Works of Grant Allen

by Grant Allen

  Above these, 1291, is a *Luca Signorelli, a Holy Family, in which the springs of Michael Angelo’s art can be distinctly seen. As technique, this picture is of great interest. Observe the masterly treatment of the drapery. It is interesting to contrast the type of colouring in this work, in the Lorenzo, and in the supposed Leonardo, — which last, whoever painted it, is a glorious piece of colouring.

  Below, in a predella, notice the quaint little Sienese stories from the life of Benedict, redolent of the naïveté of place and period. In the centre, as a child, he mends his nurse’s broken platter; on the left he dwells in penitence at the grotto of Subiaco; on the right he is visited at Monte-Cassino by King Totila.

  The right wall is devoted to four exquisite pictures by Botticelli. In the centre is an *Annunciation, in some ways resembling in motive two others in the room, the kneeling Gabriel recalling the second Lorenzo di Credi, while the attitude of the Madonna highly resembles the first; but the difference in technique and conception is immeasurable. There is not a detail in this liquid-flowing drapery that is not instinct with Botticellian feeling. The attitudes of the hands should be compared with the Three Graces in the Primavera. The landscape background may be contrasted with Lorenzo. The coincidences and differences in these pictures will help you toward a conception of the painter’s manner. Movement is the key-note of Botticelli’s art.

  On either side of it are two round pictures, also by Botticelli. That to the left, * *1267 bis, is an inexpressibly lovely Coronation of the Virgin, where the attendant angels represent Medici children. About this picture I have nothing to say. It can only be left to the silent admiration and gratitude of the spectator.

  To the right, 1289, is *a Madonna enthroned, with the Child (lumpy) bearing a pomegranate. The adoring angels also suggest Medici portraits. The atmosphere and feeling of the whole picture are exquisite.

  BOTTICELLI. — STRENGTH.

  To the extreme right and left on the wall are two companion allegorical figures, *Strength, by Botticelli, and Prudence, by Pollaiolo. These pictures, being painted as companion pieces, afford an excellent opportunity for contrasting the spirit of the two painters. They belong to the same series as those in the Long Corridor.

  On an easel in this room is * *Fra Angelico’s Coronation of the Virgin, an often copied picture, with exquisite groups of adoring saints. After our study of this painter at the Belle Arti, however, its characteristics will sufficiently reveal themselves by inspection. It deserves long notice as one of the most beautiful of the master’s easel pictures. It comes from the Church of Santa Maria Nuova. A couple of dozen saints may be recognised.

  Now, enter the room through which you have already passed, Scuola Toscana, Seconda Sala. This room contains for the most part works of the High Renaissance, tending toward the decadence. Some are of the first order of merit, but many are quite inferior in interest to those in the hall we have just quitted.

  Beginning at the left as you enter, is 1271, by Bronzino, Christ Releasing the Souls from Hades. In this tasteless and empty work, only the formal elements belong to the early conception; the whole spirit and sacredness of the scene has disappeared; the composition is vapid. The Christ, still bearing his traditional white flag with the red cross, is treated merely as an excuse for painting the nude, as are most of the other figures round him: and very ugly nude Bronzino makes of them. The Saviour seizes by the hand a brown bald-headed Adam, whom one recognises only by the aid of earlier pictures. The semi-nude women and boys of the foreground are painted entirely for their naked limbs, with the empty art of Bronzino, and with his usual pallid, unnatural flesh-colours. The colouring of all the draperies is also as bad and as crude as it can be. It is curious, in this typical High Renaissance picture, with its false and affected art, to catch glimpses here and there of the earlier saints and patriarchs, with reminiscences of their conventional symbols. The work is mainly interesting as a study in the springs of the decadence. Compare it with the great and noble Christ in Limbo of the Spanish Chapel.

  Next to it, 1269, is a Vasari, portrait of Lorenzo the Magnificent, a good picture of its sort, but chiefly interesting as a portrait illustrating the mean and petty character of the man it represents.

