A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools

1436. THE VISION OF ST. EUSTACE

Vittore Pisano (Veronese: 1380-1452). See 776.

"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

Barnaba da Modena (painted about 1365).

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, 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

Unknown (Lombard School: 16th Century).

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

Salomon Ruysdael (Dutch: 1600-1670). See 1344.

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

Giovanni Bellini (Venetian: 1427-1516). See 189. See also (p. xxi)

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

Perugino (Umbrian: 1446-1523). See 288.

This fresco from the church at Fontignano, near Castello della Pieve, was left unfinished when the painter died there in 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

Bakhuizen (Dutch: 1631-1708). See 204.

1443. INTERIOR OF A CHURCH

H. Steenwyck (Flemish: 1580-1649). See 1132.

A funeral service is being celebrated in the nave, while in the foreground is a christening procession.

1444. PEASANTS WARMING THEMSELVES

Gerard von Honthorst (Dutch: 1590-1656).

This artist went early in life to Rome, where he acquired the style of Caravaggio (see 172). "His rude contrasts of opaque shade and brilliant light, his luminous effects produced by the light of a torch or flambeau, and the naturalism of his works, caused him to be much sought after in Italy, where this style was in fashion," and acquired for him the name of "Gherardo della Notte." He returned to Utrecht, his birthplace, in 1623, and in 1628 was commissioned by Charles I. to decorate the palace of Whitehall. While in England he also painted the portraits of the Court and many of the nobility. Several of his portraits are to be seen in the National Portrait Gallery.

1445, 1446. STUDIES OF FLOWERS

Rachel Ruysch (Dutch: 1664-1750).

One of the few female painters represented in the Gallery. Rachel Ruysch was the daughter of a professor of anatomy, and began to study art at an early age. She married Julian Pool, a portrait-painter, and had a large family. She continued the practice of her art until she reached an advanced age, always signing her pictures with her maiden name. Notwithstanding her industry, the number of her pictures is somewhat small, and it was jokingly said in her time that "she produced more children than pictures." The labour she devoted to her work was astonishing; two pictures alone are said to have occupied her for seven years; and these she bestowed on one of her daughters as a marriage portion. She was admirable in her manner of grouping as well as in pencilling; each flower is relieved by its neighbour, and all are kept in perfect harmony. She was fond of introducing among her flowers the insects peculiar to them (notice the butterfly in 1446); and these she depicted with microscopic accuracy. "Had her colouring been less cold, she would certainly have equalled her illustrious rival, Van Huysum" (Bryan's Dictionary of Painters, and Havard's Dutch School, p. 268).

1447. A HUNTING PARTY

Adam Frans van der Meulen (Flemish: 1632-1694).

This painter, a native of Brussels, had a great facility in battlepieces. Some of these found their way to France, and attracted the notice of the painter Le Brun. On his recommendation Van der Meulen was invited to the French Court, and was at first employed on designs for the Gobelins tapestries. Afterwards he accompanied Louis XIV. on his campaigns, and, brush in hand, was present at all the principal sieges and battles of that monarch. These he afterwards painted for the King; he also depicted many hunting scenes and cavalcades. His works are to be seen at the Louvre and Versailles.

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

François S. Bonvin (French: 1817-1888).

A painter of still life and interiors as well as of landscape; for thirty years a constant exhibitor at the Salon; given the Order of the Legion of Honour in 1870.

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

Philippe de Champaigne (French: 1602-1674). See 798.

"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

Sebastiano del Piombo (Venetian: 1485-1547). See 1.

"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

Gerrit Berck-Heyde (Dutch: 1638-1698). See 1420.

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

Francesco Guardi (Venetian: 1712-1793). See 210.

1455. THE CIRCUMCISION

Giovanni Bellini (Venetian: 1426-1516). See 189.

A picture of Bellini's earlier period, the original of numerous versions and copies in private and public galleries, presented 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

Unknown (Italian School: 15th Century).

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

Domenico Theotocopuli (Spanish: 1548-1625). See 1122.

1459. THE WINE CONTRACT

Gerhard van den Eeckhout (Dutch: 1621-1674).

This painter, the son of a goldsmith at Amsterdam, was one of the first to enter Rembrandt's school. He was a favourite pupil, and lived in close intimacy with the master. His biblical subjects – examples of which are at the Louvre, the Hague, and Amsterdam – were painted in close imitation of Rembrandt. He owed to his master not only his subjects, but their figures, costumes, and attitudes; he could not, however, borrow Rembrandt's warmth and intensity. His portraits are more successful.

