Part II (_conclusion_) 167
Appendix--Documents referred to in Articles 377
The Early Painters of the Netherlands as Illustrated by the Bruges Exhibition of 1902. Written by W. H. James Weale: Article IV 35 Article V 326
On Oriental Carpets: Article III.--The Svastika 43 Article IV.--The Lotus and the Tree of Life 349
The Dutch Exhibition at the Guildhall: Article I.--The Old Masters 51 Article II.--The Modern Painters 177
Early Staffordshire Wares Illustrated by Pieces in the British Museum. Article I. Written by R. L. Hobson 64
Notes on Various Works of Art: Two alleged ‘Giorgiones’ 78 Two Italian Bas-reliefs in the Louvre 84 Two Pictures in the Possession of Messrs. Dowdeswell 89 A Marble Statue by Germain Pilon 90 Lace in the Collection of Mrs. Alfred Morrison at Fonthill 95 The Sorö Chalice 357 The Oaken Chest at Ypres 357 A Burgundian Chest 358 A New Fount of Greek Type 358 Portrait of a Lady by Rembrandt 360
Pictures in the Collection of Sir Hubert Parry, at Highnam Court, near Gloucester. Article I.--Italian Pictures of the Fourteenth Century. Written by Roger Fry 117
Mussulman Manuscripts and Miniatures as Illustrated in the Recent Exhibition at Paris. Part I. Written by E. Blochet 132
The Plate of Winchester College. Written by Percy Macquoid, R.I. 149
The Seals of the Brussels Gilds. Written by R. Petrucci 190
Note on the Life of Bernard van Orley 205
The Collection of Pictures of the Earl of Normanton, at Somerley, Hampshire. Article I.--Pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Written by Max Roldit 206
French Furniture of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Article II.--The Louis XIV Style (_cont._)--The Gobelins. Written by Emile Molinier 229
The Exhibition of Greek Art at the Burlington Fine Arts Club. Written by Cecil Smith 236
The Lowestoft Porcelain Factory, and the Chinese Porcelain made for the European Market during the Eighteenth Century. Written by L. Solon 271
Titian’s Portrait of the Empress Isabella. Written by Georg Gronau 281
A newly-discovered Portrait Drawing by Dürer. Written by Campbell Dodgson 286
Later Nineteenth-Century Book Illustrations. Article I. Written by Joseph Pennell 293
Andrea Vanni. By L. Mason Perkins 309
The Geographical Distribution of the First Folio Shakespeare. Written by Frank Rinder 335
Recent Acquisitions at the Louvre 338
New Acquisitions at the National Museums 70, 194
Bibliography 104, 256, 367
Correspondence 113, 267, 376
Foreign Correspondence 373
LIST OF PLATES
PAGE
Frontispiece--The Judgement of Cambyses--Gerard David 2
The Finest Hunting Manuscript Extant:-- Stripping the Boar 9 Hunting the Fallow Buck 13 Pages from Gaston Phoebus MS. 17 Page from Gaston Phoebus MS. 19
Painted-glass Window in the Cloister of Santa Croce, Florence--Alesso Baldovinetti 25
Altar-piece, in the Florentine Academy--Alesso Baldovinetti 29
The Blessed Virgin and Child, with Angels, surrounded by Virgin Saints--Gerard David 34
The Blessed Virgin and Child, St. Catherine, and St. Barbara--Cornelia Cnoop 37
Portraits of Thomas Portunari and his Wife--Attributed to Hans Memlinc 41
Section of Oriental Carpet, showing the Svastika 45
The Cook Asleep--Jan Vermeer of Delft 50
Portrait of Himself--Jan Steen 53
Portrait of the Wife of Thomas Wijck--Jan Verspronck 53
Off Scheveningen--Jan van de Capelle 57
Le Commencement d’Orage 61
A Scandinavian Chalice, with details 71
Madonna and Child--Cariani 79
The Sempstress Madonna--Cariani 81
Adoration of the Shepherds--Venetian School (Two Pictures) 85
Bas-relief--School of Leonardo da Vinci 88
Bas-relief--Agostino di Duccio 88
Adoration of the Magi, and Dormition of the Blessed Virgin--French fourteenth century 91
La Charité--Germain Pilon 94
Specimens of Lace:-- Plate I 97 Plate II 99 Plate III 101
Lady Betty Hamilton--Sir J. Reynolds 116
Nativity and Adoration--School of Cimabue 119
Altar-piece--Bernardo Daddi 121
Coronation of our Lady (Two Subjects: 1, by Agnolo Gaddi; 2, by Taddeo Gaddi) 123
Adoration of the Magi--Lorenzo Monaco 127
