vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. ii. ch. iv. § 16) notices this treatment of Apollo under the head of "Imagination Contemplative," as an instance of an imaginative abstraction "in which the form of one thing is fancifully indicated in the matter of another; as in phantoms and cloud shapes, the use of which, in mighty hands, is often most impressive, as in the cloudy-charioted Apollo of Nicolo Poussin in our own Gallery, which the reader may oppose to the substantial Apollo in Wilson's Niobe," see No. 110.

[87] This figure is specially good. It was to rival this great landscape that James Ward (see 688), as he avows in his autobiography, painted his "Fighting Bulls," now in the South Kensington Museum. "How full of lithe natural movement," says Mr. J. T. Nettleship, "is the man in the foreground, in heavy boots and feathered hat, stooping and creeping towards the covey of partridges under cover of bramble and bush, compared with the clumsy anatomical bulls in Ward's picture" (George Morland, p. 54).

[88] Ruskin is here speaking of the somewhat similar "St. George" picture in the Church of St. James at Antwerp.

[89] See also No. 98, in which the tree is said by Ruskin to be "a mere jest" compared to this.

[90] No. 78 was formerly Sir Joshua Reynolds's "Holy Family," on which notes will be found in Volume II. of this Handbook. The picture has now been withdrawn from exhibition and little remains of it, for owing to the excessive use of asphaltum the pigments have disappeared.

[91] "Garofano" is the Italian for "gillyflower" (or clove-pink), and Tisio sometimes painted this flower as his sign-manual (like Mr. Whistler's butterfly).

[92] Authorities differ between this title and "Pan teaching Apollo to play on the pipes." Certainly there is the "Pan's pipe," but then if it is Pan he ought to have goat's legs and horns. The fact that the picture is a companion to "Silenus gathering Grapes" makes also in favour of the description given in the text above.

[93] See also Ruskin's remarks on the companion storm piece, No. 36.

[94] It should be noted that this, as well as very many other pictures, has of late years been cleaned. Thus 98 and 68 (in 1880), 36 and 40 (in 1868), have been "cleaned and varnished." 31 was "relined, repaired, and varnished" in 1878; 161 was "cleaned and repaired" in 1868.

[95] The diminutive title "Il Canaletto" was originally applied to Antonio's nephew and pupil, Bernardo Bellotto, but came to be transferred to Antonio Canale himself. The two Canaletti painted so much alike that their works are not easily distinguished.

[96] Ruskin, on one of his latest visits to the National Gallery (1887), confessed that he had found himself admiring Canaletto. "After all," he said to me, "he was a good workman in oils, whereas so much of Turner's work is going to rack and ruin." Ruskin had made a similar concession long before to Claude. Writing to Mr. Fawkes on the death of Turner, he mentions a rumour that the artist had left only his finished pictures to the nation. "Alas! these are finished in a double sense—nothing but chilled fragments of paint on rotten canvas. The Claudites will have a triumph when they get into the National Gallery" (quoted in The Nineteenth Century, April 1900).

[97] An amusing instance of the naïve ignorance of the sea which underlay much of the excessive admiration of Vandevelde is afforded by Dr. Waagen, for many years director of the Berlin Gallery, and author of Treasures of Art in England. At the end of a passage describing his "first attempt to navigate the watery paths," he says: "For the first time I understood the truth of these pictures (Bakhuizen's and Vandevelde's), and the refined art with which, by intervening dashes of sunshine, near or at a distance, and ships to animate the scene, they produce such a charming variety on the surface of the sea." "For the first time!" exclaims Ruskin (Arrows of the Chace, i. 16, 17), "and yet this gallery-bred judge, this discriminator of coloured shreds and canvas patches, who has no idea how ships animate the sea until—charged with the fates of the Royal Academy—he ventures his invaluable person from Rotterdam to Greenwich, will walk up to the work of a man whose brow is hard with the spray of a hundred storms, and characterise it as 'wanting in truth of clouds and waves.'" Dr. Waagen, it should be explained, had, on the strength of his first "navigation of the watery ways" pronounced Turner's works inferior in such truth to Vandevelde. Clearly Dr. Waagen, more fortunate than most of our foreign visitors, had a calm crossing.

[98] It is interesting that another contemporary man of letters, the late Matthew Arnold, singled out these same lines for special praise: "No passage in poetry," he said, "has moved and pleased me more" (Fortnightly Review, August 1887, p. 299).

[99] In this town were born two other painters, who are sometimes known by its name. Curiously enough, all three were originally masons.

[100] Ruskin speaks of "the ruffian Caravaggio, distinguished only by his preference of candle-light and black shadows for the illustration and reinforcement of villainy" (On the Old Road, i. § 48).

[101] According to Morelli (Italian Masters in German Galleries, p. 56 n.), this familiar tale is legendary, Francia being merely an abbreviation of his Christian name, Francesco. But the painter sometimes signed his name Franciscus Francia, a form which on Morelli's hypothesis would be tautological.

[102] Francia's friendship with Raphael, on which art historians have based many theories and spun many interesting tales, is now discredited, the documents in question being comparatively modern forgeries (see p. 366 of Kugler's Italian Schools of Painting, 5th edition, revised by Sir A. H. Layard, 1887, elsewhere referred to as Layard).

[103] Vasari's story that Francia died of chagrin on seeing how far the whole work of his own life was transcended by Raphael's picture of St. Cecilia, which was sent to its destination at Bologna about 1516, is hardly credible.

[104] Ruskin said of this picture in 1847: "The attribution to him of the wretched panel which now bears his name is a mere insult" (Arrows of the Chace, i. 64). "Petrus Peruginus" is inscribed in gold on the base of the mantle of the Virgin, but the picture may be the work of his disciple, Lo Spagna (see 1032).

[105] Up to the time of the Van Eycks the general process of artistic painting for detached pictures was tempera. In this method the colours, after being ground with chalk, were laid on with a medium of water, white of eggs, juice of unripe figs, or some similar substance. Some kind of oil varnish was, however, often laid on afterwards, and a few Italian artists sometimes tried to mix their colours with oil in the first instance; but the results cannot have been satisfactory, for even Crivelli, who died in 1495, was still exclusively a painter in tempera. The objection to tempera, so far at any rate as northern countries were concerned, was that it suffered from the damp. Thus in an old retable in Westminster Abbey, so painted, the painting has flaked off. The objection to the early attempts at using oil as a medium was that it took a long time to dry. This caused Van Eyck incessant annoyance; his knowledge of chemistry led him to make experiments, and at last he obtained a medium which hastened the drying without the necessity of exposure to the sun. This medium was probably a mixture of linseed and nut oils. This method is different from that now called oil-painting. Now the colours are laid on by an oily medium, and when the picture is finished the whole surface is protected by a transparent varnish. Then the varnish was incorporated with the surface colours (see Conway's Early Flemish Artists, p. 119; and Wauters's Flemish School of Painting, p. 35).

[106] Arrows of the Chace, i. 66. "John Bellini is the only artist who appears to me to have united, in equal and magnificent measures, justness of drawing, nobleness of colouring, and perfect manliness of treatment, with the purest religious feeling. He did, as far as it is possible to do it, instinctively and unaffectedly, what the Carracci only pretended to do. Titian colours better, but has not his piety; Leonardo draws better, but has not his colour; Angelico is more heavenly, but has not his manliness, far less his powers of art" (Stones of Venice, Venetian Index). Morelli's estimate is the same; see German Galleries, p. 361.

[107] This letter of Dürer's gives an interesting glimpse into the art life of the time. "I have many good friends among the Italians, who warn me not to eat and drink with their painters. Many also of them are my enemies; they copy my things for the churches, picking them up whenever they can. Yet they abuse my style, saying that it is not antique art, and that therefore it is not good. But Giambellini has praised me much before many gentlemen; he wishes to have something of mine; he came to me and begged me to do something for him, and is quite willing to pay for it. And every one gives him such a good character that I feel an affection for him. He is very old, and is yet the best in painting; and the thing which pleased me so well eleven years ago has now no attractions for me" (Catalogue of Standard Series in the Ruskin Drawing School, P. 7).

[108] See Report of Select Committee on the National Gallery, 1853, p. 432, where the whole story will be found very frankly told in Sir C. Eastlake's evidence.

[109] Similarly Raphael Mengs, a later Spanish painter, said of Velazquez that he appeared to have painted with his will only, without the aid of his hand.

[110] I read the other day in an otherwise intelligent memoir of Ruskin that "a generation which admired Velazquez had outlived the art criticism of Ruskin." Not outlived, but absorbed, and so forgotten. It was Ruskin who, half a century before, proclaimed the consummate excellence of Velazquez—the "greatest artist of Spain," and "one of the great artists of the world"; the master to all schools in his "consummate ease"; the man who was "never wrong." In his admiration of Velazquez Ruskin never wavered. The citations above given are from his earlier books. In his later period, a picture by Velazquez was included among the "Four Lesson Photographs" as "an example of the highest reach of technical perfection yet reached in art; all effort and labour seeming to cease in the radiant peace and simplicity of consummated human power" (Fors Clavigera, 1876, p. 188).

[111] This was written in 1846. In 1853 some "horrible revelations" were made about the picture before the Select Committee on the National Gallery. Ruskin turned out to be curiously wrong, but also curiously right. He was wrong; for so far from the picture being "in genuine and perfect condition," a considerable portion of the canvas, as we now see it, turned out to be not by Velazquez's hand at all. Lord Cowley, its former owner, had sent it to a Mr. Thane, a picture dealer, to be relined. A too hot iron was used, and a portion of the paint entirely disappeared. Thane was in despair. The picture haunted him at nights. He saw the figure of it in his dreams becoming more and more attenuated until it appeared at length a skeleton. He was near going mad over it, when a good angel came to his rescue in the shape of Lance, the flower and fruit painter, who offered to restore the missing parts out of his head. So far Ruskin was decidedly wrong. But he was also right. The parts which Lance painted in "out of his head" were the groups on the left of the foreground, and some of the middle distance. "I endeavoured," he says, "to fill up the canvas, such as I supposed Velazquez would have done; and I had great facility in doing that, because if there was a man without a horse here, there was a horse without a man there, so I could easily take his execution as nearly as possible, and my own style of painting enabled me to keep pretty near the mark"(!). But the high lights of the sky, he particularly added, were untouched by him. So that there Ruskin was right. The picture, when restored to its owner, gave complete satisfaction, and Lance's share in it was kept a secret. A year or two later he must have felt a proud man. The picture was being exhibited at the British Gallery. In front of it Lance met two cognoscenti of his acquaintance. "It looks to me," he said, testing them, "as if it had been a good deal repainted."—"No! you're wrong there," they said; "it is remarkably free from repaints." It should be added that soon after the Parliamentary inquiry referred to above, a tracing of Goya's copy, procured from Madrid, showed in fact that the restored work differed but slightly from the copy, and Lance's work was probably far less important and extensive than he asserted. An idea of the original condition of the picture may be had from a reduced replica, or first sketch, now in the Wallace Collection.

[112] The view Diderot thus took of Greuze's art suggests the importance of historical perspective in criticism. Pictures, like everything else, should be judged with reference to contemporary circumstances, as well as by the standard of abstract principle. From the former point of view Greuze, as we have seen, is a moralist in painting. From the latter Ruskin suggests the consideration "how far the value of a girl's head by Greuze would be lowered in the market if the dress, which now leaves the bosom bare, were raised to the neck" (Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt. iv. chap. v. § 7).

[113] Another instance of this intimate union of art with business may be seen in the number of Dutch artists of the period who themselves held municipal office. See, for instance, Terburg (864) and Delen (1010). Many of the Italian painters also were men of business and of official standing. Thus Titian was a timber merchant; whilst Manni, Perugino, and Pinturicchio were all magistrates.

[114] "The bit of bluish ribbed paper on which he made his design in light and dark strokes, now gone brown, and which he had pricked through for the purpose of tracing the design on the panel, is framed beside it. He left it about, not thinking that in 350 years it would be under glass in the distant city of London, stared at by English roughs, who would say, "Sithee Bill, he's pricked it a' through with a pin, and spilt th' ile on it!" for there are two or three of these amber-coloured blurs which come from a sketch being inadvertently put down on a palette knife" (Letters of James Smetham, p. 168).

[115] These pictures, like the other Florentine works here exhibited, except 564 (which is on linen cloth attached to wood) and 276 (which is in fresco), are painted in tempera on wood. Tempera (or distemper) painting is a generic term for the various methods in which some other substance than oil was the medium. Various substances were thus used—such as gum, glue or size, flour-paste, white of egg, milk of figs. Cennino Cennini, who wrote a treatise on painting at the end of the fourteenth century, professes to give the exact method of Giotto. Egg beaten up with water was preferred by him, except where the yellowness of the mixture injured the purity of the colour. The colours thus mixed were laid on to a panel (or on to a cloth stretched over the panel) previously prepared with a smooth white ground of plaster. And finally oil or albumen was used to go over the whole surface. This was the practice in general use for all detached pictures until the middle of the fifteenth century, when what is known as "the Van Eyck method" came into vogue (see under 186).

Fresco painting is painting upon walls of wet plaster with earths of different colours diluted with water. It is so called from the colour being applied to the fresh wet surface of lime, but it is of two kinds: (1) fresco secco, when the plaster of lime has been allowed to dry on the wall and is then saturated with water before painting; this was the method in use till after Giotto's time; (2) buon fresco, when the colours are laid on to the fresh plaster before it is yet dry. (The fullest account of these various technical processes and their history is Sir C. Eastlake's "Materials for a History of Oil Painting," a review of which by Ruskin appeared in the Quarterly Review, and is reprinted in On the Old Road, vol. i.).

[116] The note in the Official Catalogue says that the picture does not correspond in the scheme of colour to the works of Velazquez's early period. On the other hand, "it shows so decided an affinity with the fine picture by Zurbaran, in the Palace of San Telmo, at Seville, not only in colouring but in every detail of the treatment, that there can be no doubt that the attribution to Velazquez was an error, and that Zurbaran is the true painter of this beautiful work, which may be considered the best picture he ever painted." But "we would fain see proof," says another critic, "that Zurbaran ever painted a head like that of the Divine Child. The rest of the picture recalls the early Seville manner of Velazquez in the style of Ribera" (Quarterly Review, April 1899).

[117] This picture, when first purchased for the National Gallery in 1853, was ascribed to Giorgione. For many years it was given to the "School of Bellini." In 1883 it was identified by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle as a work by Catena. Signor Morelli and other critics of his school supported this view, which in 1898 was adopted by the authorities of the Gallery. No. 694 has also been so attributed to him in the Catalogue. Other pictures which have at one time or another been connected with Catena are 599, 812, and 1160.

[118] "The roguish little terrier pretends not to see what is going on. But what are the partridges doing behind the chair of the Blessed Virgin? Was the Knight a worldling, given to sport, but arrested in the pursuit of pleasure by some inward voice or vision; and so, taking the result of the day's work, he lays it at the feet of the Divine Child and His Mother? Or was worship simply the pious Knight's godly commencement of the day? Why, too, is the dog so sly looking? Is that little mass of curly white wool a sceptic, doubting his master's good resolutions?" (Sophia Beale in Good Words, July 1895).

[119] Ruskin, in his classification of artists from this point of view, calls them "sensualists," reserving the traditional title "naturalists" to the greatest men, whose "subject is infinite as nature, their colour equally balanced splendour and sadness, reaching occasionally the highest degrees of both, and their chiaroscuro equally balanced between light and shade." This class represents the proper mean. In excess on one side are the "purists" (Angelico, Perugino, Memlinc, Stothard), who take the good and leave the evil. "The faces of their figures express no evil passions; the skies of their landscapes are without storm; the prevalent character of their colour is brightness, and of their chiaroscuro fulness of light." Then in excess on the other side are the "sensualists" (Salvator Rosa, Caravaggio, Ribera), who "perceive and imitate evil only. They cannot draw the trunk of a tree without blasting and shattering it, nor a sky except covered with stormy clouds; they delight in the beggary and brutality of the human race; their colour is for the most part subdued or lurid, and the greatest spaces of their pictures are occupied by darkness" (Stones of Venice, vol. ii. ch. vi.). Elsewhere, Ruskin speaks of Caravaggio and Ribera as "the black slaves of painting" (Elements of Drawing, p. 317).

[120] This is the story told by Dominici, the Neapolitan historian. According to Cean Bermudez, following Palomino (the Spanish historian), Ribera died at Naples honoured and rich.

[121] The tradition that he was a natural son of the Barbarella family, and in consequence called Barbarelli, appears to be unfounded.

[122] "Two figures of Giorgione's are still traceable, one of them (wrote Ruskin in 1846), singularly uninjured, is seen from far above and below the Rialto, flaming like the reflection of a sunset" (Modern Painters vol. i. ed. 3 pt. ii. sec. i. ch. vii. § 30). This beautiful figure was engraved by Ruskin for his fifth volume; he called her from her glowing colour "the Hesperid Aeglé."

[123] Ruskin's seven are Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoret, Correggio, Reynolds, and Turner (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. xi, § 8, n).

[124] A reaction in this respect is observable in the latest writer on Giorgione (Mr. Herbert Cook in the "Great Masters" Series), who shows good cause for restoring many pictures to the master. The National Gallery, he says (p. 95), affords unrivalled opportunity for studying the various phases of Giorgione at different stages of his career. Nos. 1160 and 1173 represent his earliest style; No. 1123, his later; Nos. 269 and 636 are intermediate.

[125] A contemporary document, recently discovered, proves that the artist died of the plague. (See appendix to Mr. Herbert Cook's Giorgione, 1900).

[126] Lecture at Oxford 1884 (reported in Cook's Studies in Ruskin, p. 251). See also the "Traveller's edition" of the Stones of Venice, vol. ii. ch. vi., where the picture is described as "one which unites every artistic quality for which the painting of Venice has become renowned with a depth of symbolism and nobleness of manner exemplary of all that in any age of art has characterised its highest masters." A copy of this masterpiece is in the collection of the Arundel Society, now to be seen in the National Gallery.

[127] In an interesting discussion with Sir J. E. Millais, R.A., Mr. Watts, R.A., refers to the colours in this picture. Sir J. Millais had said that time and age are the greatest old masters, and that old Venetian colours were crude. Mr. Watts replied: "The colour of the best-preserved pictures by Titian shows a marked distinction between light flesh tones and white drapery. This is most distinctly seen in the small 'Noli me Tangere' in our National Gallery, in the so-called 'Venus' of the Tribune, and in the 'Flora' of the Uffizi, both in Florence, and in Bronzino's 'All is Vanity,' also in the National Gallery (651). In the last-named picture, for example, the colour is as crude and the surface as bare of mystery as if it had been painted yesterday. As a matter of fact, white unquestionably tones down, but never becomes colour; indeed, under favourable conditions, and having due regard to what is underneath, it changes very little. In the 'Noli me Tangere,' to which I have referred, the white sleeve of the Magdalen is still a beautiful white, quite different from the white of the fairest of Titian's flesh—proving that Titian never painted his flesh white" (Magazine of Art, January 1889).

[128] Or possibly at Vicenza. See Layard, i. 283 n. The words in the document relied upon to establish his birth at Vicenza are ambiguous, and may refer to his father.

[129] Its ascription to Botticelli's own hand is, however, questioned by many critics. Thus Dr. Richter says, "I know of no authentic picture by Botticelli in which the drawing of the hands and feet is so poor and coarse as are here, for instance, those of the Infant Saviour; the type of the child is positively repulsive, whereas in Botticelli's own works it is pre-eminently in the representation of the Infant Christ that his great merits are strikingly apparent" (Lectures on the National Gallery, p. 62). The child, whether painted by Botticelli or by another hand, is undeniably ugly; but the expression of the Madonna, and the figures of the Baptist and the Angel seem to me to show certainly the work of the master himself. Moreover, the critics who dispute the authenticity of this picture admit that of No. 915. Yet, as "D. S. M." says, "the mother here is the same person as the Venus, looking out of the picture with the same effect of gentle detachment, circumscribed with the same draughtsman's lines; the infant, whose type Dr. Richter finds 'positively repulsive,' is the same infant as the Satyrs of the other picture, and so all through" (Saturday Review, Feb. 18, 1899). On the back of the panel is written in the style of the 16th century the name of Giuliano da San Gallo, the celebrated architect, who was also a painter. There are drawings from his hand in the British Museum, which show that he came from Botticelli's school. His name on the back of this picture proves, it is argued, that it is by him. It may, however, very probably only signify that the picture formerly belonged to him.

[130] Mr. Pater, in a well-known passage, gives a different explanation of the peculiar sentiment in Botticelli's Madonnas. "Perhaps you have sometimes wondered why they attract you more and more, and often come—although conformed to no obvious type of beauty—back to you when the Madonnas of Raphael and the Virgins of Fra Angelico are forgotten. At first, contrasting them with those, you may have thought that there was something even mean or abject in them, for the lines of the face have little nobleness, and the colour is wan. For with Botticelli she too, though she holds in her hands the 'Desire of all Nations,' is one of those who are neither for God nor for his enemies (see under III. 1126), and her choice is on her face. She shrinks from the presence of the Divine Child, and pleads in unmistakable undertones for a warmer, lower humanity" (W. H. Pater: Studies of the Renaissance).

You promise heavens free from strife,
Pure truth and perfect change of will;
But sweet, sweet is this human life,
So sweet I fain would breathe it still.
Your chilly stars I can forgo:
This warm, kind world is all I know.

Ionica: Mimnermus in Church.

[131]

The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle
That's curdied by the frost from purest snow
And hangs on Dian's temple.

[132] The doors of the temple of "two-headed Janus" at Rome were always thrown open when the State was at war, and only closed in time of peace.

[133] The whole, or part, of this picture was at one time freely ascribed to Raphael; but Morelli has effectually disposed of the superstition by showing, amongst other arguments, that the drawings for Tobias and the Angel (in the Oxford University Gallery and in the British Museum) are undoubtedly by Perugino (Italian Art in the German Galleries, 1883, p. 289). The Oxford drawing is described and discussed, on the assumption that it is by Raphael, in Sir J. C. Robinson's Drawings by Michael Angelo and Raffaello, p. 129.

[134] For a record of his movements the reader may refer to Morelli's Italian Masters in German Galleries, 1883, pp. 285-291.

[135] Vasari's bias against the Umbrian master is too marked for any of his attacks to be accepted without corroboration.

[136] In a critique of F. Walker's "Fishmongers' Stalls," Ruskin says: "If the reader will waste five minutes of his season in London in the National Gallery, he may see in the hand of Perugino's Tobias a fish worth all these on the boards together" (Arrows of the Chace, i. 177).

[137] With regard to the "purist ideal" it should be noticed that "these fantasies of the earlier painters, though they darkened faith, never hardened feeling; on the contrary, the frankness of their unlikelihood proceeded mainly from the endeavour on the part of the painter to express, not the actual fact, but the enthusiastic state of his own feelings about the fact; he covers the Virgin's dress with gold, not with any idea of representing the Virgin as she ever was, or ever will be seen, but with a burning desire to show what his love and reverence would think fittest for her. He erects for the stable a Lombardic portico, not because he supposes the Lombardi to have built stables in Palestine in the days of Tiberius, but to show that the manger in which Christ was laid is, in his eyes, nobler than the grandest architecture in the world. He fills his landscape with church spires and silver streams, not because he supposes that either were in sight at Bethlehem, but to remind the beholder of the peaceful course and succeeding power of Christianity" (Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. iv. § 10). For a different kind of feeling in "naturalistic" art, see under 744.

[138] Visitors who are interested in such points of connoisseurship may be glad of this summary with regard to the works ascribed in the Official Catalogue to the associated painters, Fra Filippo Lippi, Filippino Lippi, and Botticelli. The undisputed pictures of Fra Filippo are 248, 666, and 667; of Filippino, 293 and 927. The pictures 592 and 1033 have marked resemblances both to Fra Filippo, Filippino, and to Botticelli, and are ascribed by different critics to one or other of those masters or pupils. 598 and 1124 are often ascribed to a pupil of Filippino; the pictures 586 and 589 to a pupil of Fra Filippo. The undisputed pictures of Botticelli are 1034 and 1126. The pictures 226, 275, 782, 915, and 916, are all ascribed by some critics to a pupil of his only, whilst to Botticelli himself has now been ascribed the portrait 626, formerly classed as "Unknown." To a supposed painter, christened by the critics "Amico di Sandro," 1124 and 1412 are attributed.

[139] Layard, ii. 621. Similarly Ruskin says: "The possession of the Pisani Veronese will happily enable the English public and the English artist to convince themselves how sincerity and simplicity in statements of fact, power of draughtsmanship, and joy in colour, were associated in a perfect balance in the great workmen in Venice" (Catalogue of the Turner Sketches and Drawings, 1858, p. 10). As an instance of Veronese's "economical work"—a sure sign of a great painter—Ruskin refers to "the painting of the pearls on the breast of the nearer princess, in our best Paul Veronese. The lowest is about the size of a small hazel nut, and falls on her rose-red dress. Any other but a Venetian would have put a complete piece of white paint over the dress, for the whole pearl, and painted that into the colours of the stone. But Veronese knows beforehand that all the dark side of the pearl will reflect the red of the dress. He will not put white over the red, only to put red over the white again. He leaves the actual dress for the dark side of the pearl, and with two small separate touches, one white, another brown, places its high light and shadow. This he does with perfect care and calm: but in two decisive seconds. There is no dash nor display, nor hurry, nor error. The exactly right thing is done in the exactly right place, and not one atom of colour, nor moment of time spent vainly. Look close at the two touches,—you wonder what they mean. Retire six feet from the picture—the pearl is there!" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. viii. ch. iv. § 18). "One of the chief delights which any one who really enjoys painting finds in that art as distinct from sculpture, is in the exquisite inlaying or joiner's work of it, the fitting of edge to edge with a manual skill, precisely correspondent to the close application of crowded notes without the least slur, in fine harp or piano-playing. In many of the finest works of colour on a large scale, there is even some admission of the quality given to a painted window by the dark lead bars between the pieces of glass. Both Tintoret and Veronese, when they paint on dark grounds, continually stop short with their tints just before they touch others, leaving the dark ground showing between in a narrow bar. In the Paul Veronese in the National Gallery, you will find every here and there pieces of outline which you would suppose were drawn with a brown pencil. But no! look close, and you will find that they are the dark ground left between two tints, brought close to each other without touching" (Lectures on Landscape, § 68). Elsewhere, Ruskin calls special attention to the painting of "the drooped left hand of the princess, holding her crown" (Academy Notes, 1858, p. 46).

[140] An even more striking instance is to be found in Veronese's picture of the Last Supper, now in the Academy of Venice. Here too he introduced his favourite dog, as well as dwarfs and armed retainers. He was summoned before the Inquisition for such irreverent anachronisms; and the account of his cross-examination is most amusing and instructive reading. A translation will be found in the appendix to Ruskin's Guide to the Academy at Venice.

[141] Some readers may like to be referred to the passages in which Ruskin discusses the place of the dog in art, with special reference to Veronese. They are, Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vi., and The Eagle's Nest, i. ch. viii.

[142] Richter (Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 74) disputes this. The kneeling girls are, he believes, the artist's daughters, whom he has also introduced into a picture in the Louvre, and the courtier presenting them is Veronese himself.

[143] The pattern of the Madonna's robe in this picture is worth notice—"a good specimen of the treatment, probably taken from Persian examples, of a ground sprinkled with conventional sprays of flowers spaced regularly" (Vacher).

[144] The three portraits, 1022, 1023, and 1025, formerly in the Casa Fenaroli at Brescia, were there all attributed to Moretto. Signor Morelli was the first to recognise in the two former the hand and mind of Moroni, under whose name they were sold to the National Gallery.

[145] Mr. Dickes's ingenious and interesting explanation is now accepted by the authorities, and there can be little doubt of its correctness. The motto had previously been misread as του λιαν ποθω which was interpreted "by the desire of the extreme." The picture was for many years in the possession of the Martinengo Cesaresco family, and passed for a portrait of their ancestor Count Sciarra. The motto was interpreted as referring to the Count's desire to avenge the death of his father, who had been assassinated. The desire of the extreme, the activity of a restless spirit, was with the Count to the end, and he died fighting in France in the campaign which ended in a defeat of the Huguenots at the battle of Moncontour, October 3, 1569. But the Count Sciarra was a soldier-adventurer, showing no characteristics accordant with the nobleman before us other than that, according to a Brescian historian, "his eyes gleamed with an unconquerable desire." But the inscription is undoubtedly as given in the text, the accents being all clearly marked. The portrait is clearly not of a restless man of action, so much as of a dilettante. The dates of the Count Sciarra's career are also inconsistent with his being painted in this picture of Moretto's best period. The statements on behalf of the traditional identification made by the Contessa Evelyn Martinengo Cesaresco (Athenæum, Aug. 12, 1893) do not touch the points.

[146] The feeling which one may thus find in these paintings of four centuries ago still lingers amongst the Italian peasantry, as readers of Miss Alexander's Roadside Songs and Christ's Folk in the Apennine (both edited by Mr. Ruskin) will know.

[147] It may be worth noting that, according to the son of Turner's friend, Trimmer, this picture "had an entire new sky painted at the desire of Lawrence and other brother artists, who, when he had altered it, said the picture was ruined" (Thornbury's Life of Turner, i. 175).

[148] Dr. Richter, in laying down the law to the contrary, gives too narrow an interpretation to Vasari's words. The Margaritone is certainly inferior to the best Byzantine work, but it adheres to the characteristics noticed above. Dr. Richter says: "This curious, if uninteresting painter, in all probability would never have emerged from his modest sphere of awkward provincialism into the full light of history but for the special praise bestowed upon him by his obliging countryman, Vasari. The latter states definitely, among other things, that Margaritone painted in the maniera greca; nevertheless, a single glance at the picture in the National Gallery is sufficient to convince the beholder that in reality this is not the case. Margaritone's pictures appear to me to be drawn in the wild and grotesque style prevalent in Italy during the early middle ages" (Lectures on the National Gallery, p. 11).

[149] Dr. Richter ascribes all these pictures to the School of Duccio (see Lectures on the National Gallery, pp. 4-10.).

[150] So described in the Official Catalogue. But "is the female saint on the right wing of the triptych really St. Catherine of Alexandria? Only the beginning of the inscription on either side of the figure containing the name can here still be deciphered. It runs thus: SCA (Saint) AL. The reading 'Catherine' thus apparently becomes inadmissible. Besides, the emblems of this female saint are decidedly not those of Catherine of Alexandria, who is always represented with a wheel as the emblem of her martyrdom, while the saint in the picture before us holds in her right hand a palm branch (?) and in her left a small cross, the emblem of confessors" (Richter's Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 9).

[151] This head is said to bear a marked resemblance to Mr. Swinburne as a young man (see W. B. Scott's Autobiographical Notes, ii. 18).

[152] It was a practice at Italian weddings that the bride should be presented, as part of her dowry, with a coffer, which was intended to hold her trousseau and wedding presents. Some very fine specimens of these cassoni may be seen in the South Kensington Museum. They belong principally to the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The typical cassone measured about six feet in length by two in height and two in breadth. The front and ends were decorated with paintings or carvings. The subjects depicted are either marriage scenes or stories borrowed from the Scriptures, from the classics, or from Petrarch. Many of the panel pictures in the National Gallery once adorned these cassoni. See, for instance, Nos. 1218 and 1219. A favourite subject was the allegory entitled "The Triumph of Love, Chastity, and Death," of which an excellent example is at South Kensington. The panel in this Gallery, No. 1196, has a similar subject.

[153] This picture and the tondo of the same subject (1033) are by many critics ascribed to Botticelli. "In my opinion," says Morelli, "the two excellent but somewhat defaced pictures in the National Gallery, 592 and 1033, are works not of Filippino, but of Botticelli, whose dramatic powers are well displayed here" (Italian Masters in German Galleries, p. 236). For a full discussion leading to the same conclusion, see Monkhouse's In the National Gallery, p. 73.

