PAINTING. 



PAINTING. 



1-0 | 



date* iU preponderance in the history of Tuscan art If Ciinabue, 

 says Lanzi, may be tcnned the Michel Angelo of bin age, Giotto may 

 be termed ita RaOaelle. Great ai wa* the f.n-.i >t t'imabue, aayi 

 Dante, it waa rendered obscure by that uf i;i..tt... Dante acd Omw 

 were friends, and the great poet celebrated the painter in some well 

 known lines (' Purgatorio,' xi. 32). 



Giotto waa painter in history, miniature, portrait, and in inoaaio ; 

 alao a sculptor and an architect : the celebrated Campanile of Florence 

 is his work. He (tainted in many cities of Italy, but bin chief works 

 are those in the lower and upper churches of San Francesco at Assisi. 

 In these paintings there are heads worthy in expression of the greatest 

 masters that have succeeded him ; yet, notwithstanding his great 

 meriU, his design is extremely hard and Gothic, especially in his large 

 figures : he paid alao little attention to perspective or to chiaroscuro ; 

 and although he brought painting far from its infancy, be still left it 

 upon the whole as far from its maturity. 



The scholars and imitators of Uiotto were very numerous : the prin- 

 cipal of them were Stefano Florentine, Tommaso di Stefano, called 

 Giottiuo, and Taddeo Gaddi, the son of Uaddo Uaddi. These painters 

 worked in the same style as Giotto, sometimes inferior and sometimes 

 superior in execution. Stefano was called the ape of nature, " Scimia 

 delta Nature." Taddeo Gaddi, says Vasari, excelled Giotto in colouring 

 and in tone : hia principal works were painted in the church of Santa 

 Croce ; and in the chapel Degli Spagnuoli, in the church of Santa 

 Maria Novella. The pictures of the three saints seated, in this chapel, 

 are magnificent in the character of the heads and in the style of the 

 draperies : they represent San Dionysio Areopagita, San Pietro Lom- 

 bardo, and San Severino Boczio : they are engraved in Laatri's ' Etruria 

 Pittrice.' Contemporary with Giotto waa Buonamico di Cristofano, 

 called Bufialmacco, the scholar of Andrea Tafi ; and Bernardo and 

 Andrea Urcagna, who painted together a heaven and a hell in the 

 Struzzi chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella; and in the Campo 

 Santo at Pisa, Andrea painted a Last Judgment, and Bernardo a Hell. 

 In the church of Santa Croce also Andrea painted similar scenes : 

 amongst the blessed he placed hia friends, and amongst the damned 

 his enemies. The best preserved works of Buffalmacco are at the 

 Campo Santo at Pisa. 



Two celebrated scholars of Andrea Orcagna were Bernardo Nello of 

 Pisa and Francesco Traini of Florence : of the latter there is a cele- 

 brated picture of Thomas Aquinas at Santa Caterina at Pisa, 



Contemporary also with Giotto was the famous Simone Memmi di 

 Martino of Siena, celebrated by Petrarch in two of his sonnets for a 

 portrait of Laura. Simone waa born about 1284, and after distin- 

 guishing himself by many works in various cities in Italy, he went to 

 Avignon, where he died in 1344. He excelled in composition and in 

 invention. Vasari speaks very highly of his great works in the chapel 

 Degli Spaguoli, in the church of Santa Maria Novella at Florence, 

 which was painted in 1332. Christ going to Calvary, which is one of 

 the paintings of this chapel, U a work of great merit in expression, in 

 composition, and in design. (Lastri, ' Etruria Pittrice.') There is in 

 the Ambrooian Library at Milan, a MS. of Virgil with the commentary 

 of Servius, which belonged to Petrarch ; and on the frontispiece is a 

 miniature of Virgil writing, with various characteristic accessories, by 

 Memmi : it is supposed to have been painted for Petrarch, and that 

 the poet wrote the following lines attached to it : 



" Mantua Virgilium qul lalia cannina finxit ; 

 Sena tulit Siniunem digito qui talia pinxil." 



Shortly after the death of Giotto, in 1336, painters commenced to 

 b extremely numerous in Tuscany. In the year 1349 the painters of 

 Florence formed themselves into a society under the name of Com- 

 nagnia di San Luca (Company of St. Luke). This society was not 

 however composed exclusively of painters : it contained various artists 

 in metal and in wood, in whose business ornamental design was in any 

 way concerned. A similar institution, but on a greater and more per- 

 manent plan, waa established at Siena in 1355. 



Other distinguished painters of this period were at Siena, Lippo 

 Memmi, Cecco di Martino, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and Bernardo or 

 Berna da Siena. At Florence were Giovanni and Angelo Gaddi, the 

 sons of Taddeo Gaddi. Angelo Uaddi was an excellent colourist ; but 

 he was content to imitate the works of Giotto and of his father. His 

 scholar Cennino Cennini was also a good colourut The following also 

 are deserving of mention : Stamina, Dello Florentine, Jacopo di Casen- 

 tino, Spinello Aretino and his son Pan Spinelli, Lorenzo di Bicci and 

 his ton Neri, also Giovanni di Niccolo of Pisa, who all painted more 

 or leas in the style of Giotto, as did likewise all the artists of Tuscany, 

 until a better taste was spread by the works of Masaccio. 