The Visitation--Lorenzo Monaco 127
Madonna and Child, with Angels--Florentine of the early fifteenth century 129
Triptych, by the same painter 129
Mussulman Miniatures:-- Plate I--From the Makamat of Hariri--From MS. of the Astronomical Treatise of Abd-er-Rahman-el-Sufi 133 Plate II--From the Book of Kings 137 Plate III--From the Book of Kings 141 Plate IV--A Hunting Scene 145
Plate of Winchester College:-- The Election Cup 148 Parcel Gilt Rose-water Dish and Ewer 151 Sweetmeat Dish and Gilt Standing-Salt 154 Gilt Cup with Cover 154 Rose-water Dish and Ewer, and small Gilt Standing Cup and Cover 157 Two Tankards and Standing Salt 160 Steeple-cup and Hanap 163 Ecclesiastical Plate 165
Paintings on a vaulted roof at S. Trinita, Florence--Alesso Baldovinetti 171
A Group of Three--Jan Miense Molenaer 176
The Archives at Veere--Jan Bosboom 179
A Jewish Wedding--Joseph Israels 179
A Fantasy--Matthew Maris 181
The New Flower--Joseph Israels 181
Watering Horses--Anton Mauve 183
The Canal Bridge--Jacob Maris 183
A Windmill, Moonlight--Jacob Maris 185
The Butterflies--Matthew Maris 187
Engravings at S. Kensington:-- Queen Elizabeth--William Rogers 195 Roman Edifices in Ruins--Thomas Hearne and William Woollett 197 The Water Mill--C. Turner 201 The Hôtel de Ville at Louvain--J. C. Stadler 203
Miss Murray of Kirkcudbright--Sir J. Reynolds 207
Charity, Faith, Hope--Sir J. Reynolds 210
Temperance and Prudence--Sir J. Reynolds 213
Justice and Fortitude--Sir J. Reynolds 216
The Little Gardener--Sir J. Reynolds 219
George, third Duke of Marlborough--Sir J. Reynolds 222
Study of a Little Girl--Sir J. Reynolds 225
The Misses Horneck--Sir J. Reynolds 225
High Warp Tapestry, Louis XIV--After Charles Le Brun 228
Gobelin Tapestry 231
A Marquetry Bureau--André Charles Boule 234
A Bookcase--André Charles Boule 234
Fragment of the Frieze of the Parthenon 237
Bust of Aphrodite--Probably by Praxiteles 239
Head of a Mourning Woman 241
Head of a Youth 241
Group of Bronzes 245
Repoussé Mirror-Cover 247
Terracottas 251
Krater, belonging to Harrow School 253
Kylix, and plate 253
The Great Executioner 270
Lowestoft Porcelain Teapot of Soft Paste 273
Small Plate painted in Underglaze Blue, with a View of Lowestoft Church 273
Hard Porcelain Teapot, marked ‘Allen, Lowestoft’ 276
Portrait of the Empress Isabella--Titian 280
Copy of the Portrait of the Empress Isabella from which Titian painted the above Portrait 283
Portrait of a Lady--Albrecht Dürer 287
Portrait of a Lady--Albrecht Dürer 291
Later Nineteenth-Century Book Illustrations:-- Plate I 295 Plate II 298 Plate III 301 Plate IV 304 Plate V 307
Polyptych in the Church of S. Stefano, Siena--Andrea Vanni 311
Annunciation, in S. Pietro Ovile, Siena--Andrea Vanni 314
Virgin and Child, from the Altar-piece in S. Francesco, Siena--Andrea Vanni 314
Madonna and Child--Andrea Vanni 317
Details of the Annunciation in S. Pietro Ovile, Siena--Andrea Vanni 320
Annunciation, in the Collection of Count Fabio Chigi, Siena--Andrea Vanni 323
Annunciation, in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence--Simone Martini 323
St. Luke--Adrian Isenbrant 327
Triptych: The Blessed Virgin and Child with Two Angels--Adrian Isenbrant 327
The Vision of Saint Ildephonsus--Adrian Isenbrant 330
Portrait of Roger de Jonghe, Austin Friar 333
Episodes in the Life of St. Bernard--John van Eecke 333
Three Italian Albarelli of the fourteenth century 339
Landscapes--Solomon Ruysdael 342
Portrait of Dame Danger--Louis Tocqué 345
Lid of an Arabic Koursi of the fourteenth century 347
Tabriz Carpet 351
The Sorö Chalice 356
Polychrome Chest belonging to the Office of Archives at Ypres 361
A Burgundian Chest of the fifteenth century belonging to the Hospices Civiles at Aalst 361
Portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn 363
On the Seine--Charles François Daubigny 365
Le Pêcheur--Léon Lhermitte 365
[Illustration:
Walker & Cockerell, Ph.Sc.
The Judgement of Cambyses
from the picture by Gerard David in the Bruges Museum.]
