Part 7

Two years before his death Raphael had designed the large but by no means imposing _St. Michael overcoming Satan_ (No. 1504), the execution of which on panel was certainly due to Giulio Romano. It was a gift from Lorenzo de’ Medici to François I., the original cartoon being presented by Raphael to the Duke of Ferrara. This picture, like the _Holy Family of Francis I._, was originally protected by folding wings, the inner sides of which were lined with green velvet, while the outer were gilded and painted with arabesques. The two pictures arrived at Fontainebleau in July 1518, having been carried on the back of mules by way of Florence and Lyons. As early as 1530 the _St. Michael_ was restored by Primaticcio and by many others subsequently, notably in 1752. The picture was transferred to canvas by Picault, who received for his labours the large sum of 11,500 _livres_, a sum quite out of proportion to its æsthetic or financial value to-day. It was again restored in 1776, 1800, and 1850. It is signed in gilt characters on the edge of the Archangel’s tunic:

RAPHAEL VRBINAS PINGEBAT MDXVIII.

The Demon is not shown, as in the early and small picture of the same subject (No. 1502), as a dragon, but as a half-human monster with horns and tail. The foreshortening is undoubtedly clever, but the picture is too instantaneous in its dramatic action. In the course of time the high lights have gone down and the shadows darkened in the metallic-looking figure of the Archangel.

The _Virgin with the Blue Diadem_ or the _Virgin with the Veil_ (No. 1497) is one of at least ten pictures in this collection which were carried out by Giulio Romano (1492?-1546). It is here credited to Raphael. It has been repeatedly restored. A very large number of replicas, variants, and old copies of this panel exist. The following “Raphaels” may be regarded as the work of Giulio: the _Small Holy Family with St. Elizabeth_ (No. 1499); the much restored _Saint Margaret_ (No. 1501); the _Portrait of Joan of Arragon_ (No. 1507), whom Raphael apparently never saw; and the _Portraits of Two Men seen to the Bust_ (which has been called _Raphael and his Fencing Master_) (No. 1508). Giulio certainly painted the _Triumph of Titus and Vespasian_ (No. 1420), the _Venus and Vulcan_ (No. 1421), and the _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 1422), which are catalogued under his name, and in all probability the three large Cartoons entitled _A Triumph_, _The Triumph of Scipio_, and _The Taking and Burning of a City_, which hang on the Escalier Daru. The _Circumcision_ (No. 1438) which figures officially under the name of the Bolognese painter Bartolommeo Ramenghi (Il Bagnacavallo) (1484-1542) is by Giulio Romano.

The fresco painting of _The Eternal Father_ (No. 1512), which is now inserted over the door of the Salle des Primitifs (Room VII.), was certainly executed during the lifetime of Raphael, and probably under his supervision. It was painted for the chapel attached to the Villa Magliana, a favourite hunting-box of Pope Leo X., who commissioned it. It was purchased in 1873 for the large sum of £8280.

From the hand of Giannicola Manni (fl. 1493-1544) come the _Baptism of Christ_ (No. 1369), the _Assumption_ (No. 1370), the _Adoration of the Magi_ (No. 1371), and a _Holy Family_ (No. 1372), while a fully signed _Dead Christ supported by Two Angels_ (No. 1400) is by the mediocre Umbrian artist Marco Palmezzano (fl. 1456-1538). The latter’s pupil, Zaganelli da Cottignola (1460?-1531), may have painted the _Christ bearing His Cross_ (No. 1641) which is catalogued as an unattributable Italian work.

THE VENETIAN SCHOOL

The conquest of Byzantium during the Fourth Crusade by Doge Enrico Dandolo in 1204, an epoch-making event in the history of Venice and Venetian art, strengthened the intercourse between the East and the City of the Lagoons. At the same time it riveted the fetters of Byzantinism on to the nascent art of Venice, to which it also imparted a sense of intense Oriental colour.

The frescoes painted in Tuscany on the lines of Giottesque tradition and the environment under which its painters worked, in time gave to the Florentines a sense of line and form which produced a school of idealists: on the other hand, the colour-impressions created on the mind of the Venetian painter by the relics from the East and the brilliant mosaics which he saw around him resulted eventually in the formation of a school of colourists with a realistic tendency.

It will cause little surprise that the Louvre contains no polyptych by the very early Venetians, Niccolò Semitecolo (fl. 1351-1400), Jacobello del Fiore (died 1439), and Michele Giambono (fl. 1420-1462). The Gallery possesses, however, a fourteenth-century Venetian arched panel of the _Madonna and Child_ (No. 1541) which is attributed to Stefano Veneziano.

