Part 1

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

SIX CENTURIES OF PAINTING

[Illustration; VITTORE PISANO

(CALLED PISANELLO)

ST ANTHONY AND ST GEORGE

_National Gallery, London_]

SIX CENTURIES OF

PAINTING

BY

RANDALL DAVIES

[Illustration]

LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK

67 LONG ACRE, W.C., AND EDINBURGH

CONTENTS

TUSCAN SCHOOLS-- PAGE

I. GIOVANNI CIMABUE 1

II. GIOTTO DI BONDONE 10

III. THE EARLIER QUATTROCENTISTS 18

IV. THE LATER QUATTROCENTISTS 26

V. LEONARDO DA VINCI 33

VI. MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI 40

VII. RAFFAELLO DI SANTI 47

VENETIAN SCHOOLS--

I. THE VIVARINI AND BELLINI 59

II. TIZIANO VECELLIO 78

III. PAOLO VERONESE AND IL TINTORETTO 99

SPANISH SCHOOL 109

FLEMISH SCHOOL--

I. HUBERT AND JAN VAN EYCK 121

II. PETER PAUL RUBENS 143

III. THE PUPILS OF RUBENS 157

DUTCH SCHOOL--

I. FRANS HALS 165

II. REMBRANDT VAN RYN 171

III. PAINTERS OF _GENRE_ 183

IV. PAINTERS OF ANIMALS 191

V. PAINTERS OF LANDSCAPE 202

GERMAN SCHOOLS 211

FRENCH SCHOOL--

I. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 225

II. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 235

THE ENGLISH SCHOOL--

I. THE EARLY PORTRAIT PAINTERS 251

II. WILLIAM HOGARTH 258

III. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS AND THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH 267

IV. THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 295

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY--

I. THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT 305

II. EUGÈNE DELACROIX 309

III. RUSKIN AGAINST THE PHILISTINES 313

IV. MANET AND WHISTLER AGAINST THE WORLD 324

V. THE ROYAL ACADEMY 329

INDEX 335

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VITTORE PISANO (called PISANELLO)--St Anthony and St George _Frontispiece_ National Gallery, London

PLATE FACING PAGE

I. FILIPPO LIPPI--The Annunciation 22 National Gallery, London

II. SANDRO BOTTICELLI(?)--The Virgin and Child 26

National Gallery, London

III. SANDRO BOTTICELLI--Portrait of a Young Man 28 National Gallery, London

IV. SANDRO BOTTICELLI--The Nativity 32 National Gallery, London

V. LEONARDO DA VINCI--The Virgin of the Rocks 36 National Gallery, London

VI. PIETRO PERUGINO--Central Portion of Altar-Piece 50 National Gallery, London

VII. RAPHAEL--The Ansidei Madonna 52 National Gallery, London

VIII. RAPHAEL--La Belle Jardinière 52 Louvre, Paris

IX. RAPHAEL--Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione 56 Louvre, Paris

X. CORREGGIO--Mercury, Cupid, and Venus 58 National Gallery, London

XI. ANDREA MANTEGNA--The Madonna della Vittoria 68 Louvre, Paris

XII. GIOVANNI BELLINI--The Doge Loredano 72 National Gallery, London

XIII. GIORGIONE--Venetian Pastoral 78 Louvre, Paris

XIV. TITIAN--Portrait said to be of Ariosto 84 National Gallery, London

XV. TITIAN--The Holy Family 86 National Gallery, London

XVI. TITIAN--The Entombment 88 Louvre, Paris

XVII. TINTORETTO--St George and the Dragon 102 National Gallery, London

XVIII. VELAZQUEZ--The Infante Philip Prosper 112 Imperial Gallery, Vienna

XIX. VELAZQUEZ--The Rokeby Venus 118 National Gallery, London

XX. MURILLO--A Boy Drinking 120 National Gallery, London

XXI. JAN VAN EYCK--Jan Arnolfini and His Wife 128 National Gallery, London

XXII. JAN VAN EYCK--Portrait of the Painter's Wife 132 Town Gallery, Bruges

XXIII. JAN MABUSE--Portrait of Jean Carondelet 136 Louvre, Paris

XXIV. SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS--Portrait of Hélène Fourment, the Artist's Second Wife, and two of Her Children 150 Louvre, Paris

