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PAINTING. 



PAINTING. 



202 



of the saints, of the most strictly conventional type, were placed in all 

 the churches. Individuality of style was entirely ignored. The same 

 characteristics occur in Byzantine paintings, mosaics, and miniatures 

 wherever found. And the same characteristics have distinguished 

 the school down to the present day : for in Greece and Russia, and 

 wherever in fact the Greek church exists, religious pictures of pre- 

 cisely the same type have continued to be manufactured. M. Didron 

 ('Manuel d'Iconographie,' p. ix. Ac.), on visiting the monastery of 

 Mount Athos, now the principal manufactory for pictures for the 

 Greek churches throughout the world, saw painters engaged in the 

 execution of pictures according to a strict and singularly minute code 

 of laws, ' 'EpM1''a TTJI Zarfftufiiaif ' (' Guide for Painting '), a copy of 

 which he with some difficulty procured, and of which translations 

 have been published in French by M. Durand, and in German by 

 Dr. Schiifer (' Das Handbuch der Malerei vom Berge Athos). To such 

 mechanical perfection had the painters, whom M. Didrou saw at work, 

 attained each man taking his own part of the picture that he 

 actually witnessed the Monk Joasph and five assistants paint in fresco 

 entirely from memory, without cartoons, tracings, or any other me- 

 chanic il aid, a picture of Christ and the Eleven Apostles, all the size of 

 life, in the space of an hour ! This swiftness and certainty of execution 

 are the result of the training and experience of centuries directed upon 

 unchanged repetitions ; but we have here only an exaggeration of 

 mediaeval Byzantine art with all its soulless traditional design and 

 absence of thought, imagination, and individuality. The art of Byzan- 

 tium is best seen in MINIATURES and MOSAICS, to which headings we 

 refer the reader for further information. 



Keeiral "f Paintiny in Italy. The Ostrogoth dominion was not 

 unfavourable to art ; at least there is a studied affectation of classical 

 knowledge in Cassiodorus, and the mutilators of ancient statues are 

 denounced as criminals. The Lombards could have brought no art 

 with them, and were unlikely to appreciate what they found. The 

 most remarkable monument of their time is the large MS. of the Bible 

 from Mont Amiata, still preserved in the Laurentian Library at 

 Florence ; but others scarcely less beautiful are not uncommon. 

 [MINIATVKK.J The union of the Church with the Frank Empire gave 

 the popes greater leisure and means, and Rome became once more a 

 capital. 



It is probable that the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins in 

 1204 supplied to the Italians some of that technical skill which the 

 wild conflicts of then- own parties at home had contributed to obliterate. 

 Numerous Greek artists settled in the cities of Italy, and a semi-Byzan- 

 tine style Is visible in the painting as well as in the architecture of 

 Venice, Pi.sa, and Siena. 



But native painters of remarkable talent arose, first perhaps in the 

 last named city, who soon cast off the trammels of Byzantine tradition, 

 and painting once more rose to the dignity of a fine art, assuming a 

 position such as it could only have previously held when the arts of 

 ancient Greece were in their most flourishing state. We shall be able 

 to trace the history of painting in Italy most conveniently by noticing 

 in succession the principal Italian schools of painting. (The term 

 chool of painting is explained under BOLOONESK SCHOOL of I'AINTIXU.) 



Tuscan, School of Painting This is frequently called the Florentine 

 '. and is divided into several epochs, the first of which is termed 

 the old Florentine ; but the school of Florence was not the school of 

 Tuscany until after the time of Michel Angelo. In the earliest period 

 of painting in Tuscany the principal painters were of Pisa and Siena, 

 and there is characteristically no essential difference between their 

 works and those of the early painters of Umbria of the same period. 

 Kieiifse critics have discovered a distinct school in the works of the 

 old masters of Siena, but it would be difficult' to show any other dis- 

 tinction than a mere difference of local origin. 



Some artists of Siena and Florence, of the early part of the 1 3th 

 century, are the oldest painters of Tuscany that are known. There 

 were painters in Pisa before this time, in the llth century, but they 

 were Greeks from Constantinople : and there are paintings extant in 

 Tuscany which are said to be of the same period, but they are probably 

 the production of Greek artists. In the church della Trinitii at Flo- 

 rence there is a picture of Christ painted upon canvas, and glued upon 

 a wooden cross, which is probably of the 10th century; it was done 

 lfxre 1003 : and in the church of San Miniato al Monte near Florence 

 there if a Greek painting of San Miniato Martire, of the llth century. 

 (' Etruria Pittrice.') 



The first ci 'iisiderable efforts towards the revival of painting were 

 made by the Tuscans, and the Tuscan painters throughout have done 

 inn. h towards its improvement and perfection in later periods. The 

 following masters are among the most celebrated in the history of 

 painting, both for their works and for the great changes they effected 

 in the prevailing styles of their respective periods : Giotto di Bondone 

 of Vespignano (b. 1276, d. 1336); Tommaso Guidi, of San Giovanni, 

 called Masaccio Ib. 1401 or 1402, d. 1443); Lionardi, of Vinci (b. 

 1 l;'2, d. 1519); Michel Angelo Buonaroti, of CastelT Caprese, in the 

 diocese of Arezzo (b. 1474, d. 1563) ; Ludovico Cardi, of Cigoli (b. 1559, 

 d. 1613); and Pietro Barrettini, of Cortona (b. 1596, d. 1069). All 

 painters, through the striking characteristics of their respective 

 styles, made epochs in the history of painting in Tuscany. 