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

Matteo di Giovanni (Sienese: 1435-1495). See 1155.

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

Hendrik Dubbels (Dutch: 1620-1676).

This painter, "the master of Bakhuizen (see under 204), was one of the first, after the success of his pupil was confirmed, to adopt his subjects and to copy his manner" (Havard: The Dutch School, p. 256). His works, however, bear little resemblance to Bakhuizen's: they are more like Van de Cappelle. Many of his pictures are to be found in private collections. The present picture, with its luminous atmospheric effects, is an excellent example. Observe on the leeboard of one of the barges the signature, I. H. D., possibly Jan Hendrik Dubbels. There were three painters of the name, Hendrik, Dirk, and Jan.

1465. CHRIST RISING FROM THE TOMB

Gaudenzio Ferrari (Lombard: 1481-1549).

A welcome addition to the Gallery, as being the work (though not a specially important work) of a great and most indefatigable painter not previously represented. Gaudenzio was a native of Valduggia (in the Val Sesia); his father was a painter; his mother's surname was Vinzio, and in his early work he often signed his pictures after her, "Gaudentius Vincius." He passed his life exclusively in Piedmont and Lombardy, where nearly all his works are still to be found – at Vercelli, Novara, Saronno, and Milan. The most important of them are at Varallo, on the Sacro Monte and in the church at its foot. In some of the chapels on the Sacro Monte he not only painted the frescoes in the background but also executed the terra-cotta figures, thus carrying out the scheme of uniting painting and sculpture in a single design. His "Crucifixion Chapel," the most important of his works in this kind, has on this account been described as "the most daring among Italian works of art." Gaudenzio, who was nearly contemporary with Luini, first studied at Milan in the school of Stefano Scotto (whose portrait he is believed to have introduced more than once in his work at Varallo). The story that he visited Rome and made the acquaintance of Raphael rests on no authority, and probably arose from a certain similarity in his works to the charm of Raphael. But this is a similarity, not of what is called "influence," but of age and temperament. "The influence of Perugino or of Raphael," says Morelli, "is not more and not less perceptible in Ferrari's paintings than in those of nearly all the great masters of that happy period, generally called the golden age of Italian art, during which Gaudenzio and Luini held much the same place in their own school as Raphael does in the Umbrian, Cavazzola (Morando) and Carotto in the Veronese, Garofalo and Dosso in the Ferrarese, and Fra Bartolommeo and Andrea del Sarto in the Florentine. Gaudenzio, it is true, has not the grace of Luini, neither are his works so perfect in execution as those of his rival; but take him for all in all, as regards inventive genius, dramatic life, and picturesqueness, he stands far above Luini. In his hot haste Ferrari often loses his balance, and becomes quaint and affected; many of his larger compositions, too, are overcrowded with figures; but in his best works he is inferior to very few of his contemporaries, and occasionally, as in some of those groups of men and women in the great 'Crucifixion' at Varallo, he might challenge a comparison with Raphael himself" (German Galleries, p. 441). The best and fullest account of Gaudenzio, in English, is to be found in Mr. Samuel Butler's interesting work on Varallo, entitled Ex Voto (Trübner, 1888).

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

Lelio Orsi (Parmese: 1511-1586).

This painter, highly esteemed in his own day and of considerable talent, has remained less known than many others of inferior merit – a fact which is due, as Lanzi observes (ii. 357), to his having divided his time between Reggio and Novellara, comparatively obscure towns in the Emilia. He was born at Reggio, and was much employed there by the Gonzagi. He is supposed to have been a pupil of Correggio, whose works he is known to have copied, and of whom he was a personal friend. In 1546 he was banished for some unknown offence, and was not permitted to return to Reggio till 1552. During these years he settled at Novellara, where again he was employed by the Gonzagas. He must also have visited Rome, and studied the works of Michael Angelo. Most of Orsi's frescoes have perished. Some of his pictures are in the Gallery at Modena. He was celebrated in his day no less as an architect than as a painter.

