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ITALIAN MASTERS IN GERMAN

GALLERIES.
ITALIAN MASTERS
IN

GEKMAN GALLEEIES.
A CEITICAL ESSAY ON THE ITALIAN PICTURES
IN THE GALLERIES OF

MUNICH— DRESDEN— BERLIN,

BT

GIOVANNI MORELLI,
MEMBER OF THE ITAXIAX SEXATE.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY

MRS. LOUISE M. RICHTER.

LONDON: G-EORGE BELL AND SONS,

YOEE STEEET, CO VENT GARDEN.
1883.
CHISWICK PRESS :
— C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT,
CHANCERY LANE.

TVF GUTY CCr^IU

 PEEFACE.

THE most important work on Italian painting, as re-

gards both contents and compass, is incontestably
" A New History of Painting in Italy, in three volumes,
London, 1866," with the continnations, " A History of
Painting in North Italy (1871), in two volumes, by J. A.
Crowe and Gr. B. Cavalcaselle," and " Tiziano, la sua vita
ed i suoi tempi, di G. B. Cavalcaselle e J. A. Crowe, in
two volumes, 1877."
These seven volumes are known throughout civilized
Europe, and are the foundation of all study of Italian
painting in England, Germany, and France. This work
contains the results of the latest researches by specialists,
and is compiled with the greatest industry and a most
praiseworthy knowledge of existing records. It has,
moreover, the advantage over other histories of Italian
art, that it is the work not of one m.an alone, which is

sure to make a book on art one-sided, but of two men of

equal capacity, one belonging to the Teutonic race, the
other to the Latin. The judgments and opinions laid
down in the work have by that means acquired a solidity
VI PKEFACE.
which puts all national prejudice out of the question.
We need not wonder, therefore, that it has every-
where the highest reputation, nay, that the opinion of
these celebrated authors on Italian works of art is univer-
sally considered decisive and final. But whüst I join
in fully recognizing the merits of Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle's labours, these could not prevent me from
being in not a few instances of a different opinion and
;

to maintain and prove these adverse opinions, is one of the

principal aims of the present Critical Studies. The reason
of such different opinions lies essentially in my method of
study, which deviates from that of the distinguished critics
I have named. My views and my judgment on the dif-

ferent painters are based solely on the study of their

works, and not only of one work, or of a few, but of all

that I could possibly examine. Again, apart from histori-

cal data, there is not much that I have gleaned from books,
having come very early to the conclusion that there is but
little to be learnt from books on art, —nay, that most of
them blunt and paralyze our taste for a true living know-
ledge of art, rather than quicken and refine it. This re-
pugnance to a bookish study of art is probably the reason
why my researches sometimes lead to other conclusions
than those of Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle. But I
am farfrom thinking my own judgment infallible, nor
do I wish at all to detract from the well-earned fame
of the two celebrated critics. If I place our several
opinions, on one and the same subject, side by side, it is
because I do not put absolute faith in my own knowledge,
and would gladly submit the controversy to the close
examination of professionals and connoisseurs.
May I also express the hope that the famous authors of
the "New History of Painting in Italy," should these
 PREFACE. Vn

modest lucubrations meet their eye, will not blame me for

not always sharing their opinion, but will grant me the same
freedom in the republic of thought which I do not grudge
to them, or to any fellow-workers ? To bickering and
strife I am a declared enemy. Life is too short and time
too precious to waste on the weary polemics daily waged
by art-critics. Whoever is not opposed to my experimental
method, but sees in it a way to get out of dreary dilet-
tantism, and attain to a real Science of Art, let him take
np the and follow me. Whoever, on the contrary,
cross
finds my method too materialistic and unworthy of a lofty
mind, let him leave the heavy ballast of my work un-
touched, and soar to higher spheres in the balloon of
fancy. He is sure to have the applause of the gaping
multitude.
Giovanni Morelli.
Milan, 20th July, 1877.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Page
Munich :

Introduction
Tlie Venetians
.........
......... 1
8
The
The
The
Lombards
Tuscans
.........
Ferrarese and Bolognese . . . . . . 55
59
70
TheUmbrians
Drawings by Italian Masters
DRESDEN :
—
...... 76
86

Introduction . . . . . . . . .100
The Ferrarese 101
The Venetians 137
The Lombards 198
The Tuscans 200
The Eomans 210
Drawings by Italian Masters . . . . . .213
Berlin :

Introduction
The
.........
......
FeiTarese and Bolognese
227
232
The Umbrians 252
The Florentines 339
The Venetians .355
The Paduans 390
TheBrescians
The Bergamese
The Lombards
......... 396
408
409
Index 445
 I. MUNICH.

THE Munich Gallery has been the subject, as I

aware, of a careful critical notice from the pen of
am

my late friend, Otto Mündler. In order, however, to avoid

all influence from the judgment of another, I have pur-
posely refrained from reading it — and the more so from
the high esteem for Mündler's rich knowledge and dis-
criminating eye which I entertain. His well-known work,
" Essai d'une analyse critique de la Notice des tableaux
Italiens du Musee ITational du Louvre," 1850, is in many
respects a model of art-criticism ; and, I have no doubt,
even the foremost art-critics of our time, Messrs. Crowe

and Cavalcaselle, would admit that they have found in

that little volume many hints for their own guidance.
Mündler possessed the genuine artist-nature, sensitive, in-
genuous, susceptible to allis beautiful, and capable
that
of the highest and purest enthusiasm. It was this enthu-
siasm, iadeed, which too often played him a shabby trick,
of which I could easily furnish instances. In his day no
one was more intimately acquainted with Italian art or
better able to appreciate it. How comes it, then, that one
so highly gifted and so indefatigable in study should not
B
2 MUNICH,

have avoided nurnerons and grave mistakes ? In my

opinion these are traceable to the fact that while Mündler
relied solely on his fine memory and marvellons gift of

intuition, he followed no regular method in his researches ;

and without method, the most experienced connoisseur will

ever waver in his judgment, and never be quite sure of
his facts. And this method, as I take it, can only be of
that experimental kind which from the time of Leonardo
da Vinci and Galileo, to that of Volta and Darwin, has led
to such glorious discoveries. By far the greater number
of pictures which have descended to us from the best
periods have been subjected to barbarous restorations,^ so
that instead of beholding the physiognomy of a master in
his work, the connoisseur sees only the black mask with
which the restorer has covered it, or, at best a skinned
and utterly disfigured surface. In such a ruin there is
no possibility of recognising the hand of the master, or of
distinguishing an original from a copy. Only a close ob-
servation of the forms peculiar to a master in his repre-
sentation of the human figure, can lead to any adequate
results. This remark applies, of course, only to those
genuine artists, who, in their manner of conception and
expression, have a style of their own ; and not to those
imitators who, in the history of Art, as in that of Science,
only figure as mere nonentities. Insignificant as they are,
they can only attract minds of a kindred sort, and those

at most for certain technical merits. As my multiplied

studies have convinced me that this experimental method
may be of use, if I do not deceive myself, to young

^ In the last century they generally contented themselves with paint-

ing a picture over ; of late they have taken to effacing it first, which is
still worse, especially in Venetian pictures of the sixteenth century.
 ;

INTEODUCTION. 3

students, I shall, as opportunity oflfers, give further in-

stances of my meaning. But
must remark beforehand,
I
that it is no such easy matter as might be thought to
discern the forms peculiar to a master ; and that just as
the acquisition of a foreign language demands time and
toil, so the eye requires long, very long practice, to learn
to see correctly.
I will begin with the Venetians. And by the Venetian
School I do not only mean that belonging to Venice itself,

but, as generally acknowledged, all the schools in those

portions of Upper Italy which once belonged to the Re-
public, and which, while showing more or less the in-
fluence of the City of Waters, did not forfeit their respec-
tive local characteristics. This provincial character, this
peculiar physiognomy, the offspring of difference of race,
stronger in one province and weaker in another, is not
a thing to be studied and learned in picture galleries,
chieflybrought together on the most eclectic principles.
No, must be sought on the very soil whence it grew,
it

and with which it stands in the closest organic connexion

for nowhere in the world has painting been so spontane-
ously the language of a people as in Italy.
The literature of the Italians, from various causes,
needless here to specify, never developed itself into a
popular form ; art, on the contrary, meeting no obstruc-
tion, was the genuine outcome of the people. It sprang
up from the soil, a living growth, speaking everywhere
the native language, the local dialect. And this rela-
tion between audible and visible speech, between the
spoken and the painted or modelled tongue or, to speak —
more plainly, between the two forms in which the same
spirit expresses itself, viz., the language of words, and that

of art — this relation, I say, between the two modes of

4 MUNICH.

expression proceeds from no external coincidences, but

from what we may term causative Nature.
Now, in the Venetian provinces this vernacular art-
language was never diverted into other channels, nor
forced to rec.eive a foreign impress, as elsewhere, by-

Spanish domination ; its organic development can therefore

be traced continuously from the thirteenth century down
to Tiepolo, Canaletto, and Longhi ; that is to say, from
its germ to its final extinction. For, of course, Canova
and David, Carstens and Cornelius, did not really (as is
commonly believed, and as Kaulbach has represented on
the side wall of the new picture gallery at Munich) deal
the death-blow to the art of the Pigtail Period : it died a
and was therefore dead long before the
natural death,
above-named gentlemen founded the so-called New Art.
But, as I have said, this provincial dialect of art can only
be studied in the country where it originated : in remote
village churches, in fresco paintings, on the fronts of
mansions, or on the interior walls of farmhouses, &c.
Whoever Bergamo, for instance, and the splendid
visits
valleys of the Serio and the Brembo, will still find there
many a painting of the school of the Boselli, the Gavazzi,
the Scipioni of Averara ; he will still come upon many a
work that dates from the first half of the fifteenth cen-
tury, and recognise in its figures and action the same
character which he finds expressed in the figures and
gestures of the people in the street, nay, in their very
idiom ; namely, the character of a simple, sturdy, energetic
mountain folk who do not always know how to unite re-
finement and grace with their inbred strength and vigour.
And the same fundamental features, though somewhat
subdued and disguised, he will again recognise in the
works of those Bergamese painters and sculptors who,
 INTRODUCTION. 5

when still young, were sent up from their native valleys

to the capital, Venice, to finish their artistic education,
such as Palma Vecchio, Previtali, Cariani, the two Santa
Croce, and others.
What has just been said will apply equally to the de-
velopment of all the art-schools in Italy, except that in the
schools of the less gifted races one meets with here and
there a gap, especially in the period of transition from the
heroic art-epoch, i.e., the Giottesque, to fhe scientific, i.e., the
epoch in which the study of linear-perspective and realistic

nature first occurs. The Florentine school in this, as well

as other respects, is the most perfectly developed, and
takes precedence of all other schools in the world ; next to
it comes, perhaps, the Veronese. Still, as Messrs. Crowe

and Cavalcaselle justly remark, the Venetian school of

the fourteenth and the early fifteenth century, as regards
their painting, never got much beyond a lisp, and only
arrived at articulate speech in Gentile da Fabriano and
—
Pisanello not, as some German writers will have it, in the
much overrated Joannes Alemannus we must not forget ;

that in that very period the artists at Venice were ex-

pressing themselves at the same time strikingly and beau-
tifully in stone, in architectural and sculptural works. I
need only mention the names of Filippo Calendario, the
brothers delle Massegne, and of the master Bartolommeo,^
to draw attention to this important fact in the development
of the language of art ; for, to be just to a particular school
of art, we must not dwell exclusively on one form of its

manifestation, namely, painting. At a later stage of de-

velopment, towards the end of the fifteenth century, when

^ Compare the sculptures on the Doge Palace of the middle of the

fifteenth century, in S. Marco, the Frari, S. Giovanni e Paolo, Abazia, &c.
6 MUNICH.
pictorial art reached its prime in the Vivarini and the
Bellini, we, on the contrary, see sculpture outstripped and
taken in tow by painting, as it were, not confined to
Venice, but which went on pari passu through the whole
of Northern Italy. Whilst, for instance, in the works of
the Lombardi, and even of Alessandro Leopardi, we re-
cognise now the Vivarini, now Giovanni Bellini ; so in
the figures of the eminent sculptor, Antonio Riccio of
Verona, we detect the inspii-ation of that Veronese school
of painting which produced Riccio's fellow-townsman, the
painter Liberale {e.g., the "Adam and Eve " in the cortile
of the Doge's Palace at Venice), also the statues on the
altars of the churches at Verona ; so in many a sculp-
ture of Alfonso Lombardi ^
we discern the spirit of Dosso
Dossi, &c.
In the Milanese country alone sculpture was not only
not thrown into the shade by painting, but even influenced
it in many
respects, to which result the numerous sculp-
tures on and in the Certosa of Pavia and on the cathedral
of Milan may have contributed their share."

^ For instance, in those busts in the fa9ade of the Palazzo Bolognini

at Bologna,
^ Andrea Solario in the modelling of his heads surpasses all contem-
poraries ; see, for instance, his" Ecce Homo " in the Poldi-Pezzuoli
Collection at Milan; an excellence for which he has probably to
thank his brother Cristoforo, the sculptor. A
portrait in bas-relief by
Cristoforo Solario il Gobbo, in the Trivulzio Museum at Milan, gives
quite the impression of a likeness painted by Andrea. I felt sure I could
distinctly trace the influence of the sculptor Amadeo on the painter
Bramantino, in an " Adoration of Christ," or " Nativita," in the picture
gallery of the Ambrosiana. Pictures by Bramantino are to be found in
the JMilanese towns, at Pavia and Milan, Brera Gallery, Museo Archeo-
logico, in the convent of St. Maria delle Grazia, over the portal of
S. Sepolcro, and elsewhere. Pictures byFoppa are in the town gallery
of Bergamo ; at Savona ; two at the Brera Gallery (Nos. 69 and 466-471),
 INTRODUCTIOX. 7

If, therefore, we seek to study the history of a people's

art, we must devote the same attention to all three forms
of its manifestation — painting, sculpture, and arch.itecture.

Above all, I recommend to students the study of drawings

by great masters ; their painted works have come down to
us in most cases so disfigured by the tooth, of time or the
paw of the restorer, that very often we can no longer re-
cognise in them the hand and mind of the artist. In their
drawings, on the contrary, the whole man stands before
us without disguise or affectation, and his genius with its

beauties and its failings speaks directly to the mind.

But the study of drawings is not only indispensable to
our knowledge of the different masters ; it also serves to
impress more sharply on our minds the distinguishing
characteristics of the several schools. Much more clearly
than in paintings we recognise in drawings the family
features, both intellectual and material, of the different
masters and schools ; for instance, their manner of ar-
ranging drapery, the way they indicate light and shadow,
the preference they give to pen and ink, or to black or red
chalk, &c.
I have therefore thought it advisable here and there to
point out particularly characteristic drawings by old
masters, and to recommend the acquisition of the respec-
tive photographs of them to those students who feel inclined
to take up the studies which I have gone through. They
can thus, in a cheap way, procure the most valuable aids to
a serious study of art. This, of course, presupposes some
acquaintance with fully executed works of the respective

falsely ascribed to Zenale ; in the Museo Archeologico ; at the Collection

Poldi-Pezzuoli. The fresco, No. 69, represents the Martyrdom of
S. Sebastian.
 ;

8 MUNICH.

masters, whetlier in painting or in sculpture; a mere

beginner would be simply bewildered by drawings. But
the pleasure such a study affords to the practised eye I
reckon among the purest that are allotted to man on
earth.

THE VENETIANS.
If we look into Dr. Mai'ggraff 's new Catalogue, published
in 1872, to see if the early masters of schools are well repre-
sented in the rooms of this gallery, we are struck especially
with two names, belonging to men who during the fifteenth
century were the chief representatives, one of the Venetian,
the other of the Paduan school of painting, namely, Gio-
vanni Bellini and Andrea Mantegna. These are great
masters, full of character, and one would think their
physiognomy was clearly stamped on the memory of every
connoisseur. Shall we then, without more ado, pin our
faith to the Catalogue ? Hardly, for Dr. Marggraff him-
self says in his preface, that human opinions are not in-
fallible. The mind, like the body, has its habitudes, and
clings even more to frauds and falsehoods which have
been handed down to it than to the truth. Old Leonardo
da Vinci was quite right when he said, " II massimo

inganno degli omini e nelle loro opinioni." I therefore

advise younger students who really wish to profit by
all

picture galleries, to examine the exhibited paintings with-

out prejudice, and uninfluenced by the opinions of others.
In doing so, they will doubtless fall into many a blunder
but, after all, man is apt to err, and it is only by falling
that one learns to stand. The greatest connoisseurs and
critics, as Rumohr, Otto Mündler, and also Crowe and
 THE VENETIANS. 9

Cavalcaselle and others have acted on this plan, and that

is the reason why their opinions do not always agree with
each other, nor, as we shall see, with those of Dr. Marg-
graff. I hope, therefore, that I shall not be blamed if I

do not always accept their opinions, nor that of the Doctor,

provided I point out in each case the reasons which induce
me to differ from them. And such reasons must not only
be aesthetic and subjective ones, depending on individual
taste and humour ; they must be based on tangible facts
perceptible to every observing eye.
The little picture here imputed to Giambellini is in Room
7, and bears the number 489 (formerly 1196). It repre-
sents, says Dr. Marggraff in his Catalogue, the bust of the
artist painted on panel. The portrait exhibits a man of about
twenty- eight or thirty years of age, and would consequently
have been executed in the year 1456, if painted from life.
Giovanni Bellini, the younger son of Jacopo, was born in
1426 ; he must therefore have painted his own portrait at
the age of thirty, about the same time when he painted the
"Pieta" in the municipal palace of Rimini, and the
Madonna picture (No. 372) in the Academy of Venice. On
examining the manner and style of this painting, we find
that it points to a much later time. Totally different from
which Yasari
this portrait are the portraits of Giambellini
and Carlo Ridolfi prefixed to their biographies of the
master, and which are quite in conformity with those in
the collection of portraits in the Uffizi at Florence.^ Be

' The portrait of Giambellini, at Florence, No. 354, is signed

JOANNES BELINVS. To judge from the cotton-like clouds peculiar
to Niccolb Rondinello, this portrait seems to me to be by the latter
artist. It is well known that Niccolb Eondinello signed many of his
own pictures with his master's name, e.g., one in the Doria Gallery at
Rome and probably also the Madonna picture with SS. Peter and
;
 10 MUNICH.
that as it may, this picture, with its green ground (Bel-

lini'sground is always black), is in no case by the Venetian

old master, nor by any master at all, but by a professional
dabbler it is far too tame even to be a work of the dull
;

Mansueti.^ The name of Giambellini is a sacred name in

art-history, and really ought not to be so flagrantly abused.

Sebastian (No. 61 in the Louvre Gallery), signed Joannes Bellinus.

The type of St. Sebastian is peculiar to Eondinello, the perpendicular
folds in the dress of the Vii'gin, with the broad gold border, are also
very characteristic of the master. Messrs, Ci'owe and Cavalcaselle
(vol. i. p. 183) consider the portrait at the Uffizi Gallery to be Giam-
bellini's portrait of himself, and place it between the years 1480 and
1487. The best portrait of Giambellini is unquestionably the one con-
tained in the large pictureby Gentile Bellini " St. Mark preaching to—
the people of Alexandria," No. 164 in the Bi'era Gallery at Milan. We
here see both the brothers Bellini among the audience : Gentile in
the gold brocade dress; opposite him, Giovanni, with the golden chain
of a knight, seen in profile. This picture was painted about the year
1505 Giovanni was then about eighty years of age. This distinguished-
;

looking head in profile is quite in conformity with the small head seen
in profile (penand ink, sepia and chalk), which the Duke d'Aumale
possesses among his rich collection of drawings (photographed by Braun,
No. 187, Beaux Arts). To judge from Braun's photograph, the original
drawing seems have been retouched in several places ; the signature
to
is also and seems to be as follows
altered, " lo. bellinum Victor:
—
discipulus p, 1505," I am unable to say whether this drawing is by
Vittore Camelo, who executed a medal of Giovanni Bellini in 1508, or
whether it belongs to the painter and scholar of Giambellini, Vittore di
Matteo,
^ Messrs, Crowe and Cavalcaselle assign this portrait to Gentile Bellini
(vol, i. p, 135). I ask my young friends just to examine the good,
although injui'ed, portrait of Catarina Cornaro in the National Gallery
at Pesth —
the only aiithentic painting by Gentile Bellini known to me
—
between the Ehine and the Danube and I shall be surprised if they
recognise the same author in the two pictures. The British jNIuseum
possesses two fine and genuine drawings, very characteristic of Gentile
Bellini, photographed by Braun, Nos. 143, 144. The portrait of St.
Peter Martyr, No. 808, in the National Gallery, is by Gentile Bellini,
 — :

THE VENETIANS. 11

And where is The mere name of

Mantegka's picture ?

this great master kept me on when I entered

tenter-hooks
the gallery. The small work hangs in Room 9, number
549 (now 586). When I first saw the picture, I was
really taken aback. " Too bad !" I cried, in my indigna-
tion :
" is Professor MarggrafF not satisfied with insulting
Giambellino, but he must also degrade and disgrace his
brother-in-law, the great Andrea Mantegna ? His wrath
would appear to be aimed at the whole Bellini kindred
not very christian of him "
! And Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle,what do they say of this so-called Mantegna
of the Munich Gallery ? " The style is a mixture of that
of Galasso and that of Tura, and recalls that of the fore-
going examples. We may therefore (?) class this piece
under the name of Bono (of Ferrara)." History, vol. i.

p. 376. So that they consider this picture to be a work

of the Ferrara-Verona school, for Vittore Pisano, the
master of Bono, was a Veronese, and Bono himself a
Ferrarese.^ Here again I am sorry not to be able to share
the opinion of the celebrated historiographers. To me the
picture seems entirely of Veronese origin ; and it strikes
me, moreover, that the wooden eyelids, the architectural
form of the throne (a niche) in which Mary is seated, the
floor, laid with black and white slabs of m.arble, &c.,

and not by Giovanni Bellini, as stated in the Catalogue. The latter

artist drew the ear of a different shape than did his brother Gentile.
' I know only two authentic works by this clumsy and inferior master^

namely, the fresco of St. Christopher, in the Eremitani chapel at Padua,

and the small "St. Jerome" at the National Gallery of London, No.
771. The landscape in this small picture recalls the landscapes which
Gentile da Pabriano represented in the background of his pictures.
But the landscape in Bono's fresco reminds one more of Pisanello's
manner in his fresco in St. Anastasia at Verona, " St. George and the
Dragon."
 —

12 MUNICH.
characterize sufficiently the style of the school of Girolamo
and Francesco Benaglio. Whether the M over the A on
r> the left pilaster of the throne signifies Maria, as Crowe and
"I
Cavalca seile think, and not Andrea Mantegna, is to me
quite immaterial. This mnch is certain, that Mantegna
never drew in this style, and he never signed his name
in this way. His usual signature was Andreas Mantinea
C.P, (Civis Patavinus). Besides, above these two myste-
rious letters we two others, an S and a V, and in the
find
V, moreover, an E, thus S '^. This S. Veronensis may
:

therefore have been a scholar of Girolamo, and a fellow-

pupil of Francesco Benaglio, the imitator and copyist of
Mantegna.^ In no case, however, does this paltry little
picture belong to Bono of Ferrara, much less to the great
Mantegna. It is the work of some Veronese of the last
three decades of the fifteenth century, who stood in close
connexion with Francesco Benaglio.

After the sorrowful experience of the so-called works

of Giovanni Bellini and Mantegna, we must be the more
cautious in examining the pictures enumerated in the
catalogue as Jacopo Palma, Lorenzo Lotto, Giorgione,
and Titian.
To GiOEGiONE, a myth to the public generally, and all but
unknown even to so-called connoisseurs. Dr. Marggrafi"
two pictures a modesty highly laudable in
ascribes only :

Both of them hang in Room 7, under

a gallery catalogue.
the numbers 470 and 582. The first of these repre-

' See his signed picture in the church of S. Bernardino at Verona

a modified copy of the picture by Mantegna at S. Zeno. By Girolamo
Benaglio are several pictures in the Municipal Gallery of Verona, as
also some single figures of saints, which might belong to our S. Vero-
nensis.
 THE VENETIANS. 13

sents, according to Dr. Marggraff, the " Vanity of this

world," and was formerly ascribed to Titian, also by

some connoisseurs to Palma Vecchio. Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle (vol. ii. p. 150) are undecided whether it be
by Giorgione ; and even if it is, they think it is painted
" in the spirit of Pordenone." Later on, however (vol. ii.

p. 287), they attribute the picture to this latter master,

and thereupon remark, that a " Sibilla," painted in the same
manner, was in 1632 exhibited in the Canonici collection
at Ferrara, as a work of Pordenone, but was designated
" Prudenza." First, then, it appeared to them a work of
Giorgione's, painted in the spirit of Pordenone, and after-
wards they thought it a work of Pordenone's painted in
the spirit of Giorgione. But on this fine picture I will
enlarge further on.
Professor Marggraff makes Palma Vecchio form himself
on Giovanni Bellini, and afterwards on Giorgione and
Titian. This opinion, which, by-the-bye, has hitherto been
the prevailing one, is stoutly contested by Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle. According to them, Palma holds almost
the first place as pioneer of the Venetian school in the first
half of the sixteenth century. They tell us, there was no

considerable town in the Po valley, from the snowy Alps of

Piedmont to the Gulf of Trieste, that escaped the influence
of Palma's art. They assure us, further, that Pellegrino

da S. Daniele, Pordenone, Morto da Feltre, and many other

famous masters of those times, borrowed their style for the
most part from Palma; they assume, therefore, that this
great painter must have been born before 1480, that he was
consequently several years older than Titian, Pordenone,
and Sebastian del Piombo, and of about the same genera-
tion as Pellegrinoand Giorgione. On all these grounds
they confer upon him the honour of having, with Titian
 —

14 MUNICH.

and Giorgione, modernized and regenerated Venetian

art.'

This question, as every student will at once perceive, is

not without importance to the history of Venetian art. I

hope, therefore, to be allowed to dwell upon it at some
length, so as to clear up the point according to my lights.

The earlier writers, such as Vasari and Carlo Ridolfi, who

have left us accounts of Palma, mention him as younger
than Titian and Giorgione ; and Vasari's Venetian infor-
mant, who reported to him on Palma and Lotto, twelve
years after Palma's death, makes him die when forty-eight
years old. Such was the talk among the painters then at
Venice. And why should we doubt the statement ? Have
we any positive reasons that prove the contrary ? None
whatever ! We shall see further on, in the biography of
Antonello da Messina, that Vasari was much more correct in
those reports on the ages of artists which were communi-
cated to him (generally by unprejudiced and impartial
menj, than in the data he sometimes drew from his own
imagination to make his narrative interesting. Now, a
few years ago, Palma's will was discovered, and the year
of his death. According to this document, he died in
1528 ; and if, as Vasari was informed from Venice, he
died at the age of forty-eight, he must have been born in
1480 ; though whether at Venice or at Serinalta, cannot be
decided.
The following is the original text of Palma's will :
^

*'
Testamenium magistri Jacohi Palma pidoris de confinio
SaiicU Bassi.

^ See vol. ii. p. 456.

^ Published March, 1866. Yenezia, Antonelli Edit. Raccolta Yeneta,
dispensa 2^, Tom. I., Serie I^.
 THE VENETIANS. 15

" Die XXVIII IÜLIJ MDXXVIII.

" Die 28 mensis Julij 1528 Indictione prima Rivoalti.
Cum vite sue terminum, etc. Quapropter ego Jacobus
Palma pictor qm. ser Antonij de confinio Sancti Bassi,
sanus Dei gratia mente et intellectu, licet corpore pergra-
vatus, timens hujus seculi pericula, ad me vocare feci
presbyterum Aloysium I^atalem plebanum, etc. . . . ut hoc
meum scriberet testamentum
" In primis namque animam meam Altissimo commen-
dans, instituo et esse volo meos fidei commissaries et bujus
mei testament! exequtores ser Marcum de bajeto, merca-
torem vini, ser Joannem frutarolum (fruit-mercbant)
in confinio sancti Angeli, et ser Fantinum de Girardo
tinctorem (all three probably Bergamese settled at
Yenice) qui omnes concorditer exequantur, etc

" Item volo quod per meos commissarios dispensetur

ducatos viginti quinque inter meos affines et consaguineos
magis indigentes, tarn in presenti civitate Venetiarum,
quam in territorio bergomensi pro anima mea
"Item volo quod mittatur Assisium ad orandum pro
anima mea cum elemosyna consueta. Item dimitto Mar-
garitae nepti meae, filiae quondam ser Bartholomei olim
fratris mei, ducatos ducentos pro suo maritare seu mona-
chare. Et ipsa descedente ante suum maritare vel mona-
chare, ipsi ducati ducenti deveniant in meam commissariam.
(The residue of his fortune) :

" Dimitto et relinquo Antonio, Joanni et Marietae, fra-

tibus, nepotibus meis, filijs prefati quondam ser Bartho-
lomei olim fratris mei, equaliter et equis portionibus inter
eos, etc."

We may conclude from this that Palma Yecchio was not

married, and therefore had no legitimate children.
16 MUNICH.

Among the forty pictures which remained uncompleted

in his studio, we find a " retrato de messer Francesco
Querini," which is probably identical with the unfortunately
much repainted portrait of a man exhibited in the Querini
Stampalia Collection at Yenice. The Querini were
patrons of Palma.
Another portrait found half-finished in Palma's studio is
described in the inventory as follows :
— " Quadro de una
donna retrata con fornimenti de nogera, le qual depenture,
e scorzade e descolade con maneghe (sleeves) de razo zalo
(yellow) de circa b' I." This picture may be the exquisite
female portrait, which is to be seen in the same Querini
Collection.
"We may conclude from the beginning of the will that
Palma had been unwell for some years, perhaps from as
far back as 1525, consumption being probably his ill-
ness. His altarpiece, the "Adoration, of the Magi," in
the Brera gallery, Wo. 134, would in that case have been
executed for the greater part by a pupil or assistant.
Vasari calls him Palma Viniziano, by which it may be
supposed that, like his grand-nephew, Palma the younger,
he was born in the city of lagoons. Later writers, how-
ever, record that he was born at Serinalta, the home of
his parents. Be that as it may, Palma is, as a painter,
a Venetian, but as an artist, a Bergamese turned Ve-
netian, for, notwithstanding his having studied his art
at Venice, he could never entirely lay aside his moun-
tain-nature in his works. Compared with Giorgione and
Lotto, or Bonifazio Veronese, his figures are certainly of
a more severe and energetic, but also coarser nature,
than those of the above-named contemporaries, who were
sons of the plain. I do not know of a single work by
Palma which is signed or dated, whilst we possess signed
 THE VENETIANS. 17

pictures by Lorenzo Lotto of as early as 1500, 1505, and

1506.
" The Angel with the youthful Tobit," in the picture
gallery of Stuttgart, said to be by an unknown master,
is, I consider, one of the earliest paintings by Palma.
This interesting little picture is much disfigured by re-
painting ; in the head of Tobias, which is borrowed from
that of the infant Christ in the Madonna picture by
Giambellini at the Venetian Academy (N'o. 313), we
recognise the pupil of Giovanni Bellini.^ Another early
work of the master is, "Christ with the Adulteress," seen
by Morelli's Anonymus, together with the " Adam and
Eve " of the Brunswick Museum, at the house of Francesco
Zio, at Venice, in 1512. It is now exhibited under the name
of Titian in a very damaged condition at the gallery of the
Capitol in Rome.^ Also the " Adam and Eve " seems to be
one of his early works, painted somewhere about 1508-10.
With the exception of Palma's pupils, Bonifazio Vero-
nese and Cariani, and perhaps also his feeble imitator,
Galizzi of Bergamo,^ I am at a loss to see in which
of his contemporaries at Vercelli, Milan, Pavia, Lodi, or
even Bergamo, Brescia, and Verona, Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle think they can detect the influence of Palma.
I should almost think they were confounding Palma with
Giorgione. It was only in his later years that Palma be-

* Messrs, Crowe and Cavalcaselle are of a different opinion, and pro-

nounce this interesting picture to be " a feeble Bergamasque production
reminiscent of the Santa Croce."
^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle do not mention by so much as a
syllable this interesting picture; it seems to me to recall Giambellini
even more than Titian.
^ By this very inferior painter there are several signed works in the
municipal collection of Bergamo, and one in the house Agliardi at the
same town.
C
lö MUNICH.
came celebrated outside of Venice the only commissions
;

—
he received for altar-pieces if we except those which he
painted in three villages of his native Brembo Valley, viz.,

Serinalta, Dossena, and Peghera —were from Fontanelle,

near Oderzo, Zerman near Treviso, and Vicenza. All
these larger altar-pieces betraj the hand of a finished
master, and belong to the years 1515 to 1525. Lorenzo
Lotto, on the contrary, worked in his own Trevisan
country as early as 1500 to 1506. In 1506 he got a com-
mission from the Dominican monks of Kecanati, and in
1509 he was honoured with the privilege of painting in
the rooms of the Vatican. From all this it seems to me
very doubtful, to say the least, that Palma could have
been older than Lotto and Titian. Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle state further, that Pordenone, Pellegrino, and
Morto da Feltre borrowed their style from Palma. As
for Morto, I give him up, as I know very little about him ;

but Pordenone in his younger years, e.g., in his beautiful

altar-piece of Sussigana, and in his frescoes at the Palace-
chapel of S. Salvatore, betrays very clearly the influence
and more particularly of Titian when still
of Giorgione,
Giorgionizing(whose frescoes at Padua of the year
1510-11 Giovan Antonio seems to have closely studied);
but of Palma, not even a trace, to my thinking.
With regard to Pellegrino da S. Daniele, I see in his pic-
ture atCividale, of the year 1528, an imitator indeed, but not
an original pupil, of Palma ; and we must bear in mind that
Count Maniago celebrates this work as Pellegrino's best.
As I have ventured, in opposition to our latest writers,
to represent this painter of Friuli as a second-rate artist,
I feel bound to support this my opinion by tangible facts.
Vasari himself never was at Friuli, so that Pellegrino's
works were quite unknown to him with regard to them
;
 —

THE VENETIANS. 19

he liad to trast blindly his informant, the painter Giovan

Battista Grassi of Udine. This Grassi, as was commonly
the case in those days, looked at his countryman through
the spectacles of municipal vanity and exclusiveness,
making of an ordinary man a giant. He introduced this
Martino da Udine to Vasari as a pupil of Giovanni
Bellini, adding that the master, astonished at the mar-
vellous progress of his pupil Martino, gave him the
surname of Pellegrino, that is, the rare, the extra-
ordinary. But neither Morelli's Anonymus nor Carlo
Ridolfi in the following century take the slightest notice
of this Pellegrino. Then at length came Abate Lanzi,
and after him the Friulese Count Maniago, who took up
again the fable of Vasari, that is to say, of Grassi. In
later times Harzen of Hamburg, and him Passavant, after
contributed much to bring Pellegrino again into notice by
attributing to him the beautiful engravings signed " PP."
According to my own studies, and after documents
kindly communicated by Dr. Joppi of Udine, the biography
of this painter would stand pretty much as follows :

Battista, the father of Pellegrino,was a Dalmatian, who

in 1468 was already settled at Udine as a painter in ;

1470 he was living at the village of S. Daniele, not far

from Udine, where he was to have painted in a church.
In the year 1487 his son Martino, or Pellegrino, acted as
a witness at Udine, from which we may conclude that he
must have been born between 1460 and 1470. In 1491
he is called in a public contract, Maestro Martino. By
this contract he was commissioned to paint frescoes in the
Church of Villanova (near S. Daniele), of which, however,
there is nothing now to be seen. In another contract of
the year 1494, 5th April, on the picture at Osopo (which is

still to be seen), he is called Maestro Martino, dicto Pelle-

20 MUNICH.

grino di Udine. The word pellegrino in Italian means

stranger, as well as pilgrim, and the poets call a thing
which is uncommonly beautiful and rare, pellegrino.

Whoever contemplates the above-mentioned picture at

Osopo will probably never guess that the word pellegrino
could be applied to Martino da Udine in the latter sense
of the word ; he will rather share my opinion that Martino
was called Pellegrino because he was looked upon as a
stranger at Udine — ^just as Jacopo de' Barbari was called
at Nürnberg, Walch, that is, the stranger. He must,
however, have executed this Osopo work several years
after the contract, for the composition of it so strongly
recalls the picture by Bartolommeo Montagna of the year
1499 (now at the Brera Gallery in Milan), that we may
consider it highly probable that Pellegrino used the
drawing of Montagna's picture for his own, as we certainly
cannot conceive that so great an artist as Bartolommeo
Montagna can have borrowed the composition for one
of his best works from an artist so much below him,
especially as the superior composition of the Osopo picture
is in striking contrast with the weak execution.
In the year 1497-98 Pellegrino painted one part of the
choir in the Church of S. Antonio at S. Daniele, and
married there the same year. In his fresco paintings at
the Church of S. Antonio as well as in his picture of Osopo,
Pellegrino shows himself a weak and as yet old-fashioned
painter, who had probably had no other master than his
father Battista.
form any opinion on the altar-piece
It is impossible to
at the Cathedral of Udine, the " S. Joseph " painted by
him in 1501, as it is totally repainted. In the year 1504
he was at Ferrara, and worked for the Duke Alphonso,
but seems at the same time to have carried on a trade in
 THE VENETIANS. 21

wood ; in 1505 and 1506 we find him sometimes at Udine,

sometimes at S, Daniele,and it is in that year that he is
first called Pellegrino da S. Daniele. In the autumn of
1506 he went again to Ferrara, but returned after some
months to Udine, where he stayed the whole of the year
1507. In the autumn months of 1508, 1509, 1510, 1511,
and 1512 he regularly visited Ferrara, where he worked
again for the duke. In 1513 he painted the two alle-

gorical figures, grey in grey, in the Loggia of the town-

hall of Udine, which are still partly to be seen there.
In the year 1516 he engaged to execute for S. Daniele a
painted wooden statue of S. Margaret. In 1519-1520
he painted the organ wings for the Cathedral of Udine,
and in this work one recognises for the first time the
influence which Giovan Antonio da Pordenone must
have exercised on him, especially in the bunchy arrange-
ment of the draperies.
In the years 1519-1521 Pellegrino painted the other part
of the choir of S. Antonio at S. Daniele, and in this, his
best work, he appears as an imitator, not only of Porde-
none, but of Romanino, whose magnificent altar-piece,
painted in 1513 for the Church of Santa Giustina at Padua,
had most likely been often studied by Pellegrino on his
travels from Udine by way of Padua to Ferrara and back.
In his colouring he is Romaninesque, in his bunchy foldings
Pordenonesque, and in some of his heads he recalls Titian
and Palma, whose pictures he must have seen at Oderzo
or Zerman, and in the Scuola del Santo at Padua. In the
year 1526 Pellegrino goes, apparently for the first time,
to Venice, there to buy colours for the large picture which
he had engaged to paiat for the Church of Cividale, and
it is therefore quite natural to suppose that during his
stay at Venice he went to see the paintings of Palma,
22 MUNICH.
"whose magnificent " Barbara " must have already acquired
great celebrity, and that he took that master for his pat-
tern ; of which anyone that looks at the picture at Cividale
will very soon be convinced.
In the years 1530 and 1531 Pellegrino devoted himself
almost exclusively to trading in wood ; but we know that
in spite of his business he continued to accept commis-
sions for pictures as late as 1546-7. He died in the month
of December, 1547,when over eighty years of age.
When Harzen perceived the two P's on the large
"Annunciation" of the Venetian Pinacothec, signed:
" Pelegrinus faciebat 1519 P . P
. ." . . .
.
he ex-
claimed with a joyful heart, " Eureka " and ! without
examining whether the drawing and style of this painted
work corresponded with the drawing and style of the two
celebrated engravings, likewise signed with two P's, he
ascribed them, without hesitation to Pellegrino da S.
Daniele. Then, as often happens, he was followed blindly
by the learned Passavant. But whoever compares, e.g.^
the wonderful engraving, "Triumph of Selene," with the
well-known paintings of Pellegrino, will share my opinion,
namely, that the engraving is very likely by an eminent
Ferrarese but has nothing whatever to do with the
artist,

manner of Pellegrino. Originally this engraving was

signed with DD, or perhaps bb, and only when the plate
was retouched were the DD or bb changed into P's,
That so mediocre a painter as Pellegrino should have
attained siTch high honours in Friuli, need surprise no
one who knows the other painters of that little territory.
The value of anything in this world is comparative.
Those of my young readers who have the time and the
will to spend a pleasant week in autumn in that mag-
nificent province, will soon convince themselves that Pelle-
 THE VENETIANS. 23

grino's works would necessarily hold a proud position

beside the paintings of a Leonardo da S. Daniele, Dora,
da Tolmezzo, P. Miani (at Cividale), of an Andrea Bellu-
nello, Gianfrancesco da Tolmezzo (Barbeano), Giovanni and
Girolamo Martini, of a Luca Monverde, a Seccante,
Calderari, Girolamo Grassi, and others. The Priulan race
never manifested the same talent for art as, for instance,

their neighbours of the Marca di Treviso. The Friulese

are an energetic, shrewd, and intelligent little people, but,
like all mountaineers, they are of rough home-spun nature.
Giovan Antonio Pordenone was indeed a Friulese by
birth, that is, on the mother's side, but his father was a
Brescian (of Corticelle del Lodesano, near Cremona), and
he certainly cannot have owed his artistic culture, as
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle arbitrarily assume, to an
insignificant Gianfrancesco da Tolmezzo, but mainly to
his own study of Titian's and Giorgione's works. How
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle could ever think of label-
ling this dull Gianfrancesco da Tolmezzo as the master of
Pordenone, is a riddle to me. The wall-painting which they
quote in support of their opinion stands in the little village

of Barbeano, a place that unfortunately lies so far out of

the main road that I cannot advise my readers to edify
themselves by a pilgrimage to it.

Another born Friulese in mind and life is Pellegrino's

son-in-law, Sebastiane Florigerio of Conegliano, who died
young. He was the son of a certain Giacomo of Bologna,
who had settled at Conegliano. Unfortunately, besides
the ingenious altar-piece in the Church of S. Giorgio at
Udine, we know of only two pictures by Sebastiano
Florigerio, and those not important ones, in the Venetian
Academy. The Madonna picture (l^o. 384) with the
Saints Augustine and Anne, is there also ascribed to
24 MUNICH.
Florigerio, but already Boschini (" Miniere della Pittura,"
1664, p. 468) designated tliis picture as a work of Bene-
detto Diana, to whom it in fact belongs. I hope that my
patient readers will pardon me for having detained them
so long on Pellegrino da S. Daniele. But I was anxious
to prove my which in this case deviates so widely
opinion,
from that of Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle. The local
character of the artists of Friuli is a very dry and prosaic
one, and as their best masters drew what is best in them
from outside, they could have had no influence whatever
on the formation of Venetian art.
Vasari does not say who was the master of Palma ;

Carlo Ridolfi thinks he came to Venice young, and learned

a great deal from Titian, namely, " ch'egli apprese certa
dolcezza di colorii'e che si avvicina alle opere prime dello
stesso Tiziano."
How is it then that men of the competency of Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle are led by their own researches
to an opinion which is in direct contradiction with Vasari
and Ridolfi? Have they any documents to produce in
support of their thesis ? None. If I guess right, their
opinion must be based on an (optical ?) illusion.
Mr. Reiset '
at Paris has a Madonna by Palma Vecchio,
the only work of the so far as I know, on
master,
which we can read not only the name Jacobus Palma, but
also MD, i.e., the year 1500, as some explain it. N'ow the
style of this picture is not that of a Quattrocentist at all,

but of a painter ten years later at least ; the picture is,

moreover, quite disfigured by repainting. For instance,

the form of the ear in the Infant Christ is not the form
peculiar to Palma, it has been altered by the restorer ;

'
Mr. Eeiset has since sold his whole collection to the Duke d'Aumale.
 THE VENETIANS. 25

the same with the Virgin's left hand ; the skj is repainted
altogether, the nimbus and beard of S. Jerome are en-
tirely new. And how stands it with the signature, the
so-called cartellino ? Are the name and date really-
authentic, or were they added at some later time ? For
the reasons above-mentioned, I must pronounce in favour
of the latter.^ It is of some importance to the history of

The same preconceived notion, that Palma Vecchio influenced

^

Titian, and not Titian Palma Vecchio, has prompted Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle to trace the influence of Palma in that charming early
work of Titian, No. 236 of the Madrid Museum (vol. ii., 153). This
picture, which goes under Giorgione's name, represents Mary with the
Infant Christ, to whom S. Bridget is offei'ing flowers. Her husband,
Ö. Ulfus, stands beside her in the armour of a warrior. This fine
by Titian about 1510-1512, in
painting seems to have been executed
those very years when Palma Vecchio was foi'ming his style on the
Avorks of the Cadorian. The head of the Madonna in this picture
strongly resembles that of the Avife declared guilty by her husband in
Titian's beautiful fresco at the Scuola del Santo in Padua. A copy of it is

in the Hampton Coiu't Gallery under the name of Palma Vecchio (No. 79).
For the same reason, Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle see Palma's irfluence
in the " Madonna with S. Anthony," No. 633 of the Uffizi Gallery in ;

the " Amor sacro e Amor profano " of the Borghese Gallery and in ;

that picture of the Antwerp Gallery where the Bishop of Paphos, of the
Pesaro kindred, is being presented to S. Peter. And they would
assign the " Amor sacro e Amor profano " (which they Avittily say they
would like to see re-christened " Amor sagio e Amor ingenuo") to the
year 1500, and the Antwerp picture to 1503. I confess I am altogether
unable to share their opinion. It is ti'ue the Boi'ghese painting is an
early work of the master, it is thoroughly Giorgionesque, but already
so broad and free in its it to have been painted
treatment that I consider
at least eight or ten years later.Also the Antwerp picture, whose
signature bears the character of the seventeenth century, seems to me
to be executed later than 1503 for the Pesaro family, but certainly
before the " Amor sacro e profano." This Giorgionesque picture must
be reckoned as one of that series of works to which belong " The Vii-gin
and Child" of the Belvedere at Vienna (Room 2, No. 41), "The En-
throned S. Mark " in the Sacristy of the Salute, and " The Infant Jesus
26 MUNICH.

art that this doubt should be cleared up ; for, if that

cartellino proves to be legitimate, then Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle are in the right, and the history of the
development of Venetian painting in the first three decades
of the sixteenth century is pretty much as they have
represented it. But, if that signature on Mr. Reiset's
picture be not by Palma himself, but inserted after his
death by some picture-dealer, their whole theory falls to
the ground like a house of cards, and we shall have to
assign to Palma a humbler place among his great con-
temporaries than the one given him by the authors of the
" JS'ew History, of Italian Art." It is therefore much to be
wished, for the sake of art-history, that the present
possessor, H.R.H. the Duke d' Anmale, should have this
picture carefully cleaned.
But let us now go back to those pictures which are
ascribed to Palma Yecchio at the Munich Gallery. The
great " St. Jerome " in Room 7, ^o. 510, has also been
imputed to Palma by some connoisseurs, while Dr. Marg-
grafi" thinks the author of this picture must have studied

the Torso of the Farnese Hercules (!) at Rome ; and that

between S. Andrew and S. Catherine " in S. Marceuola at Venice. Surely

the artistic development of Titian as well as Palma (both descended
from a mountain race) proceeded more slowly than Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle would have us believe. If in the first years of the sixteenth
century, i.e. 1500-1503, Titian had already produced such superior
works as those mentioned by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, he would
soon have made such a reputation at Venice, that not only would Dürer
have spoken of him in 1506, but the Eepnblic itself would have given
him commissions. Yet it was only in his frescoes at the " Scuola del
Santo" of Padua, painted 1510-11, and still entirely Giorgionesque,
that he first displayed his amazing talent, and immediately after received
commissions from the city of Vicenza. Even then he did not begin to
sign himself " maestro," but simply " lo tician di Cador depintore 1511,
2, Decembrio ". —
See Gozzati's work on the Church del Santo at Padua,.
 THE VENETIANS. 27

is another opinion. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, on

the contrary, give this "Jerome Writing" to a non-Italian
master. Amidst all this medley of opinions, shall I give
my own ? First, then, let ns analyse this male figure.
The modelling and expression of the face, the drawing of
the fingers of the left hand, as well as that of the right
leg, are altogether such as might have been done by a
North Italian master of the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury ; the arrangement of the folds in the mantle is also
and not in the least Flemish. The architectural
Italian,
background is strongly suggestive of Moretto of Brescia ;

the modelling of the hand, as well as the form and move-

ment of the lower part of the body, are much the same as
in the works of Moroni of Bergamo. Summing up the
eflTect of the whole, I can recognise as the author of this

great " St. Jerome" no other master than Giovan Battista

Moroni of Bergamo, the pupil of Moretto. But I am not
able to say whether the picture be an original or a copy,
because it is completely masked by a thick varnish turned
yellow. In looking at it closely it gave me the impression
of being a Flemish copy.
Under the name Palma there hangs another picture
of
in Room 7, Holy Family with
No. 588, representing the
two Mary's and S. Elizabeth. Beyond all question this
picture does not belong to Palma; Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle admit this, and propose for its author either
Bissolo, or one of the two Santa Croce (vol. ii., 488). In
my opinion it is a free copy by Girolamo da Santa Croce
after a picture of Giovan Bellini. As Paolo Farinato used
to put a snail into his paintings as a sort of mark, Stefano
da Zevio a peacock, Yinckeboons a finch, and so on,
Girolamo da Santa Croce in the same way introduced a
parrot whenever the subject he was treating would allow
 —

28 MUNICH.
it. So in this painting, amongst other characteristics of
the master, such as the landscape, the form of the hand
and ear, and the striped sky, we also find the green bird.
The works by Palma Vecchio that have come down to
us are not numerous, a further proof that his life was a
short one. On Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's list,
some fifty-three or fifty-four pictures are mentioned as
authentic works of Palma, and of these fifty-three we must
take off the following :

"A
Holy Virgin, with Christ and S. John as boys,
1.

between Saints," in possession of Mr. E. Andreossi (Milan,

Via Clerici). The jDicture is a Bonifazio Veronese all over,
though it figured as a Palma in the Art Exhibition of
Bergamo.
2. The " Schiava del Tiziano," in the Gallery Barberini,

a weak copy of a much later master.

3. N"o. 329 of the Stuttgart Gallery, a " Holy Family "
belonging to Bonifazio junior.
4. Also 'No. 17 and 14 of the same gallery are not works
by Palma.
On the other hand, some pictures which have been
taken from Palma by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, I
regard as genuine. Amongst others, " John the Baptist,"
Room 1, N'o. 35, of the Belvedere Gallery at Vienna,^ a
picture which, though grievously painted over, still shows

1 Defined by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (vol. ii., 48S) as " a

feeble and injured panel in a style commingling that of Palma with that
of Pordenone." This " John the Baptist " may very likely be part of the
triptych which the inventory taken on Palma's death speaks of as
^' paletta in tre pezi del tajapiera de San Zuane Evangelista, zoe suso,

im fezo glie se san Zuan Bapiista, et un altro San Eoccho, e un altro

Sebastian, fenidi (com2:ileted)," Race, veneta, dispensa ii., Tomo i., Serie
i., p. 78.
 —

THE VENETIANS. 29

all To this picture I add a

the characteristics of Palma.
few more, which are not mentioned in the inventory of
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle :

1. " The Lucretia," Room 9, 'No. 5, of the Borghese

Gallery.
2. " The Adulteress," in the gallery of the Capitol at
Rome.
3. " The Infant Tobias with the Angel," at Stuttgart,
No. 80.
4. The
altar-piece in the Church of Peghera and ;

5. Another altar-piece in the Church of Dossena (both

villages in the Brembo Valley near Bergamo).
6. Two pictures in the Guerini Stampalia Collection
at Venice.
7. No. 605 in the Liechtenstein Gallery at Vienna,
much restored, but genuine.
There are, according to my calculation, about sixty
pictures of Palma known, of which some twenty-eight,
including the finest and most important, Italy still retains
in her possession the rest have travelled away to foreign
;

lands. This is certainly a very low number, even for a

painter who reached only his forty-eighth year. Besides,
most of them are small cabinet-pieces, of which he could
very well have thrown off three or four in the year, how-
ever slowly and carefully he may have gone to work in
his paintiag. By L. Lotto there are, on the contrary,
more than twenty works in the city and province of
Bergamo alone (not reckoning the wall-paintings at S.
Michele, Trescorre, and the neighbourhood), and amongst
them seven large altar-pieces at Milan, seven at Brescia,
; ;

one in the Marca Trevisana, two at Venice, three altar-

; ;

pieces and some portraits at Florence, two (one at the

;

Uffizi Gallery and one in private possession) twelve in ;

30 MUNICH.
the Marca d'Ancona at Rome, about ; eiglit ; at Naples,
one ;and a fine portrait at Modena in ; all, about 59-60 in
Italy alone ; tliose in otber countries — and there are
many of them —not being included. Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle on the contrary, in their inventory of Lotto,
reckon but thirty-two works in Italy and twenty-six
abroad.
If in their early youth Lotto and Palma Vecchio knew
and prized each other in Giovanni Bellini's studio, they
appear to have come very little into contact from 1500 to
1510, as Lotto was for the most part absent from Venice
in those years, and Lotto's signed pictures of the first
decade of the century have not the least aflB.nity with those
of Palma. A more intimate relation between the two men
seems only to have sprung up in the years 1510 to 1515.
And to this epoch belong just those paintings of Palma
that have the pointed striking lights so characteristic of
Lotto, and the Giorgionesque rich colouring, e.g., the
" Adoration of the Shepherds," No. 274 of the Louvre
Gallery, the bust of a lady. Room 2, No. 9, at the Belve-
dere the magnificent portrait of a young lady in the
;

Berlin Gallery, &c. I therefore believe that at that par-

ticular time Lotto and Palma together studied and tried
to imitate the works of Giorgione, but that in these studies
Lotto influenced Palma more than Palma did Lotto.
The finest and most perfect work of Palma appears to
me to be the gi'eat altar-piece in the Church of S. Se-

bastiane at Vicenza. The figure of S. George still recalls

the splendid S. Liberale in Giorgione's celebrated picture
at Castelfranco. The "Adoration of the Magi" may be
regarded as one of the last pictures of Palma ; he began
to paint it for the Church di Sant' Elena at Isola, near
Venice, and it was finished chiefly by one of his scholars.
 THE VENETIANS. 31

probably Cariani. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, on

the contrary, see in this picture the influence of Cima
as well as of Carpaccio (vol. ii,, p. 468). The picture
now hangs in the Brera Gallery at Milan, near another
picture of Cariani's,^ and can therefore be easily com-
pared with it.

Amongst all the painters of the post-Bellinian school

in Venice, Palma Yecchio is the most powerful and
genuine, as his pupil Bonifazio Veronese appears to me
the most brilliant and cheerful. The two masters are
often confounded with each other. Let us now pass on to
Palma Vecchio's friend and associate in art, Lorenzo Lotto,
Lorenzo Lotto is commonly said to have been born about
1480, but I am inclined to throw his birthday a few years
back, to about 1476, For, in the first place, his picture in
the Louvre Gallery (ISTo. 227), representing St. Jerome,
and signed with his name, and the date 1500,^ displays
not a little of the maturity of a master ; and, secondly,

^ The contract for this picture has been published in the Archivio
Veneto (Tom. i,, parte I^, p. 167). It had beeu ordered by Orsa, the
widow of Simone Malipiero. Jacopo Palma qdn. Ser Antonij received
100 ducats for it (1525). It appears that he was taken ill the follo^ving
year.
- I have examined the date very closely by a good light, in com-

pany with several well-known connoisseurs, Vicomte Tauzia, director of

the Louvre Gallery, Count Clement de Eis, and Dr. Gustavo Frizzoni
of Bergamo, and we all foiur pronounced the signature genuine, and
not altered as Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle have stated. These two
Paris pictures, then, that of Lotto in the Louvre, and that of Palma at
the Duke d'Aumale's, are the bone of contention between Messrs. Crowe
and CaTalcaselle and myself; for while they declare the cartellino on
the Palma picture to be genuine, and the date on the Lotto picture to be
altered, I consider the latter to be legitimate, though perhaps touched
lip, but the " ticket" on Palma's Madonna picture to be spurious, and,
what is the main point, the painting itself to be of a much later time

than the year 1500.

 —

32 MUNICH.

Lotto appears to have been already very old in the year

1655, having then " almost entirely lost his voice," accord-
ing to a document at the Correr Museum, Yenice. In
the same year "la santa casa di Loreto" paid "a messer
Lorenzo Lotto, oblato di Santa casa," monthly, " un fiorino
o bolognini 44" for nourishment and clothing, " because
he had devoted his person and all his property to the Holy
Virgin of Loreto." (Manuscripts on Lotto, in the library
of the Museo communicated to the author
Correr, kindly
by the director, Commendatore Niccolo Barozzi.)
Lotto seems to have died at a great age in 1555 or 1556.
As far back as 1542 he contemplated the approach of
death, for we read in the " Libro Consigli," 3, carta 96, of
the Convent of San Giovanni e Paolo at Venice " Item ms. :

Lorenzo Loto dat scire relinquit conventui de credito suo

pro palla Scti Antonini" (the fine altar-piece is still extant
in the church, though very much neglected) " omne credi-
tum suum ultra ducat : nonaginta, hoc videlicet pacto quod
conventus teneatur in morte sua gratis sepelire eum in
aliquo sepulcro et dare sibi habitum ordinis."
Lorenzo Lotto w^as neither born at Bergamo nor at
Venice, as Dr. Marggraff suggests, but at Treviso.^ Pro-

^ About this master, also, Vasari was better informed than all his-
followers, who have tried to correct him on the authority of the wholly
unreliable Lomazzo. Vasari says that Lotto was a Venetian and a
scholar of Giambellino, and that he tried afterwards to imitate the
manner of Giorgione. In his Bergamo contracts he calls himself Lotus
venetus, and adds in one of them, Nunc habitator Bergomi but in a ;

document of 1509, at Rome, he is called L. Lottos de Trivisio, This

very important document is in the Corsini Library, and runs thus :

" 9 Martii, 1509. Magister laurentius Lottus de Trivisio confessus rece-

pisse," for paintings to be executed in the rooms of the upper storey of
the Vatican, " 100 ducati." Raphael had then been at Rome more than
half a year. Did Lotto ever execute those paintings ?
 —

THE VENETIANS. 33

bably he came very early to Venice, to the school of

Giambellini, where, no doubt, he had Palma for a younger
fellow-pupil, and the two youths, both of a simple,
guueless, and pious disposition, would be drawn to each
other.
The early works of Lotto, very Bellinesque in character,
are the following :

The St. Jerome of 1500, in the Louvre.

(a)
The little picture of 1505, mentioned by Fedei-ici
(&)
("Memorie Trevigiane," vol. ü., p. 78), now in possession
of the painter Gritti, at Bergamo.^
(c) The graceful and ingenious altar-piece at Santa
Cristina, near Treviso, of about 1505-1506.^
(d) The picture in the Naples Gallery.
{e) The altar-piece in the church of Asolo, of the year
1506.='

^ Signor Gritti's picture presents an allegory, and is minutely de-

scribed by Federici. On the back of this much damaged picture we
read: " Bernardus . Rubeus (Rossi) Berceti , comes Pont Tarvis ." (he
. . .

was Bishop of Treviso) " aetat. ann. xxxvi. mens. x. D. (dies) v. Lauren-
tius Lotus, P. cal. Jul. m.d.v."
This altar-piece is, like all his early works, signed with the Latin
^

name of Lotto " lavrent. lotvs. p.," the nt forming a monogram.

:

Polds of drapery and shape of hands still very Bellinesque ; the expres-
sion of the Madonna serious ; that of St. Cristina pure and pious ; the
St. Liberale has a Giorgionesque character. In this picture Lotto is
stiU very quiet, with none of that nervous mobility, bordering on man-
nerism, which worries, and at first sight repels, the spectator, in his later
works.
This picture, too, is signed lavrent. lotvs., as well as the one
^

at Munich. After the name he has added, ivniok. m.d.vi., i.e.,

finished in the month of June. Some writers have misunderstood this
signature, and inferred from it that there were two painters of the name,
an elder and a younger. The picture itself rebuts any such hypothesis.
This painting at Asolo, then, was completed in June, and in the early
D
 ;

34 MUNICH.

(/) The picture in the Borghese Grallery, 1508.

(g) The Madonua in the Bridgewater Gallery, London
(an old copy of this picture is at Grosvenor House).
(h) The picture at Recanati, 1509.
But only a few years later, in 1511 and 1512 (Jesi), we
observe the great influence which the works of his coun-
tryman Giorgione must have wielded over him for he ;

too was a son of the self-same March of Treviso.

To my great regret, Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
seem to have formed quite a difierent conception of Lotto
from what my own studies have taught me. They look
upon him as a Bergamese, whereas Lotto's nature is fun-
damentally different from that of the Bergamese. They
say, further, that he was a scholar of the Bellinesques,
that he passed his youth with Previtali, and at last inclined
to the manner of Palma and Giorgione, though he was
never able to shake off his Lombard habits (? !). Now,
Tassi has also made a present of him as a pupil to
A. Previtali ("Vite dei Pittori, etc., Bergamaschi," i. 115),
while first Lomazzo, and afterwards others, including
even Lanzi, have declared Lotto (whom they took for a
Bergamese) to be a sort of pupil of Leonardo da Vinci
probably for the sole reason that Bergamo is not a great
many miles off Milan. Latterly, say Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle, Lotto approximated to Titian, adding, that
Previtali also greatly influenced his manner. To fill up
the measure of influences and resemblances, they make
Lotto (who, under all these manifold pressures, must have
become perfectly limp and disorganized) further visit

part of that month ; for on the 20fch of June we find him ali-eady at
Eecanati, signing a contract to paint a " Last Supper" for the Domini-
cans of that town.
 THE YENETIAXS. 35

Bologna in the first decade of the sixteenth century, and

there study diligently the frescoes in the chapel of St.
Cecilia,by Francia, L. Costa, Tamarozzo, Chiodai'olo, and
A. Aspertini,^ because there is so much in Lotto's works
that reminds you of them (? !),
Finally, they discover in poor Lotto a mixtum com-
positum of Cima, Bellini, Carpaccio, Montagna, Previtali,
and Santa Croce and, to crown all, they find that Dürer
;

must have influenced him too. They think Lotto visited

the studio of Palma Vecchio, who must have furnished
him with the sketch for his picture of 1508 in the
Borghese Gallery. Like all admirers of these two
eminent art-critics, I cannot refrain from expressing my
amazement at the vast learning displayed in this elaborate
analysis the only drawback is, that it does not seem to
;

be quite in accordance with the truth, as I understand it.

This charming early picture of Lotto, which he might

have painted at Rome or in the Marca d'Ancona for some
nunnery, is conceived and executed so entirely in the
sense and manner of the Trevisan himself, that I do not
know work of Lotto's that recalls Palma less than
of any
this same Borghese picture. The drawing of the Madonna's
hand the fall of the hair, and the light upon it, in the
;

Infant Christ ; the folds of the drapery, are still entirely

Bellinesque. It is true, as Dr. Thausing has remarked,
that there a touch of Dürer in the St. Onuphrius,
is

head in Dürer's painting of 1506, " Christ

especially of a
among the Scribes " (Gallery Barberini) but I think this ;

" coincidence " may be explained by simply supposing that

the same Venetian beggar's head very likely served as
model to the one master as to the other.

^ That fine cycle of frescoes was completed in 1506.

36 MUNICH.

Yasai'i says :
" Fu compagno ed amico del Palma
Lorenzo Lotto," that is, Lotto was fellow-pupil and friend
of Palma, not "journeyman," as Messrs. Crowe and Caval-
caselle have translated it, apparently with the view of
supporting their hypothesis that Lotto was a scholar or
imitator of Palma. As a fact, some of Palma's works in
his second and in his third or last period, 1512 — 20, are,
as already mentioned, so Lottesque, especially in the
manner of laying on the lights and shadows, that the late
Dr. Mündler actually took the Palma in the Louvre (277)
for a Lotto.^ Palma is on the whole a more perfect and
pleasing master than Lotto, who in his works is often
precipitate and loses his balance. On the other hand,
as regards inventive power and artistic conception, Lorenzo
Lotto stands far higher, and has also more of poetic
" estro " than the Bergamese. Lanzi rightly remarks :

" Se Palma e meno animato del Lotto e meno sublime, e

forse pill bello, comunemente parlando, nelle teste delle
donne e dei putti." The dry matter-of-fact Previtali, with
all his technical skill, certainly never exercised any sort of
influence on Lotto, but rather vice versa, as we shall see
later on ; and as for any artistic relation between Lotto
and Leonardo, it seems to me purely imaginary.'
"
Finally, Lorenzo Lotto was, it seems, " Correggesque
at a time when Antonio Allegri had not yet earned his
spurs. Correggio and Lotto were just kindred natures,
who worked at the same period ; both, like Leonardo
before them, strove to give expression to mental beauty,

^ CoQtributions to Jacob Burckbardt's "Cicerone," p. 57.

2 The seventeen years' old " Lorenzo," who was admitted into the
studio of Leonardo at Florence in 1505, was probably the sculptor
Lorenzetto. Lorenzo Lotto was at that time in Treviso, and when he
settled at Bergamo in 1515, Leonardo had left for France.
 r :

THE VENETIANS. 37

and tMs is the last step taken by Art, when arrived at its

culminating point. Such a result evidently lay in the

organic development of the artistic faculty itself.^ At
Bergamo Lotto -worked in the years 1515 to 1524 ;
^ in
the March of Ancona and at Rome in 1506 — 10, and again
in 1554 — 56 ; the rest of his time he seems to have passed
at Venice in the convent of S. Giovanni e Paolo. Un-
like his congenial contemporary Correggio, Lotto chose
almost exclusively religious subjects for representation if :

we except the so-called " Triumph of Chastity " (Gallery

Eospigliosi at E-ome), and the little " Faun " of the Munich

^ How is it that so many portraits by Lotto are ascribed to Correggio ?

In a portrait painted from life there cannot be any question of extraneous

influences acting on the master, as the conception must in each case be
his own.
^ Lorenzo Lotto first came to Bergamo in 1513, and there signed a

contract which bound him to paint for the Dominican church of that
place the large picture with the portraits of the founders, Alessandro and
Barbara Martinengo. He then returned to Venice, and executed in the
convent of S. Giovanni e Paolo a model four feet high by two feet wide
for this picture. This model, painted on wood and signed " lav lot . .

in ID . PAV . PixxiT ", I saw some years ago at Bergamo ; it has been
sold,and went to France. In the large altar-piece, the largest he ever
painted,begun 1515 and finished 1516, Lotto is more Cor egge sque than
Antonio Allegri himself in his picture of St. Francis, in the Dresden
Gallery (151), painted 1514. Observe particularly the movement of
St. Alexander, that of the Baptist, also of the angels that sport under
the throne. The three fine predellas for this picture are in the sacristy
of St. Bartolomeo at Bergamo, and the picture itself behind the chief
altar. In the beginning of that year, 1515, before Lotto arrived at
Bergamo, he must have painted, probably in passing through Padua,
the fine portrait of Augustinus della Torre, professor at Padua. It is
now in the National Gallery, London, and has the following inscription
"Diio Nicolao de la Turre nobili Bergomensi amico Sing", 1515. Bgmi."
Very likely he brought the picture with him from Padua to Bergamo,
and delivered it to Niccolo della Torre. I think he must have inserted
the other portrait, probably of Niccolo himself, at a later time, for this
second figure is placed very awkwardly in the background.
38 MUNICH.
Gallery, I do not know of any theme that Lotto drew
from Greek mythology. His portraits of men and women,
however, will bear comparison with the best portraits
by his contemporaries. There are three at the Brera
Gallery, three at the National Gallery in London, others
at Mr. Holford's, and at Hampton Conrt, in the museum of
Madrid, and a very fine one in the Belvedere Gallery at
Vienna/

^ This portrait in the Belvedere Gallery formerly went under the

name of Titian, to whom the late Doctor Waagen still ascribed it. In
recent times it was taken from Titian and given to Correggio. It re-
presents a young nobleman in Venetian dress, three-quarter length;
the face is noble, pale, the hair and beard light brown, the eyes bluish.
In the left hand he holds a golden bird's-claw. The head, as in all the
portraits by Lotto, is aristocratic, i*efined, and full of soul ; the hands
white and delicate in their flesh
tints, with the greenish shadows peculiar

to him. In Herr von Engerth's catalogue this portrait is said to re-

present the Bolognese naturalist, Ulysses Aldrovandi, born in 1522,
which is in any case a blunder, as Correggio (supposing he were the
painter), died when Aldrovandi was barely twelve years of age. In
the Town Gallery of Bergamo there is a good Caracci portrait of Aldro-
vandi, which has not the remotest similarity to the Lotto portrait at
Vienna. Nor is it at Vienna alone that portraits by Lorenzo Lotto bear
thename of Correggio the same substitution has taken place in the
;

Hampton Court Collection. The better portraits by Lotto all have that
refined,inward elegance of feeling which marks the culminating point
in the last stage of progressive art in Italy, and which is principally
represented by Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo Lotto, Andrea del Sarto,
and Correggio ; whereas the elegance of Bronzino in Tuscany, and of
Parmeggianino in North Italy, is an outward affected one, which has
nothing to do with the inner life of the person represented, and therefore
characterizes the first stage of declining art. As I said before, there is

about this elegance of feeling in Lotto, as well as Correggio, something

nervous and morbid. These two artists were very much alike in their
temperament ; both were of a retiring disposition and fond of solitude.
Lorenzo Lotto passed the greater part of his long life in the stillness of
a convent-cell, among Dominican monks neither he nor Correggio
;

ever sued the favour of the mighty, or the so-called fortunate, of this
 THE VENETIANS. 31)

was of about the same age as Lotto, seems

Titian, wlio
to have thought very highly of him. In April, 1548,
Pietro Aretino wrote to Lotto as follows " Titian writes
:
—
tome from Augsburg, that he embraces and greets you,
and he adds, that his delight in seeing his works praised
by the Emperor would be doubled if he could show them
to you, and talk them over with you."
The pleasing early picture by Lotto at the Munich
Gallery hangs in Room 6, and is 'No. 552. It represents
the marriage of St. Catherine, and is signed " lavkent : .