[154] Miss Betham-Edwards, on a visit to the painter at By, was shown some sketches for "The Horse Fair." "'There you have a Boulonnais,' I observed, as we contemplated the study of a fine black cart-horse. This remark gratified her. 'I am glad to find a stranger so much interested in our cart-horses'" (Anglo-French Reminiscences, ch. xxv.). Rosa Bonheur's knowledge of the animal world of France was very wide and precise.

[155] This was Rosa Bonheur's own faith. "I believe," she once said, "in a just God, and a Paradise of the just. But religion (i.e. the religion of Rome) does not altogether satisfy me. I hold it monstrous that animals are supposed to be without souls. My poor lioness loved me. Thus she had more soul than certain human beings who do not know what it is to love anything."

[156] "Giulio Romano did a little of everything for the Dukes of Mantua,—from painting the most delicate and improper little fresco for a bedchamber, to restraining the Po and Mincio with immense dykes, restoring ancient edifices and building new ones, draining swamps and demolishing and reconstructing whole streets, painting palaces and churches, and designing the city slaughter-house" (W. D. Howells's Italian Journeys, "Ducal Mantua"). Giulio's departure from Rome to Mantua was due to the scandal caused by the publication of some obscene designs of his (see Symonds, v. 341).

[157] "The piece of St. Catherine's dress over her shoulders is painted on the under dress, after that was dry. All its value would have been lost, had the slightest tint or trace of it been given previously. This picture, I think, and certainly many of Tintoret's, are painted on dark grounds; but this is to save time, and with some loss to the future brightness of the colour" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. viii. ch. iv. § 17 n.).

[158] Robert Browning, however, notes "the bonne bourgeoisie of his pictures; the dear common folk of his crowds, divinely pure they all are, but fresh from the streets and market-place" (Letters of Robert and E. B. Browning, i. 197). Mr. Langton Douglas in an illustrated monograph on Fra Angelico (1900) lays stress on the painter's "strength and freedom" as shown in the "Adoration of the Magi" at San Marco, or the "San Lorenzo giving alms" in the studio of Pope Nicholas; illustrates the influence of contemporary architecture and sculpture on his work; and characterises him not as "a saint with a happy knack of illustration," but as "an artist who happened to be a saint."

[159] "This," says Mr. Hipkins of the present picture, "is the grandest and most extended mediæval band on record, worthy of the heavenly Host, to declare the praises of the Blessed Trinity." Mr. Hipkins gives an interesting identification and description of the instruments employed. To the left of the centre compartment we may find a viol, a rebec, a clarion, trumpets, harp, cither, double flute, and psaltery—also a tambourine, beaten with the hand, a tabor, and a portable organ. In the centre, under Christ, are two organs. The player on the pipe and tabor, left of the Redeemer, blows what seems to be a short French whistle. "Next to this musician is a cymbal player. The time beater is apparently no less required where time exists no more than he is in our terrestrial world; such discipline of rhythm is hereby sanctified." "In the upper rows, on the left hand of the Redeemer, we see one of those large guitar-viols which were used by the troubadours" (see further The Hobby Horse, No. 1, 1893, pp. 14-16).

[160] "The many small figures which are seen here surrounded by a celestial glory are so beautiful," says Vasari of this picture, "that they appear to be truly beings of paradise; nor can he who approaches them be ever weary of regarding their beauty."

[161] Now ascribed by many critics to Bouts (see 783).

[162] Or more correctly, Piero dei' Franceschi, after the family name of his mother. Her Christian name was Romana, and Piero's father, it has now been ascertained, continued living during many years of his son's career. The year of Piero's birth is unknown.

[163] This is a more charitable judgment than contemporary documents would suggest. In 1450 Fra Filippo was thrown into prison for a debt which he denied, and under torture confessed that he had forged the receipt. He was deprived of his rectory, and appealed to the Pope, who, however, confirmed the sentence, in a brief in which the painter is accused of "numerous and abominable wickednesses."

[164] It is interesting to note the cartellino, or little card at the foot of the picture, on which Antonello inscribes his name and the date. This cartellino was taken as a model by Giovanni Bellini and subsequent Venetian artists (see e.g. 189 and 280).

[165] Comparing him with Italian painters, his period of activity is seen to be coincident with the earlier work of Carpaccio and Perugino; he died while Raphael was still a boy. Crowe and Cavalcaselle have shown that Memlinc's work was well known and appreciated among Italian connoisseurs of the time.

[166] I venture to retain this title, though the Official Catalogue assures us that it is but "a pleasing illusion," as "the features and the general form of head have little or no resemblance to the quite authentic portraits of Andrea" at Florence, "or to that engraved by Vasari, who was personally acquainted with the painter. If (adds the catalogue) the object in the hands represents, as it well may, a piece of modelling-clay, the subject of the portrait was probably a Florentine sculptor." In that case we may perhaps save our "pleasing illusion" by supposing that Andrea interpreted the expression of a fellow-artist by his own experience. But the case is by no means clear. The earlier portrait in the Uffizi is not very unlike ours. In the later some resemblance remains, though the face has coarsened. But this is a matter on which every one must see resemblances or otherwise for himself. (Reproductions will be found in the monograph on the painter in the "Great Masters" series. The author, H. Guinness, considers the authenticity of our portrait to be "beyond question," p. 23).

[167] Lucrezia's character has, however, been whitewashed of late years: see Gazette des Beaux Arts, December 1876 and three following months.

[168] This delightful picture, which has hitherto been ascribed to Bellini himself, is now (1898) attributed in the official catalogue to Catena (see 234).

[169] "The pet portrait of the lecturer was Moroni's 'Tailor.' Luckily the original painting was in the National Gallery, and all interested could judge for themselves whether, for simplicity, expression, drawing, colour, and above all, soul, the portrait had a rival" (Report of a lecture on "Portraiture" by Mr. Harry Furniss).

[170] In a red-figured vase in the British Museum (E 477 in the Third Vase Room) there is a picture of this same subject. "The drawing," says Miss Harrison, "is somewhat coarse, and the painter seems to be struggling with a subject that is expressively too much for him. Procris sinks in death in an odd, ill-drawn attitude; her soul escapes in the form of a bird, Kephalos smites his head in despair, the dog Lailaps watches concerned. Erechtheus, the old king-father, is at hand to sympathise; the curt archaic symbolism of attitude, the utterance of mere gesture, is at fault here. The story was pregnant with modern suggestion. It had to wait, so to speak, for the delicate imagination of the Renaissance painter, Piero di Cosimo, to make us feel the contrast between the dead woman, over-sentient, passion-slain, and the shaggy faun, kindly perplexed, and the dumb, faithful dog; between the soft slack peace of the woodland and the terrible tension of humanity" (Magazine of Art, 1894, p. 61).

[171] Formerly ascribed to Margaret van Eyck.

[172] Formerly ascribed to Van der Goes.

[173]

The clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring from an eye
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality.

Wordsworth.

[174] The existence of this supposed younger Foppa, and the date 1492 (rather than 1502) must be considered doubtful in view of the researches published by C. J. Ffoulkes in the Athenæum, February 15, 1902.

[175] "Velazquez has left a great number of striking pictures, each containing a single figure. The Count de Pourtalès, in the collection at Paris (from which this picture was bought in 1865), has an excellent specimen of one of these studies, called 'The Dead Orlando'" (Stirling's Annals of the Artists of Spain, 1848, p. 680). Other authorities ascribe the picture to Valdes Leal (see 1291).

[176] Among other points we may notice the beautiful landscape; "Nothing can be more perfect in pictorial effect than the old wall, the distant roofs, the gleams of light on water, and the exquisite tones of gray" (Gilbert's Landscape in Art, p. 263).

[177] It may be interesting to note what Raphael's method actually was. He writes to Count Baldassare Castiglione, in a complimentary way: "To paint a beautiful woman, I must see several, with this condition, that your lordship be near me to select the loveliest. But there being a dearth both of good judges and of beautiful women, I make use of a certain idea that comes into my mind. Whether with benefit to art, I know not; but I strive to form such an ideal in my mind."

[178] Readers of Ruskin will remember the high praise accorded to Richter's illustrations of the Lord's Prayer and other engravings in The Elements of Drawing.

[179] See their Vittore Carpaccio et la Confrérie de Sainte Ursule, pp. 9-10, and Vittore Carpaccio, Le Vite e le Opere.

[180] Raphael was born in 1483. In 1491 his mother died.

[181] "Pisano's dragon is a pleasant-looking animal, wild-boar faced, and smilingly showing his fangs, as he crouches by the eminently gentlemanly St. George in the silver-plated and gilt armour; and a word in passing must be said for the lovely hog, with a broad grin overspreading his countenance, who accompanies the placid St. Anthony. Is not St. George, in the broad Tuscan hat, the personification of John Inglesant as il Cavaliere di San Giorgio?" (S. Beale in Good Words, July 1895).

[182] "A splendid example of the naïve humour of the painter. There is the father, somewhat sly, and the eldest son resembling him but less 'cute. The next head is that of a jolly, sandy-haired fellow. Then comes the reprobate, with a sensual upper lip, the only one in the family; all the others have thin, long slit mouths, as well as long straight noses. Behind, are the poor relations. We see the good, hard-working cousin, who has found life too much for him; the self-approving fellow, who thanks God he is not as other men are; and above him the man who, if he has been saved from committing some terrible crime, certainly owes his exemption to God's mercy, not, we may be sure, to his own strength of will. On the other side are the ladies of the family. The severe mamma, with flat brow, a veritable Mrs. Grundy. The daughter, evidently a worldling by the jewelled band round her forehead, is praying, because it is the business of the moment. The easy-going maiden above her has taken to religious life because it affords her a certain amount of distinction, with a little soul-saving. Behind, is the old great-aunt, a really pious soul, who has adopted conventual life from a devout conviction that she could live better and do more good as a member of a community than dwelling in the world. Above, are two fat-faced children, both more or less bored; and behind them is another, fascinated by the jewels of her kinswomen" (S. Beale in Good Words, July 1895).

[183] See Richter's Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 44, where a résumé of recent criticism and a facsimile of the Albertina drawing will be found. Signor Frizzoni, cited with approval by Richter, says: "Although the composition seems to me not in the least attractive, nor even successful (and for this very reason the picture might have been left unfinished), yet I cannot but consider it to be an original, and, moreover, a specially interesting one, and worthy of being looked at closely by those who wish to study the master in the numerous characteristic features of his style. In my opinion it is an early work by him; and this becomes evident especially from the purity and delicacy in the features of one of the Maries, standing on the right side, in which, if I am not mistaken, the pure types of his first master, Domenico Ghirlandaio, are much more perceptible than Buonarroti's own grand style. In other parts, however, the sculpturesque manner of modelling peculiar to him is not less noticeable—in the muscles, sturdy as usual, and in the prominent rendering of the corpse." Symonds, on the other hand, has no hesitation in rejecting the picture. "It is," he says, "painful to believe that at any period of his life Michelangelo could have produced a composition so discordant, so unsatisfactory in some anatomical details, so feelingless and ugly. It bears indubitable traces of his influence; that is apparent in the figure of the dead Christ. But this colossal nude, with the massive chest and attenuated legs, reminds us of his manner in old age; whereas the rest of the picture shows no trace of that manner. I am inclined to think that the Entombment was the production of a second-rate craftsman, working upon some design made by Michelangelo at the advanced period when the Passion of our Lord occupied his thoughts in Rome. Even so, the spirit of the drawing must have been imperfectly assimilated; and, what is more puzzling, the composition does not recall the style of Michelangelo's old age. The colouring, so far as we can understand it, rather suggests Pontormo" (The Life of Michelangelo, 1893, i. 68). Sir Edward Poynter, on the other hand, will hear of no doubt: "There is," he says, "no doubt whatever that this picture is the work of the great master. The originality of the composition, the magnificent dignity of the poses, the perfection of the modelling, combined with the profound knowledge and subtle play of the anatomical forms where the work is complete, and the exquisite beauty of the drapery, all stamp it as a work which, if completed, would have been one of the masterpieces of the world, and possible to no one but the great master of design. It is thought desirable to insist on the grand qualities of this picture, because it has been ascribed to Bandinelli, a bombastic sculptor, quite incapable either of the refinement or of the subtle feeling for nature which is evident in all the finished portions of this work" (The National Gallery, i. 72).

[184] According to one of the dramatic critics in the daily press, Sir Henry Irving in playing Richelieu was made up to resemble closely this picture; and (added the critic) the actor brought out the three sides of Richelieu's character here depicted. "At times we see him as the pitiless, unscrupulous man who forced himself from obscurity to a power greater than his monarch's; at others we see the fine courteous gentleman who patronised literature, founded the French Academy, and collaborated in half a dozen bad plays; and there is also not a little of the paltry, small-minded tyrant of whom Corneille said—

Il m'a trop fait de bien pour en dire du mal.
Il m'a trop fait de mal pour en dire du bien."

[185] See Morelli's German Galleries, p. 393. He dismisses the idea of an original Vicentine School as one which "cannot be entertained at all."

[186] "By Gentile Bellini, and not by Giovanni, as stated in the Catalogue. The latter artist drew the ear of a different shape than did his brother Gentile" (Morelli: German Galleries, p. 10 n.). If by Gentile, the signature is forged or altered.

[187] "I subjoin," writes the poet to his mother (December 23, 1880), "a sonnet I have done on the Michelangelo in the National Gallery. In this picture the Virgin is withdrawing from the child the book which contains the prophecy of his sufferings—I suppose that of Isaiah. The idea is a most beautiful one; and behind the group are angels perusing a scroll. Shields was helpful to me in the interpretation of this" (Letters and Memoir, ii. 365).

[188] Signed Joannes Bellini, but by some critics ascribed to Gentile Bellini. See Frizzoni's Arte Italiana del Rinascimento, p. 314.

[189] To the same effect, Sir Edward Poynter: "The painting of the green forest is the most perfectly beautiful piece of workmanship that ever was put into a picture" (Lectures on Art, p. 128).

[190] But see note on No. 53.

[191] "Unfortunately, Hobbema has allowed some one, apparently Wyntrank, to put a few ducks into the foreground. They are not wanted, and the manipulation required to fit them in has caused the lower part of the picture to darken disagreeably" (Armstrong: Notes on the National Gallery, p. 38).

[192] Ruskin speaks of him as an artist "first-rate in an inferior line" (On the Old Road, i. 558).

[193] Some of Mr. Gladstone's purchases for the National Gallery are noticed in the introduction to Appendix II. The "Ansidei Madonna" was also purchased by a special vote when he was in power. The Gallery owes the present picture to Mr. Disraeli's taste. "I happened," says Sir William Fraser in his Disraeli and his Day, "to be at the saleroom in King Street: the crowd was considerable. A picture was on the easel for sale; I did not know the name of the painter: the subject, 'The Nativity,' of the pre-Raphaelite school. I was so charmed with it that I bid up to two thousand pounds. I then felt that I could not trust my judgment further: that I might be mistaken: and that the picture might be 'run up' for trade purposes. It was bought for £2415. A few days afterwards I met Mr. C. Having noticed him in the crowd, I said, 'Do you happen to know who bought that "Francesca"?' 'I did. Disraeli told me to buy it for the National Gallery.'"

[194] The fondness of the Old Masters for the brute creation is illustrated in this picture, as in so many others. The ox is evidently fascinated by the music; the ass is disturbed and brays fiercely. Note also the goldfinch upon the roof.

[195] "The painter must, for the present, remain as an unknown Umbrian, almost equally influenced by Pinturicchio and Signorelli, and with peculiar qualities of simple grace and romance, which give his work an extremely individual character" (Cruttwell's Signorelli, p. 117).

[196] English readers will find some account, with occasional translations, of Poliziano's poem in Symonds's Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, ii. 334, and Renaissance, iv. 350. Symonds, had already remarked that much of the poem is like a picture of Botticelli. The same painter's "Birth of Venus" may have been suggested by stanza 99 of Poliziano, though the peculiar sentiment of that famous picture is the painter's own. See also under 916.

[197] "We venture to ask," says Dr. Richter, "is this really an Italian picture?" (Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 87).

[198] The figures are by Tiepolo (see under 1192).

[199] Visitors who have been to Venice will remember that "Carpaccio trusts for the chief splendour of any festa in cities to the patterns of the draperies hung out of windows" (Bible of Amiens, p. 3).

[200] Or, according to Mr. Berenson, of Alvise Vivarini and Lotto (see his Lorenzo Lotto, pp. 113, 304).

[201] It was exhibited at the "Old Masters" exhibition in 1873 as a Raphael. Mr. Ruskin, who had noticed it there, wrote to Mr. Fairfax Murray, "Please look at the Raphael, and tell me how far the colour may have changed on St. John's shoulder and in Judas' dress, and how far the fantastic shot silks of this last are absolutely as they were."

[202] It is a repetition with but slight variations of the Medici picture in the Uffizi.

[203] "The early Italian masters felt themselves so indebted to, and formed by, the master-craftsman who had mainly disciplined their fingers, whether in work on gold or marble, that they practically considered him their father, and took his name rather than their own; so that most of the great Italian workmen are now known, not by their own names, but by those of their masters (or of their native towns or villages—these being recognised as masters also), the master being himself often entirely forgotten by the public, and eclipsed by his pupil; but immortal in his pupil, and named in his name.... All which I beg you to take to heart and meditate on concerning Mastership and Pupilage" (Fors Clavigera, 1872, xxii. 3, 4). Vasari's story may be true, says Dr. Richter, "even though no contemporary record of a goldsmith called Botticello has been found. We know, however, that he had a brother, Giovanni Battista, a carpenter and frame-maker of some repute, nicknamed Botticegli, i.e. 'Little Barrel'; this nickname may have been inherited by the younger brother" (Lectures on the National Gallery, p. 48).

[204] See Richter's Lectures on the National Gallery for the list, p. 46.

[205] Reference may be made also to Mr. Swinburne's "Notes on Designs of the Old Masters at Florence" (first published in the Fortnightly Review for July 1868), in which he speaks of "the faint and almost painful grace which gives a distinct value and curious charm to all the works of Botticelli." At an auction in 1867 D. G. Rossetti picked up a Botticelli for £20. "If he had not something to do," writes his brother, "with the vogue which soon afterwards began to attach to that fascinating master, I am under a misapprehension." Pater's essay first appeared in the Fortnightly Review of August 1870. Ruskin's first mention of Botticelli was in a lecture delivered at Oxford during the Lent Term, 1871. Carpaccio had been proclaimed in a lecture of the preceding year, and it became a standing joke among the profane to ask who was Ruskin's last "greatest painter." It was in answer thereto that Mr. Bourdillon wrote:

To us this star or that seems bright,
And oft some headlong meteor's flight
Holds for awhile our raptured sight.
But he discerns each noble star;
The least is only the most far,
Whose worlds, may be, the mightiest are.

[206] "The dress appears to have been originally crimson or pink. If so, it has faded to so agreeable a tone that one could hardly wish it otherwise" (Poynter).

[207] The visitor should contrast Canaletto's painting of still water with Turner's (see under 535).

[208] "Upon asking how he had been taught the art of a cognoscento so very suddenly, he assured me that nothing was more easy. The whole secret consisted in a strict adherence to two rules: the one, always to observe that the picture might have been better if the painter had taken more pains; and the other to praise the works of Pietro Perugino" (Vicar of Wakefield, ch. xx.).

[209] The author of the catalogue of the Burlington Fine Arts Club's Exhibition of 1898 maintains that the two side panels are later in date than the central panel, and have no connection with it (p. xxxvii.).

[210] Sir Walter Armstrong attributes No. 1079 to David. "The National Gallery possesses one of the best of David's authenticated works (1045), and a comparison between it and the "Adoration of the Magi," numbered 1079, goes far to prove them to be by one hand. Compare, for instance, the figure of the beggar in the one picture with that of St. Joseph in shadow behind the Virgin, in the other. And the evidence of style is confirmed by a curious discovery that I happened to make one bright day, when the glass was off the latter picture. Low down in the left-hand corner the word Ouvvater is written in a way that precludes the notion of forgery, for it has been scratched with, perhaps, the butt end of a brush, while the paint was still wet, so that the red under-painting shows through the letters. David was born at Ouwater, or Oudewater, about 1450, and did not migrate to Bruges till 1484" (Notes on the National Gallery, p. 29).

[211] See Morley's Diderot, ii. 62. "Yet he cannot refuse to concede about one of Boucher's pictures that after all he would be glad to possess it. Every time you saw it, he says, you would find fault with it, yet you would go on looking at it. This is perhaps what the severest modern amateur, as he strolls carelessly through the French school at his leisure, would not in his heart care to deny."

[212] Ruskin speaks under the head of typical beauty (of beauty, that is, as typical of divine attributes) of the absolute necessity in pictures for some suggestion of infinity. "Escape, Hope, Infinity, by whatever conventionalism sought, the device is the same in all, the instinct constant" (Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. i. ch. v. §§ 7, 8).

[213] Ruskin finds Leonardo's landscape unconvincing. "In realisation of detail he verges on the ornamental; in his rock outlines he has all the deficiencies and little of the feeling of the earlier men. The rocks are grotesque without being ideal, and extraordinary without being impressive." "The forms of rock in Leonardo's celebrated 'Vierge aux Rochers' are literally no better than those on a china plate" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. i. ch. vii. § 13; Edinburgh Lectures on Architecture and Painting, p. 157). A high authority on the Alpine region, Mr. Douglas Freshfield, has suggested that the originals of Leonardo's backgrounds are to be found among the mountains between Val Sassina and the Lago di Lecco: "The last spurs of the Alps are here singularly picturesque. The bold forms of the Corno di Canzo and Monte Baro break down to display the shining pools of the Laghi di Pusiano and d' Annone. Hither Leonardo may have come, and looking across the narrow lake or from beside some smaller pool or stream at the stiff upright rocks of the Grigna and the Resegone, have conceived the strange backgrounds with which we are all familiar" (Italian Alps, 1875, p. 126). Mr. Freshfield's suggestion is borne out by Leonardo's own topographical notes, since published. He had visited the district and specially remarks upon its fantastic rocks.

[214] When in the Hamilton Collection, this picture was ascribed to Giorgione. Some critics strongly dispute the ascription (see, e.g., Richter's Italian Art in the National Gallery, p. 87), others accept it (see, e.g., an article in the Times, July 26, 1882). Sir Edward Poynter says: "The qualities of colour and painting in this picture so closely resemble those of the famous 'Fête Champêtre' by Giorgione in the Louvre, that it is difficult not to believe that the two pictures are by the same hand, and that, if the Louvre picture is rightly named, the original attribution to Giorgione may be correct" (National Gallery, i. 24). Mr. Herbert Cook is of the same opinion: "The figures, with their compactly built and rounded limbs, are such as Giorgione loved to model, the sweep of draperies and the splendid line indicate a consummate master, the idyllic landscape is just such as we see in the Louvre picture and elsewhere, the glow and splendour of the whole reveal a master of tone and colouring" (Giorgione, p. 94). As an illustration of the uncertainty of criticism it may be interesting to append the observations on Sir E. Poynter's remarks made by a writer in the Daily Telegraph of Dec. 29, 1899: "In reality no two works belonging to more or less the same period of Venetian art could be more utterly different. The Hamilton Palace picture is a soulless and second-rate production, dating a good many years later than the Louvre idyll, wholly different from it in handling, and remarkable only for its beautiful golden tone. The Louvre 'Fête Champêtre'—a late example of the divine master—is one of the loveliest and most characteristic pieces produced in the early prime of Venetian painting. Should the 'Venus and Adonis' be set down to Giorgione, the misrepresentation in the National Gallery of a unique figure in art would be complete."

[215] By Mr. Berenson to "Amico di Sandro."

[216] "The figures are ill-proportioned and want expression and character. They are more probably by a scholar or imitator" (Layard's Kugler, vol. i. p. 289).

[217] Critics of the modern school assert that the picture was not executed by Botticelli, even if it was designed by him; it bears, they say, "no trace of his style" (see, e.g., Richter's Lectures and Frizzoni's Arte Italiana del Rinascimento). Ruskin was on the same side: "I hope you know Botticelli well enough," he wrote to Mr. Fairfax Murray (February 14, 1873), "not to think you'll have to copy stuff like that arms-akimbo thing. By the way, what have they all got, like truncheons? They look like a lot of opera-directors." Dr. Uhlmann in his work on Botticelli ascribes the picture to Botticini; Vasari, he thinks, confused the two painters,—a theory for which there is no sort of proof. There is only one work of Botticini which has been identified with certainty. It is at Empoli, and was executed in 1490, or fifteen years at least before this picture. Vasari's account is precise, and is confirmed, as we have seen, by historical records. Very convincing internal proofs are necessary to overthrow this external evidence. Where are such proofs? The idea of the picture is entirely in accordance with what we know of Botticelli. "The wonderful energy of the angels and the boldness of the design attest his invention" (Monkhouse's In the National Gallery, p. 64). The case in this sense is very well put by Mr. Maurice Hewlett in the Academy of January 9, 1892. He points out among other things that the picture agrees with the general spirit of Botticelli's designs for the "Paradiso."

[218] Some account of the poem is given in an appendix to vol. v. of Symonds's Renaissance in Italy.

[219] The traveller will find a convenient handbook to these frescoes in Mr. J. L. Bevir's Visitor's Guide to Orvieto.

[220] It came from the Hamilton sale (1882), and was bought for the small price of £157:10s.

[221] Owing to the similarity of initials IVO the picture was ascribed by its former owner to Isaac van Ostade, who, however, died in 1649.

[222] Materials for such comparison—which is not the least interesting of the many lines of study offered by a collection of pictures—are provided in Mrs. Jameson's books, or may be formed still better by every student for himself by a collection of photographs. A capital series of articles by Mr. Grant Allen in the Pall Mall Magazine of 1895 traced, in a few of the most popular subjects, the process of "Evolution in Early Italian Art."

[223] Visitors to Venice will remember a beautiful use of this arrangement on the southern side of the Rialto, the Dove forming the keystone of the arch.

[224] A piece of paper of the last century, glued to the back of this panel, contains a memorandum in now faded ink, in the handwriting of the great-grandfather of Signor G. Molfini (from whom the picture was bought in Genoa in 1883), to the following effect:—"Antonello of Messina, a city of Sicily, a famous painter.... And this is his portrait, painted by himself, as was to be seen by an inscription below it which I, in order to reduce it (i.e. the picture) to a better shape, sawed away." Some traces of further writing are now illegible.

[225] Ford Madox Brown, who was not one to be impressed by any authority, has some very scathing remarks on this picture: "Bad in colour, in drawing, in grouping, and in expression, with the figure of Jesus falling on its nose, this work seems to shine solely by reason of the varnish with which it has recently been so polished up" (Magazine of Art, 1890, p. 135).

[226] He enumerates them in an official return of his property: "Further, I have a monkey, moreover, a raven which can talk, and which I keep by me in order that he may teach from his cage a theological jackass also to speak. Item: an owl to frighten the witches, two peacocks, two dogs, a sparrow-hawk, and other birds of prey, six fowls, eighteen chickens, two moor-fowl, and many other birds, to name all of which would only cause confusion."

[227] According to Nonius Marcellus: "By old Roman law, brides used to bring three asses (pennies), and to give one, which they held in the hand, to the bridegroom, as though to purchase him; to place another, which they held in the foot, on the hearth of the family Lares; and to put the third in their pocket and rattle it at the next cross-road."

[228] See, however, for some deductions afterwards made from this estimate, ibid. vol. iv. pt. v. ch. iii. §§ 6, 7.

[229] Elsewhere Ruskin makes some exception in favour of Ary Scheffer: "Though one of the heads of the Mud sentiment school, he does draw and feel very beautifully and deeply" (Letters on Art and Literature, p. 37).

[230] It was placed in their chapel in the church of S. Lorenzo in that city. There it remained till 1764, when it was bought for the Duke of Marlborough, and a copy replaced the original in the chapel.

[231] This picture and Van Dyck's "Charles the First" (1172) were bought in 1884 from the Duke of Marlborough for £87,500. Sir F. Burton, the Director of the National Gallery, had valued them at £115,500 and £31,500 severally. I remember once hearing Mr. Gladstone refer to this matter. His economic conscience seemed to give him some qualms on the score of the unprecedented price. But he took comfort in the fact that, large as was the price actually paid, the price asked by the owner, as also the valuation of the Director, was very much larger. "At any rate," he said with a smile, "I saved the taxpayers £45,000 on this Raphael, by not listening to the advice of the Director of the Gallery." The purchase had been pressed upon the Government by all sorts and conditions of men. The Royal Academy memorialised Mr. Gladstone, and pleaded especially for the Raphael—"a work produced in that happy period in which the reverent purity and the serene grace of the master's earliest work are already mellowing into the fuller dignity of his middle style." The Trustees of the National Gallery declared that the purchase would at once raise the Collection to a rank second to none, and superior to most, of the great Continental Galleries; whilst a memorial from members of Parliament of all parties, after referring to the Raphael as the finest in point of colouring that ever came from his hand, assured Mr. Gladstone that "their constituents and the whole nation will approve and applaud" a departure from "the hard line of severe economy." It appears from The Life and Correspondence of Mr. Childers (ii. 163), who was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, that the purchase was first suggested by Queen Victoria.

[232] Sir Edward Poynter. The luminous quality of the picture conquered Mr. Ruskin. After one of his last visits to the National Gallery, he said to me: "The new Raphael is certainly lovely—quite the loveliest Raphael in the world. The 'San Sisto' is dark and brown beside it."

[233] In this matter of the open sky also the "Ansidei Madonna" is curiously transitional. "Raphael," says Ruskin (ibid. § 10), "in his fall, betrayed the faith he had received from his father and his master, and substituted for the radiant sky of the Madonna del Cardellino, the chamber-wall of the Madonna della Sediola, and the brown wainscot of the Baldacchino." Here we have both—the Baldacchino and the open sky behind.

[234] Mr. Monkhouse suggests alternative explanations. Who is the figure on the throne? "Is he meant for some intellectual Dives, learning too late that happiness exists not in luxury or knowledge? Is he the poet, musing in sadness and mental solitude on the mysteries of life, who cannot taste of its fruit or listen to its music, unconscious of the brute forces symbolised by the panther, and the vanity of human pride imaged by the peacock on the dead branch; or is he a philosopher imparting wisdom to the young? What matter, the picture charms like nature, because we cannot fathom it" (In the National Gallery, p. 234). In the case of Giorgione's frescoes at Venice, Vasari frankly "gave it up": "I, for my part, have never been able to understand what they mean, nor, with all the inquiries that I have made, could I ever find any one who did understand, or could explain them to me." But the theory that the subject in Renaissance pictures meant nothing—that details were treated from a purely pictorial point of view—is, as Dr. Richter has well observed, more convenient than correct. The clue to many of these unknown subjects is to be found in classical or Italian literature. Bellini's allegorical compositions have recently been thus interpreted. Titian's so-called "Sacred and Profane Love" has been identified by Herr Franz Wickhoff as an illustration of the story of Medea as told in the seventh book of the Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus, and the same author has also found the key to several works ascribed to Giorgione.

[235] Dr. Richter, who found these pictures in a Veronese palace, points out that the architecture in the background represents the old tower of the castle of Mantua (Art Journal, Feb. 1895). It has, however, been urged amongst other objections that the eagle on the banners belongs to neither of the two houses. Perhaps, therefore, the subject of the pictures is purely imaginary or borrowed from some romance of the time.

[236] See note on No. 591.

[237] One portrait, however, was found by Mr. Petrie, not fixed over the face of the mummy, but framed and glazed for hanging on the wall of a tomb. The frame, now in the British Museum, is very like what is called an "Oxford frame."

[238] Two other members of the family are known as painters—Ambrosius, brother of the younger Hans; and Sigmund, brother of the elder. A portrait ascribed to the latter is in our Gallery, No. 722.

[239] The picture is painted on ten boards joined vertically; and it is interesting to speculate how far the composition may have been directed by the necessity of avoiding any joint in the faces.

[240] Cf. what Ruskin says of "the glorious severity" of Holbein's portraits (Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. 1. ch. xiv. § 19).