❧ EDITORIAL ARTICLES ❧
I.-CLIFFORD’S INN AND THE PROTECTION OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS
We must confess that when we published Mr. Philip Norman’s appeal to the Government to save Clifford’s Inn, we had little hope that the appeal would be listened to; it is too much to expect an English Government to take any interest in a question of an artistic nature; in agreeing to ignore such questions the unanimity of political parties is wonderful. Nor does the English public really care about such matters. The appeal received considerable support in the press, but it was a support given by men who, whatever they themselves think, know well enough that an agitation for the preservation of an ancient building would only bore most of their readers. ¶ So Clifford’s Inn has been sold, and sold at a ridiculously low price. It is some satisfaction to know that legal education, which condemned it to destruction, will profit little if at all by its sale, for the income derived from the purchase money can be no larger than could have been derived from the rents of the Inn under proper management. The end, however, is not yet, for the gentleman who now owns Clifford’s Inn is happily not without appreciation of its artistic and historical interest; for the present, at any rate, he will leave matters in _statu quo_, and all the tenants have been informed that they need not fear early ejection. Moreover we have every reason to believe that, if there were any movement to preserve the Inn, the present owner would be willing to part with his property at a very moderate premium on the sum of £100,000 that he paid for it. ¶ The London County Council--the only public authority in London that cares about such matters--has had its eye on Clifford’s Inn, and a committee of the Council only refrained from recommending its purchase from fear of the ratepayers. We would, however, appeal to the County Council to cast aside fear of the Philistines and reconsider the matter. Expert opinion in such matters holds that Clifford’s Inn could be made, as it stands, to return £3,000 a year; its purchase, therefore, at a little more than £100,000 would involve little or no loss to the ratepayers. The County Council has done and is doing admirable work for the preservation of ancient buildings; it might well add to its laurels by acquiring Clifford’s Inn for the citizens of London. ¶ The case of Clifford’s Inn raises the larger question of the preservation of ancient buildings generally. We in England pretend to be an artistic nation; we talk and write very much about art, and we all collect more or less works of art or imitations thereof; most of us try to paint pictures, and the world will soon be unable to contain the pictures that are painted. But there is one fact that brands us as hypocrites, the fact that Great Britain shares with Russia and Turkey the odious peculiarity of being without legislation of any kind for the protection of ancient buildings and other works of art such as is possessed to some degree by every other country in Europe, and by almost every State of the American Union. We have calmly looked on while amiable clergymen, restoring architects, and legal peers with a mania for bricks and mortar and more money than taste, have hacked, hewn, scraped and pulled to pieces the greatest architectural works of our forefathers; too many modern architects, when they are not engaged in copying the work of their predecessors, are engaged in destroying it. Though the legend of ‘Cromwell’s soldiers’ still on the lips of the intelligent pew-opener accounts for the havoc wrought in many an ancient church, the historian and the antiquary know that to the sixteenth and not the seventeenth century must that havoc be in the first place attributed, and the observer of recent history knows that the mischief worked by the iconoclast of the sixteenth century has been far exceeded by that worked by the restorer and the Gothic revivalist of the nineteenth. And if this has been done by persons who imagined themselves to be artistic and were actuated by the best possible motives, what has been the destruction wrought by those who made no profession of any motive but that of commercial advantage? Within the memory of the youngest among us, buildings of great artistic and historical interest have been ruthlessly swept away in London and in every other town in the kingdom, and the few that have been left are rapidly disappearing. ¶ There is no way of saving the remnant of our heritage but that of legislation; but we cannot honestly recommend the advocacy of such legislation to a minister or a party in need of an electioneering cry, and we are not sanguine as to the prospects of anything being done. Still, it may be interesting to some to learn what the despised foreigner has done in this respect; we take the information from a Parliamentary paper presented to the House of Commons on July 30, 1897.[1] ¶ We will briefly summarize the facts given in this paper, referring those of our readers who wish for further information to the paper itself. In Austria there has existed for many years a permanent ‘Imperial and Royal Commission for the investigation and preservation of artistic and historical monuments.’ This Commission had, in 1897, direct rights only over monuments belonging to the State (in which churches are included); but it acted in concert with municipalities and learned societies, and promoted the formation of local societies to carry out its objects. No ancient monument coming within its scope can be touched without the sanction of the Commission. Since 1897 its powers have, we believe, been extended. Not only buildings, but objects of art and handicraft of every kind as well as manuscripts and archives, of any date up to the end of the eighteenth century, come within the scope of activity of the Commission, which is a consultative body advising the Minister of Public Worship and Education, who is the executive authority for these purposes. ¶ In Bavaria, alterations to all monuments or buildings of historical or artistic importance (including churches) belonging to the State, municipality, or any endowed institution, have, since 1872, required the sanction of the Sovereign, who is advised by the Royal Commissioners of Public Buildings. The ecclesiastical authorities and even religious communities are prohibited from altering a church or dealing with its furniture without the consent of the Commissioners. ¶ In Denmark there has been a Royal Commission with similar objects since 1807; ancient monuments are scheduled, and since 1873 the Royal Commission has had power to acquire them compulsorily if their owners will not take proper measures for their preservation. ¶ In France the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, who is advised by a Commission of Historical Monuments, has as drastic powers as the Danish Royal Commission; some 1,700 churches, castles, and other buildings (including buildings in private ownership) have been scheduled and classified, and cannot be destroyed, restored, repaired, or altered except with the approval of the Minister, who has power to expropriate private owners under certain circumstances. ¶ Belgium has statutory provisions of a similar character; there a Royal Commission on Monuments was constituted so long ago as 1835, so that Belgium is second only to Denmark in this matter. The Commission may schedule any building or ancient monument, and the scheduled building cannot be touched without the consent of the Commission, even if it is in private ownership. In Belgium, as in France and Denmark, grants of public money are given for the purchase and preservation of ancient monuments, and the Belgian municipalities are very zealous in the same direction. In Bruges, we understand, the façades of all the houses belong to the municipality, so that their preservation is secured, and also congruity in the case of new buildings. No object of art may legally be alienated or removed from a Belgian church; this law, however, is unfortunately still evaded to some extent. ¶ In Italy several laws have been passed, beginning with an edict of Cardinal Pacca for the old Papal States in 1820. The Minister of Public Instruction may, by a decree, declare any building a national monument, and the municipalities have large powers; works of art, as is well known, cannot legally be taken out of Italy, but this law is often evaded. ¶ In Greece the powers of the State are perhaps more drastic than anywhere else. Even antique works of art in private collections are considered as national property in a sense and their owner can be punished for injuring them; if the owner of an ancient building attempts to demolish it or refuses to keep it in repair, the State may expropriate him. ¶ Holland, Prussia, Saxony, Spain, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, and many American States have provisions of a more or less stringent character with the same purpose. But we need not now go further into details; the whole of the facts will be found in the Parliamentary paper, and we have given enough of them to show how far behind every other civilized country England is in this matter. The protection of monuments of the past which Denmark has had for nearly a century and Belgium for nearly seventy years we have not yet thought of. Surely the time has come to wipe out this reproach; until it is wiped out let us have done with the hypocritical claim that we are an artistic people.