LOTYS F." . The form of the hand in this picture is still

quite Bellinesque, and the movement of the infant Christ
as well as of St. Joseph, very characteristic of the master.
It may belong same period as the paintings
to about the
in Santa Cristina —
and Asolo (1504 6). In pictures of his
later time, that is, between 1520 —
30, Lotto usually signs
himself in Italian, Lorenzo or Laurentio Loto or Lotto.
This work is painted on the same system that Albert
Dürer, Van der Goes, Giambellini, and many others had
adopted on both sides of the Alps, namely, the Van Eyck
system.^ Unfortunately, the sky is almost entirely re-
painted.But is this the only work by Lotto that the
Munich Gallery possesses ? I do not think so. The
charming little "Faun" in Room 6, N"o. 674, appears to
me another work of Lotto's. This interesting little picture
probably represents young Pan as the master of music.

world. For the time in which they lived, and the schools out of which
they sprang, their representations are the least realistic.
^ It was first grounded gi'ey in grey, with tempera-colours, and then
glazed with thin oü-colours. Linseed or nut oil, after being filtered
several times, was diluted with varnish. Pictures painted in this manner
never turn black and always keep their transparency of colour, as this
little picture of Lotto's proves.
 ;

40 MUNICH.
He sits on a stone, playing the flute ; near him is a lyre
in the distance a deer meadow.
grazing in a green
Curiously enough, the picture came to Munich under the
name of Correggio, but was looked at askance by con-
noisseurs, and not considered worth a closer inspection, as
it hardly tallied with the manner of Correggio, and cer-

tainly not with his best known and popular style. But
the value and importance of this picture, too, did not escape
the keen glance of Mündler, who is said to have ascribed
it to Palma Vecchio. In fact, this charming young Pan
may be seen at the first glance to be Venetian. The
system of painting is that of Giambellini, Lotto, and other
Bellinesques, as is very apparent in those places where the
glazing has peeled off. The glowing horizon recalls
Palma, as well as Lotto ; so does the emerald green of the
meadow. The shape of the hands, however, the light-blue
of the kerchief on Pan's shoulders, and especially the
elegant little ribbon with which it is fastened on the breast,
lastly, the choice of the subject, and the ingenious naive
conception of it, all this speaks to my mind more for Lotto
than for Palma. This precious picture has, unfortunately,
suffered in several places by repainting and effacement.

Prom we now pass to his countryman Giorgio

Lotto
Barharelli, named Giorgione. The picture ascribed to him
is in Room 7, and bears the number 470. It was, as I
have said, formerly attributed to Titian, re-christened a
Giorgione at Munich, and at last ascribed by Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle to Giovan Antonio da Pordenone.
The type of this beautiful woman is much the same as we
meet with in many a picture by Titian in his Giorgionesque
period for instance, that at the Louvre Gallery (Alfonso of
:

Ferrara, and Laura Dianti). The predominant violet tone.

 THE VENETIANS. 41

wliich we find, for instance, in the so-called Flora of the

Uffizi at Florence (626), and which is altogether peculiar
to Titian, is still The brownish-
visible in this picture.
yellow neckerchief that on the bosom of the woman,
falls

as well as the form of the hand, which is the same as in

the so-called Laura Dianti, in the above-named Louvre
picture, is very characteristic of Titian.
For these positive reasons, to say nothing of negative
ones,which forbid me to ascribe this allegoric figure to
Giorgione, Pordenone, or any other painter of the Venetian
school at that period, I reckon this Sibyl of the Munich
Gallery among the early works of Titian. Surely his lofty
spirit still breathes freshly on us even out of this ruin !
^

Let us now examine minutely the remaining works of the

great Cadorian that are to be found in this picture
gallery.
Dr. Marggraff makes Titian come into the world about
1477 ; he lets him go to school first to Gentile, then to
Giovanni Bellini, and afterwards complete his education
under the influence of his precocious contemporary and
friend Giorgione. I agree with these statements, except
that I would fain leave out Giovanni Bellini. Little as I
admire the moral character of Titian, I should find it

very painful to admit that the aged Bellini, from whom

young Titian so greeduy, and with so much intriguing,
snatched away his pension of the Genseria of Fondaco, in
1513, had ever been his master. Whether Titian learned
the rudiments of his art from Antonio Rosso, from Sebas-
tiane Zuccato, or from Gentile or Giovanni Bellini, is a

^Of the same period is, I think, the " Herodias" in the Doria Gallery
at Eome. It is there ascribed to Giorgione and Messrs. Crowe and
;

Cavalcaselle, consistent in their reasoning, give it to Pordenone.

42 MUNICH.
question of no great historical iraportance. What cannot be
denied is the influence of Giorgione, which is so manifest
in the works of his youth, that many pictures by Titian
of that period (1504 —
1512) have been attributed to his
master and model, Giorgione.^
In 1505 Titian appears to have been still an assistant of
Giorgione and we are informed by the " Anonymus " of
;

Morelli, that, in 1511, on Giorgione's death, Titian completed

several unfinished works of his master and friend. Gior-
gione's influence, however, is not only to be traced in the
early works of Titian ; it stands out broadly in the paint-
ings of nearly all his Venetian contemporaries —Boccac-
cino, Lotto, Palma, Giovan Antonio da Pordenone, Bonifacio
Veronese, Cariani, Dosso, Romanino, and many others,
not to speak of his scholar, Sebastiano Luciani. Besides
Giorgione's influence on Titian, which Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle themselves admit, and even magnify in the
case of an early picture representing St.Mark enthroned
between four saints (now in the sacristy of the " Salute"
at Venice)," the said writers also perceive the influence of

^ e.g., the " Herodias" in the Doria Gallery, the " Christ bearing the

Cross" in S. Rocco at Venice, the Madonna between St. Ulfus and_ St.
Bridget in the Madrid Museum, &c. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
(" Life of Titian," vol. i.) state, however, that the lovely Madonna, No.
41 of the Belvedei'e Gallery at Vienna, was painted by Titian so early
as in the fifteenth century, and see something that reminds them of
in it
the Bellini, of Carpaccio, and even of Palma Vecchio (!) thej praise up
;

especially the fine landscape in the baciiground. But this very landscape
ought tohave taught them that the picture must have been painted
some years later than they say. One has only to compare that free
landscape with the landscapes in the pictures of Giovanni Bellini, Cima,
Basaiti, and even of Previtali, and one will easily be convinced of the
error into which Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle have fallen.
^ This picture, as well as that in the church vulgo di S. Marcuola
at Venice, representing the Infant Jesus between the Saints Andrew
 THE VENETIANS. 43

Fra Bartolomeo della Porta same painting, espe-

in the
and in the movements
cially in the fall of the draperies,
of St. Sebastian and St. Rochus. In order to take in the
full force of this shrewd remark, we must bear in mind

that Fra Bartolomeo della Porta came to Yenice in April

of the year 1508, and not only spent some weeks at the
convent of San Pietro Martire, on the island of Murano,
but even began to paint an altar-piece^ for the monks.
And now let us look at these works of Titian, of which
the catalogue enumerates about a dozen.
In Room 7, 'No. 1329, we see a genuine and very fine
picture of the master, painted in his last years ; it repre-
sents the " Scourging of Christ." N'ever did painter
handle brush with more firmness and freedom than Titian,
when ninety years old, has done on this canvas. Here
he has limited his palette to white, black, red, and orange,
the colours said to have been exclusively used by the
earliest painters The aged Titian's
of ancient Greece.
example was afterwards followed now and then by Rubens
and Van Dyck, but most brilliantly by old Frans Hals in
his two celebrated portrait-pictures in the Haarlem Gal-
lery.^ Our painting is said to have come to Germany
from the Netherlands. Among the various repaintings
observable in the picture, Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
can actually recognise the hand of Rubens, or, still better,
that of Van Dyck, e.g., in the man seen in profile threaten-

and Catherine, also the Madonna and Child (41) in the Belvedere Gal-
leiy, seem to me to be the earliest works by Titian that have come down
to us, and both may have been painted several years before the " Amor
sacro e Amor profano."
^ See P. Marchese :
" Memorie dei piü in&igni Pittori, Scultori e
Architetti Domenicani" (vol. ii. pp. 59 64).—
^ Nos. 60 and 61, the Directors and the Directresses of the hospitals.
44 MUNICH.
ing the Saviour (Titian, vol. ii. p. 395, note 2). It is
true, that hand with the long, elegant, tapering fingers is
not Titianesque, but probably restored by some Nether-
lander ; but whether by Van Dyck, or what other Fleming,
the gods only know.
Very exquisite also is the beautiful Portrait of a Man
in black dress, once erroneously called a Pietro Aretino
(No. 4^67).

In the same room (No. 450) we see Mary seated on the

ground in a landscape, adoring the Child, which lies in her
lap, and surrounded by the saints Francis, Jerome, and

Antony, who touches the foot of the child quite dis- ;

figured by restorations. If I mistake not, this picture

must have been at one time a very good atelier-work of
Titian, which he himself may possibly have put a hand to.
To think of its being Bonifacio's, as Dr. Marggrafi" does,
can only happen to one who has no clear conception of
either Titian or Bonifacio. The same composition has
been often repeated, with modifications, by imitators of
Titian.'
No. 478, the life-size portrait of the Grand Admiral
Luigi Grimani, standing, is certainly not by Titian, and
still less by Tiberio Tinelli, nor is it painted in the manner
of Pietro Vecchia, as Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle main-
tain (ii. 488) ; least of all is it by Bern. Strozzi, as some

^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle give this painting to Francesco

Vecelli (" Life of Titian," ii. 485). I confess I know too little of this
imitator of Titian to pass an opinion on him. But the painting gives me
the impression of being a good atelier-work. I fancy the drawing was
done by Titian himself. The " Anonymus " of Morelli speaks of
Titianesque atelier-works having been executed partly by a certain
Girolamo, partly by a Stefano del Tiziano. And this painting might be
one of those.
 THE VENETIANS. 45

have lately suggested. As I cannot endure this groping

and guessing, I prefer to confess that I do not know the
painter.
'No. 492. A Man in black dress." Pearls and other
"
jewels on a table before him
lie behind it a woman.
;

This damaged, but still very interesting, picture has, with

sound judgment, been given back to P. Bordone by
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ii. 487). Dr. Marggraff
thinksit a " school-work " of Titian. They seem at Munich
to have no clear conception of Paris Bordone at all, or
they could not for all these years have paraded before the
patient public, as a genuine work of that charming
colourist, the flat, soulless copy in Room 7, No. 483. Even
now this dull copy is still copied by so-called artists. And
then to say that one must be a working painter to under-
stand the old masters One would almost feel inclined to
!

set up the contrary as an axiom. As for Palma's daughter

Violante, beloved by Titian, she is a myth, for Palma had
no daughter, but only a niece called Magdalena.
No. 496. " Portrait of Charles Y." Genuine and beau-
tiful. The landscape, sketched in with admirable ease,
vividly recalls in its tones the landscapes of Rubens see ;

e.g., the pictures Ko. 279 and Ko. 260 by P. P. Rubens.

It is only after his ambassadorial voyage to Madrid that

Rubens seems to have taken Titian for his model in land-
scape as well. The Emperor here looks ill and out of
humour. I think this picture must have been painted
some months before the wonderful equestrian portrait of
Charles V. in the Madrid Museum, to my thinking the
finest portrait in the world, as far as conception goes.
The signature on the portrait at Munich is genuine, though
retouched: "titianus.f. 1548."
No. 587. " Mary, seated in a landscape, with the Infant
 —

46 MUNICH.

Jesus, tlie Infant St. John, and the Donor." Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle consider this painting one of the most
excellentand valuable works of Titian, rich in colouring,
fine in the figures, and fine in the characters. They
admire especially the donor, and assign it to the years
—
1520 1525. I also cannot help admiring the magnificent
Titianic colouring and the good portrait of the donor ; on
the other hand, I think the drawing and modelling too
weak for the master himself, the foliage too minute, the
lamb too spiritless ; besides, the ear of the Madonna has
not the form peculiar to Titian.
England possesses excellent works by Titian, I can
only mention here those which are best known. There are
five at Bridgewater House ; for instance, the charming
representation of the three ages (a good copy of it is in
the Doria Gallery at Rome). Beautiful pictures by Titian
are the following in the National Gallery 'No. 270, :

" Christ appearing to Mary Magdalen (Noli me tangere) ;"

No. 4, a " Holy Family, with a shepherd adoring ;" No. 35,
"Bacchus and Ariadne;" No. 635, "The Madonna and
Child, with St.John the Baptist and St. Catherine." Two
very fine male portraits are at Hampton Court (No. 122
and No. 149). The grand family picture of the Cornaro
is in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland.
No. 591. *'
The Holy Virgin, in an evening landscape,"
signed (apocryphally) " F. Titianus." A picture much
damaged by restorations. In my opinion it is an atelier
work finished by the master himself the landscape in the
;

background seems entirely painted by him of his later ;

period.

We now come to the Bergamese portrait-painter, G. B.

Moroni, by whom there are two pictures in this gallery.
 THE VENETIANS. 47

Both, are in Room The first represents a lady in far,

7.

No. 583. by cleaning, but is still a very good

It has sufiered
work of the master, painted between 1560 1570. All the —
characteristics of Moroni are easily to be recognised in it.
The second, "No. 452, is in the revised catalogue of Dr,
Marggraff ascribed to Moretto. This was, in m.ore than one
respect, an ill-omened re-baptism ; for, in the first place,

it proves that the Doctor knows but little of Moroni;

and, secondly, it made him say what is not true about
Moretto, as this master was born, not in 1500, but in 1498,
and died, not at Bergamo, but at Brescia, and not in 1560,
but four years earlier. The portrait represents a clergy-
man, and is one of the best works of Moretto's scholar.
Some modern critics, even before Dr. Marggrafi", have
tried to assign to Moretto this picture so characteristic of
Moroni. In certain cases, where Moroni, for instance,
copies pictures of his master Moretto, as in the reading
St.Jerome of the Communal Gallery of Bergamo, or in
his early work,marked 'No. 252 in the Brera Gallery,
Moroni might be confounded with his master by those
who are not very familiar with the characteristics of his
style. The shape and expression of the hand, for instance,
are very different in Moroni from what they are in Moretto.
The hands of the latter, with pointed fingers, suggestive
of the academy, are never so true to nature as those that
Moroni can make when he chooses in drawing from life.
Moretto's flesh-colours, too, have a delicate silver-tone,
while Moroni's, with their earth-like tint, are more realistic.
In this portrait at Munich the hand is very characteristic,
and leaves not the smallest doubt in a connoisseur's mind
of its being by Moroni and not by Moretto.
Giovanni Battista Moroni was born at Bondio, near
Albino, a small place in the province of Bergamo, and
48 MUNICH.

very probably about 1525, for his earliest works have that
red-brick tone in the flesh parts which we meet often in
the works of Moretto after 1540. Moroni must, therefore,
have entered the atelier of Moretto somewhere about that
date. Though Moretto himself was a Brescian by birth,
his forefathers, the Bonvicini,^ came from Ardesio, a vil-
lage, which, like Albino, is in the Serio valley ; they settled
at Brescia as merchants about the year 1438. The earliest
dated picture by Moroni that I know is at the Berlin
Gallery, and is of the year 1553. I do not mean to imply
that Moroni had painted no pictures before. I know several
town and in the province
of his earliest works, both in the
ofBergamo. I will here name two for the sake of those
who wish to know this master more intimately one at the :

parish church of Gorlago, which, perhaps, of all Moroni's

pictures, comes nearest to Moretto;' and a Christ at the
Communal Gallery of Bergamo ; bust in profile.

No portrait-painter ever placed the epidermis of the

human face upon canvas with more fidelity, and with greater
truth than Moroni ; his portraits all have a more or less
prosaic look, but they must all have had that startling
likeness to the original which so enchants the great public,
who exclaim " The very man ! just how he looks " !
And

^ Ambrogio and Moretto, quondam Guglielmino of Ardesio, called

Bonvicini. (See " Dizionario degli Artisti Bresciani," bj Stefano
Fcnaroli).
- On the wall to the left of the door, under the name of Ceresa. It
represents Christ with the cross, floating in a glory of angelsbelow on :

the earth are St. John the Baptist and a saint in warlike armour, both
kneeling. The angels, as also the holy warrior, are taken from Moretto.
The drawing in this early picture by Moroni is very careful, but some-
what cramped. The form of head in the Christ recalls rather Eomanino
than ^Moretto. This painting was probably executed by Moroni when
still at Brescia in his master's studio. On canvas.
 THE VENETIANS. 49

it was with the eyes of the great public that Moroni

did look at his subjectshe was not a poet in the true
;

sense of the word, but a consummate painter. Yet,

now and then, he manages to go beyond himself, and to
pierce the surface, till he reaches the soul of the sitter.

In such cases his portraits may rank with those of

Titian.
Moretto shows himself the higher artist of the two ;
his
conception of a subject and his drawing are nobler and
more elegant than those of his matter-of-fact scholar ; but
these intellectual qualities, which are not perceptible to
every eye, do not always suffice to distinguish his weaker
works from Moroni's best. In such cases the only means
we have of determining the authorship of a given work is an
exact and minute knowledge of the shapes of hand and ear,
which are very different in the two masters. It was not till
the present century that Moroni attained that European
fame which he deserves as a portrait-painter. During his
lifetime he was highly celebrated ia his own native district,

especially in the Bergamo province, but was hardly known

beyond the limits of the Venetian republic. At the begin-
ning of this century nearly all his works were still in
Bergamo and its neighbourhood, and the few portraits
which had found their way across the Alps in former cen-
turies were invariably introduced to the public under the
name of Titian or some other master. Take, for instance,
the so-called anatomist A. Yesalius (Room 2, N"o. 24 of
the Vienna Pinacothec), and the other male portrait there
(No. 34) .Both pictures belonged to the collection of the
Archduke Leopold William at Brussels, where they were
ascribed, the former to Titian, as it is even now, and the
latter to John of Calcar.
Among the finest portraits by Moroni are three in the
E
50 MUXICH.
N'ational Gallery, Loüdon/ the " Scholar " at the Uffizi
Gallerj, a few in the Communal Collection of Bergamo,
and three or four others in private possession there. His
numerous altar-pieces, still remaining in the Bergamo
province, are all verj superior as regards technical skill,
but mostly dry and spiritless in conception.
Moroni died in the year 1578, while executing his great
picture of " The Last Judgment" for the parish church of
Gorlago, five miles from Bergamo.
The following are the most deserving of his imitators: —
Gianpaolo Colmo, Francesco Zucco, Carlo Ceresa, and
Giovan Battista Moneta, all four from Bergamo. Portraits
by the last-named painter are extremely rare.
Nearly all the leading picture galleries in Germany
possess one or two portraits by Moroni. The one at
Munich (IS'o. 452) and the " Dominican Brother " in the
Stadel Institute at Frankfurt, are in my opinion the best
ofthem all.
Drawings by Moroni are very scarce there was one ;

in Mr. Prayer's collection at Muan, representing St.

Eochus in a worshipping posture weak and spiritless. ;

' How even a practised eye may confound portraits by Moroni with
those by Moretto strikingly proved in the case of the late O. MiincUer,
is

^vho, in his Contributions to Jacob Burckhardt's " Cicerone," p. 67,

speaks of the three life-size portraits, formerly in the Casa Fenaroli at

Brescia, and now for some years at the National Gallery, London, as
worlcs of Moretto, to whom they were also ascribed when in Italy. It
was the present writer's privilege, when visiting Count Fenaroli's col-
lection some years ago, to be the first to recognise in two of these cele-
brated portraits the hand and the mind of Moroni, under whose name
they have also been sold to the National Gallery by the dealer Baslini,
of Milan; one of them represents " A Cavalier in a black cap, wounded
in the foot;" the other, "A seated Lady, in a brocade dress." The
third magnificent portrait, representing a young cavalier in a red cap,
is dated 1526, and is one of Moretto's most elegant portraits.
 — !

THE YEXETIAISrS. 51

The techmcal treatment, ia water-colours and chalk,

which Moroni adopted from his master Moretto, seems to
have originated in the school of Yicenzo Foppa, and is
much the same as that of Gaudenzio Ferrari and his
scholars down to Lomazzo while the other contemporary
;

masters in the Venetian lands nearly always used for

their drawings either pen and ink, or red or black chalk,
e.g., Titian and Giorgione, Paris Bordone, the Bonifazios,
the Veronese Liberale, Carotto, Francesco Morone, and
others. I beg my young fellow-students in arb history to
take note of this, for these technical practices of schools
will often furnish yaluable hints.

In Room 7, N'o. 584, there is a remarkable portrait of a

young man with a rose in his hand. The catalogue calls
it the artist's portrait by himself; and as it is signed Fran-

ciscus Turhidiis, it ought to be, according to Dr. Marggraff,

a portrait of Moro by himself. Bat
of Verona, painted
the picture also bears the date 1516; and as the catalogue
makes Torbido come into the world in 1500, he ought in
this picture to be a youth of sixteen, which is evidently
not the case. Some will say that these are trifles, and
one need not be so particular in judging works of art
Francesco Torhido, called Moeo, was born at Verona in
1486, and died there in 1546.'^ Vasari, having procured
his information about the Veronese painters from the Padi e
Marco Medici (whose estimate of the importance of the
Veronese school I consider very inadequate), was also not

^ A portrait of tMs artist, seen in profile, drawn in red chalk,and

arbitrarily ascribed to Gentile Bellini, is in the collection of Christ Church
College, Oxford. The lips and the hah' appear here to be Moor-liks.
This excellent drawing, evidently by some Venetian master, bears the
following inscription :
•'
fraxciscts tvkbidfs. tenet, pic."
52 MUNICH.
quite fair to Torbido, wliom lie decidedly -undervalued.
Modern writers have blindly followed Vasari's opinion^
and placed Moro on about the same level as the superficial
and flat Pomponio Amalteo. But in so doing they are
grossly unjust to Torbido. "Vasari designates this Vero-
nese a scholar of Giorgione, a statement the truth of
which I very much
doubt. In his early works, of which
our portrait he looks to me far more like a pupil of
is one,
Liberale. 1 think, therefore, that in company with Giol-
fino and the two Carottos he must have served his

apprenticeship in the studio of his old countryman Liberale.

And in the works of his later period, for instance, in the
altar-piece of the church S. Fermo
at Verona (where the
Madonna and by angels, are represented
Child, surrounded
on clouds, and the archangel Raphael with young Tobias
on the ground below), the fine poetical landscape of the
background with the two small figures strongly recalls
another of his countrymen, Bonifazio the elder. Finally,
his latest works, such as the frescoes in the Cathedral of
Verona, prove how the injurious influence of Giulio Romano
had affected even this (otherwise so independent) Veronese.
There are other pictures by this underrated artist, in
the Municipal Gallery at Verona " Madonna and Child,"
:

ITo. 49 "Archangel Raphael with Tobias," No. 49 (there

;

ascribed to Moretto of Brescia, probably in consequence of

confounding their similar names) ; another " Madonna with
Saints and the Donor," 'No. 210, very grand in conception,
but much damaged. St. Zeno the first altar on the left
In
is also by his hand. Then the Cathedral of Salo contains
a very fine work by him, though quite misunderstood
there ; another altar-piece, unfortunately quite spoiled, and
likewise under the name of Moretto, is to be seen at the
church of Limone, which is also on L. Garda. This
 THE VENETIANS. 53

Torbido is more
really a personality tliat deserves to be
closely studied and brought into tbe ligbt of daj, a worthy
task for a young student who would win his spurs. I think
Tie would have to bring the elder Bonifazio into close con-

nexion with Torbido. They were fellow-countrymen, and

both have been influenced by the Giorgionesque school,
Bonifazio throiTgh Palma Vecchio, and Torbido probably
at third hand, that is, through Bonifazio. But Torbido, for
all that, remained faithful to his first master Liberale

until his death, in 1536.

I know of only two or three portraits by Torbido be-
sides this one at IMunich : one in the Communal Gallery
of Padua (much damaged, No. 49) another, signed, in ;

the N'aples Museum, clumsy and not beautiful. A por-

trait in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence (No. 571), there
given to Giorgione, is in my opinion not by Caroto,^ as

Mündler thought, and far less by Torbido, as Messrs.

Crowe and Cavalcaselle maintain. (See " History of
Painting in North Italy," vol. ii. p. 163: "There is some
excuse for substituting Giorgione for Torbido, as is done

here ; that is, for substituting the master for the pupil ;"
and in vol. i., p. 511, they call this portrait "an unmis-
takable work of Torbido.")
Mündler was quite right in recognising in this picture
ihe hand and spirit of a Veronese painter, and of one
who had nothing to do with the Giorgionesque style he ;

therefore proposed Caroto, and in so doing came very near

the truth. If I am not much mistaken, the picture
belongs to a painter who at one period of his career must
liave stood in a close relation to Cavazzola, and even

^ See Burckhardt's " Cicerone," second edition, revised by A. roa

Zalm, 1869.
54 MUNICH.

worked together wltli him, as the pictures K"©.

298 (" St.
Michael and Paul") and No. 301 ("St. Peter and
St.

John the Baptist ") in the Town Museum of Verona prove.

I mean the little known Michele da Verona, by whom
there are signed frescoes in the church of Santa Chiara at
Verona. He, too, like Cavazzola and Francesco Morone,.
came from the school of Domenico Morone. At that
period (1509 —
1514) the works of Cavazzola are with diffi-
culty to be distinguished from those of Michele da Verona.
Thus the fine picture at the first altar on the left in
St. Anastasia at Verona, there ascribed to Cavazzola, is,

in my opinion, by Michele. This painter is more pointed

in the foldings of his draperies, as well as in the fingers of
his hands, which are always rather stumpy in Cavazzola.
In conception, however, Cavazzola' is far above Michele,
and also more elegant and noble in his drawing.
In the same Room 7 (No. 597), there is also a St.
Nicholas, in full canonicals, between St. John the Baptist
and St. Philip. The picture is signed — " 1533 F. Sebas-
tian. F. PEE, AGOSTINO CHiGi." But Agostino Chigi died
in 1520. The whole signature is evidently apocryphal,
and the painting is in the manner of Bocco Marconi, a
pupil of Palma and Bordone. Messrs. Crowe and Caval-
caselle are of the same opinion, as, indeed, every one must
be who has the slightest acquaintance with the Venetian
masters.
There is another remarkable portrait of Venetian origin
on which I should like to express my opinion. The picture
hangs in Room 7 (No. 1421). Dr. Marggrafi", in his pre-
face, justly draws our attention to a master so little known

^ Two excellent works by this master, the Eaphael of the Veronese

School, are in the National Gallery, London (Nos. 735 and 777).
 THE VENETIAiSTS. 55

in Germanj. Bomenico GaprioU was a Trevisan, and, to

judge by his pictures, had formed himself on the works
both of Palma and of Giorgione. This portrait of a young
man is a sort of caricature of Giorgione. It has been
much repainted. In its present dirty state it is difficult

to decide whether it is a replica or a later copy of the

original at Mr. Cheney's, in London. This little picture
bears the signature :
" PRAif. domixici se pixxit. mdxxx.
ANN. XXV." In the background a view of Treviso. This
portrait of Domenici recalls the style of G. A. Pordeuoue.

2. THE PBRRARESE AN'D THE BOLOGN'ESE.

The province of Polesine is only separated by the Po

from that of Ferrara, and to this day there is a Vene-
tian accent in the Romagnole dialect, easily discernible
even to a foreign ear. In my pamphlet on the Borghese
Gallery,^ I have briefly pointed out the intimate relation
which existed between the Paduan-Venetian schools of
painting and those of the Romagnoles in general, and the
Ferrarese in particular. And in doing so I have mentioned
the names of Ansuino and Melozzo da Forli, Cosimo Tura,
Stefano and Bono of Ferrara, Marco Zoppo of Bologna,
Lattanzio da Rimini and Niccolo Rondinello of Ravenna,
Dosso Dossi and Scarsellino of Ferrara, and, lastly, also

Antonio Allegri of Correggio.

This mutual relation between the Romagnoles and the
Venetians, founded on the nature of things and elective

^ Published in the " Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," vol. ix.

56 MUNICH.

affinity, and therefore easy to account for, was, however,

disturbed in the beginning of the sixteenth century by the
clear and dazzling light which the works of Raphael and
Michelangelo at the Vatican spread all over Italy, and
which prompted many a Romagnole to betake himself to
Rome. The first and greatest of these Romagnoles was
the Ferrarese Benvenuto Tisio, called Garofolo. He was
followed later on by Jacopo Bertucci, Girolamo Marchesi
of Cotignola, Jacopo da Faenza, &c. But, notwithstanding
his residence of about two years at Rome (1509 loll), —
Garofolo always remained a Ferrarese.^ There are some
pictures by him in the Munich Gallery, but none of special
importance.
Thei'e is a genuine, but not a good, picture (Cabinet 21,
No. 1190) by a younger countryman of Garofolo, Lodovico
Mazzolini (his family name, and not a nickname as Dr.
jNIarggraff thought). This painter signed himself L.
Mazzolinus, and is rather to be considered a scholar of
Domenico Pauetti than of L. Costa. There are two genuine
and good pictures in Room 6, by the noble FroMcesco Bai-
holini, named Francia," whom in his paintings I regard as a
follower of Lorenzo Costa, his atelier-companion. One of
them, No. 577, a well-known picture, represents the Virgin
in a bower of roses, worshipping the Infant Christ; the
other, N"o. 575, a Madonna holding the Child, who stands
on a table covered with a gold- embroidered carpet. This
is an early work of the master himself. The assertion that
Francia was a pupil of Marco Zoppo may be read in books.

^ Baron von Eumohr (" Ital. Forsch." iii. 88) is of a different

opinion.
- Francia is an abbreviation of Francesco. The Florentines also had
their Francione, their Franciabigio (Francesco Bigi).
 ;

THE FERRARESE AND THE BOLOGNESE. 57

but nowhere in his works, not even in his niello works,

and still less his paintings, which, in technical matters,
all point to Lorenzo Costa. The atelier of Francia at
Bologna consisted of two stories in the upper storey pic-
;

tures were painted under the supervision of Lorenzo Costa

in the lower, gold and silver works were executed, coins
stamped, &c., under the direction of Francia. The fable
that Francia must have been a scholar of Marco Zoppo
originated most likelj at Bologna, and not until the seven-
teenth century. Local patriotism wanted to give the
Bolognese Francia a Bolognese painter for his master. It
is Malvasia, in his " Felsiua pittrice," that treats us to the
pleasing tale; and, to give ns full measure, he makes
Marco ZojDpo descend from Lippo Dalmasio, Francia from
Marco Zoppo, and winds up with making Lorenzo Costa a
pupil of Francia. It seems far more probable that Francia
acquired the first rudiments of design from some goldsmith
at Bologna, and afterwards improved himself in drawing,
perhaps under the direction of Francesco Cossa, who had
been settled in Bologna from the year 1470. His two
" Paci," niello works, executed between 1480 1485, which —
are to be seen at the Pinacothec of Bologna, recall the
manner of Cossa in the design and the draperies. Marco
Zoppo, a pupil of Squarcione, is of little account as an
artist ; and, moreover, he spent nearly all his life at Yenice.
Be that as it may, of this much I am certain, that Francia
was neither influenced in his artistic tendency by Perugino,
nor by the youthful Raphael, as Dr. MarggrafE" supposes.
Perhaps on deeper inquiry it may even turn out that
Raphael himself, in his earliest works, was influenced in-
directlyby the Francia-Costa school, namely, through his
countryman, Timoteo Viti, the scholar of Francia.
A very good picture by a pupil of Francia, namely, the
58 MUNICH.

Imolese Innocenzo Francucci, exhibited in the same

is

room, ISTo. 581. Holy Virgin in a glory

It represents the
of angels and cherubs, and on the ground the Saints Petro-
nius, Clara, Francis, and Sebastian, with two donors.
Life-size figures.
The representatives of the later Bolognese school, the-
so-called Academicians, Eclectics, or what you will, are
nearly all to be found at ^Munich : thus there are th&
Caracci, Annibale as well as Lodovico, Albani, Guido,
Guercino, Simon da Pesaro, Tiarini, Cavedone, and Dome-
nichino. One may Munich Gal-
therefore acquire at the
lery a very competent acquaintance with the aims and
achievements of that celebrated school. But I cannot close
my chnpter on the Bologna- Ferrara school without speak-
ing of the chief representative, or, to express it better, the
Michelangelo of that school, namely, CoRREGGio, to whom
half-a-dozen pictures are ascribed in this collection.
The most important of these, with regard to size and
artistic value, which, according to the catalogue, is only
"said to be" by Antonio Allegri, is in Room 6, under

'No. 580,and represents the Virgin and Child on clouds ;

below are St. James and St. Jerome, with the donor. ]^ot
Girolamo da Carpi, but rather Michelangelo Anselmi,
might be thought of as the author. Anyhow, it is safer
simply to assign the picture in general terms to the school
of Correggio.
Another picture attributed to the school of CorreggiO'
in the new catalogue hangs in Room 6, and is numbered
469. It represents the Madonna seated under a tree, with
the Child near her an angel and Saints Jerome and
;

Ildefonso. This picture, which may once have been

Rondani's, is now so much painted over that it is really no
longer fit to be exhibited in so important a gallery as the one
 THE TEKEARESE AND THE BOLOGNESE. 59

at Munich. The third picture (Small Room 19, 'No. 1187)

is a copy from the well-known picture of " Cupid's Educa-
tion," by Correggio, in the IsTational Gallery at London, as
Dr. Marggraff rightly states.
The " Head of a young Faun," Small Eoom 19, No.
1257, is probably Bolognese work. The " Ecce Homo,"
Small Room 19, ISTo. 1249, is an unmistakable work of
D. Eeti we certainly cannot think of giving
; it to Federigo
Barocci, as Dr. Marggraff suggests. I have already spoken
my mind on the charming little "Faun," Small Room 19,
No. 1266.

3. THE LOMBARDS.
From the Bologna school of painting we now pass to the
so-called Lombard school of Parma, for writers on art always
speak of the masters of Modena, Parma, and Carpi as Lom-
bards. Of Correggio's imitators, Michelangelo Anselmi and
Rondani, I have just spoken. By Parmegianino,^ Bedolo,
Pomponio Allegri, Gandini, and others there are no works
in this collection. It has a few by Bartolommeo Schedone,
who, though educated in the school of the Caracci, after-
wards took Correggio and also Parmegianino for his models.
There is a penitent Magdalen by him in Cabinet 20, No.
1197; likewise No. 1217, "Lot and his Daughters;"
while No. 1256 in the same cabinet, a " Halt on the
Flight to Egypt," does not appear to me to be by him,

^ The ugly Madonna picture (Eoom 9, No. 531) imputed to him by

Dr. Marggraff belongs to a Florentine of the school of G. Vasari, and
has not the remotest affinity with the works of Francesco Mazzoli.
60 MUNICH.
but rather by some pupil or imitator of Rembrandt. By
Schedone, again, the other Magdalen, N'o. 566, Small
is

Room 19. In the Small Room 18 we see a " Saviour of

the World," No. 1202, of which Dr. Marggraff finds a
good deal to say. The picture belongs to the school of
Boccaccio Boccaccino of Cremona, and is perhaps the
work of his brother, Bartolommeo Boccaccio. At all events,
it belongs to the last years of the fifteenth century or the
beginning of the sixteenth, and is not, as the catalogue
tells us, " in the style of the early part of the fifteenth
century." This may be a misprint, or a lapsus calami, and
I do not care to make Dr. Marggrafi" responsible for so
gross a blunder ; but in the name of that History of Art
to which, in the preface to his Catalogue, he claims to
have rendered such important services, I must hold him.
answerable for stamping Boccaccio Boccaccino ofi'hand as
"one of the happiest imitators of Pietro Perugino." It
might also have been wiser if he had kept to himself the
remarks with which he favours us on this occasion as to
tlie artistic development of Girolamo dai Libri. In all his

Avorks that are known to us Girolamo dai Libri is a

thoroughly Veronese painter, and anything but the mon-
grel, half Mantegna, half Giambellini, that Dr. Marggraff
would have us imagine him.
From these Pseudo-Lombards we pass on to view the
works of the real Lombard schools, namely, those which
had their seat between the Po and the Adda, in. the towns
of Lodi, Pavia, and Yercelli and whose intellectual focus
;

was Milan.
The school of Lodi, with Albertino and Martino Piazza,
and the sons of the latter, Calisto and Scipione, for its
chief representatives, is but little known even in Italy,
nay, in Lombardy. ISTor is there a single work of this
 THE LOMBARDS. 61

school in tlie German collections. If at MnnicL. there are

no works by those Vercellian masters, the Oldoni, Gau-
denzio Ferrari, the Giovenoni, Defendente Ferrari, Lanini,
Grammorseo, the collection has, on the other hand, a
genuine picture by Giovanantonio Bazzi, called II Sodoma.
It Room 6, and represents the Holy Family (No.
hangs in
1194). The surname " de' Tizzoni," of an old noble
family of Vercelli, was sometimes given to Bazzi out of
sheer vanity, though Bazzi bore no blood relationship
to that family. The Tizzoni may have patronized him in
his youth; for Sodoma's father was a poor man, a shoe-
maker by trade. JS'either was Bazzi born in the year 1474,
but in 1477 ; nor was he a scholar of Girolamo Giovenone,
who was ten or twelve years his junior, but he served his
first apprenticeship from 1490 — 1497 with the painter on
glass, Spanzotti of Vercelli.Soon after this he seems to
have removed to Milan, and there pursued his studies
under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci. In the year
1501 we find him settled at Siena, where he founded a
school, and was imitated by the painters Beccafumi and
Baldassare Peruzzi of that place. A picture by Sodoma,
very similar to this one, but finer in execution, is in the
Turin Gallery,
The catalogue further mentions some pictures which it

assigns to the school of Leonardo da Vinci. Two are in

Room 8 ; the one (No. 582a) representing St. Cecilia is

in my opinion nothing but a bad Flemish copy after the

Raphael portrait of Giovanna d'Aragona (in the Louvre) ;

in this picture the lady is transformed into a Cecilia.

A similar Flemish work, but better preserved, is in the
Doria Gallery at Rome, and if I am not mistaken, under
the name of Leonardo da Vinci. The other picture is

No. 564, and represents the Holy Virgin in an open rocky

62 MUNICH.
cave, with, the Infant Christ lying beside her, I can
easily iinderstand how a man, whose notions of Leonardo
da Vinci as an artistic personality are such as Dr. MarggrafiF
forms, might take this Madonna for a work of the Floren-
tine master's school, and that female bust with, the
diskevelled hair (No. 383) at the Augsburg Gallery,
for Leonardo's own workmanship. Great, unfortunate
Leonardo, how little art thou understood ! At Peters-
burg they at least ascribe to him pictures by Cesare da
Sesto and Bernardino dl Conti, artists who more or less
directly belonged to his school, and moreover were
Italians but at Augsburg and Munich they palm off upon
;

the public, as works of Leonardo and his school, the

pitiful productions of Flemish imitators. Every lover of
art ought to protest with all his energy against such
profanation. Another so-called Madoima of Leonardo,
N"o. 1335 in the same room, is also not Italian, but the
work of a Fleming, apparently one of the school of Gos-
saert.

By Beenaedixo Luixi, a native of Luino or Lovino, on

the Lago Maggiore, a pupil of Ambrogio da Fossano,
called Borgognone, and at one period an imitator of Leo-
nardo, the Munich Gallery possesses, if we can believe the
catalogue, in the first jjlace a genuine picture, secondly a
doubtful one, and thirdly a copy after him.
The so-called genuine picture is in Room 6, 'No. 586,
and represents the Madonna offering the breast to the
Infant Jesus, who lies in her lap, holding a goldfinch in
his hand ; landscape in the background. This Luini is

nothing but a poor copy of a picture by Giampietrino, in

possession of the Borghese Gallery at Rome (Room 1).
The acknowledged copy from Luini is exhibited in Small
Room 20, N"o. 1182, and need not detain us.
 ;

THE LOMBARDS. 63

Lastly, the third picture, which the catalogue imputes,

though doubtinglj, to Bernardino Luini, is in Eoom 6,

'No. 565, It represents St. Catherine with a palm-branch

in her hand, the wheel lying near her on the ground
landscape in the background. This painting has suffered
so much by various restorations that one can hai'dly see
anything of its The right hand, for instance,
real author.
is quite new ; it the workmanship of the
I recognise in
late Milanese picture-restorer, Molteni, Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle (vol. ii. pp. 60-61) ascribe this picture
with better knowledge to Axdrea Solario. I also believe
this St. Catherine to have been originally painted by
Solario.
In all the German collections there is only one^ picture
that I know
of by this superior and refined Lombard
master, namely, the " Herodias " at the Belvedere in Vienna
(j^o. 78, Room 1, of the Old German School, under the
name of Amberger).
As writers on art are not yet agreed about this painter,
I take this opportunity to express my views on the subject
somewhat at large. The artist-family of the Solari (archi-
tects and sculptors) originally came from the village of
Solaro, near Saronno in the province of Milan, but was
already settled at Milan in, the first half of the fifteenth cen-
tury ; it appears, therefore, very probable that Andrew the
painter, who was born about saw the light at
1460, first

Milan. His elder brother, Christopher, was a sculptor and

architect, and being somewhat humpbacked received the

^ The " Ecce Homo " in Baron Sternburg's collection at Liitzscbena

isan old copy, an intentional forgery. The " Herodias " at Vienna has
much the same style of dress as the " Herodias " of Quintin Matsys
(246) at Antwerp.
 ;

64 MUNICH.

surname of " il gobbo," the hunchback.' Andrew was very

fond of this brother, and seems to have followed him about
wherever he went. This is probably the reason why his
"
pictures are signed sometimes " Andreas Mediolanensis
and sometimes " Andreas de Solario " the first signature ;

;
is on those works which he painted far from Milan " the
second on those he executed at Milan. Some early
writers call him Andrea del Gobbo, from which we
may conclude thac Christopher stood in something like a
father's place to his younger brother. Many writers con-
found him with Andrea Salaino, the famulus of Leonardo
da Vinci. The late Otto Mündler, in his admirable
"Analyse Critique de la Notice des Tableaux Italiens du
Louvre," Paris, ISoO, has the merit of being the first to
diffuse some light on the character of this artist as well as
others. Then followed Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
though in their chapter on Andrea Solario they have added
some things that seem to me altogether untenable. Who
his real instructor was, is not yet ascertained. In the superb
modelling of his heads we detect the schooling he must
have had, probably from his brother the sculptor, No
Lombard painter comes so near to Leonardo as he, none
"
ever turned out such a head as that in the " Ecce Homo
of the Poldi Gallery (Milan). In modelling hands, Solario
lags far behind Leonardo. A small Madonna picture,
No. 310 in the Brera Gallery, the earliest by A. Solario
known to me, might also point to the influence of Barto-

^ Monsieur Villot, in his Louvre Catalogue, made poor Andrew him-

self humpbacked, while the latest catalogue promotes Chi-istopher to
the dignity of xVndi-ew's father.
- On the same principle Andrew Previtali signed himself Andreas
Bergomensis ; Vicenzo Civerchio, Vicentius Cremensis ; Giuliano Bngi-
ardini, Julianus Flcrcntinus, &c.
 THE LOMBARDS. 65

lommeo Suardi, called Bramantino,^ In 1490 he accom-

panied his brother Cristoforo to Venice, and there he maj
have painted the fine portrait of a "Venetian Senator"
(now in the ISTational Gallery, London), about 1492 93. —
The influence of Giambellini, still more that of Antonello
da Messina, is evident in this painting and so long as it
;

remained in the Casa Gavotti at Genoa, it actually passed

for a work of Giambellini's. The magnificently modelled
*'Ecce Homo" at Poldi's may also have been painted about
1494. The two brothers returned from Venice to Milan
in 1493. Whether Andrew executed at Venice or some-
where else the altar-piece for the church of San Pietro Mar-
tire at Murano (of the year 1495, now at the Brera Gallery,
No. 163), I am unable to say he may very likely have
;

paid a second visit to the city of lagoons, and painted the

picture there. The face of the Madonna is thoroughly
Leonardesque (reminding one, especially in the drawing,
of Boltraffio's Madonnas), and proves that Solari, after
his return from Venice, in the years 1493 and 1494, must
have been strongly influenced by the great Florentiae.
But Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle see in this picture,
besides the influence of Leonardo, that of Andrea del
Verocchio (?) and the Venetian School ; to them this
picture is a mixture of Florentine, Lombard, and Venetian
impressions ; nay, further, the landscape in the background
reminds them more especially of Previtali's landscapes."

^ This interesting picture for art-history was lately, out of mere

ignorance, placed in the dark corridor leading to the Oggionni Gallery.
The Madonna wears an antiquated cap, similar to those with which
Bramantino and also Gaudenzio Ferrari adorned the heads of their
women. In the collection of Marquis Trivulzi at Milan one sees a
male portrait, bas-relief, by Christopher Solari, which strongly recalls
the painted portraits of his brother Andrew.
^ Previtali may have been about fourteen or fifteen years old in 1495.
F
66 MUNICH,

But I do not mean to follow these gentlemen on this

dangerous road of influences and resemblances, for it

generally leads into a thicket of thorns.

The collection of Signer Poldi-Pezzoli, at Milan, pos-
sesses two tablets of 1499, with the Baptist and St. Cathe-
rine, fragments of a triptych, signed " Andreas Medio-
lanensis," therefore not painted in Milan. The Baptist is

very Leonardesque ; the St. Catherine, on the contrary,

unadulterated Lombardesque.^ Then comes a small " Cruci-
fixion," 1^0. 396, of the Louvre Gallery, likewise signed
"A. Mediolanensis fa. 1503." And the same period, i.e.,
the years 1503 and 1504, may very well have produced the
portrait No. 395 in the same gallery. This picture has of
late been taken for a likeness of Charles d'Amboise, the
French governor of the Milanese. It represents a man of
about thirty-eight, with the Order of St. Michael attached
to his cap background a view of the snow-covered
; in the
Alps, as seen from Milan. The workmanship is delicate,
but diflScult to distinguish through the dirty varnish. In
1505 Solari painted the portrait of his friend, John Chris-
topher Longoni, ISTo. 734 of the National Gallery, London.^
To the same Milanese period, that is, before his journey to
France, I assign a portrait of a lady, now in possession of
Marchese Emanuele d'Adda, at Milan, where it is ascribed
to Boltraffio. Likewise the so-called " Yierge au coussin
vert" of the Louvre Gallery.^

^ A St.Catherine in a picture of Macrino d'Alba, of the year 1506

(Tnrin Plnacothec), i-ecalls vividly this Cathei-ine of Solari.
^ Of the year 1505 is also the " Christ with the Cross," in possession
of the painter Galgani at Siena. This, too, was probably painted, if not
at Milan, yet in the Milanese; not at Florence, as Calvi assumes, in
order to draw from it his further conclusions; for in the same year
Solario paints his friend Longoni at Milan.
^ The '•'
Vierge au coussin vert," the •'
Crueitixion" (Xo. 396, Louvre),
 :

THE LOMBARDS. 67

In the middle of the year 1507 Solari travelled from

Milan to France, with from Chau-
letters of introduction
mont George of Amboise, for whom
to his nncle, Cardinal
Andrea Solari accordingly worked for two years at Gaillon.
The ambitious Cardinal, who hoped to attain the papal
dignity on the death of Pius III., had intimated to his
nephew, the representative of Louis XII. at Milan, his
desire to entrust the decoration of his chapel at Gaillon to
the great Leonardo da Yinci. But Leonardo was at that
time so taken up with fortification and hydraulic works at
Madonna
Milan, that he could not even find time to paint a
for King Louis. ^ Instead of Leonardo, therefore, Chau-
mont sent him Andrea Solari, whom he rightly considered
to be, after the great Florentine, the ablest master then
living in the Milanese. Andrea Solari completed his work
at Chateau Gaillon in September of the year 1509.
Of the year 1507 is also that unpleasing picture, " The
Head of John the Baptist on a Charger" (a favourite sub-
ject with Milanese painters of that period), signed
" ANDREAS DE SOLAEIO, 1507." This picture he probably
brought with him from Milan (Louvre Gallery, No. 397).
It has not yet been discovered whether Solari remained
any time in France after finishing his work at Chateau
Gaillon. That, before returning home, he spent some

and the " Severed Head of John the Baptist" (No. 397, Louvre), all bear
the same mscription, " Andreas de solario fa." The last-named
picture is of the year 1507, and much more negligent, both in di-awing

and modelling, than the celebrated " Vierge au coussin vert," which may
very likely have been painted a few years earlier. He may, therefore,
have brought these pictures to France with him. He afterwards left the
" Vierge au coussin vert" to a convent at Blois. I have seen several
northern copies of this picture, one in private possession at Bergamo,
another in the Town Museum of Leipzig, and others.
1 See Gaye, " Carteggio, &c.," vol. ii.
pp. 94, 95, and 96.
68 MUNICH.

time in Flandei's, probably at Antwerp, seems to me a not

unlikely hypothesis. Several of his paintings, e.r/., the
" Herodias " of the Belvedere Gallery at Vienna, and the
"Christ bearing the Cross" of the Borghese Gallery at
Rome, have to my eyes so pronounced a Flemish character,
and recall so strongly the style of Quintin Matsys and his
school, that they look at first sight like Flemish works.
In 1515 Solari appears to have been at Milan again, or
at least in Italy. We see it in the workmanship of the
fine, ont-and-OTit Milanese painting in the Poldi collection
at Milan. It bears the signature, " Andreas de Solario
mediolanen. f. 1515."
From that time forward we hear nothing of him. That
he painted the large altar-piece for the Carthusian church
near Pavia (now exhibited in the new sacristy there), after
1515, is more than probable, especially as we are told that
the tipper part of the picture was left unfinished, and that
it was completed (perhaps only restored) by Bernardino
Campi about 1576. Be that as it may, I certainly cannot
admit the statement repeated by G. Calvi, that Andrea
Solari, about 1513, accompanied Andrea da Salerno (Sab-
batini) to South Italy (from where ?), and that the two
together painted a chapel of the St. Gaudenzio church at
N'aples. (See " Notizie sulla vita e sulle opere dei prin-
cipali architetti, scultori e pittori che fiorirono in Milano
durante il regno dei Visconti ed
e degli Sforza, raccolte

esposte da Girolamo Calvi, Milano, Tipografia Agnelli,

1865," p. 277.) Here Andrea da Salerno may probably
have been confounded with Cesare da Sesto, of whom this

latter Andrea, I certainly think, was a hanger-on.

Two male portraits by Solario I should like to mention
here. One of them may, perhaps, have been painted after
1515 ; I mean the full-face portrait exhibited under the
 THE LOMBAKDS. 69

name of Leonardo da Vinci, in the collection of Duke

Scotti, at Milan. The man has a refined look, a keen eye,
and a still more resolute mouth. In the Scotti palace it is
thought to be the likeness of Chancellor Morone and I ;

think Morone was not promoted to be Grand Chancellor

till the year 15 18.^ The other portrait is in the posses-
sion of Count Castelbarco, at Milan it is said to represent :

Cgesar Borgia (?), and at the Casa Castelbarco it is ascribed

to Raphael Sanzio. Both pictures are much disfigured by
repainting.
I have still to mention two more pictures of Lombard
origin. They hang Room 6, No. 537 and 543, and
in
represent, the one, St. Ambrose, the other, St. Louis of
Toulouse. They are indeed assigned, though dubiously,
to Antonio Lo Zingaro ^ but belong, ac-
Solario, called ;

cording to Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, and in my own

opinion, to a Lombardo-Pavian master. It seems very
must have stood in an
clear that the author of this picture
intimate relation to Pier Francesco Sacchi. But I do not
venture to assert, as Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle do,
that the two saints must be ascribed to Sacchi's pupil and
imitator, Cesare Magni.

^ .Terome Morone was born in 1470, and died in 1529. Tlie portrait
represents a man bordering on fifty ; so that Solarimust hare painted
him about 1518-20. It may therefore be really a portrait of Chancellor
Morone.
^ A
Neapolitan painter called Zingaro may indeed have existed, but
no authentic works by him are known to me. If the frescoes in the
cloisters of St. Severino at Naples (quite disfigured lately by repainting)
are really by him, as is generally supposed, he must be regarded as a
pupil of Pinturicchio in any case, therefore, as a painter of the end of
:

the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century.

70 MUNICH.

THE TUSCANS.
The old Florentines are better represented at the Munich
Gallery than the Ferrarese and the Lombards.
The four small panels in Small Room 17, Nos. 1204,
1205, 1207, and 1208, on which the pious monk Giovais"ni

DA PiESOLE has depicted incidents from the lives of Saints

Cosmas and Damian, are undoubtedly among the best
works of this delightful master, whose naivete amounts to
genius. The lunette (No. 1203), however, with God the
Father surrounded by several rows of musical and adoring
angels, is not by him ; it belongs apparently to a much
later time, and can only be regarded as a copy after Fra
Angelico. Of the same opiaion are Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle.
Fea Filippo Lippi, a young Florentine contemporary of
Fra Angelico, was a friar too, but the cowl of this Carme-
lite concealed a very different temper from that of the pious
Dominican.
Left parentless, the restless, unruly boy was consigned
to the convent when quite young, and stamped a monk, a
vocation for which wise mother Nature had never moulded
him. But whenever his hasty, passionate temperament
led him into serious embarrassments, his eminent artistic
talent always came to the rescue, and set him right again.
Masaccio may be regarded as his real master, for his epoch-
marking frescoes in the Carmelite convent at Florence were
the model on which young Filijipo formed himself. And,
in fact, the modelling of the heads, and the shapes of the
hands in the youthful works of Fra Filippo, put one
 THE TUSCAjSTS. 71

strongly in mind of Masaccio. His chief work is tlie frescoes

in tlie ciioir They represent, on one wall,
of Prato cathedral.
the and martyrdom of St. Stephen on the other, those
life ;

of St. John the Baptist. These magnificent paintings were

begun in 1456, and completed in 1464 they were, there- ;

fore, executed abont the same time as the equally celebrated

wall-paiatings by Mantegna in the Capella degli Eremi-
tani at Padua.
Whoever would learn to know the aspirations and artistic
power of that period in its highest utterances, has only to
study these two wall-paintings, and then compare the
work of the Florentiue with that of the Paduan. What
captivates us most of all in the representations of these
two masters is the character in their art. If we are
carried away by Fra Filippo's grandeur of conception, and
his pure dramatic vividness, we are enthralled, on the other
hand, by Mantegna' s greater fulness of expression and his
perfect execution. Both works are among the highest
that fifteenth century art brought forth in Italy,
The Munich Gallexy possesses two pictures by Fra
Füippo ; one hangs in Room 6 (No. 554), and represents
the " Annunciation ;
" the other, a Madonna seated, with
the Infant Christ in her lap, in the same room (No. 1169).
The first is a good specimen of the master, but hangs too
high for the spectator Fra Filippo has treated the same
;

subject more than once (church of S. Lorenzo at Florence,

Doria Gallery at Rome). The dramatic characterization,
first introduced into painting by Masolino and his pupil
Masaccio, and so brilliantly developed and perfected by
Fra Filippo, found its most vigorous and intellectual ex-
ponent in Fra Filippo's pupil, the eminent Alessakdeo Botti-
celli of Florence, an artist whom we have only just begun
to appreciate again as he deserves. The Munich Gallery
72 MUNICH.

has obIj one work by him, a so-called " Pieta," or " Mourn-
ing over Christ." Mary, on whose lap the body rests, is
fainting,and is supported by St. John, while two holy
women wet the feet and head of Christ with their tears,
and a third stands behind, veiled, holding three arrows in
her hand.
These figures, nearly life-size, are all as living as they
can and in their several ways take the most heartfelt
be,
interest in what is going on. Two pictures by Filippino
LiPPi, the son of Fra Filippo and scholar of Botticelli,
which hang in the same room (6), are also good works,
full of character. One of them, No. 563 (" Christ with
five wounds appearing to his Mother Mary"), is correctly

attributed in the catalogue ; the second, No. 538, is erro-

neously ascribed to Domenico Ghii-landajo. It repre-
sents a "Pieta;" the dead Christ reposes in the lap of his
divine Mother, on one side the two St. John's, the Baptist
still vividly recalling the master Botticelli : on the other
side St. James and St. Magdalen ; in the clouds three
angels with the instruments of the passion ; in the back-
ground a beautiful landscape. Already attributed to
Pilippino by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ii. 451).
The three large panel pictures by Domenico Ghielan-
DAJO, Room 6, Nos. 556, 557, and 558, are undoubtedly
among the most important works of Florentine masters
whose possession the Munich Gallery can boast. The first
of them represents "St. Catherine of Siena;" the second,
Mary, in a glory of flame, betwixt adoring angels and
seraph-heads, worshipped by St. Dominic, the two St..
John's, and the archangel Michael and the third St.
;

Laurence, in a rich deacon's dress, with the gridiron and

palm-branch. These three panels, together with three
others by the same master (now in the Berlin Gallery),,
 THE TUSCANS. 73

once formed a large altar-piece which adorned the choir

Maria Novella, at Morence.
of the convent- church of Santa
The panel-picture same room (6) assigned to Antonio
in the
DEL Verbocchio, with its three clumsy archangels, is not
the work of any master, but belongs to a quite inferior
Florentine of about the second half of the fifteenth cen-
tury. Also the other little picture in the Small Room 17,
No. 1163, which was formerly ascribed to Verrocchio, but
is now described in the catalogue as a copy of a picture
by Lorenzo di Credi, is, in my opinion, nothing but a
poor imitation of a painting in the Borghese Gallery
(Room which passes there under the name of Lorenzo
1),
by whom the
Credi,^ but really belongs to a pupil of his,
Berlin Gallery (under the name of A. Verrocchio) pos-
sesses a good Madonna picture (No. 104), and the Pitti
Gallery at Florence a Holy Family (No. 354) by whom ;

also there is a tondo in this gallery, representing the

Adoration of the Infant Christ (Room 9, No. 553).
If we could trust the catalogue, we should have in
somewhere
store for us the agreeable surprise of meeting,
on works
the walls of the gallery, with by the great Fea
. Bartolommeo or Baccio BELLA PoETA but how are we to ;

discover them, without Dr. Marggraflf's catalogue in our

hand?
In Room 9, No. 551, there is a picture representing
Mary with the Infant Jesus on her lap, seated before a
green curtain. Dr. Marggraflf speaks of it as being painted
in the manner of Fra Bartolommeo Messrs. Crowe and ;

Cavalcaselle (iii. 475) are reminded by it, partly of Michele

di Ridolfo, partly of Puligo, yet also of the Brescianini of

^ This fine pictiire (No. 54) has been attributed to Sodoma by Mr.
Jansen in his monograph on that master.
74 MUNICH.
Siena. I for my part am convinced that it is the work of
Andrea del Beescianino, or Del Brescia/ as Vasari calls
him. In the year 1525 he, with his brother Raphael,
moved from Siena to Florence, and there studied the
paintings of Fra Bartolommeo, which he tried to imitate.
A work by him of the same period is in the Uffizi Gallery
at Florence, l^o. 1205.
Alas ! we must also re-christen another picture (No.
1171, in the Small Room 18), which the former catalogue
ascribed to Fra Bartolommeo, and hand it over, if not to
Fr. Granacci himself, yet certainly to his school.- In his
revised catalogue Dr. Marggraff assigns it to a Florentine
master, " who may have felt the influence of the Raphaelite
idealism." Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, on the con-
trary, are doubtful whether they ought not to ascribe it

to Michele di Ridolfo (Crowe and Cavalcaselle, iii. 475).

The third supposed work of Fra Bartolommeo hangs in
the same small room (ISTo. 1189), and represents the
Holy Virgin, with the boy Jesus standing on her knee.
Dr. Marggraff explains that this uninteresting picture is
a so-called pasticcio, i.e., a late imitation of Raphael, and
I am glad to be able to share his opinion. Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle are disposed to see in it a later replica
of Giovanni Spagna (iii. 327).
Besides these supposititious works of Fra Bartolommeo
there is in this collection a much repainted, yet genuine,
" Annunciation " (Room 9, 'No. 545), by Mariotto Alber-

^ His family name was Puccinelli ; his father was from Brescia, and
therefore Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle believe they recognise in this
painting the infliience of V. Civerchio (iii. 401).
^ The holy Virgin, kneeling, adores the Infant Christ, who lies on the
earth ; opposite to her St. Joseph, sitting on the ground ; landscape in
the background.
 THE TUSCANS. 75

and fellow-pupil of Baccio della Porta,

TiNBLLi, the friend
whose better works, paintings as well as drawings, are
often confounded with those of the Dominican, e.g., to
give an instance accessible to every one, the magnificent
little triptych in the Poldi collection at Milan: in the
centre, Mary with the Child ; on the two wings, St. Cathe-
rine and St. Barbara ; on the outside, grey in grey, the
angelic salutation. This fine painting, executed with
great love by Albertinelli, was for a long time ascribed to
Raphael, but has latterly been assigned to Bartolommeo,
and is described as his by Passavant (ii. 407), by Pater
Marchese (ii. 48), and even by Messrs. Crowe and Caval-
caselle (iii. 477). This picture is in my opinion an indis-
putably genuine work of M. Albertinelli.
But I see that I have nearly forgotten to mention
among the Tuscan masters one of their brightest stars,
Giotto da Bondone. This gallery possesses, according to
the catalogue, three interesting pictures by him, which
hang in the Small Eoom 19, Nos. 1148, 1152, and 1155.
The first two belong to a series of small panels, which,
Vasari says, Giotto painted for the shrines in the sacristy
of the church of Santa Croce at Florence ; the greater
number of them are to be found in the Academy of Fine
Arts at Florence, two have found their way to the Berlin
Gallery, and two others are here before our eyes. One of
these two, 1148, represents the Last Supper; the
ISTo.

other, No. 1152, Christ on the Cross, lamented by the

Saints Francis, Mary with the holy women, John, Nico-
demus, Joseph of Arimathea, a priest and a nun. Baron
von Rumohr considered these little pictures to be, like
those at Florence and Berlin, genuine paintings executed
by Giotto. To Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, on the
contrary (i., 342), the " Last Supper " alone appears to be
76 MUNICH.
a work of the school of Giotto ; on the other two they ex-
press no opinion, but are satisfied with mentioning them
generally as very damaged pictures. To my belief, both
the " Supper " and the " Christ on the Cross " are works
of a very able scholar of Giotti (atelier pictures), the latter
especially showing great delicacy of execution, and therein
approaching very near the style of the master.
If Dr. Marggraff had not declared, even in his revised
catalogue, that the small pictures painted in chiaroscuro in
Room 20, Nos. 1174, 1175, 1185, 1186,were preliminary
sketches in oil by Andrea del Sarto some of his well-
to
known frescoes in the cross passage of the Compagnia
dello Scalzo at Florence, I should not have deemed it
necessary to warn the young student that, like the similar
oil-sketches presented to the Uffizi Gallery by the sculptor
Santarelli in our own days, they are only late copies of the
frescoes. This ought to be obvious to any one who is

even superficially acquainted with the style of that genial

Florentine. The Munich Gallery does not possess one
original work by Andrea del Sarto.

5. THE UMBKIANS.

Finally,we have yet to examine the works of the Umbrian

or, more correctly, Peruginian school of painters contained
in the Munich Gallery, In Room 6 there hangs, amongst
others, a Madonna, 'No. 550, which at the very first glance
presents itself to us as a work of Pieteo Peeugino. And
yet Dr. Marggraff does not seem fully satisfied of its
genuineness. It must be admitted that the picture is
 THE UMBRIANS. 77

ruuch. effaced, and is moreover an inferior specimen ot the

master ; but no one who is acquainted with the style

of this painter, so unequal in his later years, will dispute
that the forms and characteristics peculiar to Perugino
are present in this picture, as also in the two other paint-
ings ascribed to him in this room, No. 561 and 590.' As
my judgment on this point, as well as on the three pictures,
coincides with that of Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (iii.,

254-5), I may hope to have won at least this time the

approbation of the other writers on art.

In our estimate of the magnificent picture, No. 561, it is

even vouchsafed us for once to agree heartily with Dr.
Marggraff. It is indeed an admirable work of the master.
Though in several places injured by cleaning, the picture
may be considered as in tolerably good preservation. It
represents the Holy Virgin, accompanied by two angels,
appearing to St. Bernard, who sits at his reading-desk in
an open hall, with St. Bartholomew and another saint
standing behind him.
Vasari, in the hurry of his manifold labours, ascribes
this picture, probably through inadvertence, to Raffaellino
del Garbo (ediz. Lemonnier, vii., 193); and, behold, the

Florentine commentators are at once ready to take this

Munich picture from Perugino, and give it to Raffaellino
del Garbo. That is not the way to deal with Art-history.
Such absurd results we must expect to arrive at i£ we will
pronounce opinions on things we have never seen. It is
truie,Raffaellino del Garbo seems to have painted a pic-
ture with the same subject and the same composition as
this from the hand of Perugino; at least the British

1This picture represents the Virgin Mary worshipping the Child, who
lieson the ground bsfore her, the Evangelist St. John and St. Nicolaus
standing on both side«.
 78 MUNICH.

Museum possesses a well-executed washed drawing/ in

wliicla the Madonna with two angels appears to St. Ber-
nard, as he sits at his reading-desk. I am not able to say
whether Raffaellino del Garbo ever carried out this sketch
of his in a painting, nor where such a painting is to
be found. But the first idea, both of this drawing by
Garbo and of the painting by P. Perugino,
Raffaellino del
must be sought in that magnificent picture by Filippino
Lippi in the Badia at Florence, a true marvel of Florentine
art, which must also have been present to the mind of

young Fra Bartolommeo when he represented the same

subject in a picture now likewise in the Academy - at
Florence. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, as a matter of
course, give this Munich picture to Perugino, but imagine
that it may very likely be a copy ^ of the painting described
as RaflPaellino del Gai'bo's by Vasari, as though Vasari's
dictum on the authorship of a picture were a thing to be
taken on trust.
No. 590 is again one of Perugino's weaker efibrts it is ;

superficially conceived, drawn, and painted. We have yet

to discuss the two celebrated Predellas which have found
a place in the small Room 9, 'Nos. 1173, 1185, and have for

^ Photograph, by Braun, 28, under the false name of Filippino Lippi.

