The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Volume 2 (of 3)

58

Pietro Berretini, of Cortona, the painter of the ceiling in the Barberini hall, and of the gallery in the lesser Pamphili palace, the vernal suavity of whose fresco tints no pencil ever equalled, died at Rome in 1669, aged 73. Luca Giordano, nicknamed Fa-presto, or Dispatch, from the rapidity of his execution, the greatest machinist of his time, died in 1705, aged 76.

59

We are informed by the Editor of the Latin translation of Albert Durer's book, on the symmetry of the parts of the human frame, (Parisiis, in officina Caroli Perier in vico Bellovaco, sub Bellerophonte, 1557, fol.) that, during Albert's stay at Venice, where he resided for a short time, to procure redress from the Signoria for the forgery of Marc Antonio, he became familiar with Giovanni Bellini: and that Andrea Mantegna, who had heard of his arrival in Italy, and had conceived a high opinion of his execution and fertility, sent him a message of invitation to Mantoua, for the express purpose of giving him an idea of that form of which he himself had obtained a glimpse from the contemplation of the antique. Andrea was then ill, and expired before Albert, who immediately prepared to set out for Mantoua, could profit by his instructions. This disappointment, says my author, Albert never ceased to lament during his life. How fit the Mantouan was to instruct the German, is not the question here; but Albert's regret seems to prove that he felt a want which his model could not supply; and that he had too just an idea of the importance of the art to be proud of dexterity of finger or facility of execution, when employed on objects essentially defective or comparatively trifling. The following personal account of Albert deserves to be given in the Latin Editor's own words:

'E Pannonia oriundum accepimus – Erat caput argutum, oculi micantes, nasus honestus et quem Greci Τετράγωνον vocant; proceriusculum collum, pectus amplum, castigatus venter, femora nervosa, crura stabilia: sed digitis nihil dixisses vidisse elegantius.'

Albert Durer was the scholar of Martin Schön and Michael Wolgemuth, and died at Nuremberg in 1528, aged 57.

60

Lucas Jacob, called Lucas of Leyden, and by the Italians, Luca d'Ollanda, died at Leyden in 1533.

61

Peter Paul Rubens, of Cologne, the disciple of Adam Van Ort and Otho Venius, died at or near Antwerp in 1641, aged 63.

62

Anthony Vandyck died in London, 1641, at the age of 42. – The poetic conception of Abraham Diepenbeck may be estimated from the Temple des Muses of Mr. de Marolles; re-edited but not improved by Bernard Picart.

63

Rembrandt died, at Amsterdam? in 1674, aged 68.

64

Hans Holbein, of Basle, died in London, 1544, at the age of 46. Peter Francis Mola, the scholar of Giuseppe d'Arpino and Franc. Albani, was born at the village of Coldre, of the diocese of Balerna, in the bailliage of Mendrisio, in 1621, and died at Rome in 1666.

65

Eustache le Sueur, bred under Simon Voüet, died at Paris in 1655, at the age of 88. His fellow-scholar and overbearing rival, Charles le Brun, died in 1690, aged 71.

66

For the best account of Spanish art, see Lettera di A. R. Mengs a Don Antonio Ponz. Opere di Mengs, vol. ii. Mengs was born at Ausig, in Bohemia, in 1728, and died at Rome in 1779.

67

Ύλῃ και τροποις μιμησεως διαφερουσι. Πλουταρχ Π. Αθ. κατα Π. ἠ καθ' ἐ. ἐνδ.

68

All minute detail tends to destroy terror, as all minute ornament, grandeur. The catalogue of the cauldron's ingredients in Macbeth, destroys the terror attendant on the mysterious darkness of preternatural agency; and the seraglio trappings of Rubens, annihilate his heroes.

69

Ἐγω δε πλεον ἐλπομαι Λογον Ὀδυσσεος, ἠ παθεν, Δια τον ἁδυεπη γενεσθ' Ὁμηρον Ἐπει ψευδεεσσιν oἱ ποτανᾳ γε μαχανα Σεμνον ἐπεστι τι. σοφια δε Κλεπτει παραγοισα μυθοις. Πινδαρ. Νεμ. Ζ.