II.--THE PUBLICATION OF WORKS OF ART BELONGING TO DEALERS
In the April number of ~The Burlington Magazine~ we stated that it was our intention not to exclude from the Magazine works of art likely to be of interest to the student and collector because they happened to be in the hands of dealers. The policy of including objects belonging to dealers has been adversely criticized by friends who have the interests of the Magazine at heart; we therefore think it well to refer again to the matter, although the purpose of our decision was, as it seems to us, clearly enough stated in the April number. Suggestions have, it seems, been made in certain quarters that some corrupt or at least commercial arrangement with the dealers concerned is accountable for the publication in the Magazine of objects belonging to them. Such suggestions we may pass over, for they are not and will not be credited by anyone whose opinion need concern us. But we owe it to the friendly critics who are concerned for the welfare of the Magazine, and anxious that it should not be affected even by a breath of suspicion, to state our position quite frankly. ¶ In the first place we may say that we entirely sympathize with their point of view, and we recognize as fully as they do the harm that has been done to artistic enterprises--literary and otherwise--by commercial entanglements, and, in the case of periodicals, by a too intimate relation between the advertisement and editorial pages. So much has this been the case that we are not surprised at the alarm which is felt by some of our friends lest even a suspicion of a similar tendency should attach to a periodical in the success of which they are, we are glad to know, keenly interested. But we would point out that in such cases as those to which we have referred far more subtle methods are resorted to than that of frankly publishing a work of art that may happen to be for the time in the hands of a dealer; a little reflection will convince anyone that an Editor of a periodical ostensibly devoted to art, if he wishes--to put it quite plainly--to puff the goods of this or that individual, does not set about it in so palpable a way as that of publishing without subterfuge objects which are frankly stated to be in the possession of the individual or individuals whom it is desired to advertise. It is the very purity of our motives that has enabled us to take a course the boldness of which we do not for a moment deny. Nor must it be supposed that the publication of works of art in their possession is necessarily desired by the dealers themselves; on the contrary, as is well known to every one with experience in these matters, the idiosyncrasies of collectors are such that in many cases a dealer who has a fine work of art in his possession does not wish it to be generally known. We have in some cases had considerable difficulty in inducing dealers to allow their property to be reproduced, and we will go so far as to say that, strange as it may seem to the purist in these matters, we believe that some of them are really actuated by a desire to assist the study of art. It would be false modesty on our part to affect to believe that publication of a work of art in ~The Burlington Magazine~ is injurious to the owner, whether dealer or collector; we are willing to admit that such publication may, on the contrary, be advantageous to the owner of the work of art published. But, surely, that is not the question to be considered; the only question, it seems to us, is whether the work of art is likely to be of interest to readers of ~The Burlington Magazine~ and of value to students. This is, at any rate, the only question that we have taken into consideration; and we have felt that if any particular work of art is of interest to our readers, and particularly to those who make a special study of the branch of art concerned, we ought not to hesitate to publish it merely because it happens to be in the hands of a dealer. ¶ Is there not after all just a suspicion of cant in this squeamishness about the publication of pictures or other objects belonging to dealers? Even private collectors have, we believe, been known to sell objects out of their collections, and, so far as our information goes, they do not invariably sell them at a loss; indeed, when one comes to define the boundary between collecting and dealing one finds a considerable difficulty in doing so with exactitude; the border country between the two is very wide in extent and very hazy. We have heard of cases in which private collectors, who would not for the world be considered to be dealers, have written anonymously in a periodical about objects in their own possession and then put them up to auction with a quotation from their own article in the catalogue. Any such practice as that we shall certainly discourage or rather repress; these are difficulties which beset the path of an editor of an art periodical. But if we are to be deterred by such difficulties it will end in our being afraid to publish any work of art in case we haply enhance its value, and thus indirectly do a service to its owner. ¶ Let us restate more fully the case which we have already stated shortly in the April number of this Magazine. At any given time there are in the hands of London dealers not a few pictures which are of profound interest to all students of art, and which may indeed throw light on vexed problems and assist in their solution. Are we to deprive the readers of ~The Burlington Magazine~ of the opportunities which the publication of such pictures may give them? Doubtless in a normal state of things such pictures would ultimately find their way either into the National Gallery or at least into the possession of some English collector. But as things are they are far more likely to find a home either, let us say, in the Berlin, Amsterdam, or Munich Museum, or in a private collection on the other side of the Atlantic; and it may be very difficult to trace them if the opportunity is lost of publishing them while they are in London. Were the National Gallery still a buyer of pictures, it might not be necessary for a periodical to take such a course as we have taken. But it is notorious that the National Gallery is no longer a buyer of pictures; not merely is the money allotted by the Government absurdly inadequate, but it is also the case that, inadequate as it is, it is not made the best use of. Only last month Mr. Weale pointed out in this Magazine that the Berlin Gallery had recently bought for £1,000 a charming picture by a rare Flemish master, which was sold at Christie’s eight years ago for £3 10s., and this is merely one example of the almost innumerable opportunities that escape those who at present direct the National Gallery. Although we are told that present prices in England are prohibitive so far as public collections are concerned, it is nevertheless the fact that museums such as those of Berlin, Boston, Munich, and Amsterdam find it worth while to buy largely in London, and we do not suppose that they always pay exorbitant prices, although of course a large and wealthy country like Bavaria can afford to spend more on art than a country like England. In former years a London dealer who had a particularly fine picture in his possession would have offered it to the National Gallery; now that is the last thing that he thinks of doing; he knows too well that the authorities of the National Gallery would probably not take the trouble even to look at it, and that some of those who would have a voice in deciding whether it should be purchased have not the necessary qualifications for making such a decision. The evil has been increased by the insane rule now in force, that the trustees of the National Gallery must be unanimous before any picture is purchased--a rule which, as anyone with sense would have foreseen, has led to an absolute deadlock. Within the last few weeks, for instance, the chance of purchasing a superb work of Frans Hals at a very moderate price has been lost to the nation, simply because one of the trustees of the National Gallery refuses to agree to any purchase that does not suit his own preference for art of what may be called the glorified chocolate-box type. ¶ But we need not now enlarge upon this subject, with which we hope to deal at some future time; we have said enough perhaps to support our contention that it is hopeless to expect that fine pictures which have passed into the hands of London dealers will find their way into that collection which has been made by former directors one of the most representative in the world of the best European art. This being so, we feel very strongly that we ought to risk something in order to give the readers of ~The Burlington Magazine~ the opportunity of seeing, at least, reproductions of works of art which they may otherwise never have the opportunity of seeing. At the same time we cannot lightly reject the objections which have been raised by those who, as we know, have only the best interests of ~The Burlington Magazine~ at heart; and, while we do not at present feel disposed to alter our policy in this respect, we are nevertheless open to argument, and if the considerations which we have put forward can be shown to be unsound or inadequate we are prepared to be convinced. We invite from our readers expressions of opinion on the subject.