[241] The contrast between the picture as it was before being cleaned and as it is now is very great. The accessories have come out in astonishing clearness, and the crucifix in the left-hand corner has been unveiled. The dingy green of the curtain background has given place to a rich damask, and the gown of the younger man—which Wornum described as "brownish green"—is now seen to be not green at all. Mr. Dyer, to whose art this successful restoration was due, removed the obscuring dirt and varnish entirely by manual friction.

[242] Several pages would be required to give a résumé of all the theories propounded, and of all the pros and cons in each case. An account of the principal theories was given in the fourth edition of this Handbook, and the story forms an entertaining chapter in the curiosities of criticism. The most elaborately sustained of the theories is that which identifies the "ambassadors" with the Counts Palatine Otto Henry and his brother Philip (see the monograph on the picture by W. F. Dickes).

[243] The following is the text of the document:—

Remarques sur le suject d'un tableau excellent des Srs. d'Inteville Polizy, et de George de Selve.[244]

En ce tableau est representé au naturel Messire Jean de D Intevile chevalier sieur de Polizy près de Bar-sur-seyne Bailly de Troyes, qui fut Ambassadeur en Angleterre pour le Roy François premier ez années 1532 & 1533 & de puis Gouverneur de Monsieur Charles de France second filz diceluy Roy, le quel Charles mourut a forest monstier en l'an 1545, & le dict sr. de D Intevile en l'an 1555, sepulturé en l'eglise du dict Polizy. Est aussi representé audict tableau Messire George de Selve Evesque de Lavaur personnage de grandes lettres & fort vertueux, & qui fut Ambassadeur pres de L Empereur Charles cinquiesme, le diet Evesque Filz de Messire Jean de Selve premier president au parlement de Paris, iceluy sr. Evesque decedé en l'an 1541 ayant des la susdicte année 1532 ou 1533 passé en Angleterre par permission du Roy pour visiter le susdict sieur de D Intevile son intime amy & de toute sa famile, & eux deux ayantz rencontrez en Angleterre un excellent peinctre holandois, l'employèrent pour faire iceluy tableau qui a esté soigneusement conservé au mesme lieu de Polizy iusques en l'an 1653.

[244] Evesque de Lavour (sic) contenant leurs emplois, et tems de leur deceds.

[245] The words in the choir-book are thus identified by Mr. Eastlake (see a very interesting letter to the Times, 17th August 1891).

On the left-hand page:—

Kom Heiliger Geyst herzegott erfüll mit deiner gnaden und (?) deiner gleubge hertz mut un sin dein brustig lib entzüd in ihn.

O herz durch deines lichtes glast (?) züdem glaube versamlet hast das volck aller welt zunge ...(?) dir herzu lob gesungen ... gesungen ...

On the right-hand page:—

Mensch wiltu (?) leben seliguch und bei Gott blibene
Solch (?) halten die zehen gebot die uns gebeut unser Gott ... unser ...

"It seems to have been assumed," adds Mr. Eastlake, "that the choir-book is a Protestant one, and therefore inconsistent with the presence of the silver crucifix recently revealed in the left-hand upper corner of the picture. But it is evident that the hymn or anthem above mentioned is merely a paraphrase of the well-known 'Veni Sancte Spiritus,' which for ages past has appeared in the Roman Catholic breviary for use on Whit Sunday or the Feast of Pentecost, and still survives in the Anglican Ordination Service." The music in the book has been identified by Mr. W. B. Squire, of the British Museum, as the counterpoint sung by the tenor in Johann Walther's setting for the Wittenberg hymn-book of 1524. Mr. Squire adds his opinion that Holbein chose those compositions for copying in the picture, "on account of the bearing which the words had upon either the individuals portrayed, or some incident connected with them, and intended to be commemorated" (Letter to the Times, 14th November 1891). Miss Hervey finds an explanation in the fact that the Bishop of Lavaur was devoted to the cause of religious re-union between the Roman Catholic and the Reformed Churches. The doctrine expressed by the two hymns was common to all the churches.

[246] For further particulars the reader is referred to Holbein's 'Ambassadors': the Picture and the Men, by Mary F. S. Hervey (1900). Miss Hervey gives an interesting account of her identification of the sitters, and many curious speculations as to the details of the picture.

[247] It has been suggested by some high authorities that the lower portion of the picture was probably left to some pupil to finish; for the Admiral's legs are very flabbily drawn. They look as if there were no bone or muscle in them, but only sawdust or padding. Señor de Bereute, in spite of the very definite history of the picture given by Palomino, attributes the whole work not to Velazquez but to his pupil and son-in-law, J. B. del Mazo (1308). If this be correct, Mazo was another Velazquez. There is nothing in Mazo's known works to justify such an estimate of his powers. "Mazo, still in his early youth, had in 1634 married a daughter of Velazquez, and had only recently got a subordinate place in Philip's court. It is hard to believe that he could have painted this superb picture when only about 25 years of age, or that Philip would have entrusted him with the portrait of a favourite when he had beside him his trusty Court painter, Velazquez" (Quarterly Review, April 1899, p. 521).

[248] "Congratulate me (he wrote to his old friend and colleague, Sir H. A. Layard) on a real trouvaille. The picture I bought at G. Bentinck's sale has come out splendidly, and is in first-rate condition. Burton is greatly struck with it. It is a wonderful bit of luck to have picked up so fine a picture from among so many of the cognoscenti." No wonder that Sir William Gregory, who bought his pictures so cheap, was aghast at the large and even fancy price which the nation sometimes has to pay. "The cost of them," he writes of the Longford pictures (Nos. 1314-1316) "makes me blush when I think of it."

[249] The composition, however, has been blamed on the ground that the square picture on the wall interferes with the girl's head in a very awkward manner. The Cupid represented in that picture is also very clumsy. A correspondent replying to these criticisms writes: "The composition depends not upon the rhythm of the lines, but upon the arrangement of patches of colour, somewhat in the manner of the Japanese. Dutch painters often represented inferior pictures upon the walls of their interiors, perhaps as a kind of humorous contrast to their own masterpieces. See, for instance, the daub in De Hooch's picture in the National Gallery (No. 834)."

[250] By Mr. Berenson ascribed to "Amico di Sandro."

[251] "Hung on each side of the great Vandyck, on the east wall of the principal Dutch and Flemish room, they have given the completing touch to that collection of chefs d'œuvre, and made it now beyond question the finest wall of masterpieces of those schools in Europe" (Sir Edward Poynter's speech at the Royal Academy Banquet, 1899).

[252] The purchase for the nation was at one time in jeopardy. Early in 1899 the two pictures were offered by Lord de Saumarez to the National Gallery for the sum of £12,500. A special grant was obtained from Her Majesty's Treasury for this sum on the condition that the Trustees should forego the annual grant for 1899-1900, estimated at £5000. Lord de Saumarez found, however, that he had no power to sell the pictures without an order from the Court of Chancery, and having been subsequently offered the sum of £15,000 for these two pictures, the Court decided they could only be sold to the National Gallery for an advance on the sum offered. The Trustees, therefore, offered the sum of £15,050, for which the Court awarded them to the Trustees. Towards the balance of the purchase money, amounting to £2550, two of the Trustees, Mr. Alfred de Rothschild and Mr. Heseltine, liberally contributed £500 each, and the remainder, amounting to £1550, was paid out of the grant for the year 1898-99.

[253] Mr. Roger Fry (in The Pilot, Jan. 5, 1901) attributes our picture, which he calls "a distressing production," to "some journeyman painter who treated Fra Bartolommeo's design in the spirit of the earlier furniture painters, but without their charm and naïveté."

[254] "His early pictures have only a hint of personal expression. Some of his Madonnas are still almost Byzantine in their hieratic solemnity. It is possible to follow Giovanni Bellini's career almost from year to year by the increase of personal expression in his figures and landscapes" (Mary Logan: Guide to the Italian Pictures at Hampton Court, p. 9).

[255] See Bernhard Berenson's Lorenzo Lotto, 1895, pp. 21-120.

[256] See Mr. Herbert Cook's Giorgione, pp. 68-74.

[257] That fine picture came from the Manfrini Palace at Venice; and though by some called a "bad and late copy" (Mündler, Beiträge zu B.'s Cicerone, 1870, p. 61) is by others highly praised. Thus Waagen, in his Treasures of Art in Great Britain (vol. iii. 1854, p. 19), in describing the Cobham Hall pictures, says of the picture now in the National Gallery that it "agrees essentially with the fine portrait in the Manfrini collection at Venice. But the tone of the flesh is heavier here, and the grey colour of the dress unites too much with the grey ground, while in the Manfrini picture, the brown tones of the dress stand out decidedly from it."

[258] See the Second Annual Report of the National Art Collections Fund, 1906, pp. 35, 36. Until the matter was cleared up by the researches of Señor de Beruete, summarised in that Report, it was supposed that our picture was one of five mythologies painted by Velazquez for the Gallery of Mirrors in the Alcazar of Madrid, two of which perished in the great fire of 1734. Knowledge of this fire was doubtless the origin of a suggestion that our picture also had been damaged and repainted. There was correspondence on this subject, and on others connected with the picture, in the Times of November and December 1905 and the early part of 1906.

[259] The intermediate processes by which the price of the picture rose from £30,500 to £45,000 have not been disclosed. Towards the latter sum, the largest contributions were—"An Englishman" £10,000; Lord Michelham, £8000; and Messrs. Agnew, £5250.

[260] See pp. 75-78 of The Barbizon School, by D. C. Thomson, from whose translation I borrow a few sentences.

[261] According to William Morris, most visitors to the Gallery are apt to pass by some of its principal treasures. "If ordinary people go to our National Gallery, the thing which they want to see is the Blenheim Raphael, which, though well done, is a very dull picture to any one not an artist. While, when Holbein shows them the Danish princess of the sixteenth century yet living on the canvas ...; when Van Eyck opens a window for them into Bruges of the fourteenth century; when Botticelli shows them Heaven as it lived in the hearts of men before theology was dead, these things produce no impression on them, not so much even as to stimulate their curiosity and make them ask what 'tis all about; because these things were done to be looked at, and to make the eyes tell the mind tales of the past, the present, and the future" (Mackail's Life of William Morris, ii. 273).

[262] The precise nature of the transaction was this:—Lady Carlisle received in cash £40,000 and the Treasury paid the death-duties (£2776). Of these sums, the National Gallery funds contributed £15,000; the National Art-Collections' Fund, £10,000; and the Treasury £17,776 (see House of Commons Debate, February 28, 1912).

PICTURES ON LOAN

THE HOLY FAMILY.

This picture, not yet numbered, is lent by the Victoria and Albert (South Kensington) Museum. It is generally characteristic of Fungai, but the figure of the Infant Christ is not pleasing.

THE MADONNA DI SANTI ANTONIO.

"In the same city (says Vasari)—[the city of Perugia, for which also the Ansidei Madonna was painted]—Raphael was commissioned to paint a picture of Our Lady by the nuns of Sant' Antonio of Padua; the Infant Christ is in the lap of the Virgin and is fully clothed, as it pleased those simple and pious ladies that he should be; on each side of Our Lady are figures of saints, San Pietro, namely, with San Paolo, Santa Cecilia, and Santa Catarina. To these two holy virgins the master has given the most lovely features and the most graceful attitudes; he has also adorned them with the most fanciful and varied head-dresses that could be imagined—a very unusual thing at that time. In a lunette above this picture he painted a figure of the Almighty Father, which is extremely fine, and on the[Pg 750] predella are three scenes from the history of Christ, in very small figures.... The whole work is without doubt very admirable; it is full of devout feeling, and is held in the utmost veneration by the nuns for whom it was painted. It is very highly commended by all painters likewise."

The small scenes which formed the predella have been dispersed;[263] for the rest, the picture thus described by Vasari is before us. Vasari dates the work 1505, but it is now commonly ascribed to the years 1507-8, after Raphael had experienced the influence of Fra Bartolommeo; it would thus be a little later than the Ansidei Madonna.

The history of the picture is long and eventful. In 1677 the nuns obtained permission to sell it, "to pay their debts and because the surface was in some parts flaking away." The central panel and the lunette (forming the picture as it now is) were bought by Antonio Bigazzini, a nobleman of Perugia, for a sum of about £500. Shortly afterwards, the picture passed into the hands of the great Colonna family at Rome, and it is often called "The Colonna Raphael." The fortunes of the picture now became part of those of modern Italian history. In the last century, the picture had been bought by Francis II., King of Naples. It was a great favourite of his, and was always kept in his bedroom in the Royal Palace. When the revolution of 1860 came, and the king was driven out of Naples, the Raphael accompanied him on his wanderings, and the king succeeded in conveying it in safety to the fortress of Gaeta. When Gaeta fell in 1861, and the king went into exile, he again took the picture with him, and it was safely transported to Spain. The king was accompanied in his flight by the financier and factotum, formerly Spanish Minister at Naples, upon whom he had conferred the title of Duke of Ripalda. To him the king in some way pledged the picture, and for a time it became known as the Ripalda Raphael. Its history next becomes connected with the secular jealousies of England and France. In 1867 Sir J. C. Robinson saw the picture at Madrid, and received a hint that it might possibly be for sale. Sir William Boxall, the Director of our Gallery, went to inspect the picture, which was then in fine condition; and Disraeli authorised the trustees to buy it. Negotiations [Pg 751]were commenced on the basis of £20,000; but the Duke of Ripalda was a friend of the Empress Eugénie, and the knowledge that England was in the market inspired a counter-bid of £40,000 from France. The outbreak of the Prussian War caused a hitch in the negotiations; and the picture, which had been sent to Paris, underwent rigorous "restoration." The Colonna Raphael, wrote Sir William Gregory (May 1870), "was, a few months ago, one of the most perfect and important pictures of that master. In an evil moment it had been submitted to the cleaner, and a piteous spectacle it now is in the eyes of gods and men. It is said that on the old frame being removed, the picture fell to the ground in three pieces. This is confirmed by the extraordinary winking appearance of the eye of one of the female saints, through which unfortunately one of the cracks runs, and which therefore had to be repainted by a modern hand." Ruskin, perhaps unaware of these repaintings or believing that they could be removed, strongly urged the acquisition of the picture for the nation (Works, xxii. 140, xxxiv. 512). But the authorities would not entertain the idea, and the picture, refused both by the Louvre and by the National Gallery, returned, unpurchased and unhonoured, into the hands of the Duke. In 1886 it was lent to the South Kensington Museum and there it remained for several years, until Mr. Martin Colnaghi bought it from the representatives of the late King of Naples. The Parisian repaintings were removed, and the picture was restored to much of its pristine beauty. Ultimately it passed into the possession of Mr. Pierpont Morgan (at the price, it is said, of £100,000), and by him it is for the present lent to the National Gallery.

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

FOOTNOTES:

[263] In addition to the "three scenes" mentioned by Vasari there were two single figures, of St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua respectively: these are in the Dulwich Gallery.

COPIES FROM THE OLD MASTERS

I.—VELAZQUEZ

One collection is of fifty-nine copies in oil-colour, on a reduced scale, of pictures by Velazquez in the Prado Gallery, at Madrid, presented by Lord Savile. They were painted by Mr. Chidley Molony, an English gentleman who first went to Spain as an officer in the army of General Evans, and subsequently settled at Madrid, where he was a great favourite and well known, especially to the English Colony. The following are the subjects of these copies:—

1. The Adoration of the Magi.
2. The Crucifixion.
3. The Coronation of the Virgin.
4. St. Anthony visiting St. Pablo.
5. A Group of Rustics drinking (the picture known as "Los
Borrachos").
6. The Forge of Vulcan.
7. The Surrender of Breda (the picture known as "Las Lanzas").
8. The Tapestry Fabric of St. Isabel at Madrid (the picture known
as "Las Hilanderas").
9. Velazquez in his painting room, with various members of the
Royal Family and their Attendants (the picture known as
"Las Meninas").
10. "Mercury and Argus."
11. Equestrian Portrait of King Philip III.
12. Equestrian Portrait of Queen Margarita de Austria (wife of
Philip III.).
13. Equestrian Portrait of King Philip IV.
14. Equestrian Portrait of Queen Isabel de Borbon (first wife of
Philip IV.).
[Pg 753]15. Equestrian Portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos, as a child.
16. Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Olivares.
17. Portrait of Philip IV. as a young man, in court dress.
18. Portrait of the Infanta of Spain, Doña Maria, Queen of Hungary
(sister of Philip IV.).
19. Portrait of the Infante, Don Carlos, second son of Philip III., in
court dress.
20. Portrait of King Philip IV. in hunting dress.
21. Portrait of the Infante, Don Fernando de Austria (brother of
Philip IV.), in hunting dress.
22. Portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos, at the age of six, in hunting dress.
23. Portrait of King Philip IV., at the age of fifty (?), clad in half
armour.
24. Portrait of Doña Mariana de Austria (second wife of Philip IV.).
25. King Philip IV. kneeling at prayer.
26. Queen Mariana de Austria, second wife of Philip IV., kneeling at
prayer.
27. Portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos, son of Philip IV., at the age of
fourteen, in court dress.
28. Portrait of the Infanta, Maria Teresa de Austria, daughter of
Philip IV. and afterwards Queen of France.
29. Portrait (bust length) of the Cordovan poet, Don Louis de Góngora
y Argote.
30. Portrait of Doña Juana Pacheco, wife of the author (bust length;
in profile).
31. Portrait of a Girl (daughter of Velazquez?).
32. Portrait of a Girl (another daughter of Velazquez?).
33. Portrait of a middle-aged Lady (half length).
34. Portrait of Don Antonio Alonso Pimentel, ninth Count of Benavente,
Groom of the Bedchamber to King Philip IV.
35. Portrait of the Sculptor, Martinez Montanes (half length).
36. Portrait of Pablillos de Valladolid, a Jester of King Philip IV.
37. Portrait of Pernia, a Jester of King Philip IV. (commonly known
as the Portrait of "Barbarroja").
38. Portrait of a Jester of King Philip IV., nicknamed Don Juan de
Austria.
39. Portrait of a Dwarf of King Philip IV., called "El Primo."
40. Portrait of a Dwarf of King Philip IV. (Sebastian de Morra?)
41. Portrait of Don Antonio, an English (?) Dwarf of King Philip IV.
(with a mastiff).
42. The Boy of Vallecas.
43. The Idiot of Coria.
44. Æsop.
45. Menippus.
46. The God Mars.
47. Portrait of a Man (bust length).
48. Portrait of a Man (bust length).
49. Portrait of Alonso Martinez de Espinar, Groom of the Bedchamber
[Pg 754]to Prince Baltasar Carlos (bust length).
50. View in the Garden of the Villa Medici, Rome.
51. View in the Garden of the Villa Medici, Rome.
52. View of the "Calle de la Reina" in Aranjuez, with a Royal
Cavalcade on the road.
53. Study of an old Man's head, in profile.
54. Study of an old Man's head (a smaller copy).
55. Portrait of Philip IV., in court dress.
56. Portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos, as a child, in court dress.
57. A Group of Figures, presumably painted by Velazquez, in the foreground
of a "View of Zaragoza", by Juan Bautista Martinez del
Mazo.
58. Another group of Figures in the same picture.
59. Portrait of Doña Mariana de Austria, second wife of Philip IV.,
dressed in mourning (now attributed to Juan B. M. del Mazo).

II.—REMBRANDT

A second collection (also presented by Lord Savile) consists of forty copies, painted in oil-colour, on a reduced scale by Herr Paul Roemer, from pictures by Rembrandt in the Imperial Gallery of the Hermitage, St. Petersburg. The subjects are as follows:—

1. The Denial of St. Peter.
2. Portrait of Rembrandt's Mother; half length; seated, holding a book on her knees.
3. Portrait of Rembrandt's Mother; half length; seated.
4. Portrait of a young Warrior in armour.
5. Portrait of an aged Jew; half length; seated.
6. Portrait of a Man; half length; standing.
7. Portrait of a Woman; half length; seated.
8. Portrait of the Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel; seated.
9. A young female Servant, with a broom.
10. "Le Benedicite." (A Peasant family saying grace.)

11. Abraham at Table with the Angels.
12. Jacob's elder Sons showing him Joseph's garment.
13. Potiphar's Wife accusing Joseph.
14. The Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard.
15. The Incredulity of St. Thomas.
16. Portrait of Rembrandt's Mother; half length; seated.
17. Portrait of a young Jewess, crowned with flowers.
[Pg 755]18. Portrait of a Turk; half length.
19. Portrait of a Man.
20. Portrait of a young Man, with long fair hair.
21. Portrait of a young Man, dressed in black.
22. Portrait of an old Man.

23. The Sacrifice of Abraham.
24. The Holy Family.
25. The Return of the Prodigal Son.
26. Danaë.
27. Portrait of an old Officer.
28. A Young Girl at her Toilet.
29. Portrait of a Man.
30. Portrait of a Woman.
31. A Landscape; with figures representing the journey to Emmaus.
32. View on the Rhine.
33. The Toilet of a young Jewish Girl.

34. The Disgrace of Haman.
35. The Descent from the Cross.
36. Portrait of Lieven Willemszon van Copenol, the Calligrapher.
37. The Mother of Rembrandt; half length; seated.
38. Portrait of an aged Jew.
39. Portrait of an old Man.
40. A Nun teaching a Child to read.

III.—MURILLO, Etc.

A third collection (presented by Dr. E. J. Longton, of Southport) consists of forty-five small water-colour copies, by W. West, from pictures by old masters, principally in the Prado Gallery at Madrid. The following are the subjects:—

1. The Adoration of the Shepherds. Prado, Madrid.
2. St. Elizabeth of Hungary tending the Sick. Academy of St. Fernando, Madrid.
3. The Dream of the Roman Senator and his Wife. Ibid.
4. The Roman Senator and his Wife telling their Dream to Pope Liberius. Ibid.
5. St. Thomas of Villanueva giving alms. Museum, Seville.
6. Christ on the Cross, supported by St. Francis. Ibid.
[Pg 756]7. SS. Justa and Rufina. Ibid.
8. St. Anthony with the Infant Saviour. Museum, Seville.
9. St. Felix restoring the Infant Christ to the Virgin. Ibid.
10. La Vergen de la Servilleta. Ibid.
11. Moses striking the Rock in Horeb. La Caridad, Seville.
12. St. John the Baptist as a Child, with the Lamb. Ibid.
13. The Charity of St. Juan de Dios. Ibid.

15. Los Borrachos (The Tipplers). Prado, Madrid.
16. Portrait of Philip IV. (with a Dog). Ibid.
17. Prince Balthazar as a Boy on his Pony. Ibid.
18. Portrait of the Infanta Doña Margarita. Ibid.
19. Portrait of a Male Dwarf, with a Dog. Ibid.
20. Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour); Velazquez in his Studio painting the Infanta Margarita Maria. Ibid.
21. Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV. Ibid.
22. Portrait of the Earl of Nottingham. Ibid.

23. Portrait of Philip II. as a Young Man. Ibid.
24. Equestrian Portrait of Charles. Ibid.
25. The Bacchanal. Ibid.
26. Portrait of Charles V., with a Dog. Ibid.
27. Portrait of an Officer.

30. The Betrayal of Christ. Ibid.
31. Portrait of Henry, Count de Berg. Ibid.
32. Portrait of a Cavalier. Ibid.

36. The Holy Family (La Perla). Prado, Madrid.
37. The Holy Family (La Rosa). Ibid.
38. The Holy Family (Del Lagarto). Ibid.
39. Christ bearing the Cross (Lo Spasimo). Ibid.

IV.—THE ARUNDEL SOCIETY'S COLLECTION

The Arundel Society was formed in 1849 in order to meet "a revived interest in art by suitable instruction." In the case of early Italian art, "the materials for such instruction were abundant, but scattered, little accessible, and, in some instances, passing away." The Society set itself to secure engravings and other records of works of art which came within the description just given. A large collection of water-copies from the Old Masters was thus accumulated, and the Collection was in 1897 deposited in the National Gallery on loan. Two years later, the Society was wound up, and the collection was given to the nation. It is of great interest and value to all students of mediæval art. Many of the Arundel copies are familiar from reproductions in chromo-lithography. "The latter," as a well-known critic has remarked, "although they undoubtedly did good service in their time by calling attention to the less known and less easily available masterpieces of the earlier Italian art, were[Pg 758] often enough lamentable caricatures of the things which they professed to represent. The drawings themselves are, however, in many cases, of an exquisite accuracy, of which the reproductions give little or no idea. Of course, when the attempt is made to copy in this medium the great achievements of Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Palma Vecchio, Paolo Veronese,—or even of such earlier colourists as the Van Eycks and Memlinc,—failure, more or less complete, must inevitably be the result. It would be difficult, on the other hand, to overestimate the value of such copies as those of the famous frescoes of Mantegna in the Church of the Eremitani at Padua, those of Benozzo Gozzoli at San Gimignano and Montefalco, of Piero della Francesca at Arezzo, or of the great galaxy of Quattrocento painters—Perugino, Pinturicchio, Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, Signorelli, Cosimo Rosselli, and Piero di Cosimo—who worked in the Sixtine Chapel before Michelangelo came to dwarf and efface them with his stupendous ceiling, and, thirty years later on, with his 'Last Judgment.' For the purposes of study and comparison these copies, lent by the Arundel Society, fulfil much the same role as does a good museum of casts from antique masterpieces. They do not enable the student of art to form a complete idea of the originals, any more than the copies of the Pheidian and Praxitelean sculptures do; but they enlarge his view of the scope and significance of Italian and Netherlandish art in their greatest phases, and happily they fill up gaps which must occur even in the most various and representative collection, such as is the National Gallery."[264]

It is hoped that the following catalogue may serve to bring before the notice of visitors the importance of a collection [Pg 759]which deserves much greater attention than it has hitherto received. The artists represented are arranged alphabetically, with references to such of them as are also represented by original work in the National Gallery. After the title of each work, information is given as to the nature of the original from which the copy is made, and the place where the original is. The numerals after each picture refer to the numbers at present on the frames.

Destruction of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (180): fresco, Sistine Chapel.
Moses at the Well (185): fresco, Sistine Chapel.
The Temptation (110): " " "
Venus rising from the Sea (87): picture, Uffizi, Florence.

St. George baptizing the Princess (79): picture, S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice.
St. Jerome in his study (89): " " "
The Calling of St. Matthew (77): " " "
St. George and the Dragon (190): " " "

Copies from two of the frescoes in the Hospital of S. Maria della Scala, at Siena (Nos. 1 and 6 of the series, "The Rearing, Education, and Marriage of Foundlings," and "Pope Celestine's approval of the building of the Hospital").

St. John and St. Peter (99): picture, Pinakothek, Munich.
St. Mark and St. Paul (103): " " "
Adoration of the Trinity (101): picture, Belvedere, Vienna.

Pope Sixtus VI. (38): fresco, Vatican Gallery, Rome.
Angels (68, 76, 206, 217): fresco, sacristy, St. Peter's, Rome.

Marriage of St. Cecilia: fresco, St. Cecilia, Bologna.
Burial of St. Cecilia: " " "

Nativity of the Virgin (207): fresco, cathedral of Prato.
Betrothal (179): " " "

Calling of the Apostles (115): fresco, Sistine Chapel, Rome.
The Last Supper (88): fresco, Ognissanti, Florence.
St. John the Baptist (90): fresco, S. Maria Novella, Florence.
Zacharias Naming his Son (92): " " "
Birth of the Baptist (111): " " "
Angel appearing to Zacharias (132): " " "
Baptism of Christ (159): " " "
Expulsion of Joachim (171): " " "
Birth of the Virgin (172): " " "
Marriage of the Virgin (175): " " "
The Salutation (195): " " "
Massacre of the Innocents (196): " " "
Presentation in the Temple (226): " " "

The Emperor Augustus and the Sibyl (84): fresco, S. Trinita, Florence.
Death of St. Francis of Assisi: fresco, S. Trinita, Florence.
Death of S. Fina (47): fresco, Cappella S. Fina, S. Gimignano.
Burial of S. Fina (158): " " "

The Life of St. Francis (2, 95, 199-205, 215-220): frescoes, upper church of S. Francesco, Assisi.

Scenes from the Life of St. Francis (208, 222, 242, 267): frescoes, church S. Francesco, Montefalco.

Scenes from the Life of St. Agostino (46, 224, 243, 244): frescoes, church S. Agostino, S. Gimignano.

The Journey of the Three Kings to Bethlehem (37, 39, 41, 123, 248): frescoes, Riccardi Palace, Florence.

Virgin and Child (34): picture, Uffizi, Florence.
Virgin and Child (100): picture, Belle Arti, Florence.

Burial of St. Stephen (238): fresco, cathedral of Prato.
Heads from frescoes (157, 170): " " "

Glorification of St. Thomas Aquinas, two heads from: fresco (157); Cappella, Carafa, S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome.

St. Peter and St. Paul before Nero, and Martyrdom of St. Peter: fresco, Brancacci chapel, Carmine, Florence.

The Deposition (29): fresco, lower church, Assisi.
Good Government: frescoes, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena.

Events in the Life of St. Bernardino (30, 229, 230): pictures, Pinacoteca, Perugia.

Ippolita Sforza in prayer, with attendant saints (74): fresco, S. Maurizio, Milan.
Donor and Saints (266): fresco, S. Maurizio, Milan.
St. Catherine (268): fresco, Santuario della Madonna, Saronno.
St. Apollonia (260): " " "
Head of an Attendant (125): " " "
Head of the Virgin (117): " " "
Marriage of the Virgin: " " "
Adoration of the Magi: " " "
Christ among the Doctors: " " "
Presentation: " " "

The Histories of SS. James and Christopher (38, 42, 227, 230, 236, 239); frescoes, Eremitani Chapel, Padua.

St. Peter and St. John giving alms: fresco, Brancacci Chapel, Carmine, Florence.

St. Peter and St. John healing the sick: fresco, Brancacci Chapel, Carmine, Florence.

St. Peter and St. Paul raising the King's son: fresco, Brancacci Chapel, Carmine, Florence.

The History of the Baptist (119, 127, 169, 211): frescoes, Castiglione d' Olona (near Varese).

St. Peter and St. John raising Petronilla: fresco, Brancacci Chapel, Carmine, Florence.

Panels from Triptych (105): Hospital St. John, Bruges.
Crucifixion (106): triptych, Lübeck Cathedral.

St. Martin renouncing the Emperor's service (124): fresco, church S. Francesco, Assisi.

Delphic Sibyl (20): fresco, Sistine Chapel, Rome.
Persic Sibyl (262): " " "
Ezekiel (17): " " "
Jeremiah (16): " " "

St. John Baptist and St. Benedict (6): picture, SS. Nazzaro e Celso, Verona.
SS. Nazzaro e Celso (8): picture, SS. Nazzaro e Celso, Verona.
St. Blaise led to execution: " " "

Christ's charge to Peter (56): fresco, Sistine Chapel, Rome.
Baptism of Christ (181): " " "
Moses and the Angel (197): " " "

Piccolomini receiving a Cardinal's hat (71): fresco, Piccolomini Library, Siena.

A drawing of the interior of the Piccolomini Library, showing Pinturicchio's frescoes (43).

Philosophy (22): fresco, in one of the Stanze, Vatican.
Poetry (25): " " "
Poets on Mt. Parnassus (21): " "
St. Peter delivered from Prison (19): "
Theology (23): " " "
Justice (26): " " "
Expulsion of Heliodorus (213): " "
Mass of Bolsena (121): " "

Visit of Christian II., King of Denmark, in 1475 to Bartolomeo Colleoni (58, 182, 188, 228, 234, 240): frescoes, Castle of Malpaga, near Bergamo.

Worship of the Golden Calf (135): fresco, Sistine Chapel, Rome.
The Last Supper (184): " " "
Passage of the Red Sea (192): " " "
Sermon on the Mount (198): " " "

St. John Baptist preaching (93): fresco, cloisters of Campagnia dello Scalzo, Florence.

