1. Italian.
In Italy, as in other parts of Europe, the Byzantine school of painting was for many centuries universally prevalent, and it was not till quite the end of the 13th century that one man of extraordinary talent—Giotto— broke through the long-established traditions and inaugurated the true Renaissance of this art. According to Vasari, it was Cimabue who first ceased to work in the Byzantine manner; but the truth is that his pictures, though certainly superior to those of his predecessors, are thoroughly characteristic specimens of the Byzantine style. Ghiberti, in his Commentary (a century earlier than Vasari’s work), with greater accuracy remarks that both Duccio of Siena and Cimabue worked in the Byzantine manner, and that Giotto was the first who learnt to paint with naturalistic truth.
In the 12th and the early part of the 13th century Pisa and Lucca were the chief seats of what rude painting then existed in Italy. A
number of works of this date still exist, chiefly painted Crucifixions treated in the most con ventional By zantine manner.
Giunta Pisano, who was paint ing in the first half of the 13th century, was a little superior to the otherwise dead level of hieratic conven tionalism. He is said to have been Cimabue’s master. In the
14th century painting in Pisa was either Flor-
entine or Sien ese in style.
No city, not even Florence, was so fertile as Siena in native painters during the 13th and 14th centuries. The earliest, working before 1300, did not emanci pate themselves from the old
Byzantine man nerism; Guido da Siena, Duc cio (see fig.
1 ) and Segna di Buoninsegna possessed many of the peculi arities of the old school,—its rigid attitudes, its thin stiff folds, and its greenish sha dows in the flesh tints. In the first half of the l 4th century a number of very able painters were carrying on at Siena a parallel development to that which Giotto had inaugurated at Florence; chief among them were Simone di Martino, Lippo Memmi, and especially Ambrogio Lorenzetti, a painter of both panels and large frescos, which show rich and noble imaginative power and much technical skill. It is important to note that Ambrogio and probably other painters of his time were, like the ear lier Pisan Niccola, beginning to study the then rare ex amples of classical sculpture. Ghiberti, in his Commentary, speaks with enthu-.
siasm of the beauty of an antique statue which he knew only from a drawing by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. In the second half of the 14th century Siena produced a large number of more mediocre painters; but these were succeeded by an abler generation, among whom the chief were perhaps Sano di Pietro and Matteo di Giovanni, whose grand altarpiece (No. 1155), recently acquired, is one of the glories of the English National Gallery. Many excellent masters were working at Siena throughout the 15th century and even later; the last names of any real note are those of Peruzzi and Beccafumi. Sodoma, though he settled in Siena in 1501, does not belong to the school of Siena; his early life was passed at Milan, chiefly under the influence of Da Vinci. His talent was developed at Rome among the followers of Raphael.
On the whole the Florentine school surpasses in importance all others throughout Italy. Cimabue, though he did not emancipate himself from the Byzantine manner, was a painter of real genius (see fig. 2).
Giotto is perhaps the most important painter in the history of the development of art, for during the whole of the 14th century the painters of Florence may be said to have been his pupils and imitators (see fig. 3). Orcagna alone developed rather a different line, more richly decorative in style and brighter in colour,— a link between the art of Giotto and that of Siena. In the 15th century Florence reached its period of highest artistic splendour and developed an almost naturalistic school, which appears to have been inaugurated by Masolino and Masaccio. Some few painters, such as Fra Angelico (see fig. 4) and his pupil Benozzo Gozzoli, produced more purely sacred and decorative work, following the lead of Orcagna. As Baron Rumohr has pointed out, the main bulk of the Florentine 15th-century painters may be divided into three groups with different characteristics. The first, including Masolino, Masaccio, Lippo Lippi, Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, and their pupils, aimed especially at strong action, dramatic force, and passionate expression (see figs. 5 and 6). The second, including Baldovinetti, Ros-
selli, Ghirlandaio, and his pupils, are remarkable for realistic truth and vigorous individuality (see fig. 7). To the third belong Ghiberti, who began life as a painter,
Pollaiuolo, Verrocchio, and his pupils Leonardo da Vinci and Lorenzo di Credi,
—a group largely influenced by the practice of the arts of the goldsmith and the sculptor. Signorelli, whose chief works are at Orvieto and
Monte Oliveto near
Siena, was remarkable for his knowledge and masterly treatment of the nude (see fig. 8), and had much influence on the early development of Michelangelo, whose gigantic genius in later life produced the most original and powerful works that the modern world has seen (see fig. 9). Andrea del Sarto was one of the last artists of the golden age of painting in Florence; the soft beauty of his works is, however, often marred by a monotonous mannerism. To him are wrongly attributed many paintings by Puligo and other scholars, who imitated his style with various degrees of closeness. The 16th century in Florence was a period of the most rapid decline and was for long chiefly remarkable for its feeble caricatures of Michelangelo’s inimitable style.
