by Grant Allen
Number 35, St. Martin dividing his cloak with the beggar, is a common French subject, rarer in Italy.
Number 40 is a Pietà, by Lorenzo Monaco, with symbolical figures, in the background, of Pilate washing his hands; the sacred coat; Judas receiving the money; the knife that cut Malchus’s ear; Peter and the servant; the sun and moon darkened; the pelican and its young; the crowing cock; the lance of St. Longinus; and many other symbols, the rest of which I leave to the reader. Puzzle it out in detail.
DON LORENZO MONACO. — ADORATION OF THE MAGI.
Do not pass by 37, Spinello Aretino, and others, merely because I do not mention them. (In this picture for example, the halo round the head of St. Longinus, the devil carrying away the soul of the impenitent thief, the parting of the raiment, etc., should all be noticed. The last scene usually occupies the right-hand side in historical as opposed to devotional pictures of the Crucifixion. Observe in future which scene is intended.)
Number 39 is by *Don Lorenzo Monaco, an Adoration of the Magi; a fine picture, with the usual long sinuous bodies and drapery of that peculiar painter. Observe, to the right, the attendants seeing the star and struck with wonder. Also, the Moors in the suite, and the very imaginative camels. I have treated of this picture at much greater length in an article in the Pall-Mall Magazine on Adorations in general. The scenes above are by a later hand; observe the very graceful Annunciation.
Number 41, also by Don Lorenzo Monaco, is a fine Tabernacle, in its original frame, with Madonna and Child, named saints, and Annunciation. Observe, in almost all these early Madonnas, the draped infant, and note the point where the nude commences.
Number 43, Zanobi Strozzi’s Giovanni de’ Medici, is interesting chiefly as an early portrait of the shrewd old founder of that great family.
Number 44, by the same painter, represents St. Lawrence enthroned on his gridiron; below, episodes of his legend. To the right, he releases souls from Purgatory — a hint to pray to him for friends in torment.
Number 45, by *Bicci di Lorenzo, is of Cosimo and Damian, the two Medici saints, with their medical instruments and boxes of drugs. The attitudes, I think, are partly suggested by a Byzantine original, though the technique and treatment are of course Florentine of the period. Below, in the predella, are two quaint little stories — the miracle of the Moor’s leg, and the decapitation of the holy doctors.
Number 46 is a Madonna Enthroned, with St. Philip and St. John the Baptist.
Number 48 is a Madonna and Child, with, on the left, St. John the Baptist of Florence and St. Francis with the Stigmata; on the right, the Magdalen and St. John the Evangelist; and in the cuspidi, St. Peter and St. Paul.
BICCI DI LORENZO. — ST. COSIMO AND ST. DAMIAN.
Close by, 49 and 50, are interesting little panels of St. Catherine standing on her wheel, and St. Francis on a symbolical desert.
Number 51 is a Florentine Madonna, with St. John the Baptist, Anthony Abbot, Peter, Lawrence. Note, on the frame, the usual symbols of the Magdalen and St. Catherine.
Here is the door to the First Tuscan Room, which pass for the present, and continue on along the Long Corridor.
Number 52, by Paolo Uccello, a cavalry battle, is interesting as showing his early attempts at movement of horses, foreshortening, etc. This is very bad. His picture in the National Gallery shows an immense advance on this early effort. Observe particularly the hard task he has had in trying to foreshorten the dead horses in the foreground.
Number 53, by Neri di Bicci, is a characteristic Annunciation, on the same model as those in the Belle Arti. Garden, bedchamber, and all details, are conventional. This is better painted, however, than is usual with Neri.
Near by is a Madonna of the school of Verrocchio, with characteristic Florentine type of the period.
Number 56, by Pesellino (or more probably Baldovinetti), is an Annunciation, with the angel just entering. This somewhat unusual point should be noted. Also, the attitude of the Madonna, reminiscent of Donatello’s treatment. The porphyry arcade is also interesting. The cypresses recur. Never pass by an Annunciation unnoticed.
Number 54 is a wooden Madonna, by Neri di Bicci, with angels of the same material drawing the curtain, and child opening a pomegranate.