Procession of the Magi (33): fresco, Annunziata, Florence.
St. Filippo Benizzi (52): " " "
Madonna del Saco: " " "

The Crowning of the Elect (165): fresco, cathedral, Orvieto.
Portraits of Dante and Virgil (from the same): " "

Presentation of SS. Placidas and Maurus to St. Benedict (233): fresco, Monte Oliveto.
St. Benedict Preaching (98): fresco, Monte Oliveto.
Christ (12): fresco, convent of S. Anna, near Siena.
Christ bound to the Column (61): picture, Academy, Siena.
Swoon of St. Catherine (69): fresco, S. Domenico, Siena.
Vision of St. Catherine (64): " " "
Presentation of the Virgin (263): fresco, S. Bernardino, Siena.

SCULPTURES AND MARBLES

Many of the sculptures belonging to the National Gallery have been removed to the Hall of Sculpture at the Tate Gallery or to the National Portrait Gallery. Among those that remain in Trafalgar Square are:—

"The Dying Alexander" (in the Vestibule).—A Renaissance copy in Egyptian porphyry of the bust, in the Uffizi at Florence, known as "The Dying Alexander." The bust is now generally recognised as the work of a Pergamene sculptor, and is supposed to represent a youthful giant. The influence of the "Alexander type" is in any case noticeable in this fine work; a type embodying "the traces of human passion, the imperfection of human longing, the divine despair, which attach to the highest mortal natures because they are high and because they are mortal."—Presented by Mr. Henry Yates Thompson.

Bust of Mantegna.—A plaster cast from the bust of Mantegna in the Mantegna Chapel at Mantua: see the description quoted under 274.—Presented by Mr. Henry Vaughan.

FOOTNOTES:

[264] Among works of illustration produced of late years, "the publications of the Arundel Society," says Ruskin, "hold the first rank in purpose and principle, having been from the beginning conducted by a council of gentlemen in the purest endeavour for public utility, and absolutely without taint of self-interest, or encumbrance of operation by personal or national jealousy. Failing often, as could not but be the case when their task was one of supreme difficulty, and before unattempted, they have yet on the whole been successful in producing the most instructive and historically valuable series of engravings that have ever been put within reach of the public.... I learned more from the Arundel copy than in the chapel itself; for the daily companionship with the engraving taught me subtleties in the composition which had escaped me in the multitudinous interest of visits to the actual fresco" (Stones of Venice, Travellers' edition, ii, 176; and Ariadne Florentina, Appendix, p. 246).

APPENDIX I

In the following list all the painters (of Foreign Schools) represented in the National Gallery are enumerated. Painters only represented by pictures belonging to, but now removed from, the Gallery are not included. The painters are given in alphabetical order, and are cited by the names by which they are most commonly known. But where such names differ from the proper patronymics, the latter are also given, with references to the former. Similar double references are given in other cases where doubt is likely to arise.

In the case of names with the prefix "de" or "van," the painter should be looked for under the initial letter of his surname: e.g. "Van Dyck" under "Dyck," "Van de Cappelle" under "Cappelle."

Pictures by unknown artists will be found under the schools to which they severally belong: "Dutch," "Florentine," etc.

In the case of painters represented by several pictures, the first reference after each name is to the page in the Handbook where some general account of the painter will be found. The references after each picture are to the official number on its frame, under which number the description of the picture will be found in the preceding catalogue.

Agii, A. Cordelle
Marriage of St. Catherine, 1409

Agnolo, Andrea d'. See Sarto

Albertinelli
Virgin and Child, 645

Aldegrever, H.
Young Man (portrait), 1232

Allegri. See Correggio

Allori, Alessandro, p. xix
Portrait of a Lady, 650

Allori, Cristofano
A Lady (portrait), 21

Alunno. See Niccolo da Foligno

Amberger, Christoph
Portrait of a Young Man, 2604

Ambrogio. See Predis

Amerighi. See Caravaggio

Angelico, Fra, p. 329
Adoration of the Magi, 582
The Resurrection, 663

Angelico, School of
The Annunciation, 1406

Angelo di Taddeo Gaddi, p. xix
Coronation of Virgin, 568

Antonello da Messina, p. 343
Crucifixion, 1166
His own Portrait, 1141
St. Jerome, 1418
Salvator Mundi, 673

Aretino. See Spinello

Assisi, Andrea d'. See Ingegno

Avercamp, H. van, p. 633
Winter Scenes, 1346, 1479

Bacchiacca, Il
History of Joseph, 1218, 1219

Bakhuizen, L., p. 204
Coast Scene, 818
Estuary, 1000
Gale, 223
Mouth of Thames, 819
Ships in a Gale, 1442

Baldung, Hans, p. 224
A Pietà, 1427
A Senator (portrait), 245

Barbarelli. See Giorgione

Barbieri. See Guercino

Barnaba da Modena
Descent of Holy Ghost, 1437

Baroccio, F.
Madonna del Gatto, 29

Bartolommeo, Fra
Virgin and Child, 1694

Basaiti, Marco, p. 244
Madonna of the Meadow, 599
St. Jerome reading, 281
Virgin and Child, 2499
Young Venetian (portrait), 2498

Bassano, Il, p. 182
A Gentleman (portrait), 173
Christ and the Money Changers, 228
The Good Samaritan, 277

Bastiani, Lazzaro, p. 388
Virgin and Child, 1953
See also 750 (p. xx)

Bazzi. See Sodoma

Beccafumi, Domenico
Esther and Ahasuerus, 1430

Beerestraaten, J.
Winter Scene, 1311

Bega, C. P.
A Philosopher, 1481

Bellini, Gentile, p. 584
G. Malatini (portrait), 1213
St. Dominic, 1440
St. Peter Martyr, 808

Bellini, Giovanni, p. 190
Agony in the Garden, 726
Blood of the Redeemer, 1233
Circumcision, 1455
Doge Loredano, 189
Madonna (Pomegranate), 280
Madonna and Child (fresco), 1696
St. Peter Martyr (landscape), 812.
See also 599, 808, 1440 (pp. xix & xx)

—— School of
The Doge Mocenigo, 750

Beltraffio, G. A., p. 375
Madonna and Child, 728
—— (Columbine), 2496
Narcissus, 2673

—— School of
Madonna and Child, 2089

Benozzo. See Gozzoli

Benson, Ambrosius, p. xix
Reading Magdalen, 655

[Pg 773]Benvenuti, Giov. Batt. See Ortolano

Benvenuto da Siena, p. 462
Madonna and Child, 2482
—— (with St. Peter and St. Nicholas), 909

Berchem, N., p. 150
Crossing the Ford, 240
Hurdy-Gurdy, 1006
Italian Landscape, 1004
Landscape with Ruin, 820
Ploughing, 1005

Berck-Heyde, G. A., p. 644
Church Interior, 1451
View in Haarlem, 1420

Bertucci, p. 245
Glorification of the Virgin, 282
Incredulity of St. Thomas, 1051

Betto, Bernardino di. See Pinturicchio

Bibiena, F.
Teatro Farnese, Parma, 936

Bigio. See Franciabigio

Bigordi. See Ghirlandajo

Bissolo, Fr., ascribed to
A Lady (portrait), 631

Bles, H., ascribed to
Christ on the Cross, 718
The Magdalen, 719

Boccaccino, B.
Procession to Calvary, 806

Boel, Pieter, p. xxi
Dogs and Game, 1903

Bol, F.
An Astronomer (portrait), 679

Boltraffio. See Beltraffio

Bonfigli, B.
Adoration of Magi, 1843

Bonheur, Rosa
The Horse Fair, 621

Bonifazio (the elder)
Madonna and Child, 1202

Bono da Ferrara
St. Jerome in the Desert, 771

Bonsignori, F.
Venetian Senator (portrait), 736

Bonvicino. See Moretto

Bonvin, F. S.
Village Green in France, 1448

Bordone, Paris, p. 317
Daphnis and Chloe, 637
Lux Mundi, 1845
Portrait of a Lady, 674
Portrait of a Lady, 2097

Borgognone, A., p. 266
A Triptych, 1077
The two St. Catherines, 298
Virgin and Child, 1410
See also 779-780 (p. xx)

—— School of
Family Portraits, 779-780

Bosboom, Johannes
Interior of Haarlem Church, 2712

Bosch, P. van den
Woman scouring Pans, 2551

Both, Jan, p. 147
Goatherds, 957
Italian Landscape, 956
—— 1917
Judgment of Paris, 209
Muleteers, 71
Walls of Rome, 958

Botticelli, Sandro, p. 495
Adoration of Magi, 592
—— (circular), 1033
Madonna and Child (circular), 275
Mars and Venus, 915
Nativity of Christ, 1034
Young Man (portrait), 626
See also 782, 1126 (p. xx)

—— School of
Adoration of Magi, 1124
Florentine Lady and Symbolic Angel, 2082
Madonna and Child, 782
Virgin and Child, etc. (circular), 226
—— 2497
—— with St. John, 1412
See also 916 (p. xx)

Botticini, Francesco, pp. xix, 536n.
Assumption of the Virgin, 1126
Raphael and Tobias, 781
St. Jerome in the Desert, 227

Boucher, F.
Pan and Syrinx, 1090

Boudin, L. E.
Squall from the West, 2758
Trouville Harbour, 2078

Bourdon, Sebastien
Return of the Ark, 64

Bouts, Albrecht, p. xx
[Pg 774]Christ Crowned with Thorns, 1083

Bouts, Dierick, pp. xix, 727
Deposition in the Tomb, 664
Madonna and Child Enthroned, 774
Portrait of a Man, 943
Virgin and Child, 2595

Brekelenham, Q., p. 628
Afternoon Nap, 2550
Interior, 1329
Tailor's Shop, 2549

British School. See 1652 (p. xxi)

Bronzino, Angelo, p. 322
Piero de' Medici, 1323
Portrait of a Boy, 649
Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time, 651
See also 650, 670, 704 (pp. xix & xx)

—— School of
Bianca Capello, 2085
Cosimo I., 704
Knight of St. Stephen, 670

Brouwer, Adrian
Boors Drinking, 2569

Browne, Henriette
A Greek Captive, 1969

Brueghel, Jan
Pan and Syrinx, 659

Bruyn, Bartolomaus
Dr. Fuchsius, 2605

Buitenweg, W.
Landscape, 2731

Buonaccorso, Niccolò di
Marriage of Virgin, 1109

Buonarroti. See Michael Angelo

Burgundian School
Louis XI., 2612
Philip and Margaret, 2613

Busi, Giovanni. See Cariani

Calame, Alexandre
Lake of Thun, 1786

Calcar, J. S.
Venetian Gentleman and Child, 2597

Caliari. See Veronese, Paolo

Callot, James
Tartarus (drawing), 2757

Campaña, Pedro
Christ preaching in the Temple, 1241

Campi, Giulio
A Musician, 2511

Campin, Robert, p. 729
Virgin and Child, 2609
—— with Angels, 2608

—— School of
Christ Appearing, 1086
Death of the Virgin, 658
The Magdalen, 654

Canaletto, p. 163
Eton College, 942
Rotunda at Ranelagh, 1429
Ruins, 135
Venice;
Canal Reggio, 1058
Ducal Palace, 940
Grand Canal, 2514
Grimani Palace, 941
Piazza S. Marco, 2515
Piazzetta, 939
Procuratie Nuove, 2516
Regatta, 938
San Pietro in Castello, 1059
San Simeone Piccolo, 163
Scuola della Carità, 127
Scuola di San Rocco, 937

Cappelle, Jan van de, p. 448
A Calm, 2587
Coast Scenes, 865, 2586
Dutch Galliot, 2588
River Scenes, 964, 965, and 966
Shipping, 967

Caravaggio
Christ at Emmaus, 172

Cariani, p. 582
An Italian Nobleman, 2494
Madonna and Child, 1203
Vierge aux Lauriers, 2495

—— ascribed to
Death of Peter Martyr, 41

Carpaccio, Vittore. See 750

Carracci, Agostino, p. 168
Cephalus and Aurora, 147
Galatea, 148

Carracci, Annibale, p. 68
Bacchus and Silenus, 94
"Domine quo vadis?" 9
Erminia and the Shepherds, 88
Landscape with Figures (lake), 56
—— (Giustiniani), 63
[Pg 775]Man with a Beard, 2105
St. John in the Wilderness, 25
Silenus, 93
Temptation of St. Anthony, 198

Carracci, Ludovico
Entombment of Christ, 86
Susannah and the Elders, 28

Carucci. See Pontormo

Casentino. See Landini

Castagno, Andrea del
The Crucifixion, 1138

Catena, p. 218
Portrait of a Young Man, 1121
St. Jerome in his Study, 694
Warrior adoring, 234

Cavallino, B.
Nativity, 1157

Cavazzola. See Morando

Cesare da Sesto, p. 710
Salome, 2485
Virgin and Child, 2504

Champaigne, Philippe de, p. 418
Cardinal J. F. P. de Retz, 2291
Cardinal Richelieu (heads), 798
Cardinal Richelieu (full length), 1449

Chardin, J. B. S., p. 599
La Fontaine, 1664
Still Life, 1258

Charnay, Armand
Parc de Sansac, 2290

Chimenti, J., da Empoli
San Zenobio, 1282

Cima da Conegliano, p. 270
David and Jonathan, 2505
"Ecce Homo!" 1310
Incredulity of St. Thomas, 816
Madonna and Child (goldfinch), 634
Madonna, 300
St. Jerome in the Desert, 1120
Virgin and Child, 2506

Cimabue
Madonna and Child, 565

Cione, Andrea di. See Orcagna

Claude Lorrain, p. 57
Annunciation (or Angel and Hagar), 61
Cave of Adullam, 6
Cephalus and Procris, 2
Classical Landscape, 1018
Death of Procris, 55
Isaac and Rebecca, 12
Landscape ("Study of Trees"), 58
Narcissus and Echo, 19
Seaport: Queen of Sheba, 14
Seaport: St. Ursula, 30
—— Sunset, 5
View in Rome, 1319

Clays, P. J., p. 425
Dutch Shipping, 814, 815

Clouet, F., ascribed to, p. 329
Boy (portrait), 1190
Man (portrait), 660

Codde, Pieter, p. 724
Dutchman with Wife and Son, 2576
Lady with Mirror, 2584

Cologne School. See German

Conca, Sebastiano
Angel with Keys, 1870

Coques, Gonzales, p. 428
Family Group, 821
Five Senses, The, 1114-1118
Lady (portrait), 1011

Cordelle. See Agii

Corneille de Lyons
Antoine de Bourbon, 2610
A Man in Black, 2611

Cornelissen, J., p. 327
Gentleman and Lady, 657
Duke Ulricus, 2209

Corot, J. B. C., p. 698
Bent Tree, 2625
Cows in a Marsh, 2630
Evening on the Lake, 2627
Fisherman's Hut, 2631
Flood, 2629
Marsh of Arleux, 2135
Noon, 2628
Wood Gatherer, 2626

Correggio, p. 69
"Ecce Homo!" 15
Magdalen, 2512
Mercury, Cupid, and Venus, 10
"Vierge au Panier," 23

—— copies after
Agony in the Garden, 76
Groups of Heads, 7, 37

Cosimo, Piero di, p. 360
Death of Procris, 698
[Pg 776]Francesco Ferruccio, 895

Cossa, Francesco del
St. Hyacinth, Dominican, 597

Costa, Giovanni
Carrara Mountains, 1493

Costa, Lorenzo
Madonna and Child Enthroned, 629
Portrait of Dr. Fiera, 2083

Cotignola. See Zaganelli

Courbet, Gustave
The Sea, 2767

Cranach, Lucas, p. 254
Portrait of a Man, 1925
Young Lady (portrait), 291

Credi, Lorenzo di, p. 295
Costanza de' Medici, 2490
Virgin adoring, 648
Virgin and Child, 593

Cristus, Petrus, pp. xx, 726
Marco Barbarigo, 696
Portrait of a Man, 2593

Crivelli, Carlo, p. 300
Annunciation, 739
Beato Ferretti, The, 668
Dead Christ, The, 602
Madonna and Child (swallow), 724
—— (large altar-piece), 788
—— (with St. Francis), 807
Madonna in Ecstasy, 906
St. Catherine and Mary Magdalene, 907

Cuyp, A., p. 136
Boy holding Horse, 2548
Cattle and Figures ("The Large Dort"), 961
—— ("The Small Dort"), 962
—— (small), 1289
—— (large: evening), 53
Cattle with Herdsman, 2547
Horseman and Cows, 822
Landscape (Lady and Child), 2546
Man's Portrait, 797
On the Meuse, 823
River Scene, 2545
Ruined Castle, 824
Study of a Horse, 1683
Windmills, 960

Dalmasio. See Lippo

Daubigny, C. F., p. 732
Alders, 2623
Banks of a River, 2622
Garden Wall, 2624
Willows, 2621

David, Gerard, p. 502
Canon and Patron Saints, 1045
Marriage of St. Catherine, 1432
St. Jerome, 2596

David, G., attributed to
Adoration of Magi, 1079
Deposition from the Cross, 1078

David, J. L.
Eliza Bonaparte, 2217

Decker, C. G.
Landscape, 1341

Delacroix, F. V. E.
Attila, 2289

Delaroche, Paul
Lady Jane Grey, 1909

Delen, Dirck van
Renaissance Architecture, 1010

Diana, Benedetto
Christ Blessing, 2725

Diaz de la Peña, p. 691
Common: Sunset, 2633
Sunny Days in the Forest, 2058
The Storm, 2632

Dietrich, J. W. E.
Itinerant Musicians, 205

Dolci, Carlo
Virgin and Child, 934

Domenichino, p. 128
Landscape (St. George and Dragon), 75
—— (Tobias and Angel), 48
St. Jerome, 85
Stoning of St. Stephen, 77

Domenico Veneziano. See Veneziano

Dosso Dossi, p. 318
Adoration of Magi, 640
Muse and Court Poet, 1234

Dou, Gerard, p. 193
Painter's own Portrait, 192
Painter's Wife (portrait), 968
Portrait of a Lady, 1415
[Pg 777]Poulterer's Shop, 825

Dubbels, H.
Sea-Piece, 1462

Duccio, p. 277
Annunciation, 1139
Christ healing the Blind, 1140
Madonna and Child (triptych), 566
Transfiguration, 1330

Duchatel, François
Portrait of a Boy, 1810

Ducreux, Joseph
His own Portrait, 2162

Dughet. See Poussin, Gaspard

Dupré, Jules
River Scene, 2634

Dürer, Albrecht
Portrait of his Father, 1938

Dutch School (artists unknown)
An Art Gallery, 1287
Interior of a Stable, 1851
Madame van der Goes, 1652 (see p. xxi)
Old Woman Sewing, 1397
Portrait of a Young Man, 1680
Portrait of a Gentleman, 1700

Duyster, W. C.
Players at Tric-Trac, 1387
Soldiers Quarrelling, 1386

Dyck, Sir Anthony van, p. 130
Charles I. (Blenheim portrait), 1172
Cornelius van der Geest ("Gevartius"), 52
His own Portrait, 877
Marchesa Cattaneo, 2144
Marchese Cattaneo, 2127
Miraculous draught of Fishes, 680
"Portrait of Rubens," 49
Study of Horses, 156
Theodosius and St. Ambrose, 50
For drawings by Van Dyck, see 877 A, B

Dyckmans, J. L.
Blind Beggar, 600

Eeckhout, G. van den
The Wine Contract, 1459

Elsheimer, Adam, p. 486
St. Lawrence, 1014
Tobias and the Angel, 1424

Emmanuel
Sts. Cosmas and Damian, 594

Engelbertsz, Cornelis. See 714 p. xx

Ercole da Ferrara. See Grandi

Everdingen, Allart van
Landscape, 1701

Eyck, Jan van, p. 187
Jan Arnolfini and Wife, 186
Man's Portrait, 222
—— (Leal Souvenir), 290

Fabritius, B.
Adoration of Shepherds, 1338
Birth of St. John, 1339

Fantin-Latour, H., p. 689
Apples, 2134
Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Edwards, 1952
Roses, 2133
Study of Flowers, 1686

Fava, Giangiacomo. See Macrino d'Alba

Ferrarese School (artist unknown)
A Battle Piece, 1062

Ferrari, Gaudenzio
Christ rising from the Tomb, 1465

Fiammingo, Enrico
Man with a collar, 2104

Filipepi. See Botticelli

Fiorenzo di Lorenzo
Altar-piece, 1103
Virgin and Child, 2483

Flemish School, 15th-16th centuries (artists unknown)
Christ Appearing, 1280
Count and St. Ambrose, 264
Exhumation of St. Hubert, 783
Head of John the Baptist, 1080
Lady with Rosary, 2670
Madonna and Child (book), 265
—— (curtain), 708
Madonna Enthroned, 2606
Man and Wife, 653
Man with Medallion, 2607
Man with a Ring, 2602
Portrait of a Lady, 1433
Portrait of a Man (gold chain), 947
—— (praying), 1081
—— (skull), 1036
[Pg 778]Portrait of a Young Man (praying), 1063
Portrait of a Monk, 710
Virgin and Child, with St. Elizabeth, 1089
See also 696, 709, 774, 943, 1017, 1078, 1079, 1083, 1086, 1419, 1433 (pp. xx & xxi)

Florentine School, 15th century (artists unknown)
Amor and Castitas, 1196
Savonarola (portrait), 1301
Virgin and Child, 2508
Young Man in Black, 2084
See also 227, 296, 781, 1199 (pp. xix & xx)

Foligno, Niccolò da
Crucifixion, 1107

Foppa, Vincenzo
Adoration of Kings, 729

Forli, Melozzo da
"Rhetoric" and "Music," 755, 756

Fragonard, G. H.
The Happy Mother, 2620

Francesca, Piero della, p. 334
Baptism of Christ, 665
Lady's Portrait, 758
Nativity, 908
St. Michael and Dragon, 769

Francesco di Giorgio
St. Dorothy, 1682

Francia, p. 184
Bartolommeo Bianchini, 2487
Pietà (lunette of above), 180
Pietà, 2671
Virgin and Child (altar-piece), 179
Virgin and Child (smaller), 638

Francia Bigio
Portrait of a Young Man, 1035

French School, 15th century (artists unknown)
Duchesse d'Angoulême, 2617
Lady as Mary Magdalen, 2614
Legend of St. Giles, 1419 (see p. xxi)
Madonna, 1335
Mary, Queen of France, 2615
Portrait of a Lady, 2616
Virgin and Child with Angels, 2618
—— with Saints, 1939

Fungai, B.
Madonna and Child, 1331.
And see p. 749

Fyt, Jan
Dead Birds, 1003
See also 1903 (p. xxi)

Gaddi, Taddeo, School of, p. 211.
See Nos. 215, 216, 579, 579 A (and p. xix)

Gaetano. See Pulzone

Garofalo, p. 151
Agony in the Garden, 642
Holy Family, 170
Madonna and Child (altar-piece), 671
Vision of St. Augustine, 81

Geertgen Tot Sint Jans, p. xx
Virgin and Child (triptych), 1085

Gellée. See Claude

Gennari, Benedetto
His own Portrait, 2106

Géricault, J. L. A. T.
Lithographs of Horses, 2423

German: School of Cologne
Holy Family, 2603
St. Peter and St. Dorothy, 707
Sancta Veronica, 687
See also Lyversberg

German: Westphalian School
Crucifixion, 1049
See also Master of Liesborn

German Schools, 15th-16th century
Crucifixion, 1088
Mocking of Christ, 1087
Portrait of a Lady, 722
Portrait of a Medical Professor, 195
See also Schongauer

Ghirlandajo, Domenico, p. 591
Portrait of a Girl, 1230
Portrait of a Youth, 1299
The young Florentine, 2489

Ghirlandajo, Ridolfo
Girolamo Benevieni, 2491
Procession to Calvary, 1143

Giolfino Niccolo
Giusti Family, 749

Giorgione, p. 230
Adoration of Magi, 1160
Knight in Armour, 269

—— School of
Garden of Love, 930
Unknown Subject, 1173
Venus and Adonis, 1123
[Pg 779]See also 1160, No. 636 (p. xix)

Giotto, School of, p. 278
See also 276, 568 (p. xix)

Giovanni da Milano, p. xix
Panels of altar-piece, 579 A

Giovenone, Girolamo
Madonna and Child, 1295

Girolamo dai Libri
Madonna and Child, with St. Anne, 748

Girolamo da Santa Croce, p. 313
A Saint, 633
—— reading, 632

Girolamo da Treviso
Madonna and Child, Enthroned, 623

Gonzalez, Juan G.
Earl of Monmouth, 2527

Gossart. See Mabuse

Goya, Francesco, p. 660
Dr. Peral, 1951
The Bewitched, 1472
The Picnic, 1471
Lady's Portrait, 1473

Goyen, Jan van, p. 166
Landscape, 137
River Scenes, 151, 2580
Scene on the Ice, 2579
Stiff Breeze, 2577
Windmill, 2578
Winter Scene, 1327

Gozzoli, Benozzo, p. 245
Virgin and Child, 283
See also 591 (p. xix)

—— School of
Rape of Helen, 591
Virgin and Child, 2863

Grandi, Ercole di Giulio, p. 531
Conversion of St. Paul, 73
Madonna and Child (altar-piece), 1119

Greco. See Theotocopuli

Greek Portraits: 2nd cent. A.D.
Eleven Portraits, 1260-1270

Greuze, p. 205
Girl (with apple), 1020
—— (with lamb), 1154
—— (looking up), 1019
—— 206

Guardi, Francesco, p. 207
Buildings and Figures, 2517
Courtyard in Venice, 2519
Ducal Palace, 2099
Gondola, 1454
Gothic Archway, 2518
Piazza S. Marco, 210
—— (awnings), 2525
Quay-side, 2520
Ruins, 2521
S. Maria della Salute, 2098
Tower of Mestre, 2524
Treasure-seekers, 2522
View in Venice, 1054
View through Archway, 2523

Guercino
A Pietà, 22

Guido Reni, p. 73
Christ and St. John, 191
Coronation of Virgin, 214
"Ecce Homo!" 271
Lot and his Daughters, 193
Magdalen, The, 177
St. Jerome, 11
Susannah and the Elders, 196

Hackaert, Jan
Stag Hunt, 829

Hals, Dirk
An Oyster Supper, 1074

Hals, Frans, p. 490
A Family Group, 2285
Lady with fan, 2529
Man with glove, 2528
Man's Portrait, 1251
Woman's Portrait, 1021

Harpignies, Henri
Flax Trees, Villefranche, 2257
River Scene, 2256

Heda, W. K.
Fruit-piece, 2592
Still Life, 1469

Heem, David de
Fruit and Flowers, 2582

Heimbach, C. W.
Portrait of a Youth, 1243

Helst, Barth. van der, p. 167
Lady's Portrait, 1937
Young Lady's Portrait, 1248

Hemessen, Catharina van
Man's Portrait, 1042

Herrera, Francesco de
[Pg 780]Christ disputing, 1676

Heyden, Jan van der, p. 448
Architectural Scene, 992
Château, 1914
Church, 1915
Landscape, 993
Street in Cologne, 866
Street in a Town, 994

Hobbema, p. 347
Avenue, Middelharnis, 830
Brederode Castle, 831
Cottage in a Wood, 2570
Forest Scenery, 833
Path through a Wood, 2571
Showery Weather, 685
Village, with Watermills, 832
Woody Landscape, 995

Holbein, Hans, p. 613
Christina of Denmark, 2475
The Ambassadors, 1314
See also under 195

Holbein, Sigmund. See 722

Hondecoeter, p. 203
Domestic Poultry, 202
Geese and Ducks, 1013
Study of Foliage, Insects, etc., 1222

Honthorst, G. van
Peasants, 1444

Hooch, Pieter de, p. 416
Dutch House (courtyard) 794
—— (courtyard and porch), 835
—— (interior), 834
Refusing the Glass, 2552

Huchtenburgh, Johan van
Battle Piece, 211

Huysman, Jacob
Isaak Walton, N.P.G., 125

Huysmans, Cornelis
Landscape, 954

Huysum, Jan van, p. 416
Vase with flowers, 796
—— (small), 1001

Ingegno, L'
Madonna and Child, 1220
Virgin and Child, with Saints, 2484

Ingres, J. A. D.
Madame Malibran, 2218

Isabey, Eugène
Fish Market, Dieppe, 2715
Grandfather's birthday, 2714

Israels, Josef, p. 738
Shipwrecked Mariner, 2732
The Philosopher, 2713

Italian School, 15th cent.
Virgin and Child, 1456

Italian School, 16th cent. (artists unknown)
An Apostle, 272
Portrait of Knight of Malta, 932
See also 1048 (p. xx)

Jacopo Di Cione, p. xxi
Crucifixion, 1468

Janssens, C., p. 626
Aglonius Voon (portrait), 1320
Cornelia Remoens, 1321
Portrait of a Lady, 2530

Jardin, Karel du, p. 431
Figures and Animals, 826
Fording the Stream, 827
Landscape with Cattle, 828
Sheep and Goats, 985

Jordaens, Jacob
Baron de Linter, 1895

Justus of Padua
Coronation of Virgin, 701

Keyser, T. de
Merchant and Clerk, 212

Koninck, P. de, p. 435
View in Holland, 836
View of the Scheldt, 974

La Fargue
Market-place, the Hague, 1918

Lancret, Nicholas
The Four Ages, 101-104

Landini, Jacopo, p. 287
Ascension of St. John, Evangelist, 580
Holy Trinity and Annunciation, 580 A

Lanini, Bernardino
Holy Family, 700

Leal. See Valdes

Le Brun, Madame Vigée
[Pg 781]Her own portrait, 1653

Lely, Sir Peter
Portrait of a Girl, 1016

Le Nain
A Portrait Group, 1425

Leonardo da Vinci
The Virgin of the Rocks, 1093

Lepine, Stanislas
Le Pont de la Tournelle, 2727

Le Sueur, Eustache
Holy Family, 1422

Liberale de Verona, p. 548
Death of Dido, 1336
Virgin and Child, 1134

Libri, Girolamo dai
Madonna, Child, and St. Anne, 748

Licinio, B.
Man's Portrait, 1309

Liesborn, Meister von
Adoration of Magi, 258
Annunciation, 256
Christ on the Cross, 259
Crucifixion, 262
Purification, 257
Sts. Cosmas, Damianus, and Virgin, 261
Three Saints, 260
——, 254
——, 255

Lievens, Jan
Anna Maria van Schurman, 1095

Lingelbach, Jan
Hay Harvest, 837

Lippi, Filippino, p. 257
Angel Adoring, 927
St. Francis in Glory, 598
Virgin and Child, St. Jerome, etc., 293
See also 592, 1033, 1124, 1412 (pp. xix & xx)

Lippi, Fra Filippo, p. 337
Annunciation, 666
Madonna and Child, 589
St. John and six Saints, 667
Vision of St. Bernard, 248
See also No. 586

Lippo di Dalmasii
Madonna and Child, 752

Lochner, Stephen
Three Saints, 705

Lodovico da Parma
Bishop Hugo of Grenoble, 692

Lombard, Lambert
The Deposition, 266

Lombard School (artist unknown)
Dead Christ, 219
Portrait of a Young Man, 1052

Longhi, Pietro, p. 526
Andrea Tron (portrait), 1102
Domestic Group, 1100
Exhibition of Rhinoceros, 1101
Fortune Teller, 1334

Lorenzetti, Ambrogio
Heads of Nuns, 1147

Lorenzetti, Pietro
Legendary Subject, 1113

Lorenzo da San Severino
Marriage of St. Catherine, 249

Lorenzo, Il Monaco, p. 683
Coronation of the Virgin, 1897
St. John Gualberto, 2862
Various Saints, 215, 216

Lotto, Lorenzo, p. 363
Family Group, 1047
Portraits of Ag. and Nic. della Torre, 699
Portrait of Prothonotary-Apostolic Juliano, 1105
Virgin and Child, 2281