- Of the two drawings in the Uffizi collection to which the Florentine
commentators on Vasari appeal, one (Case 439) is ascribed to P. Peru-
gino, but seems to me a mere copy from hira ; the other (case 436),
though ascribed at Florence to Raffaellino del Garbo, is in my eyes simply
another copy from the same pictm-e of Perugino's. fine Tondo by A
Eaftaellino del Garbo is in the collection of Mr. W. Graham. It repre-
sents the Vh'gin with the Infant Christ, to whom an angel offers a
pomegranate. Another angel and the infant St, John are on the other
side ; landscape in the background.
^ "There is a copy of this vision (of St. Bernard) at St. Spirito
at Florence, the original being given by Yasari to Eaffaellino del
Garbo."
 THE UMBKIANS. 79

years attracted the attention of the greatest connoisseurs

of Germany, Italy, and England. On one side stand the
most renowned German authorities on Raphael, viz.,
Eumohr and Passavant, who ascribe these Predellas to the
young Raphael on the other side the equally celebrated
;

authorities of England and Italy, Messrs. Crowe and Caval-

caselle, in whose opinion they are merely works by P.

Perugino. In such " conjuncture of mighty opposites " a

wise man might well hold his peace and go his ways, lest
he run the risk of being set down as a heretic by the great
public for his isolated opinion. But as I am only anxious
for the truth, and as, moreover, I do not pretend to be an
authority on the science of art, but only an aspirant for
knowledge, who little cares for the opinion of the great
public, more especially as on such matters there is and
can be no public opinion, I may as well frankly express
my conviction, that both the " Baptism " and " Resurrec-
tion of Christ " (Kos. 1173, 1185), seem to me not works
of P. Perugino, and still less of young Raffael Sanzio of
Urbino. The composition, as well as the excellent draw-
ings for these fine Predellas, may certainly be traced back
to P. Perugino, as well as the composition for the large
picture, " The Resurrection of Christ " in the Gallery of
the Vatican,^ with which one of these small pictures is

almost identical.^ But in the execution of these Predellas

I think I can plainly detect the hand and workmanship of

^ There declared to be tlie joint work of P. Perugino and young

Raphael, but, in my opinion, likewise conceived by Perugino and exe-
cuted by his assistant Giovanni Spagna.
^ The Christ in this picture at Munich, No. 1185, strongly reminds
one of that in the Vatican ; then, the modelling of the lower part of the
leg in thesame figure is stiff and hard, as it is in some of those Muses
which were brought to the Gallery of the Capitol from Magliana Castle,
and are now generally acknowledged as Spagna's works.
 : ;

so MUNICH.

Giovanni Spagna. I look upon Spagna as a pupil of Fiorenzo

di Lorenzo ; tis way of illumining the edge of his clouds,
for instance (tomention but one characteristic out of
many), is exactly that of Fiorenzo,^ and altogether different
from Perugiuo's manner of forming and colouring clouds.
Giovanni Spagna seems to have entered Perugino's atelier
at a later time, and then not as a pupil, but as an assistant
and as such Pietro may have entrusted to him the execu-
tion of these Predellas.
Let us now examine the works in this gallery that bear
the name of Raffaele Sanzio. One of them we find in
the same small room. It is the portrait of a young man,
No. 1179, with a swollen nose and black cap. By his
dress, says Passavant (i., 71), this youth must have belonged
to a patrician family of Florence, and that European autho-
rity on matters Raphaelite adds that the portrait was painted
by young Raphael during his first stay at Florence.
Connoisseurs like Ignatius Hugford, an English painter,
and Raphael Mengs, the great Saxon artist and art-critic,
had previously declared this Raphael genuine. And to
make matters sure, the painter's name is to be seen on the
yellow buckles of the under garment

RAPHAELLO (sic) YRBINAS. FEC.

The picture in its present condition appears to me to have
not one stroke of Raphael's in it. Whether before restora-
tion it could have any pretensions to so noble a parentage
is more than I dare affirm. That the signature is a palpable
forgery has already been remarked by Dr. Marggraff, who

^ Compare the numerous pictures by him in the Municipal Gallery of

Perugia ; in Germany, the Stadel Institute has a superior work of his,

No. 15. The picture No. 1032 in the National Gallery, representing
Christ's agony in the garden, is in my opinion another work of Spagna's.
 THE UMBRIANS. 81

seems to share my opinion on this lifeless painting.^ I am

likewise compelled to send into quarantine a second
so-called Raphael, 'No. 1133, small Room 18. This picture
represents the head of a youthful St. John, and is painted
on tiles al fresco. Mr. Marggraff is not sure what to
think of this pretended opus Eaphaelis. The late Passa-
vant thought it an experiment in fresco painting,
a study,
before Raphael undertook the execution of the fresco at St,
Severe, Perugia (i., 72),
That might be all very well, if only this trumpery head
showed the least trace of Raphael's manner. But, closely
examined, how un-Raphaelesque are, for instance, those
spiritless and tasteless curls, how hard and devoid of all

grace the modelling of the neck must confess, this

! I
St. John looks to me highly suspicious, and I almost fear
our "experiment in fresco-painting by Raphael" will turn
out to be a mere modern counterfeit.
In the small Room 19 (IS"o. 1206) is exhibited the
world-renowned " Madonna de' Tempi," i.e., of the Casa
Tempi at Florence. According to Passavant this early
Avork of Raphael was painted in 1506, that is, the time
when he painted the so-called " Madonna in the meadow"
in the Belvedere, Vienna. To me the picture seems to
belong to a still young master, to about
earlier period of the
the time in which he produced his so-called " Madonna del
Granduca" of the Pitti Gallery at Florence anyhow, ;

earlier than the " Madonna in the meadow," or the " Ma-
donna degli Ansidei." Unfortunately, this picture was left
forgotten for a long time at the Tempi House, and was
afterwards much damaged by unskilful restoration, so that

^ A worthy companion-picture of this, the portrait of a youth with

long hair, we find at Hampton Court, No. 710, also imder the name of
Eaphael.
G
82 MUNICH.

it is kardly enjoyable in its present state. The landscape

is cleaned off, tlie month, of Mary is quite disfigured, and
looks as if the Holy Virgin were suffering from toothache ;

forehead and nose have also lost their original contours ;

the lids of the left eye are likewise spoilt. Well preserved,
on the contrary, is the head of the Infant Christ, all but
the outline of the left cheek. The modelling of the hands
is like that in the " Madonna del Granduca," only they

have an unfinished look. But in spite of all this, the

"Madonna de' Tempi" my
eyes the most Raphael-
is to
esque work The Tabre Museum at Mont-
in this gallery.
pellier possesses the cartoon for this picture it is drawn ;

on green paper, in black chalk, and is heightened with

white ; but in so shocking a condition, that it may be
almost regarded as lost.

To examine the other paintings of Raphael in this gal-

lery we must go to Room 9, where they are exhibited
under Nos. 534, 547, and 585.
The first of these three pictures has the name of " The
Madonna of Casa Canigiani " (at Florence). Passavant
gives as its date the year 1506, a time when Raphael was
at Morence, working at his cartoon for the " Entomb-
ment" for Atalanta Baglioni of Perugia.^ Before the
unfortunate cleaning and repainting of this picture, the
name of the master, and the date 1506, is said to have
been legible on the seam of the Virgin's dress.
A pen-and-ink drawing for this picture is in the Alber-
tina at Vienna, and a copy of that in the collection of
drawings at Oxford ; another origiaal drawing, with some
modifications, is said to be in the Duke d'Aumale's posses-
sion. Passavant rightly remarks, that in this picture the

^ Now at the Borghese Gallery in Rome.

 THE UMBRIANS. 83

drawing recalls most of all that of Raphael's " Entomb-

ment " at the Borghese Gallery. At the same time, both
drawing and modelling appear to me much weaker in this
painting than in the celebrated picture at Rome. There
are several old copies of this Holy Family one is to be :

found in the Rinuccini Gallery at Florence, done by a

Flemish painter,^ and now in the possession of Rinuccini's
heirs. In the catalogue of that gallery, compiled by
Signer Milanesi, one of the commentators in the Lemonnier
edition of Vasari, the Flemish copy has been praised up
as an original.^
The Munich " Madonna di Casa Canigiani " is so dis-
figured by bad restoration, that on first seeing it we know
not what to think it is only after closely examining the
;

details of form that we come to the conviction that the

picture was not only composed by Raphael, but partly
painted by him and that it belongs to that class of his
;

works which he executed with the help of others,^ such as

the "Entombment " at the Borghese Gallery, the so-called
" Madonna di Casa Colonna " at the Berlin Gallery, the
" Madonna Nicolini " at Lord Cowper's, &c. Not only
have the transparence and clearness of the colours disap-
peared through infamous repainting, but portions of the
figures have been so defaced and distorted that one can
no longer detect in it even the hand, still less the mind,

of Raphael. For instance, to point out a few particulars :

the torso and the feet, as well as the right arm, of the infant

^ This is eyident from the hard, lifeless drawing, and the treatment
of the landscape in the background.
•^
Alcuni quadri della Galleria Einuccini descritte e illustrati.

(Firenze, Le Monnier, 1852.)

^ His letter to Fraucia proves that Eaphael already had assistants at
that time. See Vasari, vi, p. 16, ediz. Le Monnier, 1850.
84 MUNICH.
Christ, and tliemass of hair on the head of the infant St. John.
The right hand of St. Anne is not Raphaelesqne in its

modelling (this is very eonspicnous in the thumb), and

the drawing of her right foot is defective. The same with
the feet of St. Joseph. Raphaelesqne style and character
are best preserved in the head of the infant Jesus. The
Grand Duke Cosimo III. gave this picture to his daughter
Anna Maria de' Medici, as a wedding present, on her
departure for Germany.
As for the second Madonna of Raphael (No. 547), it

appears likewise to have been roughly handled by the

restorers, and to such, a degree that it can hardly be dis-
tinguished from a copy. It represents Mary seen in profile ;

she has her right arm round the infant Jesus sitting in her
lap, while her left is thrown round the neck of the infant
St. John, who stands beside her holding the cross ; in the
background to the left is a green curtain, from which this
Madonna takes its name of " della tenda." This picture
is nothing but a modified replica of the so-called " Madonna
della seggiola" in the Pitti Palace at Florence. A replica
of this Munich picture is in the Turin Gallery — atelier

work.
There remains one more picture in this room that is

ascribed to Raphael (No. 585), and that is the far-famed

portrait of Bindo Altoviti of Plorence. Baron Rumohr
(" Ital. Porsch." iii., 109) dwells with special delight on this

picture, which he considers one of Raphael's finest paint-

ings, not, however, as being a portrait of Altoviti, but of
Raphael himself. Passavant, on the contrary (ii., 117),
maintains that it cannot have been painted before 1512,
that it represents a young man of about twenty-two, and
tbat Bindo Altoviti, born September 26, 1490, was exactly
tbat age in 1512. And the same critic extols the wonder-
 THE UMBRIANS. 85

fullygood preservation of this painting. The Florentine

commentors of Vasari ^ also remark, that for its colouring
this celebrated portrait is considered the best of all
Raphael's pictures. Vasari himself does not seem to
have seen this picture with his own eyes, for he says :

" he paiated the portrait of Bindo Altoviti, who was then

young, and the portrait is said to be wonderfully beautiful
(che e tenuto stupendissimo)."
'Now I must frankly confess that this universally
celebrated picture has always left me quite cold ; and at
my very last visit to Munich, with the best of will, I could
get up no enthusiasm for it. Either I am crazed, or all my
predecessors are fundamentally mistaken. I cannot help
it, I must pronounce this picture repainted. That violet-
red of the flesh in which not a stroke of the brush can be
discerned, that green background, those untransparent
black shadows, belong, I have not a doubt of it, to a later
painter. It also strikes me that there are no cracks or
strains to be detected in the painting. I can only wish,
therefore, that this celebrated portrait could be subjected
to the PettenkoflFer resurrection-process. It could not lose
by it.

I am afraid my readers have long since grown weary of

antagonism to Dr. Marggraff; and I confess
this constant
the task has not been a pleasant one to myself. But
should these critical studies come into the hands of this
gentleman, so celebrated in his own country, I should be
very sorry if he felt offended by my contradictions. I do
not know him personally, but I know how highly he is

respected by his government and as to my contradictious

;

utterances, I can only assure him that I do not myself

^ Ediz. Le Monnier, " Life of EafFaele d'Urbino," 8, 32, foot note 2.

 —

86 MUNICH.

attach more weight to these my judgments and corrections,

than to call them studies, and no more than studies that, ;

moreover, they are not addressed to art-critics already

fully persuaded in their own mind, but to my young
countrymen who take interest in such studies, so that, in
addition to the numerous German, English, Prench, and
Russian books on art, they may also have an Italian
guide at hand, when visiting the German collections.
Each nation has its own Avay of looking at everything,
and consequently at works of art and an Italian eye may
;

see things in an Italian painting or drawing that did not

strike a French or German eye, and vice versa.

6. DRAWINGS BY ITALIAIT MASTERS IN

THE ENGRAVINGS ROOM.
In several rooms on the ground-floor of the Munich
Gallery, there is exhibited a celebrated collection of en-
gravings and drawings. Among the latter, the drawings
of ItalianOld Masters are better and more numerously
represented than in any other collection of GeiToany
except Vienna with its splendid Albertina. In what
follows I restrict myself to describing those cartoons
which appear to me to be genuine. In examining the draw-
ings by Italian masters, I should have liked to follow the
same rule as I did with the pictures, that is, to arrange
them according and to bring them in succes-
to schools,
sion before the student but on second thoughts I was
;

convinced that this arrangement would be very tedious

work for those who wished to assure themselves with
their own eyes of the accuracy of my judgments, as they
would have to pass from one volume to another every
 :

ITALIAN MASTERS. 87

time ;
for unhappily the drawings, like the pictures, are put
together pell-mell. The drawings are spread over about
forty-six volumes, without any principle of classification.

Vol. 50. 1. Leonaedo da Vinci. Of the four drawings

attributed to this master, I only recognize as genuine the
sheet with the three studies of machines and written
explanation subjoined. Drawing in pen-and-ink, with the
strokes from left to right.
2. Andeea Maotegita. " Christ
between St, Andrew
a.

and Longinus," with the inscription PIO ET IMMOß- :

TALI DEO washed pen-and-ink drawing, very fine, and

;

I believe genuine. Probably drawn as a sketch for the

well-known engraving.
h. Mucins Scaevola, in chiaroscuro, water-colour on
canvas, appears to me to be also by Mantegna himself.
c. One of those Muses whom we see in his well-known
painting of " Parnassus " in the Louvre. Pen-and-ink,
sepia and chalk. Appears to me to be a copy. Another
of these Muses, drawn in the same manner as the above,
and also of the same size, is in the possession of Mr. Carlo
Prayer at Milan.^

* I will here point out to my young friends a few genuine drawings

by Mantegna, and recommend them for study. They are photographed

by Braun in Dornach, and therefore accessible to all
a. " Mary with the Infant Christ " washed di'awing
;
very fine. ^

No. 57 in Braun's catalogue.

b. Study for " Christ's Resurrection " drawing in water-coloiu's.
;

No. 56.
c. The so-called " Calumniation of Apelles ; " water-colour drawing,

heightened with chalk. No. 59.

d. " Mars, Diana and Venus ;" water-colour drawing. No. 58.
e. " Judith," water-colour drawing ; excellent.
The first four are in the British Museum, the fifth in the Uffizi
Gallery at Florence. An enlarged copy of this last is in the Louvre
Collection, there said to be an original.
88 MUNICH.
As it is still a common thing to mistake Mantegna for
his brother-in-law Giovanni Bellini, and vice versa, e.g., in
the well-known pen-and-ink sketch representing the
"Pietä,"at the Academy of Venice, I take this oppor-
tunity of pointing out to my young friends, as an aid to

Shape of Ear in A, Mantegna. Shape of Eai" in G. Bellini.

Shape of Hand in G. Bellini during his so-called ]Mantegnesque

period (about 1460-1475).

identification, the notion each master has of the shape of

an Ear and that of a Hand.
A fourth drawing at Munich, likewise ascribed to-
Mantegna, belongs rather to Liberale da Yeeona. It is
the figure of an apostle, drawn in pen-and-ink, signed
 ITALIAN MASTEES. 89

below as a Mantegna ; tine and characteristic of the

Veronese master.'^

3. AiTORBA DEL Veekocchio. Drawing in pen-and-ink.

Study of the different proportions in one of the bronze
horses of St. Mark's at Yenice. Whether this drawing
belongs to Verrocchio, to Al. Leopardi, or to some other
sculptor of that time, will be no easy matter to decide.
11. Pkancesco Carotto. Washed drawing, representing
theHoly Family, signed above Carazzi, and in truth a
work of LoDOVico Caracci, and not Carotto.

Usual shape of Hand in A. Mantegno.

12. DoMBSico Ghirlai^'DAJo. a very superior drawing

with the pen, representing a baptism (?) in a temple in the
presence of many persons. Very characteristic of the
master. By the same is also a washed drawing on reddish
grounded paper, "Two men in Florentine costume, con-
versing."

^ According to the Influence-theory, so much the fashion now-a-days

in Art-history, one ought to maintain that not only the Veronese Liberale,
but also the Florentine Antonio del Pollajuolo (whose drawings are not
seldom ascribed to the Paduan), was influenced by Andrea Mantegna, a
hypothesis that no reasoning man will admit. All three follow the same
taste, and all three, each in his own school, brilliantly represent that
stage in the life of Art which I call the epoch of Character.
 —

90 MUNICH.
Vol. 51. 1. Among the " Unknown " is a very fine
drawing for an equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza.
This drawing, lightly and boldly outlined with the pen,
and shaded with thin sepia, will be recognized by anyone
who is at all familiar with the drawings of Antonio del
PoLLAJUOLO, as the work of his hand. We see before us an
old bald-headed warrior, mounted ; under his horse's hoofs
lies the enemy, thrown to the ground. The face of the
horseman has the well-known features of Francesco Sforza.
This capital drawing may in all probability be one of
the two drawings of Antonio del Pollajuolo which Vasari
had in his possession, and which, according to his state-
ment, Antonio prepared in competition for the monument
that Lodovico il Moro intended erecting at Milan to his
great father Francesco :
^ " E si trovo dopo la morte sua
(di A. del Pollajuolo) il disegno e modello che a Lodovico
Sforza egli avea fatto per la statua a cavallo di Francesco
Sforza, duca di Milano ; il quale disegno e nel nostro
Libro, in due modi : in uno egli ha sotto Verona ; nell'

altro, egli tutto armato, e sopra un basamento pieno di

battaglie, fa saltare il cavallo acldosso ad un armato." Un-
fortunately this latter sheet, evidently the one before us
in the Munich Collection, has been mutilated, the "basa-
mento pieno di battaglie " being lost. The reason why
Pollajuolo never executed in metal either of his two
designs for Sforza's monument, was apparently something
like this :

Lodovico's elder brother, Duke Galeazzo Maria, had

already entertained the idea of erecting a monument at
Milan to his glorious father Francesco, and with that
view he had commissioned the Milanese sculptors,

1 Edition Le Monnier, toI. v., 100.

 ITALIAN MASTEES. 91

Cristoforo and Antonio Mantegazza, in 1473, to furnish

a model of tlie same. (See G. L. Calvi, " ISTotizie," &c.,

p. 34.)
This project failed, from causes unknown to us. But
after the death of Galeazzo Maria, his brother Lodovico il

More took the matter up again, and seems to have opened

a competition for the purpose. And among the competitors
we find the then celebrated Florentine sculptor Antonio
del Pollajuolo. The prize, however, must have been
awarded, not to him, but to Leonardo da Vinci. In this
way we get a simple explanation of the following words in
Leonardo's well-known letter to the Moro " Ancora si:

potra dare opera al cavello di bronzo, che- sarä gloria

immortale et eterno onore della felica memoria del Signor
vostro Padre, et della inclita casa Sforzesca."
This letter seems to me to have been sent from Florence
about 1484, before Leonardo departed for Milan. The
competition-prize may already have been won some years
before, perhaps at a time when the Duke did not see his
way to proceeding at once with the realization of Leonardo's
model. But in 1484, when Leonardo's master Verrocchio
was called away to Venice, there to cast in metal his
equestrian statue of B. Colleoni, Duke Lodovico, always
jealous of the Venetian Signoria, may have been the more
impressed by Leonardo's admonition, and induced at
length to bring him over to Milan. Leonardo da Vinci
can hardly have come to the Lombard capital before 1485 ;

certainly not in 1483, as Amoretti states.

It is true, Sabba da Castiglione (Ricardi, p. 109) says :

"la forma (i.e. model) del cavallo, intorno a cui Leonardo

avea sedici (16) anni continui consumati, etc." And

counting back from the year 1499, when Leonardo left
Milan, sixteen years bring us to 1483. But this report of
92 MUNICH.
Castfglione is to be taken cum grano salis, as Leonardo,
while yet at Florence, must, in addition to the drawings,
have also made a model in wax so that the sixteen years
;

spoken of would include some portion of his previous stay

at Florence. Yasari, on the other hand, in his " Life of
Giovan Francesco Rustici," whom he knew well personally,
says that this painter took lessons from Leonardo da
Vinci (Vasari,xii., 1) when his former master Verrocchio

had gone to Venice, therefore in or after the year 1484.

Of Leonardo's original drawings for the equestrian statue
of Francesco Sforza, there is one in the collection at
Windsor Castle. It is a slight sketch in red chalk the :

horse's head is represented in two different positions,

straight forward, and turned to the left; the horse
evidently borrowed from his master Verrocchio's model of
the equestrian statue of B. Colleoni. There are in the
same collection several more sketches and studies for this
equestrian statue by Leonardo, some slightly drawn in
black chalk, probably preliminary sketches for the bas-
relief on the Sforza monument. One sees four of these
riders, in slight outlines, engraved after the drawings
of Leonardo, in Signer Luigi Angiolini's rich collection of
engravings at Milan.
Of this drawing at Munich, so interesting and so charac-
teristic of PoUajuolo, Mr. Louis Courajod of Paris gave a
passing notice in the " Gazette des Beaux Arts " (Nov.,
1879), where he assigns the drawing to a pupil of
Leonardo da Vinci.
When the printing of this article on the Munich Gallery
was some way advanced, I got sight of a pamphlet by Mr.
Courajod (" Leonard de Vinci et la statue de Francesco
Sforza," 1879), in which the nimble French critic once more
(and this time very carefully) examines this Munich
 ITALIAN MASTERS. 93

drawing, but only to come round to tlie same conclusion at

last, namely, tliat the drawing is not by Pollajuolo, but
only one of the numerous copies of Leonardo's Sforza
monument, proceeding from the Lombard School.
In the first place, says the French savant, there is no
proof at all that this Munich drawing is really one of the
two possessed by Vasari which he arbitrarily ascribed to
Antonio del Pollajuolo and secondly, this Munich draw-
;

ing does not show a single characteristic of A. Pollajuolo,

whose drawings are easily recognized by their staring
rough yellow tints, forming a strong contrast to the
delicate, clear, pale yellow colouring of the drawing at
Munich. Even the stroke of the pen is not that of
Antonio del Pollajuolo.
Whilst I cannot refrain from admiring the great industry
and uncommon learning displayed by Mr. Courajod in this
Vinci- Sforza dissertation, on the other hand I cannot
approve of the spirit manifested in his pamphlet. In all

researches, no matter of what kind, erudition alone, with-

out method, can only lead to what the Germans call " not
being able to see the wood for the trees."
It appears to me, that for Mr. Courajod there exists no
characteristic difference between drawings of the Lombard
school and those of the Florentine; in his eyes all

drawings of horses, be they of the fifteenth, sixteenth, or

even seventeenth century, necessarily proceed, directly or

indirectly, from Leonardo da Yinci ; out of love to
Leonardo, he degrades Andrea del Yerrocchio and Antonio
del Pollajuolo into mere assistants, without any inven-
tive power of their own ; for him Yasari's evidence has
no value, even where the statement agrees to a tittle with
the object before his eyes, so long as that evidence clashes
with the preconceptions of Mr. Courajod. N'ay, this
94 MUNICH.

Vinci-monomania is carried so far, tliat tlie otlierwise

acute connoisseur, as thougli in a trance, blindly follows
the lead of tlie amiable rather than judicious Gerli, and
with him, does not hesitate to regard a drawing at Milan
(which really belongs to a much later time) of the so-called
Praxiteles horse on the Quirinal as an original drawing of
Leonardo da Yinci. Did it never strike this learned
gentleman, that on such a hypothesis he must send his
Leonardo trudging to Rome, to enable him there to draw
the design for his Sforza monument after the horse of
Praxiteles ? Hitherto no biographer of Leonardo has
given us the slightest hint of such a joux'ney. My own
studies convince me that Leonardo can hardly have visited
the Eternal City before the year 1502 or 1503. Gaye im-
parts the following item in his "Carteggio" (ii., 89) : "A
Leonardo di S. Piero da Vinci paghati per lui a Mariotto
Ghalilei, camerlengo in dogana per ghabella cVtmo suofar-
dello di sue veste fatte venire da Borna, 30 Aprile, 1505."
From this we may j)erhaps conclude that Leonardo had
been at Rome, and had left some articles of clothing there,
which he caused to be sent after him to Florence two or
three years after. Probably, this first visit to Rome
would fall at the time when Leonardo was in the service of
Ca3sar Borgia, and had to inspect the papal fortresses.
His second journey to the Eternal City took place, we
know, in the year 1513. But all this does not touch the
heart of the question.
The question is simply this : Whether the Munich
drawing is really an original drawing by Antonio Polla-
juolo, as I maintain it to be, or only a copy, as Mr. Courajod
thinks he has triumphantly established.
There is only one way of settling such a controversy ;

and that is, to compare unquestionably authentic drawings

 !

ITALIAN MASTERS. 95

by PoUajuolo with the Munich drawing. If these au-

thentic drawing's exhibit the same characteristics as the
one at Munich, the question is decided in my favour ; if

the contrary, I am at least so far in the wrong, that with-

out sufficient reason I thought I perceived in this drawing
the features peculiar to PoUajuolo.
What is an artist's idiosyncrasy ? and how shall we
learn to seize and to comprehend it ? I answer : By fixing
our eye not only on his merits, but also, and more espe-
on his defects ; the latter being much more obvious to
'cially,

the eye than the former, though they are for the most part
conditioned by them. (On this point see my articles on
the Borghese Gallery in the Von Lützow'sche-Zeitschrift
für bildende Kunst, vol. ix.). Antonio del PoUajuolo
appears to me in all his works as an artist full of energy
and character, but devoid of all grace, a gift with which
kind nature had endowed his younger contemporary,
Leonardo, in the richest measure. But to descend from
generals to particulars : I think I may broadly assert, that
whereas all genuine drawings by Leonardo are executed
either in chalk (red or black), or with the süver-poiat or
the pen, those of PoUajuolo are either done with the pen
alone, or firmly outlined with the pen and shaded with
sepia. This last manner, in which the Munich drawing of
Sforza's statue happens to be executed, ranges through all
the shades from a glaring dark yellow (acre et crue), to a
light delicate pale-yellow (douce blonde et legerement
blafarde), according as they have been exposed a shorter
or a longer time to the corroding effect of light
A second characteristic of PoUajuolo is the firm contour
in ink with which his always undulating forms of the
hiTman body are drawn. Another peculiarity is his claw-
like afid anything but graceful fingers. Again, in the open
96 MUNICH.
moutlis of Ms passionately vociferating combatants he sel-

dom forgets to show the teeth.

Let us first examine Pollajuolo's well-known engraving,
signed with his name, " The Gladiators," and compare the
moulding of the human forms in this engraving with the
forms in the Munich drawing. Mr. Courajod says the stroke
of the pen in this drawing does not in the least correspond to
that in the drawings of Pollajuolo. I now request the
learned gentleman kindly to compare, for instance, the cha-
racteristic contour of the lower part of the leg in Francesco
Sforza, with the same contour in some of Pollajuolo's
gladiators ; also the warrior lying under the hoofs of
Francesco Sforza's horse, with the gladiator, likewise fallen
on the ground, to the extreme right of the spectator and ;

unless he is a sinner too hardened in his superstition, he

will find a strong family likeness in the formation and

position of the left hand two m.en lying on the
in the
ground ;he will notice too the same form of the bent
knee in these two men and finally, the warrior in the
;

drawing shows his teeth, as several of the gladiators do.

But even the heliotype annexed to the postscript of Mr.
Courajod's own little book, p. 43, which represents the
much damaged "tracing " (not "copy"), likewise at Mu-
nich, of Pollajuolo's original drawing, (in England) known
under the name of " Death of Gattamelata," ought surely
to have convinced our learned opponent that the author of
this drawing was also the author of the Sforza drawing ;

for in both drawings, the "tracing," as well as the original

drawing, we see the same claw-like hand, the same form
of the knee, the same contour of the lower part of the leg,
the same unmitigated expression of pain.
recommend to Mr. Courajod for com-
I should like to
parison three other characteristic drawings by Polla-
 ITALIAN MASTERS. 97

juolo ; but as two of these drawings in the U£Bzi Col-

lection at Florence are ascribed to Lnca Signorelli, and
one in the Louvre, N"o. 516/ is classed amongst the " un-
known," my French opponent might retort " See how :

you know the master you would claim for Antonio

little !

del PoUajuolo drawings, which all the known art-critics

ascribe to Signorelli."
I do not aspire to convert Mr. Louis Oourajod to my
opinion ; but for the instruction of youngmy unprejudiced
countrymen I will mention two more drawings, of which
they can get photographs and study them. They are Nos.
1747 and 1744 in Philpot's catalogue at Florence, and
represent, the one, a naked Adam looking upwards, the
other, a naked Eve sitting and spinning with little Cain
leaning against her right leg, and Abel lying on the
ground to her left. Both drawings, lightly washed with
sepia, appear to me highly characteristic of our Antonio
PoUajuolo.
2. GiovAisr Antoxio Bazzi, called Sodoma. The " Apo-
theosis of St. Magdalen " washed drawing, heightened
;

with white. Genuine, but retouched. Another draw-

ing, very fine, is here assigned to Maturino, but I have

no hesitation in restoring it to Sodoma. We see here

Diana with her companions, chasing into the wood a nu-
merous family of satyrs. Water-colour, the lights brought
out with gypsum. Here one recognizes Sodoma chiefly by
the serpentine folds of the drapery, and by the oval shape
of some of the female heads. It is among the best draw-
ings of this master.
3. The drawings ascribed to Rapfaelle Sanzio in the

' This slightly-washed drawing represents two naked men armed with
clubs, seen in front ; some art-critics ascribe the drawing to Pesellino
(!!).

H
 :

98 MUNICH.
Munich collection, are all exhibited in the first room,
under glass. In Munich, as elsewhere, many drawings
are assigned to him which have no right to bear the great
name. Among genuine drawings by Raphael I reckon
1. The young man in kneeling posture, with folded hands
pen-and-ink drawing. At the back : 2. St. Ambrose,
sitting, the left hand held up. These two exquisite draw-
ings are, however, retouched in some places. 3. The

body of a holy bishop lying in state, surrounded by many

mourning figures. Lightly sketched with the pen, here
and there retouched.^ Passavant mentions a fourth draw-
ing, representing the "Birth of Venus" (No. 274) but ;

this drawing in red chalk does not seem to me to be genuine.

The "Battle after an old bas-relief," likewise mentioned
by Passavant as an original drawing, is so much ejffaced,
and rendered so unrecognizable, that I dare not pass an
opinion upon it.
Vol. 52. Fea Baktolommeo della Poeta. This collection
possesses no less than twenty genuine and good drawings
by this great master, and amongst them, several of high
excellence ; so that ]\Iunich has, next to the Ufl&zi Gallery,
the richest collection in the world of drawings by Fra
Bartolommeo. From the twenty-four drawings ascribed
to him in this Vol. 52, 1 must, however, deduct six, namely,
N"os. 12, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 ; but, on the other hand,
assign to him two drawings in chalk in Vol. 55, there
ascribed to Zuccari. I will briefly state the subjects of
the six that I reject, with my guesses as to their author-
ship :

(12) Study for a St. Magdalen. (Forgery.)

(20) The Madonna, with outstretched arms, between

^ See Passavant II. 454, Nos. 271 and 272,

 :

ITALIAX MASTEES. 99

two angels (waslied drawing on blue paper) not by Fra :

Bartolommeo, but a very superior drawing by Barto-

LOMMEO MoNTACtXA.^
(21) Head of a Female Saint, in profile; black chalk
(N'o. 393) belongs more likely to Fra Paolino da Pis-
:

TOJA, an imitator of Baccio della Porta. ^

(22) A mother with a sick child (probably a Madonna) ;

black chalk and gypsnm. Exquisite in feeling, but un-

fortunately somewhat defaced. This drawing gives me
the impression of being by Andrea del Sarto (ISTo. 1149).
(23) Two Madonnas with the Child black chalk ;

probably by Sogliaki, another imitator of Fra Bartolommeo.

(24) The " Bathing of Mary after her birth " (No.
2590) black chalk reminds me more of Beccaftoii of
; :

Siena.
I dare say I have put the patience of many a reader to a
hard trial. But I cannot refrain from urgently recom-
mending to students the study of drawings. Those who
omit it, will always only half know the character of a
master.

^ Genuine drawings by this great master are very rare, and generally
they are mistaken for works by the hand of other masters. I venture
to point out here some of them preserved in English collections at :

Windsor Castle, in a volume containing drawings by old masters, a Sal-

vator Mundi and a head of a Madonna another head of the Madonna
;

in the library of Christ Church College, Oxford, where it is ascribed to

Francia, but, in the opinion of Mr. J. C, Eobinson, it is the work of one
of the Bellini, either Gentile or Giovanni ; in the Print Koom of the
British Museum (Vol. X.), a St. Christopher with the Infant Christ.
 IL DEESDEN.

THIS magnificent picture-gallerj-, unique in its way,

owes its existence chiefly to the boundless love of
art of Augustus III. of Saxony and his eccentric minister,
Count Brühl. Its gradual rise and development is related
to us, in a cheerful and pleasing way, by Mr. Hübner, in the
Preface to his Catalogue.
Through the purchase of one hundred of the finest
pictures, selected by connoisseurs out of the picture-col-
lection of Modena, and above all by the nearly simultaneous
acquisition of two other celebrated pictures, the so-called
Sistine Madonna of Raphael from Piacenza and the Hol-
bein Madonna from the Casa Dolfin at Venice, the fame
of this collection spread all over the world and it soon
;

came to be regarded, and is regarded to the present day, as

the richest and most brilliant picture-gallery that exists.
It will therefore be worth every student's while to get
an intimate knowledge of this most precious of all collec-
tions, to examine it critically picture by picture, and then,

arranging it into historical groups according to schools, to

compare it with other collections. In that way alone shall
we be able rightly to judge and appreciate this rich col-
lection. But here we confine ourselves to the Italian
Masters,
 THE FEREARESE. 101

The picture
collection of Modena, out of which Augustus
III. had the hundred pictures chosen for him, had been
formed by slow degrees. Most of the pictures, e.g., those
of Titian, Paul Veronese, Dosso, and Garofalo, had been
brought from Perrara to Modena by Duke Cesare d'Este,
in 1598 and 1599 but the most valuable, such as the four
;

altar-pieces by Correggio, Francis III. brought into the

ducal palace, some by force and some by fraud, out of the
churches for which they had been painted. In the last
century, the example of the ostentatious Louis XIY.,
called the Great,had proved contagious to all the reigning
princes of Europe. Not only a " Versailles," but also a
" Louvre," every one of them wished to possess.^ In the
natural course of things, most of the paintings that com-
posed the Modena Gallery belonged to the Lombardo-
Venetian schools, especially to those that lay nearest
Eerrara and Modena ; above all, therefore, to the Ferrara-
Bolognese, the Venetian, and the Parmese. Let us, there-
fore, begin our critical studies with examining the first two
of the schools just named, viz., the Ferrarese and the
Venetian.

1. THE FERRAEESE.
Amongst all the populations of the ancient Emilia, that
piece of land which lies enclosed between the Po, the
Apennines, and the Metaurus, the Ferrarese have the most

1 The deed of sale was signed at Ferrara the 17th Sept., 1745. See :

" Notizie di sei dipintiad olio di Antonio Consetti Modenese, posseduti

e descritti —
dal eonte Giovanni Francesco Ferrai'i Moreni, Modena, Sol-
dani," 1858, p. 13.
 ^

102 DRESDEN.

genius for Art and in tliat respect they stand, as Messrs.

;

Crowe and Cavalcaselle have rightly remarked, on a line

with the Veronese. But while we are able to trace the
Veronese character from the beginning of the 14th century
to the end of the 16th in works that have come down to us,
the earlier productions of the Ferrara school are on the
contrary withdrawn from our inspection, the Ferrarese
artists of the 14th century having left us nothing but
their bare names.
We
are therefore obliged to pass over altogether the
" heroic " epoch of this school of painting the Giottesques, —
as they are called — and to begin our studies with that
period in which it was the chief aim of art to seize and
depict character, or those attributes in the external appear-
ance of men and things, which flow out of the inner mental
life. In the Ferrara school this epoch is represented
mainly by Cosimo Tura and Francesco Cossa. Both these
considerable and characteristic masters held the same
place in their own country as Pier dei Frances chi or della
Francesca occupied in the Umbrian school Fra Filippo, ;

Andrea and Antonio del Pollajuolo in the

del Castagno,
Florentine as the Vivarini and others in the Venetian
;

school Mantegna, Dario of Treviso, and Carlo Crivelli in

;

the Paduan Liberale and his contemporaries in the Vero-

;

nese; and Vicenzo Fopj)a in the Lombard school. This

epoch of art in Northern Italy is commonly called by art

' It seems, however, that there were no important Ferrardse painters

yet, even at the beginning of the 15th century, else Byzantines like the
painter Georgios of Constantinople would hardly have found occupation
there (see " L. Napoleone Cittadella : Notizie relative a Ferrara," 1864,
S. 562). By this painter Georgios the Brera Gallery has an " Evange-
Mark" (No. 182) painted on a gold ground. The picture probably
list

found its way to Milan from Ferrara.

 THE rERRARESE. 103

historians the Mantegnesque, and I have no ohjection to the

epithet, so long as it merely implies that in Andrea Man-
tegna the period found its highest expression. Bat if it is at
all meant to suggest that the representatives of the same
period in the other schools of the Po, really imitated Man-
tegna, or were directly influenced and guided by him, then
I resolutely protest against it as a superficial and shallow
interpretation of art history.^
The history of any school of art can only be rightly
understood by regarding and studying it as a living whole,
likean organism, which from its germ to its death has its
regular development it rises step by step, then step by
;

step declines." In the Venetian school of painting, which

^ Thus the Veronese painters, Francesco Carotto, Bonsignori, and

Giolfino have been represented as imitators of Mantegna. Now I ask
any unprejudiced student examine closely the early works (about 1500)
to
Modena (No. 50), of Maldura at Padua, and
of Carotto, in the galleries of
at Frankfort, Stadel Museum (No. 145) and he will admit that these
;

small Madonnas of Carotto, in drawing and moulding, recall quite as

much his master Liberale as Mantegna. In his colouring, however, Carotto
always remained a true Veronese. Again, let any one study the signed
works of Bonsignori (in the churches of San Fermo, S. Bernardino,
S. Paolo, and in the municipal Gallery of Verona), and I have no doubt
that every connoisseur will see therein the influence of Giambellini and
of Alvise Vivarini, but certainly not of Mantegna. Later, no doubt,
when at Mantua, Bonsignori learned a good deal from his great colleague.
Nay, the works of Mantegna's personal friend Niccolo Giolfino in the
church of S. Anastasia and the municipal gallery of Verona show none
of the influence of the mighty Paduan but to anyone who minutely
;

examines them they frankly say, " We were painted by a pupil of our
countryman Liberale " Why, even pictures of the Florentines, Botticelli
!

and Pollajuolo, have been assigned to Mantegna. Thus, out of sheer

ignorance, works of the same art-epoch are sure to be ascribed by super-
ficial connoisseurs to the greatest representative of that epoch, here to
Mantegna, there to Perugino, and so on.
^ Technical appliances, indeed, one school can learn and appropriate
from another, but conception and feeling, as something alive and wholly in-
104 DRESDEN.

was fortunate enough not to be interrupted in its course

by outward circumstances, we can best survey the whole
parabola described by art in its progress from the so-called
Byzantines down to Tiepolo and Pietro Longhi. The
Perrara school, on the contrary, is accessible to ns only
from the second half of the 15th century, and then we see
it blossoming and unfolding itself with no less richness

than individuality.^

trinsic,must, like speech, bear the stamp of the individual, and therefore of
the nationality, the race. Antonello da Messina has learned of a Fleming
the Van Eyek method of painting ; he is none the less Italian in his way
of putting a scene before us. Dürer was a longish time at Venice, but still
the German artist peeps out in every stroke. The outward influenee of
some Tuscan on some Lombard, of a Lombard on a Venetian, and vice
i;crsö, I of course allow. It would be ridiculous to deny that Italians
have influenced some Flemish or German artists, or that the great repre-
sentatives of northern art, as Van Eyck and Dürer, haA'e been imitated
by certain Italians. But all this does not prove that the school, as such.
has been interrupted in its course of development, or in any way in-
fluenced by these accidents, on which some art historians continue to lay
so much stress.
^In the Town Gallery of Ferrara they show you, as dating from the
first half of the 15th century, a picture on panel, representing the
" Trinity," and signed with the initials G. G. (No. 54.) If this rude pro-
duction really belongs to Galasso Galassi, to whom it is there ascribed,
there must have been two Ferrarese painters of that name
the one just :

mentioned, who, according to Vasari, painted in the chiu'ch of jNIezzaratta,

near Bologna, in 1404 ; and (2) a younger Galasso Galassi, born in 1438,
as Vasari likewise informs us, to whom are attributed the two Saints,
Peter and John the Baptist, painted on panel, in one of the sub-churcheS
of San Stefano at Bologna. On one of these pictures is seen a similar
G. G. The St. ApoUonia at the Bologna Pinacothec, there ascribed to
Marco Zoppo (which is also accepted by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
i,, 349, 4), appears to me to be painted by this latter Galassi. I must
here mention another Ferrarese painter of the same period, namely, the
grandfather of Timoteo Viti, Antonio da Fekrara, who was a long
time at L^rbino, and there painted, in 1439, a polyptych for the church of
St. Bernardin (now in the collection of the Academy of Fine Arts at
 THE FEERARESE. 105

The Ferrarese wer e largely influenced by the learned school

which Squarcione had set up near them at Padua about
1430 then they may have received a powerful impulse
;

to farther development in the same severe and learned

direction, from the great teacher of perspective, Pietro
della Francesca, or dei' Franceschi, of Borgo San
Sepolcro, during his long residence among them. It is
true that about 1451 Roger van der Weyden received
commissions from the House of Este but the inference
;

that Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle drew from it, that

Roger must have influenced Galasso Gallassi (?), Tura
and Cossa, is as unacceptable to me as their opinion that
Lorenzo Costa and Ercole Grandi, junior, were acted upon
by the Perugians. People are too much accustomed to
consider the practice of an Art as something accidental,
external, and wholly independent of the special character
of the population among whom it is practised, and to
overlook the organic laws by which art develops itself.
Writers on art will smell out a Flemish influence here,
and a Florentine or Umbrian there, in schools of painting
which, when more profoundly studied, prove to have
always retained their own special local character.
That Flemish artists, during a prolonged stay in Italy,
initiated not only Antonello da Messina, but perhaps other
Italians, into the technicalities of the Van Eyck method of
painting, I freely admit and the same thing happened in
;

Germany. There is no doubt that some Venetian painters

copied, and tried to imitate, pictures by Jan Van Eyck
and by Memling, which in those times were much prized

Urbino). This Antonio is not without character, and would rank

somewhere between the Venetians Jacomello de Tlor and Antonio
Vivarini.
106 DRESDEN.

and sought after by Italian connoisseurs ; but that these

accidents can at all warrant the sweeping assertion that
the Flemings taught the Italians Naturalism or Bealism,
as Baron Rumohr preaches, appears to me an overshooting
of the mark, and utterly untrue, "Was it not the develop-
ment of Art itself that led men to the study of nature,
Germany, and in Italy ? ^
alike in the ^Netherlands, in
But to return to our Ferrarese. The most important
painters of the second half of the fifteenth century were
the rugged, gnarled, and angular, but often grand Cosimo
Tura, called Oosme ; the serious, at times rather surly
Francesco Cossa, a kindred spirit to Tura, though never
so grotesque as he ; the so-called Stefano da Ferrara,
whose only known work is in the Brera Gallery at Milan ^ ;

Galasso Galassi the younger Ercole Eoberti, alias Grandi

; ;

Francesco Bianchi, called Frare at Madera Domenico ;

Panetti and Lorenzo Costa.

This Ferrarese group of painters then divided into two
principal branches, one of which remained at Ferrara, with
Tura and Panetti, and the other, with Francesco Cossa,
Galasso Galassi, junior (apparently), and Lorenzo Costa,
were drawn away to Bologna by the Bentivogli, and
worked in that town the greater part of their lives.

^ See Vasari, edition Le Monnier, iv., 104 :

—" Fu Alesso (Baldovinetti)
diligentissimo nelle cose sue, e di tutte le minuzie che la madre natura
sa fare, si sforzo d'essere imitatore .... Dilettosi molto di far
paesi ritraendoli dal ^ivo e naturale come stanno ajipunto Fece
nella Nunziata di Firenze una nativita (which still exists) fatta con
tanta fatica e diligenza," etc., etc. See also Vasari, iii., 92, in the life

of Paolo Uccello.
^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle give to this Stefano that small pic-
tiu'e representing "John the Baptist," in possession of Sig. Dondi-
Orologio at Padua ; but to my thinking, it is the work of Cosimo Tura
(i., 529).
 THE FERRARESE. 107

Francesco BiancM seems to have settled at Modena be-

tween 1480-1490 Francesco Cossa came to Bologna as
;

early as 1470 Lorenzo Costa about 1483/

; Of these
older Ferrarese masters, the only ones represented in the
Dresden Gallery are Francesco Cossa and Ercole Roberti.
The later Ferrarese, those of the first half of the sixteenth
century, make a better muster here : Dosso, Mazzolino,
Garofalo and Girolamo Carpi.
No. 21. Fbancesco Cossa. The catalogue assigns this
very interesting picture, representing the " Annunciation,"
dubiously to Antonio del Pollajuolo, and with more con-
fidence to "the Old Florentine School" in general. To
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (i., 527) belongs the merit
of having recognized in this painting the mind and hand
of a Ferrarese painter, though they are undecided whether
to ascribe it to Baldassare Estense " or to Ercole Grandi di
Giulio Cesare. Holy Virgin is clearly
The type of the
the same as in the signed picture by Francesco Cossa of
the year 1474 in the Bologna Pinacothec, only more per-
fectly expressed there. The swelling folds in the Ma-

* I therefore consider Francesco Cossa to be the true founder of the

old so-called Bolognese school of painting, in opposition to the local
writers, who represent their feeble Marco Zoppo, a pupil of Squarcione,
as the disciple of Lippo Dalmasio and master of Trancia. One can
judge of the painting ability of the Bolognese in the first half of the
fifteenth century, by the few frescoes of Lippo Dalmasio at Bologna,
and by a panel-picture of Jacopo de' Avanzi (signed) in the Colonna
Gallery (agli Apostoli) at Eome.
^ By this little known master, or rather amateur (he was a colonel,

and, it is said, an illegitimate son of a prince of the House of Este),

there are now extant, as far as I know, only a very few portraits in
prdfile, one of which has come to the National Galleiy in London from
the Costabile at Terrara ; another, much damaged, was purchased from
the same collection some years ago by the antiquarian Guggenheim at
Venice. Both pictures are signed with the name of the master.
108 DRESDEN.
donna's mantle appear just the same as in the picture
named ; in the angel's face the same darkish brown flesh-
tint as in the donor of the painting of 1474 ; the shape of
the hand with the broad fingers, and the thick, wavy folds
at the lower end of the Virgin's dress all this determines ;

me to see in this remarkable picture an early work of

Francesco Cossa,^ a master of whom Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle do not seem to have formed quite a clear con-
ception. For, on the assurance of the Bolognese guides,
they still assign to Lorenzo Costa the figures of the twelve
apostles in the Marsili Chapel of the Church of S. Petronio,
whereas to my mind they bear conspicuously the stamp of
Francesco Cossa." Another excellent work by Cossa
seems to be the " St. Jerome enthroned " at the altar of
the 5th chapel on the right in S. Petronio, Unfor-
tunately the picture is half covered by a worthless piece
of modern painting, so that it cannot even be seen, much
less studied. A characteristic work of this little heeded,
and yet so important Ferrarese, is to be found in the
Church of S. Griovanni in Monte, at Bologna. This is the
large, beautiful glass window representing St. John at

Patmos, and signed fP (Cossa fecit) ; also assigned to

Lorenzo Costa by the local guides. In the same church

(chapel 5 on the left) one still sees a much repainted Ma-
donna with two angels, which in my opinion was also once
a work of Cossa's. The Stadel Institute at Frankfort

^ Painted in 1470 for the church " dell Osserranza " at Bologna. — See
Preface to the Catalogue, p. 42.
^
Of the signed picture by Cossa in the Bologna Pinaeothec, there is

a pretty good photograph, which my readers might get at Bologna.

 THE FERRARESE. 109

possesses likewise a mticli repainted and damaged picture

of tMs master, there ascribed to Mantegna (No. 13) the ;

signature on the panel is apocryphal. But enough for

the present on this hitherto quite misunderstood master.^
Pass we now to Ercole Robbrti. He was the son of a
painter Antonio, who is stated to have been already dead
in 1479. Ercole may have come into the world at Fer-
rara between 1440-1450 ; in 1513 he is recorded as dead.
We possess no authenticated works of this master. Two
valuable little No. 163 and 164, came to Dresden
pictures,
under the name of Ercole Grand i,^ from the sacristy of S.
Giovanni in Monte at Bologna. As we still find in the
same church two works by Francesco Cossa and two by
Lorenzo Costa, we must conclude that the pictorial decora-
tion of this church during the last thirty years of the fifteenth
century was almost entirely entrusted to the Ferrarese
settled at Bologna. If now we examine the interesting
figures, full of life and character, in the two pictures before

^ " Notizie relative a Ferrara," p. 583.

N". Cittadella,
^ Vasari says that the three small pictures painted by Ercole Grandi
formed the base or Predella of the chief altarpiece of that church. If
that was the he could not possibly have meant, as modern writers
case,
state, the great pictureby Lorenzo Costa (now set up in the choir of the
church), as this painting cannot have seen the light before the first
decade of the sixteenth century, the two Predella pictures of the Dresden
Gallery being in that case probably some thirty years older. Lami, in
his " Graticola" of the year 1560, says " E sopral'altar maggiore sono
:

dipinte doe istorie fate a olio (?) de ma''(mano) d'Ercole da Frara (Fer-
rara), I'una ^ quando Cristo fu condotto alia croce trai due ladroni, I'altra
quando Cristo fu tradito da Juda. E nel mezzo la Madonna con Cristo
morto in braccio." In the year 1749 the Canon Luigi Crespi sold two
predellas with the very same subject, to be taken to Dresden. It is
therefore more than probable that the Dresden pictures are the Predellas
seen by Lami in 1560. The centre-piece, the Pieta, is said to be in the
Royal Institution at Liverpool.
110 DRESDEN.

US (JSTos. 163, 164), there plainly appears in them, not only

Andrea Mantegna, but also that of Giam-
the influence of
on the artistic development of
bellino (about 1460-1465),
young Ercole Roberti. Whoever would like to be more
fully convinced of this, has only to examine the early
works of Giovan Bellini, as the panel in the IS'aples Mu-
seum, " Christ's Agony," in the ISTational Gallery, London
(No. 726) the " Pieta " in the Brera Gallery, and more
;

especially two pictures in the Museo Correr at Venice, one

representing " Christ on the Mount of Olives," the other
the " Crucified," lamented by the Madonna and the Evan-
gelist St. John. The first of these two pictures is indeed
still ascribed to Mantegna in the catalogue of that col-

lection, and also mentioned as such by the Marchese P.

Selvatico (commentary on the life of Mantegna in the Le
Monnier edition of Vasari) but Messrs. Crowe and Caval-
;

caselle (i., 143) have rightly recognized in it an early work

of Giovanni Bellini. The other painting, in the Museo
Correr, likewise ascribed to Mantegna in the catalogue, is
spoken of by the above-named historians (i., 534) as a
work of Ercole Roberti, while to my eyes it is another and
a highly characteristic early work of Giambellino." One
has only to examine the shape of the hand, so peculiar to
Bellini, the fall of the drapery, the type of the Madonna,
and the landscape with winding paths so characteristic
of Bellini, and so utterly difierent from the landscapes of
Ercole Roberti.
Ercole Roberti, alias Grandi, is too interesting a master
to be passed over without my mentioning to my young
friends the little I know about him. Prince Mario Chigi

^ The artistic descent of Giovanni from Jacopo Bellini comes out very
clearly in this picture.
 THE rEREARESE. Ill

at Rome possesses a characteristic work by him. It

represents, if I mistake not, an incident in the life of
Melchizedek.^ This painting seems to me to be of the
same period of the master as the " Children of Israel
gathering Manna " (at Dudley House, in London), of
which the Dresden Gallery has a very feeble copy.
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle are, I think, quite wrong
in assigning this picture at Lord Dudley's to Ercole
Grandi di Giulio Cesare, a pupil of Francia and Costa.

Shapes of Ear and Hand in Francesco Bianchi.

They were, I believe, equally mistaken in assigning to

Ercole Eoberti (i., 534) quite insignificant little pictures
in the Town Picture Gallery of Ravenna and at Senator
Count Cavalli's of Padua.
And here I must mention one more picture, likewise

^ On the back of the panel we read :

" di Ercole da Ferrara."
112 DRESDEN.
imputed to Ercole Eoberti by Messrs. Crowe and Caval-
caselle (i., 534), but really a most characteristic early
work of his contemporary Feancesco Biawchi of Feirara.
I mean that large panel-jDicture, i-epresenting the death of
Mary, in the possession of Signor Lombardi at Ferrara,
the heir of Professor Laroli. In this painting of Bianchi's
we see very plainly the influence of Tura.
In the collection of the late His de la Salle at Paris,
there was a drawing in pen-and-ink of the " Massacre of
the Innocents," which I think I may safely ascribe to our
Ercole Grandi. ]N"ot long ago there was in the Borghese
Gallery at Eome, a so-called " Entombment," on which we
read the name of Ercole Grandi and the year 1531.
This picture belongs to Count Zeloni of Rome, and is

said to have been for many years exhibited for sale at the
Gallery of the Monte di Pieta.
The Madonna, seated on the open sarcophagus, holds
in her lap the dead Christ on the right is St. Magdalen
;

kneeling ; behind her stands Joseph of Arimathea with

a vessel of ointment in his haad on the left two holy
;

women in a kneeling posture, and behind them St, John

and another pious man ; a building with statues of David
and Judith forms the background. On the sarcophagus
is the false inscription : E. Grandi. F. MDXXXI. This
painting has been much injured by repeated restorations.
The inscription is based probably on a tradition which
ascribed thiswork to Hercules Grandi but the owner of ;

the picture who had the name put on, confounded the
elder Grandi, Ercole Roberti, with the younger ; for in
1531 the former had been dead about twenty years.
If this " Deposizione " at Prince Borghese's is really a
work of the elder Ercole Grandi of Ferrara, as I believe
it to be, then the present writer also has a picture by
 THE FEEEARESE. 113

the same master at Milan. It represents tlie Evangelist

St. John, and belongs to abont the last decade of the
fifteenth century,while the "Entombment" must have
been painted in the first decade of the sixteenth century.
The influence of Cosimo Tura seems to me apparent in
the "Evangelist St. John;" in the "Entombment" on
the contrary, that of the school of Erancia. From all
that has been said, it is very clear that the painter Brcole
Roberti is still far from being sufficiently known to us.
Itwould therefore be a noble task for some young student
to hunt up the works of this interesting and dramatic
master, and set him in a clearer light and in his true
place among his Ferrarese contemporaries.
By another unknown Ferrarese of the same period
there a long predella in the Picture Collection of the
is

"Vatican it represents the " Miracles of S. Hyacinth."

;

This highly interesting picture is there erroneously as-

cribed to B. Gozzoli ; I suppose a guess made by the
Roman Academicians of S. Luca.
No German gallery, as far as I know, has any works by
Eecole Geandi (junior), son of Giulio Cesare and scholar
of Lorenzo Costa and Francia. To get acquainted with
this master we must go to Italy, where we find, especi-
ally at Ferrara, his native town, a good many works by
him, both great and small, mostly under other names.
Thus, to mention but a couple of instances, the fine
frescoes on the ceiling of a room in the Casa Calcagnini-
Estense at Ferrara belong, I consider, to Ercole ; these
wall-paintings were erroneously assigned to Garofalo by
the late 'N. Cittadella, who wrote a separate pamphlet on
the subject. Another large and very fine Madonna with
by Ercole Grandi, junior, is in the possession of
Saints,
Marchese Strozzi at Ferrara, but is unfortunately some-
I
 114 DRESDEN.

what injured by modern restoration. In the Casa Strozzi

it still bears the false name which
of Lorenzo Costa, under
name came there from the convent S. Cristoforo degli
it

Esposti, and nnder which name it is also cited by Messrs.

Crowe and Cavalcaselle (i., 546, 4). The fact is, that
Grandi in this picture comes very near to his master
Costa, and it requires a very intimate knowledge of the
Perrara School to detect therein the mind and hand of the
^
pupil.
The Dresden Gallery unfortunately has not a single
work by Cosimo Tura, nor by his pupil, the younger
Galasso Galassi, nor by Francesco Bianchi, Domenico
Panetti, or the ingenious Lorenzo Costa. Quite lately,
however, it has acquired a small picture by a scholar of
Panetti, Feancesco Mazzolino,- whose brilliant colours,
playing through all shades, made him a favourite of
the Roman Monsignori. It is only in small figures that
he imparts pleasure, his gift lying in the direction of
genre rather than of historical painting. To me his
pictures have always had something Flemish about them.
But let us now turn to the chief representatives of the
Ferrara School in its prime, namely Dosso and Garofalo,
who hold much the same place in their own country
as B. Luini and Gaudenzio Ferrari do in the Lombar do-
Milanese School.
In no other gallery on this side of the Alps are Dosso
and Gaeofalo so well represented as in the beautiful

^ The heirs of Marchese Strozzi, ^\ho died lately, have sold this pic-
ture to the National Gallery.
' No. 147, an " Ecce Homo." After close investigation, I have come
to the conclusion, that Mazzolino must have studied, not, as is generally
accepted, under Lorenzo Costa at Bologna, but under D. Panetti in his
native to-u-n.
 —

THE FERRARESE. 115

rooms of the Di'esden Gallery.^ Witli these two Perrarese

I will here associate Gieolamo Cakpi, he being named in
the catalogue as author of the good picture, No. 178,
"Venus and Cupid on a sea-shell drawn by swans," and
considered by Vasari a pupil of Garofalo, though I am
persuaded that he was influenced by Dosso even more
than by Garofalo. My studies have led me to the con-
viction that many of the Decorative paintings we are
about to comment upon, though invented and even drawn
by Dosso, were executed for the most part by Girolamo
Carpi, and perhaps also by Dosso's younger brother,
Battista Dossi/ All these pictures (No. 178 included)
had probably adorned some room or other in the Ducal
Palace of Eerrara,' and were then brought by the last
duke, Cesare, in 1599, to Modena, where they afterwards
received the most varying names.
We enumerate them here as follows :

No. 146. "Justice with the scales and fasces." Both

figure and landscape conceived quite in the spirit of Dosso;
but whether the execution belongs wholly to Dosso, as is
likely enough, I dare not as yet determine. The luminous
colouring, characteristic of Dosso, is not obvious in this
picture ; but that may be the fault of the dirt which
covers its surface.

^ I have already expressed myself at large on Dosso and Garofalo in

Lützow's " Zeitschrift für bildende Knnst" (vol. ix.-xi.), after patiently
and lovingly hunting up their works, acknowledged and unacknowledged,
and have tried to set their artistic personality in a clearer light than has
ever yet been done.
^ In one case even by Garofalo.
^ Such Decoration-pictures had become the fashion in Italy in the
first half of the sixteenth century " E sopra il cammino di pietra," says
:

Vasari in his "Life of Pierino del Vaga," " fece Pierino una Pace, la
;
quale abbruccia armi e trofei " therefore the same allegorical figure
that appears in No. 149 of this gallery.
116 DEESDEN.

No. 149, The same may be said of this picture, repre-

senting " Peace." In the Costabili Gallery at Ferrara the
same figure with some modifications appeared as the work
of Girolamo Carpi ; but that picture is now in private
possession at Bologna. This No. 149 is of the same size

as 146, so are Nos. 92 and 93 ; they may all have adorned

the same room in Ferrara Palace.
These two paintings, as well as ISTo. 150, representing the
Fathers of the Church, &c., came from Modena to Dresden
as works of Dosso, and have here also retained their old
appellations. The large painting, 150, was doubtless not
only invented by Dosso, but executed by his hand through-
out.
No. 147. "Diana and Endymion " came to Dresden
as a work of Parmeggianino, and was here ascribed with
better knowledge to Dosso. In my opinion, however, the
composition of the picture, and probably the cartoon to it,

are to be assigned to Garofalo, and the execution to Giro-

lamo Carpi.
No. 148. " A Hora with Apollo's horses." This picture,
too, which came over the Alps a Garofalo, recovered its

true parentage at Dresden. It is a creation of Dosso,

though not executed by himself, but by the same master
that painted No. 147. Again, No. 151, a " Dream," also
brought to Dresden as a Garofalo, was here restored to its
real author, Dosso. Battista Dosso may have painted it.

No. 152. " Judith with the head of Holophernes."

We have here a picture by Dosso under the influence of
Parmeggianino.
At a certain time (1540-60) in Northern Italy the Par-
meggianino elegance had through his engravings come to
be the fashion and artists even of such different types as
;

Andrea Schiavone, Giaco7jio Bassano, Domenico Alfani,

 —

THE FERßARESE. 117

Luca Longhi, Defendente Ferrari of CMvasso, strove to

imitate it. This Judith, in my opinion, is another of the
class ofDosso compositions painted by Girolarao Carpi,
We will nowexamine a set of pictures of Dosso which
ininy opinion have either retained at Dresden the false
names given them at Modena, or have exchanged their
old and genuine authorship for a spurious one.
Wo. 182. " Ganymede carried off by Jupiter's Eagle."
This picture came from Modena to Dresden as a Parmeg-
gianino, and has kept its false name.
What we said above on Dosso's Decoration-pictures will
also apply to this painting as well as to the following :

No. 185, an allegorical figure called " Opportunity."

A youth standing on a globe, holds a knife in his right
hand a female figure stands behind him. The picture
;

came from Modena as a work of Girolamo Bedolo, also

called Girolamo Mazzola, a cousin of Francesco Mazzola,
and retained its false name in Germany. The present
Gallery of Modena has (No. 360) a copy of this picture by
Andrea Donduzzi, called II Mastelletta, which also goes
by the name of "Opportunity:" "II pittore avra forse
iateso di rappresentare I'occasione, che nel mondo fugge
veloce, avendo sempre per compagna Motanea, ossia ü
pentimento, che resta indietro," says Signor Tarabini, the
compiler of the Modena Catalogue,
" The Archangel Michael slaying the Dragon," No. 92,
came to Dresden as a work of Dosso, but was dubiously
assigned to Francesco Penni, called II Fattore, probably
on the grotmd of its composition being exactly the same
as in Raphael's treatment of the same subject. I have no
doubt the Modenese were right this time, and the Dres-
deners wrong ; for the picture is not only instinct with the
spirit of Dosso, but also executed by his hand, though
 ;

118 DRESDEN.

probably aftei' the Ptapbael Cartoon which at that time

still existed at the Ferrara palace.'^
" St. George " is an early work of Dosso (ISTo. 93),
executed about 1506, before the original by Raphael was
sent to London Henry VIII. The armour
as a present to
of St. George retains its gilding. It came from Modena to
Dresden as a work of Garofalo's, and was here ascribed to
Francesco Penni again. And this time both were wrong
for this picture also belongs to no other than Dosso, who,
probably by command of his master, copied on a lai'ger
scale the magnificent little original which Raphael had
painted for Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino, in 1506.'^
There is one picture left, No. 153, which Hübner's
catalogue ascribes to a pupil of Dosso, but which I must
claim for the master himself. This exquisite work, rich in
colouring, belongs to Dosso Dossi's early and best period.^
The lovely figure of the Virgin bowing before God the
Father, is nobly conceived, the four Fathers living in their
movements, the landscape magnificent. I am only sur-
prised that all these excellences of the picture should have
escaped so eminent a representative of modern German

^ By commandof Leo X. in 1518, Eapliael painted, as Ave know, the

gi-eat St.Michael for King Francis I. of France, and a Holy Family for
the Queen. Both pictures are at the Louvre. The ambassador of Alfonso
of Ferrara at Eome, Costabili, records in his letters, that Eaphael had
sent Duke Alfonso his Cartoon of the St. Michael for a present. The
Duke writes back to his ambassador at Eome, that the cartoon has
safely arrived, and commissions Costabili to hand over to Eaphael in his
name twenty-five scudi, '• to keep his Martinmas withal, and think the
while of him."
* Eaphael's original picture is now in the Gallery of the Hermitage at
St. Petersburg.
^ It represents God the Father above in a glory in the act of
blessing the Vh-gin. Below are fom- Fathers of the Church — Gregory,
Ambrose, Aiigustine, and Jerome.
 THE FEERAEESE. 119

painting as Herr Hübner. So far, then, the Dresden

Gallerj possesses eleven pictures by Dosso ; a twelfth, we
shall soon have to examine. Two of them, I^o. 146 and
149, are most likely executed by his own hand the other ;

five are composed by him, but painted probably in common

with Girolamo Carpi and his brother, Battista Dossi.
No other collection can boast of being so rich in Dosso
pictures nay, most of the public Galleries in Germany,
;

England, Russia, Holland, France, and Spain ^ possess

nothing at all by this ingenious master, so that whoever
wishes to study him outside of Italy, must go to Dresden.
The Dresden Gallery possesses works by also some fine

Most of them
Dosso's rival, Be^^vexuto Tisi da Gakofalo.
were among the hundred pictures brought from Modena.
The numbers 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, and 160 represent
pictures of the good period of the master (1515-1530) ;

N'o. 161 shows the incipient decline of Garofalo's art; this

picture is signed :
" Benvenü (Ferrarese for Benvenuto)
Garofalo, 1530, dec." (December.) ^
It was painted,
according to N. Cittadella, not for the church S. Spirito,
but for the Certosa at Ferrara. Lastly, 'No. 154 ^
does

^ The Munich Galleiy, as we have seen, has nothing of Dosso's, the

Berlin Gallery one genuine but much repainted altar-piece, the Belvedere
at Vienna an unimportant St. Jerome, the Madrid Museum nothing. Also
the National Gallery of London has nothing worth speaking of to show,
and the Louvre offers the public, as a work of Dosso's (Xo. 167), a much
restored painting by Paris Bordone. In the Hampton Court Gallery,
however, there are, among others, two very fine and characteristic works
by Dosso. One of them (So. 97) represents a Holy Family, the other
St. William. The last-named picture, of which numerous copies are
to be found elsewhere, bears the name of Giorgione.
" Mary with the Child, surrounded by musical angels, appears to St.

Peter, Bruno, and George.

