PAINTING 



699 



advances, its mental progress is shown by the 

 increasing importance given to the human side of 

 its subjects and the diminution of ornament in 

 dress, till at length the dresses become simple 

 draperies, almost without jewels or embroidery, 

 and the charm of the work lies in the beauty 

 or nobility of the faces and the dignity of the 

 attitudes. With the Italian Renaissance the art of 

 painting made a great intellectual advance by its 

 sympathy with what was then the new activity of 

 scholarship. Raphael was, if not himself a scholar, 

 the intimate friend of scholars, working constantly 

 under their influence ; besides which he was an 

 architect and an arclueologist. The selection of 

 ' The School of Athens ' as the subject of one 

 of the most important mural pictures in the 

 Vatican is most significant. In Leonardo da Vinci 

 the artistic is united to the scientific intellect; 

 in Rubens it is united to the broadest culture of 

 the scholar and the man of the world. Rembrandt 

 may not have l>een a learned man, but few authors 

 or artists have shown more sympathy with different 

 classes, or have discerned so well the dignity that 

 may t>elong to the learned or the unlearned, to the 

 rich or the poor. The pictures and etchings of 

 biblical subjects by Rembrandt bring them nearer 

 to us by their homely truth than the ideal concep- 

 tions of Raphael. Surely we cannot refuse the 

 title ' intellectual ' to an art which contains a 

 philosophy at once so comprehensive and so ripe. 

 The faculties of Teniers and Ostn.de are narrower 

 and lower, yet even in their works there is a 

 sympathy with the hiftnbler classes which has 

 lasted down to the art of our own day, which was 

 lively in the art of Wilkie, and is graver and more 

 profound in the work of Israels. 



All portrait-painting of any importance has en- 

 deavoured not only to copy the features, but to 

 express as much as possible of the mind ; and the 

 knowledge we derive from historiansand biographers 

 is felt to be incomplete until we have referred 

 to the canvases of some observant contemporary 

 artist, some Holbein, Van Dyck, Velasquez, Rey- 

 nolds, or Raeburn. Even in these days of photo- 

 graphic invention the portrait-painter keeps his 

 place, great portrait! are painted still, and future 

 students of history will not be satisfied with the 

 photograph alone, but will go for the intellectual 

 element to the canvases of a Millais or a Bonnat. 

 Closely connected with portraiture is the art which 

 observes and records the passing phases of social 

 life, an art which reached perfection in the ISth 

 century in the strongly characterised and too 

 truthful pictures of Hogarth. The representation 

 of contemporary life, in drawing-rooms and else- 

 where, has been actively pursued down to our own 

 day in all the leading schools of Europe, and is 

 now practised more than ever, especially in France, 

 where the artists are tempted by the elegance of 

 modern interiors and the grace of feminine cos- 

 tumes. 



In the 19th century there has also been much 

 retrospective painting, particularly of the 18th 

 century, and this has led to a very close and min- 

 ute study of that century by Leslie in England, 

 Meissonier and Ger6me in France, and many other 

 artists of ability. The retrospective tendency of 

 our own time has been strongly manifested in 

 other ways. The modern interest in the past has 

 been shown by much ' historical ' painting on in- 

 snllicient data representing personages whose por- 

 traits we do not possess, in buildings that have 

 left no trace, and engaged in actions known to us 

 only by the meagre narrative of some chronicler. 

 Art of this kind possesses no real historical interest, 

 though it may display considerable artistic ability. 

 Of late years it has been in a great measure super- 

 seded by archieological painting, skilfully practised 



by Mr Alma Tadema and his followers, whose 

 object is to revive the past for us in its details as it 

 really was by representing everyday life without 

 much pretence to the portraiture of individuals or 

 the recording of particular events. This kind of 

 painting has brought the art nearer than ever to 

 the spirit of scholarship. No doubt the special 

 interest of it is outside of artistic interest, but 

 there is no reason why archaeological pictures 

 should not be as beautifully drawn, as well com- 

 posed, and as richly coloured as any others. 



A sketch of the history of painting would not be 

 complete without some notice of the way in which 

 landscape became a speciality. Rude and childish 

 landscape backgrounds are found even in Assyrian 

 art, they are not uncommon in Greek and Roman 

 antiquity, and they attained a considerable degree 

 of freedom and observation in the backgrounds of 

 the paintings at Pompeii. After the death of 

 classic art, painting began again from its first 

 rudiments in the ornamental art of the middle 

 ages, and the study of landscape soon revived in 

 the backgrounds of religious pictures. Mediirval 

 landscape lasted down to Raphael, -who was him- 

 self essentially a mediaeval landscape-painter, 

 especially in his early works. The general char- 

 acteristics of that kind of landscape are clear 

 atmosphere, pure skies, either cloudless or with a 

 few white clouds, pale blue distances with hills, 

 green foregrounds, and almost invariably one or 

 more well-kept buildings. Trees in the foreground 

 are usually slender, with thin twigs and few leaves 

 visible almost separately against the sky ; in the 

 distance they may be more massive. Water is 

 usually calm in ponds or winding rivers, or serene 

 in distant sea. Rocks occur in mediaeval land- 

 scape, but are seldom accurately represented, the 

 mediaeval ignorance of rocks having even persisted 

 in Leonardo da Vinci notwithstanding his scientific 

 genius. In the backgrounds of Albert Diirer all 

 kinds of objects are observed and set down as in a 

 catalogue ; he perceived the grandeur of mountains, 

 the abundance of forest trees, the picturesque 

 beauty of medieval towns, and he took an interest 

 in all the details of the foreground ; but he never 

 fused his details into one connected whole ; he never 

 saw nature with the eye of a landscape-painter ; he 

 had no sense of atmosphere or effect. The begin- 

 ning of the modern landscape spirit is to be sought 

 for in Venice. Titian made many studies of land- 

 scape, and, although in his pen-drawings there is no 

 recognition of local colour and very little effect, 

 there is a remarkable sense of grandeur and a fine 

 grasp of noble scenery, not in detail merely, but as 

 a whole. In his painted landscape backgrounds 

 Titian goes still further and attempts transient 

 effects, showing himself a true precursor of the 

 modern landscape-painters. Tintoretto occasionally 

 exercised his magnificent powers in the same direc- 

 tion. The most influential of professed landscape- 

 painters was Claude. He had not the power of the 

 Venetians, but he had a tenderness anu charm, and 

 a sense of grace and beauty, that won the hearts 

 of contemporaries and have since maintained the 

 celebrity of his name, though it is easy for criticism 

 to point out deficiencies of knowledge. Unlike 

 Diirer, Claude saw nature, not in details, but 

 synthetically in complete pictures full of atmo- 

 sphere and light. Salvator Rosa and Gaspard 

 Diighet (or Poussin) maintained a grandeur of con- 

 ception and style in landscape which, in spite of 

 a certain remoteness from pure nature, tell effectu- 

 ally in picture-galleries even at the present day. 



The same may be said of Gainsborough, whilst 

 Wilson perpetuated in England a feeling for land- 

 scape akin to the amenity of Claude. Cozens and 

 Girtin had the old breadth and serenity of concep- 

 tion, with a more modern view of nature, and 