Number 60, Madonna and Child, with Florentine and Medici saints, by Baldovinetti, is interesting as a specimen of its rare painter, who aimed at certain effects unusual in his period. Cosimo and Damian may be compared with the previous picture in this gallery by Bicci di Lorenzo. Then, notice St. John the Baptist, now growing youthful: he is generally young for the High Renaissance. Beyond, is St. Lawrence, with his gridiron embroidered on his deacon’s robe as a symbol: he represents Lorenzo de’ Medici; behind him St. Julian for Giuliano de’ Medici. Next, are St. Peter Martyr and St. Anthony Abbot, joint patrons of Piero de’ Medici; to balance St. Peter Martyr, St. Francis, kneeling. A very family picture, with Franciscan and Dominican suggestions. The cypresses in the background, common elements in such scenes, may be compared with many other adjacent pictures of the period or earlier. This was once a good hard picture, but it has been badly treated. Compare with 56 for technical method.
Number 62, I note mainly as being a rare secular picture of its period.
In 63, Cosimo Rosselli’s Coronation of the Virgin, the utter want of sacredness in its angels’ faces is conspicuous. The technique, though hard, has this painter’s merits. Note the triple crowns on the two chief personages.
Number 65, by the same painter, is an Adoration of the Magi, where the Florentine portraits to the left are noteworthy. This is, indeed, a picture painted for the sake of its portraiture. The curious character-study in the St. Joseph is worth notice. Observe the tendency toward greater truth in the landscape background.
Number 79 is perhaps by Botticelli; a dainty Tuscan Madonna, with typical face, in clouds with angels.
Numbers 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, are five somewhat insipid figures of Virtues by Pollaiolo, much injured. The Renaissance frieze and decorations are noteworthy.
Number 64 is amply described on its frame; a good hard picture.
Number 84, by Piero di Cosimo, is one of that painter’s favourite mythological scenes, — the Marriage of Perseus. Observe the composition and treatment. We here get a new note struck by the Renaissance, both in painting and architecture.
Above it, 75, is a charming unknown Tuscan Madonna. Observe in the Madonnas, etc., of this group the increasing nudity of the infant.
Number 80, of the school of Ghirlandajo, is a good hard Madonna and saints. You will recognise St. Blaise with his wool-carder, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Benedict, and St. Antony Abbot. Bishop Blaise is the patron of the wool-trade, one of the staple businesses of mediæval Florence.
PIERO DI COSIMO. — ANDROMEDA.
Beyond this, unnumbered, are two fine pictures by Luca Signorelli, noticeable for their study of the nude and their anatomical knowledge. Luca is in this respect, as in many others, the precursor of Michael Angelo. Art for art’s sake is his theory. The shepherds in the background are there only because Luca likes to paint them.
Numbers 81 and 83 show Piero di Cosimo in two very different moods. The Andromeda is most characteristic. Piero delighted in these grotesque and incongruous monsters. In the Madonna picture, the eagle marks St. John the Evangelist; the lily, St. Anthony of Padua; the keys, St. Peter; the cross, San Filippo Benizzi(?); then St. Catherine and St. Margaret, kneeling in the foreground.
Number 90 is an example of the beginning of the Decadence, a Peruginesque Madonna, in a mandorla, adored by the saints who foreshadow the seventeenth century. The St. Francis in front leads on to the insipid church pictures of the Baroque period. The others are the Baptist, Jerome, and Anthony Abbot.
Notice also 91, by Gerino da Pistoia, a Madonna and Saints. I call attention to this picture mainly in order that you may judge for yourself whether the exquisite Cenacolo di Fuligno in the Via Faenza (to be visited later) can really be attributed to this insipid and jejune a
rtist. The San Rocco to the right showing the wound in his leg is a characteristic figure of the painter. The other saints are easily recognised.
In this Long Corridor you have just been able to trace the gradual development of Tuscan art (for the most part as seen in its second or third rate representatives) from the earliest date down to the High Renaissance. We will now proceed into the rooms which contain the worthier representatives of the great age of the early Renaissance. Do not, however, neglect the early works; without them, you can never intelligently understand the later ones.