XXV. FRANS HALS--Portrait of a Lady 168 Louvre, Paris

XXVI. REMBRANDT--Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels 176 Louvre, Paris

XXVII. REMBRANDT--Portrait of an Old Lady 182 National Gallery, London

XXVIII. TERBORCH--The Concert 186 Louvre, Paris

XXIX. GABRIEL METSU--The Music Lesson 188 National Gallery, London

XXX. PIETER DE HOOCH--Interior of a Dutch House 190 National Gallery, London

XXXI. JAN VERMEER--The Lace Maker 192 Louvre, Paris

XXXII. "THE MASTER OF ST BARTHOLOMEW"--Two Saints 212 National Gallery, London

XXXIII. HANS HOLBEIN--Portrait of Christina, Duchess of Milan 224 National Gallery, London

XXXIV. ANTOINE WATTEAU--L'Indifférent 236 Louvre, Paris

XXXV. JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE--The Broken Pitcher 244 Louvre, Paris

XXXVI. JEAN HONORÉ FRAGONARD--L'Étude 248 Louvre, Paris

XXXVII. HANS HOLBEIN--Anne of Cleves 256 Louvre, Paris

XXXVIII. WILLIAM HOGARTH--The Shrimp Girl 260 National Gallery, London

XXXIX. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS--Lady Cockburn and Her Children 274 National Gallery, London

XL. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS--The Age of Innocence 284 National Gallery, London

XLI. THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH--The Market Cart 290 National Gallery, London

XLII. GEORGE ROMNEY--The Parson's Daughter 298 National Gallery, London

XLIII. GEORGE ROMNEY--Mrs Robinson--"Perdita" 300 Hertford House, London

XLIV. JACQUES LOUIS DAVID--Portrait of Mme. Récamier 306 Louvre, Paris

XLV. EUGÈNE DELACROIX--Dante and Virgil 310 Louvre, Paris

XLVI. JOHN CONSTABLE--The Hay Wain 312 National Gallery, London

XLVII. J. M. W. TURNER--Crossing the Brook 316 National Gallery of British Art, London

XLVIII. ÉDOUARD MANET--Olympia 326 Louvre, Paris

XLIX. J. M. WHISTLER--Lillie in Our Alley 328 In the possession of John J. Cowan, Esq.

_INTRODUCTORY_

So far as it concerns pictures painted upon panel or canvas in tempera or oils, the history of painting begins with Cimabue, who worked in Florence during the latter half of the thirteenth century. That the art was practised in much earlier times may readily be admitted, and the life-like portraits in the vestibule at the National Gallery taken from Greek tombs of the second or third century are sufficient proofs of it; but for the origin of painting as we are now generally accustomed to understand the term we need go no further back than to Cimabue and his contemporaries, from whose time the art has uninterruptedly developed throughout Europe until the present day.

Oddly enough it is to the Christian Church, whose early fathers put their heaviest ban upon all forms of art, that this development is almost wholly due. The reaction against paganism began to die out when the Christian religion was more firmly established, and representations of Christ and the Saints executed in mosaic became more and more to be regarded as a necessary, or at any rate a regular embellishment of the numerous churches which were built. For these mosaics panel paintings began in time to be substituted; but it was long before any of the human feeling of art was to be found in them. The influence of S. Francis of Assisi was needed to prepare the way, and it was only towards the close of the thirteenth century that the breath of life began to be infused into these conventional representations, and painting became a living art.

As it had begun in Italy, under the auspices of the Church, so it chiefly developed in that country; at first in Florence and Siena, later in Rome, whither its greatest masters were summoned by the Pope, and in Venice, where, farther from the ecclesiastical influence, it flourished more exuberantly, and so became more capable of being transplanted to other countries. In Germany, however, and the Low Countries it had appeared early enough to be considered almost as an independent growth, though not till considerably later were the northern schools capable of sustaining the reputation given them by the Van Eycks and Roger Van der Weyden.

But for the effects of the Renaissance in Italy in the fifteenth century it is questionable whether painting would ever have spread as it did in the sixteenth and seventeenth to Spain and France. But by the close of the fifteenth century such enormous progress had been made by the Italian painters towards the realisation of human action and emotion in pictures, that from being merely an accessory of religious establishments, painting had become as much a part of the recognised means of intellectual enjoyment of everyday life as music, sculpture, or even the refinements of food and clothing.