THE FINEST HUNTING MANUSCRIPT EXTANT
❧ WRITTEN BY W. A. BAILLIE-GROHMAN ❧
When the burly Landsknechte stormed the walls of the deer park and therewith won the hard-fought battle of Pavia, one of the treasures they captured in Francis’s sumptuous gold-laden tents was a vellum Codex of folio size, almost every leaf of which bore beautifully illuminated pictures of hunting scenes. We know from other evidence that this precious volume was one of the favourite books of the luxury-loving French king, and the fact that he took it with him to the Italian wars in preference to a printed copy, infinitely more portable, such as had been turned out in three different editions by the hand-presses of Antoine Verard, Trepperel, and Philippe le Noir, is a further proof that Francis’s love for finely illuminated manuscript was a ruling passion with him. It is this very MS. which forms the subject of these lines, and the facsimile reproductions, which the writer obtained permission to have executed by competent hands, show the rare skill of the fifteenth-century miniaturist of whose identity we unfortunately know but little. ¶The history of this Codex is an extremely interesting one and well worth the research expended upon it by Gaucheraud, Joseph Lavallée, Werth, and others. The eighty-five chapters are written in a wonderfully regular and perfect hand, and the ink is today as black and clean of outline as it was four and a half centuries ago. The author of what is unquestionably the most beautiful hunting manuscript extant was Count Gaston de Foix, the oft-cited patron of Froissart. This great noble and hunter began the book on May Day 1387, and we know that it was completed when a fit of apoplexy, after a bear hunt, cut short his remarkable career four years later, when he was in his sixty-first year. Of the forty, or possibly forty-one, ancient copies of this hunting book that have come down to us, one or two were written it is almost certain during the author’s lifetime, though the original itself, which was dedicated by Gaston to ‘Phelippes de France, duc de Bourgoigne,’ disappeared in a mysterious manner from the Escurial during the eventful year of 1809, and has not turned up since. None of the other contemporary copies have illuminations at all comparable to those in our MS., for the simple reason that it was not until some decades later that art had reached, even in France, the brilliancy that our illuminations show. For although Argote de Molina--who in his ‘Libro de la Monteria,’ published in Seville in 1582, describes the lost original--says ‘el qual se vee illuminado de excelente mano,’ it is safe to say that, could we place the original side by side with the MS. of which we are speaking, its illuminations would be found to be far inferior to those in the MS. owned by Francis I. ¶ Very likely the lost original MS. was written by one or the other of the four secretaries Froissart tells us were constantly employed by Count de Foix. These he did not call John, or Gautier, or William, but nicknamed them ‘Bad-me-serve,’ or ‘Good-for-nothings.’ The illuminations were probably the work of some wandering master-illuminator attracted to the splendid court at Orthéz by the Count’s well-known prodigal liberality. ¶ Gaston de Foix, to interrupt for a brief spell our tale, was the lord of Foix and Béarn; buffer countships at the foot of the Pyrenees--the castle of Pau was one of Foix’s strongholds. He succeeded, as Gaston III, at the age of twelve to his principalities. Two years later he was serving against the English, and shortly afterwards was made ‘Lieutenant de Roi’ in Languedoc and Gascony, and at the age of eighteen he married Agnes daughter of Philip III King of Navarre. His person was so handsome, his bodily strength so great, his hair of such sunny golden hue, that he acquired the name of _Le Roi Phoebus_ or _Gaston Phoebus_, by which latter both he and his hunting book have gone down to posterity.
[Illustration: STRIPPING THE BOAR
FROM THE GASTON PHOEBUS MS.]
