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

1682. VIRGIN AND CHILD

Francesco di Giorgio (Sienese: 1439-1502).

Francesco di Giorgio Martini was one of the most distinguished architects and engineers of his time. He wrote a treatise on "Civil and Military Architecture," and was a great authority, says Vasari, on "all instruments required for the purposes of war." There are two altar-pieces by him in the Siena Academy, and he also occasionally produced works in sculpture: "this he could do very conveniently, being a man of fair possessions as well as of remarkable ability, wherefore he did not work for the sake of gain, but for his own pleasure, and when he felt inclined, to the end that he might leave honourable memorials of his existence behind him."

"This quaint little picture represents the Virgin in the attitude of walking, leading the Infant Saviour by the hand. She wears a white dress, shaded blue, with a small gold pattern delicately painted upon it, and a rose-coloured mantle lined with dark green, and holds in her right hand a branch of roses. The drapery falls with much grace, and she looks down with a sweet expression to the Child" (National Gallery Report, 1899).

1683. STUDY OF A HORSE

Cuyp (Dutch: 1620-1691). See 53.

The glossy texture of the horse is well rendered.

1686. STUDY OF FLOWERS

Henri Fantin-Latour (French: 1836-1904).

Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour was born at Grenoble, the son of a famous pastellist. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1861. In 1864 his "Hommage à Delacroix" created a sensation. In this country, where he was a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy, he is best known for his exquisite studies of roses and other flowers. But he was also a painter of portraits (see No. 1952) and of romantic subjects inspired by his musical tastes. In portraiture, a thorough, though a sympathetic, realist (witness his "Monet's studio at the Batignolles" in the Luxembourg), – he becomes fanciful when he enters the domain of romance. A favourite medium was lithography, in which he excelled; the British Museum has a fine set of proofs. His subjects are taken from the motives used in the musical dramas of Wagner and Berlioz.

Late summer flowers, chiefly roses, in a vase on a wooden table. The background, as usual with this painter, is of a flat tone of warm gray.

1689. A MAN AND WIFE

Mabuse (Flemish: about 1470-1541). See 656.

Portraits, uncompromising in thoroughness, of a severe and uncompromising couple. "This masterpiece," says Sir Edward Poynter, "combines with a high perfection of finish and modelling, every detail being finished with the utmost care, even to the stubble of the man's beard, great breadth of effect and a beautiful quality of light and shade" (National Gallery Report, 1900). The portraits, formerly in the collection of Captain A. F. Dawson, used to be attributed to Quentin Matsys. Some authorities ascribe them to his brother, Jan. Others believe that the work belongs to the German school. The attribution to Mabuse is made in the Director's Report for 1900.

1694. VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. JOHN

Fra Bartolommeo (Florentine: 1475-1517).

Bartolommeo di Pagholo del Fattorino, one of the greatest of the Florentine masters, is commonly known as Baccio della Porta, or Fra Bartolommeo. He was born at the village of Savignano, near Prato, and was sent while still a lad to the studio of Cosimo Rosselli at Florence, where he lived with some kinsfolk in a house near the gate of San Piero Gattolini (now the Porta Romana). The neighbours, seeing him come and go to his work, and ignoring surnames with the custom of the time, distinguished him from all the other Bartholemews as Baccio della Porta. "He was loved in Florence," says Vasari, "for his virtue, for he was very diligent at his work, quiet and good-natured, fearing God, living a tranquil life, flying all vicious practices, and taking great pleasure in preaching, and the society of worthy and sober persons." In the studio of Rosselli he made the acquaintance of Mariotto Albertinelli, as erratic, gay, and idle as his companion was pure, gentle, and austere. Between the two young men a warm friendship sprang up, which continued unbroken till the death of Albertinelli in 1515. When Fra Bartolommeo temporarily relinquished the practice of art in 1500, Albertinelli took up his abandoned canvases, and from 1509 onwards the two men worked in formal partnership. The religious spirit of Bartolommeo had been profoundly impressed by Savonarola's preaching. To the famous bonfire, into which the people cast their pomps and vanities, our painter brought all the studies and drawings which he had made from the nude. He was among the band of faithful followers who shut themselves up with Savonarola in San Marco. "Having very little courage," says Vasari, "being indeed of a timid and even cowardly disposition, he lost heart on hearing the clamours of an attack, which was made upon the convent shortly after, and seeing some wounded and others killed, he began to have grievous doubts respecting his position. Thereupon he made a vow, that if he might be permitted to escape from the rage of that strife, he would instantly assume the religious habit of the Dominicans." This he did in the year 1500, and for some time afterwards his brush was idle. When he resumed work, it was on condition that the convent received all the produce of his labours. In 1506, when Raphael visited Florence, he formed a friendship with Fra Bartolommeo, in whose work he doubtless found something to assimilate. Some years afterwards, Fra Bartolommeo went to Rome, where he painted a figure of St. Paul, and part of one of St. Peter (now in the Quirinal), leaving Raphael to finish the work. Fra Bartolommeo suffered from ill-health, and died at the early age of 42.