  Number 1270, by Pontormo, is a good portrait of Cosimo I., in the brilliant reds which this painter loved, and which doubtless here represent in part the traditional costume of St. Cosimo, patron saint of the grand duke and his family. Compare with the work opposite, 1267, also by Pontormo, a companion portrait (not contemporary) of Cosimo Pater Patriæ, the founder of the family greatness, in the dress which you will now recognise as being that of St. Cosimo, the holy doctor, as seen in the Bicci di Lorenzo of the Long Corridor. The portrait was, of course, modernised by Pontormo from earlier contemporary pictures.

  Between these two is * *Andrea del Sarto’s beautiful Madonna and Child, raised on a pedestal, supported by two charming baby angels, and flanked on either side by St. Francis and St. John the Evangelist. They are almost devoid of symbols. Compare the exquisitely soft and blended colour of this noble and touching work with the crudity and vulgarity of the contrasted pigments in Bronzino’s Hades. These saints represent perhaps the highest development of the ancient type of altar-piece in which Our Lady is attended by two saints, one on either hand, in formal attitudes. The evolution of the composition in this set of subjects is a most interesting study. Our Lady’s face, the Child, the draperies, the St. John, and his red cloak, are all as lovely as art can make them. In the St. Francis, just a note obtrudes itself of the coming degeneracy. He is a faint trifle affected. But, oh, what colour!

  Beyond it, 1266, good portrait by Bronzino, showing him in one of his happier moments.

  Number 1265 is a design in bistre by Fra Bartolommeo for a Madonna and Child, with St. Anne behind. The position of the St. Anne is conventional; see the Leonardo in the Louvre; in other pictures in Florence the Madonna sits on her mother’s lap. On either side stand the patron saints of Florence, conspicuous among whom are Santa Reparata and San Zanobi. This work, much praised by the critics for its skilful composition, seems to me to strike the first note of the decadence. The adoring face of St. Anne, however, is undeniably beautiful. Observe the survival of her traditional head-dress. The saint was a popular favourite in Florence, as Walter de Brienne was expelled from the city on St. Anne’s Day, which was ever afterward kept as a public holiday. The picture was commissioned by the town of Florence.

  On the back wall, 1261, by Jacopo da Empoli, shows St. Ivo as protector of orphans; a good late picture, painted for the magistracy of the orphans, of which the saint was patron. You will find a rude early picture of the same subject in the Opera del Duomo, interesting for comparison: St. Ivo wears a similar dress in both. Above it is one of Pontormo’s ugliest nudes.

  Number 1268, by * *Filippino Lippi, is an exquisite but somewhat sad-faced Madonna, crowned by angels. The clear and luminous colour strikes the eye at once. In the foreground is a fine ascetic figure of St. John the Baptist of Florence, balanced by San Zanobi, distinguishable by the Florentine lily on his morse. In the background, St. Augustine (the authorities say, St. Victor) and St. Bernard. Observe the beautiful Renaissance architecture and the charming faces of the angels. The flowers also are lovely. Above are the arms of the Florentine people. This great work was painted for a hall in the Palace of the Signoria; hence the grouping, and the Florentine arms at the summit.

  Number 1257, * *Filippino Lippi’s exquisite Adoration of the Magi, is a work instinct with Renaissance feeling. The Old King has already presented his gift, which is held by an attendant on the right. The Middle-aged King, close shaven, kneels behind him. The Young King, as often, is just taking his gift in his hand, while his crown is being removed by a servant, as in earlier pictures. But the movement and characterisation of the scene are entirely Filippino’s. All the figures are portraits, some of them are Medici. The group of the Madonna and Child, with the yellow-robed St. Joseph bearing his staff, has been
entirely transformed from earlier models by the painter’s genius. The attendants to the right are particularly noteworthy. Even the conventional accessories of the ruined temple, the shed, the ox and ass, and the cavalcade in the distance, are all transfused with Filippino’s own sympathetic temperament. This is one of the culminating pictures of the best age of the Renaissance: stand long before it. Observe the hands and feet, and the management of the drapery.

  On the right wall, 1283, is an Entombment, a good hard work by the little-known late Renaissance painter Raffaello di Franco (Botticini), conspicuous for its extraordinary want of emotion. The figures look as if an entombment were an every-day occurrence with them. The Florentine St. John the Baptist marks the country of the painter. In the background is the Way to Calvary.