The oldest Tuscan artist* whose names are known are Niccola and 

 (iiunta of Pisa. [PISANO, in Broo. Div.] Niccola Pisano, or of Pisa, 



was a sculptor, and the first restorer of design from the excessive 

 rigidity of the Byzantine forms ; he endeavoured to imitate the style 

 of a bas-relief upon an ancient sarcophagus at Pisa : he lived at the 

 beginning of the 13th century. Giunta Pisano is the earliest Tuscan 

 painter to whom extant works have been assigned : he is said to have 

 learnt painting of some Greeks who were at Pisa about the year 1210. 

 In 1230 he was employed in the church degli Angeli at Assisi : there are 

 a crucifixion and some other figures paiuted upon a wooden cross, the 

 colours of which are mixed in some medium not affected by water. 

 The drawing is careful, but very dry, and the fingers are extremely 

 long faults, as Lanzi has observed, not of the men, but of the times. 

 The expression in the heads, however, is good, the draperies are well 

 arranged and the colouring, though brown, is laid on with a strong 

 irnpasto. Some frescoes by Giunta are in the upper church of San 

 Francesco at Assisi. 



Contemporary with Giunta of Pisa, were Guido of Siena and 

 Buonaventura Berlinghieri of Lucca. The former was illuminator and 

 painter : a Madonna in the Malevolti chapel in the church of San 

 Domenico at Siena, engraved in Lastri's ' Etruria Pittrice,' has very 

 great merit for its period. Siena had many other painters about this 

 time, and they were even constituted as a civil body in 1250. Ugolino 

 of Siena, says Vasari, painted pictures and chapels in every part of 

 Italy; he died at an advauced age in 1339. Buonaventura Berliughieri 

 of Lucca painted in 1236 ; there was also a Diodato of Lucca, who was 

 living in 1283. 



A very superior painter to those already mentioned, and one who 

 added also much to the practical technic of painting, was Margaritone 

 of Arezzo, an older painter than Cimabue. At the church of Santa 

 Croce, at Florence, there is a crucifixion by Margaritone, which is 

 placed near one by Cimabue ; and although Margaritone's is less 

 finished in executiou than Cimabue's, the difference is not so great that 

 the title of painter should be denied to the former if given to the 

 latter. The portrait or picture of San Francesco di Assisi in the 

 church of Sargiano, near Arezzo, dressed in the habit of a monk, with 

 all the faults of the time, has a grand expression, and is a very remark- 

 able production ; it is marked Margarit' de Aretio pingcbat : an 

 inscription which probably indicates a Greek source of instruction, 

 directly or indirectly. 



The earliest painter in Florence was apparently Maestro Bartolomeo, 

 who painted in 1236. An Annunciation, which he painted in the 

 church de' Servi, has been attributed to Cavallini, the scholar of Giotto. 

 Another predecessor of Cimabue was Andrea Tafi, born in 1213 ; he 

 was the scholar of Apollonius, a Greek, whom he assisted in some 

 mosaics in San Giovanni, at Florence. Vasari terms Tafi the first 

 restorer of mosaic in Tuscany : he was also a painter. 



A painter of somewhat more merit and much more fame than any 

 of the preceding, was Giovanni Cimabue, born at Florence in 1240, 

 through the partiality of Vasari, or his neglect of research, commonly 

 called the father of modern painting. He was architect and painter ; 

 he greatly improved the proportions of the human figure in design ; 

 inspired his figures with more life than his predecessors ; and excelled 

 them in grace of execution and in richness of colouring : his works are, 

 notwithstanding, strictly of the Byzantine style. Cimabue is said by 

 some to have learned painting of (iiunta Pisano, whom he assisted in 

 his frescoes at Assisi, in 1253, in his thirteenth year ; Vasari says that 

 he learned of some Greeks who were employed to decorate the church 

 of Santa Maria Novella at Florence. One of his earliest and most 

 remarkable pictures is the Colossal Madonna, now in the Academy at 

 Florence, formerly in the church of Santa Trinita ; but his greatest 

 works are those in the upper church of San Francesco at Assisi. 

 Cimabue excelled chiefly in male heads, to which he has sometimes 

 given a truth and grandeur of expression that have never been much 

 surpassed. Contemporary with Cimabue, but somewhat younger, was 

 Ducio di Buoninsegna of Siena, famous in his time : he painted great 

 works in the cathedral of that place, which are in part still extant : also 

 a remarkable altar-piece for the same church, which is still preserved 

 there; it was paiuted in 1308 and 1311, and when completed was 

 carried in procession to the cathedral. It was painted on both sides, 

 but is now cut into two. One side, the former front, is a Madonna 

 and infant Christ, surrounded by angels ; on the other side, or former 

 back, there is a series of small pictures illustrating the history of the 

 Passion, all containing many figures, executed with surprising industry, 

 skill, and judgment, when compared with the majority of the works of 

 his contemporaries. 



Gaddo Gaddi of Florence, born in 1239, was also one of the most 

 distinguished artists of this period. He was celebrated for his works 

 in mosaic, of which there are still specimens in the cathedrals of 

 Florence and of Pisa. He worked also at Rome, but the great mosaics 

 of St. John Lateran and in Santa Maria Maggiore are the work of 

 Mino da Turrita, an earlier master, and the most celebrated of his 

 time. The mosaics of the tribune of San Giovanni at Florence were 

 executed by Turrita, who finished them in 1225. 



That of discovering and cultivating the abilities of Giotto was 

 not one of the least services of Cimabue. [GIOTTO, in Bioo. Div.] 

 Giotto surpassed all his predecessors, and he added as much to the art 

 of his master Cimabue as Cimabue had added to that of the Greeks. 

 In the mature works of Giotto there are no traces of the Byzantine 

 style : they made an epoch in painting; and from his time Florence 