The contributions made by Fra Bartolommeo to Italian art were fourfold. He exhibited a scientific scheme of composition based on principles of strict symmetry, and in this respect he was the precursor of Raphael. In colouring he was equal to the best of his contemporaries; in his better works brilliance is combined with harmony of tone in a very charming manner. In some of his works, however, the attempt to adopt the chiaroscuro of Leonardo led to an over-darkening of the shadows. Vasari noticed even in his day that the use of printer's-black and ivory-black had caused some of Fra Bartolommeo's shadows to become unduly heavy. In his landscape backgrounds, Fra Bartolommeo showed a considerable advance on his predecessors. "Everything is true and harmonious, up to its intention, which is to be simple, calm, consistent, and real, – real, and yet breathing an idyllic beauty." Lastly, he was the inventor of the "lay figure." "He always considered it advisable," says Vasari, "to have the living object before him when he worked; and the better to execute his draperies, arms, and things of similar kind, he caused a figure, the site of life, to be made in wood, with the limbs moveable at the joints, and on this he then arranged the real draperies."

Fra Bartolommeo's range was limited. He is seen at his best not in works (such as the fresco of the "Last Judgment," now in the picture gallery of the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova) which call for the exercise of powerful imagination, but in Madonna pieces. "Nature made Fra Bartolommeo," says Symonds, "the painter of adoration." He excels in the poetry of simple religious feeling. His works are rare outside Italy. Copies from some of his frescoes at Florence are in the Arundel Society's Collection; but the treasure city of Fra Bartolommeo at his best is Lucca. Few figures in Italian art have been more often copied and photographed than his charming little angel who sings at the foot of the Madonna's throne in the Cathedral of Lucca.

Fra Bartolommeo's pictures "sum up," says Ruskin, "the principles of great Italian religious art in its finest period, – serenely luminous sky, – full light on the faces; local colour the dominant power over a chiaroscuro more perfect because subordinate; absolute serenity of emotion and gesture; and rigid symmetry in composition." And elsewhere he speaks of "the precious and pure passages of intense feeling and heavenly light, holy and undefined, and glorious with the changeless passion of eternity, which sanctify with their shadeless peace the deep and noble conceptions of the early school of Italy – of Fra Bartolommeo, Perugino, and the early mind of Raffaelle" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. ii. ch. i. § 22, and epilogue of 1883 to vol. ii.). Some trace of these characteristics may be found in the present picture. It is bright in colour, balanced in composition, simple in feeling, and shows a charming Tuscan landscape. Thoroughly Tuscan also is the type of peasant Madonna, with her brown hair tied up in a blue handkerchief. The infant Christ is almost grotesque, but the little St. John may take his place among Fra Bartolommeo's collection of sweet child-faces. Our picture252 is ascribed to the years 1507-9. In the Corsini Gallery at Rome is a repetition of it done at a later period, with the figures, life-sized, reversed, and with St. Joseph added to complete the pyramidal composition.

1695. LANDSCAPE WITH NYMPHS

Venetian School (early 16th Century).

From the South Kensington Museum: very characteristic of the Venetian school is the beautiful blue distance.