The oldest copy that is extant is preserved in the same treasure-house that contains our MS. and some fourteen other copies of it, namely the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It bears the number 619 (anc. 7,098), while our MS. is numbered f.fr. 616 (anc. 7,097), and if P. Paris MSS. Franc. V 217 is right, it was Gaston’s working copy. The pictures in this MS. are shaded black-and-white drawings, and are not illuminations. That its origin was the south of France is proved, as M. Joseph Lavallée says, by the spelling of certain words: _car_ being spelt _guar_, _baigner_ as _bainher_, _montagne_ as _montainhe_, a manner peculiar in the fourteenth century to the langue d’Oc. The fact that in the MS. 616 these words are spelt in the more modern fashion supports the theory, according to the last-mentioned authority, that it was written at a later date, _i.e._ in the first half of the fifteenth century, thus confirming the impression already produced by the far superior illuminations in MS. 616. These latter, as we see by a glance at the two full-page reproductions, somewhat reduced in size though they necessarily had to be to find space in this place, evince the unmistakable signs of having been created during a period of transition in the miniaturist’s art. For while the one has the characteristic diapered background, the other has a more realistic horizon, which betokens a later origin than the beginning of the fifteenth century. Of the eighty-seven illuminations in our MS. 616, only four have a natural horizon as background, the rest are diapered in the conventional older manner, in the invention of which the miniaturists of the fourteenth century developed a perfectly wonderful ingenuity, and of which this exquisite Codex is one of the most remarkable examples. ¶ In the opinion of some experts the illuminations in MS. 616 are by the hand of the famous Jean Foucquet, born about 1415, who was made painter and valet-de-chambre to Charles VII. Amongst the choicest works of this artist rank, it is perhaps hardly necessary to mention, the Book of Hours that he executed for Estienne Chevalier, Charles VII’s Treasurer, another Hours which he made for the Duchess Marie of Cleves, and most famous of all the ninety miniatures of the _Boccaccio_ of Estienne Chevalier which is one of the principal treasures of the Royal Library in Munich. Those who are acquainted with Count Bastard’s monumental work will probably discover a distinct resemblance between one of his reproductions, especially in the foliage and scroll work, and the two full-page pictures now before the reader. On the other hand, the opinion of such a painstaking critic as is Levallée deserves attention. According to him--and nobody expended more time and trouble in _Gaston Phoebus_ researches--the illuminations are not by Foucquet’s hand, but possibly by an artist of his school. If they are Foucquet’s, they cannot have been executed before 1440, or at the earliest 1435. ¶ And now to return to the romantic history of our Codex. On one of the front leaves is painted a large coat-of-arms. It is that of the Saint-Vallier family, and two events connected with the then possessors of this precious manuscript throw a telling sidelight upon French social conditions at the period to which the opening scene on Pavia’s bloody field has introduced us. A generation before that event, namely in 1477, Jacques de Brézé, a rich noble of well-known sporting proclivities, returning suddenly home found his wife in a compromising position with a young noble. Swords flashed on slighter provocation than this one in those days, and the angry husband killed both the lover and his wife without further ado. Unhappily for him, the latter was no less a personage than Charlotte of France, natural daughter of Charles VII, and it cost the stern husband a fine of 100,000 ducats, a huge sum in those days, and a couple of years’ confinement in a castle to save his life. The eldest of the six children who were made motherless by this event subsequently married Diane of Poitiers, who not long afterwards became the all-powerful mistress of Francis I, and later on of Henry II, his son. Now Diane de Poitiers was the daughter of Jean de Poitiers, Sieur of Saint-Vallier, on whom his King (Louis IX) had bestowed the hand of his natural daughter Marie. The Codex whose reproductions we have before us had been given, probably as part of the King’s dower, to Jean de Poitiers’s wife, hence the armorial bearings. If we want to become acquainted with the circumstances that probably were the cause of its presence in King Francis’s tents on the eventful day of Pavia, we have to turn to another tragic event which occurred two years before Pavia. In 1523 Jean de Poitiers involved himself in the Connétable de Bourbon’s conspiracy, and the discovery by the King’s minions, among Jean’s secret papers, of the code treacherously used by the Connétable in his correspondence with Charles V of Germany, sent Jean speedily to the scaffold. He was in the act of kneeling down to receive the deathblow when the pardon obtained by his daughter from her royal lover, the King, saved his life. But all his goods and chattels were confiscated by Francis I, and amongst them was most probably our Codex, and thus it came to form part of the vast booty captured by Emperor Charles’s rough-handed Landsknechte. ¶ These formidable soldiers, who, under their giant leader, Georg von Frundsberg, had performed in the Italian campaigns deeds of great prowess--they were really the first trained infantry--were recruited almost exclusively in Tyrol, and for this reason it is not surprising that the next authentic news we have of our Codex is from that country. Bishop Bernard of Trent purchased it evidently from some returning booty-laden Landsknecht, and, recognising its great value, he presented it about the year 1530 to Archduke Ferdinand, Duke of Tyrol, one of the greatest collectors of his time, whose museum and library at his castle Ambras, near Innsbruck, was the wonder of the day. ¶ It remained in the possession of the Hapsburgs for about 130 years, when victory returned it once more to the country from whence defeat had removed it. During Turenne’s campaign in the Netherlands, General the Marquis of Vigneau became possessed of the volume--how remains unfortunately a mystery--and on his return to Paris presented it, July 22, 1661, to his King, Louis XIV. Bishop Bernard’s and General Vigneau’s dedications to the respective royalties are inscribed on the fly leaves, the former, in the shape of a long-winded Latin ‘humblest offering,’ taking up a good deal of space, though, unlike the Frenchman’s dedication, it fails to indicate the year when the presentation was made. ¶ Louis XIV deposited it in the Royal Library, where it received its librarian’s birthmark, the number 7,097, which it retained down to recent days, when it was rechristened, to be known henceforth, as already stated, as MS. 616. It never should have left those sacred halls, but Louis XIV was no venerator of his own law when it suited him to break it. Regretting his gift to the Library, a few years afterwards he demanded the volume back, and back again he got it, his son, the Count of Toulouse, becoming the next owner of it. From him it passed to Orleans princes until, in the fateful year 1848, it formed part of the private library of Louis Philippe at Neuilly, when that royal residence was plundered and fired by the populace.