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

Spinello Aretino (Tuscan: about 1333-1410). See 581. See also (p. xxi)

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

W. K. Heda (Dutch: 1594-1678)

One of the painters "of the kitchen and dining-room – painters who devoted themselves to painting copper and silver vessels, pottery, and porcelain, modest saucepans, crystal cups, glass bowls, and goblets of chased silver. The first to cultivate this new style of still life was Willem Klaasz Heda. He was born at Haarlem. He was a clever and careful painter, and must have left behind him a considerable number of works; but, nevertheless, his pictures are excessively rare. They generally consist of a carved silver cup, a plate, and a cut lemon – three subjects which the painter rendered with marvellous truthfulness, the whole surrounded by a few accessories rising out of a brown background" (Havard: The Dutch School, p. 272).

1470. A BATTLE SCENE

J. Weier (German: 17th Century).

This picture is signed I. Weier, and dated 1645. It may be either by Jacob Weier, of Hamburg, who died in 1670; or by Johann Matthias Weier, of the same town, who was a pupil of Wouwerman, and died, a very old man, in 1690.

1471. THE PICNIC ("MARIENDA CAMPESTRE")

Francisco Goya (Spanish: 1746-1828).

This painter – of greater genius and of a more national spirit, says Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, than any his century produced – was the son of humble parents. Until the age of 16 he lived without any knowledge of art, when his passion for painting was awakened by a monk of Santa Fé, near Saragossa, after which he was admitted into the studio of José Luxan Martinez, who had been educated in Italy. He distinguished himself at this time, not so much in the studio as in the streets, in the quarrels of painters and confraternities, sometimes ending in bloodshed. At Madrid, to which city he afterwards escaped, his mode of life appears to have been anything but that of an orderly citizen. Being a good musician, and gifted with a voice, he sallied forth nightly, serenading the caged beauties of the capital, with whom he seems to have been a general favourite, and whose portraits he painted. In consequence of a street brawl in Madrid he fled to Italy, in company with a party of bull-fighters, and resided at Rome, where he fraternised with Louis David. In 1774 he returned to Spain, married, and settled down to his profession. He soon attracted the notice of Mengs, the King's painter, by some designs which he executed for the royal manufactory of tapestry, and became a popular artist of that capital, and a prime favourite with its fashionable society. In 1789 he was appointed painter-in-ordinary to Charles IV., a post which he continued to hold under Ferdinand VII. He was so largely employed that he was able to maintain a fine villa near Madrid, where he entertained in the grand style. Among distinguished persons who sat to him was the Duke of Wellington, but on his making a remark which raised the artist's choler, Goya seized a plaster cast and hurled it at the Duke's head. The artist's declining years were spent in retirement at Bordeaux, where he died at the age of 82.

"Goya's earlier life indicated," says W. B. Scott, "the character of his painting – bizarre and wild, with a gleam of infernal splendour in his choice of beauty. He was an inventor, and gives us the most vivid and novel sensations, although he serves us with vinegar as well as wine." "Much that was bizarre and tumultuous, the strangeness of charm, a certain curious and sombre side of beauty, the sense of the strength of a personality, the reflection of extravagant gaiety, or excessive horror, Goya was able to render in a manner that had never been seen before" (Goya, by W. Rothenstein: 1900). He was in no way the slave to the technicalities of the studio or academical rules. In sacred subjects, which he painted by no means con amore, he affects the hard style of David and his French followers. But it was otherwise in those more congenial works in which his hand spoke as his fancy prompted, and in which he poured forth the gaiety of his art or the gall of his sarcasm. There the daubing boldness of the execution rivals the coarseness of the idea or the rudeness of the jest. His colours were laid on as often with sticks, sponges, or dish-clouts as with the brush. "Smearing his canvas with paint," says Gautier of him, "as a mason plasters a wall, he would add the delicate touches of sentiment with a dash of his thumb." So dexterous was he in turning all materials to artistic account that during morning visits to his friends he would take the sandbox from the inkstand, and, strewing the contents on the table, amuse them with caricatures traced in an instant by his ready finger. His versatility is proverbial; in addition to numerous oil paintings he executed many crayon sketches, engravings, and etchings. It is by the latter that he is perhaps best known. "The Caprices" are the most surprising, showing humanity in all the stages of brutality and ugliness, with a mélange of beauty and demonology quite unexampled. (W.B. Scott, The Spanish School; Bryan's Dictionary of Painters; and Stirling-Maxwell, Annals of the Artists of Spain.) The three following pictures are representative of Goya's several styles – scenes of country life, demoniacal fancies, and portraiture.