  Number 1281 bis, is a Cosimo Rosselli, Madonna and Child with the infant St. John; even harder and drier than is the painter’s wont. To the right and left of her are St. James as pilgrim, and St. Peter with his keys. The hands and feet are the best part of the picture. Compare the solid angels holding the crown with the charmingly living and flowing figures in the Filippino to the left of it. The drapery is good.

  Over the door is a *Granacci, the Madonna letting fall the Sacra Cintola to St. Thomas. The charmingly youthful figure of the saint was evidently suggested by Nanni di Banco’s admirable relief on the north door of the Cathedral, itself suggested by the Orcagna at Or San Michele. To the right St. Michael the Archangel kneels to balance St. Thomas. In the empty sarcophagus are flowers as usual — this time roses, not lilies. This is Granacci’s masterpiece, and is an astonishingly fine example for such a painter.

  Number 1252 is *Leonardo’s unfinished Adoration of the Magi, in bistre. Compare with the Filippino. A fine work, full of Leonardesque power, but without sufficient detail to render it attractive to the general observer.

  Number 1279 is *Sodoma’s celebrated St. Sebastian, shot with arrows. This is one of the most beautiful representations of the subject, in a very low tone of colour, and is perhaps Sodoma’s masterpiece. The angel descending in a glory behind with a crown of martyrdom is peculiarly full of Sodoma’s spirit. Fully to appreciate it, however, you must know the master’s other works at Siena. This panel, painted for a Sienese Society, was carried in procession as a plague picture by the Confraternity to which it belonged. On the back is a Holy Family, with St. Sigismund, and the other great plague saint, San Rocco. An attendant will unlock it for you.

  SODOMA. — ST. SEBASTIAN.

  Number 1278 bis is an example of the school of Verrocchio, good Madonna, with St. John of Florence, San Zanobi holding a model of the town and cathedral, St. Francis with the Stigmata, and St. Nicolas of Bari with his three balls. The architecture and decoration are noteworthy. Observe also the palms and cypresses in the background, which often appear in similar pictures.

  Numbers 1277 and 1275 represent two miracles of San Zanobi, and are by Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, son of Domenico; from the church of the Fraternity of San Zanobi. These two pictures, like Granacci’s Sacra Cintola, indicate the extraordinary way in which, during the great age of Florentine art, even secondary painters often produced works of the highest merit. Nothing can be better in its way than their drawing, composition, and colouring. The first represents the miracle of the tree which burst into leaf when the body of San Zanobi was being carried past it (see the Cathedral). Observe its naked boughs, and the leaves just draping them. Note the Baptistery on the right (without the later sculpture) and the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio; to the left, the Campanile and part of the old façade of the Cathedral. The second picture shows the miracle of the restoration of the French (or Gallic) lady’s son, which is also the subject of Ghiberti’s relief on the Area of San Zanobi in the Cathedral. Observe the Florentine lily on San Zanobi’s morse and the good portraits of bystanders. The colour here is beautiful; the grouping fine; and the air of returning life on the child’s pallid face very well rendered.

  Number 1259, *Mariotto Albertinelli’s Visitation, is another splendid example of the way in which comparatively minor artists produced noble works, in the full flush of the High Renaissance. In composition this picture resembles somewhat the Ghirlandajo of the same subject in the Louvre, and far more closely the central part of the Pacchiarotto in the Belle Arti. Compare these two, and note the way the figures are silhouetted against the sky in the background. The design is said to be by Fra Bartolommeo. I have traced the evolution of the arch in the background in one of my papers in the Pall-Mall Magazine. Observe the survival of the traditional hoods in both St. Elizabeth and Our Lady. This picture, however, shows the way in which the beautiful brocades and other carefully wrought stuffs of early painting, well discriminated and reproduced, give place with the High Renaissance to what is known in the abstract as “drapery” — mere colour and folds, without distinctive texture. Observe this trait in this room, progressively, in the Filippinos, the Andrea del Sartos, the Albertinelli, and the Pontormo.

  Next the door, *1254, is an Andrea del Sarto, St. James, with his pilgrim’s staff, as protector of children; a processional work, carried as a banner by the Confraternity of St. James, which protected orphans, and thus much injured. It now displays comparatively little of Andrea’s delicate colouring.