Luciani. See Piombo, Seb. del

Lucidel, Nicolas
Young Lady (portrait), 184

Luini, Bernardino
Christ and the Pharisees, 18
Head of Christ, 2088

Lundens, Gerrit
"The Night Watch," 289

Lyons. See Corneille

Lyversberg Passion, Master of the Presentation in the Temple, 706

Mabuse, p. 327
Adoration of the Kings, 2790
Jacqueline de Bourgogne, 2211
Magdalen, 2163
Man and Wife (portraits), 1689
Man's Portrait (small), 946
—— (with rosary), 656

Macchiavelli, Zenobio
[Pg 782]Madonna and Child, 586

Macrino d'Albo
Group of Saints, 1200, 1201

Maes, Nicolas, p. 171
A. van Leuwenhoek, 2581
Card Players, The, 1247
Cradle, The, 153
Dutch Housewife, The, 159
Man's Portrait, 1277
Servant, The Idle, 207

Mainardi, Bastiano
Virgin and Child, 2502

Maître de Jean Perréal
St. Clement and Donor, 2669

Manni, Giannicola
Annunciation, 1104

Mansueti, Giovanni
The Crucifixion, 1478

Mantegna, Andrea, p. 236
Agony in the Garden, 1417
Samson and Delilah, 1145
Summer and Autumn, 1125
Triumph of Scipio, 902
Virgin and Child, 274

Mantegna, Francesco, p. 318
"Noli me tangere," 639
Resurrection, 1106
The Holy Women at the Sepulchre, 1381

Mantovano. See Rinaldo

Maratti, Carlo
Cardinal Cerri, 174

Marco d' Oggionno
Madonna, 1149

Margaritone
Virgin and Child, etc., 564

Marieschi, Jacopo
Towns and Rivers, 2102, 2103

Marinus van Romerswael
Two Usurers, 944

Maris, Jacob
Drawbridge, 2710
Mother and Child, 2709

Marmion, Simon
Choir of Angels, 1303
St. Bertin, 1302

Martino da Udine. See Pellegrino

Marziale, Marco, p. 419
Circumcision, 803
Madonna and Child Enthroned, 804

Master of the Death of the Virgin
Holy Family, 2603

Matteo di Giovanni, p. 561
Assumption of the Virgin, 1155
"Ecco Homo!" 247
St. Sebastian, 1461

Mauve, Anton
Watering Horses, 2711

Mazo, J. B. Martinez del
Man's Portrait, 1308

Mazzola, Filippo
Virgin and Child, 1416

Mazzola, Francesco. See Parmigiano

Mazzolino da Ferrara, p. 179
Christ Disputing, 1495
Holy Family (St. Francis, etc.), 82
—— (St. Nicolas, etc.), 169
Woman taken in Adultery, 641

Meldolla. See Schiavone

Melone, Altobello
Christ on the way to Emmaus, 753

Melozzo da Forli. See Forli

Memlinc, Hans, p. 349
Duke of Cleves, 2594
Virgin and Child, 709
Virgin and Child, Enthroned, 686

—— ascribed to
St. John and St. Lawrence, 747

Mengs, A. R.
Virgin and Child, 1109 A (1099)

Merian, Matthew, the younger
Portrait of a Man, 1012

Merigi. See Caravaggio

Messina. See Antonello

Metsu, Gabriel, p. 436
Drowsy Landlady, The, 970
Duet, The, 838
Forge, The, 2591
Music Lesson, The, 839
Woman at Window, 2590

Metsys, Quentin, p. 261
Crucifixion, 715
"Salvator Mundi," 295

Meulen, A. F. van der
A Hunting Party, 1447
[Pg 783]
Michael Angelo, p. 410
Dream of Human Life, 8
Entombment, 790
Madonna, etc., 809

Michel, Georges
Stormy Landscape, 2759
Woodland Scene, 2258

Michele da Verona
Coriolanus, etc., 1214

Miereveld, M. J. van
Portrait of a Lady, 2292

Mieris, Frans van, p. 436
Lady and Parrot, 840
Young Astrologer, 2589

Mieris, Willem van
Fish and Poultry Shop, 841

Milanese School, 15th-16th century
Head of John the Baptist, 1438
Virgin and Child, 1300

Millet, J. F.
The Whisper, 2636

Mocetto, Girolamo
Massacre of the Innocents, 1239, 1240

Modena. See Barnaba

Mola, P. F., p. 146
St. John, 69
The Repose, 160

Molenaer, Jan Miense
Musical Pastime, 1293

Mompers, Joos
Landscape, 1017

Montagna, Bart., p. 419
Madonna and Child (asleep), 1098
—— (with cherry), 802

Morales, Luis de
Virgin and Child, 1229

Morando, Paolo, p. 379
Madonna and Child, 777
St. Roch with the Angel, 735

More, Sir Antonio, p. 524
Portrait of a Man, 1231

—— ascribed to
Portrait of a Man, 1094
Portrait of a Lady, 1860

Moretto, Il, p. 267
Angels, 2090, 2091
Italian Nobleman, 299
Italian Nobleman, 1025
St. Bernardino of Siena, 625
St. Hippolytus, 1165
St. Jerome, 2093
St. Joseph, 2092

Morone, Domenico
Scenes at a Tournament, 1211, 1212

Morone, Francesco
Madonna and Child, 285

Moroni, p. 359
Ecclesiastic (portrait), 1024
Il Cavaliere, 2094
Italian Lady (portrait), 1023
Italian Nobleman (portrait), 1022
—— (Longford picture), 1316
Lawyer (portrait), 742
Tailor (portrait), 697

Mostaert, Jan See 713 (p. xx)

Moucheron, Frédéric de, p. 437
Garden Scene, 842
Landscape, 1352

Murillo, p. 79
Boy Drinking, 1286
Holy Family, 13
Nativity of Virgin, 1257
St. John and the Lamb, 176
Spanish Peasant Boy, 74
For Copies from Murillo, see p. 755

Neeffs, Pieter, p. 468
Church Interiors, 924, 2205
Vespers, 2206
After Vespers, 2207

Neer, Aart van der, p. 171
Canal Scene, 732
Dawn, 2283
Evening Landscape, 152
Frost Scene, 969
—— 1288
Landscape, 2537
Moonlight Scenes, 239, 2536
River Scene, 2534

Neer, Eglon H. van der
Judith, 2535

Netscher, Gaspard, p. 437
Blowing Bubbles, 843
1st Earl of Berkeley, 1332
Lady and Spinning Wheel, 845
[Pg 784]Maternal Instruction, 844

Niccolò da Foligno. See Foligno

Niccolò di Buonaccorso. See Buonaccorso

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, p. xix
Baptism of Christ, 579

Ochtervelt, J., p. 699
Lady at her Toilet, 2553
Lady at a Spinet, 2143

Oggionno. See Marco

Oost, Jacob van
Portrait of a Boy, 1137

Orcagna, p. 281
Coronation of the Virgin (altar-piece), 569-578
St. John the Baptist, etc., 581

Oriolo, Giovanni
Leonello, d'Este (portrait), 770

Orley, Bernard von
Madonna and Child, 714
See also 655

Orsi, Lelio
The Walk to Emmaus, 1466

Ortolano, L'
St. Sebastian, etc., 669

Os, Jan van, p. 487
Fruit and Flowers, 1380
Fruit-piece, 1015

Ostade, Adrian van, p. 438
Alchymist, 846
Cobbler, The, 2541
Courtship, 2542
Hurdy-Gurdy, 2540
Man with a Jug, 2543

Ostade, Isaak van, p. 440
Cart, The, 2544
Farmyard, 1347
Frost Scene, 848
Frozen River, 963
Village Scene, 847

Pacchia, Girolamo del
Madonna and Child, 246

Pacchiarotto, J.
The Nativity, 1849

Padovanino, p. 147
Boy with a Bird, 933
Cornelia and her Jewels, 70

Palamedes, A.
A Musical Party, 2575

Palma Vecchio
Portrait of a Poet, 636

Palmezzano, Marco
Entombment, 596

Panini, Giov. Antonio
A View in Rome, 138

Pape, Abraham de
Cottage Interior, 1221

Parma. See Lodovico

Parmigiano
Vision of St. Jerome, 33

Passignano (Domenico Cresti)
Portrait of Galileo, 2294

Patinir, Joachim, p. 370
Flight into Egypt, 1084
River Scene, 1298
St. Agnes adoring, 945
St. Christopher, 716
St. John on Patmos, 717
Visitation, 1082
See also 715 (p. xx)

Pellegrino da San Daniele
Madonna and Child, 778

Penni, Luca
Holy Family, 2293

Perugino, p. 249
Adoration (fresco), 1441
Baptism of Christ, 1431
Virgin and Child (small), 181
—— (archangel), 288
—— (St. Francis, etc.), 1075

Peruzzi, Baldassare, p. 212
Adoration of Kings (drawing), 167
—— (picture), 218

Pesellino, Francesco
The Trinity, 727

Piazza, Martino
St. John Baptist, 1152

Pier, Francesco Fiorentino, p. xxi
Madonna and Child, 1199

Piero della Francesca. See Francesca

Piero di Cosimo. See Cosimo

Pinturicchio, p. 355
Madonna and Child, 703
Return of Ulysses, 911
St. Catherine of Alexandria, 693

Piombo, Sebastiano del, p. 56
Daughter of Herodias, 2493
[Pg 785]His own Portrait and Ippolito de' Medici, 20
Holy Family, 1450
Portrait of Lady as St. Agatha, 24
Resurrection of Lazarus, 1

Pippi. See Romano, Giulio

Pisano, Vittore, p. 401
St. Anthony and St. George, 776
Vision of St. Eustace, 1436

Poel, Egbert van der
Explosion at Delft, 1061

Poelenburgh, Cornelis van
Judgment of Paris, 209
River, with women bathing, 955

Pollajuolo, p. 255
Apollo and Daphne, 928
Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, 292

—— School of
Portrait of a Lady, 585

Ponte, Jacopo da. See Bassano

Pontormo, Jacopo da
Joseph and his Brethren, 1131

—— ascribed to
Portrait of a Man, 1150

Poorter, W. van de
Allegorical Subject, 1294

Pordenone. See 272

Pot, Hendrik Gerritsz
Convivial Party, 1278

Potter, Paul, p. 440
Cattle in Stormy Landscape, 2583
Landscape with Cattle, 849
Old Grey Hunter, 1009

Potter, Pieter
Stag Hunt, 1008

Pourbus, Frans, the younger
A Military Commander, 2295

Poussin, Charles
Pardon Day in Brittany, 810

Poussin, Gaspard, p. 102
Abraham and Isaac, 31
Calling of Abraham, 1159
Dido and Æneas, 95
Italian Landscape, 161
Land Storm, 36
Landscapes, 2723, 2724
View near Albano, 68
—— of La Riccia, 98

Poussin, Nicolas, p. 116
Bacchanalian Dance, 62
Bacchanalian Festival, 42
Cephalus and Aurora, 65
Landscape, 2619
Nursing of Bacchus, 39
Phocion, 40
Plague at Ashdod, 165
Venus and Satyrs, 91

Predis, Ambrogio de, p. 667
Bona of Savoy, 2251
Portrait of a Young Man, 1665
Wings of the altar-piece No. 1093, 1661, 1662

Previtali, Andrea, p. 358
Madonna and Child (with monk), 695
Madonna and Child, 2500
Salvator Mundi, 2501

Prevost, Jan, p. xx
Virgin and Child, 713

Pulzone, Scipione
Portrait of a Cardinal, 1048

Quast, Pieter
Cavalier, 2856

Raguineau, A.
Portrait of a Youth, 1848

Raibolini. See Francia

Raphael, p. 567
Ansidei Madonna, 1171
Bridgewater Madonna (copy), 929
Garvagh Madonna, 744
Madonna di San Sisto (tracing), 661
Madonna di Sant' Antonio, p. 749
Madonna of the Tower, 2069
Pope Julius II. (portrait), 27
St. Catherine of Alexandria, 168
Vision of a Knight, 213

Ravesteijn, A. van
Lady's Portrait, 1423

Rembrandt, p. 121
Adoration of the Shepherds, 47
Burgomaster, 1674
Capuchin Friar (portrait), 166
Christ before Pilate, 1400
Christ taken down from the Cross, 43
Diana Bathing, 2538
His own Portrait (young), 672
—— (old), 221
[Pg 786]Jew Merchant (portrait), 51
Jewish Rabbi (portrait), 190
Landscape (Tobias and Angel), 72
Man's Portrait (with collar), 850
—— (date 1659), 243
—— (with cap), 2539
Old Lady's Portrait (dated 1634), 775
—— ("Burgomaster's Wife"), 1675
Woman Bathing, 54
Woman's Portrait (dated 1666), 237
Woman taken in Adultery, 45
For copies from Rembrandt, see p. 754 and No. 289

Rembrandt, School of
Christ blessing Little Children, 757

Reni. See Guido

Rhine, School of the, See 1080, 1085 (p. xx)

Ribera. See Spagnoletto

Ricci, Sebastiano, p. 441
Esther and Ahasuerus, 2101
Venus Sleeping, 851

Rigaud, Hyacinthe, p. 459
Cardinal Fleury, 903
Lulli and Musicians, 2081

Rimini, Giovanni Francesco da
Madonna and Child, 2118

Rinaldo Mantovano, p. 320
Capture of Carthagena, etc., 643
Rape of Sabines, etc., 644

Roberti, Ercole de', p. 540
Adoration of the Shepherds, 1411
A Concert, 2486
Israelites gathering Manna, 1217
The Last Supper, 1127

Robusti. See Tintoretto

Rokes, Hendrik. See Sorgh

Romanino, p. 264
Portrait of a Man, 2096
The Nativity, 297

Romano, Giulio, p. 306
Beatific Vision of the Magdalen, 225
Infancy of Jupiter, 624

Romerswael. See Marinus

Rosa, Salvator, p. 153
Hagar, 2107
Landscape and Figures, 1206
Mercury and Woodman (landscape), 84
River Scene, 935
Tobias and Angel (landscape), 811

Rosselli, Cosimo. See No. 227

Rossi, Francesco
Charity, 652

Rottenhammer. See 659 (p. xix)

Rousseau, P. E. Théodore, p. 707
River Scene, 2439
Sunset at Auvergne, 2635

Rousseau, Philippe
The Fish Market, 2480

Rubens, p. 111
Apotheosis of William the Silent, 187
Birth of Venus (design for salver), 1195
Brazen Serpent, 59
Chapeau de Poil, 852
Conversion of St. Bavon, 57
Diana and Endymion, 2598
Drawings, 853 a-p
Holy Family, St. George, etc., 67
Horrors of War, 279
Judgment of Paris, 194
Landscape (Château de Stein), 66
—— (sunset), 157
Peace, 46
Rape of the Sabines, 38
Triumph of Julius Cæsar, 278
Triumph of Silenus, 853
See also 680

Ruysch, Rachel
Flower-pieces, 1445, 1446

Ruysdael, Jacob, p. 309
Bleaching Ground, 44
Broken Tree, 991
Cottage and Haystack, 2565
Cottage on a Hill, 2564
Entrance to the Forest, 2563
Forest Scene, 854
Landscapes with Waterfall, 627, 628, 737
Landscape with Ruins, 746
Landscape with Torrent, 987
Old Oak, 988
Ruined Castle, 2562
[Pg 787]Shore at Scheveningen, 1390
Skirts of a Forest, 2566
Stormy Sea-piece, 2567
View near Haarlem, 990, 2561
Waterfall, 855
Watermills, 986, 989

Ruysdael, Salomon, p. 632
Fishing in the River, 1439
Landscape, 1344

Ryckhaert, Martin
Landscape, 1353

Saenredam, Pieter, p. 683
Interior of a Church, 1896
Interior of St. Bavon, 2531

St. Aubin, Augustin de
J. B. Lalli (engraving), 2136

St. Aubin, Gabriel de
Une Parade, 2129

Safleven, Herman
Christ in Peter's Ship, 2062

Salvi. See Sassoferrato

Salviati. See Rossi

San Daniele, Pellegrino da
Madonna and Child, 778

San Severino. See Lorenzo

Santa Croce. See Girolamo

Santi, Giovanni
Madonna and Child, 751

Sanzio. See Raphael

Sarto, Andrea del, p. 352
His own Portrait, 690
Holy Family, 17

Sassetta, Stefano di Giovanni
Heads of Angels, 1842 (p. xxi)

Sassoferrato, p. 203
Madonna and Child, 740
Madonna in Prayer, 200

Savoldo, Giov. Girolamo, p. 462
Mary Magdalene at the Sepulchre, 1031
See also 1377

Schalcken, Godfried, p. 202
Candle Light, 999
Duet, 998
Lesbia and the Sparrow, 199
Scouring the Kettle, 997

Scheffer, Ary, p. 566
St. Augustine and St. Monica, 1170
Mrs. R. Hollond (portrait), 1169

Schiavone, Andrea
Jupiter and Semele, 1476

Schiavone, Gregorio, p. 312
Madonna and Child, 904
Madonna Enthroned, 630

Schongauer, Martin, after
See also 658 (p. xix)

Schorel, Jan van, p. 372
Portrait of a Lady, 721
The "Repose," 720

Segna di Buonaventura
A Crucifixion, 567

Sellaio, Jacopo del, p. 712
Venus and Cupids, 916
Virgin and Child, 2492

Siberechts, Jan
The Water Lane, 2130

Sienese School (artists unknown)
Marriage of the Virgin, 1317
Virgin Enthroned, 1108

Signorelli, Luca, p. 541
Adoration of the Shepherds, 1776
Circumcision, 1128
Holy Family, 2488
Nativity, 1133
Triumph of Chastity, 910
Virgin crowned by angels, 1847

Snyders, Frans
Fruit-piece, 1252

Snyers, Pieter
Still Life, 1401

Sodoma, Il, p. 556
"Ecce Homo!" 1337
Madonna and Child, 1144

Solario, Andrea da, p. 377
Giro. Cr. Longono (portrait), 734
Venetian Senator (portrait), 923

Solario, Antonio da
Holy Family, 2503

Sorgh, Hendrick, p. 507
Boors at Cards, 1055
Two Figures drinking, 1056

Spagna, Lo, p. 493
Agony in the Garden, 1032

—— ascribed to
Agony in the Garden, 1812
"Ecce Homo!" 691

Spagnoletto, p. 220
Dead Christ, 235
[Pg 788]Shepherd with Lamb, 244

Spanish School
Adoration of Magi, p. 751
Peasant and Child, 2526

Spinello, Aretino, p. 288
Rebel Angels (fresco fragments), 1216
Two Apostles, 276
See also 581, 1468 (pp. xix, xxi)

Steen, Jan, p. 445
Grace before meat, 2558
Interior, 1378
Merry-makers, 2557
Music Master, 856
Oyster Feast, 2559
Pedlar, 2556
Skittle Players, 2560
Terrace Scene, 1421
Woman Asleep, 2555

Steenwyck, Hendrick, p. 547
An Interior, 1132
Church Interiors, 1443, 2204

Steenwyck, Herman
Study of Still Life, 1256

Stephan, Master. See Lochner

Storck, Abraham
View on the Maas, 146

Tacconi, Francesco
Virgin Enthroned, 286

Teniers, David, the elder, p. 476
Conversation, 950
Playing at Bowls, 951
Rocky Landscape, 949

Teniers, the younger, p. 172
Backgammon, 242
Boors Regaling, 158
Card Players, 2600
Château at Perck, 817
Country Scene, 861
Dives in Hell, 863
Four Seasons, 857-860
Money Changers, 155
Music Party, 154
Old Woman peeling Pears, 805
Old Woman reading, 2601
Surprise, 862
Toper, 953
Village Fête, 952
Visit to the Doctor, 2599

Terburg, Gerard, p. 447
Guitar Lesson, 864
Man's Portrait, 1399
Peace of Münster, 896

Theotocopuli, Domenico, p. 533
Christ in the Temple, 1457
St. Jerome, 1122

Tiepolo, Giov. Battista, p. 577
Deposition, 1333
Designs for Altar-pieces, 1192, 1193
Marriage of Barbarossa, 2100
Virgin and Child, 2513

Tintoretto, p. 84
Christ washing Disciples' Feet, 1130
St. George and the Dragon, 16
The Milky Way, 1313

Tisio. See Garofalo

Titian, p. 63
Bacchus and Ariadne, 35
Holy Family (landscape), 4
Madonna and Child, St. Catherine, etc., 635
"Noli me Tangere," 270
Portrait of Ariosto, 1944
Venus and Adonis, 34
See also 636 (p. xix)

—— School of
Concert, 3
Rape of Ganymede, 32
Tribute Money, 224

Treviso. See Girolamo

Troy, J. F. de
"La Main Chaude," 2216

Tura, Cosimo, p. 399
Madonna and Child, 772
St. Jerome in the Desert, 773
The Virgin Mary, 905

Tuscan School. See 1842 (p. xxi)

Ubertini. See Bacchiacca

Uccello, Paolo
Battle of Sant' Egidio, 583

Ugolino da Siena, p. 576
Betrayal of Christ, 1188
Procession to Calvary, 1189

Umbrian School (artists unknown)
Griselda, 912-914
Madonna and Child, 702
Marcus Curtius, 1304
[Pg 789]Portrait of Raphael (?), 2510
St. Catherine, 646
St. Ursula, 647
See also 585 (p. xix)

Unknown. (See under Dutch, Ferrarese, Flemish, Florentine, German, Greek, Italian, Milanese, Sienese, Tuscan, Umbrian, Venetian, and Veronese)

Valdes, Leal, Juan de
Assumption of Virgin, 1291

Vallin, Jacques Antoine
Dr. Forlenze (portrait), 2288

Vannucci, Pietro. See Perugino

Varotari. See Padovanino

Vecellio. See Titian

Velazquez, p. 196
Admiral Pulido Pareja, 1315
Christ at the Column, 1148
Christ in the House of Martha, 1375
Dead Warrior ("El Orlando Muerto"), 741
Philip IV. (portrait bust), 745
—— (portrait; full length), 1129
Venus and Cupid, 2057
Wild Boar Hunt, 197
For copies from Velazquez, see p. 752
See also 1376, 1434 (p. xxi)

—— ascribed to
Betrothal, 1434
Duel in the Prado (sketch), 1376

Velde, Adrian van de, p. 449
Bay Horse, 983
Farm Cottage, 867
Ford, 868
Forest Scene, 982
Frost Scene, 869
Landscape, 1348
Landscape and Cattle, 984
The Little Farm, 2572

Velde, Jan van de
Still Life, 1255

Velde, Willem van de, the younger, p. 169
Calm at Sea, 149, 2573
Calm at Sea (Sir R. Peel's), 874
Coast Scene, 871
Coast of Scheveningen, 873
Dutch Ships of War, 980
Gale, 876
Gale at Sea, 150
Light Breeze, 875
River Scene, 978
Sea Piece, 977
Shipping, 979
—— in a Calm, 870
—— off the Coast, 872
Storm at Sea, 981
Windy Day, 2573

Venetian School (artists unknown)
Adoration of the Shepherds, 1377
Landscape with Nymphs, 1695
Portrait of a Lady, 595
Portraits of Senators, 1489, 1490
See also 1121 (p. xx)

Veneziano, Bartolommeo, p. 249
Portrait of a Lady, 2507
Portrait of Ludovico Martinengo, 287

Veneziano, Domenico, p. 395
Heads of Saints, 766
Madonna and Child, 1215

Venusti, Marcello, p. 578
Christ and the Traders, 1194
Virgin and Child, etc., 1227

Vermeer, Jan, p. 636
Young Lady at the Virginals, 1383
A Lady at the Virginals, 2568
See also 1699 (p. xxi)

—— attributed to
A Family Group, 2764
The Lesson, 1699

Vermeulen, Andries
Scene on the Ice, 1850

Vernet, Claude Joseph, p. 222
Castle of Sant' Angelo, 236
Mediterranean Seaport, 1393

Vernet, Horace
Napoleon I. (portrait), 1285

Veronese, Paolo, p. 95
Adoration of the Magi, 268
Consecration of St. Nicholas, 26
Family of Darius, 294
Happy Union, 1326
Magdalen and her Jewels, 931
Rape of Europa, 97
Respect, 1325
Scorn, 1324
Unfaithfulness, 1318
Vision of St. Helena, 1041

Veronese, Paolo, after
See also 97 (p. xix)

Veronese School (artist unknown)
[Pg 790]The Clemency of Trajan, 1135, 1136

Verrocchio, Andrea
Virgin Adoring, 296

Victoors, Jan
Village Cobbler, 1312

Vinci. See Leonardo

Vivarini, Alvise, p. 682
Madonna and Child, 1872
Man in Black, 2095
Portrait of a Youth, 2509
Venetian Gentleman, 2672

Vivarini, Antonio, p. 396
Sts. Francis and Mark, 1284
Sts. Peter and Jerome, 768

Vivarini, Bartolommeo
Virgin and Child, 284

Vliet, Willem van der
Portrait of a Jesuit, 1168

Walscappelle, Jacob
Flowers, Insects, etc., 1002

Weenix, Jan, the younger
Dead Game, 238

Weenix, Jan Baptist
Hunting Scene, 1096

Weier, J.
Battle Scene, 1470

Werden, Meister van
Four Saints, 250
—— 251
Mass of St. Hubert, 253

Werff, Adrian van der
His own portrait, 1660

Wet, Jan de
Landscape, 1342

Weyden, Roger van der, p. 332
"Ecce Homo!" 712
Mater Dolorosa, 711
Portrait of a Lady, 1433
See also 654, 664

Wils, Jan
Rocky Landscape, 1007

Witte, Emanuel, de
Church Interior, 1053

Wouwerman, J.
Landscape, 1345

Wouwerman, Philips, p. 453
Battle Piece, 976
Bohemians, 2282
Gathering Faggots, 881
Interior of Stable, 879
Landscape, 882
"Pretty Milkmaid," 878
Sandbank, 973
Sea Shore, 880
Shoeing a Horse, 2554
Stag Hunt, 975
The Bohemians, 2282
Vedettes on the Watch, 1060

Wynants, Jan, p. 454
Landscape (crippled beggar), 883
—— (sand dunes), 884
—— (woman on donkey), 971
—— (sportsman and dog), 972
Sandy Lane, 2533
Woman driving Sheep, 2532

Ysenbrandt, Adrian
St. Mary Magdalen,2585

Zaganelli
St. Sebastian, 1092

Zais, Giuseppe, p. 607
River Scene, 1297
Rural Landscape, 1296

Zampieri. See Domenichino

Zoppo, Marco
Deposition in the Tomb, 590

Zuccarelli
Gate of Tower, 2086
Pastoral Landscape, 2087

Zurbaran, Francisco, p. 216
Adoration of the Shepherds, 232
Franciscan Monk, 230
St. Margaret, 1930

APPENDIX II

In this Index all the pictures (of Foreign Schools) belonging to the National Gallery are enumerated in the order of the numbers given to them on the frames and in the Official Catalogues.

Following the title and painter of each picture, there has been in previous editions of the Handbook a reference to the room in the Gallery in which the picture was hung; but as the Gallery is now, and will for some time be, under extensive rearrangement (see above, p. xxv), these references are for the present omitted.

Several pictures belonging to the National Gallery have, however, been removed on loan to other institutions (under a Treasury Minute, 1861, and the "National Gallery Loan Act," 1883). These pictures are distinguished in the Index by their titles being printed in italics; whilst the name of the institution, or (in the case of provincial galleries) the name of the town in which they are now to be seen is stated in the fourth column.

In the next two columns, the manner and date of each picture's acquisition are given. The names are those of the persons from whom the pictures were purchased, or by whom they were given or bequeathed.

In the last column, the prices paid for all the purchased pictures are given. Except where otherwise specified, the funds out of which pictures were purchased have been provided by Parliamentary Grants. The Trustees have at their disposal other funds derived from the Clarke, Lewis, Mackrell, Temple West, and Walker bequests. (The Wheeler bequest is available for the purchase of English pictures only.) The letter C., L., M., or W. before the price in the last column denotes that the funds were derived from one or other of those bequests.

The dates of the appointment of successive Keepers or Directors are also given at their proper places in the Index, so that the curious reader may discover the use made by these officers of the funds at their disposal. It should, however, be remembered that up to 1855 the responsibility for purchases rested rather with the Trustees and the Treasury than with the Keeper.

The following is a summary of the cost of the pictures (both British [265] and Foreign) purchased up to the end of 1906:—

It will be seen from this table that 701 pictures in all have been purchased at a total cost of £814,648: 16: 7, an average of £1162 per picture.