In the early fifteenth century the dominating influence exerted on the painters of Venice was that of Jacopo Bellini (1400?-1470), whose sons, Gentile and Giovanni, and son-in-law, Andrea Mantegna, were to shape the destinies of the school throughout the Renaissance. Jacopo’s drawing is seen in its full maturity in the Sketch-book of about 1450 which belongs to the Louvre but is not publicly exhibited. Another Sketch-book by him of about 1430 is one of the treasured possessions of the British Museum. Jacopo had in early life been the pupil of Gentile da Fabriano, who, together with Alegretto Nuzi, stands at the head of the Umbrian school, and of Antonio Pisanello (1397-1455), the medallist-painter who played such an important part in the art of Verona. Both Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello worked for a time at Venice. Under the circumstances, therefore, it is not surprising to find that a _Madonna and Child with a Donor_ (No. 1159A, formerly No. 1279 and No. 171), which is now justly ascribed in the Catalogue to Jacopo Bellini, was long assigned officially to Gentile Bellini, although held by some critics to have been painted in the school of Pisanello. The name of the Donor in this picture is given in the Catalogue as Leonello d’Este and on the frame as Pandolfo Malatesta; it would, however, seem to be the portrait of Sigismondo Malatesta.

Four small triptychs (Nos. 1280-83) from the Campana collection still pass officially under the ambiguous designation of “School of Gentile da Fabriano”; they may, however, without much doubt be ascribed to Antonio Vivarini, who remained outside the Bellini sphere of influence, and died about 1470.

THE BELLINI

The sunny splendour of Venetian painting reached its zenith in the _bottega_ of the Bellini. Gentile, who was sent to Constantinople with the authority of the Republic in 1479, painted portraits, ceremonial, religious, and historical pictures, many of which are on a large scale, while Giovanni was for many years the greatest teacher and the most influential painter in Venetian territory. Giovanni executed a large number of panels and canvases which in the period of his maturity exhibit a profound sense of dignity, beauty, religious feeling, and rich deep colour. Most of those which are signed in a _cartellino_ “IOANNES BELLINUS” (in capitals and, of course, in pigment of the period) are authentic works from his own hand. The majority of those which bear what to the unpractised eye might be taken for his personal signature, but are only signed in uncials (“_Ioannes Bellinus_”), must be regarded as mere studio productions. In the sixteenth century no one was misled by these alternative methods of personal signature and studio-mark. Although the Louvre authorities catalogue two pictures under the name of Gentile and three under that of Giovanni, none of them is from the hand of either of these brothers.

Bartolommeo Vivarini of Murano (fl. 1450-1499) was the pupil of Giovanni d’Allemagna, who worked in Venice, and Antonio Vivarini. He painted a large panel of _St. John of Capistrano_ (No. 1607), which is signed and dated

OPVS BARTHOLOMEI VI[V]ARINI DE MURAHO—1459.

Alvise or Luigi Vivarini (fl. 1461-1503), the nephew of Bartolommeo, was the last and most distinguished painter in the Murano school. He carried on the old traditions of Early Venetian art until the day when the rival school of the Bellini had become supreme in Venice, and so had begun to prepare the way for the triumphs of the Giorgionesque period—the golden age of Venetian painting. The _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 1519), catalogued under the name of Savoldo (1480?-1548?) is by Alvise. This magnificent bust-length picture represents Bernardo di Salla, who holds in his gloved right hand a paper inscribed “_Dono Bnardo di Salla_.” It vividly recalls the _Portrait of a Man with a Hawk_ at Windsor, which, although it traditionally but erroneously bears the name of Leonardo da Vinci and has been ascribed to Savoldo, is in all probability another of the rare portraits by Alvise.

From the Vivarini group issues Carlo Crivelli (1430?-1493?). His morosely ascetic compositions, with their elaborate draperies, jewelled ornamentation, and at times grotesque anatomy, distinguish his polyptychs, all of which are painted in tempera, from those of any other painter in the whole range of art. His large panel picture of _St. Bernardino of Siena_ (No. 1268) is inscribed

OPUS CAROLI CRIVELLI VENETI, 1477.

It belongs to his middle period, and was painted nine years earlier than his magnificent _Annunciation_, now one of the gems of the National Gallery (No. 739); both these pictures came from the Church of the Annunziata at Ascoli.

Another painter who carried on the Vivarini tradition but was influenced by Giovanni Bellini, was Giovanni Battista Cima (1460?-1517?), whose art is adequately shown in the _Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and St. Mary Magdalene_ (No. 1259). The signature

IOANIS BAPT. CONEGLANES. OPVS.

as well as the internal evidence of the picture show it to be an authentic work.