[Illustration: HUNTING THE FALLOW BUCK
FROM THE GASTON PHOEBUS MS.]
By a wonder it escaped complete destruction on that occasion, and though the covers were badly damaged and blood-bespattered, the inside of the book was left intact. Although a new cover of somewhat gaudy modernity has been supplied to it in consequence of the fiery ordeal through which it had passed, the student visiting the great Paris library, where this unique Codex is exhibited in what is known as the _Reserve_, will find its vellum leaves in very much the same perfect condition as they were when Diane de Poitiers and Francis I turned them over with the care that is bestowed upon a work one loves. ¶ Another fine copy of _Gaston Phoebus_ is preserved in the late Duc d’Aumale’s magnificent library at Chantilly, now the property of the French nation. When recently making some researches there the writer came across a pathetic little note in the late Duke’s catalogue respecting our Codex, which, as we have heard, belonged to the House of Orleans for upwards of a century. It occurs where the Duc d’Aumale speaks of the MS. 616, and it runs: ‘Saved from the conflagration of 1848, it was taken to the Bibliothèque Nationale, but our appeals for a return of the volume addressed to the Conservateurs of the Library were rejected, however well founded we considered our claim!’ The miniatures in the Chantilly copy are finely drawn, but evince in some instances a grotesqueness which is absent from those adorning MS. 616. Thus the much suffering reindeer comes in for some exceedingly quaint limning, with antlers of perfectly ludicrous proportions and a coat like an Angora goat’s. ¶ One curious fact obtrudes itself upon our notice as we examine the illumination in almost all the _Gaston Phoebus_ copies that are adorned with illuminations (the majority of the existing forty MSS. are not illuminated, or at best only with very inferior pictures). It is the bright colours of the huntsmen’s dress in the fifteenth century. With the exception of the wild-boar hunters, who are generally garbed in grey costumes, mounted and unmounted hunters engaged in the pursuit of the stag, buck, bear, otter, fox, wild cat, wolf, hare, and badger, wear with curious promiscuousness blue, scarlet, mauve, white, and yellow costume quite as often as they appear in the more orthodox green-coloured dress. It may possibly have been merely an instance of artistic licence on the part of the miniaturists, for according to the text grey and green were the only colours of venery known to the good _veneur_. ¶ To come to the contents of our MS. we can introduce it by the broad statement that _Gaston Phoebus_ is the first mediaeval hunting-book in prose that does not deal with the subject in the catechism-like form of question and answer. The few previous prose works that have come down to us take the form of questions asked by the keen young apprentice and answered by his instructor, an experienced _veneur_, explaining to him the A B C of venery. Some bits in Gaston’s _Livre de Chasse_ are borrowed from _Roy Modus_, written about sixty years earlier, some from Gace de la Buigne (or Vigne), King John’s first chaplain, written less than thirty years earlier, and a few from _La Chace dou Serf_, a poetic effusion of the second half of the thirteenth century. But taking it as a whole _Gaston Phoebus_ is unquestionably as original as could be any work upon such a popular subject as hunting then was. ¶ To those who know their Froissart, Count Gaston de Foix’s personality will be very familiar; but, considering that the chronicler’s visit occurred in 1388, the year after the commencement of the _Livre de Chasse_, it is somewhat strange, in view of his long stay and intimate intercourse at the Count’s court, that he does not mention the _opus_ upon which his host was then engaged. ¶ The prologue mirrors in a characteristic manner the spirit of the age, as does also the last miniature in MS. 616, which represents the noble sportsman in an attitude of beatitude kneeling in a chapel. That Gaston was a pious lord we can see by the score or so of Latin prayers said to have been composed by him in the dire hour of mortal distress after the tragic death of his only son by his--the father’s--hand. ‘By the Grace of God’ Count Gaston speaks wisely and well of the good qualities that a hunter should have, and how hunting causeth a man to eschew the seven deadly sins, concluding his homily with a sentiment that appeals to the sportsman of the twentieth century as much as it did to him of the fourteenth. ‘And also, say I, that there is no man who loves hunting that has not many good qualities in him, for they come from the nobleness and gentleness of his heart of whatsoever estate he be, great lord or little, poor or rich.’ ¶ The prologue once finished, Gaston starts with zest on his task, beginning with the stag, or, to be quite correct, with the ‘nature’ of what was considered in all Continental hunting the most important beast of venery. The next thirteen chapters deal respectively in a similar way with the natural history of the reindeer, the fallow deer, the ‘bouc,’ under which the ibex and the chamois were included, the roe-deer, the hare, the rabbit, the bear, the wild boar, the wolf, the fox, the badger, the wild cat, and the otter. ¶ Following these fourteen chapters, we get ten very interesting ones on the various kinds of sporting hounds, their training, treatment when ill, the construction and management of the kennel, and other details relating to the subject. In Gaston’s time there were five kinds; the first is the Alaunt, which he subdivides into the _Alaunt gentle_ and the _Alaunt veautres_; the second is the _levrier_ or greyhound; the third the _chien courant_ or running hound; the fourth the bird dog or _espainholz_, from which the modern spaniel has sprung; and the fifth the _mastin_ or mastiff. Then come two chapters on how to make nets, and how to blow and trumpet, followed by eighteen chapters on how to track the stag