^ " Christ among the Doctors in the Temple."
120 DKESDEN.

not belong to tlie School of Dosso ; as the Catalogue says,

it is a genuine, although dirty work by Garofalo.
GiEOLAMO DA Caepi, Or as he signs himself, Hieronymns
de Carpis (Carpi would therefore be the family-name),^
was born about 1501, and died in 1556. His father
Tommaso was a painter, and as such we find him in the
service of Lucrezia Borgia, in the year 1507. Hieronymus,
in 1538, married Katharina Amatori at Ferrara. Cittadella
tells us that he not only worked with Garofalo, for

instance, in 1535, at the Palace of Coppara, but also with

and under Dosso." As assistant to Dosso, he painted,
amongst other things, several rooms in the " Belvedere," a
country seat on a small island near Ferrara. The rudi-
ments of painting he would most likely have learnt from his
father. Yasari tells us that he studied afterwards under
Garofalo. To judge by his authentic picture of the year
1530 in the church of San Martino at Bologna, he must
also have been strongly influenced by Dosso, for that
painting proves him at least as much an imitator of Dosso
as of Garofalo. Later ou, between 1540 and 1550, he
copied several of Correggio's paintings, and brought some
of them to Rome, in 1550, where he showed them to
Vasari.
Let us now examine the works of Antonio Allegri da
Correggio, called II Coereggio, whose pictures are a
principal attraction of this Gallery, and to them it owes
much of its world-wide renown. I am sorry to see that
Herr Hübner still classes Correggio with the Lombard

^ He is also called Sellari by some

writers, but wrcngly. (See "C.
Napoleone Cittadela," In London, there is an excellent pictui'e
p. 592).
by Garofalo at Dudley House. It represents a sacrifice.
2 See "KCittadella Notizie," &c., p. 351.
 THE FEEEARESE. 121

School, (wliicli ?). Some years ago,^ I tried, though briefly,

to explain that this artist belongs to the Ferrara-Bologna
School.
Francesco Bianchi of Ferrara, a scholar of Cosimo Tura
settled at Modena, is said to have been Correggio's master,
a statement we can very well believe. Bianchi was very
intimate with Francesco Francia and Lorenzo Costa, and
is said to have painted together with them al fresco in the

Bentivoglio Palace at Bologna. We can then also admit

as probable that the talented pupil from Correggio, having
served out his apprenticeship with Bianchi in 1507 or 1508,
was sent by him to the studio of his friend Francia, to
complete his studies. I am indebted to my learned friend,
Dr. Jean Paul Richter, in London, to have pointed out to
me an excellent work by Francesco Bianchi. It is in
possession of Mr. Leyland, and represents a Virgin and
St. Joseph adoring the Infant Christ, who lies sleeping
before them. In this picture we can observe that Bianchi
became also influenced by Brcole Grandi di Roberto.
His celebrated picture, painted in 1514-1515, N^o. 168
in this Gallery,^ has many features which partly recall
Francia (e.g. the head of St. Catherine), partly Costa (as
the medallion on the throne painted in chiaroscuro) ; there-
fore, my hypothesis that Correggio comes from the Ferrara-
BologTia School cannot appear altogether groundless in the
eyes of those who have learned to see.^ N"ow, is this

^ See my articles on the Borghese Gallery in the " Zeitschrift für

bildende Kunst" (Vol. X.).
^ Mary with the Child gives her blessing from the throne to St.
Francis ; behind him St. Antony of Padua ; on the other side, John the
Baptist with St. Catherine.
^ To my greatest satisfaction I see that Dr. J. P. Richter, in his able
treatiseon Correggio (in Dohme's "Kunst und Künstler," Ixxiv.), has
expressed the same opinion on Antonio Allegri's artistic deyelopment.
122 DRESDEN.

splendid youthful work of Correggio, the earliest that we

possess ? Surely not. Before giving so important a
commission to a young painter, one must have had con-
vincing proofs of his ability, although in those happy
times for art, painters had generally mastered the technical
part of the profession in their fifteenth or sixteenth year.
But where are the works that Correggio painted before this
magnificent altar-piece of 1514 ? I regret that I can only
mention five. One ofthem was formerly in the Gallery
Costabili at Perrara, and now belongs to my friend Dr.
Gustavo Frizzoni of Milan, a distinguished connoisseur,
who considers it a gem in his collection. This little jewel,
unfortunately not in the best preservation, represents a
Madonna enthroned, with the infant Jesus presenting the
ring to a kneeling St. Catherine ; behind the Madonna is

St. Anne, and beside her St. Francis and St. Dominic. In
this little picture,which does not measure much more
than a span, the hands are still like those of Lorenzo

Costa, the glowing colours recall Mazzoliuo, but the

expression and movements of St. Francis are already those
of the future Correggio. The shape and decollations of the
throne much resemble those in our Dresden picture.
A second little picture by Correggio, probably jjainted
about 1511-12, is a Madonna and Child amidst a choir of
angels, in the Gallery degli Uffizi, at Florence, No. 1002.
In the catalogue it was at first ascribed to the Ferrara
School, but afterwards to Titian. In this little painting
too, besides the fine feeling, there are already present all
the outward characteristics of Correggio, in the folds of the
drapery, the shape of the ear and hand, &c. Here also,

exactly as in the Dresden Madonna with St. Francis (No.

168), we see six or eight cherubs' heads above the
Madonna, here painted in chiaroscuro.
 THE FEKßAEESE, 123

About a year later may have been painted tlie small

Madonna in tlie Malaspina Gallery,now the Town Mnsenm
of Pavia. It represents the Virgin and Child, the little

St. John, St. Joseph and St. Anne ; it is painted on panel

like the two preceding ; unfortunately efiaced, and also
painted over. It is ascribed to Francia in that Gallery,'
To the same epoch I would assign another small
Madonna, formerly in the Ambrosiana, now in the Museo
Municipale of Milan.^ This picture was also painted on
wood, but has lately been transferred to canvas.
Lastly, the pretty large altar-piece at Lord Ashburton's
in London, which has likewise a Francia-Costa character,
appears to me to have been produced a little before our St.
Francis, about 1513-14. At this time he may have painted
also the charming little picture of a Holy Family at
Hampton Court (No. 276).
Before Correggio settled at Parma, he must have been
artistically in communication with Dosso and Garofalo.
His picture of " A Rest during the Flight to Egypt," in
the Tribuna of the Uflfizi Gallery at Florence, seems to
warrant the hypothesis. I need only draw attention to the
use in it of straw-colour, at that time confined to Dosso
and Garofalo. Besides, Dosso is said to have painted a
portrait of Correggio. All this, however, is only hypo-

and I am unable to produce tangible proof. Among

thesis,

works of his rij)er youth, painted about 1518, besides a

small and much injured Madonna belonging to Count
Campori of Modena, I include that charming Madonna
adoring on her knees the infant Jesus ; likewise in the
Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery. This painting, alike in

^ It is certainly curious that none of the early works of Correggio are

ascribed to Mantegna.
^ Bequest of Count Bolognini.
124 DEESDEN.
feeling and in colouring, is remarkably suggestive of
Lorenzo Lotto.
It has long been asserted, that Lotto was not only the
pupil of Leonardo da Yinci, but that he took the works of
Correggio for his model, and set himself to imitate them.
I have already tried to point out the incorrectness of this
notion. comes of a suiDerficial way of looking at the
It
development of painting in Italy and I think this a fair ;

opportunity of reverting to that point.

When a nation's culture has reached its culminating
point, we see everywhere, in daily life as well as in
literature and art, that grace comes to be valued more
than cJtar acter. So it was in Italy during the closing
decades of the fifteenth century and the opening ones of
the sixteenth. To no artist was it given to express this
feeling so fully as to the great Leonardo da Vinci,
perhaps the most richly gifted man that mother jSTatu^re

ever made. He was the first who tried to express the

smue of inward happiness, the sweetness of the soul. In
part, however, this aim could only be attained by a more
subtle comprehension of pictorial modelling, that is, of
chiaroscuro ; hence it was that Leonardo devoted to that
study the best hours of his lengthened sojourn at Milan
(1485—1500).^
Almost at the same time, and doubtless quite indepen-
dently of Leonardo, Giorgione, at Venice, was led into the
same path by the historical development of art. And it is

in this respect above upon Lorenzo Lotto

all, that I look
as the comrade and successor of his countryman Barbarella.
Lotto, as well as Griorgione,can hardly have known Leonardo

^ See some of his aphorisms in the well-known " Trattato delia

Pittura."
 THE FERRARESE. 125

da Vinci personallj, or seen any of his works, although, he

made a brief stay at Yeuice in the last months of the year
1499.'^ And to Correggio this applies even more strongly
still. To him fell the enviable lot, to evoke the purest,
fullest harmony from the strings already struck by Leo-
nardo, by Giorgione, and by Lorenzo Lotto. !N"ow I do not
believe that these four men had ever stood in any artistic
relation to each other. was simply, that one and the
It
same mode of feeling animated them all, and found ex-

pression in their works, This mode of feeling was a part

of the age in which they lived and worked it was a stage ;

in the development of the human mind. The mind,

emancipating itself from the swaddling-bands of medieval
thought, gazed, with an artless vivid joy, at Man, whole
and free, as the Greek eye saw him long ago. And is
it not this triumphant sense of having found again the
true, living, free Man, that speaks to us from the works of
the great Italian masters in the first decade of the sixteenth
century ? This sense of liberty achieved, is what inspires
the figures both of Correggio and of Michelangelo, the two
chief representatives of this attitude of mind, in pictorial
art, widely as their characters might differ in other
respects. Michelangelo was sprung from a patrician family
of Florence, and had grown up in a rich and splendid, but
politically distracted city, at a time when moral character
was on the decline. With his lofty, proud, and indepen-
dent nature, he soon became disgusted with the want of
principle and the idle pleasiare-hunting of his contempo-
raries. This disposition of mind we find already expressed

^ Leonardo da Vinci must have left Milan in the first dajs of October,
1499 (shortly before the entrance of the French), and travelled by way
of Venice to Florence.
126 DRESDEIS'.

in his celebrated "

;
David " it inci'eased with, years, and,
especially after the fall of the republic at Florence, found
its strongest expression in his well-known verses on the
statue of "Mght:"—
" Grato m' e il sonno e piu I'esser di sasso :

Mentre che il danno e la vergogna dura,

Non reder, non sentir m' e gran Ventura ;
Pero non mi destar ; deli, parla basso." '

111 at ease, he at an eai^y age withdrew from the world,

to live entirely to his art. He was, at bottom, like Cor-
reggio, of a simple and pure nature.^
Antonio Allegi'i, on the contrary, was the son of a
modest, peaceful burgher-family, and beyond love of his
art, his mind can scarcely have been touched by any deep
or enduring passion. If ]\Iichelangelo pursued his calling,
a solitary amid the noise and bustle and passions of a
Rome, Correggio spent his days, a solitary
world-city like
in a small town, among Benedictine monks.
provincial
As Correggio was endowed by nature to utter " sweetness
of soul," alike in sport and in sorrow, in the intoxication
of sensuous joy as in 'the rapture of divine love, Michel-
angelo's heroic temper led him mainly to body forth
earnestness, dignity ,|and strength, the noble pride of a free
nature, the bitter scorn of all that is base, unprincipled,
and vain, — manly attributes and passions
in a word, all the

of the soul, in their strongest utterances. Out of his

titanic figures, the emancipated mind of man, as if in full

^ See Vasari : 12, 208, —Edition'Le Monnier.

- Eead his letter to Vasari, informing him of the death of his faithful
servant Urbino. Also a letter to one of his brothers, who showed some
inchnation to visit himjat Bologna :
" Son qua," he writes home, " in una
cattiva stanza, e ho comperato ^un letto solo nel quale stiamo quattro
persone, e non avrei il modo raecettarlo come si richiede."
 THE FERRARESE. 127

consciousness of its God- given strength, looks down, with

true Olympian pride, on the broken chains that bound
humanity. It is certainly remarkable, that the chief re-
presentatives of these two moods of mind, Correggio and
Michelangelo, should have flourished at the same time.
Michelangelo's whole cast of mind belonged rather to the
age of Dante ;
phenomenon, and because he
yet, as a
worked chiefly for popes, and in the two intellectual
capitals of Italy as it then was, Rome and Florence, he
had a far more direct and powerful influence on his con-
temporaries than Correggio. All minds that came into
contact with his were subjugated by him, or attracted out
of their natural orbits and thus through him the decline
;

of art became still more precipitate than it would have

been without him. Correggio operated more indirectly
through the Carracci, so that his unhappy imitators do not
muster very strong till the seventeenth century.
Between the powerful individuality of Michelangelo and
of Correggio, the divine Raphael stands midway, as the
most measured, most calm, most perfect of the artists, the
only one who in this respect was an equal of the Greeks.
Happy the land that had such men to ofier to the world !

But I beg pardon for this long digression, which smacks

a little of the lecturing-desk. To go back, then, to the works
of our Correggio. His simple, naive and delicate, but also
somewhat morbidly excited nature is best of all expressed in
the above-named paintings of his early manhood. His later
works, for instance his large church-paintings, are wanting
in freshness of feeling ; they are somewhat conventional,
and it is just from these, his conventional works, that the
prevailing idea of his style has been formed.^ On the

'
The axiom, that results can only be understood by their processes,
128 DRESDEN.

other hand, whatever he represents out of Greek mytho-

logy shows him in his true element. Ifo one has ever set
before us the sensuous so instinct with spirit, so artless,
and so pure, as Correggio.
Of all his pictures in the Dresden Gallery, the best pre-
served is fortunately the " Madonna with St. Francis." In
no early work of any other artist, Michelangelo's " David "
excepted, do we perceive so pronounced an individuality as
in this painting, so rich in feeling and thought. The other
three large church-paintings of Antonio AUegri, oSTos. 169,
171, and 172, have been so shamefully used, so painted
over, especially the first and last, that they can give ns
little pleasure now. I marvel greatly at those amateurs
who can still go into raptures over the " Correggio chiaro-

scuro " they find in them. These three paintings belong

to the years 1524—1530.
Besides these well-known pictures by Antonio Allegri,
the catalogue directs us to two others, ISTo. 173 and N^o.

170. The first is a male portrait with the curious title of

" Correggio's Physician," which very likely was only
fastened upon it in the 18th century. It is a picture in
very bad preservation, and in its present state wholly
unenjoyable.
That this picture reminded Raphael Mengs of Giorgione,
can only be explained by the fact that no painter has been,
and still is, so thoroughly misunderstood as this same
Giorgione. The face has been cleaned entirely ofi" and
then repainted, the restorer has set the mouth awry and
made it silly. The hand resting on the book has not the
form of Correggio's hands, and moreover, I miss that thick

applies in art-history, if anywhere. Whoever has not followed a painter

in his derelopment in his early works, need not pretend to have compi-e-
hended his character.
 THE FEREARESE. 129

touch, of colouring peculiar to the master. If people must

give a name to this wreck of a portrait, which is always
advisable, because the public can make nothing of a pic-
ture without a name, they had better make a grope at the
name of Dosso, to whom thf picture may really have be-
longed once.^
And now, with a beating heart, I approach the " St.
Magdalen " of Correggio, No. 170. According to Pungi-
leoni, Correggio must have painted this picture in 1533,
that is, a year before his death; but that is all guesswork.
This Magdalen never made her appearance in public till

the beginning of the 18th century.'-^

Of all the works imputed to Correggio, tbis " Reclining

Magdalen " of the Dresden Gallery is one of the most
popular, and therefore one of the most copied and multi-
plied pictures in the world, I must openly confess that,
in spite of all this halo round her, this Magdalen has
always left me cold.
Dare I venture to speak out my heretical opinion on the
picture ?
The last time I stood before it, as I was about to put
down some critical remarks in my note-book, an elderly
gentleman with his daughter came up to look at the
supposed gem, and, as might have been expected, to utter
their ecstasies over it.

^ Meyer, in his excellent book on Correggio, has already

Dii'ector Julius
pronounced this picture spurious; and I cannot understand how the
Director of the Gallery should have left unnoticed the judgment of a
man so highly esteemed as an art-historian. Let anyone compare the
hand in this portrait with the hands of the Fathers in Dosso's genuine
and beautiful work, No. 138, and he will observe the same structure in
both pictui'es, nay, even the same round shape of the finger-nails.
^ See J. Meyer: "Correggio."

K
130 DEESDEX.
" Ah !
" exclaimed tlie ladj, pushing her gold spectacles
nearer her eyes, " there is not another painting in the
world so exquisite, so deep in feeling. The more I look at
it the more I take it in, the more does it fill me with
enthusiasm. charming sinner
I confess, Papa, I prefer this
of Correggio to all the Madonnas of Haphael and Holbein.
How gloi-iously it would come out in our drawing-room
which has the light from the north " !

" Yes such a picture," simpered the Papa, a short, red-

;

cheeked gentleman, " such a picture must be worth its cool

five thousand."
At these enthusiastic ejaculations I stepped aside, to let
the good people get a better view of the object of their
admiration.
" Nay, nay," said the polite Papa, " we will not disturb
you on any account, especially as we see that you know
how to prize this gem of all gems. I and my daughter,
Elise von Blasewitz from Plauen, whom I herewith intro-
duce to you, we have known this picture for years oh ;

yes, quite an old acquaintance ! We have a very good

engraving too at home, so we know it by heart. But you,
sir, seem to be a stranger, visiting this gallery probably for
the first time."
Against my will I found myself drawn into an aesthetic
conversation.
" Oh no," I replied, '^
I am well acquainted with this col-
lection, although I am a foreigner."
I had then to answer a question as to my nationality.
" If I guess right," said the lady with a gracious smile,
" a connoisseur ? "
" Not so, but at best an art-student," said I.

" ISTo, no," she exclaimed with aS'ected grace, " I see by
the very way you look at the pictiires, that you must be a
 THE FERRARESE. 131

connoisseur, for we have a good many art-scholars in

Germany too."
" Too much scholarship," sneered the Papa, " a deal too
much learning it dulls the eyes, and spoils any fresh
;

healthy enjoyment. But I suppose you consider this

Magdalen of Correggio's the finest picture in the Dresden
Gallery, don't you?"
" As you do me the honour of asking my opinion,
it would be uncourteous not to answer with perfect sin-
cerity. I am Sony to be obliged to give a negative
answer."
" What ? . . . You mean to say that you do not like
"
it ?

To my miud this glossy and rather coquettish

"
Magdalen is not the work of any Italian, much less of
Correggio, but most likely a Flemish painting, at the end
of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century."
The father took a step backwards, casting a significant
look at his daughter, in whose face might be read an ex-
pression of deep pity.
" I beg you will not be disquieted by the rashness of my
judgment," I continued.
"Very bold indeed, I think," observed Miss von Blase-
witz, drily.
" Do but look more closely at the picture, and you will
perhaps share my opinion, that it is not unlike the style of
Adriaen van der Werff."
" Impossible ! Don't you know, that this very Van der
Werff is cited by all our aesthetics as the quintessence of
mannerism ? "
" That may be," I answered, calmly " but in the year ;

1788, when the Dresden proprietor Wogatz picked out this

'
Magdalen '
and the ' Paris '
of Van der Werff" to steal, it
132 DEESDEN.

was not mere chance, but had a solid reason in the eyes ;

of that connoisseur, they were paintings of the same

value."
" Really that is too bad," Miss van Blasewitz interjected ;

" perhaps "

you are joking. Sir ?
" I am sorry to say, I am in sober earnest. Have the
goodness to examine the picture more narrowly. Look at
the dazzling, glaring ultramarine of the mantle. Why, that
is the Van der WerflP colour all over ; see the affected form
of the fingers, the long nails, with all that light thrown on
the cut edges, a thing no Italian ever did ; then observe
all these little stones in the foreground, how minutely
they are executed, exactly as in the picture Wo. 1643,
by Van der Werff ; so with the cold miniature-like glossy
vessel of ointment by the side of the Magdalen ; will
you also compare the foliage here with the foliage in Van
der Werff's pictures (No. 1640-1641), and lastly, the
cracks in this painting with the cracks in the paintings of
Van der Werff and his contemporaries ; and you will then
perhaps be brought to confess, however reluctantly, that
this picture must have been painted, if not by Adriaen van
der Werff himself, yet by some contemporary and country-
man of his, but in no case by an Italian, least of all an
Italian that lived in the first three decades of the 16th
century."
" Never," said the irritated lady with an ironical smile,
"you me." She would not examine the
will not convert
picture more closely, but continued, " I dare say you never
read the works of our Raphael Mengs ? Mengs was also a
connoisseur and a very great one, who was made a great
deal of, and had, moreover, made a special and profound
study of the divine master ; well, out of all Correggio's

masterpieces, Raphael Mengs gives the foremost place to

 THE FEREAEESE. 133

this veryMagdalen, so much, despised by you. And if yon

want more proof, our great ^sthetician and poet, Wilhelm
von Schlegel, has devoted to this picture one of his most
charming sonnets."
" Recite it to him, Elise, do," said the Papa, delighted
with his daughter's erudition.
" Oh no, —
it is no good preaching to deaf ears."

" May be," I replied to this tart remark. " That is all

very possible, as Mengs's taste was the taste of his age. But
as for the connoisseursJiijJ of your sestheticians, especially of

the Romantic and Weo- Catholic schools, allow me to say that

I do not attach the smallest weight to it. Why, we have
a new u^sthetics every fifty years ; it is a matter of fashion.
Into so patient a thing as a painting, the £esthetician will
put any rubbish that comes into his head, and those who
read thestufi" are pleased with the fine phrases, and see in

their mind's eye the Magdalen of the sonnet, very seldom

the painted one. Most of us get enthusiastic, not about
the reality, but about some vision of our fancy, and this
divine gift of imagination makes us see just what we wish
to see. But what seems to me utterly impossible is, to
take this Dresden Magdalen for the work of so great an
Italian paiater as Correggio. Besides," I added, after a
pause, " the picture is painted on copper, and no Italian
painter ever used that material for his pictures before the
end of the 16th century."
" What, did not Sebastiano del Piombo paint on copper "
?

retorted the well-read lady with a self-satisfied smile, "you

had better look up your Yasari."
" You are right. Madam I remember Vasari says
; in his
life of Sebastiano Yeneziano, that he not only painted on
stone, but gave proof that one might also paint on silver,
copper, tin, and other metals. Yasari takes good care,
 ;

134 DRESDEX.

however, not to mention a single painting' on copper by

Sebastiane del Piombo, and I therefore make bold to dis-
believe his hasty remark. Sebastiano often painted on
slate,and I myself know of several snch paintings but a ;

picture on copper by any Italian f)ainter of the firsfc half of

the 16th century is not known to me, much as I have
searched for them.^ The substitution of copper for panel
and canvas seems to have been first introduced by the
school of Antwerp and you can find pictures on copper by
;

Martin de Vos, Bartel Spranger, Pourbus the elder,

R. Savery, Brill, Bruegel, but none by Italian masters
who lived in the golden age of art."
" Criticism," observed the lady drily, while she arranged

her shawl on her shoulders, " is like fire, that destroys

everything it licks with its tongue. JSTot long ago it tried
to crumple up our glorious Madonna by Holbein, to-day
' '

it dares to approach another gem of this gallery, the world-

renowned 'Magdalen' of Correggio. Such things may be
done in Russia, where Mhilism is the fashion but here, in ;

our Germany, where, thank God there are still so many !

and such able art-historians and connoisseurs, such

venomous and perfidious attempts will come to naught.
Papa, let us go further."
me to make one or two more
If the reader will allow
remarks on the Dresden "Magdalen" by Correggio, I should

' In some picture galleries we find paintings on copper ascribed by the

catalogue to Italian masters who lived in the first half of the 16th cen-
tury ; e.g. in the Louvre, a " Holy Family " (No. 167) is still imputed to
Dosso Dossi, but on closer examination looks more like a Flemish work
"
the same may be said of the " Pieta " (No. 1209) signed " Broz Fag . .

in the Ufiizi Gallery at Florence, there ascribed to Bronzino. I could

mention a whole series of coj^ies painted on copper by northern artists

and introduced to the public as originals, but am afraid of fatiguing my

readers.
 THE FEREARESE. 135

like, first of all, to raise the question whether Antonio

Allegri ever painted a reading Magdalen lying on the
ground ? We know for certain that a " penitent " Mag-
dalen came from his atelier,^ but where it is at present
1 cannot saj. JSTow Signor Guglielmo Brachirolli, of
Mantua, has published in the " Giornale di Brudizione
artistica," a letter bj Carlo Malaspina, an ofläcial of the
'^

library at Parma, who says " Ortensio Lando communi-

:

cated in a letter to the Marchioness of ISTovellara, that

Correggio had lately (?) painted a magnificent reading ^
Magdalen for the magnifico Signore di Mantova." From
this we may conclude that Antonio Allegri did really paint
a picture with the very same subject as our JSTo. 170, that is
to say, a reading Magdalen. Then what has become of
that picture ?

Baldinucci asserts that about 1660 the Florentine patri-

cian Niccolo Gaddi possessed a " Magdalen in the Desert "
by Correggio, and that this picture was repeatedly copied
by Cristofano Allori. That is what Baldinucci says take ;

it for what it is worth. But that the " reading Magdalen"

in a recunibent posture at the Uffizi Gallery (No. 149) is

not by C. Allori, as the catalogue would have us believe
on the strength of Baldinucci's story, but is likewise a
Flemish copy, any unprejudiced connoisseur will see at
once. In this Florence copy, as in the Dresden one, the
landscape in the background has altogether a N^orthern
character. The stones in the foreground are wanting
little

there ; instead of them we see a death's head and a vessel

of ointment near the saint ; and, finally, the penitent holds a

'
This is proved by a letter of 3rd September, 1528, from Veronica
Gambara to Beatrice d'Este ; see Julius Meyer's " Correggio," p. 219.

^ "Vol. i., fascicolo xi., p. 332.

^ He does not say she is represented li/ingf down.
136 DRESDEN.
crucifix in her left Land. To my mind this Magdalen at
Florence is simply another Flemish copy, probably an
older one than that at Dresden.
But it is high time to conclude this long discussion. I
consider then, that this coquettish recumbent Magdalen,
painted with a view to sensuous charm, does not belong to
the first half of the 16th century, and consequently not
to Correggio ; it may very likely have originated,
towards the end of that century, in the school of the
Carracci. The type of this Magdalen's head has certainly
something very Carraccesque about it. As for the far-
famed Dresden picture on copper in particular, it appears
to me a copy which may have been executed towards the
end of the 17th century by some IsTetherland artist not
unconnected with Adriaen van dor WerflP.^
These numerous " jjenitent Magdalens," who issued
mostly from Bologna towards the end of the 16th and
the beginning of the 17 th century, are to me nothing
but the Venus of the Venetians translated into the language
"
of the Jesuits. Between the glorious *'
Sleeping Venus
of Giorgione, No. 262 in this gallery, and the " Penitent
Magdalen" of Correggio (N'o. 170), there lies the whole
breadth of the Spanish-Catholic Counter-reformation.
Of the three pictures, Nos. 503, 504, and 505, ascribed
to Francesco Raibolini, called Fran^cia, only two belong to
the master, namely the charming little " Adoration of the
Kings and Shepherds " (N'o. 503), and the much-restored
" Baptism of Christ " (l^To. 505). The " Madonna " (N"o.
504) appears to me only a studio-work of Francia's.
I have yet to mention one other work of this Ferrara-

^ Keplicas of this St. Magdalen are innumerable, and amongst them

is probably the " Bolognese " original.
 THE FEKllARESE. 137

Bologna School, tho agh Herr Hübner, in his catalogue,

assigns it to the so-called Bonian School. The " Madonna
with the Infant Christ and the four Saints," in the large
altar-pieceby Bartolommeo da Bagnacavallo, proclaims
more clearly than I could if I had a hundred tongues, that
Bagnacavallo was not only a pupil but a plagiarist of
Dosso. Why, at a distance this picture of his looks for
all work by Dosso himself
the world like a That Bar- !

tolommeo Ramenghi was some time at Rome, and there

imitated Raphael, is nothing to the purpose ; he belongs to
the Ferrara-Bolosrna School.

2. THE VEXETIAKS.
We come now to the painters of the Venetian Republic,
whose peculiarly attractive works beam upon ns from the
walls of these saloons.
To our sorrow, the Venetians of the 15th century are
as good as unrepresented in the Dresden Gallery. The
" Holy Family," No. 228, ascribed to Gentile Bellini, is

more likely a work of Marco Makziale,^ though I should

not like to insist on this designation.
The bust-portrait of the " Doge, Leonardo Loredano,"
N"o. 229, is only a copy after Giambellino ; the original is

at the National Gallery in London, as experts have noticed

long ago. Even the newly acquired picture "by Giam-
bellino," jSTo. 230, representing the " Virgin and Child

Messrs. Crowe and Caralcaselle give it to the indifferent Baldassare

de Forli, a feeble scholar of Palmezzano, and imitator of Rundinello
(i., 138).
138 DRESDEX.

between the Apostle Peter and St, Helen," does not belong
to the master himself, but to a feeble imitator. If I mis-
take not, it is' by a pupil of Gentile Bellini, the little^ known
Bartolommeo Veneto, The type of head in this Apostle
Peter we find repeated in other Venetian pictures of the
Bellini School, e.g., in works of Catena, Benedetto Diana,

&G. This cui-ious character signs himself also " Barto-

lommeo mezzo Yeneziano e mezzo Cremonese," e.^., on a
Madonna in the palace of the Senator Count Martinen go,
at Venice. In the Town Gallery of Bergamo (section
Loehis) is a small Madonna, signed " Bartholomteus Venetus
faciebat 1505." ^ Many years ago, I saw at the Count Gio-
vanni Melzi's, at Milan, a portrait of a lady by this master
—a young woman, with a small hammer in one hand and a
ring in the other. On her gold bracelet was written " Sfoza
de la Ebra " (sfoza is Venetian for foggia, that is, costume,
style of dress), the coloui-ing brilliant, the hair as if made
of brass. The inscription ran :
" Bartolomeo de Venecia,
F." Mr. Carew, of London, has also a portrait with the
same signature, and the date 1506. We meet our Barto-
lommeo Veneziano again in a picture at the Stadel Insti-
tute, Frankfort, bearing the number 11a, and ascribed to
the Florentine School. It represents a young woman,
fantastically dressed, with a nosegay in her right hand,
a rich medallion round the neck, and a laurel wreath on
the head. The curls on this head also are twisted like
brass wire, as in the Dresden painting and the picture

^ The form and movement of the hand is, in this Madonna, also quite
Bellinesqne ; the opening of the eyelids still vei'y hard ; the form of the
ear recalling more Gentile than Giovanni Bellini ; the movement of
Mary's arm, supporting the foot of the infant Christ, stiff and awkward,
the clouds in the sky cotton-like, the colouring brilliant and of gi-eat
harm on V.
 THE VEXETIA]S"S. 139

at Count Giovanni Melzi's. According to the statement

of Piacenza,^ there was in the Ercolani Gallery at Bologna,
a Madonna with the inscription: "1509, a di 7 Aprile,
Bartolatnio scholaro de ZE . . Both . . BE . . .
."

Piacenza, and after him the Florentine commeiatators of

Vasari" exjolained this "ZE . . .
." as Giovanni; but
I cannot see how this mutilated inscription admits of
any other explanation than "ZENTILE BELLINI." In
the Venetian territory, " Zvan " and not " Zean " is
used for Giovanni but as the above-named art-historians
;

had never heard of our Bartolommeo Veneziano, they did

not liesitate to assign that picture to the great Barto-
lommeo Montagna —a blunder scarcely pardonable even in
a beginner.
In England, too, there are some works by Bartolommeo
Veneziano, or Cremonese, whichever you like to call him.
The jSTational Gallery in London has a portrait of Lodovico
]\Iartinengo,^ bearing the following inscription :
" Barto-
lom. Venetus faciebat M.D.XXX. XVI. ZVK" (June).
A " Giorgionesque " portrait of a same lady, with the
name and the same date, 1530, was in the Barker Collec-
tion. Those pictu.res by Bartolommeo which, are not
signed are generally attributed to greater masters than he
was, as is the case at Dresden. For the present I am
content to have drawn the attention of my readers to
this little-known master, so that in future they may be on
their guard about his pictures.
The authorities of the Dresden Gallery made a luckier

^ See Baldinucci, iii., 210.

^ Vol. vi., 127, Le Monnier edition.
3 The Martinengo family seems
to have patronized this painter, Bar-
tolommeo, as the Senator Martinengo, of Venice, now possesses, as an
heirloom, a small picture by the master, evidently an early work.
 —

140 DEESDEX.

throw in acquiring tlie genuine Madonna, I^o. 226, by

AxDTiEA Mantegna. This painting belongs to the last
period of the master (1497-1506), and resembles in work-
manship the great altar-piece at the Casa Trivulzio, Milan
(1497), the foreshortened " Dead Christ " in the Brera
Gallery (1505-6), and the two pictures in the sacristy of
the Church of Sant'Andrea at Mantua, one representing
the " Baptism of Christ," the other the " Madonna and
Child, with the Saints John the Baptist, Joseph, Zacharias,
and Elizabeth." ^ These two pictures, like all the paint-
ings of the master's later period, are painted on canvas.
The Dresden painting is a good deal rubbed away, and its

eiFect much weakened, but it still has its charms.

Some years ago the Director of this Gallery purchased
at Vienna a standard work of the Old Venetian School
the great " S. Sebastian " by Antoistello da Messixa (No.
22r), unquestionably an out-and-out Venetian production.
Here we detect the deep impression that Mantegna's
frescoes in the Capella degli Eremitani of Padua must
have made on Antonello. Here also he shows himself a
master of linear perspective. Unfortunately the painting
has been much restored, for instance, all the shading of
the architecture has been pasted over, so has the frag-
ment of a shadows on
pillar in the foreground, also the
the saint's and those about the eyes and the
body,
region of the forehead the sky too is repainted, the
;

original tone of colour in the atmosphere must have been

much lighter. In spite of all this, the picture is full
of interest, though it cannot be called a beautiful one.
How livingly and suggestively those small figures in the

^ On the two last-named pictures of Mantegna, compare the adverse

opinion of Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i., 417.
 ^

THE VENETIANS. 141

centre and background are put in, and the sentry who
has gone to sleep, producing almost a comic effect ! How
delicate the execution, down to the minutest detail ! And
that dear little couple looking down from the terrace !

This picture must have been produced between the years

1480 and 1490. Admirable as Antonello is in his portraits,
he stands before us just as barren and shiftless when the
problem is to give utterance to some deep feeling of
the soul. Do but compare this St, Sebastian with that
inspired one of Liberale's in the Brera Gallery at Milan
(No. 265), and the vast interval between the Messinian
artist and the Veronese will strike the eye of every
student.
Of another extremely rare Venetian painter of the 15th
century, the Dresden Gallery has the advantage of possess-
ing not only one, but several works ; namely, of Jacopo de'
Baebaei, called at Nürnberg, Walch, that is the Italian
(balbus, the foreigner).
What collector of engravings does not know the rare,
delicate, and remarkable engravings marked with a Mer-

^ The Anonymus of Morelli calls him Jacopo de Barbarino, adding

Veneziano, that is, and Geldenhauer (" Vita Philippi
a native of Venice ;

Burgundi," &c.) calls him Jacobus Barbariis Venetics. But, notwith-

standing this, some recent German writers, as Harzen (" Naumann's
Archiv," 1855, i., 210) and Passavant ("Le Peintre Graveur," iii., 134),
have thought good to dub him a Nürnberger, while Zani makes a Dutch-
man or a Frenchman of him. Professor Thausing, however, in his
" Dürer," not only assigned to Jacob Walch his rightful place in art
history, but restored him to his native place, Venice. And, in fact, the
few known paintings by him, as also the gi-eater part of his engravings,
expressly style him a Venetian. Several of his hitherto unrecognised
works ai'e ascribed, as we shall see, either to Giovanni Bellini or to
Antonello da Messina, others again to the Old-Plorentine or even the
Ferrara-school of painting.
 :

142 DRESDEN.

cury's Caduceus ? If the engravings of this master are

rare, his paintings are a great dealmore so. Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle, the most consciention.s of art historians,
—
include only four in their inventory the two female Saints,
Kos. 1876 and 1877 in this gallery, a Christ in the Weimar
collection, and lastly the Still-life (of the year 1504) in
the Angsburg Gallery, To Professor Moritz Thansing of
Vienna belongs the merit of having set in a clear light the
exact relation in which this Proteus, half Italian and half
German, stood to the great Dürer. If any of my readers
wish to be better informed on Jacopo de' Barbari, let them
consult Thausing's exemplary book on Albert Dürei-,
chap. X.
The new Dresden Catalogue of 1876 adds to the two
above-named pictures of Barbari a tliird, namely, "Christ
Blessing" (No. 1875). Let us now examine more closely
these three paintings of our Venetian. In the catalogue
of 1867, the " Christ Blessing " was still assigned to Lucas
of Leyden while the two saints, " Catherine " and *' Bar-
;

bara " (Nos. 1795 and 1796 ofthat catalogue), were men-
tioned as works of an unknown painter, although Mr.
Renouvier had many years before identified these side-
panels of a triptych as a work of Jacopo de' Barbari. At
last in the new catalogue, Herr Hühner has felt prompted
"
to acknowledge all three pictures, the " Christ Blessing
and the two Saints, as works of Barbari, a step on which
we heartily congratulate him. All the three paintings,
but especially the two Saints, bear a mixed Venetian-
German character, and are therefore much more likely to
have been produced on this side of the Alps than at Venice.
The features peculiar to the master in these pictures are
the following
a. All the three heads have the mouth half open.
 ^

THE VENETIANS. 143

1). All three have the upper eyelid very prominent, and
springing out of a deep j)ucker.
c. All three have a round skull, and the point of the
thumb is strikingly round and clubby.
Other characteristics of the master are the full flexible

longitudinal folds of the drapery, the small and highly-

placed orifice of the ear, the very long limbs of the female
figures, &c. N'ow every one of these characteristics is

forthcoming in Si, fourth picture of this Gallery (No. 27),

which is attributed, with a query, to Sandro Botticelli.
"
The first time I saw this " Galatea standing on a Dolphin
it gave me the impression of a Flemish- Italian work; on
a more searching scru.tiny, I saw plainly stamped on it the
style of Jacopo de' Barbari. It is true the Galatea's mouth
is smudged over, but I feel confident that, if cleaned, that
feature peculiar to Barbari, the half-open mouth, would
come to light.
The " Christ " in the Weimar collection, which is still

Venetian in expression, another "Christ" in the possession

of Director Lippmann at Berlin, and the "Still Life" at the
Augsburg Gallery, are likewise pictures that Jacopo must
have executed on this side of the Alps, the strong influence
that Northern Art had exercised on the Venetian being
unmistakable in them.
To these seven pictures of Barbari, possessed by Ger-
many, I take the liberty of adding an eiglith, a capital
male portrait, which, I have been told, the late Otto
Mündler had already recognised as a Jacopo de' Barbari.
This interesting and very pleasing portrait is to be found

^ Kotice also the pose of the legs, the eye with its peculiarities, the
thick end of the thumbs and so on ; the painting, has, however, suffered
much.
]44 DEESDEX.

in tlie Gallery of the Belvedere at Vienna (Eoom 4, ISTo. 36),

and is assigned in Director von Engert's catalogue, to the
Old- Florentine School. To designate the master still

better, Herr von Engert thought proper to pronounce it

akin to the paintings of Massaccio (sic) da S. Giovanni ;

therefore in any case, Florentine, as the " Galatea " is in the

,

eyes of his brother Director at Dresden. In both these

capitals then, on the Elbe and on the Danube, they seem
to have formed pretty much the same notion of the character
of the Old-Florentine School.
The portrait in the Vienna Gallery represents a young
man of Italian appearance and in Venetian costume, in
black dress and black cap ; but, above him, to the left, is

introduced a little lamp, which, to my eyes, looks rerj

I^orthern in colouring, while the whitish curtain, ara-
besqued with leaf-work, behind him on the other side,

recalls themanner of Giorgione and his imitators, such as

B. Boccaccino, Marco Marziale, «fee. The portrait itself is
executed after the method introduced at Venice by A. da
Messina, and adopted even by Giovanni Bellini in the last
two decades of the 15th century. In this picture, again,
it is chiefly the half-open mouth, the prominent upper eye-
lids, the deep, distinct lachrymal pits, as well as the treat-
ment of the mass o£ hair, that reveal to us the hand of
Jacopo de' Barbari.
The best-known engravings by the master of theCaduceus
date, I believe, chieflyfrom Nuremberg and Belgium, and
therefore belong to the last twenty years of his life.

Jacopo, moreover, furnished drawings for engravers both on

copper and on wood : suffice it here to mention one or two.
One, a copper-plate in the collection of the Ambrosiana at
Milan, represents a girl fallen asleep in the arms of a
young man it is signed "Z. A.," that is " Zuan Andrea."
;
 THE VENETIANS. 145

The drawing betrays Jacopo de' Barbari, and the engrav-

ing seems to an early work of Zuan Andrea.

me to be
Another is the great " View of Venice," engraved on
wood at Venice in 1500, by a German, whom his friend,
Anton Kolb of IS'uremberg, then settled at Venice, appears
to have fetched from over the Alps/ Barbari's drawing
in this plate is still altogether in the broad Venetian
style ;
^ his later drawings, such as the " Rape of the
Tritons," in the Dresden collection, begin to be finer and
more pointed in their treatment, betraying the influence
of the Iforthern method. The Malaspina collection at
Pavia has also some engravings and drawings by our
Jacopo — allegories and triumphal processions of satyrs.
Jacopo de' Barbari, besides supplying engravers at
Venice with drawings, must also have received from his
countrymen many commissions as a painter. His German
friend, Kolb of Nuremberg (as we learn from one of
Dürer's letters to Pirckheimer), thought him the " greatest
painter in the world." Yet he could not have been so very
highly honoured at home, or he would scarcely have left

Venice, and Vasari never mentions him at all.

Among the paintings executed by Jacopo in his native

country, I reckon the celebrated frescoes which adorn the
monument of the Senator Agostino Onigo
beautiful plastic
in theChurch di San Mccolo at Treviso. The memorial
had been ordered in 1490, and its pictorial embellishment
may probably have been executed in the last years of the
15th century. These beautiful frescoes represent two

^ The original blocks are in the Museo Correr, at "Venice.

^ That done with a broad pen, like the early works of Titian, Seb.
is,

del Piombo, Domenico, Campagnola, Giambellini, &c. A

similar draw-
ing with the Caduceus is in the Uffizi collection ; it is a sketch for a
martyrdom, probably of St. Sebastian.
L
146 DRESDEN.

warriors or heralds standing on both sides of the monument,

one holding a long sword in his right hand, and the other
an iron mace, a so-called onorgenstern,^ two figures full

of life, bearing on their faces the stamp of the Bellini

School, and therefore also ascribed to Giovanni Bellini bj
Vasari, and even by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
(i. 171), while Carlo Eidolfi^ gives them to Antonello da
Messina.'' The upper and lower parts of the memorial are,
moreover, adorned with arabesques, painted grey in grey,
the sides with trophies. Among the arabesques, below
the monument, are two medallions, representing fights of
horsemen, sirens carried by centaurs, satyrs, &c. : and it

is these figures, painted grey in grey, with that round

form of head so peculiar to Jacopo de' Barbari, that re-
move the last doubt of the accuracy of our designation.*
We find the same spirit and the same technique in certain
figures among the arabesques that enrich the upper part
of the front of a house (No. 1548, Piazza della Cattedrale)
at Treviso ; so that we are inclined to attribute these
paintings also to Barbari.

^ Sword and mace are likewise borne by Bramante's two " heralds,"
painted al fresco, in a room of the Casa Prinetti, Via Lanzone 4, at
Milan.
" Le Maraviglie delF Arte," i., 86.
2

The warrior with the sword is much injured by time ; the other, with
^

the " morning-star," on the right side of the tomb, is very well preserved,
and in him are plainly to be seen the features peculiar to Barbari. The
technical treatment of the mass of hair on this head strongly reminds
one of the portrait in the Belvedere at Vienna, as well as of the head of
Christ (No. 1802) in the Dresden collection.
* These equestrian combats recall the two well-known engravings of

Barbari, in which there are also fights between men and satyrs ; and the
drawing at the Dresden Gallery, with the " Eape of the Sirens," is but
a modified repetition of the same thought, which Jacopo has here
expressed in colours under the tomb of Onigo.
 THE VENETIANS. 147

The memorial of the Senator Agostino Onigo, at Treviso,

like that of theAdmiral Melchiore Trevisani, in the second
chapel to the right of the choir of the church Sta. Maria
Gloriosa de Frari, at Venice, is a well-known work of the
Lombardi.^ This latter tomb, executed in 1500, is likewise
adorned at the sides with trophies painted in chiaroscuro,
and above with sea-gods, half man, half fish. On closer exa-
mination of these paintings, we cannot refrain from agreeing
with Dr. Gustavo Frizzoni, of Bergamo,- who assigns this
work also to Jacopo de' Barbari. We may conclude, from
these wall paintings by Barbari, that he must have worked
in common with his countrymen, the sculptors Lombardi.
Such an artistic relation subsisting between the painter
and the sculptors would very well explain, not only the
style of composition in many of his engravings, but the
very peculiar character of his draperies. These close-fitting,
exact, longitudinal folds recall distinctly the folding of
drapery in the two Lombardi, more particularly in Tullio
Lombardi.
That Jacopo youth, was strongly
de' Barbari, in his
influenced, bothby Giovanni Bellini, and still more by
Antonello da Messina, is shown by the very fact of cele-
brated art critics ascribing his works, as we have seen,
some to Bellini, and others to Antonello.
I have to mention one more painting of this early
Venetian period (1480 — 1490). It is the bust-portrait of a
young man in Venetian costume, on a black background
which is exhibited as No. 201, at the town gallery of
Bergamo, section Lochis. This picture has sufiered

' The good statue of Trevisani is almost certainly by Antonio Lom-

bardi, and I suppose that he also worked at the memorial of Onigo, with
his brother Tullio.
^ See •' Arehivio Veneto," tomo xr. — xvi., 1878.
148 DRESDEN.

damage/ and is nothing like so well preserved as the por-

trait in the Belvedere Gallery at Vienna. In the shape of
the mouth and eyes, as well as the light and shade in the
curls, I felt sure I recognised our Jacopo, while the cata-
logue of the Gallery very strangely assigns this interesting
portrait to the younger Holbein. Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle have, with better knowledge, delivered the
following verdict (ü., 98, note 3) :
" This panel has Bel-
linesque and Antonellesque character, is transparent, but
a little empty in tone."
"
'Novr, if my view of the authorship of the " Galatea
at Dresden, the portraits at Vienna and Bergamo, the
drawing for Zuan Andrea's engraving in the Ambrosiana
at Milan, and finally the wall-paintings at Treviso, be
which I am fully convinced, it follows that this
correct, of
Venetian has hitherto been less known than he deserved
to be; and I therefore invite any student to follow up
more closely the traces of this mobile and easily influenced,
but always ingenious artist. In Germany, and especially
in Belgium, one might surely discover some more of his
works that are still unknown or left unnoticed under false
names.
Jacopo de' Barbari must have been born at Venice about
1450. It is not known who was his first master. There
can be no doubt that he was afterwards greatly influenced
by Giovan Bellini (1470-1480), and especially by Antonello
da Messina (from 1480 to 1490). The portrait in the
Gallery of Bergamo must be of this latter period. His
first journey over the Alps I would place about the year

'
It is grounded with tempera colours, and glazed in oil after the
method of Antonello and Giovanni Bellini. The glazing in this portrait
is in many places rubbed off.
 THE VENETIANS. 149

1490. I am led to this hypothesis by the words of Albert

Dürer ^ " that he knew of no one that had shown how to
:

do the human figure in proportion, save a man named

Jacobus, a native of Venice, a good and delectable painter."
K'ow Dürer would hardly have added those words, "a
native of Venice," if his first meeting with Jacobus had
been at Venice itself in 1494. He continues, " he showed
me man and woman as he had done them after the rules
of proportion, so that in those days I would rather see
what his opinion was than a new kingdom," &c. " but," ;

he adds, " I was at that time still yoimg, and had never
heard of such things." At the date I am thinking of,
1490, Dürer was about nineteen. This hypothesis of mine
finds a further support in the time of apprenticeship of
the painter, Hans von Kulmbach, who is justly regarded
as a pupil of Jacopo de' Barbari, and who, in 1490, must
have been about thirteen or fourteen years old.^ But be
that asit may, it seems to me in any case a very credible

thing, that Barbari had been north of the Alps some time
before 1500. Some of his engravings, " Mars and Venus,"
for instance, have a decidedly Northern character, and
therefore may well be regarded as his first attempts in
the art of engraving. Most of his engravings, however,
belong to the last years of his life, which were spent on
this side of the Alps, partly at Nürnberg, partly at Brussels ;

and to learn the art of engraving may have been the chief
motive of his first journey to the north.
Whether Barbari had already adopted the caducous of
Mercury as a monogram hefore the publication of his great

' See Thausing's Dürer, 222, aud Von Zahn's Annuals, 1st year, p. 14.
^ Hans von Kulmbach kept so closely to his master's manner, that he
imitated even his peculiarities as to the half-open mouth, the shape of
the hand, &c.
150 DKESDEN.

wood engraving with the view of Venice, 1500, I unfor-

tnnately cannot say, as I have here no collection at my
command, with all, or even the greater part of his engrav-
ings. I therefore leave it to others to answer the question.
I am satisfied to have drawn the attention of my readers,
however hastily, to works of art which, in my
several
opinion, belong to Barbari, and are calculated to set this
interesting artist-figure in a new and clearer light. To
judge from his paintings and engravings, Barbari was of
a gentle, soft, pliable nature. In 1502, he seems to have
already settled down at Nürnberg and in the first few
;

years of the 16th century he came into close contact with

Dürer, and exercised an influence on that giant in art
which can be clearly traced in some of his paintings and
engravings of that period.^
At Brussels, in 1511, in consideration of his "old age
and infirmities," Jacopo de' Barbari was pensioned by the
Archduchess Margaret, Regent of the N'etherlands, and in
1515 he was already no more.-
The chronological order in which we have thus far
taken the Venetian paintings in these rooms would now lead
us to the pictures ascribed in the catalogue to Giorgione,
but I think it advisable to mention first those pictures
which Herr Hübner has assigned to another sou of the
Marca Trevisana, namely Vicenzo Catena. The " Madonna

^ See Thausiug, as above, pp. 222-235.

^ Unfortunately, an interesting article by Charles Ephrussi, in the
" Gazette des Beaux Arts" of the year 1876, was brought under my
notice too late to help me in my own studies. But I am glad to see that
this intelligent art-critic is also of the opinion that Jacopo visited Nürn-
berg before 1494 (p. 374), and that probably the Venetian may there
have learnt of Wohlgemuth the technique of engraving (pp. 376 and
378). I should, however, rather think of the school of Schongauer than
that of Wohlgemuth.
 THE VENETIANS. 151

and Child between the Saints Margaret and Catherine,

Antony and ^N'icolas of Bari" (No. 231) has in the cata-
logue the name of Catena, to which master, also, Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle think fit to assign the picture
(i,, 257) but it seems to me to belong to another Trevisan,
;

Feancesco Bissolo, who, like Catena, sprang out of the

school of Giovanni Bellini. On the other hand, what I
consider a genuiue work of Catena's is the "Holy Family "
(No. 58), which Mr. Hübner mentions as a picture executed
by Sassoferrato, after a drawing by Raphael (!). I am
glad that, in this case at least, my opinion agrees with that
of the celebrated historiographers (i., 256). The form of
the ear and of the hands is quite in accordance with those
in the picture at the Pesth Gallery signed with the name
of Catena ; the peculiar light, too, is the same here as in
the pictures in the National Gallery at London, and in the
Stadel Institute at Frankfurt. Here also we come upon
the same little dog as in the fine picture at the National
Gallery (No. 234).^
Giorgio Barbarella or Barbarelli, called Gioegionb, was,
like Bissolo and Catena, a native of the Marca Trevisana.
Hübner's catalogue ascribes to this very rare master not
less than five pictures, Nos. 240, 241, 242, 243, and one,
lately acquired, bearing the number 244. Let us examine
these pictures one by one.
No. 240 represents " Jacob saluting and embracing
Rachel." I do not know any picture by Palma Vecchio
where the master shows himself so amiable, so bright, and
in such poetic mood as in this charming idyl, for that it is

^ Eepresenting an enthroned " Madonna with the Child," before her

a kneeling knight ; this picture was formeTly ascribed to Giorgione,
now it is assigned to the " School of GioTanni Bellini."
152 DRESDEN.

his work is clearly shown by the sturdy and somewhat

heavy figure of Rachel, the rose-pink flesh colours peculiar
to his third or " blonde " period (1550-1525), and also the
very type of face in Rachel, which agrees with that of his
Venus in this gallery (No. 269). And the sitting shep-
herd, whose ear alone would betray the master, is also
drawn and painted in Palma's manner. On the other hand,
if we look at the beautiful, broadly-treated landscape, with
the herd of cattle, such a landscape as no Flemish painter
could have painted at that time, we cannot help seeing in
it a freer and later style than that of the Bergamese,
such as, for instance, that of his talented pupu, Bonifazio
Veronese. It seems to me, therefore, that Bonifazio may
have had some share in the execution of this charming
picture.^
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle remark, with their usual
acuteness, that many figures in this picture, especially the
Jacob and Rachel, resemble the shepherds in the upland
valleys of Bergamo, that their movements and gestures
point more to the school of Palma than to the manner of
Giorgione ; but, to my regret, they add, that they cannot
give this picture either to Giorgione or to Palma, and are
therefore obliged to ascribe it to Cariani, especially as the
initialson Rachel's bag, " G. B. F.," may very well be
interpreted as " Giovanni Busi fece" (vol. ii., 555).
To this I rejoin, in the first place, that Cariani never

^ On this picture see M. A. Gualandi (iii., 179-194). Matteo del

Teglia, pictiu'e agent at Venice for the Grand-duke of Tuscany, recom-
mends to his patron in an aviso the purchase of this painting. The
picture was at that time (1684) in a nunnery
and passed for
at Treviso,
a work of Giorgione. The significant initials, " G. B. F.," are not men-
tioned in Teglia's letter. It appears, therefore, that they were put in
later, after the picture had come into private hands.
 THE VENETIANS. 153

signed himself Busi, but always Joanes Carianus.^ Again,

Cariani is more clumsy in his forms, blacker in his shadows,
he conceives the landscape quite differently from Palma,
and seems, in all his woi'ks, much weaker than the author of
this highly poetical It is true, Cariani and Bonifazio
work.
were both pupils of Palma. But as the former can never
belie his somewhat unwieldy mountain nature, so the latter
displays in all his pictures the graceful, sprightly con-
ception and representation of the imaginative Veronese.
The second Giorgionesque painting in the Dresden
Gallery (ITo. 241) rej^resents the " Adoration of the Shep-
herds." In the Casa Pisani at Venice, to which it for-
merly belonged, it passed for a Palma Vecchio.; it is,
therefore, only at Dresden that it has been raised to a
Giorgione. In my opinion, it is an indisputable work of
BoKiFAZio JuifiOE. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle also,

^ So on the " Eesurrection of Christ," in the Casa Marazzi at Crema

of the year 1520 ; so on the
" Madonna and Child between Saints Jerome
and Francis," in possession of Signor Frizzoni-Salis of Bergamo so on
;

the fine portrait in the Lochis-Carrara collection, Bergamo ; so on the

" Madonna," at Signor Francesco Baglioni's, Bergamo, of the year 1521,
and so on. And if Cariani had signed his name in Italian, contrary to
the custom of that time, he would have written " Zuan de Busi," not
" Giovanni Busi." The initials, " G. B.," in the intention of the forger
who had them put on, certainly do not stand for " Giovanni Busi," who
was scarcely thought of at that time, but evidently for " Giorgio Bar-
barelli." Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle seem often to confound the
two pupils of Palma Vecchio, the Bergamese Cariani and the Veronese
Bonifazio. I see, in their chapter on Cariani, that they ascribe to him
(ii., 557) the two large pictures at the Belvedere in Vienna (ground floor,

Room I., Nos. 7 and 11), " Cupid's Triumphal Procession," and " Victory
of Virtue over Love," whereas, beyond a doubt, they belong to Bonifazio,
as Carlo Ridolfi (" Vite dei Pittori," i., 376) had alread}^ described them.
—
Another time they take Previtali for Cariani these, at all events,
—
were children of one soil as in the fresco lunette over the side door of
the Church Santa Maria Maggiore, at Bergamo.
154 DRESDEN.
"
in examining this picture, were " reminded of Bonifazio
(ii., 163).
The third picture mentioned in the catalogue as a work
of Giorgione represents a man embracing a girl (No. 242).
It is a trivial picture, recalling in its conception Michel-
angelo da Caravaggio. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
ascribe it to the Domenico Mancini, whom they so often
mention. I confess I do not know the master of this
picture, but I also think it likely that he was a native of
the Marca Trevisana.
The fourth picture with the name of Giorgione is a male
portrait, said to represent Pietro Aretino. To my eyes,
this portrait is neither a work of Giorgione, nor does it

represent Pietro Aretino, who, being born in 1492, was

only nineteen when Giorgione died, while the man repre-
sented here is manifestly of a maturer age. This portrait
is, moreover, so smudged and disfigured, that it is down-

right unworthy to be exhibited in a public gallery.

The fifth picture of Giorgione that this gallery prides
itself on possessing, is an allegorical representation, and,

as Herr Hübner fancies, out of Ariosto's " Orlando

Furioso." Let me remind Herr Hübner that the first
edition of " Orlando Furioso " appeared only in the year
1516, five years after Giorgione's death, Herr A. Baschet
has also mentioned this picture as a work of Giorgione,
and so have Messrs, Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ii,, 154), yet
they ascribe it to Girolamo Pennacchi. In my opinion it

is an old copy of a genuine picture of Giorgione's ; whether

the original still exists, I cannot say.
After a review of the works ascribed to Giorgione in
this gallery and at Munich, by the greatest authorities of
all times, my young friends may have convinced them-
selves, that this great artist, who divides with Giovanni
 —

THE VENETIANS. 155

and Titian the honour of being the grandest figure

Bellini
among the Venetian painters, has, for some centuries,
become a kind of myth that all his works turn out to be
;

somebody else's. "Whilst at Munich he is confounded with

Titian and Palma Vecchio, Herr Hübner's catalognie of
the Dresden Grallery ascribes to him works belonging either
to Palma himself or to one of his pupils always, therefore,
;

to direct or indirect imitators of Giorgione. Elsewhere,

paintings of Sebastian del Piombo, Lorenzo Lotto, orDosso
Dossi are assigned to him, not to speak of imitations by a
Domenico Caprioli or a Pietro Vecchia, whom they would
fain stuff into the shoes of the master of Castelfranco.
Amid this general confusion, are we to gain any
how
real insight or clearness about this most refined and ima-
ginative of all the Venetians ? That Giorgione was really
great in his art is proved both by the high opinion that
his contemporaries had of him, and still more by the deep
and far-reaching influence he exercised on the most talented
of his fellow-pupils and contemporaries. There is only
one way to get out of the labyrinth, namely, and first of
all, to examine well and make our own the authentic works

that have come down to us. The following are the few
well-accredited works of the master :

1. The great altar-piece in the Church of Castelfranco.

unfortunately, this wonderful painting was so dreadfully

daubed over, a few years ago, by the Venetian so-called
restorer, Fabris, that one can
no longer see the original
harmony of colouring, but only guess it. Naja, of Venice,
has taken a fairly good photo of this picture, which I
recommend my young students to get.
2, " The landscape (on canvas), with the storm, the
gipsy woman, and the soldier " (El paesetto in tela, con la
tempesta, con la zingana e soldato), seen by the Anonymus
 156 DKESDEN.
of Morelli in 1530 at the house of Master Gabriel Ven-
dramin (p. 80). This most delightful picture, briraming
with fane J, afterwards came to the Manfrin Gallery, whence
it was purchased, a few years ago, by Prince Giovanelli,
of Venice. Of this painting too, which is well preserved,
one may obtain a good photogragh at Naja's.
3. " La tela a olio delli tre filosofi nel paese, due ritti e

uno sentado che contempla i raggi solari " (Anonymus of

Morelli, p, 65) that is, the oil-painting on canvas, with
;

the three philosophers in an open landscape, two standing,

and one sitting and in the act of contemplating the sun-
beams.
This picture, says the Anonymus, was begun by Zorzi
(Giorgio) da Castelfranco, and finished by Sebastiane
Veneziano (Seb. del Piombo). In the year 1525 it was in
the house of Master Taddeo Contarini, at Venice it ; is

now to be seen, in very bad condition, at the Belvedere

Gallery of Vienna.
Of Giorgione's pictures seen by Vasari some thirty years
later at Venice, and specified by him, the wall-paintings
on the fronts of houses are long ago consumed by the salt
air, the others are probably hidden away insome Italian
Palazzo or some English country-seat ; I never had the
luck to get sight of one of them.
That very uncritical paiiiter, Carlo Ridolfi, who lived
in the middle of the 17th century, mentions foremost
among many other works of Barbarelli, now rejected by
the latest researches,^ the so-called " Concert " in the Pitti

As, for instance, " Cajus Plotius and Cajus Luscius " (Room 2,
^

No. 10, of the Belvedere) ; the two pictures by Dosso (" St. Sebastian,"
at the Brera Gallery, No. 354, and the "David" of the Borghese
Collection at Rome).
 THE VENETIANS. 157

Gallery ai; Florence (ITo. 185). The picture was at that

time still in the hands of the Florentine merchant, Paolo
del Sera, settled at Venice. Del Sera was a so-called
amateur, who, however, did not disdain to do a stroke of
business with his pictures when he could, and now and
then was pleased to part with works of art in his possession
to his patron, theGrand-duke of Tuscany .^ Such Venetian
pictures then came to Florence, with the names given
them by Del Sera, or it might be by Del Teglia, another
purveyor at Venice employed by the Grand-duke and ;

there they have kept their names down to this day. And
such was the case with the celebrated "Concerto di Musica"
of the Pitti Gallery. This painting has, unhappily, been
so bedaubed by a restorer, that, in its present state, one can
see but very little of the original. From the form of the
hands and the ear, and from the attitudes of the figures,
we may conclude for certain that it is not a work of
Giorgione ; it also belongs to a later period than 1500.
Were the mask that covers it removed, a youthful work
of Titian's might very likely step into view.
If, in the 17th century, it were mostly works of Titian's
youth, of Sebastiane del Piombo, Palma Vecchio, and Dosso
Dossi, that art-historians ascribed to Giorgione, the same
honour was done in the last century to the two elder Boni-
fazios. The " Adoration of the Shepherds " (No. 241),
which came from Venice to the Elbe under the name of
Palma Vecchio, was here elevated to a Giorgione at that
time ; the same name was given to the " Holy Family with
the little Tobias " in the Ambrosiana, to the magnificent
" Finding of Moses " (No. 363) at the Brera Gallery, and

^ See M. A. Gualandi's " Nuova raccolta di lettere sulla pittura,

scoltura ed architettura,"
iii., 167 seq.
158 DRESDEN.

to the representation of the same subject on a small scale at

the Pitti Gallery (No. 161) ; to say nothing of the so-called
Giorgiones out of the studio of the Bonifazios in private
collections.
It is many fables that have arisen out of
but one of the
municipal vanity, when Vasari records that Giorgio Bar-
barelli learned his new method of painting from the pic-
tures of Lionardo da Vinci. Where, in Venice, could
Giorgione have seen, in his time, paintings by Lionardo ?

Again, some writers assert that Giovanni Bellini, in his

picture of the year 1505, painted for the Church of St.

Zaccaria at Venice, modified his former manner of paint-

ing after the new system of Giorgione. This statement,
again, is directly contradicted by the great altar-piece done
by Giovanni Bellini for the Church of St. Giobbe, at Venice,
in the last decade of the 15th century.^ The pupil may
very likely have learned from his master, but not the con-
verse, and I think Dürer was quite right, when, in a letter
from Venice (1506) to his friend Pirckheimer, he declares
Giovanni Bellini to be still the greatest painter in Venice,
It was only in the last six years of his short life, from about
1505 to 1511, that Giorgione developed his full, his total
power. His few works that have come down to us (all
his wall-paintings have been consumed by the sea air)
show such an original and highly poetical mind, his simple,
unprejudiced, and fine artist-nature speaks out of them so
freshly, so winningly, that whoever has once understood
him can and will never forget him. No other artist
knows like him how to captivate our mind and chain our
imagination for hours with such small means and yet we ;

^ This magnificent but much injured picture is at the Pinacothec of

Venice (No. 38).
 ;

THE VENETIANS. 159

often do not know, in the least, what those figures of his

really stand for. Yasari already remarked that it was
difficult to give Giorgione's representations an explanatory
name.^ was a genuine, harmless, cheerful
Griorgione
nature, a lyric poet, in contrast with Titian, who was
wholly dramatic. The latter is, no doubt, a more powerful
and energetic mind, whilst Giorgione is, to my thinking,
an artist of much finer grain. In his landscape back-
grounds, in the charm of his outlines and colouring, few
have equalled and none surpassed Giorgione, excepting,
perhaps, Titian. His love was given to music, beautiful
women, and, above all, No one was so
to his noble art.
independent as he ; and powerful of this world
to the great
he remained indifferent, to none of them did he sacrifice,
as, for instance, Titian did, his freedom and, still less, his

dignity. So Vasari paints him to us, and I believe the

likeness is true to life.

Unfortunately, the works of Giorgione are extremely

rare. They are mostly so-called cabinet pictures ; it is

only exceptionally that he seems to have undertaken

church paintings. The Anonymus of Morelli counts no
more than about a dozen of his pictures in all, as existing
at Venice in his time, that is, between 1512 and 1540
a second dozen Vasari has incidentally described, and I
believe I could point out as many more. If my young-
friends cannot go after these pictures themselves, I advise
them at least to get the photographs, for a student ought
daily to look into the face of such a master as Giorgione, so
that he may gradually absorb into himself the forms and
the mind of this most exquisite of the Venetians. I shall
now enumerate chronologically the works which are acces-

'
See Vasari, " Life of Giorgione," edit. Le Monnier, vii., 84.
160 DRESDEN.

sible to everyone, and whicli, in my opinion, belong to

Giorgione.
1. The so-called " Fire Ordeal " and the "Judgment of

Solomon " are probably the oldest of his works that have
come down to ns. These two most interesting early works
of the master are to be found in the Uffizi Gallery at
Florence (Nos. 621 and 630) ; they are productions of the
15th century, and Giorgione may have painted them in his
sixteenth or eighteenth year. In them we already find the
features characteristic of him, namely, the long oval of the
female faces, the eyes brought rather too near the nose, the
fantastic way of dressing the figures, the hand with an out-
stretched forefinger, the poetical landscapes in the back-
ground, with high-stemmed trees, &c.
2. "Christ bearing the Cross " (bust), on panel. This
penetrative-looking head, which has unfortunately sufi'ered
much by restorations, stul, like the two former pictures,
reminds one strongly of his master, Giovanni Bellini. In
possession of Countess Loschi at Vicenza.
3. " The enthroned Madonna, with the Saints Francis

and Liber alis," at the Church of Castelfranco. Principal

picture.
4. The stormy landscape, with "the gipsy woman and
soldier," at Senator Prince Giovanelli's, Venice.
5. "Madonna, with the Infant Christ, seated on a throne,
to the right St. Antony, to the left St. Rochus ; " landscape

in the background. On canvas. This magnificent paint-

ing, still in good condition, is at Museum, and
the Madrid
ismentioned in the gallery catalogue (No. 418) as a work
of Pordenone, whilst Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
ascribe it to Francesco Yecelli (ii., 292). I confess that it
gave me no little joy, when visiting Madrid, to recognise
at once in this marvel of Venetian painting a creation of
 THE VENETIANS. 161

Giorgione. It has been photographed by Laurent as a

Pordenone, and I advise students to get the photo.
6. The much injured, but quite genuine " Knight of

St. John," in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence (N'o. 622),

recognised also by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle as a
work of Giorgione. To think of a painter like Pier della
Vecchia in presence of this finely conceived head is

nothing short of heresy.