CHAPTER III.
THE RENAISSANCE PAINTINGS OF THE UFFIZI.
Return along the Corridor to the first open door marked Scuola Toscana. Pass through the first room, and enter the second, opposite, the Sala Terza, which contains the pictures that come first in chronological order among the later painters. This room you cannot study too long. It embraces the finest work of the best period.
On the wall to the left, as you enter, is Jacopo (Landini) da Casentino’s brilliantly coloured Glory of St. Peter, seen enthroned as Pope, with stories from his life on either side. The attendant saints and church dignitaries to whom he distributes honours are symbolical: examine them. Note St. Cosimo. The group of Peter in prison, visited by the angel, to the left, is interesting both in itself and for comparison with the noble Renaissance work in the Brancacci chapel at the Carmine. (Go from one to the other.) To the right is the crucifixion of Peter; at the ends, eight Apostles or Evangelists, Andrew, John, Philip, Matthew, Thomas, the Jameses, Luke.
Above it, 1315, by Mainardi, are beautiful figures of three saints, of whom the chief, St. Stephen, enthroned, is an exquisite modification of the traditional type; beside him, James and Peter.
Number * *1285 is a beautiful Annunciation, recently attributed to Leonardo: if so, an early work. Note here again how the traditional features are all retained, including even the garden and the cypresses in the background (so frequent in early works), while the whole spirit of the scene is transformed and transfused with the developed artistic ideas of the Renaissance. Observe the exquisite sculpture of the prie-dieu. Our Lady’s hands are not Leonardesque. They recall rather the school of Botticelli. This debatable picture may be by Ridolfo Ghirlandajo: but whoever painted it, it is very beautiful.
GHIRLANDAJO. — ADORATION OF THE MAGI.
Number 1295, *Ghirlandajo’s round Adoration of the Magi, is one of this great painter’s masterpieces; admirably balanced and richly coloured. The Madonna and Child, the Three Kings in the foreground, and the Joseph should all be closely noted. Observe the attitudes and actions of the Kings. Their faces are clearly portraits. So are the shepherds, with clear-cut features (as of Florentine scholars and humanists), in the group to the right, and the delicate lads with Medici faces, near the sheep and horses in the background. Notice the beautiful ruined temple, with its conventional shed or stable, and the ox and ass close by, as well as the admirable painting and foreshortening of the horses. The composition, though full, is admirable; the colour most harmonious. Every detail of this picture, one of the finest specimens of Renaissance art, should be carefully studied, both for comparison with others, and as a specimen of its artist’s consummate skill.
I have dealt with this also at greater length in the Pall-Mall Magazine, on the subject of Adorations.
Number 1301, by Antonio Pollaiolo, is St. James, with his pilgrim’s hat and staff, flanked by St. Vincent and St. Eustace. The central saint in such groups is of course the important one. These are fine characteristic figures by this good but not very sympathetic painter. He thinks more of anatomy and portraiture than of soul or sacredness. The colour is splendid. The St. Vincent here may well be compared with his brother deacon St. Stephen, in the Mainardi opposite. The picture was painted for the Chapel of St. James (of the Cardinal of Portugal) at San Miniato.
Number 1311, by *Lorenzo di Credi, “Touch Me Not,” represents Christ and the Magdalen in the garden. A beautiful specimen of the tender and finished painting of this exquisite artist, who always succeeds best in small subjects. Observe the delicate and clear-cut landscape in the background, which should be compared with the mistier and more poetical effect of the mountains in Leonardo’s Annunciation beside it. Contrast also the painting of the robe of Christ with the Madonna’s bosom and the angel’s sleeve in the (doubtful) Leonardo, which last are as well done as it is possible to do them. Lorenzo’s painting has always the distinctness of a bas-relief.
In number 1300, by Piero della Francesca, are good hard portraits (named) in the dry and formal profile manner of this excellent Umbrian painter; at the back (swung by a hinge), an allegorical triumph of the same personages: the duchess drawn by unicorns, the symbol of chastity. Where sufficient information is given on the frames I do not repeat it.