In the 15th century, when the Medici established themselves as the 

 rulers of Florence, and that city gradually extended its power over 

 the neighbouring territories, and became the capital of Tuscany in 

 matters of art as well as of state, the arts were in a manner rendered 

 dependent upon the caprictM or tastes of its princes; and as the 

 Florentine artist*, through extended jmtronage, gradually evinced more 

 activity, and acquired as a body a greater imjwrtance, those of Siena 

 and 1'isa propprtionably declined in both respect*. The improvements 

 made in painting at this period were very great, and one of the most 

 essential was the commencement of a proper application of perspective : 



the chief promoters of this science were Pietro delta Francesca and 

 Paolo Uccello ; the latter comparatively neglected every other depart- 

 ment of painting for the study of perspective. There is in tl 

 cloister of Santa Maria Novella a picture of the Drunkenness of Noah, 

 by Uccello, in which he has displayed hia ability in this respect : Noah 

 is violently and well foreshortened. Another department of painting 

 which had been neglected by the school of Giotto was chiaroscuro. 

 This was first attempted with success by Masolino da Paincale, who 

 executed some excellent works, for the period, in the chapel of, San 

 Pietro in the church del Carmine. Masoliuo is alo not leas 

 guisbed for having been the master of the celebrated Masaccio, who, if 

 any individual is entitled to this distinction, can alone be styled the 

 father of modern painting. 



That many of tho (winters however who preceded Masaccio had 

 great ability, even for any period, is certain ; and it is also certain tliat 

 they had recourse to the study of nature a fact which proves that 

 the mere study of nature, without the knowledge of what to eel 

 imitation, will not lead to the production of fine forms. And iiltli. niL-li 

 beautiful forms have been produced by the earlier painters, it 

 accident of the model, and not the result of choice ; for we sonx 

 find the finest parts associated with others so inferior, that from 

 juxtaposition the whole has an apjiearance of deformity, which arises 

 both from the inequality in individual models, and from the painter's 

 occasionally trusting his own knowledge and occasionally having re- 

 course to the model. This imperfection could only be avoided 

 adoption of a standard of form, which should preserve a unity of style 

 in every degree a standard which, experience has shown us, it would 

 require centuries to attain simply by the study of nature, because of 

 the infinite varieties of form met with in individuals. This standard 

 himi-M-r already existed in the antique, and it required only tliu 

 master-mind to appropriate it; and to have been the first to do this 

 efficiently constitutes the great merit of Tommaso Uuidi, comm<>nlv 

 called Masaccio, on account of the slovenliness of his personal a 

 amv. Masaccio introduced a style of composition and design whirli 

 until the appearance of Da Vinci and Michel Angelo expei : 

 no material change. Da Vinci and Fra Bartoloineo enlarged upon 

 Masaccio's style. Michel Angelo invented a style of his own, and he out- 

 lived it. The style of Masaccio, however, expanded to its utmost, still 

 lived in the works of Raffaelle and the principal painters of the Human 

 school. Yet the great improvement in design which was accomplished 

 in the works of Masaccio was not entirely his own merit; for Ghiberti 

 and Donatello had made great advancement in sculpture ; and i ' 

 da Fabriano and Vittore Pisauello, with whom Masaccio became ac- 

 quainted in Home, had made great improvements upon the Giottesque 

 school in painting. Masaccio's greatest works are in the Brancacci 

 chapel in the church of Santa Mark del Carmine at Florence : they 

 have been engraved by Lasinio and others. Masaccio died before the 

 completion of these works, in 1443, in his forty-first or forty 

 year, not without suspicion of having been poisoned. Many of his 

 works have perished. His most able contemporaries and followers 

 were Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, Beuozzo Gozzoli, and Fra Filippo Lippi, 

 the best painter of bis time ; he completed the works of Masaccio in 

 the Brancacci chapel : he died in 1 46V. There are in his works much 

 of that mellowness of colouring and harmony of light and shade which 

 characterise the works of Fra liartolomeo and Leonardo da Vinci. In 

 the gallery of the Academy at Florence there are some beautiful speci- 

 mens of the works of Lippi. 



Other painters of great ability of this period, both in oil and in 

 fresco, were Andrea del Castagno, called the infamous ; Sandro Botti- 

 celli, Filippino Lippi, Kanaellino del Garbo, Domenico del Qhirla: 

 Cosimo Koselli, Piero di Cosimo, Antonio Pollaiuoli, the first Italian 

 painter who studied the dead subject for the purposes of design ; 

 Andrea Verocchio, and Luca Signorelli of Cortoua, There were also 

 many others of merit of this school at about the end of the 1 5th cen- 

 tury, but they followed only in the steps of others. 



The works of Limmrdo da Vinci, and the jointers who imitated 

 H ;i'l"ptod the chief characteristics of his style, constitute, 1 an.ith.-r 

 in the history of painting; but their influence was not confined 

 to Florence or to Tuscany ; it was greater in Milan and in Lorn 

 than in Florence. The fulness however and vigour of design which 

 distinguish the works of Fra Bartoloineo, and even Michel Angelo, 

 characterise in an equal though somewhat different degree also the 

 works of Da Vinci, and are combined with an exquisite finish and 

 harmony of tone which are peculiar to himself. Lionardo was 1" 

 Vinci in 1452, and learnt painting of Andrea Verocchio, who, 

 seeing the superiority of his scholar, forsook that art for statuary. 

 Lionardo was painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, mathemat 

 writer, musician, and poet; he is however chiefly known as a pa 

 Historians have divided his career into four periods ; be painted .. 

 in the manner of Verocchio, and his pictures of this time are lighter 

 in style of design, and have less strength of chiaroscuro, than bis Liter 

 works. Hi second p.-ri,.,l .,-, t|,.,t K].,nt at Milan in the service of 



ina, when ho jointed his Last Supper. The tin 

 his great Florentine period, from 1500 to 1512, when he executed the 

 famous cartoons of Santa Anna, and of the Battle of Niccolo Piccinino, 

 called the Battle of the Standard ; and his own portrait in oils, which 

 in in the gallery at Florence a work which for painting cam. 

 surpassed. In the fourth period he wan comparatively inactive. In 