70

M. F. Quintilianus, l. xii. 10. – Concipiendis visionibus (quas ΦΑΝΤΑΣΙΑΣ vocant) Theon Samius – est præstantissimus.

At quomodo fiet ut afficiamur? neque enim sunt motus in nostra potestate. Tentabo etiam de hoc dicere. Quas φαντασιας Græci vocant, nos sanè visiones appellamus; per quas imagines rerum absentium ita repræsentantur animo, ut eas cernere oculis ac præsentes habere videamur: has quisquis bene conceperit, is erit in affectibus potentissimus. Hunc quidam dicunt εὐφαντασιωτον, qui sibi res, voces, actus, secundum verum optume finget: quod quidem nobis volentibus facile continget.

Nam ut inter otia animorum et spes inanes, et velut somnia quædam vigilantium, ita nos hæ de quibus loquimur, imagines persequuntur, ut peregrinari, navigare, prœliari, populos alloqui, divitiarum quas non habemus, usum videamur disponere; nec cogitare, sed facere: hoc animi vitium ad utilitatem non transferemus? ut hominem occisum querar, non omnia quæ in re præsenti accidisse credibile est, in oculis habebo? non percussor ille subitus erumpet? non expavescet circumventus? exclamabit, vel rogabit, vel fugiet? non ferientem, non concidentem videbo? non animo sanguis, et pallor et gemitus, extremus denique expirantis hiatus insidebit? Idem, l. vi. c. 11.

Theon, numbered with the 'Proceres' by Quintilian, by Pliny with less discrimination is placed among the 'Primis Proximos;' and in some passage of Plutarch, unaccountably censured for impropriety of subject, ἀτοπια, in representing the madness of Orestes.

71

Αιλιανου ποικ. ἱστορ. l. ii. c. 44. Θεωνος του Ζωγραφου πολλα μεν και ἀλλα ὁμολογει την χειρουργιαν ἀγαθην οὐσαν, ἀταρ οὐν και τοδε το γραμμα. – Και εἰπες ἀν αὐτον ἐνθουσιᾶν, ὡσπερ εξ Ἀρεος μανεντα. – Και σφαττειν βλεπων, και ἀπειλῶν δι' ὁλου του σχηματος, ὁτι μηδενος φεισεται.

72

The name of Agasias, the scholar or son of Dositheos, the Ephesian, occurs not in ancient record; and whether he be the Egesias of Quintilian or of Pliny, or these the same, cannot be ascertained; though the style of sculpture and the form of the letters in the inscription are not much at variance with the character which the former gives to the age and style of Calon and Egesias; "Signa – duriora et Tuscanicis proxima." The impropriety of calling this figure a gladiator has been shown by Winkelmann, and on his remark, that it probably exhibits the attitude of a soldier, who signalized himself in some moment of danger, Lessing has founded a conjecture, that it is the figure of Chabrias, from the following passage of Corn. Nepos: "Elucet maxime inventum ejus in prœlio, quod apud Thebas fecit, cùm Boetiis subsidio venisset. Namque in eo victoriæ fidente summo duce Agesilao, fugatis jam ab eo conductitiis catervis, reliquam phalangem loco vetuit cedere; obnixoque genu scuto, projectaque hasta, impetum excipere hostium docuit. Id novum Agesilaus intuens, progredi non est ausus, suosque jam incurrentes tubâ revocavit. Hoc usque eo in Græcia famâ celebratum est, ut illo statu Chabrias sibi statuam fieri voluerit, quæ publicè ei ab Atheniensibus in foro constituta est. Ex quo factum est, ut postea athletæ, cæterique artifices his statibus in statutis ponendis uterentur, in quibus victoriam essent adepti?"

On this passage, simple and unperplexed, if we except the words "cæterique artifices," where something is evidently dropped or changed, there can, I trust, be but one opinion – that the manœuvre of Chabrias was defensive, and consisted in giving the phalanx a stationary, and at the same time impenetrable posture, to check the progress of the enemy; a repulse, not a victory was obtained; the Thebans were content to maintain their ground, and not a word is said by the historian, of a pursuit, when Agesilaus, startled at the contrivance, called off his troops: but the warrior of Agasias rushes forward in an assailing attitude, whilst with his head and shield turned upwards he seems to guard himself from some attack above him. Lessing, aware of this, to make the passage square with his conjecture, is reduced to a change of punctuation, and accordingly transposes the decisive comma after "scuto," to "genu," and reads "obnixo genu, scuto projectâque hastâ, – docuit." This alone might warrant us to dismiss his conjecture as less solid than daring and acute.