1696. MADONNA AND CHILD

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

A fragment of a fresco, painted in 1481 and originally brought from the church of Magre, near Schio, in the neighbourhood of Vicenza. The work, if by Bellini, is somewhat earlier than the "Madonna and Child" (280) of our Gallery.253 "We have," says Mr. Roger Fry, "no example of Bellini's fresco work by which to judge it. It may therefore be argued that the weak construction of the Virgin's figure and the poor drawing of the child are the result of Bellini's want of familiarity with the medium, nor can it be denied that the weaknesses are exaggerations of certain peculiarities of Bellini's own design. This is particularly noticeable in the drawing of the child, which approaches very nearly in type and expression the child of the 'Madonna between the Magdalen and St. Catherine' of the Academy at Venice. But in no undoubted work by Bellini is the drawing so clumsy as this. Much, however, may be attributed to restoration, particularly in the Infant Christ, and it is impossible to deny the great beauty of the colour – a peculiar golden glow which is very unusual in fresco, and is indeed a translation into that medium of the golden richness of Bellini's tempera and oil pieces. The Madonna's expression has a certain tenderness and charm which is characteristic of Bellini, but it lacks the definite realisation of a mood which he almost invariably compassed" (The Pilot, Jan. 5, 1901). On the other hand, according to a well-known critic, writing in the Daily Telegraph, "the wistfulness of the Virgin is not the wistfulness of Giambellino, but rather that of Bartolommeo Montagna or some kindred painter of the school of Vicenza. Again, the type of the Virgin and the adjustment of her headgear recall the severe yet passionate master of Vicenza just named, under the influence, not so much of Giovanni Bellini as of the elder school of Venice – that of the Vivarini."

1699. THE LESSON

Jan Vermeer of Delft (Dutch: 1632-1675). See 1383. See also (p. xxi)

A "symphony in black and white"; cool in effect, almost to the point of austerity and chilliness. The faces are full of expression. The master turns in expectation to the pupil, as much as to say "Come, don't you know?" The pupil is ready with his answer, and seems to appeal for encouragement: "That is right, is it not?" There is a severe absence of details; everything in the picture is made to contribute to the colour scheme. "The play of cool light on the faces and hands, on the man's black dress, and the gray tablecloth with its patches of blue shadow; the design of the man's large hat against the dark background, the almost pathetic charm of the fair-haired boy's expression, the regular black and white of the tiled floor, – all seem chosen for their pictorial value alone and skilfully composed into this grave, almost austere harmony. The largeness of design and rejection of all superfluous detail in this picture connect it with Vermeer's more daring compositions" (M. H. Witt, in the Nineteenth Century, October 1900). Only one life-size group by the master is certainly authenticated – the signed "Courtesans" at Dresden. The attribution of our picture to the master is uncertain.

1700. PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN

Unknown (Dutch School: 17th Century).

A strong face, finely painted. The iron-gray of the man's hair combines harmoniously with the lawn collar and cuffs; a harmony in black and gray.

1701. LANDSCAPE WITH WATERMILL

Allart van Everdingen (Dutch: 1612-1675).

This painter, an elder contemporary and precursor of Ruysdael, was born at Alkmaar. He studied successively under Roelandt Savery at Utrecht and Pieter Molyn at Haarlem. In a voyage which he made to the Baltic he was shipwrecked on the coast of Norway, and he remained for some time in that country. On returning to his native land he reproduced the scenes among which he had dwelt – torrents edged around by huge firs springing out from sombre masses of rock, and throwing their spray into large stretches of transparent water. A large number of studies from nature remain from his hand, and these he composed into pictures. His works had some vogue in Holland, where they provided a counter-attraction to the views of the softer and more smiling country which the "Italianisers" were offering to the public. If Ruysdael did not himself go to Norway, it must have been Everdingen's Norwegian scenes that inspired him. Everdingen's "colouring is simple and pure, his touch broad and facile, and it is evident that every object in his pictures was studied from nature." He was also an accomplished etcher. He died at Amsterdam.

1776. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS

Signorelli (Cortona: 1441-1523). See 1128.

A predella picture; characteristic of the master, and in good preservation. Formerly in the possession of Count Colonna Ferretti (a nephew of Pius IX.) at Cortona.

1786. THE LAKE OF THUN

Alexandre Calame (Swiss: 1810-1864).