and the wild boar, and how to judge of their presence, size, age, etc., by the various signs known to the _veneur_, who made a very exact science of what we would call woodcraft. The next fifteen chapters relate to the chase proper of the fourteen beasts named at first, with a double chapter on the chase of the wild boar. The concluding twenty-six chapters deal with the various manners of netting, snaring, trapping, and poisoning of wild beasts of prey and other less noxious animals. They are mostly short chapters, and in more than one place the author displays his unwillingness to deal with matter that a good sportsman need have no ken of, except in so far as was necessary to keep down vermin and destroy ‘marauders of the woods’ for the benefit of his legitimate quarry. ¶ Certain historians have called _Gaston Phoebus_ a ‘cruel voluptuary,’ and no doubt some of his repressive measures sound unnecessarily harsh, not to say merciless, in these soft times; but the spirit in which he wrote his famous book is unquestionably that of a really good sportsman who abhors all underhand advantages that curtail the hunted beast’s chances, and who takes his bear or wild boar single-handed, and pursues his stag to a finish, be the forest a trackless maze, and the river to which the hunted deer finally takes a swift flowing stream, into which to plunge is but a minor incident of an exciting sport. ¶ Of the forty or forty-one ancient MS. copies of _Gaston Phoebus_ that are known to exist in Europe to-day, twenty-one are in France, fifteen keeping our MS. 616 company on the shelves of the Bibliothèque Nationale. Five form part of the Vatican Library, and six adorn the principal libraries of Continental capitals. Of the eight copies that are or were in England one is in the British Museum, and two form part of the well-known collection formed in the first half of the last century by the late Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt., a bibliophile as wealthy as he was discerning. Of these two MSS., No. 11,592 is an incomplete late copy of little value; but the other MS., 10,298, is on the other hand a treasure of great value. Of all the Continental and English copies that the writer has examined this one contains, next to those in MS. 616, the finest miniatures. It is less carefully written, and there are some variations, but nothing of importance so far as is known, though it has never been carefully collated with the best French copies.
[Illustration: FROM THE GASTON PHOEBUS MS.]
[Illustration: FROM THE GASTON PHOEBUS MS.]
[Illustration: FROM THE GASTON PHOEBUS MS.]
The British Museum copy of _Gaston Phoebus_, catalogued as Addit. MS. 27,699, is on vellum, quarto, written in the first half of the fifteenth century. The miniatures are by an indifferent hand, and have been left in an unfinished state, the miniaturist having apparently expended most of his time, and nearly all his bright colours and shining gold, upon the diapering of the backgrounds. It was bought at the Yemeniz Sale in Paris, in May 1867, for something less than £400. The Ashburnham Library contained two copies, both early ones, and of these MS. App. 179 is interesting on account of an hitherto unknown treatise on hawking and birds being added at the end of the hunting book, which is incomplete, and the spaces at the head of each chapter for the usual miniatures are left blank. It was bought at the fourth Ashburnham Sale in May 1899 by the writer. ¶ Of the copy which Werth and Lavallée quote as being in the possession of a Cambridge Library, it is regrettable that no information could be obtained by them or by myself. As a rule the lot of the student making researches of this sort in English libraries, always excepting, of course, the British Museum and the Bodleian, is not a happy one. Not only is study in the libraries discouraged, and letters of inquiry are left unanswered, but valuable MSS. seem to get mislaid, lost, or stolen, rather more frequently than should be. The two remaining copies of _Gaston Phoebus_ in this country, one being in a public museum, the other in a well-known ducal library, have shared this fate, and their whereabouts are unknown. The latter copy must have been a very beautiful MS., for it is described in Dibdin’s _Decameron_, Vol. III, p. 478, and was bought in 1815 for £161, then a large sum, by Loché; and according to Werth (_Altfranzösische Jagdlehrbücher_, 1889, p. 70) it was, when he wrote, in the Duke of Devonshire’s library, from which, however, it seems to have disappeared, for no trace of it can be found. Curiously enough, this fate is shared by yet another valuable hunting MS., which for the English student has even greater interest, namely, one of the few existing copies (nineteen all told) of the Duke of York’s translation of _Gaston Phoebus_, which has disappeared from a well-known nobleman’s library. ¶ In conclusion, it is necessary to say a few words respecting the subject matter of the MS. just mentioned, for many erroneous impressions regarding it are abroad. _Gaston Phoebus_ deals with some animals that were not found in England in Plantagenet times, _e.g._ the reindeer, the ibex and chamois, and the bear. Hence when Edward, second Duke of York, who filled the position of Master of Game at the court of his cousin, Henry IV, made a translation of his famous contemporary’s hunting book, he took only those parts of it which related to game and dogs found in England, and added five original chapters, calling the whole ‘The Master of Game.’ This book is the oldest hunting book in English, but has never been published. The writer’s reproduction of it, illustrated by photogravure copies of the illuminations in the Paris Codex MS. 616, some of which are reproduced in the present article, is now going through the press.[2] It will, it is hoped, fill a gap in English hunting literature, and remove numerous misconceptions concerning this subject.
A NEWLY DISCOVERED ‘LIBRO DI RICORDI’ OF ALESSO BALDOVINETTI
❧ WRITTEN BY HERBERT P. HORNE ❧