The statue erected to Chabrias in the Athenian forum was probably of brass, for "statua" and "statuarius," in Pliny at least, will, I believe, always be found relative to figures and artists in metal; such were those which at an early period the Athenians dedicated to Harmodios and Aristogiton: from them the custom spread in every direction, and iconic figures in metal, began, says Pliny, to be the ornaments of every municipal forum.

From another passage in Nepos, I was once willing to find in our figure an Alcibiades in Phrygia, rushing from the flames of the cottage fired to destroy him, and guarding himself against the javelins and arrows which the gang of Sysamithres and Bagoas showered on him at a distance. "Ille," says the historian, "sonitu flammæ excitatus, quod gladius ei erat subductus, familiaris sui subalare telum eripuit et – flammæ vim transit. Quem, ut Barbari incendium effugisse viderunt, telis eminus missis, interfecerunt. Sic Alcibiades annos circiter quadraginta natus, diem obiit supremum."

Such is the age of our figure, and it is to be noticed that the right arm and hand, now armed with a lance, are modern; if it be objected, that the figure is iconic, and that the head of Alcibiades, cut off after his death, was carried to Pharnabazus, and his body burned by his mistress; it might be observed in reply, that busts and figures of Alcibiades must have been frequent in Greece, and that the expression found its source in the mind of Agasias. On this conjecture, however, I shall not insist: let us only observe that the character, forms and attitude, might be turned to better use than what Poussin made of it. It might form an admirable Ulysses bestriding the deck of his ship to defend his companions from the descending fangs of Scylla, or rather, with indignation and anguish, seeing them already snatched up and writhing in the mysterious gripe:

Ἀυταρ ἐγω καταδυς κλυτα τευχεα, και δυο δουρε Μακρ' ἐν χερσιν ἑλων, εἰς ἰκρια νηος ἐβαινον Πρωρης – ἐκαμον δε μοι ὀσσε Παντῃ παπταινοντι προς ἦεροειδεα πετρην Σκεψαμενος δε – Ἠδη των ἐνοησα ποδας και χειρας ὑπερθεν Ύψος ἀειρομενων. – Odyss. M. 238. seq.

73

Sebbene il divino Michel Agnolo fece la gran Cappella di Papa Julio, dappoi non arrivò a questo segno mai alla metà, la sua virtù non aggiunse mai alla forza di quei primi studi. Vita di Benvenuto Cellini, p. 13. – Vasari, as appears from his own account, never himself saw the cartoon: he talks of an "infinity of combatants on horseback," of which there neither remains nor ever can have existed a trace, if the picture at Holkham be the work of Bastiano da St. Gallo. This he saw, for it was painted, at his own desire, by that master, from his small cartoon in 1542, and by means of Monsignor Jovio transmitted to Francis I. who highly esteemed it; from his collection it however disappeared, and no mention is made of it by the French writers for near two centuries. It was probably discovered at Paris, bought and carried to England by the late Lord Leicester. That Vasari, on inspecting the copy, should not have corrected the confused account he gives of the cartoon from hearsay, can be wondered at only by those who are unacquainted with his character as a writer. One solitary horse and a drummer on the imaginary background of the groups engraved by Agostino Venetiano, are all the cavalry remaining of Vasari's squadrons, and can as little belong to Michel Agnolo as the spot on which they are placed.

74

Ὁ δε πως μεγεθυνει τα Δαιμονια; – Την ὁρμην αὐτων κοσμικῳ διαστηματι καταμετρει.

Longinus, § 9.

75

Much has been said of the loss we have suffered in the marginal drawings which Michael Angelo drew in his Dante. Invention may have suffered in being deprived of them; they can, however, have been little more than hints of a size too minute to admit of much discrimination. The true terrors of Dante depend as much upon the medium in which he shows, or gives us a glimpse of his figures, as on their form. The characteristic outlines of his fiends, Michael Angelo personified in the dæmons of the Last Judgment, and invigorated the undisguised appetite, ferocity or craft of the brute, by traits of human malignity, cruelty, or lust. The Minos of Dante, in Messer Biagio da Cesena, and his Charon, have been recognized by all; but less the shivering wretch held over the barge by a hook, and evidently taken from the following passage in the xxiid of the Inferno: —

Et Graffiacan, che gli era più di contra Gli arroncigliò l'impegolate chiome; E trasse 'l sù, che mi parve una lontra.