One of the best, but until recent years one of the least known, members of that brilliant group of painters who flourished at Venice in the early half of the sixteenth century was Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556). He practised his art in many parts of Italy, and for that reason has been less generally known than many of his contemporaries. He was a pupil of Alvise Vivarini, but benefited largely by the example of Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione. His art is not well seen in the small _St. Jerome_ (No. 1350), which is signed and dated “LOTVS 1500” and must therefore be one of his earliest and least ambitious works, nor in his _Holy Family_ (No. 1351) which was formerly attributed to Dosso Dossi. Replicas have been found of his _Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery_ (No. 1349).

Although we possess very detailed records of Antonello da Messina (1430-1479), his movements and his life’s work, it is only in recent years that they have been studied with any care. This Sicilian-born artist obviously cannot have set out for Flanders and there have learnt from Jan van Eyck (who died in 1441) the “discovery” of oil as a medium in painting, as Vasari tells us. But he may have seen in Italy a picture by the great Northern artist and from it have acquired some facility in the use of oil and in finishing with glazes of oil panels which had been begun in tempera. He was certainly in Venice in 1475-76, if not earlier, and his _Portrait of a Condottiere_ (No. 1134, Plate IX.), which is characteristically signed and dated

_1474 Antonellus Messaneus me pinxit_

belongs to that period of his full maturity. It was purchased at the Pourtalès-Gorgier sale in 1865 for £4767. In any case, the discoveries with which Antonello is credited within a few years completely revolutionised the methods of painting throughout Italy, and prepare us for the wonderful achievements of the later Venetians, who followed and improved upon the Bellini tradition.

Vittore Carpaccio (1455?-1526) was, like Gentile Bellini, a painter of Venetian fêtes, pageantry, and religious pictures on an imposing scale. Nothing is known of Carpaccio’s artistic descent, but his work shows traces of the influence of Jacopo Bellini and of Lazzaro Bastiani, who was the head of a group of artists whose art was based on the tradition of such early painters as Jacobello del Fiore. Carpaccio’s _Preaching of St. Stephen at Jerusalem_ (No. 1211) is one of the series of five incidents from the _Life of St. Stephen_ which were painted by this artist between 1511 and 1520 for the Scuola di S. Stefano at Milan. The others of the series are now in the Milan Gallery (No. 170—signed and dated 1513), at Berlin (No. 23), and at Stuttgart. The Louvre obtained this canvas, which varies from the others in size, from the Milan Gallery in 1813, when together with Boltraffio’s _Madonna of the Casio Family_ (No. 1169) and other pictures it was exchanged for works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, and Jordaens.

To Vincenzo Catena (14..?-1531?) may be assigned, on stylistic grounds, the _Reception of a Venetian Ambassador at Cairo in 1512_ (No. 1157). In any case, it cannot have been executed by Gentile Bellini, as alleged in the Catalogue, as the audience here depicted did not take place until five years after that master’s death!

Another Bellinesque painter was Bartolommeo Veneto (fl. 1505-1555). We shall, following the suggestion of Venturi, assign to him the excellent but officially unattributed _Portrait of a Lady_ (No. 1673) which hangs to the right of Raphael’s _La Belle Jardinière_.

GIORGIONE

Although a large number of really representative examples of the great lyricist Giorgione (1477-1510) have not come down to us, he is to be regarded as the greatest of the Venetian artists, and perhaps the most romantic painter that Europe has ever known. He was, together with his illustrious contemporary Titian, a pupil of Giovanni Bellini. His _Pastoral Symphony_ (No. 1136, Plate X.) is one of the most beautiful idyllic groups in the whole range of painting, and shows that Giorgione could naively reveal the inner depths of thought and feeling and depict “passionate souls in passionate bodies.” Early in the sixteenth century the austere traditions of the Bellinesque era were passing away. Giorgione now began to unseal the eyes of his contemporaries, among whom Titian occupied an important place, to the “life-giving and death-dealing waters of love,” making the landscape background of his lyrical compositions respond to the mood of the incident illustrated. The _Pastoral Symphony_ was acquired by Charles I. from the collection of the Duke of Mantua; it then passed to Jabach, and subsequently to Louis XIV. Although it has been slightly restored and has from time to time been without any reason ascribed to Titian, Sebastiano del Piombo and a large number of Venetian artists, it is to-day recognised on all sides as an excellent example of Giorgione.

The same influences which formed the art of Giorgione inspired the pictures of Palma Vecchio (1480-1528), whose _Adoration of the Shepherds with a Female Donor_ (No. 1399, Plate XI.) is brilliant in colour. The signature in the right foreground of this canvas, TICIAN, is false. Palma left a large number of pictures unfinished at his death.

The _Visitation_ (No. 1352) is an admirable example of the art of Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547), and is signed

SEBASTIANVS VENETVS FACIEBAT ROMAE MDXXI.