Portraiture, in particular, had gradually advanced to a foremost place in painting. Originally it was used exclusively for memorials of the dead--as we have seen in the case of the paintings from the Greek tombs--and on coins and medals. But gradually the practice arose, as painters became more skilful in representing the appearance of the model, of introducing the features and figures of actual personages into religious pictures, in the character of "donors," and as these increased in importance, the sacred personages were gradually relegated to the background, and ultimately dispensed with altogether. At the beginning of the sixteenth century we find Hans Holbein (as an example) recommended by Erasmus to Sir Thomas More as a portrait painter who wished to try his fortunes in England; and during the rest of his life painting practically nothing but portraits.

By the end of the sixteenth century, if not earlier, painting had become almost as much a business as an art, not only in Italy but in most other countries in Europe, and was established in each country more or less independently. So that making every allowance for the various foreign influences that affected each different country, it is convenient to trace the development of painting in each country separately, and we arrange our chapters accordingly under the titles of Tuscan and Venetian (the two main divisions of Italian painting), Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, German, French, and British Schools. In each country, as might be expected--and especially in Italy--there are subdivisions; but, broadly speaking, the lover of pictures will be quite well enough equipped for the enjoyment of them if he is able to recognise their country, and roughly their period, without troubling about the particular district or personal influence of their origin.

For while it is undoubtedly true that the more one knows about the history of painting in general the greater will be the appreciation of the various excellences which tend to perfection, it is absolutely ridiculous to suppose that only the learned in such matters are capable of deriving enjoyment from a beautiful picture, or of expressing an opinion upon it. In the first place, the picture is intended for the public, and the public have therefore the best right to say whether it pleases them or not--and why. And it may be noted as a positive fact that whenever the public, in any country, have a free choice in matters of art, that choice generally turns out to be right, and is ultimately endorsed by the best critics. Most of the vulgar art to be found in advertisements and the illustrated papers is put there by ignorant and vulgar providers, who imagine that the whole public are as ignorant and vulgar as themselves; whereas whenever a better standard of taste is given an opportunity, it never fails to find a welcome. Until Sir Henry Wood inaugurated the present régime, the Promenade Concerts at Covent Garden were popularly supposed to represent the national taste in music. Until the Temple Classics and Every Man's Library were published it was commonly supposed that the people at large cared for nothing but Bow Bells, the Penny Novelette, or such unclassical if alluring provender. In the domain of painting, the Royal Academy has such a firm and ancient hold on the popular imagination of the English that its influence is difficult to dispel; but there are many signs that its baneful ascendency is at length on the decline; and it is well known that the National Gallery is attracting more and more visitors and Burlington House less and less as the years go on.

In the following attempt at a general survey of the history of painting--imperfect or ill-proportioned as it may appear to this or that specialist or lover of any particular school--I have thought it best to assume a fair amount of ignorance of the subject on the part of the reader, though without, I hope, taking any advantage of it, even if it exists; and I have therefore drawn freely upon several old histories and handbooks for both facts and opinions concerning the old masters and their works. In some cases, I think, a dead lion is decidedly better than a live dog.

R. D.

CHELSEA, 1914.

_TUSCAN SCHOOLS_

I

GIOVANNI CIMABUE

By the will of God, in the year 1240, we are told by Vasari, GIOVANNI CIMABUE, of the noble family of that name, was born in the city of Florence, to give the first light to the art of painting. Vasari's "Lives of the Painters" was first published in Florence in 1550, and with all its defects and all its inaccuracies, which have afforded so much food for contention among modern critics, it is still the principal source of our knowledge of the earlier history of painting as it was revived in Italy in the thirteenth century.

Making proper allowance for Vasari's desire to glorify his own city, and to make a dignified commencement to his work by attributing to Cimabue more than was possibly his due, we need not be deterred by the very latest dicta of the learned from accepting the outlines of his life of Cimabue as an embodiment of the tradition of the time in which he lived--two centuries and a quarter after Cimabue--and, until contradicted by positive evidence, as worthy of general credence. In the popular mind Cimabue still remains "The Father of modern painting," and though his renown may have attracted more pictures and more legends to his name than properly belong to him, it is certain that Dante, his contemporary, wrote of him thus:--

Credette Cimabue nella pintura Tener lo campo, ed ora ha Giotto il grido Si che la fama di colui s'oscura.