Between the end of the 14th and the beginning of the
16th century the Umbrian school produced many painters of great importance grouped around a number of different centres, such as Gubbio, where Ottaviano Nelli lived; San Severino, with its two Lorenzos; Fabriano, famed for its able masters Allegretto Nuzi and Gentile da Fabriano; Foligno, whence Niccolo took his name; and above all Borgo San Sepolcro, where Piero della Francesca was born.
Piero was one of the most charming of all painters for his delicate modelling, tender colour, and beauty of expression (see fig.
10). His masterpiece, a large altar-painting of the Madonna enthroned, with standing saints at the side and in front a kneeling portrait of Duke Federigo da Montefeltro, in the Brera gallery, is, strange to say, attributed to his pupil Fra Carnovale. Gentile da Fabriano worked in the purely religious and richly decorative style that characterized Fra Angelico at Perugia. Fiorenzo di Lorenzo (see fig. 11) and Bonfigli prepared the way for Perugino (see fig. 12) and his pupils Pinturicchio. Raphael, Lo Spagna, and others. Timoteo Viti was another Umbrian painter of great ability, whose portrait by Raphael in black and red chalk is one of the most beautiful of the drawings in the Print Room of the British Museum.
The Paduan school is chiefly remarkable for the great name of Andrea Mantegna, the pupil of Squarcione; his firm and sculpturesque draw ing is combined with great beauty of colour and vigor ous expression (see fig. 13).
His pupil Montagna also studied under Gian. Bellini at Venice. Andrea Mantegna influenced and was influenced by the Venetian school; to him are attributed many of the early paintings of his brother-in-law Gian. Bellini, such as the Vatican Pietà, and other works more remarkable for vigour than for grace.
The school of Arezzo was early in its development.
Margaritone, who is absurdly overpraised by his fellowtownsman Vasari, was an artist of the most feeble abilities. In the 14th century Arezzo produced such able painters as Spinello di Luca, Niccolo di Gerini, and Lorenzo di Bicci. In the 15th century it possessed no native school worth recording.
Venice did not come into prominence till the 15th century; the Vivarini family of Murano were at work about the middle of it, and were perhaps influ enced by the Ger man style of a con temporary painter from Cologne, known as Johannes Aleman-
nus, who had settled in Venice. Some years later the tech nical methods of
Flanders were intro duced by Antonello of Messina, who is said to have learnt the secret of an oil medium from the
Van Eycks. Cri-
velli, an able though mannered painter of the second half of the 15th century, adhered to an earlier type than his contemporaries (see fig. 14). Gian. Bellini is one of the chief glories of the Venetian school (see fig. 15); as are also in a secondary degree his brother Gentile and his pupil Vittore
Carpaccio. In the following century Venice possessed a school which for glory of colour and technical power has never been rivalled, though it soon lost the sweet religious sentiment of the ear lier Venetians. The chief names of this epoch are Palma
Vecchio, Giorgione,
Titian (see fig. 16), and Lorenzo Lotto,
—the last a magnifi cent portrait painter, a branch of art in which Venice occu pied the highest rank. In the 16th century Tintoretto and Paul Veronese were supreme (see fig. 17). In the 17th and 18th centuries
Venice produced some fairly good work.
The Brescian school has bequeathed two very illustrious names,—Moretto and his pupil Moroni, both portrait painters of extraordinary power during the 16th century (see fig. 18). Mo retto also painted some fine large altar-pieces, remark able for their deli cate silver - grey tones and refined modelling. Ro-
manino was an ex tremely able painter of frescos as well as of easel pictures.
The school of Verona, which existed from the 13th to the 17th century, contains few names of highest importance; except that of Pisanello, the chief were painters of the end of the 15th and the early part of the 16th century, as Domenico and Francesco Morone, Bonsignori, Girolamo dai Libri, and Cavaz- zola. Paul Veronese, though at first he painted in his native town, soon attached himself to the Venetian school.
Ferrara possessed a small native school in the 15th and 16th centuries, Cosimo Tura, Ercole Grandi, Dosso Dossi, and Garofalo being among the chief artists. The paintings of this school are often vigorous in drawing, but rather mannered, and usually somewhat hard in colour. After
1470 there was an intimate connexion between the schools of Ferrara and Bologna.
The Bologna school existed, though not in a very characteristic form, in the 14th century.
Francia and Lorenzo Costa of Ferrara were its chief painters at the end of the 15th century (see fig.
19). It was, however, in the 16th and 17th centuries that Bologna took a leading place as a school of Italian painting, the beginning of which dates from about 1480, when several able painters from Ferrara settled in Bologna. The three Caracci, Guido (see fig. 20), Domenichino, and Guercino were the most admired painters of their time, and continued to be esteemed far beyond their real value till about the middle of the 19th century. Since then, however, the strong reaction in favour of earlier art has gone to the other extreme, and the real merits of the Bolognese school, such as their powerful drawing and skilful though visibly scholastic composition, are now usually overlooked.