7. " Daphne and Apollo," a small panel picture, in the
collection of the Seminario Vescovile at Venice. Much
disfigured by restorations in oil colour.^

8. The so-called " Three Stages of Life," in the Pitti

Gallery at Florence (N"o. 157), there ascribed to Lorenzo
Lotto. This beautifully conceived picture is, unfortu-
nately, much concealed by repainting ; the half-shaded
head of the boy with a piece o£ music in his hand is,
however,still so splendid and so thoroughly Giorgionesque

that without any further credentials I make bold to ascribe

the picture to Giorgione.
9. The so-called " Concert " in the Louvre Gallery at
Paris (!N"o. 39). This fine idyllic picture has been, un-
fortunately, much disfigured by repainting. Titian, in
one of his wall-paintings at the " Scuola del Santo " at
Padua, has reproduced the beautiful head of the youth
with long hair (the zazzera as the Italian calls it), whom
we see in this picture seated on the ground.
10. The Bsterhazy Gallery at Pesth, rich in exquisite
pictures of the Italian schools, has also a work by
Giorgione, but, I believe, only as a fragment (No. 143).
Two young men, carelessly attired in Venetian dress of

'Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ii., 165) ascribe this picture to

Andrea Schiavone.
162 DRESDEN.

the 15th. century, and barefooted, stand on a hill ;

behind them, a little higher up, is a country-house. It is

dawn, and far oS we spy the sea with the first rays of the
sun shining on it. One of these fine-looking men leans
his left arm on the other's shoulder, and points signifi-

cantly at something that is apparently going on not far

from them. If I mistake not, this picture is probably a
fragment work by Giorgione mentioned by the
of a
Anonymus of Morelli (p. 65) " 1525, in casa de M. :
—
Taddeo Contarino La tela del paese con el nascimento de
:

Paris, con li did pastori ritti in fiecle, fu de mano de Zorzo

de Castelfranco, e fu delle sue prime opere."
In that case, we have here before us only the two shep-
herds of Mount Ida under whose care young Paris grew
up. The other half of the picture, in which his birth was
represented, is, unfortunately, missing. The landscape in
this picture vividly recalls that which we admire in the
"Venus " of the Dresden Gallery (No. 236).
The Gallery of Pesth has also another picture bearing the
name of Giorgione. It is the portrait of a Young Man
(No. 156), very finely and nobly conceived. His black
velvet coat, open at the breast, shows a piece of the white
shirt ; the long brown hair is parted and gathered in a
net ; his right arm leans on a cornice, his left hand lies on
the breast. It is with reluctance that we part from this
melancholy figure ; his significant face holds the spectator
spell-bound, as if he were about to confide to him the
secret of his life. This portrait is much damaged, and very
little of the master is to be recognised in the workmanship.
I prefer, therefore, not to include this painting in the list of
Giorgione pictures which I consider undoubtedly genuine.^

^ I take this opportunity to express my surprise that among so many

clever men in Germany who have given themselves to the study of
 ;

THE VENETIANS. 163

11. Among Giorgio Barbarelli's last paiatings was that

of the aforesaid " Three Philosophers " in the Belvedere
GallerJ, Vienna, which the Anonymus saw at the house of
Taddeo Contarini in 1525/
The Anonymus also put down in his note- book another
picture by Giorgione, which was at that time in the house
of Jeronimo Marcello at San Tommado "la tela della :

Venere nuda, che dorme in un paese con Cupidine, fu de

mano de Zorzo da Castelfranco ma lo paese e Cupidine ;

farono finiti da Tiaiano " (the canvas with a naked Venus

sleeping in an open landscape, is from the hand of Giorgio
of Castelfranco ; the landscape and the Cupid were
finished by Titian. —Anon, of Morelli, p. 66). We shall
come back directly to this remarkable and quite forgotten
picture. I wish first to observe that the same Anonymus
in the year 1530 saw yet another picture by Giorgione
at the house of Gabriel Vendramin " El Cristo morto :

sopra el sepolcro, con I'anzolo che el sostenta, fu de man

Italian art, there should not be one who has taken up this fine collec-
tion, and placed its two excellent
merits in a true light. It contains
pictures by Correggio two by Raphael, one unfinished, the other a
;

male portrait, abominably injured ; of the Lombards a beautiful pic- :

ture by Boltraffio, another by Cesare da Sesto, two exquisite Madonnas

by Luini, one by Ambrogio Borgognone, one by Giampietrino ; of the
Venetians the portrait of Catarina Cornaro by Gen tue Bellini, a good
:

picture by Carlo Crivelli, one (perhaps two) by Giorgione, one by

Vincenzo Catena, one by Marco Basaiti ; by the Northern artists a :

portrait by A. Dürer, a picture by Lucas van Leiden, and many others

then some excellent works of the Dutch, Flemish, and Spanish schools.
Among the drawings three by Lionardo da Vinci, several by
:

Raphael, Era Bartolommeo, Michelangelo and Dürer, one by Lucas van

Leiden, several by Holbein, &c.
^ It afterwards came into the hands of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm,

Governor of the Netherlands, and we find it reproduced on a small

scale in the picture by D. Teniers at the Belvedere (Room VIII.,
No. 34).
 a

164 DRESDEN.

de Zorzi da Castelfranco, reconzato de Tiziano " (the Dead

Christ on the tomb, with the angel supporting Him, is

from the hand of Giorgio of Castelfranco, restored by

Titian). "We learn from this, that Giorgione had also
painted a so-called Pieta ; whether this picture is still

preserved, and where it is to be found, I am not able to

say. But it is certain that the Anonymus could not have
meant the "celebrated Dead Christ" at the' Monte di
Pieta of Treviso, as some have maintained, for in this last
picture the Christ is supported, not by one, but by three or
four angels. With the exception of Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle, almost all the modern critics insist on calling
this Treviso painting an admirable work of Giorgione —
further proof that the great painter of Castelfranco is

still anything but rightly understood, even by the greatest

authorities. So far I agree with Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle, that this " Pieta " of Treviso is not by
Giorgione. So stupid and clumsy in its forms, iso heavy
and dull in colouring, it can" only belong to an imitator of
the master, perhaps to the Trevisan Domenico Caprioli, or
some contemporary of kindred spirit, but in no case to our
noble and refined Giorgione.
After this long digression we come back to the picture
described hastily but accurately by the Anonymus, as he
saw it in the year 1525 at the house of Jeronimo Marcello
at Venice : a " Sleeping Yenus with Cupid in an open
landscape." This wonderful painting is generally thought
to be lost ; whether correctly, is another question. I
believe that I can point it out, and this time I need not
take my readers far. The glorious picture, hitherto
veiled from the eyes of art critics, is to be found at the
Dresden Gallery (JN'o. 262). To my own satisfaction I
can testify that I recognised the hand and genius of
 !

THE VENETIANS. 165

Giorgione in this enchanting picture before I knew of its

having been mentioned as such in the list of Morelli's
Anonymus.
How such a work, the quintessence of Venetian art,

could have been left unnoticed so long, would be a down-

right enigma to me, if long experience had not taught me,
that in matters of art the most incredible things are pos-
sible. When I consider that the so-called " Madonna di
Oaitone," the supposed work of Moretto, which hangs in
the adjoining room, has been admired as an original, and
extolled to the skies by highly esteemed and able art-
writers like Quandt and Rio, and that, on the contrary,
the eyes of but very few connoisseurs have been attracted
by the wondrous light that shines from this noblest of all
Yenuses in the world, even through the veil with which the
restorer has covered it ; when I consider this, a sore feel-
ing comes over me, a deep discouragement, and I cannot
help saying to myself. What avails our vaunted culture ?
What is the good of hundreds of books on aesthetics and
art, of public lectures, of our yearly Art exhibitions, if, in
default of express directions, we can pass unmoved by one
of the most glorious and perfect creations that art of all
times has ever brought forth ? Poor, great Giorgione
how little art thou understood by this modern world nay, !

how little wert thou understood by thy own countrymen

soon after thy death ! Was not thy radiant countenance
looked for and found in pictures that hold up thy merest
caricature ? WTioever is unable to appreciate this Venus
of Giorgione, this female form of dream-like beauty, let
him not tell me that Raphael, Lionardo, Correggio, and
Titian enchant him. Did ever Raphael, or any artist
even among the Greeks, show a than
finer sense of outline
Giorgione in this Venus figure ? How clumsy and boorish
166 DRESDEN,

seems in comparison the naked woman of Palma Vecchio

on the same wall ! how earthly and devoid of inner grace
is Titian's celebrated Venus with Cupid in the Tribune of
the Uffizi Gallery !
^ And then that paradise of a land-
scape ! If this painting could with intelligence and great
care be freed from the dirt and the restorer's mask of
colouring, I beliere this Venus of Giorgione would rank
among the most precious gems, not only of the Dresden,
but of all galleries in the world. If this Venus, which
became the prototype of that kind of love-picture to the
Venetian school, be placed by the side of Titian's cele-
brated Venuses, or beside his Danae figures, one will easily
imagine how Giorgione towers above all his imitators in

fineness of feeling, in nobility of conception. Titian's

Danae is so realistic, nay, to be candid, so vulgarly ima-
gined, that the old woman at her side makes us involun-
tarily think of a common procuress. Beside the Venus of
Botticelli in the corridors of the Uffizi Gallery, beside
Correggio's Danae in the Borghese Palace at Rome, this
sleeping Venus of Giorgione is —
yes, realistic too, but in
the finest, noblest sense of the word. The fact is,
Giorgione was a healthier, happier, and more powerful
nature than Correggio ; besides, the latter aimed at some-
thing quite different in his Danae from what the Venetian
did in his sleeping Venus. Sensuous pleasure has never
been set before us so spiritualized as in Correggio's Danae,
and in his Leda of the Berlin. Gallery. How coarse-
grained are all the Venuses and Danaes of a Titian by the
side of them Yet I readuy 'admit, that in technical
!

^ This in so many respects excellent painting by Titian was almost

entirely ruined by a new restoration about two years ago, and is no
longer enjoyable in its present state.
 THE VENETIANS. 167

mastership, in ntmost skill of the brush, in artistic distri-

bntion of light and shade, no painter in Italy ever came
lip to old Titian.

Carlo Kidolfi published his "Meraviglie dell' arte" in

the year 1646. He had no knowledge
in all probability
of the manuscript of the Anonymus, but he likewise men-
tions the " Sleeping Venus " as a work of Griorgione, and
also as being still in the house of Marcello :
" Una deli-
ziosa Venere ignuda dormiente e in casa Marcella, ed a
piedi e Cupido con augellino in mano che fü terminato da
Tiziano;" that is, a delicious undraped sleeping Venus
is in the house Marcello, and has at her feet a Cupid with

a little bird in his hand, who (Cupid) was completed by

Titian (vol. i., p. 130). Such, then, was still the tradition
in the house Marcello. Well, this picture, as Herr Hübner
tells us in his catalogue, came to Dresden under the name

of Titian,^ and " at the feet of Venus sat a Cupid, who

^ It appears that about the beginning of the 18th century the pro-
prietor of this painting at Venice changed its name by giving it to
Titian — an artist-name which was then far better known and valued
than that of the long-forgotten Giorgione. Tlie principal reason of this
rebaptism may be sought in the circumstance that the celebrated Venus
of Titian (No. 1117 in the Tribune of the UiEzi), having come to Flo-
rence with the Duchess Vittoria della Eovere of Urbino, and being thus
open to the admiration of connoisseurs, was generally found almost
identical with ourVenus by Giorgione. And in truth this nude female
figure reposing on a couch, by Titian, is nothing but a copy of our
Dresden Venus, only modified in the upper part of the body. The
features of this so-called Venus at Florence are, it is well known,
identical with those of young Eleonora Gonzago (wife of the Duke
Francesco Maria della Rovere), whose portrait by Titian, as Bella di
Tiziano, we No. 1 8 ; in the portrait painted
see at the Pitti Palace,
from life more marked than in the Venus-picture.
her individuality is

Is it not very probable that the Duke, who doubtless knew the cele-
brated Venus in the house Marcello, commissioned his friend Titian to
copy it for him, and to put the countenance of his adored Eleonora in
168 DRESDEN.

was so much injured, that what remained of him was

entirely removed ; restored by Schirmer." After resto-
was christened " a probable copy " (! !)
ration,^ the picture
and, what is more, by Sassoferrato (!) And as such it is
regarded, to my great surprise, even by Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle (" Vita di Tiziano," vol. i.), who take credit to
themselves for having discovered the original of this
Dresden Venus in a picture at the Darmstadt Grallery
(No. 520), there ascribed to Titian. To my eyes, this
Darmstadt Venus is nothing but a free, and more than

copy of Giorgione's Venus at Dresden, and that by

free,

some feeble German artist of the 18th century.^ Let true

lovers of Italian art decide between these two antagonistic
judgments ! My words are not at all addressed to those
who take pleasure in the cojnes after Holbein (No. 1885),
Correggio (No. 170), Lionardo da Vinci (No. 39), Titian
(No. 251), and Moretto (No. 279), and who are wont to
gaze at and admire them as originals ; may they quietly
continue to solace themselves with sham art, provided
they leave me undisturbed to my admiration of this Venus
of Giorgione.

the place of the sleeping Venus-head of Giorgione ? In this simple way

the riddle would be solved.
^ The three trees in the middle-ground are very clumsily repainted.

The bright streak of light on the houses is quite Giorgionesque, just as

we see it in that picture of " The Storm with the Gipsy Woman and the
Soldier" at Prince Giovanelli's. The wonderfully beautiful body of
the Venus is covered with a dirty yellowish crust. The red-brown cloth
with the gold border, against which stands out the finely modelled arm
of Venus, is thoroughly Giorgionesque ; so are the pinched pleats of the
white cloth, and the shape of the thumb, so very different in Giorgione
from what it is in Titian. And then that glorious oval of the face ! It
is same that we see in the Madonna of Castelfranco and
the in the
Madonna at the Madrid Museum.
* Another copy of equal merit is at Dudley House, London.
 THE VENETIANS. 169

In the adjoining room hangs the celebrated Madonna of

Moretto da Brescia, No. 279, so highly praised by Rio and
Passavant.^ "The Holy Virgin," says Herr Hübner, "as
she appeared to a shepherd boy, Filippo Viotti, of Monte
Caitone, in the province of Brescia, to turn away the pesti-
lence in 1523. A modified replica of the altar-piece at
Paitone." In the dark background at the top left-hand
corner we read :
" Imago Beatse Mariaß Virg. qu» mens.
August. 1533" (not 1523) "Caitoni (sic), agri Brixani Pago,
apparuit Miraculor. operatione concursi pop. celeberrim."
" O'est la Madone miraculeuse qu'il peignit (i.e. Moretto)
en 1533 pour satisfaire la devotion de ses compatriotes et
la sienne, etc.," says the amiable Neo-catholic art-critic, A.
P. Rio, in his book, " Leonard de Vinci et son ecole,"
little

(p. 312), and continues " Pour comble de bonheur, c'etait

:

sur une banniere que devait etre peinte I'image veneree,

avec le double caractere de Reine des anges et de mere de
misericorde. C'etait un probleme analogue ä celui que
Raphael avait ä resoudre en peignant la Madone de S.
Sixte (!) ; et les ämes pieuses, qui ont aussi leur compe-
tence (?), bien differente de celle des connoisseurs " (so it
seems), " peuvent comparer, au point de vue de l'inspiration,
ces deux chefs-d'oeuvre que le hasard a reunis dans la
meme ville. La vierge de Moretto est ä Dresde, et fait
M. Quandt, excellent appreciateur
partie de la collection de
des tresors d'art qu'il possede."From the collection of
the late Herr von Quandt this "chef-d'oeuvre" came to
the Dresden Gallery. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle also
speak of this Madonna of Caitone as a work of Moretto's
in their list of the works of Alessandro Bonvicino, and at
the same time quote the inscription (vol. ii., 416-7).

^ Passavant's " Raphael Sanzio," French transl., vol. ii., p. 316.

170 DEESDEN.

In presence of such a marvellous consensus of famous

critics on the merits of this supposed painting by Moretto,
I must have parted with my senses,
either believe that I
or else that Mons. Rio's "Vierge Miraculeuse," " celeber-
rima operatione miraculorum," as the inscription says, is
still in the habit of working wonders. But, joking apart,
I admit that a clever copy may often deceive the ablest
connoisseurs and experts but I should not have thought
;

it possible that so stupid, insipid, and heavy a copy as the

picture before us could impose upon men whose whole life
has been devoted to the study of ancient art, and who

have passed their opinion on hundreds and hundreds

of works by old masters. Poor, unfortunate Moretto,
what conception can the public that visits the Dresden
Gallery have formed of thy art from this Madonna of
Caitone "While thy paintings have the power to chain
!

every heart by the exquisite harmony of their brilliant

colours, by nobleness of form, and elegance of move-
ment, here at Dresden, the rendezvous of all the connois-
seurs in the world, thou art condemned to stand in the
pillory, under the clumsy signboard of a silly, bloodless,
boneless, hysterical-looking Nun !
' Jfo, in the name of

^ Before this wretched copy, dating from the last century, it is hardly
necessary to draw the connoisseur's attention to the flabby boneless
hands, to the dull, stupid expression of the Madonna, to the staring red
brick coloiu* of the ground, &c. In the original painting this female
figure, though by no means one of Moretto's most successful ones, yet
makes a deeply poetical impression by the fine silvery tone of its long
white garment. But where are we to look for that silver sheen in the
garment of this " Madonna of Caitone" ? Probably at Paitone, on that
bare hill with its little church, some quarter of an hour's walk from the
village below. There, in the original picture, there was some meaning
in representing Mary on earth in the habit of a nun, for there she is
talking to the boy before her, who has come to pick blackberries on the
hill, and is telling him to go down to the village, and exhort the people
 —

THE VENETIANS. 171

tliis noble Brescian, and with all the warmth of a wounded

heart, I protest against this unworthy plagiarism. I have

nothing to say against this insipid female figure repre-
senting the Madonna of " Caitone," but I begHerr Hüb-
ner to take my advice, and not confound her any more
with Moretto's Madonna of Paitone.
Alessandro Bonvicino, called Moretto, has not fared so
well at the Dresden Gallery as his great contemporary
Titian. Hiibner's catalogue ascribes to him no less than
nine authentic works. Let us inspect them at once.
The earliest work among these is, no doubt, the cele-

brated " Tribute-penny " (No. 248), signed " Ticianus."

(N'early all the early works of the master — till about 1522
1524 —are signed Ticianus, not Titianus.) Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle place this painting in the year 1508
("Vita di Tiziano," &c.), Vasari in 1514.^ I do not know
any other picture of Titian's that is executed with so
much care and love as this noble and profoundly conceived
head of Christ.^ It is painted on the Van Eyck method,

to build a little church to the Madonna on that hill, if they wished to

deliver the parish from the plague. But here in the copy what can this
dreamy-looking woman have to say ? No rational being would have the
least inkling of this scrofulous nun being the Mother of God. At the
par'ish church of Auro, a little village in the Val Sabbia, in the Brescia
mountains, I have seen an older copy of the real Madonna of Paitone,
and I need hardly say that there the peasant-boy with his little basket of
blackberries is not left out.
^ Others maintain that the " Tribute-penny " must have been painted
between the years 1516 and 1522, as Titian did not come to Ferrara till
1516, This would make the " Tribute-penny" take birth several years
after the " Assunta," which I can hardly bring myself to believe, the
type of the Christ in this picture being the same as in Titian's " Christ
bearing the Cross " at the Church of S. Kocco (certainly a very early
work of the master).
^ Prof. Thausing in his work on Dürer, p. 355 (English translation),
maintains that the Venetian in this his most impressive picture was in-
172 DRESDEN.

as may still be seen at one spot on the neck of the Christ,

where the glazing has come oflf. It is asserted that the
"Tribute-penny" was painted for Duke Alphonso of
Ferrara, a matter which I am content to leave alone. This
much seems certain, that the picture was only bought by
Alphonso IV. or Francis I. of Este, and in that way came
first into the Gallery of Modena, and thence to Dresden

among the "hundred pictures."

Another splendid painting from the early time of the
master is the panel No. 249, representing the Virgin and
Child surrounded by the Saints, John the Baptist, Jerome,
Paul, and Magdalen. In spite of much restoration a marvel
of glowing colour still I would place this youthful and
!

brilliant picture of Titian's in the same period when he

painted his celebrated "Assunta" for the Church of Santa
Maria Gloriosa de' Frari (now in the Academy of Venice),
that is to say, between 1514 1520.^ —
spired by the German artist Dürer, and that the " Tribute-penny " is
therefore " of German origin." I confess that this remark of my excellent
friend looks to me little better than a patriotic illusion. Nor would the
great IXirer suffer any detriment by letting the Cadorian have the full
" Christ." I do not mean to deny that in Art also there are
credit of this
and moral " analogies," as the Germans call them, and that
intellectual
these have their importance I only think that these " analogies " have
;

been pushed too far of late, and made a regular system of.
^ If I rightly understand Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, they do

not think this picture to be by Titian, but ascribe it to Andrea Schia-

vone in their " Vita di Tiziano," iL, 477-8. By aesthetic

'^^l^^^'"^^ and technical proofs you can decide nothing as to the

^W \ authorship of a work of art. " As the fool thinks, so
Ö ^K^ the bell clinks." Therefore, to support my own theory,
^V I will draw the attention of my young friends to a
purely material sign, but one very characteristic of
I
—^^^^^ Titian. A
peculiarity which I have observed in more
than fifty authentic works of his is, that the base of the thumb in his
men's hands is abnormally developed, somewhat as I reproduce it here.
 THE VENETIANS. 173

The third picture by Titian (No. 250) mentioned in the

catalogue represents the Holy Family, with the family of
the Donor, a father, mother, and son, adoring the Infant
Christ. Much restored, but genuine ; and of the mature
period of the master. Then follows in the catalogue the
Venus reposing on a couch, crowned by Cupid, and
admired by a young man playing the lute (No. 251).
Guarienti had already set it down as a copy, and so do
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle. The original painting
in the Museum of Madrid is a Venetian Mieris, Metzu,
or Terborch, of the 16th century. So the ideal of Art
in Europe kept coming down, from the Venus of Giorgione
and Botticelli, to similar Titianic Venuses, from these
again to those of Mieris and Metzu, till finally it reached
the ideal of an Adriaen van der Werff. It was thought for
some time that this Venus was the portrait of a princess
of Bboli ; and the man with the lute Philip II. The young
man is probably nothing but a Venetian nobile beside his
beloved " cortigiana."

The hand of the Baptist has it in this picture; in the " Assunta" the
hand of the Apostle with the red garment, in the " Tribute-penny "
the hand of the Pharisee, &c., &c. Just such a defect as a pupil or
copyist would take care to avoid. It is true the painting has suffered
serious injury; the Baptist is repainted altogether, the right arm of
the Infant Christ is much damaged, and the colouring round Mary's
mouth partly rubbed off, so that one can see the grey tempera-ground
underneath. The St. Paul, too, is daubed over. Happily, however,
the charming figure of St. Magdalen is still tolerably preserved, as
though her captivating beauty had shielded her from the barbarian's
rage of restoration. Her left hand says more than anything else, to
one who knows Titian: I am the legitimate daughter of the Cadorian.
But the sky is spoilt. The red colours used by the master in this
painting are about the same as those we find in the " Assunta " at
Venice. Despite the ravages wrought upon it, this beautiful painting
still wields even through its mask an indescribable charm over every

susceptible mind.
 .

174 DEESDEN.

The portrait of a young lady in a reddish dress

(No. 252), holding a vase in her hands, has been so cleaned
and washed away, and disfigured, that in its present state
it looks like nothing on earth. Better preserved and
finely conceived is the portrait of a noble lady in mourning
(N'o. 253).

The male portrait (N'o. 254) belongs to Titian's latest

years. On man we see a box
a window-ledge behind the
of colours. Of the year 1561 so that Titian was about
;

eighty -four when he painted this portrait. Let us now

turn to the interesting likeness of a young lady dressed in
white, with fair hair, holding a fan in her hand (No. 255)
We see the very same face in the Eelvedere Gallery at
Vienna, translated into Flemish by the master hand of
Rubens. Besides this copy by Rubens, we meet the same
personage again in another celebrated painting of Titian's
at the Belvedere. This is the maiden of about fourteen,
dressed in white, and leading a boy by the hand, in
Titian's " Ecce Homo," or " Christ shown to the people
by Pilate," exhibited in the second room. This latter
picture was executed in 1543 for Titian's patron, the rich
Flemish merchant, D'Anna (Yan Haanen), who lived at
Venice. Now in our Dresden picture the same young
lady, only some eleven or twelve years older, has a little flag

in her hand, a sort of fan carried only by newly-married

brides.^ Lavinia — for the portrait is that of Titian's
daugrhter —was married to Cornelio Sarcinelli, of Serra-

^ Some writers have called this young woman Titian's mistress,

without stopping to consider that in 1555, when the master painted this
portrait, he was seventy-eight, an age not the most suitable for wianing
the heart of a beautiful young woman. The Marchese Campori of
Modena is made a present of this portrait to his
of opinion that Titian
patron, Alphonso II. of Ferrara.
 THE VENETIAN'S. 175

valle, in the year 1555.^ was therefore in or about

It
that year, and not, as Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
suppose, in 1546, that this beautiful painting was executed.

^ jNIessrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in their celebrated work, " Titian,

his Life and Times" 1878 (ii. 208, Italian edition), hare inserted the Mar-
,

riage Contract, the original of which, they say, is still in the possession
of ^the heh's of Doctor Pietro Carnieluti at Serravalle. Considering
that this document, as they give may
appear totally unintelligible to
it,

many readers, I think it advisable to quote the Contract from the

manuscript in the Trivulzio Library at Milan, which seems to be the
original.
" 1555, A di 20 marzo in Serravalle.
" Al nome sia di lo Eterno Iddio
de la Gloriosa Vergine Maria et
et
di tutta la Corte celestial et in buona Ventura.
"El se dichiara come in questo giorno si ha trattato {not si fa fi-atello,
which has no meaning) et concluso matrimonio fra il spscripto Cornelio,
fiolo del qdam {not ge) Messer Marco Sarcinello, cittadino cinitense {of
Ceneda), habitante in Serravalle, da una parte et la discreta Madonna
{not discritta Madama) Lavinia, fiola del spscripto M. Titiano Vicellio
pittore de Cadore, habitante in Venetia, dalF alti'a, si come comanda
Iddio et la S. Madre Giesia (Chiesa).
" Per paroUe di presente fatte {not et ptti) et conto di dotte il
spettabile Messer Titiano sopraditto li promette et si obbliga a dare al
prefato M. Cornelio due. (ducati) 1,400 a lire 6 e soldi 4 per ducato {not
due 7 mille e quattrocento al 604 et due 7, which would also have no
sense) in questa forma, videlicet al dare deUa man {that is, all' atto deUo
impalmare) ducati 600 {not 23 al dar della man due 7 seicento al 604 p.
due 7) a Lire 6 e soldi 4 per due. (ducato), et il restante, detratto il
valore et lo ammontar de li beni mobili p. uso de la ditta sposa, li promette
a dar in tanti contanti per tutto I'anno 1556, quali sia no in tutto per lo
ammontar et summa de li predetti ducati 1,400 ut suj)ra. {Here also
Messrs, Crowe and Cavalcaselle read dice instead of due, that is, ducati,
making the dowry come to 2,400 ducati, or 1,000 ducati more than the
Trivulzio MS. does). La qual dotte il pfatto M. Cornelio con Madonna
Calliopia sua madre simul et in solidum togliono et accettano sopra tutti
li beni pti et futi (presenti e futuri) li quali obbligano in ogni caso et
evento di restituir et assicurar la ditta dotte.
" Et cosi il pfato M. Titiano, a manutention de la sopraditta dotte
promette et obbliga tutti li suoi beni pti et futi usque ad integram satis-
fationem {sic) et cosi I'una et I'altra parte di sua mano si sottoscrivono
 —
;

176 DRESDEN.

We see the same Lavinia again painted by her father,

but now from fifteen to eighteen years older, in the por-

trait (No. 257) of this same gallery.

Here, Titian must have painted the Dame Sarcinelli
who seems about forty, and has lost her good looks —some-
—
where about 1470 72, when he was ninety-four years old.
The feather fan was only borne by the nobility at Venice,
and, in fact, Lavinia had the right to regard herself as
noble, being the daughter of an artist whom the Emperor
—
Charles V. had shall I say elevated or lowered ? into a —
count. Not that I wish to undervalue the dignity of a count
on the contrary, I honour and value counts and barons, if

(not sottoscriveranuo) p. caution delle soprascripte cosse cosi promettendo

mantenir et osservar ut supra continetur.
esse parti p. se et suoi eredi
" Et Jo Juanne Alessandrino de Cadore pregado dalle parti testo.
" Jo Titian Vecellio sono {not saro) contento e affermo et approbo
quanto se contiene nell' oltrascripto contratto.
" Jo Cornelio Sarcinello son contento et affermo et approbo quanto se
contien nell' oltrascripto contratto.
" 1555 a di 19 Zugno in Venetia,
" Jo Cornelio Sarcinello soprascritto dal Sor Titian soprascrito, mio
socero, schudi 500 et 55 d'oro, a L. 6 et 4 soldi I'uno {not a L. 604 I'uno),
e questi ho riceputo per parte et a bonconto de dote promessami ut
supra.
" 1556 a di 13 Settembris in Venetia.
" R. Jo Cornelio Sarcinello soprascritto dal Sor Titiano soprascritto,
mio suocero, due. 322, et questo per robe stimade fra nui da M.
Francesco Sartor et d'accordo da una parte et I'altra.
" Item per cadene, ori et fatura scudi No. 88 come appare per la
polizza de Balini zojelier.
" a di 23 Lujo 1557.
" Noto faccio io mi chiamo satisfato de
Cornelio Sarcinello qualmente
tuta la summa de la dotta promessa a mi Cornelio per il Sor Titiano
Vecellio, mio suocer, parte per danari et parte per perle et altre robe
haute et zoje et cosi come appar p. li nostri conti, et in fede di cio io ho
scrito di mia man propria." {This last receipt is not quoted hy Messrs,
Crowe and Cavalcaselle.)
 ;

THE VENETIANS. 177

only because we are sure to find more decent cultivated

people among them than in the crowd of our plutocrats
or even democrats. I only mean to say, that to so great
an must have been rather a humiliation
artist as Titian, it
to be measured by the same rule with which His Imperial
Majesty was in the habit of gauging the herd of title-
hunters. In the political and official world, of course, a
prince is worth more than a count, a count than a baron
but in the world of art Count Vecellio is but a rag to
Painter Titian.
Germany then can boast of possessing four likenesses of
Titian's beloved daughter painted by himself : first, as a
girl of fifteen, in that celebrated " Ecce Homo," at the Belve-
dere ; the two above-mentioned in the Dresden Gallery ;

and, lastly, the idealized one at the Berlin Gallery, which

it seems the master painted for his friend, Argentina
Pallavicino of Reggio, in 1549 (Gaye, ii., 375).
I have yet to mention the portrait of a Venetian Lady
(Wo. 231). This young lady holds in her right hand a fur
with a martin's head. Herr Hübner has strong doubts
about the genuineness of this Titian. It has, indeed, suf-
fered much, the glazing being nearly all gone but ; I do
believe it to have been originally a work of Titian's.
Of Titian's imitators, Polidoro Veneziano, is well repre-
sented at Dresden, better indeed than in any other gallery.
The two pictures assigned to him in the catalogue (JSTos.
290 and 291) are not only genuine, but very characteristic
of Polidoro, whose works are generally ascribed to other
masters. The first represents a Venetian nobleman con-
secrating his child to the Madonna by handing it over to
St. Joseph ; on the right stands Magdalen, to whom the
child is offering a wreath ; a guardian angel in the back-
ground.
178 DKESDEN.

The second picture is the "Betrothal of St. Catherine of

Siena to the Infant Christ in the presence of St. Andrew."
Amongst imitators of Titian is to be classed the third
Bonifazio, or Bonifazio Veneziano, who in his latter years,
i.e. after 1570, forsook the manner of his kinsmen and
teachers, Bonifazio I. and II., and apparently took Titian

for his model. The picture (No. 287), Mary in the

presence of St. Antony and St. Joseph, with the Infant
Christ turning towards St. Catherine, appears to me to be
a work in the latest manner of this Bonifazio Veneziano.
Weak, and spoilt by cleaning.
By the celebrated Bergamese portrait-painter Giovan
Battista Mokoni (not Morone, as Herr Hübner calls him),
we find (No. 292) the portrait of a young man with his
right hand resting on his hip, of the year 1557, the best
period of the master. This portrait, though cleverly
painted, is commonplace in conception, and does not show
us Moroni at his best.
Another Bergamese, Andrea Previtali, is better repre-
sented in this gallery. His picture. No. 239, is among the
later acquisitions, and represents the Virgin and Child
with the little St. John. It is signed A(ndr)eas (Bergo)-
mensis, 1510; therefore painted before the master left
Venice, which he must have done towards the end of that
year, to return to his native place Bergamo. All his works
from 1511 1 to 1525 are signed Andreas Previtalus, a proof

^ I think Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (i., 279) are wrong in

making Bergamo till 1515. Some years ago, in

Previtali not settle at
the house Terzi at Bergamo, I saw a Madonna signed " Andreas Pre-
vitalus, 1511," a proof that in that year he was at Bergamo; had he
painted it at Venice, he would have signed it " Andreas Bergomensis."
In the Church " del Conventino," near Bergamo, we read under the St.
Constantine " Andreas Privitalus, 1512." The "Cristo trasfigurato,"
:

a picture that came to the Brera Gallery from the Church delle Grazie
 ;

THE VENETIANS. 179

that during these fourteen years he resided in his native-

place. Count Tassi ("Vite dei Pittori, Scultori, etc., Berga-
maschi") asserts that Previtali died about 1528, but without
giving any proof of the assertion. The last signed work of
this master has the date 1525, and adorns the fifth altar to
the right in the Church of S. Spirito at Bergamo. It is a
polyptych in two parts ; in the first or lower part we see
Mary in the centre with the naked Infant Christ, on the

at Bergamo, is signed: "Andreas Preritalus, 1513." It never was in

the Church of San Benedetto, as Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle state
even in the time of the Anonymus of Morelli (p. 52) it was abeady at
the " Chiesa delle Gi'azie." Finally, under the small picture of the
"Crucified" in the sacristy of S. Alessandro della Croce, at Bergamo,
we read the name Andreas Pre^"italus, and the year 1514,
Again, the historians of Italian art, Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle,
afiSrm that PreA-itali's pictures have sometimes a Lombard look (i., 279).
Wherein this Lombard physiognomy lies, I cannot at all conceive. They
say, moreover, that Previtali adopted in many of his works the manner
of Basaiti and V. Catena an opinion which certainly has some foun-
;

dation in the mouth of those who, like them, ascribe works of Catena's
to Previtali. Thus, to mention a couple of instances, they take the
pretty little picture in Prince Giovanelli's gallery for a work of Previ-
taH's; likewise the '' Circumcision" in the Manfrin Gallery at Venice.
The first painting represents Mary between saints, and bears the false
inscription, "Joannes Bellinus." The Holy Virgin is a copy of the
Mary in Giambellino's picture of the year 1507 in the Church of S.
Francesco deUa Vigna at Venice. Both these pictures have nothing to
do with Previtah, but may well be regarded as works by Catena, of
about the same period when he painted his Santa Maria Mater Domini.
At other times these historians confound Previtali with Cariani, as in
the half-moon fresco over the side door of Santa Maria Maggiore at
Bergamo. Then, again, they ascribe paintings by Previtali to Pelle-
griao of San Daniele, e.g., in the Ducal Palace at Venice, where they

ascribe the "Christ in Limbus" (there assigned to Giorgione!) to

Pellegrino. In short, they make of this dry, honest, and monotonous
Bergamese a sort of chameleon, who presents himself to the public, now
in the garb of Cariani, then in that of Catena, one day as Pellegrino da
San Daniele, the next as L. Lotto.
180 DRESDEN.

right the Saints Monica and Lucia, on the left Catherine and
Ursnla, before which last are three virgins kneeling ; under
the Mary we read: "Andreas Previtalus, 1525." In the
second or upper part is the Saviour, standing in the middle
with a red flag in his hand on both sides of him are
left ;

John the Baptist and the apostles Bartholomew, Peter, and

James. This upper part is not executed by the hand of
Previtali, but by a grotesque Bergamese painter, Agostino
DA Caveesegno, a pupil and imitator of Lorenzo Lotto. The
pestilence of 1524-5 carried off many people in Bergamo ;

and my conjecture that our Previtali likewise fell a

victim to it, and that the lower part of the polyptych may
be regarded as his last work, is not altogether ground-
less. It is who makes Previtali
very possible that Tassi,
live till 1528, may
some written document have taken
in
the number 5 for an 8. I think it likely, that by the

sudden death of Previtali in. 1525, the polyptych was left

unfinished, and that it was afterwards completed by Agos-
tino da Caversegno.
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle speak of a monogram
(i., 279) which, they say, issome of Previ-
to be found on
tali's paintings no such thing is known to me. ^'either
;

has it been given to me to detect the influence of Palma

Vecchio in any one of his works. In his earlier paintings,
from the year 1502 (at Count Cavalli's, Padua), till 1515,
(the large altar-piece in the Church of S. Spirito at Ber-
gamo, representing the Baptist on a pedestal, between
four saints), Previtali appears always as a faithful, con-
scientious, and industrious pupil and imitator of Giovanni
Bellini, somewhat heavy and lifeless in conceptionand
representation, but splendid in colouring and charming in
his landscapes.
When Lorenzo Lotto settled at Bergamo in the year
 THE VENETIANS. 181

1515, to execute his great altar-piece for the Church of the

Dominicans (now placed in the Church of S. Bartolommeo),
Previtali in several of his productions of those years set
himself to imitate Lotto ; and so well did he succeed, that
many of his pictures are ascribed to Lotto even by Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle),^ notwithstanding that the artistic
nature of the poetical tremulous Trevisan is so radically
distinct from the somewhat Philistine humour of the Ber-
gamese !

The Anonymus of Morelli did not find a single work

of Previtali's in the collections of amateurs at Yenice,
while he mentions several by Palma Vecchio and Giovanni
Cariani — a proof that Previtali's merits were not recog-
nised till later. Pater Lanzi, however, probably led by
the commendations and exaggerated praises of Count
Tassi, has, in his " History of Art," greatly overrated this
master by putting him almost on a level with Palma
Vecchio. As regards technique, Previtali is certainly very
eminent, in brilliance of colouring he is not behind any
of Giambellino's pupils, and the landscapes in the back-
ground of his pictures are for the most part neatly and
faultlessly executed ; but for all that, the good painter
lacks themain attributes of a great artist, invention and
the power of original representation. And then Previ-
tali had no influence whatever on the development of

Venetian art, and hardly any even on the local school of

Bergamo. In galleries on the other side of the Apen-

^ Thus, amongst others, the three small tondos in the sacristy of the
Cathedral of Bergamo, which once formed the predella of Previtali's large
altar-piece of the year 1524, in the first chapel to the right, in the
same church (ii., 524, note 1) also the two pictures on canvas, repre-
;

senting the " Nativity " and the " Crucifixion," in the second sacristy of
the Chiesa del Redentore at Venice {ii., 531).
 "

182 DRESDEN.
nines one would look in vain for works by Andrea Pre-
vitali.
By far the most renowned of all the Bergamese, and

deservedly so, is Jacopo Palma, called " il vecchio," to

distinguish him from his grand-nephew Jacopo Palma,
"il giovine." On the position this excellent painter is

entitled to hold in the history of Venetian art, I have

already expressed my opinion in speaking of the Munich
Gallery. I have now, therefore, only to mention such
of his paintings as are exhibited in these rooms. The
Dresden Gallery does not contain one specimen of his
first, rather colourless manner,^ but it has some capital

works in his second, and in his third or " blonde " manner.
The so-called " Three Sisters " (?) (No. 268) is a work
of world-wide renown, but unfortunately restored well nigh
past enjoying. The sister on the right has suffered most, her
eyes, mouth, and nose being quite disfigured, and her ex-
pression rendered untrue. In 1525, Morelli's Anonymus
saw it in the house of M, Taddeo Oontarini at Venice,
and entered it iu his note-book in the following words

^ Amongst the works of this ßrst manner of Palma Vecchio, I count

the " Adulteress " in the Campidoglio Gallery at Rome (there ascribed to
Titian); "Adamand Eve," No. 225 of the Brunswick Gallery, there
given to Giorgione; the " Roman Lucretia " of the Borghcse Gallery at
Rome (No. 5, Room XI.). The first two of these pictures must have
been painted before 1512, for in that year Morelli's Anonymus saw
them in the house of Messer Francesco Zio at Venice (p. 70). To his
second and powerful manner, in which his best works are painted, I
assign amongst others the so-called " Bella di Tiziano " in the house
Sciarra-Colonna, the fine Madonna in the Gallery Colonna (agli apos-
toli), both at Rome ; the magnificent altar-piece in the Church of San
Stefano at Vicenza, the St. Barbara in Santa Maria Formosa at Venice,
&c. To the third or " fair " manner belong the " Jacob and Rachel
in this gallery, the "Judith," No. 619 of the Uffizi at Florence, the
'-'
Adoration of the Three Kings" in the Brera at Milan, &c.
 THE VENETIANS. 183

(p. 65) :
" El quadro delle tre donne, retratte dal naturale
insino al ein to, fu de man del Palma " (picture of the three
ladies, painted from life, half-length, the woi'k of Palma).
Another and very exquisite picture of the same period is
No. 270 ; it represents Mary with the Child before her ;

John the Baptist each holds a written

; scroll ; between
them St. Catherine.
On the verge of the third or "blonde " manner seems to
be the "Venus" (N'o. 269). The same young woman
that sat as model for the so-called " Bella di Tiziano "
(Sciarra-Colonna) has probably been present to Palma's
mind in depicting his so-called " Venus." This " goddess
of love," in. Palma's picture, is really nothing more than a
naked woman well painted. To the third, the so-called
" fair " manner of the master, of about the year 1520 1525, —
belongs the painting, N'o. 267. It represents the Infant
Christ sitting in Mary's lap, and caressing St. John near ;

them are Joseph and St. Catherine.

The four pictures just named are undoubtedly genuine
works of Palma Vecchio if we may also reckon as such
;

the exquisite idyl of "Jacob and Rachel " (No. 240), the
Dresden Gallery possesses five works of this great master,
so full of pith and power. No collection of pictures in the
world, except the Belvedere at Vienna, can vie, in this
respect, with the Dresden Gallery.
Hübner' s catalogue reckons two more paintings under
the name of Palma, but I think erroneously. Wo. 266
represents a lady resting her right hand on a looking-
glass, behind her stands a man. This unimportant picture
can only belong to one of the numerous imitators of Palma.
The other picture (No. 271) represents Mary with tibe

Child, near her Elizabeth and the little St. John with a
scroll on which are the words, " ecce agnus Dei," in front
184 DRESDEN.

St. Catherine and Joseph. In mj opinion, the painting

belongs to the second Bonifazio, the same master to whom
we ascribed the " Adoration of the Kings " (No. 242,
under Giorgione's name, in the catalogue). I take the
opportunity in passing to impart to my young friends
some information about the artist-family of the Bonifazios.
The first writer that mentions a painter Bonifacio is
the Anonymus of Morelli (p. 62) " In casa de M. Andrea
:

di Odoni (at Venice, in the year 1532), la Transfigurazione

'

de S. Paulo ' fu de man de Bonifacio Verooiese.^^ In the

year 1556 appeared the work of Francesco Sansovino,
" Dialoge di tutte le cose notabili che sono in Venezia,"

&c., inwhich there is also mention of a painter, Bonifacio

da Verona ; and Anselmo Guisconi, in his " Dialogo," pub-

lished the same year, 1556, and entitled " Tutte le cose
notabili e belle che sono in Venezia," enumerates among
the greatest painters of the century, Bonifacio da Verona,
Giambellino, Giorgione, Pordenone, Tiziano, Paris, Tinto-
retto and Paolo Caliari. Even the Milanese P. Lomazzo
speaks only of a Bonifacio Ve^vnese.^ On the other hand,
Vasari,^ and after him Ridolfi, Boschini, and Zanetti, know
only of a Bonifacio Veneziaiw.
Thus to all the above-named writers there was known
but one painter of this name, though some made him a
native of Verona, others of Venice. In 1815, Moschini,
in his " Guida di Venezia," made the right observation, that
there must have been hco painters Bonifacio, one of whom
died 19th October, 1553, according to the necrologue of
the Church of St. Ermagora, while the other is represented
in works which are dated 1558 and even 1579.

1 " Trattato delF arte della Pittura et Architettura," 1584, p. 684.

* Ediz. Le Monnier, vol. 13, p. 109.
 ;

THE VENETIANS. 185

Lastly, the late Dr. Cesare Bernasconi of Verona ^ found,

in the archives of the Church of Saints Siro e Libera of
Verona, a register of the brotherhood called II Collegio,

which stated that the painter Bonifacio, admitted into that

brotherhood in 1523, died as early as the year 1540. We
may conclude from this, that there were three painters of
that name, one of whom died in 1540, another in 1553,
whilst a third was still painting in 1579.
In the numerous works of these three Bonifazios there
runs a certain family likeness, as there does in the paint-
ings of the contemporary artist-family. Da Ponte, called
Bassano, and it is not e^sy to distinguish them from each
other. One of the two elder Bonifacios, however, is, in
my opinion, not only one of the most prominent artists of

the Venetian School, but may even be designated the most

brilliant colourist of them all. As an artist, indeed, his
bright conception and the light gracefulness of his figures
seem to me never narrower home, Verona
to belie his
yet, as a technician, hean out-and-out Venetian, and,
is

in this respect, betrays no sign of any connection with the

Veronese. Whüe the chords of his colouring are neither
so delicate and startling as in Giorgione, nor so profound
and powerful as in Palma and Titian, nor so ingenious as
in Lotto, yet they wield a peculiar charm over the eye of
the spectator by their bright, cheerful, and harmonious
lustre.
The Second Bonifazio, a faithful imitator of the above-
named, entered so deeply, both into the mode of painting,
and even the mode of thought, of the First (perhaps his
brother, or some other kinsman), that it is almost impos-
sible to tell the work of the one from that of the other,

' " Studj sopra la Storia della Pittura Italiana," &c., 1864, p. 388-9.
 —

186 DRESDEN.
especially in some pictures, at which I am convinced
they worked together. There seem to me to be several
such joint-productions of the two elder Bonifazios. The
story of their lives may have been something like the
following :

The two elder Bonifazios were born at Verona, probably

in the last decade of the 15th century, and they came very
early as pupils into Palma Vecchio's studio at Venice ;

they were relations, possibly brothers, the one a man of

shining talent, the other a mere imitator. The third and
stillyounger Bonifazio, probably a son of one of the two
elder, may have been born at Venice, and might thus have
a full right to the name of Bonifazio Venezia')w. In the
year 1568, when Vasari published the second edition of
was alive and work-
his work, this latter Bonifazio alone
ing, and Vasari's Venetian informant might not be wrong
in speaking of the surviving Bonifacio (the only one he
seems to have known), as a Venetian ; we must, however,
reproach him with having taken no notice of the two other
and more important painters of the name.
On this theory of mine there must have been, not only
two painters called Bonifazio, Veronese by birth, but also
one, if not two, born at Venice, and rightly regarded as
Venetians,
Yet almost all the historians until now have recognised
only one painter Bonifazio, to whom they attribute all

those pictures which, however unequal in merit, betray

some family-likeness. Then, to add their mite to the mass
of confusion, the compilers of numerous gallery catalogues,
especially in Italy, confound the so-called Bonifazio
Veneziano with a Bonifazio or Facio Bemho, court painter
to the first Francis Sforza, an artist who flourished in the
beginning of the second half of the 15th century. They
 THE VENETIANS. 187

called him, and they still call him, as even Herr Hübner
does, " Bonifazio Bembi."
Facio Bembo, also called Facio di Valdarno, who painted
for the Sforzas at Cremona, (Church of St. Augustin), at
Milan, in the Castello of Pavia, and elsewhere, had certainly
neither an artistic nor a blood-relationship to the Bonifazios
from Verona. There was, moreover, a Benedetto Bembo of
the school of Sqnarcione, by whom there is a signed
picture in the Castle of Torchiara (in the Parmese). I
therefore advise Herr Hübner, in the next edition of his
catalogue, to omit the family-name of " Bembi." Now
this artist-family of the Bonifazios, from whose studio
came forth not only Antonio Palma, the father of the
younger Palma, but I think also Polidoro Lanzani, called
Pol. Veneziano, were at work from the beginning of the
third decade till towards the end of the 16th century, and
that almost exclusively at Venice. The better to distin-
guish the three painters Bonifazio, by whom signed works
have come down to us covering the years 1530 1580, let —
us call the most important of them Bonifazio (Veronese)
Senior, the second Bonifazio (Veronese) Junior, and the third
Bonifazio Veneziano. Ridolfi ("Vite dei Pittori Venelä,"
i., 396) already calls Bonifazio Veronese Senior a pupil
of Palma Vecchio, and he is right. Louder than any
written documents his works proclaim it, the earlier ones
being very generally ascribed to Palma ; for instance, the
magnificent painting at Signer Emnco Andreossi's (2, Via
Clerici, Milan). This exquisite painting, rich in colours,
represents Mary seated with the Infant Jesus and St.
John, on her right St. Jerome and the Apostle James, on
the left St. Catherine ; landscape and architecture in the
background. In the house Terzi at Bergamo, where the
picture formerly was, it passed for a work of Palma
 :

188 DRESDEN.

Vecciiio, and is described as such by Messrs. Crowe and

Cavalcaselle (ii., 473), who even consider it one of the
masterpieces of the Bergamese. Of this picture the
Academy of Venice possesses (No. 363) a school-copy,
under the false name of Andrea Schiavoni. A still earlier

picture of the same Bonifazio hangs in the gallery of the

Ambrosiana at Milan, under the name of Giorgione. It
shows in the centre the Holy Virgin presenting a fruit to
the Infant Jesus in the arms of Joseph below the ;

Madonna the infant St. John, at her left the archangel

with the infant Tobit landscape in the background. There
;

is much in this charming picture that still recalls the

master Palma — the St. Joseph for instance, the profile
of the archangel, the landscape ; but the type of the
Madonna's head is already the same as in the later
picture at Signor Andreossi's, the shapes of the ear and
hand altogether those of Bonifazio Senior. In this picture,
too, we already come upon the dark red velvet so peculiar
to the master, a material which he introduces into almost
all his paintings. This is the earliest work of Bonifazio
Senior known to me. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle,
by the bye, are of a different opinion they say (ii., 160)
;

" this picture is by a modern who studied many of his

predecessors. The St. Joseph is in the fashion of
Pordenone, the Madonna has the round fulness of Palma
Vecchio. But the painter, probably Calderara, is a
coarse imitator." ^ Another genuine, but much damaged
work of his, representing "Diana and Actseon," is at
Hampton Court (No. 73), where it is also ascribed to
Giorgione. Another early picture of this Bonifazio is

^ I dare say this Giovan Maria ZafFoni, called Calderari, is known to

yery few of my readers even by name, nor does he deserve to be.

 THE VENETIANS. 189

in the Gallery Colonna (agli Apostoli) at Rome, there

ascribed to Titian. Mary, with the Infant
It represents
Christ, seated in an open landscape on the right Saints ;

Joseph and Jerome, on the left St. Lucy and an angel.

In the Palazzo Reale at Venice (in the so-called room of
Napoleon I.), is likewise a good picture of this master:
the Madonna enthroned, with the Infant Christ naked,
and standing on her knee on the left the infant John
;

and St. Barbara, on the right St. Omobono offering alms

to a beggar ; landscape and architecture in the back-
ground. Signed " 1533 — 9 noembre." Also in the Pitti
Palace (No. 84) : Mary and Child, the infant John, St.
Elizabeth and the Donor ; there ascribed to Palma Vecchio,
but by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle designated a work
of some painter of Treviso or Friuli (ii., 489). And even
the Dresden Gallery seems to me to possess a picture by
Bonifazio Senior. It represents the " Finding of Moses "
(N"o. 286), a subject often chosen by the first two Boni-
fazios.i This picture, still luminous and full of colour,

has unfortunately been cleaned by so merciless a hand,

that it has entirely lost its glazing.^ In later works it is

Whoever wishes to know this weak imitator of Bernardino Licinio da

Pordenone must go to the little town of Pordenone, where there are
some authentic pictures by him in the cathedral, and frescoes in the
smaU church " della S. Trinita," near Pordenone (" Adam and Eve,"
" The Expulsion from Paradise," &c.).
• At Priace Chigi's at Kome ; in the Brera Gallery (No. 363) ; in the
Pitti Palace at Plorence (No. 161), there ascribed to Giorgione. Very
Pabnesque works by Bonifacio Veronese are the Madonna at the :

Belvedere Gallery, Venice (Room II., 8), and No. 74 in the Louvre
Gallery.
^ Of the three other pictures Hkewise ascribed to Bonifacio, No. 287,

a Holy Family with Saints Catherine and Antony, appears to be

only an atelier picture, and No. 264, " The Eesurrection of Lazarus,"
repainted and disfigured, seems to belong to Bonifazio Veneziano.
 :

190 DRESDEN.
often difficult, nay, sometimes impossible to distinguish
the hand of Bonifazio Senior from that of Bonifazio Junior,
especially in paintings which I have reason to believe
were executed by both in common, e.g., the " Finding of
Moses " in the Brera Gallery at Milan the " Judgment
;

of Solomon " (No. 55) the <' Adoration of the Magi "
;

(No. 57, of the year 1533), and the "Adulteress before

Christ " (No. 50) at the Academy of Venice the " Sermon ;

of St. Anthony of Padua " at the little Franciscan

Church
of Camposampiero, in the Paduan district. All these
pictures are distinguished by the same brilliance of colour-
ing. We also find in them the same type of male and
female heads so that one would hardly suspect in them
;

the hands of two painters. But when I compare the

drawings of these two Veronese Bonifazio's (I am fortu-
nate enough to possess several), it becomes evident that
one of them was a far greater master than the other.
While the latter lengthens out all his forms, and is weak
and wavering in his outlines, the figures of the former
stand out clear and living before our eyes, the lighted and
shaded parts are sharply marked off, and the forms incline
rather to the full and round. To make more obvious the
different shapes, say of the ear, not only in the two
Veronese Bonifazio's, but in their master, Palma Vecchio,
I here give in outline (1) the shape of ear characteristic
of Palma, (2) that characteristic of Bonifazio Senior, and
(3) that which we meet with in the paintings of Bonifazio
Junior, as well as those executed jointly, as I suspect, by
the two elder Bonifazios.
The following easuy accessible pictures belong, I think,

exclusively to Bonifazio Junior —

In the Brera Grallery at Milan, the " Supper at Em-
maus " (No. 211) ; at the Academy of Venice, " Christ-
 ;

THE VENETIANS. 191

among the Apostles " (No. 510) ; also " Christ enthroned,
around him David and Saints Mark, Lewis, Domenic,
and Anne at the foot of the throne an angel with a lyre,"
;

signed 1530 (No. 505) at the Pitti Palace (No. 405),

;

" Christ in the Temple " at the Uffizi Grallery, the

;

" Supper of Emmaus " (1037) ^ at the Borghese Gallery,;

" The Prodigal's Return " (Room II.) and others. ;

At the Dresden Grallery, too, we find several pictures by

this younger Bonifazio —
the already discussed " Adoration
of the Shepherds " (No. 241, under the name of Giorgione)
then the " Virgin and Child " (No. 271, under the name

II.

of Palma Vecchio), at her side, Elizabeth and the little

St. John in front St. Catherine and Joseph.
;

In these our studies I have repeatedly had occasion to

caution my young friends against judging of the authorship
of works of art by the general impression they happen to
make on the spectator, or by the manner that he fancies
he detects in them. I have tried to prove in several in-

^ Much injured. There ascribed to Pahna Vecchio, but assigned to

Andrea Schiavone (ii. , 489) by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle. Also
the well-known " Last Supper," in S. Maria Mater Domini at Venice,,
ascribed to Palma, I hold to be a work of Bonifazio Junior.
192 DRESDEN.

stances how easy it is, even for the most practised eye, to
confound the works of a master with those of his better
class of pupils, and vice versa, for want of some definite and
unfailing criterion. In discussing the fine "Jacob and
Rachel " of this gallery (No. 240), we found Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle taking Palma Vecchio for his scholar,
Giovanni Busi, called Cariani and I wish here to point
;

out how the same celebrated historians have once and

again taken pictures of another pupil of Palma, the
Veronese Bonifazio, for works of the master himself. Two
instances from German galleries shall suflB.ce for the pur-
pose. In the Gallery of Stuttgart are two pictures (N"os.
14 and 329) which are both ascribed in the catalogue to
Palma Vecchio, and which Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
have also included in their list of Palma's works (ii., 484).
The first represents the Holy Virgin in an open landscape,
with the Infant Jesus and St. John, the Saints Joseph,
Elizabeth, and Catherine. In spite of much repainting,
it seems to me not very difläcult to recognise in it the
hand and manner of Bonifazio Senior. The other picture
(No- 329) shows the Virgin and Child between St. Peter
and John the Baptist landscape in the background. Re-
;

painted and otherwise damaged, but still, to my thinking,

recognisable as a work of Bonifazio Junior. Besides the
form of ear, these two pupus of Palma also shape
their hands differently from their master. With Palma
Vecchio the hand is always more bony, and therefore more
quattrocentist, if I may say so, than with his pupils. The
Bonifazio Veronesi make the hand more bloated and
spongy, the fingers more pointed than Palma Vecchio.
In Cariani the hand is similar to that of the Bonifazio,
only coarser and brawnier. As there often occurs in
pictures by Vincenzo Catena a little white Bolognese dog
 —

THE VENETIANS. 193

with long hair, so Bonifazio Senior not seldom introduces

in his pictures a red and white spotted lapdog.
The type of the Madonna in Cariani is rustic, but more
energetic and serious, less worldly than in Bonifazio
Veronese, whose holy virgins and female martyrs, with
then- soft, sweet expression and gentle grace, often border
on the sentimental. These masters also differ in the har-
mony of their coloiars : the Bergamese is pithy and power-
ful, but often heavy and dark ; the Veronese clear, lovely
and brilliant; Bonifazio's landscapes are the brightest
among those of the Venetians, those in Cariani's pictures
are brownish, and the lines far from beautiful.
To the third, or Bonifazio Veneziano, belong, amongst
others, all those groups of saints, in twos and threes, of
which we meet with several in the churches of Venice,
and the following in the Academy, Venice :

'No. 26. " Saints Jerome and Margaret."

!N"o. 28. " Saints Bruno and Catherine,"

No. 29. " Saints Barnabas and Sylvester." ^

jSTo. 3-i. " Saints Antony and Mark."

JS'o. 510. " Saints Andrew, John, and Antony."

No. 515. Three other saints.

All these pictures are of the year 1562, and therefore
belong to the early period of this master, who must have
been born somewhere between the years 1525 and 1530.
I know signed pictures by him of the years 1558 ' and

' This picture is Observe in these figures the shape of

dated 1562.
the ear, which in B. Veneziano is broader and rounder than in
B. Junior, and therefore approximates to that of B. Senior.
^ In the antiquary Guggenheim's house at Venice, some years ago, I

saw a picture by the thk'd Bonifazio, which still had entirely the cha-
racter of the elder painters of that name. It represented the " Virgin
and Child between St. Louis of Toulouse and St. Peter," the apostle's
face being eyidently a portrait of the donor. The picture was dated 1558.
194 DEESDEN.

1563, all of which, still exhibit the colouring and manner

of the two elder Bonifazios. In paintings of his later period
— such as the good altar-piece (now at the Academy of
Venice, ISTo. 483), repi'esenting the Holy Virgin in the air,
beneath her the Saints Francis, Clare, Peter, Paul, and
King James of Aragon —we see plainly that he endeavoured
at times to imitate his great contemporary Titian.
The atelier of this family of artists was, during the 16th
century, almost as productive as that of the Bassanos ; in
most of the churches at Venice, as well as in nearly all
public and private collections in Italy, one meets with
paintings that carry on theii' face the stamp of the Boni-
fazios. Many of them pass under the name of Andrea
Schiavoue.
Dresden also possesses very good and characteristic
works by a younger contemporary, who at one time of his
life was even a rival of Titian, namely, the energetic,

grand, though sometimes inconsistent Jacopo Rohusti, called

Tintoretto (born 1518). Except the Belvedere at Vienna, I
do not know of any collection this side of the Alps that
possesses such exquisite paintings by this master.
The younger Jacopo Palma is likewise very faMy re-
presented here ; but not one of these pictures belongs to
the master's early period, in which he promised more than
he afterwards performed. Of his father, Antonio, the
nephew of Palma Vecchio, only one gallery in Germany
has any well authenticated works, namely, the gallery of
Stuttgart. A picture there represents the *' Resurrection
of Christ," with a landscape background, and is signed :

" ANTONIVS PALMA P." This painting, which vividly

recalls the school of the Bonifazios, proves that the intimate
relations which had existed between the two Veronese
Bonifazios and their master Palma Vecchio uncle of An-
 THE VENETIANS^. 195

tonio, were transferred to his nej)hew. I know only of

one other signed work by this Antonio Palma ; it hangs
in the sacristy of the parish church of Serinalta, the native
place of the Palmas, in the Bergamo mountains. It belongs
to the painter's later period.
There are four works in this gallery by the showy, yefc
sometimes highly refined and solid Faris Bordone of '

Treviso (Nos. 280, 281, 282, and 283), the last two as-
cribed to him doubtfully. Of the four, only No. 281 re-
represents the master worthily : it is the " Diana," with a
javelin in her hand, and two hounds a nymph presents ;

her with the head of a stag. JÜ^o. 280 represents " Apollo

and Marsyas." No. 282, " Mary worshipping the Child,

who lies before her," is more in Polidoro Lanzani's manner
than in Bordone's.
To a countryman of Paris Bordone, the Trevisan Bocco
Marconi, a scholar of Palma Vecchio,' and afterwards of
Paris, the Dresden catalogue ascribes a picture that does
not belong to him : it is (No. 275) '•'
Christ bearing the Cross."
This painting seems to me
work of the little known
the
Francesco Prato of Caravaggio, who was a pupil of Girolamo
Romanino of Brescia. Pictures by this really very inferior
painter may be seen (and they are his best) at Brescia, in
the Churches of S. Francesco, S. Rocco (there ascribed to
Calisto da Lodi), and S. Agata ; also in several private
collections ofthat town, but mostly exhibited under higher
soundins' names.

'-
I need onlj' mention the "Fislierman with the Eing before the
Doge " at the Venetian Pinacothec.
^ Whoever wishes to convince himself of this, may examine the
" Adulteress" in the Palazzo Eeale at Venice. This early work of the
master is signed " Kocchus ]\Iarchonus," and strongly recalls the
manner of Palma Vecchio.
196 DKESDElSr.

A
decorative picture assigned to Bornenico Camjxignola
(No, 285), entitled " Generosity," and painted in chiai*-
osctiro, might with better reason be regarded as an atelier
picture of Bonifazio. Donienico Campagnola is perhaps, of
all the Venetians, the one that is oftenest confounded with
Titian, especially in his drawings. ISTot only does this col-
lection, as well as the Uffizi, contain several drawings of
his that go under Titian's name ; but even in M. Eeiset's
otherwise careful catalogue of the Louvre collection, we
come across drawings of Campagnola's that are assigned to
Tiziano Vecellio ; e.g. that good one in pen-and-ink, " The
Judgment of Paris," ^
which unmistakably betrays the
hand of Campagnola. Also the drawings (ISTos. 138 and
136) in Braun's catalogue of the British Museum collec-
tionought rather be given to Campagnola than to Titian.
The first represents two men lying on the ground near a
some children.
village, the other
The Dresden Gallery possesses four standard works
(two of them remarkably well preserved) by the bright,
and though not grand, yet always dignified Paolo Veronese,
that lovable comedian, somewhat SiDanish in his love of
show, but never ignoble. In no other collection in the
world, not even in the Louvre nor at Yenice, is Paolo
Caliari so well represented as here. I remark, by the
way, that the sketch for his picture (N^o. 327) of the
Cocina family being presented to the Madonna by the
allegoric figiires of Paith, Hope, and Love, is in the col-
lection of drawings at the Uffizi Gallery, at Florence^ under
the name of Titian."
Herr Hübner ascribes the " Holy Family " (ISTo. 344^) to

' No. 432 of Braun's catalogue.

^
Photographed by Phihppot, K'o. 415.
 —

THE YEXETIANS. 197

Paolo's son, Garletto Galiari ; it strikes me, however, that

the late Guarienti was not so far wrong in detecting therein,
the hand of Carletto's brother Gabriel. It is very difficult,

almost impossible, in the studio works of Paolo Veronese,

to recognise exactly the various hands that have worked
at them and to distinguish them from each other.
" Dunque come da me disegnato," writes Benedetto
Caliari to his patron, Giacomo Contarini,^ " da Carlo
abatiato (grounded), e da Gahriel finito, prego lo accetti, e
lo vegga come genio suo, concetto nelle nostre menti."
Herr Hübner seems to have made another mistake as
to the authorship of the female portrait (No. 349). Fasolo,
who painted this portrait, was a contemjDorary of Paolo
Veronese, and often painted, al fresco, together with him.
But this Fasolo has nothing to do with the Pavian, Ber-
nardino Fasolo, a contemporary and imitator of B. Luini
and P. F. Sacchi. Giovan Antonio Fasolo came from
Vicenza ; his epitaph in the church of S. Lorenzo runs as
follows :

JOANMS . ANTONII . FASOLII.

EXIMII HAEREDVM
PICTORIS . .

Q SYORUM
. VIXIT A1<^N XLII. . . .

OBIIT X CALEX SEPT MDLXXII.

. . . .

I must here remark, that the Luca Gar- fine picture of

levaris (No. 413), the "View

Landing of Venice, with the
of a Prince," would have found a more suitable jDlace on
the ground-floor beside the pictures of his pupil, Antonio
Canal, and his grand-pupü, B. Belotti, than in the last
room upstah's, among the rubbish of the gallery. Xeither
can I refrain from mentioning the capital portrait of a

^ See Gaje, " Carteggio," ii., 551.

198 DRESDEN.

woman (No. 496), "wliich. hangs on the wall without its

author's name, "Whoever has been at Venice will certainly

remember those comic representations of the life of the
18th century Venetians, both at the Museo Oorrer and in
the small room of the Contarini division at the Academy
of Venice ; and the name of Pietro Longhi will not sound
strange to his ears. I have no doubt this female portrait
also belongs to that Goldoni among painters.
"With Pietro Longhi the art of the Venetians nearly dies
out, after having run through its shining rocket-path in
the sky. But, with his Art, the Venetian himself dis-
appears. Venice broke down from old age. Her palaces
still stand erect, but forlorn and sad, like the beautiful
shell of the nautilus, inwhose silvery vault all kinds of
strange animals have nestled. The breed of men that
built the wondrous city and deserved to dwell in it has
passed away and with them vanished the lofty art,
;

vanished the political wisdom, which between them once

created Venice and made it what it was.

3. THE LOMBARDS.
The Lombard School of Painting, in the strict sense of
the word, is hardly represented at all in the Dresden
Gallery, for the few pictures that belong to it are scarcely
worth mentioning.
The oldest specimen of the Milanese School that we find
here, is the tempera picture, on canvas (Xo. 165), ascribed
toÄmhrogio Borgocjnone. It represents the Madonna in a
white garment, praying before the Infant Christ above ;

her, God the Father in a glory of angels. Messrs. Crowe

and Cavalcaselle give this weak production to Ambrogio
 THE LOMBARDS. 199

da Fossano, but very unjustly. The painter of this picture

was no doubt a contemporary, perhaps even a fellow-pupil
of Ambrogio Borgognone under Vincenzo Foppa, but is
far below him in importance. It is Amhrogio Bevilacqna.
There are signed works by him at the Brera Gallery, and
at the parish church of Landriano, near Milan.
Another Lombard is the author of the "Herodias with the
head of John the Baptist " (Xo. 70). He was some in-
ferior hack of the Milanese School, influenced by Leonardo
da Vinci. Marco d'Oggionno is not to be thought of in
this connexion.
Herr Hübner classes Miclielangelo of Garavaggio with
the Lombard School, probably because Amerighi's native
place, Garavaggio, now belongs to Lombardy. But in
Michelangelo's time all the land beyond the Adda was
under the Republic of Venice. But that is neither here
nor there, for Michelangelo Amerighi came to Rome a
mason's apprentice, and it was there that he was first

trained into an artist. He belongs, therefore, to the

so-called Roman The Dresden Gallery
School of painting.
possesses some very good and characteristic pieces by this
chief representative of the so-called Tenebrosi, or darklings.
It was mainly on him that Ribera formed himself.
Dresden has also four good pictures by Alessandro Mag-
nasco, called Lissanclrino at Milan, where he served his
apprenticeship, and where he chiefly worked afterwards.
Two paintings (ISTos. 215 and 216) have been in the gallery
ever since 1741 two others are a quite recent acquisition
;

(1875). They are numbered 625 and 626, and are de-
scribed in the catalogue as works of Salvator Rosa. It is
much to be regretted that the glorious old school of Milan,
with Vincenzo Foppa, its Bramantino, its Borgognone,
its

and Luini, and Gaudenzio Ferrari, its BoltraflSo, Andrea

200 DRESDEN.

Solario, Cesare da Sesto, and GiamjDietrino, &c., should be

so utterly unrepresented in a gallery so important as the
Dresden. To make good this defect would, I think, be a
noble task for the authorities of this Pinacothec.