  On easels in the centre are two recent acquisitions: *3452, Lorenzo di Credi’s Venus, a fine treatment of the nude, not in colour quite equal to this artist’s general level; and 3436, an Adoration of the Magi, drawn by Botticelli, but coloured, and spoiled in the colouring, in the seventeenth century. Little of the master remains, except the sense of movement and the character in some of the faces. The distinctive Botticellian feeling has almost gone out of it.

  CHAPTER IV.

  THE FIRST HALL OF THE TUSCAN SCHOOL AND THE TRIBUNE.

  The little room to the right, the Scuola Toscana, Prima Sala, contains an immense number of small works of various ages, many of which are of the first importance.

  On the entrance wall, near the window, 1163 and 34, are *two admirable portraits by Lorenzo di Credi. Notice in the first the hands of a born sculptor, and the sense of form about the eyes and forehead. The second is that of a high-born and unscrupulous Florentine gentleman, a dangerous rival in a love-affair.

  BOTTICELLI. — CALUMNY.

  Number *1178, Fra Angelico’s Adoration of the Virgin, is a beautiful little work, highly typical in its arrangement. In the background is the Temple; in front, the High Priest, clad in his robe and ephod. To the right is the youthful figure of Our Lady, timid and girlish, accompanied by St. Anne and the Virgins of the Lord, with the usual group of children in the distance; to the left St. Joseph with his budded staff, on which sits the dove of the Holy Spirit; behind him, as always, the angry suitors striking, and the impatient suitors breaking their staffs; and to the extreme left, the golden and silver trumpets. Even the garden wall at the back, with its palms and cypresses, is a conventional feature. You will find it in several earlier pictures. Compare the Taddeo Gaddi in Santa Croce, where almost every figure occurs in the self-same order. I have treated this subject at length in one of my articles in the Pall-Mall Magazine.

  Number 1182, *Botticelli’s Calumny, one of this great painter’s finest though less pleasing works, is painted after the description of a picture by Apelles. The fine nude figure to the left recalls the Primavera. So does the beautiful form scattering roses over the nude man in the centre. The admirable Renaissance enrichment of the architecture, and the reliefs of the tribune must not be overlooked. This is a work which requires long study. The drapery of the woman in the foreground, to the extreme right, is a marvel of colouring.

  Above it are three good little pictures, the finest of which, 1162, by Fra Angelico, is one of a series of the Life of John the Baptist, and represents Zacharias writing, “His name is John.”

  Number 1152 is a good small Fra Bartolommeo.

  Number 1184, a *Fra Angelico, represents the death of the Madonna, attended, as usual, by the apostles and ange
ls, with Christ in a mandorla receiving her glorified spirit. The apostles have their names inscribed on their haloes. Identify them. The little angels at the side are in Fra Angelico’s most charming manner.

  Number 1245, by Jacopo da Empoli, is a good Sacrifice of Abraham, somewhat reminiscent of Sodoma. Most of the other pictures on this wall require some attention.

  Number 1156, * *Botticelli’s Judith, with the head of Holofernes, is a marvellous work, deserving long study. No other painter ever put so much life and motion into his figures.

  Beyond the door are some of Bronzino’s unpleasing nudes.

  A detestable Cigoli of St. Francis receiving the Stigmata, and other unpleasing works of the same period, are also here.

  On the end wall is an interesting Martyrdom of St. Sebastian. The type is the same as that of the Pollaiolo in the National Gallery, and the rude old work in the Opera del Duomo.

  Beneath it, 1146, attributed to Andrea del Sarto, is a Madonna and Child with the infant St. John; not a pleasing specimen.

  Number 1312 is another of Piero di Cosimo’s fantastic monsters.

  Number 1150, of the school of Pinturicchio, is a Madonna, with St. Joseph and St. Blaise; the latter easily recognised by his wool-carder.

  Return along the right wall, passing by more nudes by Bronzino, and a little Visitation of the seventeenth century, interesting to compare with the Albertinelli, tolerable nudes by Zuccheri, and 1209, an unspeakably vulgarised Dead Christ by Bronzino; then, a Leda with the Swan, and other works, the best of their type, but singularly unpleasing.