No.	Subject.	Painter.	Where Hung.	How Acquired.	When.	Price.
				P.=Purchased.
				G.=Given.
				B.=Bequeathed
Mr. William Sebuier was appointed Keeper in 1824.
1	Raising of Lazarus.	Seb. del Piombo	National Gallery	P. Angerstein	1824	A
2	Cephalus and Procris	Claude	"	P. "	"	"
3	A Concert	Sch. of Titian	"	P. "	"	"
4	Holy Family	Titian	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
5	Seaport	Claude	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
6	Cave of Adullam	"	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
7	Group of Heads	Aft. Correggio	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
8	Dream of Human Life	Michael Angelo	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
9	"Domine quo vadis"	An. Carracci	"	P. Hamlet	1826	(1)
10	Mercury, Venus, and Cupid	Correggio	"	P. Ld. Londonderry	1834	(2)
11	St. Jerome	Guido	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
12	Isaac and Rebecca	Claude	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
13	Holy Family	Murillo	"	P. Bulkeley Owen	1837	(3)
14	Seaport	Claude	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
15	"Ecce Homo!"	Correggio	National Gallery	P. Ld. Londonderry	1834	(2)
16	St. George & Dragon	Tintoretto	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
17	Holy Family	Andrea del Sarto	"	B. "	"
18	Christ and the Pharisees	B. Luini	"	B. "	1831
19	Narcissus and Echo	Claude	"	G. Sir. G. Beaumont	1826
20	Ippolito de' Medici and S. del Piombo	S. del Piombo	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
21	Portrait of a Lady	Cristofano Allori	"	B. "	"
22	Dead Christ	Guercino	"	B. "	"
23	La Vierge au Panier	Correggio	"	P. M. Perrier	1825	£3,800
24	Portrait of a Lady	Seb. del Piombo	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
25	St. John in the Wilderness	An. Carracci	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
26	St. Nicholas	P. Veronese	"	G. Brit. Inst.	1826
27	Julius II	Raphael	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
28	Susannah	L. Carracci	"	P. "	"	"
29	"Madonna del Gatto"	Baroccio	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
30	St. Ursula	Claude	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
31	Sacrifice of Isaac	G. Poussin	"	P. "	"	"
32	Rape of Ganymede	Sch. of Titian	"	P. "	"	"
33	Vision of St. Jerome	Parmigiano	"	G. Brit. Inst.	1826
34	Venus and Adonis	Titian	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
35	Bacchus & Ariadne	"	"	P. Hamlet	1826	(1)
36	Land Storm	G. Poussin	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
37	Group of Heads	Aft. Correggio	"	P. "	"	"
38	Rape of the Sabines	Rubens	"	P. "	"	"
39	Nursing of Bacchus	N. Poussin	"	B. G. J. Cholmondeley	1831
40	Landscape: Phocion	"	"	G. Sir G. Beaumont	1826
41	Death of Peter Martyr	Asc. to Cariani	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
42	Bacchanalian Scene	N. Poussin	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
43	Deposition	Rembrandt	"	G. Sir G. Beaumont	1826
44	Bleaching Ground	J. Ruysdael	"	B. Ld. Farnborough	1847
[266]44	Charity	Giulio Romano	South Kensington	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
45	Woman taken in Adultery	Rembrandt	National Gallery	P. Angerstein	1824	A
46	Blessings of Peace	Rubens	"	G. Lord Stafford	1828
47	Adoration of the Shepherds	Rembrandt	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
48	Tobias & the Angel	Domenichino	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
49	Portrait of Rubens	Van Dyck	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
50	St. Ambrose and Theodosius	"	"	P. "	"
51	Jew Merchant	Rembrandt	"	G. Sir G. Beaumont	1826
52	Portrait of Gevartius	Van Dyck	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
53	Evening Landscape	A. Cuyp	"	P. "	"	"
54	Woman Bathing	Rembrandt	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
55	Death of Procris	Claude	"	G. Sir G. Beaumont	1826
56	Landscape	An. Carracci	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
57	St. Bavon	Rubens	"	B. "	"
58	Study of Trees	Claude	"	G. Sir G. Beaumont	1826
59	The Brazen Serpent	Rubens	"	P. Bulkeley Owen	1837	(3)
60	Tower of Babel	Leandro Bassano	Dublin	B. Col. Ollney	"
61	Landscape	Claude	National Gallery	G. Sir G. Beaumont	1826
62	Bacchanalian Dance	N. Poussin	"	P. Hamlet	"	(1)
63	Landscape	An. Carracci	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
64	Return of the Ark	S. Bourdon	"	G. Sir G. Beaumont	1826
65	Cephalus and Aurora	N. Poussin	"	B. G. J. Cholmondeley	1831
66	Landscape	Rubens	"	G. Sir G. Beaumont	1826
67	Holy Family	Rubens	National Gallery	P. Angerstein	1824	A
68	View near Albano	G. Poussin	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
69	St. John Preaching	P. F. Mola	"	B. "	"
70	Cornelia & her jewels	Padovanino	"	B. Col. Ollney	1837
71	Muleteers	J. Both	"	G. Sir G. Beaumont	1826
72	Tobias & the Angel	Rembrandt	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
73	Conversion of St. Paul	Asc. to Ercole di Giulio Grandi	"	B. "	1831
74	Spanish Boy	Murillo	"	G. M. Zachary	1826
75	St. George & Dragon	Domenichino	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
76	Christ's Agony	Aft. Correggio	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
77	Stoning of Stephen	Domenichino	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
78	Landscape	Berchem	Bootle	B. R. Frankum	1861
81	St. Augustine	Garofalo	National Gallery	B. Rev. W. H.	1831
82	Holy Family	Mazzolino	"	B. Carr	"
83	Phineus	N. Poussin	Dublin	G. Gen. Thornton	1837
84	Mercury & Woodman	Salvator Rosa	National Gallery	P. George Byng	"	£1,680
85	St. Jerome	Domenichino	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
86	The Entombment	L. Carracci	"	B. Col. Ollney	1837
87	Perseus	Guido	Dublin	G. William IV.	1836
88	Erminia	An. Carracci	National Gallery	P. Angerstein	1824	A
89	Portraits	Sustermans	Dublin	P. "	"	"
90	Venus and Graces	Guido	Edinburgh	G. William IV.	1836
91	Sleeping Venus	N. Poussin	National Gallery	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
92	Cupid and Psyche	Aless. Veronese	South Kensington	B. Col. Ollney	1837
93	Silenus	An. Carracci	National Gallery	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
94	Bacchus and Silenus	"	"	P. Angerstein	1824	A
95	Dido and ?neas	G. Poussin	"	B. Rev. W. H. Carr	1831
96	Ecce Homo!	Copy of Correggio	South Kensington	B. "	"
97	Rape of Europa	P. Veronese	National Gallery	B. "	"
98	La Riccia	G. Poussin	"	B. "	"
101	Infancy	Lancret	"	B. Col. Ollney	1837
102	Youth	"	"	B. "	"
103	Manhood	"	"	B. "	"
104	Age	"	"	B. "	"
125	Izaak Walton	Huysman	National Portrait Gallery	B. Rev. Dr. Hawes	1838
127	View in Venice	Canaletto	National Gallery	G. Sir G. Beaumont	1826
134	Landscape	Decker	Exeter	B. Col. Ollney	1837
135	Landscape with Ruins	Canaletto	National Gallery	G. "	"
137	Landscape	Jan van Goyen	"	B. "	"
138	Ancient Ruins	Panini	"	B. "	"
140	Portrait of a Lady	Van der Helst	Greenock	B. "	"
141	Palace of Dido	Steenwyck	Dublin	B. "	"
145	Portrait of a Man	Asc. to Helst	Edinburgh	B. "	"
146	View on the Maas	Abraham Storck	National Gallery	B. "	"
147	Cephalus and Aurora	Ag. Carracci	"	G. Ld. Ellesmere	"
148	Galatea	"	"	G. "	"
149	A Calm	W. van de Velde	"	B. Ld. Farnborough	1838
150	A Gale	"	"	B. "	"
151	River Scene	Jan van Goyen	"	B. Mrs. Hodges	1852
151	Leda [267]	P. F. Mola	"	B. Ld. Farnborough	1838
152	Evening Landscape	A. van der Neer	"	B. "	"
153	The Little Nurse	Maes	"	B. "	"
154	A Music Party	D. Teniers (jr.)	"	B. "	"
155	Money-changers	"	"	B. "	"
156	Study of Horses	Van Dyck	"	B. "	"
157	Landscape	Rubens	"	B. "	"
158	Boors Regaling	D. Teniers (jr.)	"	B. "	"
159	Dutch Housewife	Maes	"	B. "	"
160	A "Riposo"	P. F. Mola	National Gallery	B. Ld. Farnborough	1838
161	Landscape	G. Poussin	"	B. "	"
163	View in Venice	Canaletto	"	B. "	"
164	Holy Family	Jordaens	Dublin	G. D. of. Northumbd	"
165	Plague at Ashdod	N. Poussin	National Gallery	G. "	"
166	Capuchin Friar	Rembrandt	"	G. "	"
167	Adoration of Magi	B. Peruzzi	"	G. Lord Vernon	1839
168	St. Catherine	Raphael	"	P. Beckford	"	?7,350
169	Holy Family	Mazzolino	"	P. "	"
170	"	Garofalo	"	P. "	"
172	Supper at Emmaus	Caravaggio	"	G. Lord Vernon	"
173	Male Portrait	Il Bassano	"	G. H. G.	"
174	A Cardinal	C. Maratti	"	G. Knight	"
175	John Milton	Van der Plaas	National Portrait Gallery	G. C. Lofft	"
176	St. John & the Lamb	Murillo	National Gallery	P. Sir S. Clark	1840	2,100
177	The Magdalen	Guido Reni	"	P. "	"	430 10
179	Virgin and Child	Francia	"	P. Duke of	1841	3,500
180	A Piet?	"	"	P. Lucca"	"	3,500
181	Virgin and Child	Perugino	"	P. Beckford	"	800
184	A Young Lady	N. Lucidel	"	P. Col. Baillie	1858	200
Sir C. L. (then Mr.) Eastlake was appointed Keeper in 1843.
186	Portraits of Jan Arnolfini & Wife	Jan van Eyck	National Gallery	P. General Hay	1842	630
187	Apotheosis of William the Taciturn	Rubens	"	P. Lord Eldin	1843	200
189	The Doge Loredano	Gio. Bellini	"	P. Beckford	1844	630
190	A Jewish Rabbi	Rembrandt	"	P. J. Harman	"	473 11
191	Christ and St. John	Guido Reni	"	P. "	"	409 10
192	His own Portrait	Gerard Dou	"	P. "	"	131 5
193	Lot & his Daughters	Guido Reni	"	P. Penrice	"	1,680
194	Judgment of Paris	Rubens	"	P. "	"	4,200
195	A Medical Professor	German School	"	P. Rochard	1845	630
196	Susannah & Elders	Guido Reni	"	P. Penrice	"	1,260
197	Wild Boar Hunt	Velazquez	"	P. Lord Cowley	1846	2,200
198	St. Anthony	An. Carracci	"	P. Ld. Dartmouth	"	787 10
199	Lesbia	Schalcken	"	B. R. Simmons	"
200	Madonna	Sassoferrato	"	B. "	"
201	Seaport	C. J. Vernet	Dublin	B. "	"
202	Domestic Poultry	Hondecoeter	National Gallery	B. "	"
203	Conventual Charity	Van Harp	Chester	B. "	"
204	Dutch Shipping	Bakhuizen	"	B. "	"
205	Itinerant Musicians	Dietrich	National Gallery	B. "	"
206	Head of a Girl	Greuze	"	B. "	"
207	The Idle Servant	Maes	"	B. "	"
208	Landscape	Breenberg	Greenock	B. "	"
209	Judgment of Paris	Both & Poelenburgh	National Gallery	B. "	"
210	View in Venice	Guardi	"	B. "	"
211	A Battle	Huchtenburg	"	B. "	"
212	Merchant and Clerk	De Keyser	"	B. "	"
Mr. Thomas Uwins, R.A., was appointed Keeper in 1847.
213	Vision of a Knight	Raphael	National Gallery	P. Rev. T. Egerton	1847	1,050
214	Coronation of Virgin	Guido Reni	"	B. W. Wells	"
215	Saints	{ Lorenzo	"	G. W.	1848
216	"	{ Monaco	"	G. Coningham	"
218	Adoration of Magi	B. Peruzzi	"	G. E. Higginson	1849
219	Dead Christ	Lombard School	"	G. Sir W. C. Trevelyan	"
[268]	Landscape with Figures	G. Poussin	National Gallery	G. Philip Pusey	1849
[268]	"	"	"	G. "	"
221	His own Portrait	Rembrandt	"	P. Visct.	1851	£430 10
222	A Man's Portrait	Jan van Eyck	"	P. Midleton	"	365
223	A Gale	Bakhuizen	"	B. C. L. Bredel	"
224	The Tribute Money	Sch. of Titian	"	P. Marshal Soult	1852	2,604
225	Vision of the Magdalen	Giulio Romano	"	G. Ld. Overstone	"
226	Virgin and Child	Sch. of Botticelli	"	P. J. H. Brown	1855	331 13
227	S. Jerome	Botticini	"	P. Conte Ricasoli	"	114 17
228	Christ and the Money-changers	Il Bassano	"	G. P. L. Hinds	1853
230	A Franciscan Monk	Zurbaran	"	P. King Louis	"	265
232	Adoration of the Shepherds	"	"	P. Philippe	"	2,050
234	Warrior adoring Infant Christ	Catena	"	P. S. Woodburn	"	525
235	Dead Christ	Spagnoletto	"	G. D. Barclay	"
236	Castle of St. Angelo	C. J. Vernet	"	G. Lady Simpkinson	"
237	A Woman's Portrait	Rembrandt	"	B. Lord	1854
238	Dead Game	Jan Weenix, jr.	"	B. Colborne	"
239	Moonlight Scene	A. van der Neer	"	B. "	"
240	Crossing the Ford	Berchem	"	B. "	"
242	Game of Backgammon	D. Teniers (jr.)	"	B. "	"
243	An Old Man	Rembrandt	"	B. "	"
244	Shepherd with Lamb	Spagnoletto	"	B. "	"
245	A Senator	Hans Baldung	"	P. M. de	"	145 7
246	Madonna and Child	Pacchia	"	P. Bammeville	"	92 8
247	"Ecce Homo!"	M. di Giovanni	"	P. "	"	55 13
248	Vision of S. Bernard	Filippo Lippi	"	P. "	"	400
249	Marriage of S. Catherine of Siena	Lorenzo di S. Severino	"	P. "	"	393 15
250	Four Saints	Meister v.	"	P. Herr Kr?ger	"	(4)
251	"	Werden	"	P. Minden	"	"
252	Conversion of S. Hubert	"	"	P. "	"	"
253	Mass of S. Hubert	"	"	P. "	"	"
254	Three Saints	Meister v.	"	P. "	"	"
255	"	Liesborn	"	P. "	"	"
256	The Annunciation	"	"	P. "	"	"
257	The Purification	"	"	P. "	"	"
258	Adoration of Magi	"	"	P. "	"	"
259	Christ on the Cross	"	"	P. "	"	"
260	Three Saints	"	"	P. "	"	"
261	"	"	"	P. "	"	"
262	The Crucifixion	Sch. of "	"	P. "	"	"
263	Coronation of the Virgin	The younger "	Dublin	P. "	"	"
264	Penitent and Saint	Flemish School	National Gallery	P. "	"	"
265	Virgin and Child	"	"	P. "	"	"
266	The Deposition from the Cross	Lambert Lombard	"	P. "	"	"
Sir C. L. Eastlake, P.R.A., was appointed Director in 1855.
268	Adoration of Magi	P. Veronese	National Gallery	P. Sig. Toffoli	1855	£1,977
269	A Knight in Armour	Giorgione	"	B. Samuel	"
270	"Noli me Tangere"	Titian	"	B. Rogers	"
271	"Ecce Homo!"	Guido Reni	"	B. "	"
272	An Apostle	Italian School	"	G. Cav. Vallati	"
274	Virgin and Child	A. Mantegna	"	P. Sig. Roverselli	"	1,125 12
275	Virgin and Child	Botticelli	"	P. G. Bianconi	"	159 11 6
276	Sts. John & Paul	Spinello Aretino	"	P. Samuel	1856	78 15
277	The Good Samaritan	Il Bassano	"	P. Rogers	"	241 10
278	Triumph of C?sar	Rubens	"	P. "	"	1,102 10
279	Horrors of War	"	"	P. "	"	210
280	Madonna and Child	Gio. Bellini	"	P. Baron Galvagna	1855	(5)
281	St. Jerome Reading	Basaiti	"	P. M. Marcovich	"	43 13 1
282	Glorification of the Virgin	Bertucci	"	P. Lord Orford	1856	651
283	Virgin and Child	Benozzo Gozzoli	"	P. Casa Rinuccini	1855	137 16 8
284	Madonna and Child	B. Vivarini	"	P. Conte degl' Algarotti	"	97
285	"	F. Morone	"	P. Baron	"	(5)
286	"	Tacconi	"	P. Galvagna	"	"
287	Lodovico Martinengo	Bart. Veneziano	"	P. Conte G. Pisani	"	48 10
288	Virgin and Child	Perugino	"	P. Duke Melzi	1856	3,571 8 7
289	The Night Watch	Gerrit Lundens	"	B. Rev. T. Halford	1857
290	A Man's Portrait	Jan van Eyck	"	P. H. Carl Ross	"	189 11
291	Portrait of a Girl	Lucas Cranach	"	P. Lord Shrewsbury	"	50 8
292	St. Sebastian	Pollajuolo	"	P. Marchese Pucci	"	3,155 4 6
293	Virgin and Child	Filippino Lippi	"	P. Cav. Gius. Rucellai	"	627 8
294	Family of Darius	P. Veronese	"	P. Conte V. Pisani	"	13,650
295	Christ and Virgin	Quentin Metsys	"	P. King of Holland	"	137 12 9
296	Virgin Adoring	Verrocchio	"	P. Sig. Contugi	"	455 16 8
297	The Nativity	Il Romanino	"	P. Conte Avveroldi	"	804
298	The two S. Catherines	Borgognone	"	P. Sig. Taddeo	"	430
299	An Italian Nobleman	Il Moretto	"	P. Henfry	1858	360
300	Madonna and Child	Cima da Conegliano	"	P. M. Roussele	"	339 6 5
564	Virgin and Child	Margaritone	"	P. Lombardi-Baldi Gal.	1857	(6)
565	Madonna and Child	Cimabue	"	P. "	"	"
566	"	Duccio	"	P. "	"	"
567	Christ on the Cross	Segna di Buonaventura	"	P. "	"	"
568	Coronation of the Virgin	Sch. of Gaddi	"	P. "	"	"
569	"	Orcagna	"	P. "	"	"
570	The Trinity	"	"	P. "	"	"
571	Angels Adoring	"	"	P. "	"	"
572	"	"	"	P. "	"	"
573	The Nativity	"	"	P. "	"	"
574	Adoration of Magi	"	"	P. "	"	"
575	The Resurrection	"	"	P. "	"	"
576	The Three Maries	"	"	P. "	"	"
577	The Ascension	"	"	P. "	"	"
578	The Holy Spirit	"	"	P. "	"	"
579	The Baptism of Christ	Niccolo di Pietro Gerini	"	P. "	"	"
579A	"	G. da Milano	"	P. "	"	"
580	Assumption of St. John	Jacopo Landini	"	P. "	"	"
580A
& B
581	Saints	Orcagna	"	P. "	"	"
582	Adoration of Magi	Fra Angelico	National Gallery	P. Lombardi-Baldi Gal.	1857	(6)
583	Battle of Sant' Egidio	Paolo Uccello	"	P. "	"	"
584	Various Saints	Sch. of A. del Castagno	Edinburgh	P. "	"	"
585	Portrait of a Lady	Sch. of Pollaiulo	National Gallery	P. "	"	"
586	Madonna and Child	Macchiavelli	National Gallery	P. "	"	"
587	Saints	Sch. of Lippi	Edinburgh	P. "	"	"
588	St. Mark and St. Augustine	"	Dublin	P. "	"	"
589	Virgin and Child	Filippo Lippi	National Gallery	P. "	"	"
590	Christ in the Tomb	Marco Zoppo	"	P. "	"	"
591	Rape of Helen	Sch. of Gozzoli	"	P. "	"	"
592	Adoration of Magi	Botticelli	"	P. "	"	"
593	Virgin and Child	Lorenzo di Credi	"	P. "	"	"
594	St. Cosmo and St. Damian	Emmanuel	"	P. "	"	"
595	Portrait of a Lady	Venetian School	"	P. Sig. Menchetti	1858	£214 18
596	The Entombment	Palmezzano	"	P. Sig. Gismondi	"	537 4 7
597	St. Vincentius	F. Cossa Ferrer	"	P. Marchese G. Costabili	"	202 16 10
598	St. Francis	Filippino Lippi	"	P. "	"	202 16 10
599	Madonna of Meadow	Basaiti	"	P. Sig. A. Farina	1858	641 9 4
600	The Blind Beggar	Dyckmans	"	B. Miss Jane Clarke	1859
602	A Piet?	Crivelli	"	P. Cav. Vallati	"	303
621	Horse Fair	Rosa Bonheur	"	B. Jacob Bell	"
622	(See note below)[269]
623	Madonna and Child	Girolamo da Treviso	"	P. Ld. Northwick	"	472 10
624	Infancy of Jupiter	Giulio Romano	"	P. "	"	920
625	An Altar-Piece	Il Moretto	"	P. "	"	577 10
626	Portrait of a Man	Botticelli	"	P. "	"	108 3
627	Waterfall	J. Ruysdael	"	P. Count	"	1,187 15 6
628	"	"	"	P. Stolberg	"	1,069 15 3
629	Madonna and Child	Lorenzo Costa	"	P. M. Reiset	"	880
630	"	G. Schiavone	"	P. Beaucousin	1860	(7)
631	Portrait of a Lady	Asc. to Bissolo	"	P. " Coll.	"	"
632	A Saint	Girolamo da	"	P. "	"	"
633	"	Santa Croce	"	P. "	"	"
634	Madonna of Goldfinch	Cima da Conegliano	"	P. "	"	"
635	The "Repose"	Titian	"	P. "	"	"
636	Portrait of a Poet	Palma Vecchio	"	P. "	"	"
637	Daphnis and Chloe	Paris Bordone	"	P. "	"	"
638	Virgin and Child	Francia	"	P. "	"	"
639	"Noli me tangere"	F. Mantegna	"	P. "	"	"
640	Adoration of Magi	Dosso Dossi	"	P. "	"	"
641	The Woman taken in Adultery	Mazzolino	"	P. "	"	"
642	Christ's Agony	Garofalo	"	P. "	"	"
643	The Capture of Carthagena	Asc. to Rinaldo Mantovano	"	P. "	"	"
644	The Rape of the Sabines	Asc. to Rinaldo Mantovano	"	P. "	"	"
645	Virgin and Child	Albertinelli	"	P. "	"	"
646	St. Catherine	Umbrian School	"	P. "	"	"
647	St. Ursula	"	"	P. "	"	"
648	Virgin and Child	Lorenzo di Credi	"	P. "	"	"
649	Portrait of a Boy	An. Bronzino	"	P. "	"	"
650	Portrait of a Lady	Alessandro Allori	"	P. "	"	"
651	All is Vanity	An. Bronzino	"	P. "	"	"
652	Charity	Salviati	National Gallery	P. Beaucousin	1860	(7)
653	Husband and Wife	Flemish School	"	P. " Coll.	"	"
654	The Magdalen	Sch. of R. Campin	"	P. "	"	"
655	"	A. Benson	"	P. "	"	"
656	A Man's Portrait	Mabuse	"	P. "	"	"
657	Husband and Wife	J. Cornelissen	"	P. "	"	"
658	The Death of the Virgin	Sch. of R. Campin	"	P. "	"	"
659	Pan and Syrinx	Brueghel	"	P. "	"	"
660	A Man's Portrait	Asc. to Clouet	"	P. "	"	"
661	A Tracing of the "Madonna di San Sisto"	After Raphael	"	G. Colnaghi and Co.	"
663	The Resurrection	Fra Angelico	"	P. Sig. G. Valentini	"	?3,500
664	Entombment of Christ	D. Bouts	"	P. Guicciardi Family	"	120 14 6
665	Baptism of Christ	P. della Francesca	"	P. Sig. Uzielli	1861	241 10
666	The Annunciation	Filippo Lippi	"	G. Sir C. L. Eastlake	"
667	St. John the Baptist and Saints	"	"	P. A. Barker	"	2,500
668	The Beato Ferretti	Crivelli	"	P. "	"
669	St. Sebastian, St. Roch, and St. Demetrius	L'Ortolano	"	P. "	"
670	A Knight	Bronzino Sch.	"	G. G. F. Watts, R.A.	"
671	Madonna and Child	Garofalo	"	P. Conte A. Mazza	1860	763 16
672	His own Portrait	Rembrandt	"	P. MM. de Richemont	1861	800
673	"Salvator Mundi"	A. da Messina	"	P. Cav. Isola	"	160
674	Portrait of a Lady	Paris Bordone	"	P. Duca di Cardinale	"	257 13 1
679	An Astronomer	F. Bol	"	G. Miss E. A. Benett	1862
680	The Miraculous Draught of Fishes	Van Dyck	"	P. Cav. Carelli	1861	220
685	Showery Weather	Hobbema	"	P. G. H. Phillips	1862	1,575
686	Madonna and Child	Memlinc	"	P. J. P. Weyer	"	759
687	The Sancta Veronica	Cologne School	"	P. "	"	165
690	His own Portrait	Andrea del Sarto	"	P. Sig. N. Puccini	"	270 2
691	"Ecce Homo!"	Asc. to Spagna	"	G. Sir W.	"
692	St. Hugo of Grenoble	Ludovico da Parma	"	B. Moore	"
693	St. Catherine	Pinturicchio	"	B. "	"
694	St. Jerome in Study	Catena	"	P. Manfrini	"	1,047 16 2
695	Madonna and Child	Previtali	"	P. Gallery,	"
696	Marco Barbarigo	Petrus Cristus	"	P. Venice	"
697	Portrait of a Tailor	Moroni	"	P. Sig. F. Frizzoni de Salis	1862	320
698	The Death of Procris	Piero di Cosimo	"	P. Sig. F. Lombardi	"	171 6 3
699	Agostino and Niccolo Della Torre	Lorenzo Lotto	"	P. Sig. G. Morelli	"	320
700	The Holy Family	Lanini	"	P. G. H. Phillips	1863	1,200
701	Coronation of the Virgin	Justus of Padua	"	G. Queen Victoria	"
702	Madonna and Child	Umbrian School	"	G. "	"
703	"	Pinturicchio	"	G. "	"
704	Portrait of Cosmo I.	Bronzino Sch.	"	G. "	"
705	Three Saints	Asc. to Stephan Lochner	"	G. "	"
706	The Presentation	Master of the Lyversberg Passion	"	G. "	"
707	St. Peter and St. Dorothy	Cologne School	National Gallery	G. Queen Victoria	1863
708	Madonna and Child	Flemish School	"	G. "	"
709	"	Memlinc	"	G. "	"
710	A Monk	Flemish School	"	G. "	"
711	Mater Dolorosa	R. Weyden	"	G. "	"
712	"Ecce Homo!"	"	"	G. "	"
713	Madonna and Child	Jan Prevost	"	G. "	"
714	Mother and Child	B. van Orley	"	G. "	"
715	The Crucifixion	Quentin Metsys	"	G. "	"
716	St. Christopher	J. Patinir	"	G. "	"
717	St. John in Patmos	"	"	G. "	"
718	The Crucifixion	Asc. to H. Bles	"	G. "	"
719	The Magdalen	"	"	G. "	"
720	A "Repose"	Schorel	"	G. "	"
721	Portrait of a Lady	"	"	G. "	"
722	Portrait of a Lady	German School	"	G. "	"
723	(See note below)[270]
724	Madonna della Rondine	Crivelli	"	P. Conte L. de Sanctis	1862	£2,182 11 5
726	Christ's Agony	Gio. Bellini	"	P. Rev. W.	1863	630
727	The Trinity	Pesellino	"	P. Davenport	"	2,100
728	Madonna and Child	Beltraffio	"	P. Bromley	"	462
729	Adoration of Kings	Foppa	"	P. "	"	127 1
732	Canal Scene	A. van der Neer	"	P. Lord Shaftesbury	1864	800
734	A Milanese Lawyer	Andrea Solario	"	P. Sig. G. Baslini	1863	636 3 9
735	St. Roch and the Angel	Paolo Morando	"	P. Dr. C. Bernasconi	1864	880
736	A Venetian Senator	Bonsignori	"	P. "	"	880
737	Waterfall	J. Ruysdael	"	B. J. M.	"
738	Incident in a Battle	C. P. Tschaggeny	Oldham	B. Oppenheim	"
739	The Annunciation	Crivelli	National Gallery	G. Lord Taunton	"
740	Madonna and Child	Sassoferrato	"	P. Sig. Jenne, Venice	"	380
741	A Dead Warrior	Asc. to Velazquez	"	P. Pourtal?s Coll., Paris	1865	1,549 4 6
742	Portrait of a Lawyer	Moroni	"	P. "	"	528 8 6
744	"Garvagh Madonna"	Raphael	"	P. Lord Garvagh	"	9,000
745	Philip IV. of Spain	Velazquez	"	P. M. Emm.	"	1,200
746	Landscape, with Ruin	Ruysdael	"	P. Sano	"	1,200
747	St. John and St. Lawrence	Asc. to Memlinc	"	P. "	"	480
748	Madonna and Child with St. Anne	Girolamo dai Libri	"	P. The Conti Monga, Verona	1864	1,580
749	The Giusti Family	N. Giolfino	"	P. "	"	1,580
750	The Doge Gio-Mocenigo	L. Bastiani	"	P. Conte A. Mocenigo	1865	3,400
751	Madonna and Child	Giovanni Santi	"	P. Sig. M.	"	120
752	"	Lippo Dalmasii	"	P. Gualandi	"	400
753	On the Road to Emmaus	Altobello Melone	"	P. Conte C. Castelbarco, Milan	1864	320
Sir William (then Mr.) Boxall was appointed Director in 1866.
755	Rhetoric	Melozzo da Forli	National Gallery	P. W. Spence	1866	600
756	Music	"	"	P. "	"	600
757	Christ blessing Little Children	Sch. of Rembrandt	"	P. Herr. Suermondt	"	7,000
758	Countess Palma of Urbino	Piero della Francesca	National Gallery	P. Sig. Egidj	1866	£160
766	Head of a Saint	Dom. Veneziano	"	P. Lady Eastlake	1867	27 10
767	"	"	"	P. "	"	27 10
768	St. Peter and St. Jerome	Antonio Vivarini	"	P. "	"	40
769	St. Michael and the Dragon	della Francesca	"	P. "	"	50
770	Leonello D'Este	Giovanni Oriolo	"	P. "	"	25
771	St. Jerome	Bono	"	P. "	"	55
772	Madonna and Child	Cosimo Tura	"	P. "	"	160
773	St. Jerome	"	"	P. "	"	75
774	Madonna and Child	D. Bouts	"	P. "	"	225
775	An Old Woman	Rembrandt	"	P. "	"	1,200
776	St. Anthony and St. George	Vittore Pisano	"	G. "	"
777	Madonna and Child	Paolo Morando	"	P. Count L. Portalupi	"	900
778	"	Pellegrino da San Daniele	"	P. Sig. V. Azzola	"	112
779	Family Portraits	Borgognone	"	P. Sig. Baslini	"	160
780	"	"	"	P. "	"	160
781	Raphael and Tobias	Asc. to Botticini	"	P. Count Galli Tassi	"	1,000
782	Madonna and Child	Botticelli Sch.	"	P. "	"	1,000
783	Exhumation of St. Hubert	Flemish School	"	P. Lady Eastlake	1868	1,500
788	An Altar-Piece	Crivelli	"	P. G. H. Phillips	1868	3,360
790	The Entombment	Michael Angelo	"	P. R. Macpherson	"	2,000
794	Dutch Courtyard	P. de Hooch	"	P. M. Delessert	1869	1,722
796	Vase of Flowers	J. van Huysum	"	P. C. J. Nieuwenhuys	"	900
797	A Man's Portrait	A. Cuyp	"	P. "	"	900
798	Cardinal Richelieu	P. de Champaigne	"	G. A.W. Franks	"
802	Madonna of the Cherry	B. Montagna	"	P. Sig. G. Baslini	1869	180 18
803	The Circumcision	Marco Marziale	"	P.	"	1,005
804	Madonna and Child	"	"	P.	"	502 10
805	Peeling Pears	D. Teniers (jr.)	"	P. G. H. Phillips	1870	600
806	The Procession to Calvary	B. Boccaccino	"	P. Sig. G. Baslini	"	300
807	Madonna and Child	Crivelli	"	G. Marchioness of Westminster	"
808	St. Peter Martyr	Gentile Bellini	"	P. Sig. G. Baslini	"	280
809	The Holy Family	Michael Angelo	"	P. Ld. Taunton	"	2,000
810	Pardon Day in Brittany	C. Poussin	"	G. R. E. Lofft	"
811	Tobias and the Angel	Salvator Rosa	"	G. Wynn Ellis	"
812	Death of P. Martyr	Gio. Bellini	"	G. Lady Eastlake	"
814	A Calm	P. J. Clays	Newport	B. J. M. Parsons	"
815	Flushing	"	National Gallery	B. "	"
816	The Incredulity of St. Thomas	Cima da Conegliano	"	P. Hospital of St. Francesco	1871	1,800
817	The Ch?teau of Teniers at Perck	D. Teniers (jr)	"	P. C. J. Nieuwenhuys	"	1,000
818	Coast Scene	Bakhuizen	"	P. Sir Robert Peel	"	(3)
819	Mouth of the Thames	"	"	P. "	"	"
820	Landscape with Ruin	Berchem	"	P. "	"	"
821	A Family Group	Gonzales Coques	"	P. "	"	"
822	Evening Landscape	A. Cuyp	"	P. "	"	"
823	On the Meuse	"	"	P. "	"	"
824	Ruined Castle	"	"	P. "	"	"
825	Poulterer's Shop	Gerard Dou	"	P. "	"	"
826	Landscape, Animals	K. du Jardin	"	P. "	"	"
827	The Ford	"	"	P. "	"	"
828	Landscape & Cattle	"	"	P. "	"	"
829	Stag Hunt	Jan Hackaert	National Gallery	P. Sir Robert Peel	1871	(8)
830	The Avenue	Hobbema	"	P. "	"	"
831	Brederode Castle	"	"	P. "	"	"
832	Water Mills	"	"	P. "	"	"
833	Forest Scene	"	"	P. "	"	"
834	Dutch Interior	P. de Hooch	"	P. "	"	"
835	Court of a House	"	"	P. "	"	"
836	View in Holland	P. de Koninck	"	P. "	"	"
837	Hay Harvest	J. Lingelbach	"	P. "	"	"
838	The Duet	G. Metsu	"	P. "	"	"
839	The Music Lesson	"	"	P. "	"	"
840	Lady feeding Parrot	Frans van Mieris	"	P. "	"	"
841	Fish & Poultry Shop	W. van Mieris	"	P. "	"	"
842	Garden Scene	F. Moucheron	"	P. "	"	"
843	Blowing Bubbles	G. Netscher	"	P. "	"	"
844	Maternal Instruction	"	"	P. "	"	"
845	Spinning Wheel	"	"	P. "	"	"
846	The Alchymist	A. van Ostade	"	P. "	"	"
847	Village Scene	I. van Ostade	"	P. "	"	"
848	Skating Scene	"	"	P. "	"	"
849	Landscape & Cattle	Paul Potter	"	P. "	"	"
850	Man's Portrait	Rembrandt	"	P. "	"	"
851	Venus Sleeping	Seb. Ricci	"	P. "	"	"
852	Chapeau de Poil	Rubens	"	P. "	"	"
853	Triumph of Silenus	"	"	P. "	"	"
853 A-P.	Studies	Rubens	"	P. "	"	"
854	Forest Scene	J. Ruysdael	"	P. "	"	"
855	Waterfall	"	"	P. "	"	"
856	The Music Master	Jan Steen	"	P. "	"	"
857	The Four Seasons	D. Teniers (jr.)	"	P. "	"	"
858	"	"	"	P. "	"	"
859	"	"	"	P. "	"	"
860	"	"	"	P. "	"	"
861	Country Scene	"	"	P. "	"	"
862	The Surprise	"	"	P. "	"	"
863	Rich Man in Hell	"	"	P. "	"	"
864	The Guitar Lesson	Terburg	"	P. "	"	"
865	Coast Scene	Van de Cappelle	"	P. "	"	"
866	Street in Cologne	Van der Heyden	"	P. "	"	"
867	Farm Cottage	A. van de Velde	"	P. "	"	"
868	The Ford	"	"	P. "	"	"
869	Frost Scene	"	"	P. "	"	"
870	Shipping in a Calm	W. van de Velde	"	P. "	"	"
871	Bathing	"	"	P. "	"	"
872	Shipping off the Coast	"	"	P. "	"	"
873	"	"	"	P. "	"	"
874	A Calm at Sea	"	"	P. "	"	"
875	A Light Breeze	"	"	P. "	"	"
876	A Gale	"	"	P. "	"	"
877	His own Portrait	Van Dyck	"	P. "	"	"
877 A, B.	Studies	"	"	P. "	"	"
878	"Pretty Milkmaid"	P. Wouwerman	"	P. "	"	"
879	Interior of a Stable	"	"	P. "	"	"
880	On the Sea Shore	"	"	P. "	"	"
881	Gathering Faggots	"	"	P. "	"	"
882	Landscape	"	"	P. "	"	"
883	Beggar by Roadside	Jan Wynants	"	P. "	"	"
884	Sand Dunes	"	"	P. "	"	"
895	Francesco Ferruccio	Piero di Cosimo	"	B. Sir A. Sterling	"
896	The Peace of M?nster	Terburg	"	G. Sir R. Wallace	"
901	Landscape	Jan Looten	Bootle	B. Mrs. J. H. Jewer	1873
902	Triumph of Scipio	A. Mantegna	National Gallery	P. Captain Vivian	"	£1,500
Sir Frederick W. (then Mr.) Burton was appointed Director in 1874.
903	Cardinal Fleury	H. Rigaud	National Gallery	G. Mrs. Charles Fox	1874
904	Madonna and Child	G. Schiavone	"	P. A. Barker	"	£189
905	Madonna in Prayer	Cosimo Tura	"	P. "	"	84 10
906	Madonna in Ecstasy	Crivelli	"	P. "	"	577 10
907	St. Catherine and Mary Magdalene	"	"	P. "	"	210
908	The Nativity	P. della Francesca	"	P. "	"	2,415
[271]909	The Madonna of the White Rose	Benvenuto da Siena	"	P. "	"	558 12
910	The Triumph of Chastity	Luca Signorelli	"	P. "	"	840
911	Ulysses and Penelope	Pinturicchio	"	P. "	"	2,152 10
912	The Story of Griselda	Umbrian School	"	P. "	"	210
913	"	"	"	P. "	"	241
914	"	"	"	P. "	"	273
915	Mars and Venus	Botticelli	"	P. "	"	1,050
916	Venus with Cupids	J. del Sellaio	"	P. "	"	1,627 10
920	Orpheus	R. Savery	Greenock	B. S. J. Ainsley	"
923	A Venetian Senator	Andrea Solario	National Gallery	P. Sig. G. Baslini	1875	1,880
924	Gothic Interior	Pieter Neeffs	"	G. H. H. Howorth	"
927	Angel Adoring	Filippino Lippi	"	B. Wynn Ellis	1876
928	Apollo and Daphne	Asc. to Pollajuolo	"	B. "	"
929	"Bridgewater Madonna"	After Raphael	"	B. "	"
930	The Garden of Love	Sch. of Giorgione	"	B. "	"
931	Magdalen and her Jewels	Italian School	"	B. "	"
932	A Knight of Malta	Italian School	"	B. "	"
933	Boy with Dove	Padovanino	"	B. "	"	"
934	Madonna and Child	Carlo Dolci	"	B. "	"	"
935	River Scene	Salvator Rosa	"	B. "	"	"
936	Farnese Theatre, Parma	Ferd. Bibiena	"	B. "	"	"
937	Scuola di San Rocco	Canaletto	"	B. "	"	"
938	Regatta on the Grand Canal	"	"	B. "	"	"
939	Venice: Piazzetta	"	"	B. "	"	"
940	The Ducal Palace	"	"	B. "	"	"
941	The Grimani Palace	"	"	B. "	"	"
942	Eton College	"	"	B. "	"	"
943	A Portrait	D. Bouts	"	B. "	"	"
944	Two Usurers	Marinus van Romerswael	"	B. "	"	"
945	St. Agnes	J. Patinir	"	B. "	"	"
946	A Man's Portrait	Mabuse	"	B. "	"	"
947	"	Flemish School	"	B. "	"	"
948	Landscape	Rubens	Bootle	B. "	"	"
949	Landscape: Gipsies	D. Teniers (sen.)	National Gallery	B. "	"	"
950	Village Gossips	"	"	B. "	"	"
951	Playing at Bowls	"	"	B. "	"	"
952	A Village F?te	D. Teniers (jr.)	"	B. "	"	"
953	The Toper	"	"	B. "	"	"
954	A Landscape	Corn. Huysmans	"	B. "	"	"
955	Women Bathing	Poelenburgh	"	B. "	"	"
956	Italian Landscape	J. Both	"	B. "	"	"
957	Goatherds	J. Both	National Gallery	B. Wynn Ellis	1876
958	Outside Rome	"	"	B. "	"
959	River Scene	"	Greenock	B. "	"
960	Windmills	A. Cuyp	Newport	B. "	"
961	The "Large Dort"	"	"	B. "	"
962	The "Small Dort"	"	"	B. "	"
963	Skating Scene	I. van Ostade	"	B. "	"
964	River Scene	Van de Cappelle	"	B. "	"
965	River Scene, with Barge	"	"	B. "	"
966	Dutch Shipping	"	"	B. "	"
967	River Scene	"	"	B. "	"
968	His Wife's Portrait	Gerard Dou	"	B. "	"
969	A Frost Scene	A. van der Neer	"	B. "	"
970	The Drowsy Landlady	G. Metsu	"	B. "	"
971	Landscape	Jan Wynants	"	B. "	"
972	"	"	"	B. "	"
973	Sandbank	P. Wouwerman	"	B. "	"
974	Antwerp Cathedral	P. De Koninck	"	B. "	"
975	Stag Hunt	P. Wouwerman	"	B. "	"
976	Battle Scene	"	"	B. "	"
977	Sea Piece	W. van de Velde	"	B. "	"
978	River Scene	"	"	B. "	"
979	A Stiff Breeze	"	"	B. "	"
980	Dutch Shipping	"	"	B. "	"
981	A Storm at Sea	"	"	B. "	"
982	Forest Scene	A. van de Velde	"	B. "	"
983	Bay Horse	"	"	B. "	"
984	Cattle	"	"	B. "	"
985	Sheep and Goats	K. du Jardin	"	B. "	"
986	Watermills	J. Ruysdael	"	B. "	"
987	Rocky Torrent	"	"	B. "	"
988	An Old Oak	"	"	B. "	"
989	Bleachers	"	"	B. "	"
990	Wooded Prospect	"	"	B. "	"
991	The Broken Tree	"	"	B. "	"
992	Gothic and Classic Buildings	Van der Heyden	"	B. "	"
993	Landscape	"	"	B. "	"
994	Street in a Town	"	"	B. "	"
995	Woody Landscape	Hobbema	"	B. "	"
996	Castle on a Hill	"	National Gallery	B. "	"
997	Scouring the Kettle	Schalcken	Newport	B. "	"
998	The Duet	"	"	B. "	"
999	Candle Light	"	"	B. "	"
1000	An Estuary	Bakhuizen	"	B. "	"
1001	Flower-Piece	J. Van Huysum	"	B. "	"
1002	"	Walscappelle	"	B. "	"