4. THE TUSCANS.
Let us begin our study of the works of Tuscan masters
with the interesting tondo (No. 24) rej^resenting a " Holy
Family." ^
This valuable painting Avas bought by Messrs.
Hübner and Grüner in London, 1860, from the stock of the
deceased picture-dealer, "Woodburn, as a work of Luca
Signorelli, which name it has also kept at Dresden. Herr
Hübner remarks, in the interesting preface to his cata-
logue (p. 50), that easel-paintings by Signorelli are among
the greatest rarities, even in Italy. IS'ow, to my know-
ledge alone, Italy has at least two dozen pictures by this
great master (at Müau, Florence, Cortona, Perugia, La
Fratta, Citta di Castello, Urbino, and elsewhere), so that
the *' great rarity " of Signorelli's pictures is somewhat
relative and to be taken cum cjrcmo salts. I grant you,
that to those who could see the mind and hand of Signo-
relli in this tondo, the genuine works of that master must

have appeared " very rare, even in Italy." In fact, the

easel-pictures of Pier di Cosimo, to whom this tondo most
undoubtedly belongs, are very rare, even in Italy. But
his wall-paintings are rarer still. Except the frescoes of

' Mary contemplates the Infant Christ, who lies before her on a stone
that is covered with her mantle ; the little St. John embraces the head
of the Child, to the left sits St. Joseph. On a rock above the principal
group are two angels singing.
 THE TUSCANS. 201

the Sixtine Chapel at Rome,^ I never heard of any. Let

any stiident of art examine this tondo minutely, and then
compare it with the pictures by Pier di Cosimo at the
Berlin Gallery, at the Stanza del Conservatore in the
Florence Foundling Hospital, and at the Gallery degli
Uffizi, and I have no doubt he would abandon the opinion
of the late Mr. "Woodburn, of Messrs. Hübner, Grüner,
Crowe and 6), and come over to mine,
Cavalcaselle (iii.

which is, moreover, that of the profound Italian art-critic.

Dr. Gustavo Frizzoni of Bergamo. Some excuse for the
contrary opinion may be found in the ugly varnish, now
turned yellow, that covers the picture, and makes it im-
230ssible to discern the beautiful colouring so peculiar to
Pier di Cosimo.
To another great Tuscan of the 15th century, the Floren-
tine Alessandro Botticelli, Hübner's catalogue attributes no
less than Let us begin with No. .32, represent-
six works.
ing the " Evangelist John," and K"o. 33, " John the Bap-
tist." These two sph-itless heads maybe by some pujiil or

imitator of Botticelli," but can never have come from the

same great master that painted the " Miracle of St. Zeno-
bius " (Ko. 34). In this highly dramatic representation
I recognise the ingenious, lofty, but sometimes too eccentric
" Sandro," with all his merits and shortcomings. This
excellent panel belongs to about the same period of the

In tiie fourth fresco, to the left of the altar, by Cosimo Rosselli,

''

representing the " Sermon on the Mount," the whole of one side seems
to me painted by Pier di Cosimo ; the women sitting there are ^ery
characteristic of the master. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, following
Eumohr, give only the landscape in this wall-painting to Pier di Cosimo,
and all the rest to Cosimo Rosselli (ii. 522).
^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ii. 427) also designate these two

pictures mere studio works.

202 DRESDEN'.

master in which he painted the charming small panel

picture representing " Jerome " of the Uffizi Gallery
(No. 1179), there stupidly ascribed to Fra Filippo. Bot-
ticelli has represented several such dramatic scenes from
the Christian mythology, e.g., the "History of Esthei%"
in several small panels. These little pictures, under the
false name of Filippino Lippi, were in the Casa Torreg-
giani at Florence, till a few years ago, when they were
peddled away into France they are much injured by
;

restoration. Also the magnificent " Calunnia d'Apelle,"

at the Ufl&zi (No. 1288), belongs to the same class of
dramatic pictures by Sandro ; so does the noble repre-
sentation, in six acts, of the " Death of the Roman Vir-
ginia," in the author's possession. In paintings so full

of life, and reflecting Botticelli's fiery dramatic spirit, one

gets to know the master more intimately than in his
Madonnas. I therefore cannot conceive how the authori-
ties of the Dresden Gallery came to banish this treasure of
a Botticelli to the upper floor, instead of hanging it down-
stairs by the works of Lorenzo di Credi, in the place of
honour now taken up by the unedifying productions said
to be by Lippi, E-afiaellino del Garbo, and others. However,
"De gustibus non est disputandum."
The "tempera painting" '
(ISTo. 35), representing " Mary
with the Child and little St. John," belongs likewise to
Alessandro Botticelli, whereas the other little tondo, with
the " Madonna, the Child, and Angels" (No. 36), must be
assigned to his school, not to himself it is the copy of a :

picture by the master. On the sixth " Botticelli " of this

gallery (No. 37) I have already spoken my mind in
discussing the paintings of Jacopo de' Barbari.

* Oil paintings (so-called) by Botticelli are altogether unknown to nie.

 THE TUSCANS. 203

Let tts now examine the works of the immortal Andrea

del Sarfo. Herr Hübner tells ns that this artist was born
in Gnalfonda, and died at Florence. Bnt Gualfonda, that
is, Valle fonda (deep dale), is merely a quarter of the town
of Florence, not a separate locality, as Herr Hübner seems
to suppose.
The ably composed picture (Xo. oo) representing the
" Betrothal of St. Catherine to the Infant Christ in the
presence of St. Margaret," is, unfortunately, much injured
by restorations, yet not so badly but that the master can
still be recognised in it. It may have been painted about
—
1512 1515. In the catalogue his monogram is given as
though it were made of two Y's intertwined in the picture ;

itself the two Vs are converted by cross-lines into A's,

which give us the real name of the painter, Andrea Angeli
(son of Angelo) — Angelo is the name of his father, a tailor
(Sarto) by
trade. The Florentine commentators of Vasari
(editionLe Monnier) give this picture to Domenico Puligo,
a pupil and imitator of Andrea I suspect, only on the
;

authority of Herr Hirt. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle,

on the contrary, justly pronounce it a genuine work of
Andrea del Sarto (iii., 581); they even think it "very
rich and sfumato in colour," and produced at the period
when Andrea imitated Fra Bartolommeo.
The second picture of Del Sarto in the Dresden Gallery
represents "Abraham's Sacrifice " (No. 56), and is one of
the hundred pictures selected from the Modena Gallery.
In the year 1633 hung in the Tribuna of the Floren-
it still

tine Gallery, to which it seems to have come (say the

editors of Yasari) from the collection of Alfonso Davalos.
After that it was bartered for Correggio's " Hest on the
Flight to Egypt," and so came into the Modena Gallery.
But for this exchange, the Dresden Gallery would pro-
204 DRESDEN.

bably be ricber by a Correggio and poorer by an Andrea

del Sarto. Now there is a picture exactly like it, and also
ascribed to Andrea, at tbe Madrid Museum (No. 387),
measuring only 98 centimetres bigk by 69 broad. In the
background of that picture are seen tv:o servants of Abra-
ham, which answers to the description of Vasai"i (vol. viii.
289), "vi erano, oltrecio, certi servi ignudi che guardavano
un asino che pasceva," i.e., " there were, in addition, some
naked servants guarding a grazing ass." At that rate, we
have two pictures by Andrea del Sarto, representing the
—
same subject one at Dresden, 7 feet high by 5 broad, and
another at ^Madrid, much smaller. Both are considered
originals by the esteemed authors of the respective cata-
logues. Herr Hübner says the Dresden picture was ori-
ginally painted for King Francis I. of France, Seuor
P. de Madrazo, the author of the Madrid catalogue, states
that the Madrid picture is a " repeticion " of the one that was
left in Andrea's studio at his death, and afterwards bought

by Filippo Strozzi and presented to the Marquis del Vasto.

I consider this Madiid picture to be that replica in
smaller size which Andrea del Sarto painted for Paul of
Terrarossa :
" Veune voglia a Paolo da Terrarossa, veduta
la bozza del sopradetto Abramo, d'avere qualche cosa di
mano d' Andrea, come amico universalmente di tutti i
pittori ;
perche richiestolo d'un ritratto di quelle Abramo^
Andrea volentieri lo servi, e giielo fece tale, che nella sua
piccolezza non fii punto inferiore alia grandezza dell'
originale. II quadro fu poi da lui mandate a Napoli."

The painting in the Madrid Museum has suffered no less

by restorations than the one at Dresden.^ There is another
replica of this picture at Lyons, but it is unknown to me.

»
See A. Hirt, " Remarks on Art," &c. (Berlin, 1830), p. 30.
 THE TUSCANS. 205

I wisli still to mention the newly acquired picture

which has come to the Dresden Gallery from Italy, under
the historic name of Andrea del Castagiio. It represents
the " Virgin and Child between St. Jerome and John the
Baptist" (No. 20). The works of Andrea del Castagno
are extremely rare even at Florence ; besides his frescoes
on the wall of a cell in the former convent *' Agli Angeli,"
representing "Christ Crucified," his "Last Supper" in the
refectory of the St. Apollonia Convent, and his "Jerome
doing Penance " in the Grallery of the Academy of Fine Arts
at Florence, there are probably few pictures to be found
there now that can, with any certainty, be traced to this
rough but vigorous master.^ Now, is the new acquisition
of the Dresden Gallery really a work of Andrea del Cas-
tagno, or does this feeble, drowsy tempera-picture belong
rather to a Sienese painter of the second half of the 15th
century Does it not recall somewhat that school of
?

Sassetta,which Matteo di Giovanni and even Francesco di

Giorgio held by, more or less ? I seem to know this
master I am sure I have seen some of his paintings at
;

the Town Gallery of Siena, in that long passage where

there pictures by Matteo di Giovanni, Cozzarelli,
are
Benvenuto di Giovanni, Giovanni di Pietro,
liTeroccio,

&o., &c. I do not recollect his name, though, for the man
did not seem to me worth remembering.
We have seen by the above-named works of Florentine
masters, so-called, of the 15th century, that Prof. Hübner

^ The equestrian picture of Marcucci, painted grey in gi'ey, at the

Cathedral of Florence, as well as the " Famous Men " in the " Bargeilo "
there, are too much painted over and disfigured to be mentioned here as
works of Andrea. The " Saints Francis and John the Baptist " at
St. Croce belong, in my opinion, not to Andrea, but to Domenico
Veneziano.
206 DEESDEN.
lias no very intimate knowledge of the Tuscan Quattro-
centists. ISTobody need be surprised, therefore, that we felt

comjDelled to accept the naming of the next picture (So.

39) with considerable reserve, nay, with misgivings that
would not altogether hush. If easel-paintings by Signo-
relli are a great rarity to Mr. Hübner, those by Leonardo

da Vinci are a great deal more so to me, and it is to

Leonardo that this small Madonna is assigned in the latest
catalogue. There can be no doubt that the use of this
great name must have rather startled even the good folks
at Dresden ;hence the attempt to allay the jjublic astonish-
ment by adding " An early work of the master, about
1470." So then, in the opinion of our Dresden professors,
Leonardo da Yinci actually painted this picture in his
eighteenth year. To every connoisseur the knowledge of
such a fact would have the more value, as there is nowhere
else such a thing to be seen, that I know of, as an authentic
picture dating from Leonardo's youth. But how did
Messrs. Hübner and Grüner come to recognise in this
picture the stripling Leonardo, or " Leonardino," as the
Florentines vrould call him ? Let us hear it from them-
selves (Preface, p. 56) " The jiicture of Leonardo da Vinci
:

was, in the catalogue of the Woodburn Collection, desig-

nated a work of Lorenzo di Credi, but was at once recog-
nised by the undersigned as an early work of Leonardo,
and, as such, one of great value. Quite accidentdlhj, in
the Eoyal Collection of Drawings here, we found the study
for the Madonna of the said picture, a drawing which has
been in the collection, from time immemorial, under the
name of Leonai'do, and, indeed, like the painting itself,

answers in every respect to that designation." I confess

that this " quite accidentally," as a sort of excusatio non
petita, aroused my suspicions from the first, and put me
 :

THE TUSCANS. 207

on my guard. Might it not be, tliat the summary Julius-

Caesar judgment, pronounced by gentlemen so learned and
usually so cautious, rested, after all, on a false premiss, a
thing that happens now and then to other learned men ?
Afterwards, on a closer examination of the said Leonardo
drawing, I was convinced that my suspicions were not
wholly unfounded. When saw the little
these gentlemen
Woodburn would involuntarily be
picture in London, they
reminded of the " drawing ascribed to Leonardo from time
immemorial," which they had left under glass in the
Cabinet of Drawings at home. And they would argue
" If that drawing is by Leonardo — and
no one has dis-
puted its genuineness —why then, which
this little picture,
is so like the drawing, must be by the same master. But,"
they might go on reasoning, " as this little Madonna is very
different from the celebrated pictures of Leonardo, we must
suppose it an early work of the master, and give it out as
such." No sooner said than done on their return from
;

the Thames to the banks of the Elbe, the academic Areo-

pagus was forthwith convoked, the newly-purchased gem
laid before it, not forgetting, of course, to take the well-
known drawing out of its shrine, and confront it with the
painting. And, behold, the lit'tle Madonna, known in
London as a Lorenzo di Credi, was unanimously recognised
at Dresden as an early work of Leonardo da Vinci, and
its christening by Messrs. Hübner and Grüner finally

ratified, sealed, and entered in the catalogue. Something-

like this I take to have been the course of the affair and ;

if I am wrong, I am sure the amiable and learned gentle-

men on the Elbe will bear me no grudge.

But to come to the heart of the matter. "Whoever has
narrowly examined the genuine drawings of Leonardo at
V/'indsor Castle, Paris, Turin, Milan, Venice, Yienn?, Pesth,
208 DEESDEN.

and Florence, can hardly ascribe to Leonardo da Vinci's

mind and hand the drawing in silver-point of the female
figure at Dresden. The style of treatment does indeed re-
motely recall Leonardo, or rather the school out of which
Leonardo sprang but the oval of this female head seems
;

to me no small degree from the female heads

to differ in
of the master the outlines also of this Dresden drawing
;

are rather too timid, the modelling too dowdy and feeble
for Leonardo and the position of the strokes is not that
;

peculiar to Leonardo, The mouth with the swollen lips,

the nose with the small round nostrils, the eyes too large,
standing too much apart, and with far too long eye-lashes,
the puffy folds of the dress on the breast, the medallion
lying on it all this reminds one rather of Leonardo da
;

Vinci's master Andrea del Verocchio, and still more of his

faithful scholar and conscientious imitator, Lorenzo di Credl;
of whom the small chubby-cheeked child's head, slightly
sketched beside the woman's I'ight shoulder, is also sug-
gestive. To my thinking, this somewhat blurred drawing
in the Dresden Cabinet is not to be ascribed to Leonardo
da Vinci, but to his fellow-pupil in Verocchio's studio,
Lorenzo di Credi.^ But apart from that, we have to face
the question : Was the draftsman of the silver-point draw-
ing at Dresden really the same as the painter of the small
Madonna (No. 39) in that Gallery ? Is it not possible
that Lorenzo di Credi's drawing, or even a painting of
his, now lost, may have served, directly or indirectly, as
prototype to some Flemish painter living at Florence
about 1480-90 The glossy colour of this painting would
?

of itself suggest some late pupil of the Van Eyck School ;

' If I am not mistaken, it is really a study for Loi'enzo di Credi's

early work in the cathedral of Pistoja ;
" Enthroned Madonna between
St. John and St. Zeno."
 THE TUSCANS. 209

that curtain twisted like a corkscrew has quite a northern

look, so has the pretentious petty cushion with tassels on
the bed, as also the too vacant expression of the infant
that does duty for the God-inspired Son of Elisabeth. All
this speaks clearly enough against Messrs. Hiibner and
Gruner's opinion. And even if Leonardo himself had
owned to having painted this picture not in his eighteenth
but in his twelfth year, could (I ask) that Florentine,
brimming with genius and grace, ever have perpetrated
these miniature trees, these tiny bits of houses and towers
in the background, which it takes a magnifying-glass to
do full justice to ; could he ever have managed that hair
and those little curls on Mary's head, or those stiff out-
lines in the body of the infant Christ ? I hardly think he
could have done it if he had tried and I feel sure ;

that many a connoisseur of Leonardo has cherished these

misgivings before me.^ But a truce to hair-splitting
criticism The point I was mainly driving at is, I
!

think, established, both on spiritual and material grounds,

namely, — that this miniature-like Madonna (valuable as.
it may appear to those who admire the paintings of a
Christophsen and the like) must on no account be assigned
to Leonardo da Yinci.-

* Yet Messi's. Crowe and Cavalcaselie seem really inclined to recog-

nise this picture as an early work of Leonardo da Vinci :
" This picture
is indeed one which recalls Verocchio's pupil after he had left the master's
"
atelier, though in colour and execution inferior even to his creations
(vol. ii., 410).
" Compare this so-called early Leonardo with the " Anminciation "

by Francesco Cossa (No. 18), painted about 1470 the difference in tech-
5

nical treatment between a Flemish and an Italian painter will at once

be apparent. Cossa's work is also executed with the greatest care and
delicacy, but not miniature-wise, as is the manner of nearly all the old
Flemish painters, whose woi'ks are perhaps after all nothing but minia-
tures on a larger scale.
 210 DRESDEN.

About the other Madonna (No. 42), once likewise

ascribed at Dresden to Leonardo da Yinci, I have already
given my opinion.
In the charming Likeness of a Youth (No. 31), the Dres-
den Gallery possesses a very superior work of Bernardino
Flntoricchio} It is of the master's early period, about
1480. This painting is the more interesting, as one can
recognise, I believe, in its technique, as well as in the
quality of the temjDera, the School out of which Bernardiuo
Betti sprang, I mean that of his countryman, Fiorenzo di
Lorenzo.

5. THE ROMAN SCHOOL.

Pater Luigi Laxzi was, if I am not mistaken, the first,
or one of the first, who coined the name of the " Roman
School," and gave it currency. Since that time the School
has played a very considerable part in the literature of
Art. A genuine Latiaoi school of painting, originating
within the walls of Rome, out of the Roman population,
and reflecting the national character, there never existed,
any more than there existed a Neapolitan or Sicilian, a
Piedmontese or Ligurian School. Those who happened to
build or chisel or paint at Rome were not sons of the soil,
but came, in most cases, from the neighbouring countries,
from Umbria or Tuscany, from the territory of Bologna or
Venice, or from Lombardy proper to the capital of the
Papacy. Neither Raphael nor Michelangelo, the supposed
founders of this Roman School, was a son of Latium the :

first was an Umbrian, the other a Florentine. A whole host

^ Tkat is, the little ^»a inter.

 THE ROMAN SCHOOL. 211

of pupils and imitators followed these two heroes, some of

them, naturally, born within the walls of Rome. But
these few painters, without any local character whatever,
have surely no right to be considered representatives of a
school of art. This question, however, is not to be dis-
cussed here.
I go on at once to examine the great work of Raphael,
the so-called " Madonna di San Sisto," which once
adorned the church of S. Sisto at Piacenza. It is per-
haps the most beautiful picture in the world, and to it,

more than to any Dresden Gallery owes its

other, the
world-wide celebrity. It cost Saxony about 220,000
francs. What price would it fetch now, when a Murillo
has been thought worth 730,000 francs None but a!

Rothschild could afford to buy it. If the picture were still

standing in its little church of S. Sisto at Piacenza, not
only would that town be more talked of and more visited
than it is, but that picture alone would bring the inhabi-
tants more gain than all they possess besides. For this
pretty service the Placentines have to thank the venal
greed of the Benedictines in the last century. Another
proof that priests are no better than children of the world.
They also are sons of their time. The picture has now a
new, costly, and gorgeous, but somewhat heavy frame,
whose glittering gold intei'feres with the colouring. It is
moreover exhibited in a separate room, with light from
the north. The space seems to me much too narrow, and
it is my conviction that if it were hung higher, for in-

stance in one of the large saloons, this dreamy, heavenly

vision would make a more perfect impression on the spec-
tator. Here, unfortunately, one sees too much of the
damage the painting has received, chiefly from restoration.
These injuries are specially obvious in the infant Christ
212 DRESDEN.
and on the forehead of the Madonna. But marred and
mottled as it is, it nevertheless produces an indescribable,
a magical effect. That this large picture was ever used
for a processional banner, as Rumohr thought, can only
be regarded as a whimsical dream of that ingenious but
very capricious art-historian. In the narrow church of
S. Sisto at Piacenza there would not have been the neces-
sary space for performing a procession with so large a
picture ;
besides, processional flags are generally painted
on both sides ; and lastly, at that time they understood
the high worth of Raphael too well to employ one of his
masterpieces for so dangerous a purj)ose. But these and
similar objections Rumohr's fanciful assertion
against
have doubtless been urged by others of my calling, so that
I need hardly have named them to my readers. Let us
now take the other pictures that Hiibner's catalogue
ascribes to the Roman School.
The " Holy Family," 'No. 87, certainly does not belong
to the School of Raphael, but is of Florentine lineage. I
think it may be one of those many pictures which, Yasari
tells us, were painted in the atelier of Bidolfo del
Ohirlandajo by his numerous assistants for the picture-
dealer Giovan Battista Palla, to be sold in foreign countries,
mostly under more celebrated names. The character of
this pictiTre recalls partly Bugiardini, partly Ridolfo del
Ghirlandajo, but it belongs neither to the one nor to the
other, nor yet toDomenico Puligo.
On the other hand the Holy Family called " la Madonna
della Catina," No. 95, is both a genuine work of Giulio
'Romano, and very characteristic of the master. Vasari
mentions the picture in his " Life of Garofalo." It be-
longed at one time to Cesare Gonzaga.
The other paintings of any importance, which Hiibner's
 THE ROMAN SCHOOL. 213

Catalogue classes under the Eoman School, as Nos. 92, 93,

97, Ihaye already touched upon in speaking of the
Bologna. Ferrara School, to which thej really belong.
"We are now at the end of a not very entertaining task
for lively minds. I hope the amiable Director of the
Dresden Gallery, Professor Hübner, will pardon me for
having so often contradicted his opinion, considering, that
in this confused world, we cannot always have the same
convictions. And I cheerfully admit that, in the judgments
I have pronounced, all may not be pure gold. These
pages are not likely to do his Catalogue much harm : it

were vain for me to nurse the pleasing hope that any great
number of my proposed emendations would find acceptance
at Dresden, The art-public too might in the end find
themselves all at sea with so many re-christenings in their
Catalogue. But there are two that I am particularly
anxious about, namely those relating to the Madonna of
Moretbo and the Venus of Giorgione I earnestly entreat
;

Herr Hübner to take these two corrections into considera-

tion, and for once to set his face against that old maxim
of the Capuchins Sinere munclum ire, quoniodo vadif.
:

6. DRAWINGS BY ITALIAN MASTERS IN THE

PRINT-ROOM.
This collection at Dresden, though not so rich in good
drawings by Italian masters as the one at Munich, yet
possesses more than two dozen specimens well deserving
to be studied bymy young friends.^
^ I must here premise that unfortunately I have not had time to pass

under review the Italian drawings of the 17th and 18th centuries.
 : ;

214 DEESDEN.

THE VENETIANS.
Case IV.
On entering tlie second room, we see on our left the
Venetian drawings exhibited in a glass case. The first

that strikes our eye is a large, washed drawicg, in which

is represented the enthroned Mary with the infant Christ
at the two sides of the throne are Faustinus and Jovita,
the patron saints of Brescia. Three angel minstrels on
the steps of the throne; mountainous landscape in the
background. At the top of the yellowish leaf one reads
" Johan Bellino." Hence the Catalogue ascribes it to
Giovan or Gean (sic) Bellini. This superior drawing
belongs, however, only to a contemporary of Gia,mbellino,
and by no means to Giovanni Bellino himself. It is from
the hand of Tutore Garpaccio. This drawing is the sketch
for a large panel picture which some years ago was in the
house of Signer Angelo Averoldi of Brescia, and was
afterwards sold away to England. The picture bore the
master's signature, and was dated 1519 therefore one of :

the last works of the artist.'

Photographed by Braun, No. 51 of his Catalogue. I mention here

1

for students, some other drawings by Carpaecio, the photographs of

which are not difficult to get
a. " Jewish Judges condemning a Christian to Martyrdom." No. 919
in Philipot's Catalogue,
b. " The Circumcision of Christ." Washed drawing. At theUffizi
Gallery, No. 918, Philipot.
c. "Mary with the Child and the Saints Eochus and John the Bap-
tist." Washed Drawing. At the Uffizi Gallery, No. 917, Pliilipot.
d. Pire whole-length figures, among them St. Rochus. Washed
drawing. Studies. Erroneously ascribed to Giorgione at the Uffizi,
No. 2816, Philipot.
e. Warriors, some on horseback, in Ch'iental costume. Washed
drawing, in the Louvre, there ascribed to Gentile Bellini. Braun, 400,
under the name of Giovanni Bellini.
 ^

DRAWINGS BY ITALIAN MASTERS. 215

Another washed pen-drawing, " The Entombment of

Christ," is ascribed to Giambellino, but I believe without
foundation. Genuine drawings by this great master seem
very rare altogether ; I at least know of only a few.
Whilst it is common to ascribe to him drawings, which at
best only belong to the same Venetian School, his own are
introduced to the public under other men's names.
Above Carpaccio's characteristic drawing is another in
red chalk, carefully executed, representing the " Marriage
of Mary ;
" it is assigned to Giovan Antonio da Pordenone,
and though much defaced, seems to be actually his
handiwork.
The same case also contains, according to the Catalogue,
two pen-drawings by Titian, one of them even recognised
as such by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (in their " Life
of Titian "). This drawing represents a fortified city on
a river-island on the shore two men with halberds on
; ;

the river several ships (No. 63 in Braun's Catalogue).

On the other sheet one sees a man on horseback to whom
a pedestrian seems to be explaining an inscription on a
stone. Landscape, pen-and-ink drawing (Braun's Cata-
logue, No. 63) . In my opinion these two drawings belong

^ Thus, in the Lille Collection, a Virgin and Child, in black chalk

and gypsum (No, 12, Braun's Catalogue), is ascribed to him, when

obviously it belongs to Bartolummeo Montagna. At the Uffizi collection,
a drawing in red chalk, by Francesco Morone of Verona (enthroned
Madonna between- Sts. Joseph, Kochus, Antony, and a cardinal) is still
called a Giambellino ; a great error, which has already been pointed
out by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (i. 492). On the other hand, in
the Academy of Venice, there is a well-known pen-and-ink sketch for a
" Pieta," ascribed to Mantegna, whilst it belongs to the early period of
Giambellino (1460-70). Photograph by Perini. The Stadel Institute
at Frankfort also has a fine and genuine drawing by Giambellino. It
represents Christ sinking under the cross, and is ascribed to Tintoretto.
216 DKESDEN,

to Bomenico Gampagnola, who, as we shall see further on,

is often confounded with Titian, whom he imitated; so,
for instance, in the Louvre collection.^

THE FLORENTINES.
Case XXVIII.
Among
several very valuable drawings in this case, our
eye most of all attracted by a fine washed drawing, the
is

work of Beato Angelico da Fiesole. It represents a winged

angel, seen in front over him a naked youth, with his
;

left arm extended ; this is one of the noblest and best

preserved drawings of the master that ever came under
my notice'" (No. 22 Braun's Catalogue).
There is also a capital drawing by Filipinno Li.jipi.
The sheet shows us two men, of whom the younger is
seated, with a cap on his head, while the elder stands
before him bareheaded and with a long beard, holding an
open book in his left hand. This fine study, very
characteristic of the master, is executed in black chalk and
gypsum.
To the same Filippino Lippi, and not to Cosimo Rosselli,
as the Catalogite would have it, belongs the other fine
drawing, which represents John the Baptist and a young

1 In Mr. Eeiset's Catalogue, drawings by Gampagnola, and even

those of Girolamo Savoldo are ascribed to Titian, e.g., the two fine male
heads (in black chalk and gypsum) with the numbers 377 and 378
(Braun's Catalogue, Nos. 434 and 435). The head seen in profile is the
study for the penitent S. Jerome in Sir Henry Layard's collection, a
picture signed with the masters name.
^ In the collection of the Uffizi Gallery ;
" Madonna with the Infant
Christ," No. 533 in Philipot's Catalogue, also by Giovanni da Fiesole.
 DRAWINGS BY ITALIAN MASTERS. 217

man sitting near him. Braun's Catalogue (Nos. 40 and

41). Filippino is easily to be recognised bj his character-
istic forms of the hand, the foot, and the ear. Yet he is
often confounded, not only in his drawings, but even in
his paintings, with his pupil Raffaellino del Gai'bo, some-
times also with his own father, Fra Filippo Lippi, or again
with Perugino, and even Masaceio.^
Somewhat blurred, though genuine and interesting, is
the drawing in black chalk by Luca Sigiwrelli, on reddish-
brown grounded paper. It consists of four studies of the
nude male figure in different attitudes. If I mistake
not, they are studies for his " Last Judgment " in the
Cathedral of Orvieto.
Two drawings, designated as works of Leonardo da
Vinci, are not genuine. One, a male head seen in profile,
belongs to that class of imitations of this master which one
meets with in every collection (Braun's Catalogue, No.
47) ; the other, smaller, in black chalk, representing a
naked man covering himself with his right arm, and
supporting himself on his left knee, seems also devoid of
the character peculiar to Leonardo (Braun's Catalogue,
No. 48).
A third drawing ascribed to Leonardo is that celebrated

1 He has been confounded with Fra Fili^ppo in the following drawings

of the LomTe Catalogue: No. 230, a man, in sitting posture, the head
supported on hisleft hand, the right on his knee; No. 231, a young

man on the ground, and No. 232, two young men seated, one
sitting
playing the mandola. With Masaccio, in a drawing at the British
Museum, representing a soldier, with a man who is reading (Braun's
Catalogue, No. 31). With Periogino, in another di'awing of the same
collection, ascribed to that master, but really a sketch by Eilippino
Lippi for his fresco painting in the Caraffa Chapel in Sta. Maria sopra
Minerva at Eome: St. Thomas of Aquino preaching to the people
(photograph by Braun, No. 148 of his Catalogue).
218 DRESDEN.

one in silver-point, which is supposed to be the sketch for

the Madonna ascribed to the youthful Leonardo (No. 35)
at the Dresden Gallery. This drawing represents a young
woman with down- cast eyes and dishevelled hair, seen in
front, half-length figure. The dress, closed in front with
a medallion, forms under it a great bunchy perpendicular
fold, such as Lorenzo diCredi was fond of, for instance, in
his fine Madonna with the flower vase, No. 2 in the 1st
room of the Borghese Gallery at Rome. The oval of this
female head, however, is not so round and full as that in
the painting, No. 35 of the Gallery the drawing also
;

seems to me lighter and more flowing here than in the

painted picture, where it is extremely hard and stiff.
Then again, the short, thick, pouting under-lip speaks for
Lorenzo di Ci'edi; being a feature very characteristic of
the master. On the right-hand side of this female figure
we perceive a child's head, lightly sketched. This draw-
ing, somewhat effaced, yet fine and good, is in my opinion,
by Lorenzo di Credi, certainly not by the budding
" Leonardino," and still less by the mature Leonardo da
Yinci. In the drawings of the latter, the strokes are, in
the first place, never so fine and minute, and, secondly,
they are generally drawn in the opposite direction.^

^ In Braun's Catalogue, No. 49. The Lou\Te collection possesses

really the most and the finest of Lorenzo di Credi"s drawings I need :

only remind the reader of Nos. 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 205, 207, in
Eeiset's Catalogue (Braun, Nos. 81 88). —
Also Nos. 2 and 345 (in the
so-called Libro di Lionardo da Vinci) are still erroneously ascribed to
Leonardo. Another drawing of Lorenzo di Credits at the Louvre has
been photographed by Braun (No. 184), under the name of Leonardo da
Vinci, while Mr. Eeiset contents himself with classing it among the
unkno^vTi, No. 448. It represents the head of a child looking from left
to right ; in silver-point and gypsum very exquisite.
; One would
think it ought not to be difficult foran art-critic to distinguish Leonardo
 DRAWINGS BY ITALIAN MASTERS. 219

I perfectly agree "with. Herr Grüner with, regard to the

authorship of the drawing, " Hercules with the Club,"
which he ascribes to Baldasare Pei'uzzi. The drawing
belongs to his second or middle period. In his early time
he was influenced by Sodoma, in his later by Raphael.
Of the former, we find an instance at the Louvre Gallery,
"
in that remarkable washed drawing, entitled " Triomphe
in Reiset's Catalogue (No. 437), and by him classed
among the " unknown," with the additional remark, that
the drawing might belong to Francia, or to Lorenzo
Costa, or even to Pellegrino da S. Daniele. This remark-
able drawing, which at one time belonged to Jabacb, has
been photographed by Braun, and is No. 363 in his
Catalogue.
To B. Peruzzi's last period I assign, amongst others,
the fine cartoon in the N'ational Gallery, London, repre-
senting the Adoration of the Magi.
If, as we saw, the gentlemen at Dresden confounded

Leonardo da Vinci with Lorenzo di Credi, they, on the

other hand, ascribe to this latter a drawing which belongs
to yet another of his Florentine contemporaries. It repre-
sents St. Stepben standing, and behind him St. Catherine

from Lorenzo. Keeping foi' the present to purely physical features

risible toevery eye, I call attention to the widely diiferent forms of the
ear in these two artists of one school.

Leonakdo, Lobenzo T)I Ceedi.

220 DRESDEN.

kneeling (No. 45 in Braun's Catalogue). If I mistake not,

this drawing is by Baffaellino del Garbo}

THE LOMBARDS.
Case III.

The selection of drawings in this case does not seem to

me a very happy one ; I will therefore not detain my
readers with them long. The washed drawing heightened
with white, though but hastily sketched, may really
belong to Correggio. It is a study for his " Madonna with
St. George," exhibited in this Grallery as No. 155. Even in
this hasty sketch one discerns more the painter than the
draftsman, inasmuch as the pictorial eflPect, the correct dis-
and shade, is chiefly taken into considera-
tribution of light
tion. Another washed pen-and-ink sketch by Antonio
Allegri, much damaged, is the Madonna ascending to
heaven, supported by two angels. The two Putti, under
a sort of arbour, drawn in pen-and-ink and shaded with
sepia, are not by Correggio, but by Gaudenzio Ferrari
(Br. 84).

^ A capital drawing, very characteristic of Raffaellino, is to be found

at the British Museum, It rejoresents the Baptist, whole-length figure,
blessing with his right hand and holding a little flag in his left. On
both sides of the figure are two studies of hands. No. 113 in Braun's
Catalogue. Another one, representing the Virgin and Child between
the Saints Catherine and Magdalen, and a glory of angels above, is to
be found in the Gallery of Christ Church College, Oxford, where it is
ascribed to Pietro del Borgo. The drawing, representing a Coronation
of the Virgin, which at the British Museum is ascribed to Cosimo
Koselli, is also by the hand of Eaffaellino del Garbo.
 DRAWINGS BY ITALIAN MASTERS. 221

THE umbria:n's.
Case IY.
Here we find sevei^al drawings ascribed to Raphael
Sanzio, among which the valuable sketch in pen-and-ink
for the ornamental border of a bronze-plate, is well worth
our undivided attention. This magnificent drawing repre-
sents I^eptune seated in a chariot drawn by two sea-
horses ; Naiads riding on dolphins, Amorettes carried by
sea-monsters, Silenus on a turtle, sea-horses led by Cen-
taurs, etc. ; in short quite a Homeric picture. This
exquisite drawing, first outlined in red chalk, and then
filled in with the pen, is, according to Passavant, the one
that Vasari tells us Raphael prepared for his patron the
rich Sienese merchant, Agostino Chigi, a settler at Rome,
with a view to having it executed in metal by Cesarino
Rosetti of Perugia.^ The sketch for a, figure of Eve is also
very fine. Of great interest too is the lightly sketched
pen-drawing of the Fighting Horsemen, a study made by
young Raphael about 1504, after the celebrated cartoon
of Leonardo da Vinci.
All three of these drawings have been photographed by
Braun, and are numbered 74, 75, 79, in his Catalogue.
Let us now examine those drawings by Italian masters
which are preserved in portfolios.

^ Among the drawings by Eaphael at Windsor Castle there is a very

fine one repi'esenting Neptune, Centaurs, and Tritons fighting. On the
back there is a sketch of the ''
Massacre of the Innocents at Bethlehem.
222 DRESDEN.

THE VENETIANS.
Portfolio I.

The " Prodigal's Return" (?), a slight sketch in pen-

and-ink by Domenico Camjyagowla.^
The two drawings said to be by Titian seem to me
erroneously ascribed. The penitent St. Jerome is only a
copy of Titian's picture at the Brera Gallery, while the
drawing in red chalk, " Emperor and Pope," sitting side
by side on a throne, and surrounded by dignitaries of the
church, might rather belong to Bonifazio Veronese. The
Bonifazios used to sketch in blue chalk and fill in with
red chalk, as is the case in this drawing.
The washed drawing in red chalk, which comes next,
and represents a solemn procession on horseback, appears
to me to be a preparatory sketch by the Veronese, Domenico
Biccio, called Brusasorci (burner of rats), for his well-
known wall-painting in a room of the Palazzo Ridolfi at
Verona, setting forth the entry of Charles V. and Clement
VII. into Bologna. Before this drawing, one easily discerns
how many things Paolo Veronese may have learned from
this his elder countryman.

^ Pen-drawings by Campagnola seem to have been appreciated and

sought after, even in his life-time. The Anonymus of Morelli mentions
several, for instance (pp. 25 and 152) :
" In casa de M. Marco da Man-
tova, Dottore : li paesi in tela grandi a guazzo, e li altri infogli a penna
sono de man Domenego Campagnola." Philipot at riorence has
de
photographed several genuine drawings by Domenico Campagnola;
they have in his Catalogue the numbers 1045 and 1341. I also advise
my young friends to study minutely the engraving of the " Massacre of
Innocents at Bethlehem," of the year 1517. The Judgment of Paris
(i^en- drawing) also belongs, in my opinion, to D. Campagnola it is ;

ascribed to Titian (No. 375) in the Louvre Catalogue of Mr. Reiset

(Notice des dessins, etc.)
 . . — ;

DRAWINGS BY ITALIAN MASTERS. 223

Portfolio II,

There are in this Portfolio some drawings by Paolo

Veronese,and one, likewise genuine, by his countryman
and contemporary, Paolo Farinato. The drawings of Pari-
nato are sometimes ascribed to Veronese, for instance, in
the Louvre Gallery (Br. 405, Costumes du temps). There
are several more of fhQ Veronese School

THE PLORENTmES.
Portfolio I.

Antony tempted by a Beautiful Woman," by Plan-

" St.
tilla In this weak drawing the pious nun has
Nelli.
imitated Fra Bartolommeo. The superior drawing in
silver-point, representing a man in kneeling attitude, is
assigned to Pra Filippo Lippi, but is certainly not by him.'
To my thinking, it belongs to the Perugia School, and re-
calls Piorenzo di Lorenzo.
In the teeth of my resolve to mention none but genuine
drawings, I must nevertheless draw the attention of my
readers to a washed drawing which represents the head
of John the Baptist in a charger, and is ascribed by Herr
Grüner to no less a master than Leonardo da Vinci
really a too malicious profanation of that honoured name !

The head of the Baptist in this hideous drawing horresco

refevens — is so foreshortened that from a certain point of

view it looks a good deal like a boiled carp. What notions

^ Tlie drawings of this great master are very rare. Those exhibited
in the corridor of the Uffizi Gallery must be mere copies from Fra
Filippo's paintings. The Louvre collection possesses a genuine drawing
by Filippo, in silver-point and chalk : two heads, one of them damaged
(Catal. Eeiset, 229). The Darmstadt Collection has also a drawing by
this master, in black chalk and gypsum
224 DRESDEN.

must they liave of Leonardo da Vinci at the print-room of

the Dresden Gallery, to saddle him with such miserable
fooleries of the end of the 17th century !

The drawing here ascribed to Francesco Pesello, named

Pesellino, appears to me to be only a modern copy from
his Predella in the collection of the Florentine Academy/
A similar copy in the Uffizi collection at Florence, is there
given out as an original drawing by Pesellino.
The two interesting drawings (" Rape of the Sirens ")
assigned to Lorenzo di Credi, have already been discussed
by others and given back to their real author, the Vene-
tian Jacopo de' Barbari. These drawings belonged at one
time to Mariette. Very characteristic of Jacopo de' Bar-
bari are especially the round shape of the Siren's head,^
the half-open mouth, the clumsy thumb of the Putto play-
ing the flute.

On the other hand, the head of a boy seen in profile is.

correctly ascribed to Luca Sigiiorelli. The shape of the

ear is Black chalk drawing.
characteristic of that master.
Excellent also is the drawing in red chalk by Fra Ban^to-
lommeo ; it represents a man seen from behind, with a knife
in his right hand. Whole-length figure. By Sandro Bot-
ticelli there are three genuine drawings in the Dresden

Gallery they are studies for the figure of John the Bap-
:

tist, executed in pen-and-ink, sepia and gypsum (jSTo. 9).

THE LOMBARDS.
Portfolio I.

" Seated Madonna, with the infant Christ ; near her to

the right St. Elisabeth with the little St. John, to the
left an angel." This superior drawing in red chalk (No. 2)

^ In Braun's Catalogue, No. 36.

 ;

DRAWINGS BY ITALIAN MASTERS. 225

is rightly ascribed to Gesare da Sesto, whose drawings are

not very often to be met with. In the British Museum
there is one by him, representing studies for a Madonna
and on the back a head drawn in red chalk. This
figure,
drawing is ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci, as well as
another of his at Windsor Castle, also executed in red
chalk, and representing studies for an Infant Christ. But
I cannot believe that these drawings were studies for the
well-known fresco painting at St. Onofrio, Rome, as some
have stated. Among the drawings in possession of Mr.
J. P. Heseltine, London, there are some studies of the

figure of St. John the Baptist by Cesare del Sesto, for his
picture, representing the baptism of Christ, in the collection
of the Duke Scotti at Milan. The Academy of Venice
has several good ones ; the collection of the Royal Library
of Turin some excellent ones ; and the Louvre collection
has a few in the so-called Libro di Lionardo da Vinci
for instance, ISio. 6,782, a drawing in red chalk, with St.

George on a prancing horse (mentioned by Lomazzo) ;

'No. 6,357, drawing in red chalk, with the Madonna and

Child, and the Saints Jerome and John the Baptist ;

Ko. 6,781, pen-drawing, with studies for Madonnas.

I fully agree with Mr. Grüner in his attribution of the
" Christ bound to a pillar." This drawing in gypsum
(ISTo. 13) is ascribed to Aurelio Luini, the son of Ber-
nardino.

POETFOLIO II.

This Portfolio contains several genuine drawings by the

Genoese artists, Benedetto Oastiglione (idyllic scenes), and
Luca Camhiaso (N'os. 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22).
226 DRESDEN.

KOMAIS" SCHOOL,
Portfolio I.

I do not venture to decide whether the good perspective

drawing of a Street belongs really to Pier della Francesca,
or to Frate Carnevali, or perhaps to Melozzo da Forli
(No. 1). "Whichever of these three masters it may belong
to, it has, at all events, nothing in commonVith the Roman
School. The pen-and-ink sketch for the tomb of Pins II.

in the church of S. Andrea della Yalle at Rome seems to

me not without interest. It belongs to Pieiro Paolo da
Todi.
Here I conclude this too hasty review of Drawings by
Italian Masters in the Print-room at Dresden. I do not
deny that I may have made some mistakes, for good inten-
tions alone do not suffice for such a task as this ; some of
my corrections, however, may stand the test of time.
Should have induced some few of my
this critical essay
readers to take up the anything but easy study of draw-
ings, I should think myself amply rewarded for my
labour.
 III. BERLIN.

W'"HILE tlie Pinacotheca of Munich excites our full

admiration, from the number of important pictures
that it possesses of the German and Flemish schools of paint-
ing, the magnificent rooms of the Dresden Gallery impress
us with the fact that for the general art-loving public, there
is no other picture- collection in the world that can rival
it in attractive beauty. It is not only wonderfully rich
in masterpieces of the best periods of almost all the
schools of painting, but in Raphael's "Madonna of S.
Sisto " it most beautiful picture in
possesses, perhaps, the
Christendom. Its Correggios, Titians, Paolos, its Palmas
and Bonifazios, its Ruysdaels, Rembrandts, Rubenses, and
Wouvermans, its Adrian van der Veldes, its Heydens, and
especially its Metzus, are celebrated all over the world,
and in fact rank among the finest productions of modern
art. And while the Dresden collection has an indescrib-
able absorbing charm for the amateur, it further possesses
a special attraction for the general art-loving public,
which is not much given to thoughtful examination of
a picture, but is more disposed to lose itself in a dreamy
enthusiasm as it lolls on the comfortable cushions of the
gallery.
The Berlin collection is of later origjin than the two
228 BERLIN.

just named ; little more tlian half a century lias elapsed

since its foundation. After tlie fall of I>[apoleon I., when
Reaction raised its head all over Europe, there was also-

a revulsion in matters of artistic taste. The shape in

which it asserted itself was, that the Quattrocentists,
hitherto quite neglected, came to be more or less valued
again. From that time, in judging works of art, men
began at least to take into consideration the arje that
gave them and thus unconsciously they paved the
birth,
way to the doctrine of the present day, that Art is to be
regarded as an organic whole. Hence they endeavoured,
as far as possible, to bring historical views to bear in
laying the plan of a picture-gallery.
It was a great disadvantage to Berlin, as compared
with Dresden and Munich, that the favourable time for
the acquisition of first-rate works had long gone by, the
finest treasures being, so to speak, out of the market, and
already secured in other hands. Yet, the Prussian Go-
vernment had one great advantage in forming its art-

collections — that of being able to act upon historical prin-

ciples, and therefore with more critical judgment.
It was fortunate for the Berlin Gallery in its nascent
state, that in the first decades of our century, the Pre-
raphaelites still held a comparatively inferior rank in the
eyes of so-called connoisseurs, being everywhere classed
below the productions of the Carracci period. To have
taken advantage of the then prevailing taste with brilliant
success, was the merit of the English banker Solly, who
in judging works of art used that personal discrimination
which has distingniished several men of his calling, from
Jabach of Cologne to the Rothschilds of to-day.
This clever connoisseur had managed, at a comparatively
small cost, to form a picture-gallery that perhaps no
 IISrTKODUCTION. 229

private collection of the present day could rival. When

in the year 1821 the Prussian Government was fortunate
enough to acquire the Solly Collection, it comprised nearly
600 pictures, amongst them the celebrated Van Eyck,
the exquisite " Madonna " of Eaphael's early period,
several excellent works by Francia, Tilippo, and Filippino
Lippi, D. Ghirlandajo, Botticelli, and others. These Solly
pictures form the nucleus of the Italian paintings in the
Berlin Gallery.^ The acquisition of the Solly Collection
does great credit to the judgment of the Prussian Govern-
ment ;
yet, in speaking of the art-collections of Berlin in
general, one ought not to pass over the lively and enlightened
interest taken inArt by members of the Prussian Royal
Family. Baron von Rumohr,
If competent Art-critics like
who has done so much to embellish and enrich the Berlin
Gallery, were consulted and listened to at Berlin, it was
not so much the merit of the bureaucracy as the personal
merit of the intellectual Crown Prince, afterwards King
Frederick William lY. At the same time, the Govern-
ment always took care to entrust none but approved Art-
critics with the superintendence of their collections, whilst
elsewhere it is a common thing to appoint some popular
painter in actual practice, who, unversed in the history of
Art, and, moreover, biased by the modern predilections
of his profession, will in most cases do more harm than
good to the collection confided to his care.

' A good third of these Italian pictures were brought together by a

certain Abate Massinelli of Bergamo, a shrewd, enterjn'ising specu-
lator in pictiires, who bought them partly from churches, partly from
private individuals, all over the North of Italy. Before they came into
the hands of the English collector, they had undergone, in the studio
of Giuseppe Molteni of Milan, either a restoration or only a cleaning,
according to the condition they were in. This fact was communicated
to the writer many years ago, by the late painter Molteni himself.
 ;

230 BEKLIN.

lu the year 1874 the Berlin Gallery received a con-

siderable, and in many respects valuable addition, by the
purchase of the collection of the banker Suermondt of
Aachen, containing many rare works of the Dutch masters.
Besides these large purchases, the intelligent directors,
enthusiastic for the glory of their gallery, have never lost
an opportunity to enrich it with new, and often very
valuable works of art ; whilst in the noble Crown Prince,
a true lover of all that is beautiful and good, they have
always found a persuasive advocate of the necessary out-
lays. Thus, of late years, the collection has advanced
with giant strides, and bids fair, before long, to match
the other galleries, not only in solid worth, but even in
quantity.
In respect of masterpieces by the matadores of the
several European schools of painting, the Berlin Gallery
will, of course, bear no comparison with those of Dresden
and Vienna ; on the other hand, to students anxious to
learn, it offers, even now, such an epitome of the historical
development of Art as no other collection in the world
can do. There is, in fact, no other gallery where we find
the Flemish School so completely represented, from the
Van Eyck down to Rubens and Van Dyck the
brothers ;

Dutch School from Mierevelt to Adriaen van der Werff

the Venetian from Antonio da IMurano to Tiepolo ; the
Ferrara-Bologna School from Cosme to Bagnacavallo, the
Florentine from Fra Filippo to Alessandro Allori, the
Umbrian from Fiorenzo di Lorenzo and Melozzo da Forli
to Raphael Santi, &c. In the galleries of Vienna and
Dresden, the Art of the 15th century is hardly repre-
sented at all ; these collections are only rich in paintings
of the 16th and 17th centuries, pictures that certainly cast
a far stronger spell upon the senses than the dry,
 INTRODUCTION. 231

straightforward, effectless, but always iionestlj progres-

sive Quattrocentists.^ But
anyone wishes to penetrate
if

to the heart's core of Art, and derive from it a deeper

intellectual enjoyment, to him I recommend, first of all, a
visit to the Berlin Gallery. When he has hecome inti-
mately acquainted with this valiaable collection, and fami-
liar with its treasures, then, and only then, let him treat

himself to the unspeakable delight that the Dresden

Gallery will offer him there on the Elbe, in those halls
;

of a temple truly worthy of the Muses, he will perceive

and fully prize the particular merits of this Berlin col-
lection."
The moment we set foot in the interior of Schinkel's
stately pile, we are tuned to high and happy thoughts by
the solemn greeting given us by some of the noblest
Italian Quattrocentists. On our right we see Ghirlandajo,
Sandro Botticelli, rilip]Dino Lippi ; on our left, the some-
what crusty but always manful Cosimo Tura, and his
talented pupil Lorenzo Costa. Here we have representa-
tive men. of two of the most artistically- gifted tribes of the
Peninsula, the Florentines and the Ferrarese. These
populations, though separated only by the Po and the
Apennines, are yet of widely different physiognomies.
But now confront these Florentines and Ferrarese with a
Dürer, a Cranach, a Burkmayr, or say, with a Van der
Weyden, a Memling, a. Quintin Matsys ; the local charac-

1 Dm-ing the last few years, the Direction of the Dresden Gallery
has honourably striven to till up many a gap by its acquisitions of
pictiu'es by Mantegna, Antonello da Messina, Signorelli, Lorenzo di
Credi, Cavazzola, &c.
^ To prevent misunderstanding, I must explain, that when I visited the
Berlin Gallery, many Italian pictures were not to be seen, because some
of the rooms were being rebuilt.
 232 BERLIN.

ters of these Italians would at once retire into the back-

ground, while the common national character of their
country would be overpoweringly conspicuous in their
features. Is not this a confirmation of the maxim that
the outer visible form is conditioned by the spirit that
animates it, and this again partly by the composition of
the blood, and partly by the external nature, in the midst
of which a man grows up and lives ?

I begin my studies in the Berlin Gallery with the

works of the Ferrara-Bologna School. If Berlin has not,
like Dresden, the advantage of possessing works of the rare
Ercole Grandi di Roberto, or of Francesco Cossa, yet it

can boast of having not only the most important picture

of Cosimo Tura, the founder of this school, but also works
of his most prominent pupils, as Lorenzo Costa, Domenico
Panetti, and even, if I mistake not, a picture of the little-
known Francesco Bianchi, that is, nearly all the more
distinguished of Tura's intellectual posterity.
It was a peculiarity of the old Ferrarese artists, which,
however, they shared with some contemjior-aries of the
school of Squarcione, for instance, the great Mantegna,^ that
they decorated the throne of the Madonna with painted
reliefs ; which came down through Francesco
a fashion
Bianchi even to Correggio, with whose early works it
may be said to expire.' But what is altogether peculiar

' See his splendid picture in the chui'ch of S. Zeno at Verona.

^ In the fine " Madonna," by Francesco Bianchi, at the Louvre, an
oval of the throne-socle contains " Adam and Eve," painted grey in
grey. A small painting of Correggio's youthful days, " Marriage of St.
Catharine," now possessed by Dr. G. Frizzoni of Milan, shows likewise in
an oval " The Sacrifice of Abraham." Lastly, the throne in Correggio's
large picture (No. 151) of the Dresden Gallery, is ornamented with an
oval representing " Moses with the Tables of the Law."
 THE FERRAEA-BOLOGXA SCHOOL. 233

to tlie old Ferrarese, from Tura down to the pupils of Costa,

is the construction of the Madonna's throne in two parts,
so that between the base and the upper part of the throne
is left a vacant space, through which we look into the open
air/
As Dr. J. von Meyer very aptly remarks, Cosimo Tara
(Cosimo is pronounced Cosme in Ferrarese) holds the
same place among the Ferrarese as Andrea Mantegna in
the School of Padua, and Dario of Treviso in that of
Treviso, as Bartolommeo Viverini and Giovanni Bellini
(1460 — 1480) in the Venetian proper, Yincenzo Foppa in
the Lombard, &c. But as each school had its Mantegna,
so each had also its Pietro Perugino, and at length its
Raphael. The place that Perugino holds in the School
of Perugia, belongs of right to Lorenzo Costa in the
Ferrara-Bologna School.
Of this ingenious, delightful, and, to my thinking, much
underrated painter, the Berlin Gallery possesses several
very good and characteristic pieces, one of the year 1502,
another marked 1504. Lorenzo Costa had moved from
Ferrara to Bologna as early as the year 1483. It is

generally stated, that Francia may possibly have learned

from, him just the technique of painting, but that no
sooner was he master of the brush than he reacted with
overpowering effect on Costa. Any iinprejudiced student
who compares the two pictiires here by Lorenzo Costa,

* Such a throne we see in this picture (Xo. Ill) by Tura; and a

similar one in a pictiu'e in the Brera Gallery at Milan (No. 175),
ascribed to Stefano of Ferrara ; also in several pictures by Lorenzo
Costa (seventh chapel on the right, S. Giovanni in Monte, at Bologna), and
even in a picture by Francia, the follower of Costa (first chapel on the
left, S. Martino of Bologna) and in pictui-es of the early period of
;

Amico Aspertini.
 —

234 BERLIN.

painted in the first years of the 16th century,^ with his

great tempera pictures of 1488 in the Bentivoglio Chapel
(Church S. Jacopo Maggiore), will hardly be able to dis-
pute that one and the same character looks out from all

these pictures, though spread over a period of some sixteen

years. In St. Cecilia's Chapel (S. Jacopo Maggiore at
Bologna), where both painters worked together in 1505
1506, the spectator of those splendid frescoes is left in

doubt whether Costa was more indebted to Francia, or he

to Costa.
The municipal vanity of the Bolognese went so far, that
some of their local writers, in speaking of the great altar-
piece, now in the choir of S. Giovanni in Monte at
Bologna,' while they could not question the execution of
itby Costa, felt bound nevertheless to claim the invention
and drawing for their own Francia. This statement has
even been repeated by the Florentine editors of Yasari

^ One of these pictures (Xo. 112), is a " Presentation of Christ in the

Temple;" the other (115), a " Mourning for Christ." From this last
the painter Niceolo Pisan has borrowed a gi-eatdeal in his " Deposizione
di Croce," No. 122 in the Pinacothcca of Bologna. I take this opportu-
nity to suggest to Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ii. 455), that Niecolo
Pisan was an imitator of Costa, and afterwards of Garofalo (see his
first

picture No. 194 in the Brera Gallei'y), but is not to be confounded, as

they have chosen to do, with the much older Cremonese painter Niceolo
Soriani. Niceolo Pisan was a Bolognese, and worked somewhere about
the years 1504 —
1538. See Gualandi's " Memorie originali italiene, ris-
guardanti le Belle arti," Serie 1% p. 34. In the National Gallery there
is an altarpiece dated 1505 (No. 629) by Costa, and two other pictures

in the collection of Mr. Graham, London. The pictiu*es by him at

Hampton Court are ascribed to P. Perugino. One of them, a female
portrait (No. 295), is given by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle to
Boateri (iii. 251) ; the other, a female saint (No. 304), to Chiodarolo.
Even in the British Museum a fine pen-drawing by Costa, representhig
four female figures, is ascribed to P. Perugino.
^ This picture represents the Coronation of Mary, with six Saints.
 THE FEREARA-BOLOGNA SCHOOL. 235

(Ed. Lemonnier, iv. 243, 2) ; which, is the less excusable

in them, as there exists in their own city, among the col-
lection of drawings at the Uffizi, the j)en-and-ink sketch
for that very painting, thongh, indeed, nnder the false
name of Filippino Lippi. (Photographed by Philpot in
Florence TsTo. 763.')
I have already attempted elsewhere (see my articles on
the Borghese Gallery, in Liitzow's " Zeitschrift für bil-
dende Kunst "), by examples taken from paintings in the
Florentine collections, to make it clear to my young"
fdends that the outward characteristics of a school are
often so faithfully transmitted from master to pupil, that
novices in the science of Art are apt to confound, for
instance, Fra Filippo Lippi with his exemplar Masaccio,
him with Filippino Lippi (Portrait No. 286 at the Uffizi
Grallery), Fra Filippo again with Botticelli (Uffizi, No.

1179), or, as is the case in a Northern Gallery, Raffaellino

del Garbo with his master Filippino. Therefore, when
we see that at Florence Botticelli has been mistaken for

^ Close to it we find there another pen-drawing, likewise attributed to

rilippino, but really by Chiodarolo, a pupil of Costa. (Photographed by
Philpot, No. 2,877.) It represents Saint Cecilia before the Proconsul, and
is the sketch for Chiodarolo's good fresco in St. Cecilia's Chapel, S,
Jacopo Maggiore at Bologna. Prom this pen-drawing by Chiodarolo,
as also from the drawings of Amico Aspertini, we see very clearly how
all the Bolognese painters of the so-called Francia School learned their

art chiefly from Lorenzo Costa. In the few drawings that I know of
Prancia, he appears much nobler in his forms, and more careful and
conscientious in his execution, and in them also shows himself more a
modeller than a painter. The " Judgment of Paris," in the Albertina at
Vienna, seems to be his best drawing. I therefore advise all students to
get the above-named photographs, and study them at their leisure. Such
a study of drawings will lead far more quickly and surely to an accurate
knowledge of the great masters and their schools than the contempla-
tion of their mostly "restored" and consequently disfigured paintings.
236 BERLIN.

his master Era Filippo, aud at Berlin for his pupil Raphael-
lino del Grarbo (as in the Virgin with the Infant Christ
and Saints, No. 87), it can scarcely surprise us that in
England a similar confusion seems to have taken place.
Mistakes like these can easily be avoided by a careful
study of the forms of the human body (especially the
shape of the hand and also of the eai^), and of the harmony
of colours, so different in the works of these artists. In
my opinion the two excellent but somewhat defaced pic-
tures in the l^ational Gallery, No. 592 and No. 1033, both
representing the *'
Adoration of the Magi," are works,
not of Filippiuo's, but of Botticelli's, whose dramatic
powers are well displayed here. On the other hand, I
assign to pupils of Botticelli's the two Tondos, No. 226
and JS'o. 275, and two other pictures bearing the numbers
916 and 782. In allthese works I miss not only the great
painter's high-sph-ited sentiment, but also the brightness
and transparency of colours peculiar to him. Four genuine
pictures by Botticelli, illustrating one of Boccaccio's tales,
are in Mr. Lyland's collection. Similar mistakes have
happened with works of the Ferrara School. The
*'
St. Sebastian," an unmistakable work of Cosme (now
belonging to the antiquary, Guggenheim of Venice), is
attributed by all the art-critics, even by Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle (i. 538), to his pupil Lorenzo Costa, and
that principally on the ground that Costa's name stands
written on it in Hebrew characters.^ Inscrijjtions, as
well on pictures as elsewhere, can only have a relative
value, namely, so far as they are in accordance with the

'
It may be that Lorenzo Costa was influenced by Tura in his eai'ly
Avorks ; at Bologna, he seems to have been swayed a little b}' Ercole
Grandi and Eoberto.
 :

THE FERRARA-BOLOGNA SCHOOL. 237

object they describe. Hence, the old Venetian .proverb

" chi guarda cartelo, no magna vedelo," who looks at labels,
eats no veal (comes to grief). That Hebrew inscription,
however (if it really means Magister (?) Lanrentins Costa),
is contradicted by the picture itself, which so plainly

bears on its face the stamp of Tura, that it might well be

set before the tyro as a type of his manner. Again, as
this figure of St. Sebastian, excellent in its way, was the
occasion of Cosme being taken for his pupil Costa ; so in
another famous picture (at present in the house Strozzi at
Ferrara) Costa himself has been confounded with his
pupil Ei'cole Grandi di Giulio Cesare. One must, how-
ever, admit, that here the scholar has come so close to
the manner of the master, that it would not perhaps be
too bold to assume, that the composition of the picture comes
from Costa, and only the execution belongs to Gi^andi.^

Eor the instruction of my young friends, I will here set

Lorenzo Costa's Shape of Cosimo Tura's Sliape of

Hand. Hand.

before their eyes a facsimile of the shapes of ear'and hand in

Cosimo Tura and in Lorenzo Costa, that they may the

^ The picture represents an

enthroned " Madonna and j^Child," be-
tween St. Gnglielmo and John the Baptist; it came to the Strozzi
Gallery from S. Cristoforo degli Esposti. The throne is ornamented
 ^

238 BERLIN.

more easily discern the difference in form between these

two Ferrarese masters. While Tura is lumpy and angular,
Costa likes to lengthen out his forms. I remai'k once more,

Lorenzo Costa's Shape of Eur. Cosimo Tara's Shape of Ear.

that the landscape backgrounds of Costa, which generally

present a view of the Reno Valley near Bologna, are in
their fine sense of line and their poetical conception un-
rivalledamong the landscapes of his contemporaries.
The Ferrarese Francesco BiancJu was probably one of
the early pupils of Cosme. He was born between the
years 1440 — 1450. His oldest picture known to me is in
the hands of the heirs (Lombardi) of Professor Saroli at
Ferrara, and represents " The Death of Mary." This
painting was formerly in the church of the convent of S.
Guglielmo at Ferrara.

with reliefs grey in grey, one of whicli represents Adam and Eve (as

in Francesco Bianchi's picture at the Louvre), and at the same time

the " Sacrifice of Abraham " (as in Correggio's picture at Signor Eriz-

zoni's).
'
On wood, with gilt ground enriched with arabesques. Mary lies
 ;

THE FEEßARA-BOLOGXA SCHOOL. 239

Bianchi can hardly have removed to Modena before the

year 1480. And if he was living at Ferrara till that time,
many Ferrarese painters, whom hitherto we have traced
directly to Tura, may have served their apprenticeship in
Bianchi's studio instead.Judging especially by his picture
in the Louvre, Iwould include among his pupils at Modena,
that Marco Meloni of Carpi, by whom the Modena Gallery
has several signed and good pictures (^N'os. 58 and 59).
Still Meloni must have finished his education in the

School of Francia, and must also have seen works by P.

Perugino.
The small picture in this gallery, which I think is to

dead on a bier, surrounded by the twelve Apostles ; below them two

angels swinging censers above them Christ, with angels hovering
;

round him, and holding on his knees the soul of the departed in the
shape of a young girl. The folds in the mantle of Clu'ist are still
entirely after the manner of Tura the head of the young girl who
;

represents the soul of Mary reminds one strongly of the jMadonna

heads, both of Tura and of his later pupil Costa the form of the hands,
;

with the fingers too long, and that of the ears, are also characteristic of
Francesco Bianchi. In this work, which must belong to the earlj'
period of the master, Bianchi shows himself a scholar of Tura. Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle remark on this picture (i. 534-5) " This picture, :

is ascribed by some persons to Mantegna . This is an ugly picture

. .

with all the faults of the Ferrarese, and something of the manner
which Grandi might have had in his earliest period but query, is it by ;

him or the —
young Costa, or even Coltellini ? " and (p. 539-41), " it may
be possible that the Death of the Virgin should be au early Costa
'
'

admitting this, Costa would prove to be a disciple of Ercole Grandi (I !)".

Such fumbling on the part of men so shrewd and well-informed proceeds,
I think, from a total absence of method. Another picture by Bianchi
is to be found in the Municipal Collection of Ferrara (No. 29). It
represents the "Virgin and Child" between St. Jerome and Maria
Egiziaca, and the hermits Paul and Antony above them the •' Annun-
;

ciation " (under the name of Lorenzo Costa). Several works by Fran-
cesco Bianchi at Modena ; in the picture-gallery there, in the house
Kangoni, in the church S. Pietro, &c.
240 BERLIN.

be ascribed to Francesco Biancbi, represents the Cii'cum-

cision of Cbrist, and is numbered 119. The late Dr.
Wangen, with fine discrimination, traced it to the Ferrara
School, and coming very near the truth, added " akin to
L. Costa." But I go a step farther, and despite the mask
which the restorer has fastened on the picture, I believe I
recognise its true author, our Ferrarese Bianchi, called at
Modena Frarre (The Ferrarese). The date of 1516 which
the picture bears would speak against this opinion, as
Bianchi is said to have died in 1510. But this time I am
bold enough to trust to my
which clearly recognise
eyes,
the master in the forms of the hands and ears, and the
attitudes and movements of the figures, rather than a date
which might have been stuck on at any later time, and
which therefore I regard as apocryphal.
There is yet a third pupil of Tura, and contemporary of
L. Costa, whose acquaintance we are privileged to make
in this gallery. I mean Vomenico Panetti, the painter of
picture No. 113. It represents the "Lamentation round
the Dead Christ," and is signed with the painter's name.
Panetti is a master whose works are very rarely met with
outside his native town.
If we have called Lorenzo Costa the Perugino of the
Fei'rara School, we might in some respects call Panetti its

Pintoricchio, though, as an artist, the Perugian far sur-

passes our somewhat dry and narrow-minded Ferrarese.
Panetti was probably born between 1450 —1460, he died in
1512. There is surely no occasion to suppose that he carried
on his studies under the influence of Umbrian masters ; to
me he seems, in all his works, a thorough Ferrarese.
Lodovlco 2La::tolini oiight rather to be considered a pupil
of Panetti than of L. Costa, who was living- at Bologna.
This opinion is supported by the forms of the ear and
 THE FERRAEA-BOLOGNA SCHOOL. 241

hand in his paintings, by his landscape backgrounds/ and

by his scale of colours. Of this sparkling T'errarese the
Berlin Gallery has several characteristic works.^
And now we have made our way, step by step, to the
two most noted painters of this School, Giovanni Dosso and
Benvenuto Garofalo. They hold about the same position
among the Ferrarese as their contemporaries Gaudenzio
Ferrari and Bernardino Luini do in the Lombard School.
All these lived at one epoch, when art attained its culmi-
nating point in Italy. That Dosso ever resided at Kome,
as the catalogue says, I take leave to doubt. I know of
no document from which one could draw such an in-
ference and in his works Dosso is always Ferrarese.
; In
his later time, it is true, his Ferrarese colouring becomes
Venetian,^ but of Raphaelite influences there is nowhere
a trace to be found in his works.*

'
The same steep conical blue mountains with streaks of dazzling white
are found in the landscape backgrounds of Francesco Bianchi, Panetti,
Dosso Dossi, and Garofalo. Photographs of drawings by L. Mazzolini
are to be found in Braun (137) and Philpot (767).
^ I have never met with any well-accredited drawings by Panetti.