This is at least as important as anything written by a contemporary of William Shakespeare; and even if we are required to believe that some of his most important works are by another hand, his influence on the history of art is beyond question. Let us then follow Vasari a little further, and we shall find, at any rate, what is typical of the development of genius.

"This youth," Vasari continues, "being considered by his father and others to give proof of an acute judgment and a clear understanding, was sent to Santa Maria Novella to study letters under a relation who was then master in grammar to the novices of that convent. But Cimabue, instead of devoting himself to letters, consumed the whole day in drawing men, horses, houses, and other various fancies on his books and different papers--an occupation to which he felt himself impelled by nature."

This is exactly what is recorded of Reynolds, it may be noted, and very much the same as in the case of Gainsborough, Benjamin West--and many a modern painter.

"This natural inclination was favoured by fortune, for the governors of the city had invited certain Greek (probably Byzantine) painters to Florence, for the purpose of restoring the art of painting, which had not merely degenerated but was altogether lost. These artists, among other works, began to paint the chapel of the Gondi in Santa Maria Novella, and Cimabue, often escaping from the school, and having already made a commencement of the art he was so fond of, would stand watching these masters at their work. His father, and the artists themselves, therefore concluded that he must be well endowed for painting, and thought that much might be expected from him if he devoted himself to it. Giovanni was accordingly, much to his delight, placed with these masters, whom he soon greatly surpassed both in design and colouring. For they, caring little for the progress of art, executed their works not in the excellent manner of the ancient Greeks, but in the rude modern style of their own day. Wherefore, though Cimabue imitated them, he very much improved the art, relieving it greatly from their uncouth manner and doing honour to his country by the name that he acquired and by the works which he performed. Of this we have evidence in Florence from the pictures which he painted there--as for example the front of the altar of Saint Cecilia and a picture of the Virgin, in Santa Croce, which was and still is (_i.e._ in 1550) attached to one of the pilasters on the right of the choir."

Unfortunately the very first example cited pulls us up short alongside the official catalogue of the Uffizi Gallery (where the picture was placed in 1841), in which it is catalogued (No. 20) as "Unknown ... Vasari erroneously attributes it to Cimabue."

Tiresome as it may seem to be thus distracted, at the very outset, by the question of authenticity, it is nevertheless desirable to start with a clear understanding that in surveying in a general way the history and development of painting, it will be quite hopeless to wait for the final word on the supposed authorship of every picture mentioned. In this instance, as it happens, there is no reason to question the modern catalogue, though that is by no means the same thing as denying that Cimabue painted the picture which existed in the church of S. Cecilia in Vasari's time. Is it more likely, it may be asked, that Vasari, who is accused of unduly glorifying Cimabue, would attribute to him a work not worthy of his fame, or that during the three centuries since Vasari wrote a substitution was effected? The other picture, the _Madonna and Child Enthroned_, which found its way into our National Gallery in 1857, is still officially catalogued as the work of Cimabue, and it is to be hoped that this precious relic, together with the Madonnas in the Louvre, the Florence Academy, and in the lower church at Assisi, may be long spared to us by the authority of the critics as "genuine productions" of the beloved master.

On the general question, however, let me reassure the reader by stating that so far as possible I have avoided the mention of any pictures, in the following pages, about which there is any grave doubt, save in a few cases where tradition is so firmly established that it seems heartless to disturb it until final judgment is entered--of which the following examples of Cimabue's reputed work may be taken as types. The latest criticism seeks to deprive him of every single existing picture he is believed to have painted; those mentioned by Vasari which have perished may be considered equally unauthentic, but, as before mentioned, his account of them gives us as well as anything else the story of the beginnings of the art.