This painter is of some interest in the history of painting as one of the pioneers who discovered for artistic purposes the picturesqueness of Switzerland. He was born at Vevay, and was the son – not (as sometimes stated) of a simple mason, but – of a clever stone-cutter. He was very delicate as a child, and an accident at school deprived him of the sight of his right eye. As a youth, Calame obtained employment in a bank at Geneva. He further aided the narrow resources of his home by making little Swiss views in colour, which the shopkeepers took up. Foreigners were glad to bring them away as travelling memorials, in place of photographs, which did not then exist. His employer, M. Diodati, noticing young Calame's talent for art, generously enabled him to obtain instruction. He made rapid progress, and became headmaster of a drawing-school in Geneva. In 1837 he began contributing to foreign exhibitions views of Switzerland, and these won for him a considerable reputation. He visited England in 1850, and here, as in other countries, his works found many purchasers. In the South Kensington Museum there is a large collection of his Swiss views in water-colour. He was a lithographer and engraver, as well as a painter, and his plates of Swiss landscapes were at one time well known. He received commissions from many European sovereigns, and was visited by all the great personages who passed through Geneva.

In France, indeed, art-circles were cool towards him. "Un Calame, deux Calames, trois Calames – que de calamités" ran the phrase every year in the Paris Salon. But in Germany he found warm admirers and formed several imitators. His lithographed studies of trees, and his landscapes for copying remained in use for some decades as a medium of instruction in drawing. He was a conscientious workman, who finished the whole of his canvas or paper with equal industry, and his drawing was correct. But his colouring is insipid, and his atmosphere somewhat heavy. "By painting he understood the illumination of drawings, and his drawing was that of an engraver. Sentiment is replaced by correct manipulation, and in the deep blue mirror of his Alpine lakes, as in the luminous red of his Alpine summits, there is always to be seen the illuminator who has first drawn the contours with a neat pencil and pedantic correctness" (Muther's History of Modern Painting, ii. 322). Calame's fertility was very great. His note-books contain the record of 450 finished pictures in oil, 500 studies, and 1200 water-colours (E. Rambert: Alexandre Calame. Sa vie et son œuvre, Paris, 1884).

The mountain in our picture is the Blumlis Alp: an afternoon effect.

1810. PORTRAIT OF A BOY

François Duchatel (Flemish: 1616-1694).

This painter, whose works are very rare, is said to have been a pupil of David Teniers, the younger. In some of his pictures representing village festivals he followed the style of that master; in others, of family groups, his work rather resembles that of Gonzales Coques. His most important picture is in the Museum at Ghent. It represents the "Inauguration of Charles II., King of Spain, as Count of Flanders," and comprises about a thousand small figures. Duchatel was born at Brussels. He worked for some time in Paris in conjunction with his fellow-countryman Van der Meulen (see 1447). The picture before us, with its vigorous touch and warm colour, shows that Duchatel was an accomplished portrait-painter.

1812. THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN

Ascribed to Lo Spagna. (See 1032).

"The figure of the Saviour and the angel are identical with those in the picture by Lo Spagna in the National Gallery numbered 1032, but the execution of the work points to possibly a different hand. It was ascribed by Passavant to Raphael. On the back of the panel are incised the initials G. D. H. in a monogram surmounted by a crown, and an inscription on paper of probably the 18th century; 'All' Illmo et Eccmo Giovanni Hiccolini (sic) Imbascatore (sic) di Toscana in Roma.' It was exhibited in the Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester in 1857 (No. 146) under the name of Raphael, when it belonged to Mr. Henry Farrer, who had it from Russia" (National Gallery Report, 1900).

1842. HEADS OF ANGELS

Tuscan School (15th century). See also (p. xxi)

A characteristic fragment of fresco.

1843. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI

Benedetto Bonfigli (Umbrian: 1420-1496).

A characteristic, if unimportant, example of one of the early masters of the Umbrian School. Bonfigli (or Buonfiglio) was a native of Perugia, and his principal work, a series of frescoes, full of quaint costume and fantastic detail, representing the lives of St. Louis of Toulouse and St. Herculanus, is in the Palazzo del Consiglio there.