It was purchased in the year indicated in the inscription by François I., who added it to his collection at Fontainebleau, whence it was removed by Louis XIV. to Versailles. The canvas, which has been a good deal injured, has at some time been cut into three pieces. The name by which this artist is generally known was derived from the office which he held late in life at the Papal Court. There he forsook the traditions of his native school and gradually came under the influence of Michelangelo. In Rome he also met Raphael, who was much impressed by his colour schemes: the _St. John the Baptist in the Desert_ (No. 1500), here catalogued under the name of Raphael, and a few pictures similarly attributed in other galleries, were painted by Sebastiano in his Roman manner.

A prominent place among the less important artists generally included in this school must be accorded to Cariani (1480?-1547?). A large proportion of the pictures of this Bergamask painter usually pass under more imposing names, and it is a remarkable fact that we do not find any work attributed to him in the official Catalogue. He, however, painted a _Holy Family_ (No. 1135), here assigned to Giorgione, as well as the _Madonna and Child and St. Sebastian_ (No. 1159) given to Giovanni Bellini. The _Portrait of Two Men_ (No. 1156), which for no very apparent reason was once regarded as the portraits of Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, must be by Cariani, although still placed to the credit of Gentile.

Another of the less efficient pupils of Giovanni Bellini was Niccolò Rondinelli (fl. 1480-1500), whose _Madonna and Child, St. Peter, and St. Sebastian_ (No. 1158) masquerades as a work by Giovanni Bellini, whose full name, IOANNES BELLINVS, is inscribed in capitals (not, however, placed in a _cartellino_) on the parapet which runs across the front of the panel.

TITIAN

Although we have only limited space to deal with the differences of the critics as to the probable date of Titian’s birth, we may point out that it was, until recent times, placed in the year 1477. Mr. Herbert Cook has, however, put forward a very strong case in favour of the year 1489, pointing out the remarkable fact that there is no record of Titian earlier than Dec. 2, 1511, or, according to the usual chronology, until he was thirty-five years of age! Again, L. Dolce, in 1557, wrote that Titian was “scarcely twenty years old when Giorgione was painting the façade of the Fondaco de’ Tedeschi”; and we know that Titian was his assistant on that work in 1507-8. Vasari also asserts, as Mr. Cook reminds us, that the famous Venetian was “about seventy-six years old in 1566-67,” when he visited him in Venice. No reliance is to be placed on the date contained in the well-known letter which Titian addressed to Philip II. in 1571, as he evidently had a motive in referring to himself as “an old servant of ninety-five.” There is, however, no doubt that Titian died in 1576.

Titian, who was a native of Cadore, left his home at an early age for Venice. He was first placed as a pupil of Sebastian Zuccato, a mosaicist and perhaps a painter; he then seems to have worked in the studio of Gentile Bellini before passing into that of Giovanni, where he met Giorgione. Titian, like Giotto, has been called “the Father of modern painting.” The early Florentine had provided his countrymen with a set of fundamental principles of art, but it remained for the illustrious Venetian to endow his contemporaries and artistic descendants with a more complete equipment and a new sense of pictorial effect. The profound impression exerted by Giorgione on the youthful Titian inspired him to achieve those idyllic compositions and “poesies” which stand out so prominently among the world’s pictures.

Titian’s earliest picture in the Louvre is the _Virgin and Child, with St. Stephen, St. Ambrose, and St. Maurice_ (No. 1577), of about 1508-1510. It is very reminiscent of a picture by Titian in the Vienna Gallery (No. 166), in which he has substituted St. Jerome for St. Ambrose.

No doubt can exist as to the authenticity of the so-called _Portrait of Alfonso da Ferrara and Laura de’ Dianti_ (No. 1590), but the title under which it has passed for many years is probably incorrect. It was in the collection of Charles I., and was then described as “Tytsian’s Mrs., after the life by Tytsian.” In the collection of Jabach it was called _La Maîtresse du Titien_, and as such was sold to Louis XIV. for £100. This picture would correctly be described under the less ambitious title of _A Woman at her Toilet and a Man holding Two Mirrors_. Laura was the daughter of a hatter of Ferrara. She was _persona grata_ at the court of Alfonso I., Duke of Ferrara (reigned 1505-1534), and there held the title of _Illustrissima Donna Laura Eustochia d’Este_. The Duke’s first wife, Anna Sforza, died in 1497, when he was twenty-one years old. In 1501 he married, as his second wife, Lucrezia Borgia (died 1519), the natural daughter of Pope Alexander VI. It seems probable that shortly afterwards the Duke took Laura as his third wife, and that she was painted by Titian a little later. The Louvre picture (No. 1590) appears on stylistic grounds to be a work of about 1515-1517. A portrait which can be more certainly identified as that of Laura is the single figure picture, painted by Titian about 1523, in the collection of Sir Frederick Cook at Richmond.