Number 1313, Lorenzo di Credi, Christ and the Woman of Samaria, is good, but not quite so satisfactory as its companion picture. Beneath this is a fine predella by Luca Signorelli, admirable as indicating the aims of the artist.
On the entrance wall, beside the door, * *1160, by Lorenzo di Credi, an Annunciation, is a most beautiful Renaissance revivification of somewhat the same early type as that often reproduced by Neri di Bicci (see the Long Gallery). Observe the admirable way in which the traditional motives are here retained and beautified. There is nothing new, but everything is altered with subtle charm. The attitude and expression of the angel, and the little start of the Madonna, all copied from the Giottesque, are most admirable in their wholly different treatment. Note at the same time how much more closely Lorenzo has followed the traditional ideas than Leonardo (if it be Leonardo) has done. Even the little round windows you will frequently find in earlier treatments; but the clear drawing, the dainty colour, the fairy-like scene, the exquisite delicacy of the technique, are all Lorenzo’s own. So is the beautiful landscape seen through the windows. There are four Annunciations in this room, two of them by Lorenzo. Compare them carefully, in order to mark coincidences and differences. Also, compare the other Lorenzos here. Nowhere else in the world will you see him all at once to equal advantage. You cannot linger too long over this delicious picture.
Number 1307, a * *Filippo Lippi, is a Madonna and Child, the infant supported by two merry boy-angels. Note the folds of the transparent stuff in Our Lady’s head-dress. This is an exquisite picture, representing the same general types as the Coronation of the Virgin in the Belle Arti. It is perhaps Filippo’s most charming panel work. There is little to understand in it, but worlds to look at. Return to it again and again till it has burnt itself into your memory. It was painted for Cosimo Pater Patriæ, and stood originally as an altar-piece in a room in the Medici (Riccardi) Palace. The Madonna is the most perfect embodiment of Lippi’s ideal. The angels are delicious. Even the chair-arm is a poem. As for the colour, it is exquisite.
LORENZO DI CREDI. — ANNUNCIATION.
Above it, 1287, is a round Madonna and Child, by Lorenzo di Credi. This is a type of subject commonly known as the Madonna adoring the Child: you will meet it often. Observe the infant St. John of Florence, sustained by an angel. (See how the Renaissance alters St. John.) The ruined temple and Joseph sleeping in the background (to suggest night) are all conventional. As usual, Lorenzo is less successful on this larger scale than in his smaller pictures: he loses by expansion. Only the Child here is quite worthy of his genius. Compare carefully with the infinitely more beautiful Annunciation beneath it. Yet, if any one else had painted it, it would have been a masterpiece. We judge Lorenzo by Lorenzo’s standard.
Number 1223, by Franciabigio, is a Temple of Hercules, interesting chiefly as a specimen of these curious Renaissance resuscitations of classical subjects. It was the front of a chest, to contain a bride’s trousseau.
Above it, 1303, is a * *Botticelli, exquisitely beautiful Madonna and Child, enthroned, in a niche. In this picture again there is nothing to explain, but much to admire and wonder at. The type of Our Lady is one of Botticelli’s most spiritual c
onceptions.
Number 1314, by * *Lorenzo di Credi, is another beautiful little Annunciation, with the motives considerably varied on the preceding one, but scarcely less beautiful. You will observe by this time that Annunciations fall into different types, and that works in each type are suggested by predecessors. In this delicious and clear little picture, observe the attitude and hand of the kneeling angel; the adoring wonder and joy of the Madonna; and the beautiful landscape in the background, dainty and pure as always with Lorenzo. But observe, also, the constant survival of the loggia, the dividing pillar, and the bed in the background. This is a simple treatment, but exquisitely effective.
Number 1168, by Lorenzo di Credi, Madonna and St. John, with charming landscape background, is a beautiful work, not quite, however, attaining the level of the two Annunciations. This Mater Dolorosa is of course represented after the Crucifixion. Lorenzo succeeds best with isolated figures, as in this room, and the Louvre altar-piece; where he attempts composition, he loses in beauty.