None has noticed as imitations of Dante in the xxivth book, the astonishing groups in the Lunetta of the brazen serpent; none the various hints from the Inferno and Purgatorio scattered over the attitudes and expressions of the figures rising from their graves. In the Lunetta of Haman, we owe the sublime conception of his figure to the subsequent passage in the xviith c. of Purgatory:

Poi piobbe dentro al' alta phantasia Un Crucifisso, dispettoso e fiero Nella sua vista, e lo qual si moria.

The basso-relievo on the border of the second rock, in Purgatory, furnished the idea of the Annunziata, painted by Marcello Venusti from his design, in the sacristy of St. Giov. Lateran, by order of Tommaso de' Cavalieri, the select friend and favourite of Michael Angelo.

We are told that Michael Angelo represented the Ugolino of Dante, inclosed in the tower of Pisa: if he did, his own work is lost; but if, as some suppose, the basso-relievo of that subject by Pierino da Vinci be taken from his idea, notwithstanding the greater latitude, which the sculptor might claim, in divesting the figures of drapery and costume; he appears to me to have erred in the means employed to rouse our sympathy. A sullen but muscular character, with groups of muscular bodies and forms of strength, about him, with the allegoric figure of the Arno at their feet, and that of famine hovering over their heads, are not the fierce Gothic chief, deprived of revenge, brooding over despair in the stony cage; are not the exhausted agonies of a father, petrified by the helpless groans of an expiring family, offering their own bodies for his food, to prolong his life.

76

Dixeris egregiè, notum si callida verbum Reddiderit junctura novum. – Q. Horat. Flacci de A. P. v. 47.

77

Matt. xvii. 5, 6. See Fiorillo, geschichte, &c. 104. seq.

78

The vision on Tabor, as represented here, is the most characteristic produced by modern art. Whether we consider the action of the apostles overpowered by the divine effulgence, and divided between adoration and astonishment, or the forms of the prophets ascending like flame, and attracted by the lucid centre, or the majesty of Jesus himself, whose countenance is the only one we know expressive of his superhuman nature. That the unison of such powers should not, for once, have disarmed the burlesque of the French critic, rouses equal surprise and indignation.

79

The group in the Ludovisi, ever since its discovery, absurdly misnamed Pætus and Arria, notwithstanding some dissonance of taste and execution, may with more plausibility claim the title of Hæmon and Antigone.

80

The whole of the gallery of Luxemburg by Rubens is but a branch of its magnificence: general as the elements, universal and permanent as the affections of human nature, allegory breaks the fetters of time, it unites with boundless sway mythologic, feodal, local incongruities, fleeting modes of society and fugitive fashions: thus, in the picture of Rubens, Minerva, who instructs, the Graces that surround the royal maiden at the poetic fount, are not what they are in Homer, the real tutress of Telemachus, the real dressers of Venus, they are the symbols only of the education which the princess received. In that sublime design of Michael Agnolo, where a figure is roused by a descending genius from his repose on a globe, on which he yet reclines, and with surprise discovers the phantoms of the passions which he courted, unmasked in wild confusion flitting round him, M. Agnolo was less ambitious to express the nature of a dream, or to bespeak our attention to its picturesque effect and powerful contrasts, than to impress us with the lesson, that all is vanity and life a farce, unless engaged by virtue and the pursuits of mind.

81

L'Aurora Sonnacchiosa.

82

Speaking of the figure of Christ by Raphael in the Madonna del Spasimo, he calls it "Una Figura d'un Carattere fra quel di Giove, e quello d'Apollo; quale effettivamente deve esser quello, che corrisponde a Cristo, aggiungendovi soltanto l'espressione accidentale della passione, in cui si rappresenta." Opere 11. 83.

83

It is engraved by Villamena.

84

The composition, and in some degree the lines, but neither its tone nor effect, may be found among the etchings, of Le Fevre.

85

I cannot quit this picture without observing, that it presents the most incontrovertible evidence of the incongruities arising from the jarring coalition of the grand and ornamental styles. The group of Lazarus may be said to contain the most valuable relic of the classic time of modern, and perhaps the only specimen left of M. Agnolo's oil-painting; an opinion which will scarcely be disputed by him who has examined the manner of the Sistine Chapel, and in his mind compared it with the group of the Lazarus, and that with the style and treatment of the other parts.