There is much naïvete in the surprised expression of the seated Sir Joseph, and much dainty charm in the youths with their vessels of gold.

1845. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Paris Bordone (Venetian: 1503-1570). See 637.

The Saviour holds in his hand a scroll inscribed "Ecce sum lux mundi," but the expression is vapid.

1847. THE VIRGIN CROWNED BY ANGELS

Luca Signorelli (Umbrian: 1441-1523). See 1128.

This important picture, in a splendid frame of the period, is of special interest from the record of authenticity which it bears. On the cartellino at the foot, is an inscription informing us that "the noble picture before us was an offering of devotion by Master Aloiusius, a French physician, and Thomasina his wife," that "Luca Signorelli, the illustrious painter of Cortona" was the artist, and that the date was 1515. In the archives of the little town of Montone, near Umbertide, a deed, dated September 10, 1515, has been discovered, which informs us further that the picture was painted for Master Aloiusius, living at Montone, for the chapel of St. Christina at that place, by Luca Signorelli "on account of their mutual and cordial friendship, and in consideration of the free services which he had received, and in future hopes to receive, from the said Aloiusius." The physician on his part undertakes in the same deed to give free medical attendance henceforth to the said Luca, and to any member of his household. The place for which the picture was painted accounts for the figure of St. Christina, on the right of the Virgin. Among her adventures was being tied to a millstone and cast into the Lake of Bolsena, but angels upheld the millstone, and she floated back to land. The legend explains also the charming view of a lake seen beneath the feet of the Virgin. The altar-piece was discovered by Signor Mancini in a cellar at Montone, much obscured by neglect, and was for some time in his collection at Città di Castello. It has now been cleaned, and is apparently in fine condition.

The date of the picture shows that it was painted towards the end of the artist's life, when he was 74 years of age, and some critics have found in the work signs that the master's hand was losing its cunning. Certainly the composition of the principal lines – with the upper figure at each side in line with the lower – is somewhat awkward, and the St. Christina is a heavy figure with a meaningless expression. That of St. Sebastian, however, is vigorous; the central group of the Madonna and Child borne by cherubims is impressive; the angels above are very fine, and St. Jerome and St. Nicholas of Bari are good. The details of St. Nicholas's robe and mitre deserve study. It is amusing to note that two of the critics who scarify the picture single out the landscape – the one, as the worst part of it, the other, as its redeeming feature.

1848. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN

Abraham Raguineau (Dutch: 1623-1681).

This painter, born in London, settled at the Hague, where he seems to have met with little prosperity. At a later time, he was living at Leyden, and was writing-master to the Prince of Orange.

The picture is signed, and dated (1657), at the top of the oval on the left, and is the only known signed work of the painter in existence. It shows us a pleasant-looking, if somewhat characterless youth, aged 18 (as the description states), whose coat, shirt, and collar make a delicate study in cool grey tones.

1849. THE NATIVITY

Jacopo Pacchiarotto (Sienese: 1474-1540).

The story of this painter and revolutionist – who, joining the Bardotti and taking part in popular risings in Siena, was concealed by the monks in a tomb, beside a newly-buried corpse – is familiar from Browning's humorous telling of it in his Pacchiarotto and how he worked in Distemper. He was originally a pupil of Bernardino Fungai (see 1331); but his later work shows the influence of Fra Bartolommeo and Raphael.

"He appears to have studied Raphael," says Lanzi, "with the greatest care; and there are heads and whole figures so lively, and with such grace in the features, that to some connoisseurs they seem to possess the ideal." Certainly there is a liveliness and an appropriateness of expression about the figures in this picture which distinguish it from the stiff mannerism of earlier Sienese pictures. Kneeling in adoration are St. John the Baptist and St. Jerome (with the stone, in his character as penitent). St. Stephen, behind St. John, carries on his head the stone, as symbol of his martyrdom. Behind St. Jerome is St. Nicholas of Bari, a finely rendered portrait of venerable age. Of the figures in the niche-shaped panels in the frame, that, at the top on the left, of the Angel of the Annunciation is particularly graceful. The panels of the predella show the Agony in the Garden, the Betrayal, the Crucifixion, the Deposition, and the Resurrection.