1003	Dead Birds	Jan Fyt	"	B. "	"
1004	Italian Landscape	Berchem	"	B. "	"
1005	Ploughing	"	"	B. "	"
1006	Hurdy-Gurdy	"	"	B. "	"
1007	Rocky Landscape	Jan Wils	"	B. "	"
1008	Stag Hunt	Pieter Potter	"	B. "	"
1009	An Old Gray Hunter	Paul Potter	"	B. "	"
1010	Architecture of the Renaissance	Dirk van Delen	"	B. "	"
1011	Portrait of a Lady	Gonzales Coques	"	B. "	"
1012	A Man's Portrait	Matt. Merian	"	B. "	"
1013	Geese and Ducks	Hondecoeter	"	B. "	"
1014	St. Lawrence	A. Elsheimer	"	B. "	"
1015	Fruit and Flowers	Jan van Os	"	B. "	"
1016	Portrait of a Girl	Sir P. Lely	"	B. "	"
1017	A Woody Landscape	J. Mompers	National Gallery	B. Wynn Ellis	1876
1018	Classical Landscape	Claude	"	B. "	"
1019	Head of a Girl	Greuze	"	B. "	"
1020	Girl with an Apple	"	"	B. "	"
1021	A Woman's Portrait	Frans Hals	"	P. F. A. Keogh	"	L. ?105
1022	An Italian Nobleman	Moroni	"	P. Sig. G. Baslini	"	5,000
1023	An Italian Lady	"	"	P. "	"
1024	An Italian Ecclesiastic	"	"	P. "	"
1025	An Italian Nobleman	Il Moretto	"	P. "	"
1031	Mary Magdalene	Savoldo	"	P. "	1877	350
1032	Christ's Agony	Lo Spagna	"	P. Fuller Maitland	1878	2,000
1033	Adoration of Magi	Botticelli	"	P. "	"	800
1034	The Nativity	"	"	P. "	"	1,500
1035	Portrait of a Man	Francia Bigio	"	P. "	"	500
1036	A Man's Portrait	Flemish School	"	P. "	"	L. 350
1041	St. Helena	P. Veronese	"	P. Novar Collection	"	3,465
1042	A Man's Portrait	C. Van Hemessen	"	P. J. C. Wallace	"	L. 60
1045	A Canon and his Patron Saints	Gerard David	"	B. W. B. White	"
1047	A Family Group	Lorenzo Lotto	"	B. The Misses Solly	1879
1048	Portrait of a Cardinal	S. Pulzone	"	P. W. C. Spence	1878	225
1049	The Crucifixion	Westphalian	"	G. E. Shipperdson	1847
1050	A Sea-piece	Bakhuizen	Stockport	B. The Misses Solly	1879
1051	Our Lord, St. Thomas, and St. Anthony	Bertucci	National Gallery	B. "	"
1052	Portrait of a Young Man	Lombard School	"	B. "	"
1053	Interior of a Church	De Witte	"	B. "	"
1054	View in Venice	Guardi	"	B. J. Henderson	"
1055	Village Card Party	Sorgh	"	B. "	"
1056	"A Kiss in the Cup	" "	"	B. "	"
1057	A River Scene	C. J. Vernet	Bootle	B. "	"
1058	On the Canal Reggio, Venice	Canaletto	National Gallery	B. "	"
1059	San Pietro in Castello, Venice	"	"	B. "	"
1060	Two Vedettes	P. Wouwerman	"	B. "	"
1061	Explosion at Delft	Van der Poel	"	B. "	"
1062	A Battle-Piece	Ferrarese Sch.	"	P. W. B. White	"	79 16
1063	A Man's Portrait	Flemish School	"	P. J. H. Anderdon	"	63
1074	An Oyster Supper	Dirk Hals	"	P. E. C. Hill	"	80
1075	The Virgin & Child	Perugino	"	P. Baron de la Penna	"	3,200
1077	An Altar-Piece	Borgognone	"	P. Sig. G. Baslini	"	1,200
1078	The Deposition	Asc. to G. David	"	B. Mrs. J. H. Green	1880
1079	The Adoration	Asc. to G. David	"	B. "	"
1080	The Head of St. John the Baptist	Flemish School	"	B. "	"
1081	Man Praying	Early Flemish	"	B. "	"	(1)
1082	The Visit of the Virgin to St. Elizabeth	J. Patinir	"	B. "	"
1083	Christ crowned with Thorns	A. Bouts	"	B. "	"
1084	Flight into Egypt	J. Patinir	"	B. "	"
1085	Virgin and Child	Geertgen	"	B. "	"
1086	Christ appearing to the Virgin	Sch. of R. Campin	"	B. "	"
1087	Mocking of Christ	German School	"	B. "	"
1088	The Crucifixion	German School	"	B. "	"
1089	Virgin and Child	Early Flemish	"	B. "	"
1090	Pan and Syrinx	Boucher	"	G. Mrs. R. Hollond	"
1092	St. Sebastian	Zaganelli	"	P. Sig. F. Sacchi	"	60
1093	Vierge aux Rochers	L. da Vinci	National Gallery	P. Lord Suffolk	1880	£9,000
1094	Portrait of a Man	Asc. to Sir A. More	"	G. British Museum	"
1095	Anna Maria Schurmann	Jan Lievens	"	G. "	"
1096	A Hunting Scene	J. B. Weenix	"	G. "	"
1098	Virgin and Child	B. Montagna	"	P. Sig. G. Baslini	1881	200
1099	Virgin and Child	A. R. Mengs	"	B. Miss Kearsley	"
1100	Scene in a Play	P. Longhi	"	P. Sig. G. Baslini	"	50
1101	Menagerie	"	"	"	"	50
1102	The Chevalier Andrea Tron	"	"	P. Sig. M. Guggenheim	"	300
1103	Virgin and Child	F. de Lorenzo	"	P. Marchese Mona'di	"	1,361 11
1104	The Annunciation	Manni	"	P. "	"	1,361 11
1105	The Prothonotary Apostolic, Juliano	Lotto	"	P. Sig. M. Guggenheim	"	600
1106	The Resurrection	F. Mantegna	"	P. A. W. Thibaudeau	"	300
1107	The Crucifixion	Niccol? da Foligno	"	P. Sig. A. Castellani	"	1,200
1108	Virgin Enthroned	Early Sienese	"	P. "	"	1,200
1109	Marriage of the Virgin	Buonaccorso	"	P. C. F. Murray	"	80
1113	A Legendary Subject	P. Lorenzetti	"	G. C. Fairfax Murray	1882
1114	The Five Senses (Sight)	Gonzales Coques	"	P. De Bus di Gisignies, Brussels	"	?910 0 8
1115	" (Hearing)	"	"	P. "	"
1116	" (Feeling)	"	"	P. "	"
1117	" (Smell)	"	"	P. "	"
1118	" (Taste)	"	"	P. "	"
1119	The Virgin & Child with Saints	Ercole di Guilio Grandi	"	P. Marchese Strozzi	"	2,970
1120	St. Jerome in the Desert	Cima da Conegliano	"	P. Duke of Hamilton	"	493 10
1121	Portrait of a Young Man	Catena	"	P. "	"	525
1122	St. Jerome	D. Theotocopuli	"	P. "	"	336
1123	Venus and Adonis	Sch. of Giorgione	"	P. "	"	1,417 10
1124	Adoration of Magi	Sch. Botticelli	"	P. "	"	1,627 10
1125	Summer & Autumn	A. Mantegna	"	P. "	"	1,785
1126	The Assumption	Botticini	"	P. "	"	4,777 10
1127	The Last Supper	Ercole Grandi	"	P. "	"	630
1128	The Circumcision	Luca Signorelli	"	P. "	"	3,150
1129	Philip IV. of Spain	Velazquez	"	P. "	"	6,300
1130	Christ washing his Disciples' Feet	Tintoretto	"	P. "	"	C. 157 10
1131	Joseph in Egypt	J. da Pontormo	"	P. "	"	C. 315
1132	A Vestibule	H. Steenwyck	"	P. "	"	C. 204 15
1133	The Nativity	Luca Signorelli	"	P. Italy	"	L. 1200
1134	Madonna and Child	Liberale	"	P. Chevalier Fabris	"
1135	Trajan & the Widow	Veronese School	"	P. "	"	240
1136	Trajan & the Widow	Veronese School	"	P. "	"	240
1137	Portrait of a Boy	Jacob van Oost	"	P. "	"	C. 840
1138	The Crucifixion	A. del Castagno	"	P. C. F. Murray	"	137
1139	The Annunciation	Duccio	"	P. Florence	"	C. 178
1140	Christ healing the Blind	"	"	P. "	"	C. 178
1141	His own Portrait	A. da Messina	"	P. Genoa	"	L. 1040
1143	The Procession to Calvary	R. Ghirlandajo	"	P. Marchese Antinori	1883	1,200
1144	Madonna and Child	Il Sodoma	"	P. C. F. Murray	"	160
1145	Samson and Delilah	A. Mantegna	"	P. D. of Marlborough	"	2,362 10
1147	Heads of Four Nuns	A. Lorenzetti.	National Gallery	P. Cav. P. Lombardi	1883	L. ?45
1148	Christ at the Column	Velazquez	"	G. Sir J. Savile Lumley	"
1149	Madonna and Child	Marco d'Oggionno	"	P. Manfrini Gallery, Venice	"	150
1150	Portrait of a Man	Asc. to Pontormo	"	P. C. F. Murray	"	50
1151	The Entombment	German	"	P. Sig. G. Baslini	"	80
1152	St. John the Baptist	Martino Piazza	"	P. Sig. P. Vergani	"	240
1154	Girl with a Lamb	Greuze	"	B Mme. Mohl	"
1155	The Assumption	M. di Giovanni	"	P. Sig. Griccioli	"	2,100
1157	The Nativity	Cavallino	"	G. W. Pilkington	1884
1159	Calling of Abraham	G. Poussin	"	P. Leigh Court Coll.	"	1,995
1160	Adoration of Magi	Giorgione	"	P. "	"	383 5
1165	St. Hippolytus & St. Catherine	Il Moretto	"	G. F. T. Palgrave	"
1166	The Crucifixion	A. da Messina	"	P. London	"	C. 350
1168	Portrait of a Jesuit	W. van der Vliet	"	P. W. Russell	"	C. 241 10
1169	Mrs. Robert Hollond	Ary Scheffer	"	B. R. Hollond	"
1170	St. Augustine and St. Monica	"	"	B. "	"
1171	"Ansidei Madonna"	Raphael	"	P. D. of Marlborough	1885	70,000
1172	Charles the First	Van Dyck	"	P. "	"	17,500
1173	Unknown Subject	Sch. of Giorgione	"	P. Bohn Collection	"	C. 135
1188	The Betrayal of Christ	Ugolino da Siena	"	P. Fuller Russell Coll.	"	C. 26 5
1189	The Procession to Calvary	"	"	P. "	"	C. 26 5
1190	Portrait of a Boy	Asc. to Clouet	"	G. G. F. Watts, R.A.	"	L.162 15
1192	Design for an AltarPiece	Tiepolo	"	P. Beckett-Denison	"
1193	"	"	"	P. "	"
1194	Christ driving out the Traders	M. Venusti	"	P. "	"	L. 966
1195	Birth of Venus	Rubens	"	P. "	"	C. 672
1196	Love and Chastity	Florentine	"	P. Genoa	"	L. 500
1199	Madonna and Child	Pier Francesco	"	P. Milan	"	W. 170
1200	Group of two Saints	Macrino d'Alba	"	P. "	"	W. 400
1201	"	"	"	P. "	"	W. 400
1202	Madonna and Child	Bonifazio	"	P. "	1886	W. 720
1203	"	Cariani	"	P. "	"	W. 420
1206	Landscape & Figures	Salvator Rosa	"	B. Mrs. F. Ricketts	"
1211	Marriage F?te at Mantua	Domenico Morone	"	P. Milan	"	W. 1200
1212	"	"	"	P. "	"
1213	Portrait of a Professor	Gentile Bellini	"	P. "	"
1214	Coriolanus, Volumnia, and Veturia	Michele da Verona	"	P. "	"
1215	Madonna and Child	Dom. Veneziano	"	G. Earl of Crawford	"
1216	Fall of the Rebel Angels	Spinello Aretino	"	G. Sir H. Layard	"
" A
" B
1217	Isarelites gathering Manna	Ercole Roberti	"	P. Earl of Dudley	"	C. 650
1218	The History of Joseph	F. Ubertini	"	P. London	"	W. 3,150
1219	"	"	"	P. "	"
1220	Madonna and Child	L'Ingegno	"	P. "	"
1221	"Darby and Joan"	A. de Pape	"	P. Blenheim Coll.	"	W. 252
1222	Study of Foliage, etc.	Hondecoeter	"	G. J. Whitworth Shaw	"
1227	Virgin and Child	M. Venusti	"	P. Messrs. Agnew	1887	L. 452
1229	"	Luis de Morales	"	G. Mr. G. F. de Zoete	"
1230	Portrait of a Girl	D. Ghirlandajo	"	P. Whatman Coll.	"	W. 236 5
1231	Portrait of a Gentleman	Sir. A. More	"	P. "	"	W. 257 5
1232	"	H. Aldegrever	"	P. Whatman Coll.	"	W. ?63 10
1233	The Blood of the Redeemer	Gio. Bellini	"	P. Fairfax Murray	"	C. 472 10
1234	A Muse inspiring a Court Poet	Dosso Dossi	National Gallery	P. Fairfax Murray	1887	C. 157 10
1239	Murder of the Innocents	G. Mocetto	"	P. Dr. J. P. Richter	1888	600
1240	"	"	"	P. "	"
1241	Christ in the Temple	P. Campa?a	"	P. "	"
1243	Portrait of a Gentleman	Heimbach	"	P. M. Roberts	"	50
1247	The Card Players	Maes	"	P. Gatton Park Sale	"	[272]1375 10
1248	Portrait of a Lady	Van der Helst	"	P. Col. Everett	"	C. 189
1251	A Man's Portrait	Frans Hals	"	B. Decimus Burton	"
1252	A Fruit-Piece	Francis Snyders	"	B. "	"
1255	Study of Still Life	Jan van de Velde	"	G. Sir John Saville	"
1256	"	Herman Steenwyck	"	G. "	"
1257	Birth of the Virgin	Murillo	"	G. "	"
1258	Study of Still Life	J. B. S. Chardin	"	G. "	"
1260	Portrait of a Woman	Greek; 2d-3d cents.	"	G. H. Martyn-Kennard	"
1261	Portrait of a Man	"	"	G. "	"
1262	Portrait of a Woman	"	"	G. "	"
1263	"	"	"	G. "	"
1264	Portrait of a Man	"	"	G. "	"
1265	"	"	"	G. Jesse Haworth	"
1266	Portrait of a Woman	"	"	G. "	"
1267	"	"	"	P. Flinders Petrie	"	C. 95
1268	Portrait of a Man	"	"	P. "	"
1269	Portrait of a Woman	"	"	P. "	"
1270	"	"	"	P. "	"
1277	A Man's Portrait	Maes	"	G. Sir T. Martin	"
1278	A Convivial Party	H. G. Pot	"	P. Messrs Lake & Co	1889	L. 200
1280	Christ appearing	Flemish School	"	P. Prof. Attwell	"	W. 300
1282	San Zenobio	J. Chimenti	"	G. G. Salting	"
1284	St. Francis & St. Mark	Antonio Vivarini	"	P. Dr. J. P. Richter	"	C. 200
1285	Napoleon I.	Horace Vernet	"	G. Duke of Leinster	"
1286	Boy Drinking	Murillo	"	B. J. S. Becket	"
1287	An Art Gallery	Dutch School	"	B. "	"
1288	Frost Scene	A. van der Neer	"	B. "	"
1289	Landscape & Cattle	A. Cuyp	"	B. "	"
1291	Assumption of Virgin	Valdes Leal	"	P. London	"	400
1292	A Family Group	Jan van Bylert	Bootle	P. Deprez & Gutekunst	"	C. 50
1293	Musical Pastime	J. M. Molenaer	National Gallery	P. Messrs. Colnaghi	"	C. 126
1294	Allegorical Subject	W. van de Poorter	"	G. Humphry Ward	"
1295	Virgin and Child	G. Giovenone	"	P. Venice	"	320
1296	Rural Landscape	G. Zais	"	P. "	"	100
1297	River Scene	"	"	P. "	"	100
1298	River Scene	J. Patinir	"	P. Florence	"	2,000
1299	Portrait of Youth	D. Ghirlandajo	"	P. "	"	2,000
1300	Virgin and Child	Milanese School	"	P. Beaucousin Coll.	1860	(7)
1301	Savonarola	Florentine	"	G. Dr. W. Radford	1890
1302	St. Bartin	Simon Marmion	"	P. Beaucousin Coll.	1860	(7)
1303	Choir of Angels	"	"	P. "	"	"
1304	Marcus Curtius	Umbrian School	"	P. "	"	"
1305	Portraits	G. Donck	Greenock	P. S. Richards	1890	£166
1308	Portrait	Mazo Martinez	National Gallery	G. Crompton Roberts	"
1309	"	B. Licinio	"	P. Perkins Sale	"	288 15
1310	"Ecce Homo!"	Cima da Conegliano	"	P. "	"	535 10
1311	Winter Scene	Beerstraaten	"	P. Colnaghi	"	75
1312	Village Cobbler	Jan Victors	"	P. "	"	73
1313	The Milky Way	Tintoretto	"	P. Lord Darnley	"	2,500 [273]
1314	The Ambassadors	Holbein	National Gallery	P. & G. Longford Castle	1890	?55,000 [274]
1315	Ad. Pulido-Pareja	Velazquez	"	" "	"
1316	Italian Nobleman	Moroni	"	" "	"
1317	Marriage of Virgin	Sienese School	"	P. Mr. A. Borgen	"	C. 70
1318	Unfaithfulness	P. Veronese	"	P. Lord Darnley	"	[275]
1319	View in Rome	Claude	"	P. Count d'Agli?	"	175
1320	Aglonius Voon	C. Janssens	"	G. Mrs. Z. Troughton	1891
1321	Cornelia Remoens	"	"	G. "	"
1323	Piero de' Medici	An. Bronzino	"	B. Sir W. Drake	"
1324	Scorn	P. Veronese	"	P. Lord Darnley	"	2500[3]
1325	Respect	"	"	G. "	"
1326	Happy Union	"	"	P. "	"	[276]
1327	Winter Scene	Jan van Goyen	"	P. Colnaghi	"	L. 335
1329	Interior	Brekelenkam	"	P. Buttery	"	W. 90
1330	Transfiguration	Duccio	"	G. R. H. Wilson	"
1331	Virgin and Child	B. Fungai	"	G. W. Connal, junior	"
1332	First Earl of Berkeley	G. Netscher	"	G. Lord Savile	"
1333	Deposition	Tiepolo	"	P. C. Bentinck	"	C. 157 10
1334	Fortune-teller	P. Longhi	"	P. "	"	C. 105
1335	Madonna	French School	"	P. Miss Sorel	"	C. 50
1336	Death of Dido	Liberale	"	P. Habich, Cassel	"	2,807
1337	"Ecce Homo!"	Sodoma	"	P. "	"
1338	Adoration of Shepherds	B. Fabritius	"	P. "	"
1339	Birth of St. John	"	"	P. "	"
1340	Landscape	R. Roghman	Greenock	P. "	"
1341	"	C. Decker	National Gallery	P. "	"
1342	"	J. de Wet	"	P. "	"
1343	Amsterdam Musketeers	Dutch School	Chester	P. "	"
1344	Landscape	S. Ruysdael	National Gallery	P. "	"
1345	"	J. Wouwerman	"	P. "	"
1346	Winter Scene	H. Avercamp	"	P. "	"
1347	Farmyard	I. van Ostade	"	P. "	"
1348	Landscape	A. van de Velde	"	P. "	"
1352	"	F. Moucheron	"	B. R. W. Cooper	1892
1353	"	Ryckaert	"	B. "	"
1375	House of Martha	Velazquez	"	B. Sir W. Gregory	"
1376	Sketch of a Duel	"	"	B. "	"
1377	Adoration of Shepherds	Venetian School	"	B. "	"
1378	Interior	Jan Steen	"	B. "	"
1380	Fruit and Flowers	Jan van Os	"	G. G. Holt	"
1381	The Holy Women	F. Mantegna	"	B. Lady Taunton	"
1383	Spinet	Jan Vermeer	"	P. Lawrie	"	£2400
1386	Soldiers Quarrelling	W. C. Duyster	"	P. Romer Williams	1893	?1250
1387	Players at Tric-Trac	"	"	P. "	"	?1250
1390	Sea-Piece	J. Ruysdael	"	P. Mildmay Sale	"	3045
1393	A Seaport	C. J. Vernet	"	G. Mrs. Tarratt	"
1397	Old Woman Sewing	Dutch School	"	G. Mr. H. J. Pfungst	1894
1399	Man's Portrait	Terburg	"	P. Eastlake Sale	"	75[4]
1400	Christ before Pilate	Rembrandt	"	P. "	"	25 [277]
1401	Still Life	P. Snyers	"	P. S. Richards	"	175
1406	The Annunciation	Sch. of Angelico	"	P. Lawrie	"	1500
Mr. (now Sir) E. J. Poynter, P.R.A., was appointed Director May 8, 1894.
1409	Marriage of St. Catherine	A. C. Agii	National Gallery	P. Eastlake Sale	1894	C. 252
1410	Virgin and Child	Borgognone	National Gallery	P. Eastlake Sale	1894	£441
1411	Adoration of the Shepherds, etc.	Ercole Roberti	"	P. "	"	493 10
1412	Virgin and Child	Sch. Botticelli	"	P. "	"	756
1415	Anna Maria van Schurman	Gerard Dou	"	P. Mr. H. Buttery	"	120
1416	Virgin and Child	F. Mazzola	"	P. Fairfax Murray	"	L. 120
1417	Agony in the Garden	A. Mantegna	"	P. Earl of Northbrook	"	1500
" A	Illuminated Initial Letter	"	"	G. "	"
1418	St. Jerome	A. da Messina	"	P. "	"	2500
1419	Legend of St. Giles	French School	"	P. "	"	2000
1420	View in Haarlem	G. A. Berck-Heyde	"	P. Mr. Adrian Hope	"	472 10
1421	A Terrace Scene	Jan Steen	"	P. "	"	819
1422	The Holy Family	E. Le Sueur	"	G. Mr. F. T. Palgrave	"
1423	Lady's Portrait	A. van Ravesteijn	"	G. Mr. A. Fowell Buxton	"
1424	Tobias and the Angel	A. Elsheimer	"	B. Mr. S. Sanders	"
1425	Tasting	Le Nain	"	G. Mr. Lesser Lesser	"
1427	A Piet?	Hans Baldung	"	P. George Donaldson	"	L. 600
1429	The Rotunda, Ranelagh	Canaletto	"	P. Mr. H. Buttery	"	120
1430	Architectural Subject	Beccafumi	"	G. Mr. George Salting	"
1431	Baptism of Christ	Perugino	"	P. Rome	"	400
1432	Marriage of St. Catherine	Gerard David	"	B. Mrs. Lyne Stephens	1895
1433	Lady's Portrait	R. Weyden	"	B. "	"
1434	A Betrothal	Velazquez	"	G. Lord Savile	"
1436	The Vision of St. Eustace	Vittore Pisano	"	P. Earl of Ashburnham	"	3000
1437	Descent of the Holy Ghost	Barnaba da Modena	"	P. Mr. C. Simpson	"	60
1438	Head of John the Baptist	Milanese School	"	P. Mr. J. C. Watt	"	W. 140 7 6
1439	Fishing in the River	S. Ruysdael	"	From South Kensington Museum	"
1440	St. Dominic	Gentile Bellini	"	"	"
1441	A Fresco	Perugino	"	"	"
1442	Ships in a Gale	Bakhuizen	"	"	"
1443	Interior of a Church	H. Steenwyck	"	"	"
1444	Peasants Warming Themselves	G. van Honthorst	"	"	"
1445	Flower-Piece	Rachel Ruysch	"	"	"
1446	"	"	"	"	"
1447	A Hunting Party	A. F. van der Meulen	"	P. Lyne Stephens' Sale	"	147
1448	Village Green in France	F. S. Bonvin	"	G. Mrs. E. Edwards	"
1449	Cardinal Richelieu	P. de Champaigne	"	G. Mr. Charles Butler	"
1450	The Holy Family	Seb. del Piombo	"	P. Earl of Northbrook	"	2000
1451	Interior of a Church	G. A. Berck-Heyde	"	P. Lord Clifden's Sale	"	525
1454	A Gondola	Guardi	"	P. "	"	69 6
1455	The Circumcision	Gio. Bellini	"	G. Earl of Carlisle	"
1456	Virgin and Child	Italian School	"	G. Mr. John P. Heseltine	"
1457	Christ in the Temple	D. Theotocopuli	"	G. Sir J. C. Robinson	"
1459	The Wine Contract	G. van den Eeckhout	"	P. Colnaghi	"	506 2
1461	St. Sebastian	M. di Giovanni	"	P. Florence (Bardini)	"	571
1462	A Sea Piece	H. Dubbels	National Gallery	G. Mr. Arthur Kay	1895
1465	Christ rising from the Tomb	Gaudenzio Ferrari	"	P. Milan (Scarpa Sale)	"	£215
1466	The Walk to Emmaus	Lelio Orsi	"	P. "	"	25
1468	The Crucifixion	J. di Cione	"	B. Rev. J. H. Ash	1896
1469	Still Life	W. K. Heda	"	G. Mr. H. J. Pfungst	"
1470	Battle Scene	J. Weier	"	G. Sir A. W. Franks	"
1471	The Picnic	F. Goya	"	P. Duke de Osuna	"	265
1472	The Bewitched	"	"	P. "	"	265
1473	Lady's Portrait	"	"	P. Don A. de Urzaiz	"	405
1476	Jupiter and Semele	A. Schiavone	"	P. Lord Leighton's Sale	"	42
1478	The Crucifixion	G. Mansueti	"	P. London	"	436
1479	A Winter Scene	H. Avercamp	"	P. Mr. J. St. Hens?	"	L. 89
1481	A Philosopher	C. P. Bega	"	G. Martin Colnaghi	"
1489	Venetian Senator	Venetian School	"	From South Kensington	"
1490	" "	" "	"	" " "	"
1493	Landscape, Carrara Mountains	G. Costa	"	G. Body of Subscribers	1897
1495	Christ Disputing	Mazzolino	"	P. Messrs. Agnew	"	350
1652	Mad. van der Goes	Dutch School	"	B. Miss Brown	"
1653	Portrait of the Artist	Mme. Vig?e Le Brun	"	P. Mr. S. T. Smith	"	600
1660	"	Adrian van der Werff	"	G. Sir E. Malet, G.C.B.	1898
1661	Wings of No. 1093	Ambrogio de Predis	"	P. Duke Melzi, Milan	"	2160
1662	Wings of No. 1093	Ambrogio de Predis	"	P. Duke Melzi, Milan	"	2160
1664	La Fontaine	J. B. S. Chardin	"	P. Mons. Sortais, Paris		721
1665	Portrait of a Young Man	Amb. de Predis	"	P. Mr. Fuller Maitland	"	1500
1674	Portrait of a Burgomaster	Rembrandt	"	P. Lord de Saumarez	1899	15,050 [278]
1675	Portrait of an Old Lady	"	"	P. "	"	15,050 [278]
1676	Christ disputing with the Doctors	Francesco de Herrera	"	B. Mrs. Alexander Lang Elder	"
1680	Portrait of a Young Man	Dutch School	"	P. Mr. Horace Buttery	"	280
1682	Virgin and Child	Francesco di Giorgio	"	P. Messrs. Agnew (Bardini Coll.)	"	140
1683	Study of a Horse	A. Cuyp	"	From South Kensington	"
1686	Study of Flowers	Fantin-Latour	"	G. Mrs. E. Edwards	"
1689	A Man and Wife	Mabuse	"	P. Mr. A. H. Buttery	1900	4000
1694	Virgin and Child	Fra Bartolommeo	"	P. Cav. Landolfi (Rome)	"	L. 810
1695	Landscape with Nymphs	Venetian School	"	From South Kensington	"
1696	Virgin and Child	Gio. Bellini	"	G. Lady Layard	"
1699	The Lesson	Asc. to Vermeer	"	G. Mr. Fairfax Murray	"
1700	Portrait of a Gentleman	Dutch School	"	B. Miss Pilbrow	"
1701	Landscape	Allart van Everdingen	"	G. Mr. G. H. Boughton, R.A.	"
1776	The Adoration of the Shepherds	Luca Signorelli	"	P. Colnaghi	"	450
1786	Lake of Thun	A. Calame	"	B. H. Vaughan	"
1810	Portrait of a Boy	F. Duchatel	"	B. "	"
1812	Agony in the Garden	Asc. to Spagna	"	B. "	"
1842	Heads of Angels	Sassetta	"	B. "	"
1843	Adoration of the Magi	B. Bonfigli	National Gallery	P. Prof. Volpi, Florence	1901	£382 10
1845	The Light of the World	Paris Bordone	"	G. Mrs. Wood	"
1847	Virgin crowned by Angels	Luca Signorelli	"	P. Prof. Volpi, Florence	"	2667 10
1848	Portrait of a Youth	A. Raguineau	"	P. Noseda, Milan	"	350
1849	The Nativity	J. Pacchiarotto	"	P. Agnew	"	500
1850	Scene on the Ice	Vermeulen	"	B. Miss S. Gaught	"
1851	Inside of a Stable	Dutch School	"	B. "	"
1860	Portrait of a Lady	Asc. Sir A. More	"	B. Miss Julia Gordon	1896
1870	Angel with Keys	Conca	"	Lent by S. K. Mus.	1897
1872	Virgin and Child	Alv. Vivarini	"	G. C. Loeser	1898
1895	Baron de Linter of Namur	Jacob Jordaens	"	P. T. H. Ward.	1902	C. 1200
1896	Interior of a Church	P. Saenredam	"	G. Mr. Arthur Kay	"
1897	Coronation of the Virgin	Lorenzo Monaco	"	P. Galli-Dunn, Florence	"	C.2739 13 8
1903	Landscape and Game	Pieter Boel	"	G. Sir E. Durning-Lawrence	"
1909	Execution of Lady Jane Grey	P. Delaroche	"	B. Lord Cheylesmore	"
1914	Ch?teau in Holland	Van der Heyden	"	B. Sir J. Carmichael	"
1915	Church and Marketplace	"	"	B. "	"
1917	Italian Landscape	Jan Both	"	B. Lord Cheylesmore	"
1918	Market-place, the Hague	La Fargue	"	P. Hon. C. Sclater-Booth	1903	L. 300
1925	Portrait of a Man	Lucas Cranach	"	G. J. P. Heseltine	"
1930	St. Margaret	Zurbaran	"	P. Lord Northampton	"	C. 1000
1937	Portrait of a Lady	B. van der Helst	"	P. "	1904	10,000
1938	Portrait of his Father	A. D?rer	"	P. "	"	10,000
1939	Virgin and Child	French School	"	P. Agnew	"	L. 94 14
1944	"Portrait of Ariosto"	Titian	"	P. Sir G. Donaldson	"	30,000 [279]
1951	Dr. Peral	Goya	"	G. "	"
1952	Mr. and Mrs. E. Edwards	Fantin-Latour	"	G. Mrs. E. Edwards	"
Sir Edward Poynter, P.R.A., retired on December 31, 1904; and the post of Director was left vacant for eighteen months. Sir Charles Holroyd was appointed to it on June 11, 1906.
1953	Virgin and Child	L. Bastiani	National Gallery	G. Art Collection Fund	1905
1969	Greek Captive	H. Browne	"	B. C. Fraser	"
2057	Venus and Cupid	Velazquez	"	G. Art Collection Fund	1906
2058	Sunny Days in the Forest	Diaz	"	G. Exors. Charles Hastie	"
2062	Christ in Peter's Ship	Saftleven	"	G. C. L. Eastlake	"
2069	Madonna of the Tower	Raphael	"	G. Miss Eva Mackintosh	"
2078	Trouville	Boudin	"	G. Art Collection Fund	"
2081	Lulli and Musicians	H. Rigaud	"	P. Coulanges	"	£2,000
2082	Florentine Lady	Sch. Botticelli	National Gallery	B. Nos. 2082-2107, being the John Samuel Collection were bequeathed by Miss Louisa and Miss Lucy Cohen	1906
2083	Dr. Fiera	Lorenzo Costa	"
2084	Young Man in Black	Florentine	"
2085	Bianca Capello	Bronzino Sch.	"
2086	Gate and Tower	Zuccarelli	"
2087	Pastoral Landscape	"	"
2088	Christ Teaching	B. Luini	"
2089	Madonna and Child	Beltraffio Sch.	"
2090	An Angel	Il Moretto	"
2091	"	"	"
2092	St. Joseph	"	"
2093	St. Jerome	"	"
2094	Il Cavaliere	Moroni	"
2095	Man in Black	Alv. Vivarini	"
2096	Man with a Beard	Il Romanino	"
2097	Lady with Carnations	Paris Bordone	"
2098	Salute, Venice	Guardi	"
2099	Ducal Palace, Venice	"	"
2100	Marriage of Barbarossa	Tiepolo	"
2101	Esther and Ahasuerus	Seb. Ricci	"
2102	Town and River	Marieschi	"
2103	"	"	"
2104	Man with Collar	Enrico Fiammingo	"
2105	Man with a Beard	An. Carracci	"
2106	Portrait of the Artist	B. Gennari	"
2107	Hagar	Salvator Rosa	"
2118	Madonna and Child	G. F. da Rimini	"	G. George Salting	1907
2127	The Marchesa Cattaneo	Van Dyck	"	P. Colnaghi	"	£13,500[1]
2129	The Parade	G. de St. Aubin	"	P. Agnew	"	L. 99 15 0
2130	The Water Lane	Jan Siberechts	"	G. J. P. Heseltine	"
2133	Roses	Fantin-Latour	"	B. Mrs. Edwin Edwards	"
2134	Apples	"	"	B. "	"
2135	The Marsh of Arleux	Corot	"	B. "	"
2136	Lulli the Musician	A. de St. Aubin	"	G. Comtesse de Coullanges	"
2143	Lady at a Spinet	J. Ochtervelt	"	G. Henry Pfungst	"
2144	The Marchesa Cattaneo	Van Dyck	"	P. Colnaghi	"	£13,500 [280]
2162	His own Portrait	Joseph Ducreux	"	P. Shepherd	"	L. 50
2163	The Magdalen	Mabuse	"	P. T. H. Mack	"	L. 30
2204	Church Interior	Hendr. Steenwyck	"	B. H. C. Bunning	"
2205	Church Interior	Pieter Neeffs	"	B. "	"
2206	Vespers	"	"	B. "	"
2207	After Vespers	"	"	B. "	"
2209	Duke Ulricus	J. Cornelissen	"	G. Mrs. Eastlake	"
2211	Jacqueline	Mabuse	"	P. Lewis Fund	1908
2216	La Main Chaude	Troy	"	G. Col. Lyons	"
2217	Elisa Bonaparte	J. L. David	"	P. Lewis Fund	"
2218	Mme. Malibran	Ingres	"	P. "	"
2251	Bona of Savoy	Amb. de Predis	"	G. Sir G. Donaldson	"
2256	River Scene	Harpignies	"	G. Miss M'Ghee	"
2257	Ilex Trees	"	"	G. "	"
2258	Woodland Scene	G. Michel	"	P. Lewis Fund	"
2281	Madonna	Lotto	"	B. Colnaghi	"
2282	Bohemians	P. Wouwerman	"	B. "	"
2283	Dawn	A. van der Neer	"	B. "	"
2285	Family Group	Frans Hals	"	P. Lord Talbot	"	£25,000
2288	Dr. Forlenze	J. A. Vallin	National Gallery	G. F. M?l?	1908
2289	Attila	Delacroix	"	G. "	"
2290	Parc de Sansac	A. Charnay	"	G. The Artist	"
2291	Cardinal de Retz	P. de Champaigne	"	B. G. Fielder	"
2292	A Lady	Mirevelt	"	B. "	"
2293	Holy Family	Asc. to Penni	"	B. "	"
2294	Galileo	Passignano	"	B. "	"
2295	A Commander	Pourbus, Jun.	"	B. "	"
2423	Horses (lithographs)	G?ricault	"	G. E. Houghton	1898
2439	River Scene	T. Rousseau	"	G. H. Velten	1909
2475	Duchess of Milan	Holbein	"	[281]Duke of Norfolk	"	£72,000
2480	Fish Market	P. Rousseau	"	G. H. L. Florence	"
2482	Virgin and Child	Benvenuto da Siena	"	B. George Salting	1910
2483	"	F. de Lorenzo	"	B. "	"
2484	"	L'Ingegno	"	B. "	"
2485	Salome	Cesare da Sesto	"	B. "	"
2486	A Concert	Ercole Roberti	"	B. "	"
2487	B. Bianchini	Francia	"	B. "	"
2488	Holy Family	Luca Signorelli	"	B. "	"
2489	Young Florentine	D. Ghirlandajo	"	B. "	"
2490	Costanza de' Medici	Lorenzo di Credi	"	B. "	"
2491	Girolamo Benevieni	R. Ghirlandajo	"	B. "	"
2492	Virgin and Child	J. del Sellaio	"	B. "	"
2493	Salome	S. del Piombo	"	B. "	"
2494	Italian Gentleman	Cariani	"	B. "	"
2495	Virgin and Child	"	"	B. "	"
2496	"	Beltraffio	"	B. "	"
2497	"	Botticelli Sch.	"	B. "	"
2498	Young Venetian	Basaiti	"	B. "	"
2499	Virgin and Child	"	"	B. "	"
2500	"	Previtali	"	B. "	"
2501	Salvator Mundi	"	"	B. "	"
2502	Virgin and Child	B. Mainardi	"	B. "	"
2503	Holy Family	A. da Solario	"	B. "	"
2504	Virgin and Child	Cesare da Sesto	"	B. "	"
2505	David and Jonathan	Cima da Conegliano	"	B. "	"
2506	Virgin and Child	"	"	B. "	"
2507	A Lady	Bart. Veneziano	"	B. "	"
2508	Virgin and Child	Florentine	"	B. "	"
2509	A Youth	Alv. Vivarini	"	B. "	"
2510	Raphael (?)	Umbrian School	"	B. "	"
2511	A Musician	Giulio Campi	"	B. "	"
2512	The Magdalen	Correggio	"	B. "	"
2513	Virgin and Child	Tiepolo	"	B. "	"
2514	Grand Canal	Canaletto	"	B. "	"
2515	Piazza S. Marco	"	"	B. "	"
2516	Procuratie	"	"	B. "	"
2517	Buildings	Guardi	"	B. "	"
2518	Archway	"	"	B. "	"
2519	Courtyard	"	"	B. "	"
2520	Quay-side	"	"	B. "	"
2521	Rains	"	"	B. "	"
2522	Treasure-seekers	"	"	B. "	"
2523	Archway	"	"	B. "	"
2524	Tower of Mestre	"	"	B. "	"
2525	Piazza S. Marco	"	"	B. "	"
2526	Peasant and Child	Spanish	"	B. "	"
2527	Earl of Monmouth	J. G. Gonzalez	"	B. "	"
2528	Man with Glove	Frans Hals	"	B. "	"
2529	Lady with Fan	"	"	B. "	"
2530	A Lady	C. Janssens	"	B. "	"
2531	St. Bavon, Haarlem	P. Saenredam	National Gallery	B. George Salting	1910
2532	Woman and Sheep	Jan Wynants	"	B. "	"
2533	Sandy Lane	"	"	B. "	"
2534	River Scene	A. van der Neer	"	B. "	"
2535	Judith	E. van der Neer	"	B. "	"
2536	Moonlight	A. van der Neer	"	B. "	"
2537	Landscape	"	"	B. "	"
2538	Diana Bathing	Rembrandt	"	B. "	"
2539	Man with Cap	"	"	B. "	"
2540	The Hurdy-Gurdy	A. van Ostade	"	B. "	"
2541	The Cobbler	"	"	B. "	"
2542	Courtship	"	"	B. "	"
2543	Man with Jug	"	"	B. "	"
2544	The Cart	I. van Ostade	"	B. "	"
2545	River Scene	A. Cuyp	"	B. "	"
2546	Lady and Child	"	"	B. "	"
2547	Cattle	"	"	B. "	"
2548	Grey Horse	"	"	B. "	"
2549	Tailor's Shop	Q. Brekelenham	"	B. "	"
2550	Afternoon Nap	"	"	B. "	"
2551	Scouring Pans	P. van der Bosch	"	B. "	"
2552	Refusing the Glass	P. de Hooch	"	B. "	"
2553	A Lady's Toilet	J. Ochtervelt	"	B. "	"
2554	Saddling a Horse	P. Wouwerman	"	B. "	"
2555	Woman Asleep	Jan Steen	"	B. "	"
2556	The Pedlar	"	"	B. "	"
2557	Merry-Makers	"	"	B. "	"
2558	Grace before Meat	"	"	B. "	"
2559	Oyster Feast	"	"	B. "	"
2560	Skittle Players	"	"	B. "	"
2561	View near Haarlem	J. Ruysdael	"	B. "	"
2562	Ruined Castle	"	"	B. "	"
2563	Forest Entrance	"	"	B. "	"
2564	A Cottage	"	"	B. "	"
2565	Haystack	"	"	B. "	"
2566	A Forest	"	"	B. "	"
2567	Sea-piece	"	"	B. "	"
2568	Lady at Virginals	Jan Vermeer	"	B. "	"
2569	Boors Drinking	A. Brouwer	"	B. "	"
2570	Woody Landscape	Hobbema	"	B. "	"
2571	"	"	"	B. "	"
2572	The Little Farm	A. van de Velde	"	B. "	"
2573	Sea-piece	W. van de Velde	"	B. "	"
2574	A Calm	"	"	B. "	"
2575	Musical Party	A. Palamedes	"	B. "	"
2576	Family Group	Pieter Codde	"	B. "	"
2577	Soft Breeze	Jan van Goyen	"	B. "	"
2578	Windmill	"	"	B. "	"
2579	The Siene	"	"	B. "	"
2580	River Scene	"	"	B. "	"
2581	A. van Leuwenhoek	Maes	"	B. "	"
2582	Fruit and Flowers	David de Heem	"	B. "	"
2583	Cattle	Paul Potter	"	B. "	"
2584	Lady with Mirror	Pieter Codde	"	B. "	"
2585	St. Mary Magdalene	A. Ysenbrandt	"	B. "	"
2586	Coast Scene	Van de Cappelle	"	B. "	"
2587	A Calm	"	"	B. "	"
2588	Dutch Galliot	"	"	B. "	"
2589	Young Astrologer	Frans van Mieris	"	B. "	"
2590	Woman at a Window	G. Metsu	"	B. "	"
2591	The Forge	"	"	B. "	"
2592	Fruit Piece	W. K. Heda	National Gallery	B. George Salting	1910
2593	Man's Portrait	Petrus Cristus	"	B. "	"
2594	Duke of Cleves	Memlinc	"	B. "	"
2595	Virgin and Child	D. Bouts	"	B. "	"
2596	St. Jerome	Gerard David	"	B. "	"
2597	Venetian Gentleman	J. S. Calcar	"	B. "	"
2598	Diana and Endymion	Rubens	"	B. "	"
2599	The Doctor	D. Teniers (jr.)	"	B. "	"
2600	Card Player	"	"	B. "	"
2601	Old Woman Reading	"	"	B. "	"
2602	Man with Ring	Flemish School	"	B. "	"
2603	Virgin and Child	Cologne School	"	B. "	"
2604	Young Man	C. Amberger	"	B. "	"
2605	Dr. Fuchsius	B. Bruyn	"	B. "	"
2606	Madonna Enthroned	Flemish School	"	B. "	"
2607	Man with Medallion	"	"	B. "	"
2608	Virgin and Child	R. Campin	"	B. "	"
2609	"	"	"	B. "	"
2610	A. de Bourbon	Corneille	"	B. "	"
2611	Man in Black	"	"	B. "	"
2612	Louis XI.	Burgundian	"	B. "	"
2613	Philip and Margaret	"	"	B. "	"
2614	Mary Magdalene	French School	"	B. "	"
2615	Mary of France	"	"	B. "	"
2616	A Lady	"	"	B. "	"
2617	Duchess d'Angoul?me	French School	"	B. "	"
2618	Virgin and Child	"	"	B. "	"
2619	Landscape	N. Poussin	"	B. "	"
2620	The Happy Mother	Fragonard	"	B. "	"
2621	Willows	Daubigny	"	B. "	"
2622	River Scene	"	"	B. "	"
2623	Alders	"	"	B. "	"
2624	Garden Wall	"	"	B. "	"
2625	The Bent Tree	Corot	"	B. "	"
2626	Wood Gatherer	"	"	B. "	"
2627	Evening on Lake	"	"	B. "	"
2628	Noon	"	"	B. "	"
2629	A Ford	"	"	B. "	"
2630	Cows and Marsh	"	"	B. "	"
2631	Fisherman's Hut	"	"	B. "	"
2632	The Storm	Diaz	"	B. "	"
2633	Stormy Sunset	"	"	B. "	"
2634	River Scene	Dupr?	"	B. "	"
2635	Sunset: Auvergne	T. Rousseau	"	B. "	"
2636	The Whisper	Millet	"	B. "	"
2669	St. Clement and Donor	de Jean Perr?al Ma?tre	"	B. "	"
2670	Lady with Rosary	Flemish School	"	B. "	"
2671	A Piet?	Francia	"	B. "	"
2672	Venetian Gentleman	Alv. Vivarini	"	B. "	"
2673	Narcissus	Beltraffio	"	B. "	"
2709	Mother and Child	J. Maris	"	G. J. C. J. Drucker	"
2710	Drawbridge	"	"	G. "	"
2711	Watering Horses	Mauve	"	G. "	"
2712	Haarlem Church	Bosboom	"	G. "	"
2713	The Philosopher	Israels	"	G. "	"
2714	Grandfather's Birthday	Isabey	"	G. "	"
2715	Fishmarket	"	"	G. "	"
2723	Landscape	Asc. to G.	"	G. P. Pusey	1849
2724	"	Roussin	"	G. "	"
2725	Christ Blessing	B. Diana	"	G. Sir C. Phillips	1910
2727	Pont de la Tournelle	S. Lepine	"	G. J. C. J. Drucker	"
2731	Landscape	Buitenweg	"	P. Lord Northbrook	"	W. ?100
2732	Shipwrecked Mariner	Israels	"	G. Mrs. A. Young	1910
2757	Tartarus	Callot	"	G. Miss Appleyard	1884
2758	A Squall	Boudin	"	G. T. W. Bacon	1910
2759	Stormy Landscape	G. Michel	"	G. "	"
2764	Family Group	Asc. to Vermeer	"	P. M. Flersheim	"	C. ?1000
2767	The Sea	Courbet	"	G. J. P. Heseltine	1911
2790	The Magi	Mabuse	"	[282]Lady Carlisle	"	40,000
2856	Cavalier	P. Quast	"	B. Mrs. C. L. Eastlake	"
2862	John Gualberto	Lorenzo Monaco	"	G. H. Wagner	1912
2863	Virgin and Child	Sch. Gozzoli	"	G. "	"