86

In a picture which he painted at Rome for Bindo Altoviti, it represented "Un Cristo quanto il vivo, levato di croce, e posto in terra a' piedi della Madre; e nell' aria Febo, che oscura la faccia del sole, e Diana quella della Luna. Nel paese poi, oscurato da queste Tenebre, si veggiono spezzarsi alcuni monti di pietra, mossi dal terremoto, e certi corpi morti di santi risorgendo, uscire de sepolcri in vari modi; il quale quadro, finito che fu, per sua grazia non dispiacque al maggior pittore, scultore, e architetto, che sia stato a' tempi nostri passati?"

The compliment was not paid to M. Agnolo himself, for the word "passati" tells that he was no more, but it levied a tribute on posterity. Vita di Giorgio Vasari.

87

A miracle means an act performed by virtue of an unknown law of Nature.

88

The form, but not the soul, of Julio's composition has been borrowed by Rubens, or the master of the well-known picture in the gallery of Dulwich college. Few can be unacquainted with the work of Vandyke, spread by the best engravers of that school. The picture of Rembrandt is the chief ornament of the collection in the garden-house of the Schönborn family, in one of the suburbs of Vienna: has been etched on a large scale, and there is a copy of it in the gallery at Cassel. A circumstantial account of it may be found in the Eighth Letter, vol. iii. of Kütner's Travels.

89

Nella arte della pittura aggiunse costui alla maniera del colorire ad olio, una certa oscurità; donde hanno dato i moderni gran forza e rilievo alle loro figure. Vasari vita di Lion. da Vinci, p. 559. ed. 1550.

90

In the greater part of the Cartoons, it does not appear that chiaroscuro had more than an ordinary share of attention.

In the Miraculous Draught plain day-light prevails.

In the Miracle at the Temple-gate a more forcible and more sublime effect would have been obtained from a cupola-light and pillars darkened on the foreground.

In the Excecation of Elymas, composition and expression owe little of their roundness and evidence to chiaroscuro.

Apposition seems to have arranged the Sacrifice at Lystra.

If Dionysius and Damaris, in the cartoon of the Areopagus, had more forcibly refracted by dark colours or shade, the light against the speaker, effect and subject would have gained.

Considered individually or in masses, the chiaroscuro in the cartoon of Ananias appears to be perfect; but the Donation of the Keys owes what impression it makes on us in a great measure to the skillful distribution of its light and shade.

91

In the following absurd description of the well-known picture in the Palace Pitti: "It consists of three half-figures, one of which represents Martin Luther in the habit of an Augustine Monk, who plays on a harpsichord: Calvin stands by him in a chorister's dress, with a violin in his hand: opposite you see a young lively girl in a bonnet with a plume of white feathers; by her Giorgione meant to represent the noted Catharine, Luther's mistress and wife," &c. Fiorillo, vol. ii. p. 63. To expose the ignorant credulity which dictated this passage, it is sufficient to observe, that Giorgione died 1511, and that Calvin was born 1508.

92

In every edition of the Vite subsequent to his own of 1550. The following passage deserves to be given in his own words: "Giorgione di Castel franco; il quale sfumò le sue pitture e dette una terribil' movenzia a certe cose come è una storia nella Scuola di San Marco a Venezia, dove è un tempo turbido che tuona, et trema il dipinto, et le figure si muovono & si spiccano da la tavola per una certa oscurità di ombre bene intese." – Proemio della terza Parle delle Vite, p. 558.

93

A la Scuola di S. Marco la Tempestà Sedata dal Santo, ove fra le altre cose sono tre remiganti ignudi, pregiatissimi pel disegno, e per le attitudini. Lanzi Storia, &c. Tomo II. parte prima. Scuola Veneta.

94

Analogia. Vitruv. Commensio?

95

If this happened at all, it must have happened before 1505, at least before the expiration of that year: Giov. Bellino, with whom the author of the preface makes Albert acquainted too, died in 1512. Albert Durer was born in 1471.

96

Idealismus.

97

S. Bartolomeo del Spagnuoletto. S. Agatha Martirizzata nelle poppe di Seb. del Piombo. Il Porco Sventrato di Ostade. Il Macello dei Carracci. La Caccia Pidocchi di Murillo.

98

Φθορα.