Both Modena and Parma possessed mediocre painters in the 14th and 15th centuries. In the 16th Correggio and his pupil Parmigiano attained to a very high degree of popularity. Correggio, who was largely influenced by the Ferrara-Bologna school, is sometimes weak in drawing and affected in composition, but will always be esteemed for the rich softness of his modelling and the delicate pearly tone of his flesh tints. Fig. 21 is an excellent example of his style, though much injured by repainting.
The small school of Cremona occupies only a subordinate position. Boccaccino was its ablest painter; his rare works are remarkable for conscientious finish, combined with some provincial mannerism.
In the 15th and early part of the 16th century Milan had one of the most important schools in Italy.
Its first member of any note was Vincenzo Foppa, who was painting in 1457 and was the founder of the early school. Ambrogio Borgognone (born c . 1455) was an artist of great merit and strong religious sentiment. He followed in the footsteps of Foppa, and his pictures are remarkable for the calm beauty of the faces, and for their delicate colour (see fig.
22), which recalls the manner of Piero della Francesca. Leonardo da Vinci, though trained in Florence, may be said to have created the later Milanese school.
Fig. 23 shows one of the very few pictures by his hand which still exist. The marvellous and almost universal genius of Leonardo caused his influence to be powerfully extended, not only among his immediate pupils, but also among almost all the Lombard painters of his own and the succeeding generation.
His closest followers were Salaino, Luini, Cesare da Sesto,
Beltraffio, and Marco d’Oggiono, and in a lesser degree Andrea Solario,
Gaudenzio Ferrari, and Sodoma, who introduced a new style of painting into Siena. Solario also studied in Flanders, and in Venice under Gian. Bellini, so that a curiously composite style is visible in some of his magnificent portraits (see fig. 24). Most of the pictures and many drawings usually attributed to Da Vinci are really the work of his pupils and imitators. Luini, in his magnificent frescos, was one of the last painters who preserved the religious dignity and simplicity of the older mediaeval schools. Fresco painting was practised by the Milanese after it had been generally abandoned elsewhere. Rome has always been remarkable for its absence of native talent in any of the fine arts, and nearly all the members of the so - called Roman school came from other cities. This school at first consisted of the personal pupils of Raphael,—
Fran. Penni, Da Imola, Giulio Romano, and Del Vaga.
Sassoferrato and Carlo Maratta were feeble but very popular painters in the 17th century.
The early history of the Neapolitan school is mostly mythical; it had no individual existence till the 16th century, and then chiefly in the person of Caravaggio. During the 15th century many works of the Van Eycks and other Flemish painters were imported into Naples; some of these were afterwards claimed by the vanity of native writers as paintings by early Neapolitan artists, for whom imaginary names and histories were invented.
The Spaniard Ribera,
Salvator Rosa, and Giordano were its chief members in the 17th century.
2. German.
It was especially at Cologne in Westphalia and in the Rhine provinces generally that German painting was developed at an early time. William of Cologne, who died about 1378, painted panels with much delicacy and richness of colour (see fig. 25). A number of large and highly finished altarpieces were painted in this part of Germany during the 15th century, but the names of very few of the Painters of that time are known. Artists such as Schongauer,
Von Meckenen, Cranach, and others were more at home in the engraving of copper and wood than in painting, and to some extent the same might be said of Albert Durer, an artist of the highest and most varied talents, who especially excelled as a portrait painter (sec fig. 26).
The Hans Holbeins, father and son, especially the latter, attained the highest rank as portrait painters; nothing can exceed the vivid truthfulness and exquisite workmanship of the portraits by the younger Holbein (see fig. 27), who also painted very beautiful religious pictures. Since his time Germany has produced few noteworthy painters. In the 19th century Overbeck was remarkable for an attempt to revive the long dead religious spirit in painting, and he; attained much popularity, which, however, has now almost wholly died away.
3. Flemish.
Hubert and Jan van Eyck, who were painting at the beginning of the 15th century, were artists of the very highest rank; with their unrivalled technical skill, their exquisite finish, and the splendour of their colour, they produced works which in some respects even surpassed those of any of the Italian painters. Probably no other artists ever lavished time and patient labour quite to the same extent to which Jan van Eyck did upon some of his works, such as the Arnolfini and other portraits in the
National Gallery (see fig. 28), and the Madonna with the kneeling Donor in the Louvre. This last is one of the loveliest pictures in the world, both as a figure painting and from its exquisite miniature landscape and town in the distance, all glowing with the warm light of the setting sun. The elder Van der Werden was a most able pupil of the Van Eycks; he occasionally practised a very different technical method from that usually employed in Flanders,— that is to say, he painted in pure tempera colours on un-primed linen, the flesh tints especially being laid on extremely thin, so that the texture of the linen remains unhidden. Other colours, such as a smalto blue used for draperies, are applied in greater body, and the whole is left uncovered by any varnish. A very perfect example of this exists in the National Gallery (see fig. 29). The special method used with such success by the Van Eycks and their school was to paint the whole pic ture carefully in tem pera and then to glaze it over in trans parent oil colours; the use of oil as a medium was com mon in the 13th century and even...