I have seen several by Mazzolini two at the Uffizi Gallery, under the
;

name of Ercole Grandi (Philpot, 767), " Apostles Reading ; " the bust of
an old man with a rough beard (Inconnu, No. 445 in Mr. Reiset's
catalogue) ; a courtof justice with the judge sitting on a throne, &c., in
the collection of the Duke d'Aumale (Braun, " Beaux Arts," No. 139).
All these drawings in chalk, water-colour, and gypsum, differ in their
technique from the drawings of Lor. Costa and his pupils.
^ When in the year 1516 Titian came for the first time to the Court

of Alfonso I. at Ferrara, he found the ducal painter already installed at

the castle as the guest of the Duke. We can easily understand how
Dosso's intercourse with Titian must have had some influence on the
Ferrarese. Besides, it is quite possible that Dosso had himself visited
Venice, and studied colouring in the paintings of Giorgione, Titian,
Palma, Lotto, &c. Of this his best time Prince Chigi at Rome
possesses an excellent picture.
* That he had to copy Raphael's S, George and S. Michel for Duke

E
 ;

242 BERLIN.

In the year 1512 Dosso had already finisLed his paint-

ings for the Court of the Gonzagas at Mantua. He also
worked at Trient in the year 1532, and his " Enthroned
Madonna with the Child," before whom a sainted bishop
is presenting Cardinal von Cless, still remains in the
Castle there, although much damaged (over a door leading
into the Senate House). Dosso's jncture (No. 264) in this
gallery is a fragment, and represents the Fathers contem-
plating the mystery of Mary's immaculate conception ;

unfortunately, it has been so much injured by repainting

that in its present condition one can form by this no just
idea of Dosso's art.
His contemporary and rival, Garofalo, is better repre-
sented in these rooms. His " Jerome doing Penance "
(No. 243), his "Adoration of the Magi" (No. 260), his
"Entombment" (No. 262), and his "Annunciation," are
very good pictures, by which one may get to know the
master well. For more about him I refer the reader to
my essay on the Borghese Gallery in Lützow's " Zeit-
schrift für bildende Kunst."
We now come to the Bologxese proper, a peoi^le that
long continued to hold by the Ferrarese in the matter of Art.
Their painters of the 14th and the first half of the 15th
centuries, the so-called Crocefissaio, Jacopo Avanzi, Lippo
Dalmasio, and others, are very inferior artists compared

Alfonso does not imply that Dosso was influenced by Eapliael. It is

true a letter of the Ferrarese Charge d' Affaires at the Papal Court
shows that Battista Dosso was at Rome in 1519, that he was on speak-
ing terms with Raphael, nay, that Raphael knew Dosso's elder brother
but this superficial acquaintance does not give us the right to suppose
that the one painter exercised an influence over the other. (See Cam-
pori, "Notizie inedite di Raffaelo d'Urbino," pp. 29 and 30, Modena,
1863.)
 THE FEßßARA-BOLOGNA SCHOOL. 243

with the Veronese Altichiero and Vittore Pisano, or even

the contemporary Sieneses and Florentines. Their Marco
Zoppo was really no better than a caricature of his master,
Squarcione ; besides, he spent the greater part of his life
at Yenice. It was only about the year 1470 that the
elder Bolognese School (the so-called School of Francia)
was founded by Ferrarese painters, whom the Bentivogli
had invited to Bologna, namely, Francesco Cossa, Galasso
Galassi, Ercole Eoberti, and, above all, Lorenzo Costa
(1483 — 1509). If we examine, for instance, the niello
works of Francesco Raibolini, who remained a goldsmith
tillabout 1490, we find in them nothing of that style
which was afterwards developed in his paintings by con-
tact with Lorenzo Costa. This Ferrara-Bologna School of
painting is also pretty completely represented at the Ber-
lin by the masters Francesco Baibolini (called
Gallery
Francia) and his sons Giacovio and Giulio Francia, by
^

Amico Aspertini, Girolamo Marchesi, Bartolommeo Ea-

menghi, and Innocenzo Francucci.
Among the great beauties of this collection are, first

of all, a few works by the noble and, in his forms, always

pure and tasteful Francia, in his crude but vigorous early
manner. At the head of these I place the lovely " Madonna
and Child with S. Joseph"
which Francia
(N'o. 125),
painted for his friend Bianchini, and which seems to be-
long to about the same period that gave birth to his won-
derful St. Stephen in the Borghese Gallery at Rome.
The ears and hands in this picture are very characteristic
of the master.'

^ The drawings of Francia are very rare ; the Albertina at Vienna

possesses one of great beauty, the " Judgment of Paris."
- Another early work of the master, representing a Virgin and Child,
is in the interesting collection ofLord Elcho.
244 BERLIN.

Whether Francesco Raibolini ever was, as the catalogue

pretends, under the influence of Perugino and of Floren-
tine Art, is a matter that I will not enter upon, being my-
self stronglyopposed to the " influencing " theory of
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, because I think it utterly
inconsistent and unhistorical.
Amico Aspefrtini is but feebly represented in this gal-
leryby his picture of the " Adoration of the Shepherds "
(N'o. 118). This disciple of Costa is very unequal in his
works. Sometimes he is extravagant and harorßoe, at other
times his paintings contain the loveliest episodes, e.g., his
two frescoes in the chapel of St. Cecilia at Bologna.
Amico likes sometimes to bedizen his pictures with gold
and to make them attractive by all sorts of accessories.
He by
generally gives his figures too large a skull, and
this you may often distinguish them from those of his
master. Sometimes, however, especially in portraits, he
comes so near to Lorenzo Costa that it is not easy to tell
the one master from the other. But Aspertini's scale of
colours is always lower than that of Costa's.
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, on the authority of Mal-
vasia, consider Amico Aspertini to be not a pupü of Costa,^
but of Ercole Roberti,to which master they also give several
pupils of Pintoricchio, though only second-rate pupils.
Further, the frescoes by Aspertini in the chapel of S.
Cecuia, of the year 1506,^ they declare to be his earliest
works whereas his great altar-piece marked " Tiroci-
;

• The Uffizi Gallery possesses a characteristic drawing byA. Aspertini.

Philpot, 1237.
^ In the year 1875, when the frescoes in the chapel of S. Cecilia

were cleaned, the date 1506 was discovered on one of the paintings by
Lorenzo Costa. The whole chapel, therefore, was completed before
Pope Julius II.'s entry into Bologna.
 ;

THE FERKABA-BOLOGNA SCHOOL. 245

num," in the Bologna Pinacotlieca, belongs, beyond all

doubt, to a much earlier period. Then, they ascribe to
this Bolognese master one (No. 573) of those two little

pictures in the Museo Madrid which Don Pedro

o£
Madrazo's catalogue assigns to the Old-Umbrian School
to me, however, they appear unmistakable works of Bal-
dassare Peruzzi's early period, when he was still painting
under the influence of Pintoricchio, as in his frescoes in
S. Onofrio at Rome/ The other picture (No. 674) is left
unnoticed by the historiographers (i. 576). We know
from the" frescoes in S. Onofrio that Baldassare Peruzzi,
before he took Soddoma for his pattern, painted under the
influence and guidance of Pintoricchio.
The collection contains several pictures by Francia's
sons and pupils, Giacomo and Gmlio. "Chastity" (N'o.
271) belongs to the early period of Giacomo, and was
probably painted after a drawing of his father's. " Mary

with the Child and St. Francis" (No. 293), is also an

earlywork of this master. In the large picture, " Mary
as Queen of Heaven " (No. 287), the St. Francis and
John the Baptist seem to me to betray the hand of the
younger brother Giulio.
Works of Giacomo in the thirties (1530 —^1539) show
distinctly the influence wielded over him as well as other
Bolognese, by the then celebrated Dosso (Brera Gallery,
No. 171 and 177). Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle ascribe
to the same Giacomo Francia the two frescoes in the Chapel of
St. Cecuia, one representing the "Baptism of Valerian," the

* The two pictures in the Museo of Madrid, probably Cassoni,

little

Kape of the Sabine Women " (No. 573), a subject that

represent, one the "
B. Peruzzi handled again in his second or Soddoma period (in a picture
possessed by Prince Mario Chigi at Kome) the other (No. 574) the
;

" Continence of Scipio."

246 BERLIN.

other the " Martyrdom of S. Cecilia " (i. 574) ; but, in

fact, as Lami informs us in his " Graticola" as early as
1560, they are from the hand of Tamarozzo, a scholar of
Costa and Franeia.^
Bartolommeo Bamenghi of B agnacavallo, is another
painter of Francia's School, who afterwards took Dosso
for his model. I very much doubt if he was at all
influenced by Raphael, either directly, like Girolamo
Marchesi, or indirectly, like Innocenzo da Imola. At all
events, I never met with a work of his in which I could
trace any mental influence of Raphael. In his early pic-
tures he reminds us of the School of Francia, much in the
same way as his contemporaries Giacomo and Giulio
Francia ; later on, he imitates Dosso. The doctrine of a
direct influence of Raphael on his contemjjoraries must
be received with great caution, just as the influence of
Mantegna or Perugino on their contemporaries is to be
understood cuoii grano salis. These accepted traditions, in
most cases, have their root in municipal vanity. This
much we may admit with reference to many painters of
the first half of the 16th century, that the propagation of
Raphael's compositions by the engravings of a Marcan-
tonio, a Marco Dente, a G. Caraglio, and others, contri-
buted much to extend the influence of the great Urbinate
more or less over all the provinces of Italy.
Bagnacavallo's painting in this gallery (No. 238), repre-
sents the Saints Petronius, Agnes, and Louis of Touloiise,
and belongs to that period of the master when he imitated
Dosso.

1 In the collection of Signer Poldi-Pezzoli at Milan, we find a Ma-

donna with the naked Infant seated on her knee, and the little St. John,

signed CESAR . TAMAROCIVS.

 THE PEREASA-EOLOGNA SCHOOL. 247

Another Romagnole, conternporary witli tlie above-

named masters, is Girolamo MarcJiesi da Gotigiiola. He
ought to be considered less a disciple of Francia (as the
catalogue would make him) than as a pupil of his own
countrymen, the brothers Francesco and Bernardino
Zaganelli of Cotignola.^ Of this we haye convincing
proof in his early works, such as the "Entombment,"
No. 119 in the picture-gallery of Pesth, signed " Hierony-
mus Marchesys de Cotignola." Evidently, then, his pic-
ture in this gallery, of the year 1526, the " Promulgation
of the Rules of their Order to the Bernardines " (No. 268)
belongs to the time when this Romagnole had been at
Rome, and received a powerful bias from the genius of
Raphael. l!^ay, it is in the highest degree probable that
Marchesi actually painted in the Loggie, that is to say,
from the drawings and under the personal superintendence
of Raphael.
We conclude this hasty survey of the Ferrara-Bologna
School with a third Romagnole, who also tried in his later
time to imitate Raphael, but with nothing like the same
ability as Girolamo Marchesi. This painter was named
hmocenzQ Franciicci, and came from Imola. But how
much he had been influenced in his youth by the Floren-
tines, and especially by Mariotto Albertinelli, is particu-
larly evident from his picture (No. 216) at the Pinacotheca
of Bologna, the Holy Virgin receiving a great number of
devotees under her mantle; also in the "Madonna"
(No. 587) of the Lichtenstein collection of Vienna. His
one picture in the Berlin Gallery (N'o. 280) is that of the
" Virgin and Child, with Saints."
A totally different training from that of the Romagnoles

'
The Zaganelli again miist have been scholars of N. Kondinello.
24:8 BERLIN.

just named, fell to the lot of their two countrymen, Niccolb

Bondinelli of Ravenna, and Marco Palmezzano of Forli.
The former learned his art in the studio of Giambellino
at Venice ; the latter from his own great countryman
Melozzo, a direct or indirect disciple of the learned Pier
della Francesca. Palmezzano, who does not rise above
mediocrity, must have been influenced latterly by Bondi-
nelli, as we see by the Madonna's thrones, richly adorned

with gilded arabesques, which are so characteristic of the

Ravennese master.
WhUe the Berlin Gallery has no pictures either by
Bondinelli or by Palmezzano, it does contain the work of
a later Bavennese, Liica Longhi. The same thrones with
gilt arabesques appear in Longhi's pictures too, and lead

us to suppose that he served his apprenticeship under the

eye of his fellow-townsman Bondinelli. But afterwards,
I think,he must have visited Bologna, and studied the
works of Innocenzo da Imola and Giacomo Francia.
Pictures in his first manner, which extends to about
the year 1545, all have a somewhat antiquated look ; in
his second manner he can be recognised as an imitator of
the then highly favoured Parmeggianino. His enthroned
Mary, with the Infant Christ and Saints, in this gallery
(No. 117) is of the year 1542, and therefore still belongs
to his first manner.
If the Berlin work by the
Gallery can produce no
dull Palmezzano, shows us instead, a most interest-
it

ing picture by his master and countryman, Melozzo da

Forli. This is an allegorical representation of the pa-
tronage of Science by Duke Frederic of Montefeltro at
the Court of TJrbino, and was one of a series of similar
pictures that probably served to adorn the great library in
the noble Castle of TJrbino. The other pictures of the
 THE FERßARA-BOLOGNA SCHOOL. 249

same set are in England : two at the National Gallery

(Nos. 755-6), representing Rhetoric and Mnsic (?) and ;

one at Windsor Castle, Dake Frederic and his son

Guidobaldo, with his tutor, Victor of Feltre, on panel/
A fifth painting of the series I saw years ago in one

of the upper rooms of the Palazzo Barberini at Rome;

Duke Frederic sitting on his throne-chair, before him his
son Guidobaldo as a boy.^ Melozzo and his countryman
Bramante, a few years younger than he, may have im-
bibed the rudiments of their art, m. architecture as well
as painting, from one source, probably at Urbino. They
were both architects more than painters ; they only aj)plied
the latter art to the adornment and embellishment of their
buildings. And they seem to me to bear a great resem-
blance to each other, e. g., in their way of modelling
heads/

^ This picture, which has seen rough usage, is of a different shape

from the rest of the set, being doubtless adapted to the space it had to
fill.

^ Some of the best-known pictures of Melozzo are : (a) the fresco,

transferred to canvas, in the Vatican Collection ;
(b) the minstrel-angels
in the Sacristy of S. Peter's at Eome ;
(c) Christ surrounded by Angels,
over the staircase of the Quirinal ;
(d) the very much repainted portrait
of young Guidobaldo de Montefeltro, on panel, in the Colonna Gallery
at Rome, there ascribed to Giovanni Santi ;
(e) the profile portrait of a
prince, perhaps Girolamo Eiario, Master of Forli, in private possession
at Milan (?) to which add (f) an interesting drawing in the rich
;

collection of Mr. Malcolm, London, ascribed by Chennevieres to Giam-

bellino, but we can recognize in it a fellow-student of Bramante. It
represents Christ standing on clouds, with the terrestrial globe in his
hands ; below, ten cherub-heads, in sepia and ink.
^ Wall-paintings by Bramante are only to be seen (and even those
much damaged) in the house Prinetti, 4, Via Langone, Milan ; on the
facade of the CastigUoni (now Silvestri) in the Corso, Porta Venezia,
Milan there is also a painting in tempera, " Christ Bound to a Pillar/'
;

in a chapel of the Abbey of Chiaranelle, Milan, there ascribed to

Bramantino.
250 BERLIN.

The Milanese Bartolommeo Suardi, called Bramantino,

is in his art a follower of Bramante, just as the Veronese
Falconetto,^ is, at least partly, a follower of Melozzo.
And these northern disciples of the two Urbinates were,
like them, quite as much architects as painters ; or at all
events, as painters, they were more especially decorative
painters. A comparison of these two artists with each
other and with the Sienese Baldassare Peruzzi, who was
likewise both an architect and decorative painter, might
not be altogether without interest as regards the process
of development of Italian art ; but this is not the fittest

place to carry out the comparison. Let us then turn down

again from the Rubicon, and skirt the Adriatic coast,
where we look about us in vain for a foe as of art. To
find such a focus again, we must turn our back to the sea,
and ascend into the neighbouring mountains, to Urbino,
Fabriano, Gubbio, and Sanseverino.
The Berlin Gallery possesses no works of the Urbino
painters, neither of Fra Garneva'li,^ nor of Giovanni

^ Two by Bramantino are to be seen at the Am-

pictures in tempera
brosiana Gallery an enthroned Madonna with Saints at Sir Henry
;

Layard's in Venice ; a magnificent Madonna, with numerous saints,

from the Maufrin Collection. Wall-paintings " Holy Women Lament-
:

ing Christ," over the door of the church S. Sepolcro ; the giants Atlas
and Hercules in the cortile of the house Melz Borgonuovo ; several
frescoes in the Brera Palace at Milan. Also the scenes from the life of
S. Avyeos, in the chapel to the left of the choir of the church S. Teodoro
at Pavia, seem to be by Bramantino. A
barbarous restoration has
quite ruined the picture.
^ The Communal Gallery at Verona possesses a picture on panel, by
this rather inferior painter; itrepresents Augustus and the Sibyl.
There are also wall-paintings of his at a house on the Piazza S. Marco,
at the cathedral, and in the churches S. Perro, S. Nazzaso, and Celso
at Verona.
^ Only a few works of this master have come down to us. The
 THE FEERAEA-BOLOGNA SCHOOL. 251

Santi, the father of Raphael, neither of Girolamo Geoiga,

nor of Timoteo To the last-named painter indeed the
Viti.

catalogue still ascribes a Jerome chastising himself (No,

124) and an enthroned Madonna with the Child and
Saints, but I think with great injustice. The small St.
Jerome has quite the character of the Perugian School of
painting, and approaches the manner of Giovanni Spagna ;

it has, therefore, nothing to do with Timoteo Viti, who

belongs to the School of Francia.
About the other picture, the enthroned Mary (No. 120),
let us first hear the opinion of Baron Rumohr. That learned
German art-critic, in the third volume of his " Italian
Researches," p. 23, speaks of the painting as follows :

" The characters of the inscription 10. SANCTIS. VEBI.

P. on the beautiful picture in the Royal Gallery of Berlin
have a more genuine appearance also the charming (?)
;

boy on the right in his little shirt has something in him

like the later pictures of Raphael (!) a circumstance that
impresses one favourably for the genuineness of the
signature."
Rumohr's opinion was evidently influenced by the cir-
cumstance of the painting being signed with the name of
Giovanni Santi at the time when he saw it. At a later

Brera Gallery possesses a masterpiece of his an enthi'oned Madonna,

:

surrounded by angels and saints, Duke Federico da Monte feltro kneel-

ing before her. In the Poldi Museum, also at Milan, we see a standing
figure of St. Michael (No. 769), a characteristic work of this faithful
imitator of Pier della Erancesca. A figure of St. Michael by Fra
Carnovale is in the National Gallery (No. 769) ; there we find also a
picture by Giovanni Santi, Kaphael's father, representing a Virgin and
Child (No. 751). But the two frescoes formerly in the Petrucci Palace
at Siena, which are ascribed to Pinturicchio, are in my opinion the
productions of Girolamo Genga. A good drawing by this master,
representing a Virgin and Child, is in the collection of Mr. Hezeltine.
252 BERLIN.

time, however, probably at a cleaning or restoration of the

painting, the signature disappeared, and the picture was
left without a name. In this perplexity they looked
about for the name of some Urbino painter, and thought
that of Timoteo Viti might be the most suitable.
Such was Art-criticism only half a century ago. And
I do not know that since that period of paradisaic inno-
cence it has made any remarkable progress, at least with
regard to the importance of Timoteo Viti. If I am not
much mistaken, this enthroned Mary proceeds either from
Luca Longhi, or from some painter of the Eomagna that
comes very near him. The types and characters remind
one of Luca Longhi, so does the throne-recess of the
Madonna with the green, red-bordered curtain behind it,
not to mention the child's head, with its hair parted simply,
rather in Longhi's manner. Be that as it may, the picture
'No.120 can in no case belong to the noble Timoteo. As I
intend to give my full opinion about Timoteo when
discussing the pictures of Raphael's early period, let us
without delay pass on to the Umbeians, by whom there are
several interesting works in this gallery.
Whoever visits the hill-town of Perugia will be struck
(at least I was) with two things — the fine, lovely voices
of the women, and the "view that opens before the en-
raptured eye, over the whole valley, from the spot where
the old castle stood of yore. On your right is the little

town of Deruta ; on your left, perched on a projecting hill

that leans against the bare sunburnt down, lies black

Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, where first his fiery
soul was kindled to enthusiasm, where his sister Clara
led a pious life, and finally found her grave. Lower
down, the eye can still reach Spello and its neigh-
bour Foligno, while the range of hills, on whose ridge
 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 253

Montefalco looks out from the midst of its grey olives,

closes the charming picture. This is the gracious nook of

earth, the smiling landscape, in which Pietro Perugino
loves to place his chaste, God-fraught Madonnas, and
which in his pictures, like soft music, heightens the mood
awakened in us by his martyrs pining after Paradise.
These valleys, these mountains, both on this side and
the other side of the Apennines, seem to have been the
principal seat of the Umbrians, after they were pushed
out of ITorthern Italy by Ligurians on the one hand, and
lUyrians on the other. In later times, the Umbrians,
after long and obstinate fighting, seem to have entered
into friendly relations with the Etruscans, who pressed
upon them from the North and West and the mixed race ;

that resulted from this blending of Etruscan and Umbrian

—
blood namely, the Umbrians of the Middle Ages, might
point to the sense of Art which they have evinced as the
surest proof of their intimate blood-relationship to their
neighbours, the modern Tuscans. Stronger and more
stubborn was the resistance the Umbrians offered to the
Latins pressing on from the South. Yet, all along the
Adriatic, they were driven from the coast by the invaders,
and cooped up in the mountains.^

^ As birds may be divided into song-birds and birds of prey, so in

the great family of man we find some nations gifted with a sense for
Art, and others to whom Nature has denied it. Among the populations
of old Italy that were most richly endowed with the sense of Art, we
count the Etruscans ; among those devoid of this feeling are the Latins.
Hence, the latter have produced great citizens, great legislators, states-
men, lawyers, and warriors, but not a single national School of Art. To
me a sure sign that the Adriatic coast from the Rubicon southward, to
the Tronto, is peopled by Latins and not by Umbrians, is the total absence
of Art along that coast. " South of the Po," says Mommsen (" History
of Eome," i. 113), "and at the mouths of that river, Etruscans and
254: BERLIN.

Therefore, in. speaking of an Umbrian School of Art, we

ought not only to include in it, as is generally done, the
Perugian and perhaps the Foligno School, but also the
various Transapennine Schools, which, in my opinion, are
rauch more original and characteristic, if not so cele-
brated, as the Perugian; I mean here the School of
Gubbio, which attained its culminating point in Ottaviano
Nelli ; the School of S. Severino, and especially the
School of Fabriano, whence issued Allegretto Nuzi and
his world- famed pupil Gentile da Fabriano. All the
above-named Schools of Painting flourished in the be-
ginning of the 15 th century ; at a time, therefore, when
neither at Perugia, nor Assisi, nor Foligno, did the people's
artistic bent show any signs of life.

The painters who adorned the convent churches of

Assisi with wall-paintings were not sons of the soil, and
those that painted or chiselled at Perugia mostly came
from Tuscany. If, therefore, we would become thoroughly
conversant with the real, the original character of the
Umbrian School, we must not (as everybody has done
since Rumohr) take Niccolo da Foligno, much less P.
Perugino or Pinturicchio, as its representative but rather ;

keep our eye fixed on the typical painters of the Gubbio,

Sanseverino, and Fabriano Schools.
Unfortunately, Ottaviano well-known wall-
Nelli's
painting in the church of S. Maria Nuova at Gubbio
is the only work of his that has come down to us in

Umbrians were mixed together; the former as the dominant, the latter

as the older race,which had founded the ancient commercial cities of

Hadria and Spina, whereas Felsina (Bologna) and Ravenna appear to
be of Etruscan foundation. On the left bank of the Po, up to the Adda,
the Etruscan blood seems altogether to hare taken far deeper root than
on the right bank."
 THE UMBßlAN SCHOOL. 255

tolerable preserration. It dates from the year 1404 the ;

clioir of angels round the Yirgin is full of grace, though

neither the head of St. Mary nor those of the angels show
the slightest trace of that religious fervour and passionate
longing which first came in with the School of Niccolo

da Foligno, and which in the School of P. Perugino

became so characteristic that it has been designated a
principal mark by which to know Uie Umbrian from all
other Italian Schools.^
The best preserved pictures cf tha brothers G. and L.
da Sanseverino are the frescoes in the Minorite Church of
S. Giovanni at Ui-bino, whose walls are adorned with
scenes from the life of John the Baptist and the Virgin.^
In these paintings we begin to meet with portraits of men
and women full of life and expression ; but even here we
look in vain for that languishing character so distinctive
of the Schools of Foligno and that of Perugino.
The School of Fabriano attained its celebrity not so
much through Allegretto Nuzi as through his eminent
pupil Gentile da Fabriano. It was before his wall-
paintings in St. Giovanni in Laterano at Rome (in which, it

is true, his fellow- workman the great Pisanello of Verona

had also a hand), that Roger van der Weyden in 1450 is

said to have hazarded the remark, that Gentile appeared

to him the most excellent painter in all Italy .^ These

^ Passavant, i. 49 : "Le Perugia, tant qu'il sut ailier ce caractere

particulier a Vtcole ombrienne, dont le vieux Niccolo Alunno avait ete
un des premiers initiateurs."
^ There is, in the National Gallery, London, a very rare and interest-

ing work by a son or relative of the said Lorenzo da Sanzeverino. It

represents the Marriage of St. Catherine (No. 249), and is signed
Lorenzo 11° da Sanzererino.
^ See Bartolommeo Pacio, " De vii-is illustribus," p. 44.
 256 BERLIN.

wall-paintiBgs, unfortunately, have come to grief, like his

other frescoes, including those in the Sacellum of Pan-
dolfo Malatesta at Brescia^ of about the year 1418, his
paintings in the Doge Palace at Venice (1420), and those
in the Cathedral of Orvieto (1425—1426). Only a few
small panel-pictures by this master are preserved, of
which the best known are the " Apotheosis of Mary with
the Saints Francis, Jerome, Magdalen, and Dominic " in
the Br era Gallery, a small " Madonna " in the Town
Gallery of Perugia, and the two at Florence, in the church
of S. Niccolo and at the Academy. This last picture, the
" Adoration of the Kings," is, no doubt, the best among
them, and has also been praised by Art-historians above
its due. Compared with his great contemporaries, Fra
Angelico, Ghiberti, Masaccio, Pisanello, I think a subordi-
nate place is all that of right belongs to Gentile as an
artist.

The Berlin Gallery possesses, according to the catalogue,

no work by any of these Umbrian painters of the early
part of the 15th century ; we will, therefore, reserve our
review of the Transapennine Schools of Umbria for
another opportunity, and go on to our study of the Art-
School of Perugia.
Baron E-umohr was probably the first who charac-
terised the Umbrian School as follows (" Italian Re-
searches," ii. 310) :
" In spite of many technical imper-
fections, these Umbrian Schools of Painting, from the
middle of the 15th century, and perhaps long before, had,
in their depth and tenderness of feeling, and in a wonderful
union of vague reminiscences of old Christian Art with the

^ Facio, ibid. : " pinxit et Brixiae Sacellum amplissima mercede

Pandulpho Malafestce."'
 — —

THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 257

charm to which every

latest Christian doctrine, a secret
heart unlocks and which gave them the advantage
itself,

over their Tuscan, Lombard, and Venetian contempo-

raries ; although their strain of feeling, in itself beautiful

and praiseworthy, is apt in the long run to weary by its

monotony. How such a peculiar tendency came to spring
up in this particular neighbourhood, I have tried to ex-
plain above (though without giving sufficient proofs) by
the influence of the Sienese Taddeo Bartolo on the Peru-
gian district ; a painter who seems to have been the first

to strike into that path.

" At the same time we must take into account the posi-
tion of those little townships that begirdle the Hill of
Assisi —the hallowed abode of holy Francis —and from
their close proximity to the centre of his institution, must
have been the more inclined to adopt those views and
that bent of mind which govern his Order, and which un-
doubtedly contributed to bring modern painting to its

utmost height ( !
) This tendency first showed itself, not
at Perugia, where, about the middle of that century,
Benedetto Bonfigli (a very indifferent painter of genre)
was the reigning town of
favourite, but at the smaller
Foligiw, and in the works of Niccolo Alunno,"
From this exposition of Baron Rumohr we gather :

1. That in the middle of the 15th century the general

public favoured the indifferent painter Benedetto Bonfigli,
in whose pictures there is not a trace of that ascetic tem-
per which we observe later on in the paintings of Peru-
gino and also of Pinturicchio.
2. That the first Umbrian painter in whose works this
beautiful temper revealed itself, was Niccolo Alunno of

Foligno and
;

3. That the excitation of this tendency may be traced

s
258 BERLIN.

partly to the Sienese, Taddeo di Bartolo, who had worked

at Perugia in the beginning of that century, and partly to
the proximity of that hallowed ground of St. Francis of
Assisi.
The earliest signed picture of Niccolo da Foligno is said
to bear the date 1458/ the latest is of the year 1499 ; we
may therefore conclude that he was born about 1430, and
would be about twenty years of age when Benozzo Goz-
zoli, after lending a helping hand to his master, Fra

Angelico da Fiesole, at the chapel of Orvieto cathedral,

during the ^years 1446 —
1447, came in 1450 to the little
town ofMontefalco. Here, in the church of St. Fortunate,
Gozzoli went to work at those beautiful frescoes that have
all the freshness of youth about them. Benozzo may have

worked in Montefalco and its neighbourhood down to the

year 1455. When he left Montefalco he seems to have
settled at Perugia, where, amongst other pictures, he may
very well have painted the fine altar-piece of the year
1456, which has now found a lodgment in the Town Gal-
lery of Perugia.
If, therefore, Niccolo da Foligno was a growing youth
when Benozzo Gozzoli came to Montefalco in 1450, we
shall not be taking too bold a step if we suppose him to
have entered the studio of Gozzoli as a pupil. And, in
fact, when looking at any of Niccolo's earlier paintings,

one cannot help remarking, that one and all they teem
with reminiscences of Benozzo. Him, therefore, and no
other, I consider to have been Niccolo's real master, under
whose guidance he developed into a true artist. Just out-
side Montefalco, on the road that leads to the church of
S. Fortunate, stands the so-called Capella della Cancel-

' Mariotti, "Lettere Perugine" (Lett. V. p. 81).

 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 259

lata, adorned with frescoes in which both the hand and the
mind of Alunno are clearly to be discerned. In every
part of these wall-paintings the man of Foligno has evi-
dently worked nnder the influence of Gozzoli. We have
the same remark to make on Alunno's paintings in the
church of S. Maria in Campis, near Foligno. Here, too,
he plainly declares himself a pupil and imitator of Gozzoli.^
But in his later works, when left to himself, Niccolo da
Foligno always betrays that tendency to exaggeration
which marks the inhabitant of a small provincial town ;

he becomes unnatural, and even grotesque, as one may

easily convince one's self by seeing his altar-pieces, which
are not very rare, in the galleries of Rome.
We now come to the local School of Perugia. Our
later critics, Germany, prompted by the
especially in
writings of the ingenious Art-historian, Baron Rumohr,
have attached to this School an importance above all other
Italian Schools, which, I think, is misplaced. Let me
therefore be allowed to express my opinion also on this,
though, as space enjoins, very cursorily. The communi-
cation of it, like these studies in general, is not intended for
the great Art-loving public, but addressed to those few

' In the " Crucifixion," for instance, the angel in green drapery
is quite

Gozzolesque, and in the " Annunciation," on the opposite wall, the an-
nouncing angel downright borrowed from Benozzo, or to put it more
is

exactly, from Tra Angelico, fromwhom Gozzoli had taken it. The
folding, the form of hands, even the expi'ession, reminds one altogether
of Benozzo. And what is more, the golden nimbus with narrow streaks
is not only Angelico's as well as Gozzoli's, but the same that we meet

with some years later in the pictures of the Peruginese, Fiorenzo di

Lorenzo, From what has just been said, the influence of Fra Angelico
on this Umbrian, through the medium of Gozzoli, seems to me more
probable and clear than the influence of the much earlier Sienese, Taddeo
di Bartolo.
260 BERLIN.

young students who take pleasure in searching for them-

and who would rather draw their wisdom from the
selves,
works of the masters than from books on Art. But my
opinions will, no doubt, sound like heresy in the ears of the
Scribes, and consequently of the multitude.
Now which is generally
at that period of Italian art
called the Giottesque, neither the town of Perugia nor its
territory could produce a single artist worth naming. The
interior of the noble convent church of Assisi, built by a
North- Italian,^ was painted by Giotto and his scholars,
but not one Perugian do we find among them. Further,
during the whole of the 14th century, both in Perugia itself

and in the surrounding district, we meet almost entirely

with painters from the neighbouring school of Siena, such
as Guido di Siena, the insignificant Meo di Guido (1319),
Luigi di Francesco Tinghi (1385), the great Taddeo di
Bartolo of Siena, about 1403, and in 1438 his brother and
pupil Domenico di Bartolo." And even in the great suc-
ceeding epoch, the " scientific-realistic," when the endea-
vours of a Paolo Uccello, and after him of a Piero di Borgo
S. Sepolcro, laid the foundations of linear perspective,
when the study of the human figure was making such
rapid strides in the workshops of the Florentine silver-
smiths, Perugia had not a single representative of herself
to show, and was therefore forced about the year 1440 to

Not by a "German," The people in the extreme north of the

1

Como, &c,, were at that time often called Alemanni.

peninsula, Ticino,
The architecture of the church of Assisi is not German, but Italian-
Gothic.
2 Of all the here-named masters one can find works in the Municipal
Gallery of Perugia ; of native painters, on the contraiy, there is no sign
—
whatever one proof more that at that time the love of Art of the
Perugian people had not yet been developed.
 ;

THE UMBKIAN SCHOOL. 261

invitetwo foreign masters. Pier della Francesca and

Domenico Veneziano.
In the year 1446 we find indeed a painter — " Johannes
de Boccatis" — settled at Perugia, who came from the
neighbouring Transapennine mountain-town of Camerino
but the art of this man was nothing extraordinary, as we
may easily convince ourselves by looking at his three
pictures in the gallery of Perugia ; and if compared with
the contemporary works of the Veronese Pisanello, the
brothers Antonio and Bartolommeo Vivarini and A. Man-
tegna, or of the Florentines B. Angelico, Masaccio, and
Fra Filippo Lippi, the paintings of this Boccati would
hardly be worth noticing.
At last, about the middle of the 15th century, a few
artists emerge at Perugia too, namely, Angelo di Baldas-
sare and his son Lodovico di Angelo ;^ Benedetto di Bonfiglio
(born about 1425, made his will in 1496), and Barto-
lommeo Caporale.^
Thus at Perugia, about the middle of the 15th century,
we find three families of painters, who, like the Bicci at
Florence, the Vivarini at Murano, the Badili at Verona,
&c., undertook to do all that was necessary for the orna-
mentation of an altar. The first of these families is repre-
sented by Bonfiglio, and later by his son Benedetto the ;

second by Baldassare, Angelo di Baldassare, and Lodovico

di Angelo ; the third by the Caporali.

^ By this latter is a picture signed -näth his name in Perugia Cathe-

dral by the former a " Pieta " between the Saints Leonard and Jerome,
;

of 1459, at St. Peter's in the same town. Passavant ascribes this last
picture to Angelo's fellow-townsman Bonfigli, and Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle to his son Lodovico.
^ By this painter, an uncle of the translator of Vitruvius, there is a
work at the church of Castiglione del Lago (L. Trasimeno).
262 BERLIN.

In the studio of one or another of the above-named

artist-families, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo seems to have learned
the first rudiments of Art, On the whole, it is of very
little consequence to know whether it was this or the
other inferior painter that first put the brush in a pupil's
hand ; he alone can be considered his true teacher who first

initiated him and gave a direction

into the secret of his art,
to his mind. And for this service Fiorenzo could hardly have
any one to thank but Benozzo Gozzoli. Even Baron
Rumohr seems to incline to this opinion. ("It. Eesearches,"
ii, 321). Fiorenzo died at an advanced age in the
year 1520.^ He must have been born about 1440-1445,
as he was already a Decemvir in the year 1472 (Mariotti,
p. 31). Among the most pleasing creations of the master
stands, I think, that series of eight pictures in which he
represents with vivacity, grace, and rich imagination some
events in the life of St. Bernardino of Siena. One of
these panels bears the date 1473.These pictures used to
be ascribed by art-historians to the Veronese Vittore
Pisano, called Pisanello,^ who died in the fifties of that
century ; and as many connoisseurs deny to Fiorenzo
still

not only these eight, but also the " Adoration of the
Kings " in the same gallery, my readers will perhaps
allow me to point out here briefly the characteristic out-
ward signs by which the works of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo
can be easily recognised. The ear is mostly pointed like a

• His widow mamed in the same year a certain painter, Giacomo of

Citta della Pieve, a pupil of Perugino.
^ By others they are even ascribed to Mantegna ; Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle (iii. 151), who regard Fiorenzo as a pupil of Bonfigli, see in
these pictures (Nos. 209—214 and 228, 233, 234) first the influence of
Bonfigli, then that of Matteo da Siena, and, again, of Pier della Pran-
cesca, and even of the Veronese Liberale.
 ;

THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 263

faun's, the thumb as well as the great toe almost always

convulsively turned upwards, the point of the nose some-
what swollen and the light on its bridge strongly marked
and shade on them sharply
his folds are sinuous, the light
edged the sleeves at the bend of the elbow densely cross-
;

puckered. Fiorenzo's drawing is always vigorous and

sure, but he is apt to make the upper part of the body too
long. His landscapes recall those of Gozzoli ; they are
finely constructed, with exquisite feeling, and enlivened by
rivers and towns the clouds in them are very charac-
;

teristic from their sharply-illumined edges. These peculiar

outward marks of Fiorenzo may be verified in more than
a dozen pictures at the Perugia Town-gallery, as also in
the " Adoration of the Magi," 'No. 39 ;
^
and in this last
picture the type of the infant Christ is quite the same as
that which we find in the polyptych, No. 13 of the same
collection. It is a very rare thing to come across a work
of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo outside the liberties of Perugia.^ In
Germany, the gallery of the Stadel Institute at Frankfort
possesses a very fine work of this master, No. 15, a small
picture representing the Virgin and Child with Saints.

^ This picture has been variously described by Vasari as being a

:

work of Perugino, to which Kumohr added

must belong to Pietro's
that it

early period ; the present director of the gallery designates Domenico

Ghirlandajo as the author. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, however,
see in it, with greater knowledge as I think, the hand and mind of
Fiorenzo (iii. 158).
^ In the "Adoration of the Three Kings," at the Palazzo Pitti at
Florence (No. 341), I believe I recognise with certainty the style of
Fiorenzo. This little picture, painted for the family Vitelli of Citta di
Castello, is ascribed in Florence to Pinturicchio. A
study of the kneeling
king is to be found in the Uffizi, designated a Lor. di Credi ; photograph
by Philpot, No. 744. A drawing by Perugino, now in the collection of
Mr. Malcolm, must have served as a model for this figure.
264 BERLIN.

Between the works of Fiorenzo and tliose of the early

period of Bernardino Betti, called more
il Pinturicchio,
correctly Pintoriccioand Pintoricchio (the little painter),
I find a very close aflSnity.^ Such a work, unless I
altogether deceive myself, is to be found in Room I. of
the Borghese Gallery at Rome, there ascribed to Carlo
Crivelli. The picture represents the Crucified, between
St. Jerome and St Christopher, with a landscape back-

ground. As in many early pictures of PLuturicchio,

the flesh-colour of the Christopher is very brown ; the
too-elongated body of the Crucified recalls the master
Fiorenzo ; so does the type of the Infant Christ. Here, in
the bent forefinger of St. Christopher, we already find
a gesture that afterwards got to be conventional in
Pinturicchio. No doubt, after Perugino's retui'n from
Florence in 1470, Pinturicchio was strongly influenced by
that master too,^ so that at a certain epoch works of the
latter were ascribed to the former.
In the excellent Reliquary (132a) so characteristic of
the master, the Berlin Gallery likewise possesses a work
of Pinturicchio 's early period, probably painted before he
went to Rome. In the samE period, or soon after, he
must have painted the charming altar-piece in the Sanse-
verino cathedral (Mary with the Child between two
angels and the Donor), of which the historians of Italian
painting give us a facsimile (hi. 272).

^ Baron Kumohr (ii., 324) finds a master for Pinturicchio in his much-
praised Niccolo Alunno of Fohgno. I see no reason for sending the
Perugian Pinturicchio to Foligno, to seek there what he could have much
better at home, and at first hand.
^ Those bunchy folds, heavy as in statuary, which we find in Verroc-

chio's group of" St. Thomas and Christ," in Or San Michele at Florence,
appear to have been brought home by Perugino about 1471, and im-
parted by him to his pupil Pinturicchio amongst others.
 THE UMBEIAN SCHOOL. 265

In the year 1479, therefore in his twenty-fifth year, Ber-

nardino came for the first time to the Eternal City, where

he appears to have been at once honoured with commissions

from Cardinal della Rovere (Vasari, v. 268). A few
years later, about 1483-1485, Pinturicchio by commission
from the same Delia Rovere decorated with wall-paintings
the first chapel on the right in S. Maria del Popolo at
Rome ; was perhaps not many years later that he
and it

executed his beautiful frescoes,full of mind and life, in

the Bufalini chapel at the church of Ara Coeli.^ Even in

these later paintings there is much that reminds one of
Fiorenzo {e.g., the " Investiture of S. Bernardino ") and ;

also of Perugino, the background with a temple in the

e.g.,

middle, in the picture of the " Laying-out of S. Bernardino."

Then, in the centre-piece, how glorious the landscape with
the steep tunnelled rocks, the cypresses and palms ! Here
Pinturicchio shows himself a landscape-painter of the first

rank, and as such he must have been generally regarded

at Rome, for he was commissioned by Pope Innocent YIII.
to adorn several halls in the Vatican with landscapes
(Vasari, v. 268-9).
It was just these poetical landscape-backgrounds that
first opened my eyes when looking at the two great
wall-paintings of the Sixtine Chapel, and gave me to
recognise their real author. Of these celebrated frescoes,
painted in the years 1480-84, under the auspices of his
elder friend and former master P. Perugino, one represents
the " Baptism of Christ " the other, facing it, has on one
;

side Moses receiving the angel's command to circumcise

his son, and on the other Zipporah having the command

^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle seem to place this work of Pin-

turicchio about the year 1496 (iii. 267).
266 BERLIN.

executed by one of her women ; in the background are

other episodes in the " Journey of Moses." The first of
these frescoes, the " Baptism of Christ," has been ascribed
by all art-historians since Vasari to P. Perugino, while

the "Journey of Moses " has for some centuries been given
to Luca Signorelli (see Manni's Life of Luca Signorelli
in the " Raccolta Milanese di vari opuscoli," vol. i., f. 20,
&c.). Modern writers, better informed, and among them
the ablest of their number, Jacob Burckhardt of Basle,
have justly disputed Signorelli's claim to the fresco,
and assigned it to P. Perugino. At last Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle went a step farther by recognising in
both paintings — this and the " Baptism of Christ " —not
only the hand of Perugino, but that of Don Bartolommeo
cleUa Gatta, and what gives me the liveliest satisfaction,
even that of PinhiriccMo, though I am sorry to say they
still follow the old track in regarding the last-named
artist as a mere under-strapper of Perugino (iii. 178,
179, 183).i
Vasari, in his life of P. Perugino, tells us in a rather
confused way, that that artist executed the following
paintings in the Sixtine Chapel : the " Granting of the
Keys," and that conjointly with Don Bartolommeo della
Gatta; the "Nativity;" the "Baptism of Christ;" the
" Finding of Moses " and
; as centre-piece the " Assump-

^ The only work of Perugino's now left in the Cappella Sistina is, I
believe, the "Granting of the Keys to Peter," and in this magniticent
and really mature picture I can nowhere detect a strange hand. The
co-operation of Don Bartolommeo della Gatta, if it ever existed, may
have been in one of the Perugino.
lost wall-paintings of On the other
hand, in his fellow-student Signorelli's fresco of " Moses Reading his
Last Will to the Israelites, and then giving them his Blessing," I think
Don Bartolommeo may have had a share. Vasari very likely was con-
founding Signorelli with Perugino.
 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 267

tion of Mary," in which last he introduced a likeness of

Pope Sixtus I Y. Three of these frescoes, namely, the " Ifa-
tivity," the "Finding of Moses," and the great centre-piece
with the " Assumption of Mary," had to make room after-
wards for the "Last Judgment" of Michelangelo. Thus,
of the five pictures in this chapel that Vasari assigned to
"
Perugino, there remained only the " Granting of the Keys
and the " Baptism of Christ." Of the other fresco, the
" Journey of Moses," which later critics likewise handed
over to Perugino, Vasari says not a word.
Before subjecting these two frescoes to a minute exami-
nation, we have to remark, that being in the immediate
vicinity of the altar, they were more exposed than any
other picture in the chapel to the injurious effects of the
smoke both of incense and of tapers. Hence, they had
to undergo repeated cleanings and restorations, so that
in their present state but little of their original colouring
can be seen.
!N"ow in both these pictures the composition suffers
from overcrowding —a fault that Pinturicchio very often
commits, Perugino hardly ever. If we look, first of all, at
the landscape background of both pictures, we must at
once confess that those steep masses of rock, those
cypresses and palms, that beautifully shaped hollow of
the valley, and even the falcon in the air pursuing smaller
birds,^ are more in the style of Pinturicchio's landscapes
than of Perugino's. In the "Journey of Moses," the

' The same combination is repeated by Pinturicchio in two of his

frescoes at the Libreria of Siena Cathedral, namely, that of Pius at
Ancona preaching the crusade against the Turks, and that of the
Emperor crowning Aeneas Silvius with a laurel-wreath 5 also in the
"Adoration of the Kings," of the year 1513, in the Casa Borromeo at
Milan, and in some pictures of the Appartamento Borgia.
 "

268 BERLIN.

angel in the centre has an action quite after the fashion of

Pinturicchio ; and the children (though Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle fancy they see in them very plainly the hand of
Bartolommeo della Gatta, iii. 178), are exactly like other
children by Pinturicchio, for instance, those in the Chapel of
S. Bernardino m the Church of Ara Coeli,^ contrasting very
favourably with Perugino's unshapely infants with a paunch
like a leather bottle. Then the woman that kneels before
Zipporah, ready with a stone to perform the operation on
the child, has the character of Pinturicchio so distinctly
stamped upon her face and figure, and the fine head of a
man near her, with black hair and a red cap, is so strongly
suggestive of the same master, that I am perfectly amazed
to have been the first to see in this picture the hand of
Pinturicchio and not of Perugino.
If now we examine carefully the picture that faces it, the
" Baptism of Christ " and fix our attention first of all on
the two old bearded countenances at the extreme right of
the picture, both speak loudly for Pinturicchio. The angels
too,and the youth near them dressed in gold-brocade,
have altogether the type of Bernardino Betti, and not of
Vannucci, to say nothing of the naked long-legged figures
of youths in the centre. The heads iu this picture are
all full of intelligence and life, but we miss in them that
finer, deeper conception and treatment by which the heads
in Perugino's " Granting of the Keys " excite our admiration.
To my eyes, therefore, these two wall-paintings, the

^ These children strongly resemble even those in the Libreria at

Siena, painted by Pinturicchio twenty years later ; for instance, in the
fresco where Pius IL gives his blessing, and that in which the Emperor
Frederic III. crowTis the kneeling Aeneas Silvius. And the " putti
in the Sala della Virtu of the Appartamento Borgia are almost the
same.
 THE UMBEIAN SCHOOL. 269

" Baptism of Christ " and the " Journey of Moses," are
works of Pintnricchio and not of Perugino, although I
willingly admit that for some of his pictures the younger
master (like Raphael in his youthful days) occasionally
used the drawings of his friend and master Perugino,
and thus he may have introduced here and there a
Peruginesque figure in these paintings.^ But the com-
position and pictorial execution belong, in my opinion, to
him, the despised Pinturicchio, and no other.
Vasari, be it in pure wantonness, or for the purpose of
setting Perugino in a better light, because he had come to

Tuscamj to complete his studies, treats Pinturicchio with the

most outrageous injustice. Of these, his two wall-paintings
in the Sistina, he hands one over to Pietro Perugino, and
maintains a total silence about the other. And while he
never objects to Botticelli and other contemporaries using
plenty of gold in their paintings, such being then the fashion,
he finds this custom stupid in Pinturicchio, and only prac-
tised to gain the applause of the ignorant multitude.

1 In the " Baptism of Christ," for instance, Pinturicchio seems to

have borrowed the figures, both of the Baptist and of the Saviour, from
Perugino's pen-and-ink drawing in the Louvre (No. 297 in Braun's
catalogue). Set this drawing of Pietro's by the side of those ia the
Venetian collection, and you can hardly fail to see the difference, not
only in forms, but even in the handling of the pen. Notice, however,
that Pinturicchio has introduced many alterations in his painting. The
cloth about the loins of Christ is quite differently placed from what it is

in the drawing, and the same thing applies to the arrangement of the
hair. The pose and expression of the Baptist's head, the action of his
right arm, the position of the mantle on his left arm, the attitude of his
left foot, &c., are to my mind improvements on those in the drawing.

We may suppose, therefore, that Pietro had made his pen-and-ink

drawing as a study for one of his own earlier pictures, and then left it
to his friend and pupil Pinturicchio for his wall-painting in the Sixtina.
In those days giving and taking was a universal practice among the
members of a guild.
270 BERLIN.

Then, for his frescoes at the Libreria of Siena cathedral,

Vasari makes the approved artist of fifty years have
sketches and even cartoons made him by Raphael, then a
youth of twenty (Vasari, v. 205). This harsh judgment
of the Aretine has now been repeated, like a litany, for
more than three centuries by a long and ever -increasing
procession of art-critics.^ I do not wish to acquit Pintu-
ricchio of everythingknow too well that self-interest
; I
and greed sometimes made him licentious and unprin-
cipled ; but was not this the case also with Pietro Peru-
gino and other celebrated painters ? My purpose in this
long, much was simply this to rein-
too long discussion, :

state an artist, who in his younger years created so many

fine works, into the same prominent place that he held
during his lifetime,'^ by giving him back his best property,
of which he has been robbed by the disfavour and blind-
ness of posterity. It was not enough that his works at
Rome should have been ascribed partly to Signorelli and
partly to Perugino, but even his drawings at Florence, Paris,
Oxford, and Vienna, &c., are praised to the sky by old and
young as admirable eS'usions of the divine Raphael, and
quoted by art-critics everywhere as models of the exquisite
and sublime in art.

As a caution to students who devote themselves to art

researches, I will here very briefly how these
relate
drawings in the Venetian Academy came to have the high

^ Kumokr, indeed, who, when the whim seized him, searched with
more independence and less prejudice than others, may be indicated
here as in some respects an exception. See ii. 330-333, what he saj's
on Pinturicchio,
- In the year 1501, Pinturicchio was elected Decemrir of Perugia in

the place of Pietro Perugino, one more proof that he stood in high re-
pute among his fellow citizens.
 —

THE ÜMBEIAN SCHOOL. 271

honour bestowed iipon them of passing for early works of

Raphael and exciting the admiration of the civilized world.
The talented painter Griuseppe Bossi, Professor at the
Brera Academy of Milan, now dead since half a century,
wrote one day in his note-book the following event:
" Yesterday I may well say I received a greeting from
Fortune.^ A good while ago I had made Giocondo
Albertolli promise to let me see certain drawings in the
possession of a Parmese lady. At last the longed-for day
arrived, and I found, beside Albertolli, the painter Mazzola,
both commissioned by the lady to effect the sale of the
said drawings. There were fifty- three leaves, all of about
a span long and somewhat less in width. I at once
recognised the hand, but ran over the pages very hur-
riedly, &c and at last offered 100 scudi of Milan
(about 400 fr.), with which the proprietress declared her-
self quite satisfied. On going home with my little

treasure, I find, after carefully examining the pages, that

not only some of them were designed by the divine hand

^ Jeri posso dire d'avere avuto un saluto della Fortuna. Da tanto tempo
io areva impegnato Giocondo Albertolli a fanni noti certi disegni pes-
seduti da parmigiana. Ma questa era malata, o egli era im-
pedito Finalmente jeri sono avvisato, che, se mi fossi recato
dair Albertolli, avrei visto i disegni tanto desiderati.
Ci vado e troro
il pittore Mazzola con entrambi di conchiudere meco la
lui, incaricati

yendita di qnesti disegni, che mi mostrano un piccolo fascio di 53 carte,

alte circa un palmo e larghe meno. Jo li conosco, ma li scorro impa-
zientemente ecc. ecc, e fu mandato ad offrirne alia proprietaria cento
scudi diMUano, ed essa ne fu contentissima. Sono tomato a casa col
mio tesoretto, e scorrendo attentamente queste carte, non solo mi con-
fermo nella opinione che alcune di esse erano disegnate dalla divina mano
di Raffaello, ma le riconosco tutte di una egualissima misura, come quelle
che facevano insieme un libro, e tutte di mano sua, eccetto tre o quattro
sporcate da mano posteriore
Questo libretto logorato per essere state portato lungamente alia
272 BERLIN.

of Raphael, but that they are all of the same size, and

therefore must have formed a little book together, and

that they are all from his hand with the exception of some
three or four, &c This little book, much worn
by having been long carried about, either at the girdle or
in the pocket, contains a little of everything, and comes
down to the year 1505, that is, a year after the completion
of his work for Citta di Castello (the Sposalizio), which is
now at the Royal Gallery of the Brera. It must have
been begun much earlier, and it is very interesting to
observe therein the studies he has made after Perugino,
Pollajuolo, Leonardo, and others. Then there are wonder-
ful women and children, studies of folding, and from
models, heads of old men, &c. ; all, things that breathe
that grace, that love, that certain something which cannot
be expressed, which penetrates our souls, and which belongs
almost exclusively to that angel in art, who never fatigues
our mind, and who affords us nothing but sweet enjoy-

cintola o nelle tasche, contieneun po di tutto e giunge, a mio parere,

fino al 1505, cioe un'anno dopo I'opera di Citta di CasteUo, che e ora
nella Galleria Reale di Brera. Deve essere stato cominciato molto prima,
ed e bello I'osservarvi degli studi sopra opere del Perugino, del Polla-
juolo, di Leonardo, e d'altri. Vi sono poi donne e putti mii-abili, figure
panneggiate, teste di vecchi, accademie ecc, — cose tutte che spirano quel
garbo, quell'amore, quel non so che che penetra nell'animo, che appar-
tiene quasi esclusivamente a quest' angelo della pittura, che non ci da
peso alcuno al pensiero ed alia mente, e che solo vi fa dolcemente godere
ecc
Ho scorso nuovamente il mh'abile libretto di EafFaello, e scorrendolo
parmi seguir I'autore ne suoi studj. Vi sono molte figure infine che gli
hanno servito pei cartoni che fece pel Pinturicchio in Siena.
Vi si vede uno studio delle Grazie di marmo antiche che fino da quel
tempo furono poste in quella famosa sagrestia. Vi sono studj di teste
pel quadro dello Sposalizio
(See Memorie inedite di Giuseppe Bossi, pubblicate nell' ArcMvi»
storico Lombardo, Anno V., fascicolo II., 30 Giugno, 1878.)
 —

THE TJMBRIAN SCHOOL. 273

ment I have lately gone over again that won-

derful book of Raphael's, and seemed to me as if I were
it

following the author in his studies. There are, in fact,

many figures that he must have used in the cartoons he
made for Pinturicchio at Siena. There is also a study
from the antique marble group of the Graces, which there-
fore at that date was already set up in that famous sacristy.
We find here also studies of heads for the picture of The
Marriage of Mary (in the Brera)." This last and not this —
—
alone was simply an optical illusion on the part of the
sanguine possessor of the so-called Raphael drawings.
Ever since this dictum of Bossi, the drawings at Venice
have passed and do pass for works of Raphael. Bossi's
entire collection, rich in excellent drawings by Leonardo,
Cesare da Sesto, Luini, Gaudenzio Ferrari, Giam.bellino,
and other masters, was bought up after his death by the
Austrian Government, at the instigation of Cicognara, for
the Academy at Venice. Count Leopold Cicognara might
justly boast of having preserved for his country that col-
lection, splendid of its kind, and enriched Venice with it.^

Here then we have two known connoisseurs of drawings,

the Italians Bossi and Cicognara, who unreservedly assign

* In a letter of the 27th of May, 1827, Cicognara writes to his friend

the Marchese Gino Capponi, of Florence, who died not long ago :
" E quando mori il pittore Bossi in Milano, ebbi cura che la squisita
collezione dei disegni originali di tutte le antiche scuole venisse posta in
sicuro dall' emigrar dall' Italia, e tutta la acquistai per questa Accademia
diVenezia ; ove primeggiano tra molte preziosita 70 disegn originali di
Leonardo, et 100 di Eaffaello."
In my opinion the collection contains only twenty-two genuine
drawings of Leonardo (of which seventeen are exhibited, and five pre-
served in the library of the Academy) ; and of Raphael only two drawings,
as we shall see further on. See Tabarrini's " Memorie di Gino Capponi,"
p. 205.
T
 —

274 BERLIN.

the pen-and-ink drawings at Venice to the divine

Raphael.
They were joined at length by a third renowned con-
noisseur, and moreover a specialist for Raphael's works,
the celebrated Passavant, who describes and discusses each
of these drawings in his work, " Raffael d'Urbin," &c.
(French translation from the German original).
The fourth authority, who last of all submitted these so-
called Raphael-drawings one after the other and very
minutely to a critical and sesthetical examination, was the
Marchese Pietro Selvatico Estense of Padua, in his " Cata-
logo delle opere d'arte contenute nella Sala delle sedute
dell' I. R. Accademia di Venezia," which appeared in the
year 1854.
The judgment of these four Raphael authorities was
enough, as may be easuy imagined, to secure for all time
the fame of the Raphael drawings at Venice.
The whole series of these " Raphael " drawings in the
Venice Academy are quoted and criticized one by one in
Passavant (ii. and again by Marchese Pietro
409-416) ;

Selvatico in his catalogue. Antonio Perini at Venice has

photographed nearly every sheet, and marked them with
continuous numbers. Therefore, in discussing a few of
these drawings, I shall give the numbers of their photo-
graphs as well, so that those of my readers who take an
interest in such investigations, and wish to get at the truth
of the matter, may be able to procure these for themselves.
Perini's photos are sold at only 50 centimes a-piece.

1 To help stadents to appreciate the difiference between the so-called

Raphael-drawings at Venice and genuine pen-and-ink sketches of
Raphael's early period, I «ill name a few such drawings that date from
his Peruginesque period :
 THE UMBEIAN SCHOOL. 275

1. The earliest of these drawings I consider to be that

which represents an Old Man kneeling, with folded hands.

[Ko. 72 in Passavant, who remarks upon it: "Probably from
an older picture." Selvatico, frame 27, 5 "beantiful head, :

the folding very finely marked." Perini, No. 65.] The

shape of the ear still pointed like that of a faun, reminding
TIS of Pinturicchio's first master, Piorenzo di Lorenzo the ;

lobe hardly as yet distinct from the rest of the ear. The
hands carefully drawn from nature.
2. St. Andrew. [No, 13 in Passavant. Selvatico,
frame 16, 1: " The drawing shows great mastery of form,
and recalls the style of Pinturicchio." Perini, No. 44.]
The apostle's right hand reminds one still of the master
Fiorenzo, the ear-lobe is strongly marked, and of that
round and rather heavy shape so characteristic of Pin-
turicchio's ears. Very carefully executed drawing, of the
master's early time. Of Raphael's manner not a trace,
nor yet of Perngino's.
3. Young Woman kneeling, with folded hands. [Passa-
vant, No. 8 : "in the manner of Perugino." Selvatico,
frame 23, 7 : "of the utmost delicacy, a study for the
figure of St. Mary in Perugino's celebrated picture at
S. Francesco's in Perugia." Perini, No. 7.] This consum-
mate drawing is in my opinion the finished study for the
Virgin of the " Praesepium with St. Jerome," —the altar-

(a) Madonna and Child. Oxford Collection. No. 10 in Braun's

Catalogue.
(b) Angel's Head and Hand. Museum. Braun, No. 70.
British
(c) Presentation in the Temple. Oxford Collection. Braun, No. 5.
(d) The Annunciation. Louvre Collection. Braun, 266.
(e) Head of St. Thomas. Braun, 58.
(/) British Museum. Braun, 70.
(g) Madonna and Child, Albertina. Braun, 146.
(Ä) Studies from Life. Oxford. Kobinson's Catalogue, 14.
276 BERLIN.

piece of the first chapel to the right, in S. Maria del

Popolo at Rome. Pinturicchio, who may perhaps have
borrowed the leading idea from Perugino, painted this
picture along with his cycle of frescoes on commission from
his patron Cardinal della Rovere in 1483. We have here
already the same type of hand, with the long bony fingers,
that we again find in the beautiful Madonna of his splen-
did picture at the Town Gallery of Perugia.^ The sharp
pointed strokes of the pen too are his all over ; and the
stair-like gradation of the folds on both sides of the mantle
are characteristic of him.
4. An erect lion. [Passavant, No. 40: "pupils' work."
Selvatico, frame 26, 12 :
" of little merit." Perini, No. 55.]
This very childish lion, with its body much too long, is

the study for the lion that Pinturicchio has put by the side
of St. Jerome in a side-lunette of the above-named first

chapel of S. Maria del Popolo (in 1483),

5, The standing figure of a Youth with long hair, his

right hand on his breast. Divided into squares. [Passa-

vant, No. 4 " seems to be the Apostle John." Selvatico,
:

frame 23, 8 :
" Study of St. John at the foot of the Cross.
Very elegant and expressive figure, whose simplicity is at

most a little spoilt by too close an imitation of Perugino's

inelegant folds." Perini, No. 8.] This elegant and noble
figure of a youth is probably nothing else than a study
executed by Pinturicchio for his master after a hasty
sketch of Perugino's own for the Apostle John, in his
fresco of "The Commission to Peter." This pen-and-

Painted by Pinturicchio in the year 1495. (See Rumohr, as above,

^

ii. Brought to the Gallery from the Church of S. Anna (No. 30).
331).
Above, a " Pieta." The angel on the left reminds one strongly of that
angel by Piorenzo di Lorenzo whom we perceive to the right of Mary in
his painting No. 29 at the same place.
 :

THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 277

ink drawing, with its elaborate folds in the mantle, is

divided into equal squares, and seenas therefore to have

been destined to be transferred to the cartoon on a larger
scale.'^ Compare this drawing of Pinturicchio with
Perugino's paiated figure, and you perceive at once the
difference there was in conception and feeling between the
two masters.
6. A standing Male Figure with long hair, seen from
the back. [Passavant, No. 7 " a similar figure in in-
:

verted position may be seen in the frescoes of the Libreria

at Siena." frame 23, 9
Selvatico, " beautiful movement,
:

excellent drawing, masterly foldings." Perini, No. 9.]

This squared drawing represents the apostle who stands
behind St. John in the fresco of the " Investiture with the
Keys." The same remark applies to it as to the preceding
one. The figure, though here with a turban on its head,
is utilized by Pinturicchio in the middle ground of his

fresco, " The Journey of Moses."

7. Two standing Male Figures with long hair, the one on

the right apparently pointing at something with its right

hand. Squared pen-and-ink drawing. [Passavant, No. 1
" a copy of this drawing by Timoteo Viti (! !) is to be
found at Paris in Mr. Reiset's collection of drawings."
Selvatico, frame 24, 5 :
" correct in the drawing, but
hard and symmetrical, in the manner of Perugino."
Perini, No. 21.] This " squared " pen-and-ink drawing is

a preparatory sketch by Pinturicchio for Perugino's cartoon

to his wall-painting, the " Investiture with the Keys." Of
the two figures, however, Pietro has left out the one to
the left, and filled the space with two portraits, the one

'
See Vasari, Lemonnier Edition, x. 89.
278 BERLIN.

only a half, the other a whole-length figure. In the wall-

painting these three figures are on the extreme left of the
spectator.^
This circumstance of itself, I think, excludes the
alleged co-operation of Don Bartolommeo della Gatta in
Perugino's fresco. The composition is entirely Perugino's
own, though he entrusted the designing of the folds on a
smaller scale to his friend and former pupil Pinturicchio ;

both the cartoon and the wall-painting itself are wholly

executed by the hand of Pietro.
8. A Woman kneeling with out-stretched arms ; seen
in profile. [Passavant, 'No. 42 " appears to be a Madonna
:

in the act of lifting the veil off the Infant Christ."'

Selvatico, frame 14, 2 :

" the Archangel Raphael pre-
senting the Virgin with the lily ; very fine drawing ; here
all the grace and correctness of the Urbinate come out in
their full light." Perini, No. 187.] This pen-and-ink
drawing is a study of the kneeling woman who performs
the operation on the little son of Moses, in the fresco
" The Journey of Moses." In the painting the foot,

which here visible, is covered by the dress.

is Now
if these " Raphael " drawings at Venice were really by
Raphael, he must have painted this figure, like several
others in the collection, about the year 1481, and there-
fore two years before his birth. On another page we find
a study of drapery for the figure of Zipporah. Thereupon
Selvatico, frame 23, 10, remarks :
" the folds are good, and

laid on with much intelligence, but betraying too much

the manner of Perugino." Perini, No. 10.