FOOTNOTES:

[265] Pictures bought out of the Chantrey Bequest are not included. For these see Vol. II.

[266] The number of this picture has now been given to the foregoing, which has only recently been exhibited.

[267] This picture does not appear in the Official Catalogue; nor can I find any trace, in the Director's Annual Reports, of what was done with it. Its number has now been given to the foregoing picture, which has only recently been exhibited.

[268] The donor was informed when he offered these two pictures that they were too large, in view of the limited wall-space then at the disposal of the Gallery, to be placed in the rooms to which the public were admitted. The pictures were presented on those terms, and for many years were not numbered or incorporated in the Official Catalogue. They are now Nos. 2723, 2724.

[269] No. 622 appears to have been missed in the official numbering.

[270] No. 723 appears to have been missed in the official numbering.

[271] The central portion of this triptych was bought in 1874 for £525. The two side panels were bought in 1878, at the sale of Mr. Barker's pictures, for £33:12s., and were added to the central compartment under the same number (909).

[272] £1224 from public Funds, £151:10s. from Lewis Fund.

[273] 1313 and 1318 were purchased together for £2500.

[274] £25,000 from a Parliamentary Grant; £30,000 from private gifts (see p. xv.)

[275] 1313 and 1318 were purchased together for £2500.

[276] 1324 and 1326 were purchased together for £2500.

[277] Under the terms of Sir C. Eastlake's will these pictures were offered to the National Gallery at the prices which he paid for them.

[278] This sum was made up as follows:—Special Grant from the Treasury, £12,500; from the Annual Grant for 1898-99, £1550; gifts by Mr. Alfred de Rothschild and Mr. Heseltine, £500 each.

[279] £9000 from the Parliamentary grant; the remainder subscribed by Mr. W. W. Astor, Mr. A. Beit, Lord Burton, Lord Iveagh, Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, and Lady Wantage.

[280] To this sum Messrs. Colnaghi contributed £1000.

[281] Presented by the National Art-Collections Fund with the aid of a grant from the Government of £10,000.

[282] The National Gallery funds provided £15,000; the Treasury made a special grant of £15,000; and the National Art-Collections Fund contributed £10,000.

Purchased out of Parliamentary Grants.
Pictures—		£	s.	d.
38	(Angerstein Collection)	57,000	0	0
31	(Lombardi-Baldi ")	7,035	0	0
33	(Beaucousin ")	9,205	3	0
77	(Peel ")	75,000	0	0
405	(Smaller Purchases)	332,073	8	5
2	(Blenheim Collection)	87,500	0	0
3	(Longford ")	25,000	0	0
4	(Lord Northbrook)	8,000	0	0
2	(Saumarez Rembrandts)	14,050	0	0
2	(Lord Northampton)	10,000	0	0
2	(Genoa Vandycks)	25,000	0	0
1	(Lord Talbot de Malahide)	25,000	0	0
601	pictures at a cost of	£ 683,863	11	5

Purchased out of Private Bequests, Etc.
Pictures—		£	s.	d.
38	Clarke Fund	11,929	8	2
29	Lewis "	8,666	9	0
21	Walker "	10,097	17	6
11	Wheeler "	2,940	0	0
	Grant from Lewis Fund towards purchase of No. 1247	151	10	0
	Gifts for Longford Pictures	30,000	0	0
	" " Rembrandts	1,000	0	0
	Titian's Ariosto	21,000	0	0
1	Velasquez' Venus	45,000	0	0
100	pictures at a cost of	£ 130,785	5	2

January	From 10A.M.until 4P.M.
February	From 10A.M. until dusk.
March	From 10A.M. until dusk.
April	From 10A.M.until 6 P.M.
May
June
July
August
September
October	From 10A.M.until dusk.
November
December

	PAGE
Preface by John Ruskin	vii
General Introduction, with some Account of the National Gallery	x
Guide to the Gallery and Plan of the Rooms	xxv
Introductions to the Schools of Painting:
The Early Florentine School	1
The Florentine School	8
The Sienese School	14
The Lombard School	16
The Ferrarese School	19
The Umbrian School	22
The Venetian School	25
The Paduan School	32
The Later Italian Schools	34
The Early Flemish and the German Schools	38
The Dutch School	43
The Later Flemish School	47
The Spanish School	48
The French School	51
Numerical Catalogue, with Biographical and Descriptive Notes	55
Pictures on Loan	749
Copies from Old Masters	752
The Arundel Society's Collection	757
Sculptures and Marbles	770
Appendix I. Index List of Painters (with the subjects of their pictures)	771
Appendix II. Index List of Pictures	791

A POPULAR HANDBOOK TO THE NATIONAL GALLERY INCLUDING BY SPECIAL PERMISSION NOTES COLLECTED FROM THE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN Volume I.—FOREIGN SCHOOLS

GENERAL INTRODUCTION WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY

FOOTNOTES:

GUIDE TO THE GALLERY AND INTRODUCTIONS TO THE SCHOOLS OF PAINTING

FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

1. THE RAISING OF LAZARUS.

2. CEPHALUS AND PROCRIS.

3. A CONCERT.

4. A HOLY FAMILY.

5. A SEAPORT AT SUNSET.

6. DAVID AT THE CAVE OF ADULLAM.[44]

7, 37. GROUPS OF HEADS.

8. A DREAM OF HUMAN LIFE.

9. "LORD, WHITHER GOEST THOU?"

10. THE EDUCATION OF CUPID.

11. ST. JEROME.

12. ISAAC AND REBECCA, OR "THE MILL."[46]

13. THE HOLY FAMILY.

14. SEAPORT: THE QUEEN OF SHEBA.

15. ECCE HOMO!

16. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON.

17. THE HOLY FAMILY.

18. CHRIST AND THE PHARISEES.[61]

19. NARCISSUS AND ECHO.

20. IPPOLITO DE' MEDICI AND THE ARTIST.

21. PORTRAIT OF A FLORENTINE LADY.

22. ANGELS WEEPING OVER THE DEAD CHRIST.

23. "THE VIRGIN OF THE BASKET."

24. AN ITALIAN LADY AS ST. AGATHA.

25. ST. JOHN IN THE WILDERNESS.

26. THE CONSECRATION OF ST. NICHOLAS.

27. THE POPE JULIUS II.

28. SUSANNAH AND THE ELDERS.

29. "OUR LADY OF THE CAT."

30. SEAPORT: ST. URSULA.

31. THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC.

32. THE RAPE OF GANYMEDE.

33. THE VISION OF ST. JEROME.

34. VENUS AND ADONIS.

35. BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.

36. A LAND STORM.

37. See under 7.

38. THE ABDUCTION OF THE SABINE WOMEN.

39. THE NURSING OF BACCHUS.

40. LANDSCAPE: PHOCION.

41. THE DEATH OF PETER MARTYR.

42. A BACCHANALIAN FESTIVAL.

43. CHRIST TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS.

44. A BLEACHING GROUND.

45. THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY.

46. THE BLESSINGS OF PEACE

47. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.

48. LANDSCAPE, WITH TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL.

49. THE PORTRAIT OF RUBENS.

50. ST. AMBROSE AND THEODOSIUS.

51. A JEW MERCHANT.

52. "PORTRAIT OF GEVARTIUS."

53. AN EVENING LANDSCAPE.

54. A WOMAN BATHING.

55. THE DEATH OF PROCRIS (see under 698).

56. LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES.

57. THE CONVERSION OF ST. BAVON.

58. A STUDY OF TREES.

59. THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

61. LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES.

62. A BACCHANALIAN DANCE.

63. LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES.

64. RETURN OF THE ARK FROM CAPTIVITY.

65. CEPHALUS AND AURORA.

66. A LANDSCAPE: AUTUMN MORNING.

A POPULAR HANDBOOK
TO THE
NATIONAL GALLERY
INCLUDING BY SPECIAL PERMISSION
NOTES COLLECTED FROM THE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN
Volume I.—FOREIGN SCHOOLS

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
WITH SOME
ACCOUNT OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY

GUIDE TO THE GALLERY
AND
INTRODUCTIONS TO THE SCHOOLS OF PAINTING