Having afterwards undertaken, Vasari continues, to paint a large picture in the Abbey of the Santa Trinità in Florence for the monks of Vallombrosa, he made great efforts to justify the high opinion already formed of him and showed greater powers of invention, especially in the attitude of the Virgin, whom he depicted with the child in her arms and numerous angels around her, on a gold ground. This is the picture now in the Accademia in Florence. The frescoes next described are no longer in existence:--

"Cimabue next painted in fresco at the hospital of the Porcellana at the corner of the Via Nuova which leads into the Borgo Ogni Santi. On the front of this building, which has the principal door in the centre, he painted the Virgin receiving the Annunciation from the angel, on one side, and Christ with Cleophas and Luke on the other, all the figures the size of life. In this work he departed more decidedly from the dry and formal manner of his instructors, giving more life and movement to the draperies, vestments and other accessories, and rendering all more flexible and natural than was common to the manner of those Greeks whose work were full of hard lines and sharp angles as well in mosaic as in painting. And this rude unskilful manner the Greeks had acquired not so much from study or settled purpose as from having servilely followed certain fixed rules and habits transmitted through a long series of years by one painter to another, while none ever thought of the amelioration of his design, the embellishment of his colouring, or the improvement of his invention."

After describing Cimabue's activities at Pisa and Assisi with equal circumstance, Vasari passes to the famous _Rucellai Madonna_, now supposed to be by the hand of Duccio of Siena. However doubtful the story may appear in the light of modern criticism, historical or artistic, it certainly forms part of the history of painting--for its spirit if not for its accuracy--and as such it can never be too often quoted:--

"He afterwards painted the picture of the Virgin for the Church of Santa Maria Novella, where it is suspended on high between the chapel of the Rucellai family and that of the Bardi. This picture is of larger size than any figure that had been painted down to those times, and the angels surrounding it make it evident that although Cimabue still retained the Greek manner, he was nevertheless gradually approaching the mode of outline and general method of modern times. Thus it happened that this work was an object of so much admiration to the people of that day--they having never seen anything better--that it was carried in solemn procession, with the sound of trumpets and other festal demonstration, from the house of Cimabue to the Church, he himself being highly rewarded and honoured for it. It is further reported, and may be read in certain records of old painters, that while Cimabue was painting this picture in a garden near the gate of S. Pietro, King Charles the Elder of Anjou passed through Florence, and the authorities of the city, among other marks of respect, conducted him to see the picture of Cimabue. When this work was thus shown to the King, it had not before been seen by anyone; wherefore all the men and women of Florence hastened in great crowds to admire it, making all possible demonstration of delight."

Now whether or not Vasari was right in crediting Cimabue with these honours in Florence instead of Duccio in Siena, makes little difference in the story of the origin and early development of the art of painting. One may doubt the accuracy of the mosaic account of the Creation, the authorship of the Fourth Gospel or the Shakespearean poems, or the list of names of the Normans who are recorded to have fought with William the Conqueror. But what if one may? The Creation, the poems and plays of Shakespeare and the battle of Hastings are all of them historic facts, and neither science, nor literature, nor history is a penny the worse for the loose though perfectly understandable conditions under which these facts have been handed down to us. When we come down to times nearer to our own the accuracy of data is more easily ascertainable, though the confusion arising out of them often obscures their real significance; but in looking for origins we are content to ignore the details, provided we can find enough general information on which to form an idea of them. To these first chapters of Vasari, then, we need not hesitate to resort for the main sources of the earlier history of painting. Even so far as we have gone we have learnt several important facts as to the nature of the foundations on which the glorious structure was to be raised.

First of all, it is apparent that the practice of painting, though strictly forbidden by the earliest Fathers of the Church, was used by the faithful in the Eastern churches for purposes of decoration, and was introduced into Italy--we may safely say Tuscany--for the same purpose.

Second, that being transplanted into this new soil, it put forth such wonderful blossoms that it came to be cultivated with much more regard; and from being merely a necessary or conventional ornament of certain portions of the church, was soon accounted its greatest glory.

Third, that it was accorded popular acclamation.

Fourth, that its most attractive feature in the eyes of beholders was its life-like representation of the human form and other natural objects.

Prosaic as these considerations may appear, they are nevertheless the fundamental principles that underlie the whole of the subsequent development of painting; and unless every picture in the world were destroyed, and the art of painting wholly lost for at least a thousand years, there could not be another picture produced which would not refer back through continuous tradition to one or every one of them. First, the basis of religion. Second, the development peculiar to the soil. Third, the imitation of nature. Fourth, the approbation of the public--there we have the four cardinal points in the chart of painting.