^ But in the background of his painting, Perugino, who was not

overstocked with ideas, has introduced both the figures of the drawing.
 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 279

9. A "Woman seated, with folded hands, and looking

upwards ; in profile. [Passavant, No. 2. Selvatico, frame
14, 3; "Mary Magdalen on Mount Calvary; of a some-
what dry but pure style. The correct lay of the folds
shows that in this drawing Raphael was approaching his
second manner." Perini, No. 19.] Pinturicchio's study
of the sitting woman in the " Baptism of Christ " with ;

one child at her right, and another standing upright on

her knee, she listens to the Saviour's discourse. (In the
middle distance, to the left of the spectator.)
9*. An
undraped Youth, with the left arm outstretched.
[Passavant, No. 22 " has the attitude of the young king
:

in the 'Adoration of the Kings.'" Selvatico, frame

23, 16 : " feeble drawing, seems copied from a figure by
Signorelli in Orvieto Cathedral."] This study from nature
served Pinturicchio for two of the undraped figures whom
we see in his " Baptism of Christ," to the left behind the
Christ.
9''. Arabesque for the decoration of pilasters. Lightly
drawn with the pen. [Selvatico, frame 27, 17. Perini,
No. 78.] Study for the decoration of a space in the ceiling
of the choir of S. Maria del Popolo at Rome. Compare also
the simuar decorations by Pinturicchio in his fresco paint-
ings at Siena and at Spello.
10. Head of a Young Man in a painter's cap, in two
different postures ; first looking straight at you, then
resting on the right hand and looking up. Near this last
head, on the left of the page, we read the words " L. paro."
[Passavant, No. 48 :
" very ingenious drawing." Selvatico,
frame 17, 27 " two heads drawn with much knowledge."
:

Perini, No. 85.] The letters of the word paro do not

agree with the characteristics of Raphael's handwriting.
The latter for instance forms the letter p with a hook at the
280 BERLIN.

bottom, J),
wliile Pinturicchio's is formed much the same
way as the p in this paro.
11. Four Women's heads ; three of them seen in front,
the fourth in profile. [Passavant, No. 60. Selvatico,
frame 13, 6 " Splendid drawing, giving another proof o£
:

the grace and originality that Sanzio could give to female

head-atth-e." Perini, No. 6.] These are probably the

female heads in which the enthusiastic possessor, Bossi,
fancied he saw Raphael's studies for his " Sposalizio " in
the Brera Gallery. Three of these fine female heads are
studies for Pinturicchio's wall-painting, " The Journey of
Moses." Of the two upper heads, we find the one to the
left of the spectator used for that woman who follows the
 :

THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 281

procession with a pitcher of water on her head at the

extreme left of the fresco ; there is but a slight change in
the position of her head. Of the two lower heads, the one
on the left served as a study for Zipporah, who, with her
right hand, leads her little son ; it is the one here repro-
duced. The other, to the right, was used for the seated
Zipporah in the picture holdiag the child on her knee.
12. Three Female Heads. [Passavant, No. 59. Selvatico,
frame 15, 2 "In these heads one discerns the whole store
:

of grace that lay in the soul of Sanzio. It is impossible

to conceive more lovely heads, or to adorn them with more
taste." Perini, I^^'o. 26.] 'Of these studies of female heads
the same may be said as of the preceding ones.
13. Three Male Heads in profile. [Passavant, No. 83
" Two of them caricatures, in the manner of Leonardo,
perhaps even taken from that master ; the third head, a
study for the shepherd in the ' Adoration of the Shep-
herds ' in the Vatican (!), of the year 1503." Selvatico,
frame 34, 2 :
" Pen-sketches of little value." Perini,
No. 87.]
A comparison of this drawing by Pinturicchio with an-
other by Raphael in the Oxford Collection, bearing No. 15
in Braun's catalogue, may bring my young friends more
quickly and efiectually to understand the difference be-
tween Pinturicchio and the IJrbinate than any written ex-
positions. Both masters have here reproduced the same
male head from Leonardo, besides which Pintuiicchio has,
on the same page, two other male heads after Leonardo.
This drawing must date from the year 1505 or 1506.
Not to fatigue my readers overmuch with this tedious,
but, for my argument, very necessary review of the so-
called " Raphael drawings " at Venice, I shall break off
here, only remarking that undoubtedly there are in that
282 BERLIN.

collection some genuine BcvpJiael drawings too, which, how-

ever, are not specially extolled by either Passavant or
Selvatico. Both these gentlemen have failed to perceive
the vast difference between the hvo drawings of the Urbi-
nate and all the other drawings —a difference that must
surely be obvious to any eye, well acquainted with
Raphael's manner. Both of these beautiful pen-drawings
are probably sketches for feigned bas-reliefs in his " Scuola
d'Atene," and therefore belong to the years 1509 — 1510,
numbered 67 and 82 in Perini's catalogue. Passavant
describes and criticizes them as follows " N'o. 34, three
:

naked figures, the one to the left bearing a banner the ;

two others to the right defend themselves with coats of

mail and lances against an attacking horseman. Very
spirited and ingenious sketch." Selvatico (frame 17, 6,
and 22) only remarks, " very lively sketch," and on 'No.
22, " very firm drawing, displaying the broadest manner
of Raphael."
Besides these two sketches of Raphael, we find in the
collection of drawings at Venice two by Antonio del Polla-
juolo ; they are what are called drawings from the model
(accademie), slightly washed with Indian ink, but both
have been touched up, and therefore spoilt. It seems
almost incredible that Passavant takes them (No. 25 and
26) for drawings by Raphael, and calmly describes them
as such in his catalogue of Raphael drawings in the Venice
collection. One of these spoilt Pollajuolo drawings repre-
sents an undraped man standing, and leaning his right

arm on a cornice ; the other, an old man, likewise undraped,

seated, and holding a ball in his left hand, while his right
arm is stretched out.
Besides these four drawings belonging to two different
masters, namely, Raphael and Pollajuolo, we find among
 THE UMBßlAN SCHOOL. 283

the drawings by Pinturicchio, two, that are imitations from

the celebrated engraving by Mantegna, " II Deposto di
Croce ;" and several from which it appears that Pintu-
ricchio at a later time took Luca Signorelli for his exem-
plar ; also some that are copies from drawings by Malozzo
da Forli, &c.
I think I have sufficiently proved that the majority of
the beautiful pen-and-ink drawings at Venice, first de-
clared by the late Professor Bossi to be from the hand of
—
Raphael a preconceived opinion, which has since been
ratified and sealed by Raphaelists in every part of the world

—belong of right to no other than poor, unappreciated

Bernardino Pinturicehio. Most of these drawings relate to
works which were executed, some by him, and some (the
studies of drapery) by P. Perugino, at Rome,'' in 1480 to
1482. Others, again, as the copies from Perugino 's draw-
ings, the imitations from L. Signorelli, Andrea Mantegna,
Lionardo da Vinci, belong to a later period. The " Flying
Angel with the Tambourine," ^ for instance, is of Pin-
turicchio's Sienese time (1503-6), and wholly agrees in
treatment with his magnificent drawing, washed with
Indian ink, of " Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini setting out to
the Council of Basle," at the Uffizi Gallery, where it is

still ascribed to Raphael by the careless directors of that

collection.
Further, we may infer from what has been said, that
the volume of drawings purchased by the late Professor
Giuseppe Bossi could not have been the painter's shetch-
hooJc, but was merely an album, in which the collector
inserted two drawings by Raphael, some of Antonio del

' No. 20 in Passavant's catalogue; and in Selvatico, frame 24, 4,

with the observation, " belongs to Sanzio's noblest period."
284 BERLIN.

PoUajualo, and some indifferent ones from the Perugian

School, in addition to the set of Pinturicchio's drawings,
which last he most probably had found together, and
which may originally have belonged to a note-book of
Pinturicchio.
If I may assume to have awakened in the minds of my
few readers some little doubt as to the correct naming of
the " Raphael drawings " at Venice, it would, on the other
hand, be but a fond illusion, were I to indulge the pleasing
hope of having convinced my young friends that the two
magnificent wall-paintings in the Sixtine Chapel are not
the work of Perugino, but of Pinturicchio. I know by ex-
perience the power and persistence of preconceived notions,
and am well aware that when driven out at the door they
fly in, at the window. Besides, I am not so much con-
cerned about the success of this my second argument as I

am about the first. It is, after all, but a secondary ques-

tion in art-history, whether a work of art belongs to the
one or to the other of two equally-matched Perugian
painters, Like Vannucci and Betti ; whereas I feel it is
something like heresy to confound Raphael, that noblest,
completest, loveliest apparition amongst all the artists of
modern times, even in the first steps of his famous career,
with masters who, excellent as they may be in their own
way, were only transiently and in outward school-relations
connected with him.
And now, enough of Pinturicchio. If, in representing
serious religious subjects, he does not come up to Peru-
gino as regards proportion, and the filling of space
finish, ;

if his forms are not so noble, and the expression of re-

ligious sentiment not so deep as in Pietro ;
yet, on the
other hand, Pintiiricchio is, to my mind, less conscious,
more fresh and racy than Perugino, and does not so often
 THE UMBßlAN SCHOOL. 285

fatigne us by monotony and that conventional sweetness

which, especially in the productions of his last twenty
years, makes Pietro positively wearisome. And, as an
imaginative landscape-painter, Piatnricchio surpasses al-
most all of his contemporaries.
Pinturicchio leads us naturally to Raphael Sanzio, of
whose early period the Berlin collection possesses some
valuable works. It appears to me that Raphael is not to
be classed with the Florentine School, as the catalogue will
have it, though there is no denying that during his re-
peated residences at Florence he took in impressions from
Florentine masters, notably Leonardo da Vinci and Fra
Bartolommeo. Nevertheless, from our point of view, he
remains, alike in feeling and conception, always an
Umbrian.
Arrived at Rome, he founded, in course of time, the
" School of Raphael ;" but that has no right, any more
than the School of Michel Angelo, to be called the Roman
School in our sense of the term. I say in our sense ; for,

to those who look upon Art as an external thing, inde-

pendent of the peculiarities of the people which utters its

mind therein, there may exist even Swiss and Tyrolese

Schools of Painting. The catalogue says further, that after
Raphael had received his first instructionfrom his father,
that is, down to 1494, he then, upon his death, entered
without delay the School of Pietro Perugino.
May I be permitted to clear up this point thoroughly,
and that with the bold intention of expounding to my
young friends an opinion I have cherished this long while,
and which has ripened into clear conviction, through my
studying the early works of Raphael and of Timoteo Viti ?
I know it stands in direct opposition to the accepted doc-
trine (axiom I might call it) about Raphael's artistic edu-
286 BERLIN.

cation,and I should not have been at all surprised if,

emanating from the pen of an "authority," it had given
rise to a real scandal among the Raphaelists of civilized
Europe. As it is, there is but little danger of a shock to
the faith or nerves of the blind believers in tradition.
It is well known that Vasari, in his " Lives of Eminent
Artists," together with much that is true and excellent,
tells not a little that is false, and even some fables of his
own inventing ;
yet, down to our own day, he has re-
mained the chief source from which writers about Raphael
have drawn their facts. On the authority of this Aretiue,
the art-historians, including laborious Passavant,^ all more
or lessmake young Raphael, when eleven years old — " be
presented and commended by his father to Pietro Peru-
gino," as Vasari makes out, which is already some ad-
vance —yet still they make him enter the studio of Pietro
Vannucci at Perugia in the year 1495, shortly after his

1 The late Passavant, no doubt, gave the world a very meritorious

work on Raphael. But he seems, by the structure of his mind, to have

been cut out more for a scholar than an artist. Noi', in spite of his
enormous industry and praiseworthy conscientiousness, was he able
wholly to enter into the genius of Raphael, and identify himself with his
innermost way of feeling and thinking. Hence his meritorious book is
already grown obsolete, and can be of no great service to us except as an
inventory of Raphael's works.
It seems, on the whole, as difficult for Northerners to enter into the
heart of the Italian way of thinking and feehng, as it is for an Italian to
fathom the German or Flemish nature. They all penetrate to a certain
point of the objective externality, and then try to make up the rest in
their own way, that is, subjectively. A striking instance of this is

the Dutch, Flemish, and German copies and imitations of Italian works
of the 15th and 16th centuries, which in pubHc and private collections
delight the people a great deal more than the original paintings would.
There are, of course, some brilliant exceptions to this rule, but they are
rare.
 —

THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 287

father's death. " II est probable, que ce fut en 1495. Le

^
Perugin etait alors ä I'apogee de sa gloire."
This last statement is quite correct ; but it is no less

true that in those years, namely, from 1493 to the middle of

1498, Perugino was only at brief and rare intervals a
resident in Perugia, He was at Yenice in 1494 (see
Gaye, ii. 69). In the same year he finished his beautiful
picture for the church of St. Augustine of Cremona, pro-
bably at Cremona The 6th of March, 1495, Pietro
itself.

was again and there signed a contract to paint

at Perugia,
"
for the monks of Cassino " The Assumption of Mary
(now at Lyons). Of the same year is "The Entombment
of Christ," which he executed for the church of S. Chiara
at Perugia (Palazzo Pitti, No. 164). In 1496 he painted
"The Marriage of Mary" for the cathedral of Perugia
(now in the Museum of Caen). In the same year he re-
mained some length of time at Venice, a fact that is con-
firmed by a document which the present writer had the
good fortune to discover in the State archives of Milan.^
Its contents are as follows :

" The painter who was painting in our small rooms has

' "Kaphael d'Urbin," etc., par T. D. Passavant. Traduction de

M. Paul Lacroix, 1860. 2 vols, (i., page 48.)
^ " A tergo ( Jn C)risto, patri, (domino reverendissi)mo Arcimboldo
:

(arcMepiscopo) Mediolani, consiliario (ducali) nostro dilectissimo.

" El pictore, quale pingeva li camerini nostri, hogi ha facto certo
scandalo per il quale si e absentato, et havendo noi adesso a pensare ad
altro pinctore per fornire I'opera, et satisfare a quello de che si servi-
vamo cum I'opere di questo chi e absentato, Jntendendo che Magistro
Petro Perusino si trova li, ci e parse darvi cura di parlarli, et Jntendere
da luy se'l vole venire ad servirce, cum dirli, che, venendo, li faremo
conditione tale ch'el si poterä bene accontentare. Ma in questo bisog-
nerä advertire ch'el non si trovasse obligato a quella JU""^ Signoria,
perche in tale caso non Jntendemo fame parola, anzi se'l fosse qui, lo
vorriamo remandare li : Et pero risguardarete a questo, et parlando ad
288 BERLIN.

absconded to-day, because of a certain scandal. We are,

therefore, obliged to look out for another painter to com-
plete the commenced work, and replace the master who
has gone. Hearing that Master Peter Perngiao was there
(at Venice), it appeared to ns advisable to commission you
to speak to him and learn whether he is willing to enter
our service ; and in that case to assure him, that we are
ready to offer such terms as would satisfy him. In this
ti'ansaction, however, we must make sure that he (Peru-
gino) has not entered into liabilities with the Venetian
government, for in that case, we should not only take na
further steps, but would even send him back if he came.
Will you, therefore, bear in mind this latter point, and
after consultation with the master (Perugino), let us know
his reply, and whether we may cherish the hope of having
him here.
" Milan, 8 June, 1496.
" Ludovicus Sforza
» Anglus, Dux Mediolani," etc. " B. Chalcus."
In the autumn of the year 1496 we find the restless
master at Florence. " 1496, Petrus Christofori, vocatus
Perugino de Perusio, habitator in populo S. Petri majoris
(a proof that Perugino always stayed a longish time at

epso Magistro ce awisarete de quello chel ve respondera, et sei vi parerä.

se possa sperare de haverlo.
"Mediolani Vm.junij 1496.
" Ludovicus Sfortia
" Anglus, Dux Mediolani. " etc. " B. Chalcus."
Guidantonio Arcimboldi, mentioned at the beginning of the document,,
was appointed Archbishop of Milan in 1488, and died in 1497. Moro
often employed him on diplomatic missions, though Litta never once
mentions this mission to Venice. His son, Niccolo Arcimboldi, died in
the year 1513; ru 1498 he was confirmed in his feudal possessions of
Arcisate by Lodovico U Moro; but in 1499 he took the oath of aUe-
ffiance to Louis XII. of France.
 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 289

Florence) emit unum petium (pezzo = piece) terrae aptae

ad faciendnm unum domum, positum in populo S. Petri
majoris." On the 26tli of June, 1498, we meet him again
at Florence (see Vasari, Ediz. Le Monnier, vi., 68 and 69).
To this period, namely, the interval between the years
1494 and 1498, I ascribe also the magnificent triptych for
the Certosa of Pavia, one of the most perfect works of
Perngino (now in the National Gallery, London). Whether
he executed this painting during his stay in Upper Italy,
at Cremona, perhaps in the Certosa itself, or somewhere
else, I cannot determine. I was only anxious to observe
here that, in my opinion, this work of Perugino's must be
of the 15th century, not later.
I know very well that the most celebrated authorities,
Rumohr and Passavant, ascribe the Angel with Tobias in
this painting to the young Raphael himself, from which it

may be inferred that, ia the eyes of these gentlemen, the

origin of this picture is to be placed some eight or ten
years later than I am inclined to suppose. This opinion
of theirs, seems to me devoid of all foundation. There
are, in England, two and carefully-executed drawings
fine

for the Tobias with the Angel one is at Oxford, in the

;

University Galleries, No. 16, ascribed to Raphael, the other

is in the British Museum (Braun, 149), where it is ascribed
to Perugino. Evidently both drawings are by the hand of
this master. I should say the form of the hand^ alone was
a sufficient reason for not assigning this otherwise good
and carefully-executed drawing to the Urbinate.

^ This ugly tong-shaped hand, with the thumb and forefinger nearly
touching, is to be me^ with in other drawings by Perugino (British

Museum, Braun, 149) ; also in many of his paintings for instance, in :

that of the Poldi Collection at Milan, in the " Transfiguration of Mary ;"
in the so-called " Annunziata " at Florence ; and in many pictures at

U
290 BEKLIN.

In the year 1497 Pietro must have stayed a consider-

able time at Fano ; he probably executed there on the spot
the large altar-piece for the altar of the Durauti family in
the church of S. Maria Nuova.
In the following yearwe meet master Pietro at Perugia
again, employed in painting his Madonna and six kneeling
brethren (now in the Municipal Gallery of Perugia) for
the chapel of the Brotherhood of S. Pietro Martire in the
church of S. Domenico.
Lastly, towards the end of the year 1499 and in the
beginning of 1500, Pietro Perugino painted the large
panel-picture for the church of Vallombrosa (at present

in the Academy of Florence). This fine picture —unfor-

tunately, rather spoilt by cleaning — represents the " Trans-
figuration of Mary, with four Saints standing," and is
signed with the name of the master and dated 1600.
During the same visit Perugino may also have painted the
two portraits of monks, one representing Don Blasio
Milanese, General of the Order of Vallombrosa, the other
the Abbot of Vallombrosa, Don Balthasar (likewise in the
Florentine Academy). These two fine portraits are in
like manner handed over to the young Raphael by several
art-critics, and even by Passavant.

With so much wandering about, and at that stage of

his activity, it would have been impossible for Perugino
to give the regular and continuous instruction required by
a boy of twelve, such as Raphael was then. Baron Rumohr,
therefore, led by his exquisite taste in Art, had already
hazarded the conjecture that young Raphael may, after all,

the Perugia Gallery. Again, in another drawing of Perugino's at Oxford

(also ascribed to Raphael by Air. Eobinson, Braun, 6), we meet with
the same tong-like form in the left hand of a sleeping watchman, a
form characteristic of Perugino, but which never occurs in Raphael.
 —

THE UMBßlAN SCHOOL. 291

not have entered tlie studio of Pietro Perugino till some-

where about 1500.^ Well, if I am rightly informed, Pro-
fessor Rossi, of Perugia, has discovered documents proving
that Raphael actually did not leave Urbino to settle at
Perugia till about the end of 1499, when he entered the
studio of Pietro Perugino as an assistant. Credible as this
intelligence appears to me, I am not prepared to vouch for
its truth. I>row arises the question. What had the boy
Raphael been doing at Urbino after the death of his father
and first instructor ? —under what master's guidance had
he continued his studies there ?

We know from several documents that a warm friend-

ship subsisted between Raphaeland Timoteo Viti. From
this tender relation between the two artists of TJrbino,
Vasari draws forthwith the inference that Timoteo must
have been the pupil of Raphael. Let us hear the bio-
grapher himself:
" Timoteo si mise arditamente (?) a colorire (namely, at
Bologna in the studio of Francia, from 1490 to 1495) pig-
liando una assai vaga maniera e assai simile a quella del
nuovo Apelle, suo compatrioto (then about eleven or twelve
years old), ancorche di mano di lui non avesse veduto se
non alcune poche cose in Bologna." ^

^ " The vague, I might say thoughtless, statements of Vasari need not
then exclude the possibility that Eaphael, before joining Perugino as
an assistant, may have worked some time, say with Andrea di Luigi
(Ingegno), as a pupil or assistant." (Ital. Forsch., iii. 31.) What made
Baron Eumohr have recourse to this Ingegno as a master for young
Raphael was the foregone conclusion that Eaphael did leave Urbino in
1495 and come to Perugia. As for this Ingegno, so called, he always
was one of the Baron's hobbies.
^ Ediz. Le Monnier, viii. 149. There were, indeed, in the second
decade of the 16th century, two works of Eaphael's at Bologna, namely,
the " St. Cecilia," painted in 1516 for the altar of S. Cecilia Doglioli at
 — —;

292 BERLIN.

The only thing that is true in this narrative of Vasari is

the " assai vaga maniera " of young Timoteo Viti, " e assai
simile a quella " which was also adopted some years later
by his younger countryman, Raphael. Is not this a con-
vincing proof, in the first place, that Raphael's artistic
development was only very superficially known to Vasari
and, secondly, that he too often, as in this case, blinded by
some prepossession, forsook the path of historical truth, to
lose himself in the mazes' of conjecture ? He evidently
assumed that Raphael must have been the master of
Timoteo Viti, whereas chronology alone, might have taught
him better, had he paid the slightest attention to it.
ISTearly all the art-historians, so called, have very natu-
rally followed Vasari, and down to the present day they
regard and represent Timoteo as a scholar and imitator
of Raphael. But let us hear the Aretine further on
Timoteo :

"His early works made Timoteo, in a short time, so

celebrated that Raphael invited him to Rome, where
his stay proved so advantageous, not only for his art, but

also for his purse, that in a year's time he was able to send
home a nice sum of money. With his master, he painted
the '
Sibyls ' at the church della Pace, ' di sua mano ed
^
invenzione,' "
Yet in his " Life of Raphael " the same Vasari says :

"Figure (Raphael) in questa pittura alcuni profeti e

sihille, che, nel vero, delle sue cose e tenuta la migliore e

the church of St. Giovanni in Monte, and the picture of " God the
Father and the Fotir Evangelists," executed for Vincenzo Hercolani,
some say in 1517, others in 1510. But Timoteo Viti, after serving his
apprenticeship, left Bologna in 1495. How could he at that time have
seen pictures by Raphael, a lad of twelve ?

^ Vasari, viii. 150 and 151.

 —

THE UMBEIAN SCHOOL. 293

fra le tante belle beUissima . . . . e questa opera lo fece

stimar grandemente vivo e morto, per essere piu rara ed
^
eccellente opera che Raffaello facesse in vita sua."
But, adds Vasari, home-sickness drove Timoteo from
Rome back to Urbino, where he married soon after his
return (about 1519 then, on Vasari's own showing, as the
prophets and sibyls in the church of La Pace were painted
in 1518) ; and as his wife subsequently presented him
with children, Timoteo would no more leave Urbino, in
spite of the repeated invitations of Raphael." Now, in the
whole of this story there is not a word of truth. Pungi-
leoni informs us in his " Elogio storico di Timoteo," etc.,
that Timoteo Viti had married already in 1501, that he
never left his native town
between the years 1501
1510 further,
; that in 1513 he was chief magistrate of
urbino, and that in 1518 his art was in request at the
ducal court of Urbino. Timoteo Viti, morever, belonged
to a well-to-do family at Urbino, was much esteemed
there, and in 1518, when Raphael was doing his wall-
paintings in the church of S. Maria della Pace, he was
close upon fifty, certainly not the age for a prosperous and
highly-respected man to leave his home and family, and go
to work as a journeyman, or even as assistant to a much
younger master, at a wall-painting far from his own fire-
side.

In defiance of all these contradictions, as if merely to

keep up Vasari's fable, Passavant ascribes to Timoteo, not
indeed the " Sibyls," as Vasari will have it, but the
" Prophets " (in S. Maria della Pace). And for what
reason ? " The wall-painting with the Prophets,' " says '

he, " is so much weaker than that with the Sibyls,' that '

> Vasari, viii, 23. '^

Vol. riii. 151 and 152,
294 BERLIN.

doubtless only the cartoons for it can be ascribed to

Raphael, while the execution of the painting must have
been left to one of his assistants. If, therefore, as Vasari
informs us, Timoteo Viti did give his help to Raphael in
this -work, his co-operation must have been confined to the
'
Prophets.' " ^
This judgment of the Frankfort savant
has not only been accepted by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalca-
selle, but these historians of Italian Art thought they
must put the dots over the i's, by ascribing to Timoteo,
besides the " Prophets," also the execution of the " dra-
peries " of the " Sibyls " (vol. i. 581). I must here con-
fess, that if I had to choose between the verdicts of the
three greatest modern art-historians, namely, Passavant
on the one side, and Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle on
the other, I should give my preference to that of Passa-
vant, and for the present leave the draperies of the
" Sibyls " to Raphael, until some new and weighty docu-
ment shall make it clear that those " draperies " were
really painted by Timoteo Viti, and not by Raphael him-
self.'

But let us ask ourselves seriously, how it came to pass

that so pleasing, graceful, and in his way and for his time
so important an artist as Timoteo Viti shows himself to be,
in his works, should have been so utterly misunderstood
by all writers on Italian Art ? If I mistake not, two cir-
cumstances have mainly contributed to Vasari's careless
blunder being perpetuated to this day. One of these is

'
Passavant, as above,i. 157. It is always hazardous to believe
blindly in Vasari. Passavant ought to have known, from long experi-
ence, that unless you read the " Vite " cum grano salts, you always run
the risk of falling into a pit.
2 Unhappily, this wall-painting in the church Delia Pace has been so
atrociously painted over, that at most one can only admire in it the com-
position.
 —

THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 295

the fact that nearly all writers on Raphael, resting purely

on Yasari's statement, have made him go to Perugia and
enter the studio of P. Perugino so early as the year 1495.
The second and perhaps more cardinal circumstance must
be looked for in the utter neglect which art-research, from
Vasari downwards, has been guilty of towards Timoteo Viti.
With the exception of Pungileoni, a scholar but no great
connoisseur, we ask in vain what art-critic of any weight
at all has taken up this most delightful of Francia's
pupils, has studied his works, and has compared them
with the early works of his young countryman Raffael
Sanzio ? So little has this been done, that even those
most circumspect and conscientious historians of Italian
painting, Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, are no excep-
tion, but, on the contrary, continue to ascribe the most

heterogeneous paintings to the same Timoteo Viti.

With a view of putting in the hands of young students
of art some sort of clue which might enable them to
study this unappreciated master in closer proximity and
from various points of view, I invite them, first, to look at
the works ascribed to him by Vasari, and consequently
also by Passavant and Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle,
and then to pass on to a critical review of those paintings
which have been added to Vasari's list of his works, both
by Passavant and by the latest historians. This juxta-
position, perhaps, may help us better to understand the
master and the peculiarities of his physiognomy.
Vasari and Passavant enumerate the following works as
those of Timoteo Viti :

1. A large tempera-picture on canvas, painted by com-

mission of Marino Spaccioli, of Urbino/ It represents the

^ Vasari, viii. 150.

296 BERLIN.

Madonna and Child, with an angel playing ; on the sides of

the throne, the Saints Crescentius and Vitalis. At present
in the Brera Gallery at Milan, but in a very dilapidated
condition, especially the Virgin and the infant Christ
Passavant observes that the heads in this picture remind
him of Francia and Perugino (why not rather of Raphael?),
and that the picture had long passed for a work of Eaphael,
untu documents were discovered that revealed the true
master/ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle have not a
syllable to say on a picture (No. 588) so important to the
history of painting, probably because, out of sheer indo-
lence on the part of the gallery direction, it is not named
in the catalogue of the Brera Collection, though it hangs
there in the dark ante-room leading to the so-called
Oggionni Gallery.
2. A St. Apollonia,^ painted for the chief altar of the
church Delia Trinitä at TJrbino. At present hung in a
not very creditable condition at the Municipal Gallery of
Urbino. picture is mentioned by Passavant, and
This
therefore also by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle. The
former calls the figure hard in drawing and cold in colour
(it is badly painted over), and even in expression (!).
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, on the other hand, say
that in this picture Timoteo " adopted the RafiFaellesque as
evolved in the art of Spagna."
3. The altar-piece for the chapel of S. Martino in
TJrbino Cathedral, painted on commission of Bishop Arri-
vabene in the year 1504.^ 'Now in the sacristy of the same
cathedral. Mentioned by Passavant and Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle.
4. St. Magdalen, painted in 1508 on commission of the

'-
Passavant, vol. i., p. 329. ^ Vasari, viii. 150. ^ Vasari, viii. 152.
 THE UMBßlAN SCHOOL. 297

Bolognese Lodovieo Amaduzzi.^ Now in the Pinacotheca

of Bologna. Mentioned by Passavant and Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle, tlie latter praising this work as the best
of Timoteo's, while Passavant finds this Magdalen as cold
and unattractive as the Apollonia.
5. The altar-piece for the chapel of the Bonaventuri
in the church of S. Bernardin," near Urbino. Now
in the Brera Gallery, Milan. Described by Passa-
vant, and also by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle.
Passavant praises particularly the drawing, while the
historians of Italian Painting find the figures heavy, and
the picture reminds them not only of Francia, but of Pin-
turicchio.
6. Vasari mentions a picture of "Apollo with tivo
Muses," ^ in the ducal palace of TJrbino he seems, how-
;

ever, not to have seen it himself. Baldi, in his " Descrizione

del palazzo ducale di Urbino " (p. 527), speaks of panel-
pictures, by Timoteo Viti, representing Apollo with the
nine Muses Passavant and Messrs. Crowe and Cavalca-
;

selle give out this work of Timoteo as lost. In the upper

storey of the Palazzo Barberini at Rome I saw, some years
ago, eight panel-pictures of Apollo, Polyhymnia, Terpsi-
chore, Calliope, Clio, Melpomene, Erato, and Thalia ; each
panel measured about 82 centimetres high by 38 wide.
These pictures had come to Rome from the ducal palace
of TJrbino, and under the name of Timoteo Viti. If I am
not much mistaken, this Apollo with the seven Muses does
not belong to Timoteo Viti, but to Francesco Bianchi of
Ferrara and the Apollo and hvo Muses, mentioned by
;

Vasari, must be considered as lost.

7. The " Noli me tangere " at Cagli, signed, " Timoteo

^ Vasari, viii. 152. ^ Vasari, nii. 153. ^ Vasari, viii. 153.

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298 BERLIN.

de Vite urbinat, opus." Painted in 1518 (?). Ac-

cording to Passavant, this picture of Timoteo's is in the
style of Raphael, but not without affectation. Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle also find in it the Raphaelite
style, but combined with the hardness and conventionality
of Giovanni Santi and Palmezzano.^ As I have always
been prevented from going to Cagli, I am not in a position
to add my own opinion to that of the critics named.
Also, I have never been able to find the picture mentioned
by Vasari, which Timoteo is said to have painted for
Citta di Castello." Neither Passavant nor Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle speak of this work of Timoteo ;
probably
it has been lost, as the Florentine commentators of Vasari
suppose.
8. Lastly, Vasari mentions, as we have already seen, the
co-operation of Timoteo in Raphael's wall-painting of the
"Prophets " and " Sibyls" in S.Maria dellaPace at Rome,
executed by Raphael in 1518.
To these works, ascribed to Timoteo Viti by Vasari,
also, by all modern art-historians, Passavant
and therefore,
and Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle unite in adding the
enthroned " Virgin and Child with Saints " in the Berlin
Gallery (N^o. 120) by the Frankfort
: this picture is called
by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle,
savant a beautiful,^ and
"a genuine specimen"* of the master. Then the joint
authors of " Italian Painting," on their part attribute the
following pictures to Timoteo Viti :

1. The large panel on which the Evangelist Luke, with

his life-size bullock, is represented, painting a portrait of

1 Vol. i. 580. 3 Vol. i. 330.

- Vasari, viii. 152. * Vol. i. 582.
 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 299

Mary.^ In the Academy of S. Lnca at Eome ; there

ascribed to Raphael himself.-
2. The small " St. Jerome scourging Himself," in the

Berlin Gallery (No. 124) . Purchased by Baron Rumohr

as a work of Timoteo Viti, and entered as such in the
gallery catalogue by Dr, Waagen.
The " Apotheosis of Maria Bgiziaca, with S. Zosimus
3.

standing below ;" came to the Town Gallery of Ferrara

from the church of S. Andrea. Set down in the catalogue
of that gallery as a work of Timoteo Yiti. To my think-
ing, this good picture is more probably by another master
of the Francia-Costa School, namely, by Ercole Grandi di
Giulio Cesare. The structure of the skull, so peculiar to
this artist, is, I think, enough to betray him.
4. A small Madonna belonging to the heirs of Prof.

Saroli at Ferrara.
5. A picture of " The Crucified lamented by St. Mary
and St. John ;" at one time in the house of Count Mazza
at Ferrara, now no longer there.
6. Lastly, the " Praesepium ;" No. 60, at the Pina-
cotheca of Bologna, there ascribed to Chiodarolo.^ In my
eyes, it is a studio-picture of Lorenzo Costa.
To crown all, Passavant winds up with the remark, that
Timoteo Viti had so thoroughly acquired Raphael's man-
ner of drawing with the pen, that his pen-sketches were
but too often ascribed by the ignorant to Raphael himself ;

they were to be recognised, however, by not being so

> Vol. i. 581.

2 Passavant considers this picture to be designed by Eaphael, all but
the portrait proper ; that the head of St. Luke is Gyen^painted by Raphael
himself, but that all the rest, including the bullock, is executed by other
hands (ii. 347 and 348),
3 Vol i. 577, note 1.
 —

300 BERLIN.

masterly in design, and, particularly in large compositions,

by a certain lack of deep and nciive ideas, the figures being
of no great significance, and having little to do with the
chief action.^ Passavant prudently forbears to name those
pen-and-ink drawings and those large compositions of
Timoteo that prompted the profound remarks just quoted.-
As Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle in their historical
work do not include the Drawings of the several artists,
I have not the privilege of quoting their opinion on this
point, surely one of the most important in the history
of Art.
Now let me ask any unprejudiced and thinking student
of Art, is it seriously to be imagined that a talented artist
like Timoteo, in his twenty-seventh year, after completing
his years of study with Francia, would let himself be taken in
hand and tutored by a boy of twelve ? forthat was Raphael's
age when Timoteo came home from Bologna to TJrbino in

1 Vol. i. 332.
^ With what injustice Timoteo Viti is treated in Paris also, by the
first connoisseurs of drawings, may
be seen by Mr. Reiset ascribing to
him the copy of Raphael's drawing for his " Belle Jardiniere." This
wretched copy, when publicly exhibited in 1879, was spoken of in the
Gazette des Beaux Arts " by a great French connoisseur of drawings,
'•'

the Marquis de Chenne vieres, in the following terms " Quand j'aurai :

note, de I'ami fidele de Raphael, Timoteo Viti, une precieuse ( ) copie !

du dessin de la Belle Jardiniere, dont nous nous etonnons de ne pas voir

ici Toriginal. qui appartient ä Mr. Timbal," etc. The so-called Timoteo
di'awing belongs to the Due d'Aumale. la England, also, poor copies
after Raphael are given to our Timoteo Viti. Thus in the official
Catalogue of the University Galleries, Oxford " The deposition of the
:

bod}^ of our Saviour, No. 40 Sheet of Studies for a composition of the

;

deposition, No. 41 ; design for the arrangement of the figures in the

upper part of the fresco of the Parnassus, No. 68 ; in the collection of
Christ Church College, group of three figures, No. 6. (See a critical
account of the drawings by j\I. Angelo and Raphael in the University
Gallery, Oxford, by J. C. Robinson).
 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 301

1495. Is not exactly the opposite theory by far the

likeliest ?

The tempera-picture (now in the Brera Gallery) of

" Mary Enthroned, and Saints Crescentius and Vitalis," is,
so Vasari informs ns, the first work that Timoteo painted
after his return from Bologna ; and, in fact, it has not
only a very fresh and youthful look, but vividly reminds
us, if not of Perugino, as Passavant imagined, yet of
Lorenzo Costa and of Francia.^ This picture may there-
fore be a product of the years 1496 to 1500, the very time
when Timoteo grew intimate with the Spaccioli family,
for whom the painting was executed, and out of whose
midst he shortly after, in 1501, chose a wife, Girolama di
Guido Spaccioli. The picture, as Passavant tells us, was
for a long time considered a work of Raphael, until docu-
ments were found which gave it back to Timoteo. Again,
the " St. Apollonia " is, according to Vasari, another pic-
ture of Timoteo's early time, and we saw that Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle found the lovely figure of this
saint partly Rafiaelesque and partly suggestive of Giovanni
Spagna. Can any of my readers now, after all these con-
siderations, still think it hazardous to harbour a doubt as
to the stereotyped doctrine that Timoteo Viti was a pupil
and imitator of Raphael ?

It may be said, " Well, there is no denying that a man

of twenty-seven was not likely to receive instruction in
his art from a boy of twelve but, then, how to explain
;

this fact —
that not only the early works of Timoteo make
a Raphaelite impression onall the art-critics, but that

one of them had been actually ascribed to Raphael for

^ The lights on the drapery as well as on the landscape are laid on in

gold, after the fashion that was then dying out.
302 BERLIN.

centuries, and would be still, had not some documents

"
turned up wHch established the claim of Timoteo ?

I must, of course, be prepared for this objection, and

will answer it as well as I can.
In April of the year 1495,^ when Timoteo Viti came
back a finished painter to his native-town, Urbino, he
there found Raphael, at the age of twelve, left without a
master and guide in his art, through the death of his
father, Giovanni, the year before. As far as I know, there
were no painters of any importance at that time in Urbino.
Will anyone call it unlikely, then, that young Raphael
should have joined his countryman and senior by fifteen
years,and continued under him those studies in painting
which had been interrupted by his father's death ?
Timoteo was a lovable, frank, and pure artist-nature,
and had gained, as we see by Francia's diary, the entire
affection of his master at Bologna. And such being the
case, is it not also probable that the mutual esteem and
friendship which afterwards existed between young Raphael
and Francia, was brought about through this very
Timoteo ?

But, it may be objected, how can we admit that a

genius like Raphael's should ever have been swayed by
so mediocre a painter as Timoteo appears to have been (to
judge from his pictures at the Berlin Gallery and from
his " St. Luke " painting in the Academy at Rome), when
it is so much simpler to suppose that Timoteo. like every

artist who was fortunate enough to approach Raphael, was

spell-bound by his genius, and modified his own manner

^
In Francia's diary we read: " 1495, a di 4Aprile; j)artito il mio
caro Timoteo, che Dio li dia ogni bene e fortuua :
" " My dear Timothy
is gone, God grant him all happiness and welfare."
 THE UMBßlAN SCHOOL. 303

after that of Raphael ? My answer is : All this may be

very nice and pretty, but it is not logical. For, in the
first place, Timoteo Viti, in the next few years after his
retui'n to TJrbino, paints a " Raphaelesque " picture at a
time when Raphael was hardly fifteen ; and, secondly, we
know that Raphael, after once leaving Urbino in 1500,
revisited his native town only two or three times (in
1504, 1506, and 1507), and never stayed there long. In
October of the year 1504 he went from Urbino to Florence.
Further, we know that in 1501 Timoteo Viti married
Girolama Spaccioli, and from that moment never left his

house and family again for any length of time ; from which
it follows that he could not possibly have studied under
Raphael, either at Perugia or at Florence. On all these
grounds is it not more reasonable to assume that that
touch of Raphael, which all connoisseurs detect in Viti's
works, especially ia his early pictures, was a part of
Timoteo' s own individuality ? Was he not also an
Urbinate ? As Lorenzo Lotto was Correggesque sooner
than Correggio himself, so Timoteo Viti breathed Raphaelite
grace and a Raphaelite delicacy into his works several
years before Raphael. But it is not only the general
conception of Timoteo's early works that recalls Raphael,
it is also the shape of the hands and feet, the oval of the
face, the manner of laying on the folds that remind us of
his younger countryman. I cheerfully admit that to those
"
who judge of Timoteo Viti by the " Enthroned Madonna
(No. 120) in the Berlin Gallery or the portrait-painting
Luke in the Academy of Rome, any exposition of this
contested point, however honest, will be the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. But if any of my young friends
have the courage to follow me on my long and not too
lively road of explanation, let them summon up their
304 BERLIN,

patience and perseverance. The aim we strive at "is

worth some trouble.

Let US first of all survey those works of Timoteo's
which are undoubtedly the result of his youthful labours,
— namely, those that seem to have first seen the light
somewhere between 1495, the year of his return to Urbino,
and 1500, the year of Raphael's departure from TJrbino to
Perugia.
Here the first thing that concerns us is the " Enthroned
Madonna, with the Saints Crescentius and Vitalis," at the
Brera Gallery (No. 588). In this picture, already designated

by Vasari as an early work of Timoteo, the artist (then

about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old) seems to be
still a good deal influenced by his masters Francia and
Lorenzo Costa ; the angel playing an instrument reminds,
us of Costa, the Saints Crescentius and Vitalis of Francia,
while the charming figure of the same St. Vitalis must
also have contributed largely to this picture's passing so

long for a work of Raphael.

Another little picture, in private possession at Milan, ^
must be placed in the same early period, if not earlier. On a
small panel, about twenty-eight centimetres high by twenty
wide, is represented St. Margaret, holding a palm-branch
in her right hand, and in her left a chain by which she
The background
leads a dragon that crouches at her feet.
by a landscape which is not unlike the neighbour-
is filled

hood of TJrbino. The head and attitude of the saint

involuntarily bring Francia to our recollection, while the
oval of the face is like that of Raphael's Madonna del
Granduca. The picture came from Urbino to Rome as a
work of Timoteo, and was acquired there by its present

1 The property of the Author.

 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 305

St. Vitalis. By Timoteo Viti. (Milan.)

X
306 BERLIN.

possessor. The cartoon for this small " St. Margaret " was
used again for the figure of Apollonia in the altar-piece of
the little church of S. Trinitä ; but, instead of the palm-
branch, the artist has put a pair of tongs in the Saint's
right hand, and left the dragon out. Here I will add the
remark, that the dragon at the feet of St. Margaret is very
like the one in young Raphael's picture of St. George (now
in the Louvre, No. 369, the drawing for it in the TJflB.zi).

In my treatise on the Borghese Gallery, incautiously,

and relying on Passavant's opinion, I ascribed the beautiful
andMarsyas" (now in the possession
littlepictureof" Apollo
of Mr. Morris Moore), to Timoteo Yiti. I have seen this

picture only once, and then hurriedly, when it was

exhibited in the Brera Gallery at Milan, I think in 1858.
At that time I had the impression that the picture might
rather belong to Marco Melloni, an imitator of Francia
and Perugino. Afterwards, misled by Passavant, I gave
it to Timoteo Viti. I herewith publicly acknowledge my
mistake. Though I have never seen the picture again, I
have arrived at the conviction, through a close study of
the drawing for the picture at the Venetian Academy,
that this work cannot belong either to RajDhael or to
Timoteo Viti, but most probably to a master whose style
is in close affinity with that of Perugino.
I likewise reckon amongst the early works of Timoteo
that series of seventeen majolica-plates, adorned with
figures of mythological import, which, to my mind, are
among the most valuable treasures of the Museo Correr at
Venice. If I am not mistaken, it must have been Timoteo
himself that painted these exquisite little pictures on the
plates. The figures, one and all, bear the stamp of the
Francia-Costa School, and it is quite incomprehensible
to me how so intelligent a man as Lazzari could, in the
 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 307

St. Margaret. By Timoteo Viti. (Milan.)

308 BERLIN.

Museum Catalogue, so utterly misconceive the high

artistic value of these plates, as not only to refer them to
the year 1484, but to ascribe them, moreover, to a factory
at Faenza, when, to all appearance, they come from the
celebrated majolica-factory of Castel Durante. I am no
less surprised that Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, who
must often have pursued searching inquiries in that
Museum, have not thought these plates worthy of any
notice, whilst in the same room they found words of
acknowledgment for masters like Pasqualino, or Jacopo da
Yalenza. I regret it the more, as an encouraging sign
from them would have given me a fresh start for my own
researches about Timoteo Viti.
Besides these few works known to me of Timoteo Viti's
early period, there may be many other things of his
scattered about the world, possibly under the name of
Raphael.^ The collection of drawings at Oxford, for
instance, possesses a beautiful female head in black chalk,
the young woman holding a palm-branch in her left hand.
At Oxford this drawing is ascribed to Raphael. Mr. J. C.

Robinson, however, a discriminating judge of drawings,

has with a fine tact divined in this drawing the hand of
Timoteo Viti." (In Braun's Catalogue, No. 14.) To my

* The collection of the Venetian Academy has, under the name of

Eaphael, a brown water-colour drawing of a young man looking upwards
with folded hands, seen in profile ; a drawing which, in my opinion, is
by Timoteo.
2 " A Critical Account of the Drawings by Michel Angelo and Raffaello
in the University Galleries, Oxford," by J. (S.Eobinson Oxford, 1870.
;

The preconception, however, that Raphael was not the pupil, but the
master of Timoteo, has immediately blinded his eyes again. See p. 141,
No. 27 ' That is a careful, shaded drawing of small life-sized propor-
:

tions, probably for a '

St. Catharine.' Although full of Eaffaellesque

expression [I find even more Costaesque expression], and resembling

 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 309

eyes this original drawing belongs unmistakablj to

Timoteo's early period, and is very characteristic of tlie

master. The Louvre, too, possesses a drawing by Timoteo

Viti (retouched) in black chalk and gypsum ; a kneeling
Magdalen holding up her right arm.
Let us now set the above-named works of Timoteo Viti
by the side of those pictures and drawings which we can
believe to have been done by Raphael when fifteen or sixteen
years old. Unfortunately, there are but few of these at our
disposal one small painting and a couple of drawings. The
:

painting is the so-called " Dream of a Knight," No. 213 at

the National Grallery, London. The drawings : first, that
for the above-named picture, also in the National Gallery ;

secondly, a pen-and-ink drawing in the Wicar Collection

at Lille, representing two young archers,^ probably studies
for a " Martyrdom of St. Sebastian." (?)
Now I beg my young friends to examine very atten-
tively these two drawings, and I have no doubt they will
soon find that the scrutiny leads their thoughts to Timoteo
Viti rather than to Pietro Perugino. The landscape back-
ground in the painting of the " Knight's Dream " is very
difierent from the landscapes, not only in the pictures of
Perugino and Pinturicchio, but from those of Raphael him-
self in his Perugino period. The folds, for instance, that on

Kaffaello's style both in type of face and in technical execution, it is

certainly not byhand ... .it may be a copy [? !] from one of
his
Eaffaello's drawings by a contemporary artist perhaps it is the work
:

of his friend Timoteo della Vite." A striking proof of the fact that
the drawings as well as paintings of Timoteo are but little known,
may be found in the collection of drawings at the Uffizi Gallery. There
a study by Sodoma for one of his wall-paintings in the cloisters of
Montoliveto (near Siena) is stupidly ascribed to Timoteo Viti. The
drawing is photographed by Philpot, No. 1952 in his catalogue.
* Photographed b}'- Braun, No. 64.
310 BERLIN.

the upper arm of the allegorical figure to the right of the

sleeping knight, correspond exactly to the fold on the arm
of Timoteo's " St. Margaret." The full, roundish oval of the
face in this female figure likewise resembles that in the
Margaret. Then look at the broad, almost square middle-
hand (metacarpium) of the dreaming knight, which Timoteo
seems to have picked up from his master, Costa (fig. a),

and passed it on to young Raphael. It is curious how

Raphael afterwards, when under the influence of Perugino
at Perugia, modifies this broad hand of his ; it gets
narrower, and the fingers longer (fig. 6), of which we may

convince oarselves by the two pictures of " The Crucified "

at Lord Dudley's,^ and the " Coronation of Mary " in the

^ In this picture by young Eaphael — the he signed with his

first
name — the angels flying at the top are taken from a picture that Spagna
had executed for the church of S. Francesco at Perugia, after a cartoon
 THE UMBEIAN SCHOOL, 311

Yatican Gallery. These two pictures were painted by

Raphael between the years 1501 and 1503 under the direct
influence of Perugino, nay, the " Coronation of Mary " may
very likely have been handed over to the buyer, as the
work of Perugino's own hand.' Then, a year or two after,
about 1504, when Raphael begins to be himself again, and
is emancipating himself from the impressions of the
Perugino School, the broad Costa-Timoteo hand reappears
in the paintings of young Raphael the tints of the flesh
;

grow brighter too, and the shadows grey again instead of

black. One example of it is the " Marriage of Mary," in
the Brera Gallery at Milan, of the year 1504, and as far as
I know, the second picture signed with Raphael's name.
The composition of this picture is, we know, by his
master, P. Perugino," and it is very probable that young
Raphael, not from any lack of ideas of his own, but either
at the express desire of the intending purchaser, or out of
modesty, kept closely to the design of his master. But

of his master, Perugino (now in the Vatican) ; the " St. John " is taken
from another picture, one that Perugino himself had painted for the
chiii'ch of S. Chiara at Perugia, in 1495. This fine painting, the " Depo-

sizione," now hangs in the Palazzo Pitti (No. 164). His central figure,
the Crucified Christ, Eaphael copied from a drawing of Perugino's which
had already served him for that early work of his, " The Crucified,
lamented by Mary Magdalen, Jerome, John the Baptist, and the Saints
Francesco and Giovanni Colombini," painted for the Compagnia della
Calza at Ploi'ence. The other figures are also borrowed from drawings
by him for his wall-painting at the Convent
of his master, Pietro, executed
Santa Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, at Florence.
^ At Perugia the picture was, for a long time, considered
a work of
Perugino.
^ In the choh' of the convent-church of St. Jerome
at Spello there is
said to be a " Marriage of Mary " in fresco by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo,
whether painted earlier or later than Perugino's we are not told, but
very similar to his in composition. (See " Indice-Guida," by Mariano
Guardabassi.)
 —

312 BERLIN.

when we come to consider the harmony of colours in

this delightful painting, we cannot deny that in this point
he re-approximates his former master, Timoteo, almost
as much as in many other features he remains true to
his second teacher, Perugino.^ But enough of this, for I
fear I have already wearied my young friends with pe-
dantic disquisitions that lose themselves in peddling de-
tails. But I beg them to consider that this question
has become almost an affair of the heart with me. It is
a conviction that has ripened in me through long and
conscientious study, that Raphael served his first ap-
prenticeship, not at Perugia, but at Urbino, and that he
there received his earliest and therefore deepest im-
pi'essions in his art, first from his father, and then from
the amiable Timoteo Viti. It would be my ardent desire
to get one of my young friends, whose mind has kept itself
free from old musty prejudices, to participate in this con-
viction. I cannot but think it would be a most attractive

^ Thus the shape of the in the maiden who stands behind Mary
hand
is quite ä la Timoteo, while the hand of the youth standing behind St.
Joseph is rather ä la Perugino, in whose style also is the landscape
background vdth the beautiful temple in the middle. It is a great
satisfaction to me, that in Baron Eumohr's paragraph on the development
of young Raphael, I find a passage pro^ang that that acute and inde-
pendently judging connoisseur arrived at much the same view as I have
just propounded to my readers. " It puzzles us," says Rumohr, " when
we see artists turn back from a position they have taken, to brush up
again older impressions that seemed effaced, reanimate them, and com-
bine them with the newly-acquired. Seldom is the genetic history of
even celebrated artists known to us in detail, and that of Raphael far
too compendiously to enable us to account for the extremely varied
phenomena of his early life. We shall, therefore, have to start with

the assumption that, from the time of his exit from the paternal school,
he must have lived and worked more independently than is generally
supposed," etc. Eesearches, iii. 34.
 THE UMBEIAN SCHOOL. 313

task for a young inquirer to study and explore the genesis

of the most perfect representative of Italian art.
now see, first of all, what works of Raphael's
Let us
early period are mentioned by his celebrated biographer,
Passavant.
1. "The Infant Christ, caressing the little St. John,"
in the sacristy of the church of S. Pietro at Perugia. This
picture, sadly disfigured by rude re-painting, belongs, I
think, undoubtedly to P. Perugino. "We have but to look
at those unsightly leather-bag paunches of both the little

"putti,"at the shapes of the handand ear, soutterly different

from the hands and the round
'^

fat ears of Raphael.

2. Studies after his master, Pietro, in the collection of
drawings at the Academy of Venice. Most of these pen-
and-ink drawings are, as I have already tried to prove, from
the hand of Bernardino Pinturicchio, and not by Raphael
at all.

3. The drawiag in the Stadel Institute at Frankfort,

representing St. Martin on horseback. This drawing
certainly does not belong to Raphael ; it ought rather to be
ascribed to another pupil of Perugino and Piaturicchio,
namely, Eusebio da San Giorgio. The Saint's horse, for
one thing, is not of the same breed that Raphael had chosen
for his type of a horse. Compare, for instance, the skull
of this horse in the Frankfort drawing with the heads
of horses in the two drawings in the Uffizi Gallery at
Florence, that represent St. George fighting the dragon,
and you will certainly be of my opinion in the matter.
(On the back of the sheet there is a pen-drawiag after
P. Perugino.) If Passavant has, in this drawing, con-

^ A study for it may be seen among Perugino's drawings in the Uffizi

at Florence (Philpot, 649).
314 BERLIN.

founded Raphael with Eusebio da San Giorgio, he has

recently been followed by another art-critic very well known
in Germany, Dr. Ernst Förster, who tries to claim for
young Raphael the " Adoration of the Kings " in the Town
Gallery of Perugia, an unmistakable painting of Eusebio 's.
4. The " Resurrection of Christ," now in the Vatican Col-
lection. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle also follow Passa-
vant in attributing this by no means first-rate picture to
Raphael.^ Passavant imagined that in some drawings in
the Oxford Collection he had discovered studies for the
sleeping guards in this painting, but I believe that here also
he was mistaken. In speaking of the Predella, 'No. 1185 of
the Munich Gallery, I expressed my opinion about this
picture, and ascribed it to Giovanni Spagna. The panel

^ The historians of Italian painting find in it even resemblances to

another painting, the " Christ on the Cross"' at Lord Dudley's, a work
that young Raphael seems to have painted about a year before his
" Coronation of Mary." Well, this last picture hangs in the same
Vatican Gallery, only a few paces distant from the " ResuiTection." I
therefore begmy young friends to compare the two pictures, and; then
say whether they notice in the " Resurrection " the same bright colour-
ing, the same deep-black pupil and brilliant white in the eyes, the same
black shadows, the same long-fingered hands, the same expi'ession of
soul in the heads, that cannot have escaped them in the " Coronation."
What may have misled Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle in their
judgment is, perhaps, the two flying angels, present alike in the
" Resurrection " and the " Crucifixion," and almost identical in both.
Does that prove any more than that Raphael simply borrowed from his
master the two angels for the upper part of his " Crucifixion," and the
" Madonna and St. John " for the lower part ? The St. John he has
taken from the " Deposizione " in the Pitti Palace, the Madonna and
Magdalen from Perugino's great wall-painting at the nunnery of
S. Maria de' Pazzi at Florence. Originality was altogether difierently
understood in those times, and it was almost the regular thing for
scholars and assistants to avail themselves of the master's drawings or
cartoons for their own paintings.
 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 315

formerly stood in the church of S. Francesco at Perugia,

and had already been mentioned by Vasari as a work of
Pietro Perugino (Ediz. Le Monnier, vi. 42). Orsini like-
wise ascribes it to him. Quite recently, however, when it

was hung in the large hall of the Vatican, certain wise

discovered traces of Perugino in the face of one
critics

watchman, and traces of young Raphael in that of the

other who lies asleep. After this discovery the picture
was and declared to be a joint production
re-christened,
of Perugino and Raphael. Mr. Passavant therefore saw
in this picture a touchiag proof of the bosom-friendship
that united master and pupil. As this interpretation
sounds amiable —almost sentimental, it is much to the
taste of the modern art-public, especially the ladies. For
my own part I can detect in this paiuting neither the
colours, nor the forms, nor one single feature of the
Urbinate whereas I believe I distinctly perceive in it the
;

hand of Giovanni Spagna, to whom, as his assistant, the

master Perugino may probably have left the execution of
the picture after his cartoon.^
5. So also, in the magnificent triptych that Perugino
painted for the Certosa, near Pavia (now in the N'ational
Gallery, London), not only Passavant,^ but Baron Rumohr
before him, thought they recognised the hand of young
Raphael. Perugino, however, most likely painted this

' This picture, like Eaphael's " Cox'onation of Mary," afterwards,

was probably delivered to the purchaser as a work of the master him-
self; hence Vasari, following his reporter, ascribed it to P. Perugino.
^ Vol. ii. 4. One drawing for the angel that leads Tobias in this
pictui'e is to be found in the Oxford Collection. " Ce dessin," says
Passavant, " qui passa de la succession de Lawrence dans la collection
d'Oxford pent etre considere, ä juste titre, comme un ou-^Tage de la
jeunesse de Raphael." Another in the British Museum.
316 BERLIN".

picture (one of his most perfect works) before the end of

the 15th century, when Raphael was still at Urbino.
6. A small Madonna, once owned by a certain Countess
Alfani, of Perugia, now (?) in a private house at Terni,
The most I can say for this little picture is, that it belongs
to the School of Perugino.
7. The two washed drawings for the frescoes in the

"Libreria" at Siena: one in the Uffizi Gallery at Flo-

rence, the other in the house Baldeschi, at Perugia. Both

drawings are evidently the work
of Pinturicchio.
8. The drawing of the " Two Graces " in the Venice
Collection ; also to be ascribed to Pinturicchio.
Thus, out of all these eight works, cited by Passavant
as first fruits of Raphael's genius, I cannot acknowledge
one, and I have no doubt every serious student will share
my opinion.
9. " Christ on the Cross," now at Lord Dudley's, in
London painted about 1501.
;

10. The Madonna (No. 145) in the Berlin Gallery ; the

drawing for it in the " Albertina " at Vienna.
11. The other Madonna (No. 141) in the Berlin
Gallery.
12. The " Coronation of Mary," in the picture gallery
of the Vatican.
13. The small Madonna, painted for the StaflPa family
of Perugia now at the Imperial Palace, St. Petersburg.^
;

14. The " Dream of a Knight ;" in the National

Gallery, London.
15. The " Marriage of Mary ;" at Milan.

* This little picture cost the family Alfani, for whom it was painted,

100 Roman scudi; while Count Conestabüi received for it 330,000 lire
from the Empress of Russia. (See Eras-mo Gattamelata, etc., per
Giovanni EroH Roma, 1876.) ;
 THE UMBßlAN SCHOOL. 317

16. The " Madonna del Granduca ;" at Florence.

'Novf that I have conscientionsly cited all the pictures
ascribed by onr best- known Raphaelists and art-historians
to Timoteo Viti, and also recalled to my reader's recollec-
tion the artistic development of Raphael as Passavant re-
presents it, let me go over the same road again according
to my own understanding of it. Some repetition will be
unavoidable, but the great interest of the subject makes it

well worth while to spare no pains to attain my object, and

to clear up so important a question.
my view of the matter, not one of the
According to
works the Raphaelists ascribe to young Raphael can be
dated any farther back than 1500 for even the proces- ;

sional flag of Citta di Castello, now utterly spoilt, with the

Trinity on one side and the Creation of Eve on the other,
is declared to be conceived and painted altogether in the
spirit of Perugino,^ and the same is true of Raphael's
" Coronation of St. iN'icolas of Tolentino," a picture now
totally ruined. At the same time we are not to suppose
that a youth so gifted, nay, so precocious, as Raphael, had
not already mastered all the technics of his art, in his
15th or 16th year. His works of the first years of the
16th century are enough to prove that. I therefore stick
to my belief,young Raphael did not come to
that the
Perugia before the end of the year 1499, and that there
he entered the studio of Perugino, not as a pupil, but as
an assistant.
I shall first enumerate, in chronological order, such
works of Timoteo as are known to me, and then pass in

' This damaged processional flag belongs, in my opinion, not to

Eaphael, but most decidedly to Eusebio da S. Giorgio. (Now in the
Town Gallery of Citta di Castello.) Compare it Avith pictures by
Eusebio, Nos. 23, 16, 20, etc., in the Town Gallery of Pei'ugia.
 —

318 BERLIN.

review those pictures that I think belong to the early

period of Eaphael :

WORKS OF TIMOTEO YITI.

1. " The Enthroned Madonna, with Saints Crescentius
and Vitalis." (Brera Gallery.)
2. " St. Margaret." (Milan.)
3. A Drawing in the Oxford Collection : A Woman
with a palm-branch in her left hand.
4. " St. Apollonia," in the Town ]\Iuseum of TJrbino.
Unfortunately, much damaged.
5. The Majolica Plates, with subjects from Ovid's
" Metamorphoses," in the Museo CoiTer, Venice.
6. A washed Drawing at the Venetian Academy: whole-
length figure of a young man, with folded hands and
looking upwards ; in profile. (There under the name of
Raphael.)
7. "The Annunciation, with Saints Sebastian and John

the Baptist " (still strongly reminding of Francia) in the ;

Brera Gallery, Milan.

8. The Drawing in black chalk and gypsum at the
Louvre St. Magdalen kneeling, her left arm held up.
:

Retouched, but genuine, and with the correct signature of

Timoteo Viti.
Now, on these early works of Timoteo Viti (from about
1495 to 1503) young Raphael cannot have had the least
influence for on the one hand there is not a feature in
;

them that reminds us of Pietro Perugino, but plenty of

Lorenzo Costa and Francia, while, on the other hand, all
the pictures of Raphael's early period, such as " The Cru-
"
cified " at Lord Dudley's, and " The Coronation of Mary
in the Vatican (of about 1601 to 1503), have an out-and-
out Perugino look.
 —

THE üMBßlAN SCHOOL. 319

9. The Altar-piece for Bishop Arrivabene, painted by

Timoteo in 1504 ; in the sacristy of Urbino Cathedral. In
the upper part of this excellent panel-painting we see the
sainted Bishops Tommaso di Villanova and Martino, the
first pictured with a crucifix in his outstretched left, the
other in the act of blessing ; the lower half of the picture
contains portraits of Bishop Arrivabene and Duke Guido-
baldo III. of Montefeltro, both kneeling ; landscape, with
the city of Mantua in the background. Well preserved,
but in a very dirty state.

10. A Youth in profile, bust ; in the Town Gallery of

Brescia, there ascribed to Cesare da Sesto.
11. " St. Magdalen " in the Pinacotheca of Bologna
;

(1508—1509).
12. The " Noli me tangere," at Cagli of about 1518 (?)
;

To these twelve which seem to me, one and all,

pictures,
distinctly Timoteo's, I would fain have added a few more,
-had I felt equally sure about them. Thus, for instance, I
remember to have seen years ago, in that same sacristy of
Urbino Cathedral, and near the picture of Arrivabene, a
so-called " Nativity of Christ," which, though ascribed there
to Giovanni Santi, gave me altogether the impression of
being a work of Timoteo in his later period,when he may
have been somewhat under the influence of his countryman
Girolamo Genga, who was in high favour with the Duke.
lam able to
Evidently the whole stock of Viti's works that
produce is how many pictures
very small. But who knows
by this genial and engaging master may be scattered about
the world under the name of Raphael or Francia ?
We are naturally brought now to the works of Raphael's
early period,
which I should like to call his Urhino ijerwd
(1498—1500). The following may, I think, be included in
this category :
320 BERLIN.

1. The pen-and-ink drawing of the Archer ; as yet

very childish and simple in conception, diligent and careful
in execution. The shape of the ear in the young man
near the archer has already that fulness which became the
characteristic form of ear in Raphael ; this, as well as the
form of hand, and the curls combed back, still remind one
very much of Timoteo, This interesting drawing is to be
found in the Wicar Collection, Lille, so rich in drawings of
Raphael's early time ; it is No. 64 in Braun's Catalogue.
The Archer seen from behind is taken from a picture by
Luca Signorelli (the " Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," 1498,
in the Town Gallery of Citta di Castello). At the back of
this now disfigured drawing of the Archer is a study of
the Madonna teaching the infant Christ to read also a ;

very early work.

The "Dream of a Knight." This charming little
2.

picture, which like a rosebud foretells the approaching

—
spring (1499 1500), came to London from the Borghese
Gallery, and was acquired for the National Gallery.
3. The Sketch for the above picture, likewise in tho

National Gallery. Execution with the pen very neat, con-

scientious, and painstaking, I might almost say painful.
It reminds me of Timoteo, both in the structure of the
landscape — so utterly unlike Perugino's —in the fall of the
folds, for instance, on the upper arm of the female figure
to the right of the knight, in the short dress, not quite
reaching the ankle, in the kerchief tied round the head
(exactly as Timoteo was in the habit of making it), and also
in the broad, somewhat flat hand of the sleeping knight,
and the roundish form of head in the allegorical figure
with the sword. (See Woodcut.) I have no doubt that
every connoisseur will recognise in this naive drawing
the hand of a boy, of great genius, no doubt, but still a boy.
 :

322 BERLIN.

4. Drawing of a female head and bust; probably a study

for a Madonna (No. 2,797 in Philpot's Catalogue). This
splendid drawing, of so pronounced a Timotean character,
Raphael may have completed shortly before leaving
home, and taken it with him to Perugia, or he may have
finished it in the early part of his residence there for he ;

afterwards added another female head, in which I think I

can see more freedom in the use of the pen. But that is
only a guess, and may therefore be an illusion. The second
head may very likely have been added during that period
of Raphael when he made his drawing of Madonna studies,
which is likewise in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery.
No. 1,096 in Philpot's Catalogue. (1503—1504.)
We now come to the works of Raphael in his Perugino
period —
1. Raphael's share in the execution of the large altar-
piece, " Transfiguration of Mary," which master Perugino
painted for the monks of Vallombrosa in 1500, and which
has now found a place in the Academy of Fine Arts at
Florence. Photograj)hed by Alinari.
2. The portrait of his master Perugino in the Borghese
Gallery at Rome, there ascribed to Holbein.^ This painting,
which is unfortunately somewhat damaged, came to Rome
from Urbino with the " Dream of a Knight " and the
" Three Graces " (at Lord Dudley's).
3. Somewhere about this period must be placed the

naive drawing of the "Virgin and Child," with a land-

scape background that reminds us again of Timoteo's land-
scapes. Over the Virgin's head the nimbus is still

indicated, which Raphael usually leaves out in his later

1 See my treatise on the Borghese Gallery in Liitzow's " Zeitschrift

für Bildende Kunst," year xi.
 ;;

THE UMBEIAN SCHOOL. 323

drawings. In the Oxford Collection. N^o. 10 in Braun's

Catalogue.
4. Some noble studies from nature (for tlie succeed-
ing picture, " Mary's Coronation "), now in the British
Museum Braun, No. 70. The Lille Collection too has a
;

fine study for the head and hands of the " St. Thomas;"
photographed by Braun, ITo. 58.

5. The " Coronation of Mary," in the Vatican. The

shadows still rather black. The shape of the hand and the
landscape in the backgroiind are Peruginesque, as in

No. 6. Some of the angel-minstrels in this picture are

inspiredby those in Perugino's " Transfiguration of Mary."
(See No. 1 above.) Photographed by Alinari.
This picture was for many years considered a work of
Perugino himself, probably because it had been ordered of
him, and so passed out of his studio to the purchaser
under the master's instead of the assistant's name.^
6. Lord Dudley's, in London
" Christ on the Cross," at
painted about 1501. The fine, somewhat womanly, and
impressionable nature of young Raphael very soon forgets
his teacher Timoteo while at Perugia, and strives with all

its might, as we see in this interesting picture, to adapt

manner of his new master. We have already
itself to the

remarked that in this picture Raphael borrowed the two

flying angels who catch the blood of Christ in cups, as
well as the Christ and the other figures, from Perugino.
The Christ is taken from Pietro's painting at the Chapel

* The beautiful predella to this painting is also in the Vatican, but

sadly neglected. It consists of three sections : the "Angel's Message,"
the " Presentation of Christ in the Temple," and the " Adoration of the
Shepherds." The pen-drawing for the " Annunciation " is at the Louvre
that for the " Presentation " in the Oxford Collection ; the sketch for
the " Adoration" belongs to Cavalier Donini of Perugia.
 ;
:

324 BERLIN.

della Calza ; tlie Magdalen from his fresco at S. Maddalena

de' Pazzi at Floi'ence ;the St. John from his " Deposizione"
at the Palazzo Pitti. The shadows in the picture are very
black, nay, sooty. The shape of the hand is modified after
the Peruginian hand, the fist being narrower and the
fingers longer than in the hand of the Dreaming Knight
the ear of St. Jei'ome is fat and round, a peculiarity which
Raphael retained from that time to the end of his life
the landscape in the background is thoroughly Peruginian
a plain with a river in the middle, and hilly ground on
both sides. Here also we find, on St. Jerome's thigh for
instance, those longish cross-puckers that are peculiar to
Perugino and Pinturicchio. In short, there is in this
picture of Kaphael's hardly a feature left to remind us of
Timoteo. Yet the noble, deep, and tender spirit of the
young artist already shines so brilliantly out of these
figures, that in gazing at them we scarcely think of Pietro
Perugino.
7. "Mary with the Child," in the Berlin Gallery
(No. 141) : Mary reading a book, which she holds in her
right hand ; with the left she supports the right foot of
the Infant, who sits in her lap, holding a goldfinch in his
hand. The shadows still black, as in the three above-
left

named paintings. The form of the hand and the landscape

background Peruginian the fingers, however, not so long
;

as in pictures 2 and 6, but the thumb, in shape as well as

movement, is altogether Perugino 's even the figure of the ;

naked Child reminds you of the " putti" of master Pietro.^

' Eaphael may hare painted this little picture shortly after Perugino's
departure to Florence in the autumn of 1502 ; he used for it a drawing
—
by his elder friend Pinturicchio a proof that the young Urbinate fol-
lowed this latter master also. Pinturicchio's di'awing is (under Raphael's
name) in the SaUe aux Boltes at the LomTe ; Braun, 250.
 ;

THE UMBßlAN SCHOOL. 325

If Raphael had remained a few years longer in the

studioand under the direct influence of Perugino, he would
doubtless have made that master's manner so much his
own, that would have cost him much labour afterwards
it

to work hisway out of it.

8. " Madonna and Chud, with Saints Jerome and
Francis;" likewise in this Gallery (No. 145). For the
composition of this painting, Raphael had recourse to an-
other drawing of Pinturicchio's, which is at the Albertina
of Vienna. I am aware that this beautiful and very care-
ftilly-executed drawing is ascribed by the greatest autho-
rities, including Passavant, to Pietro Perugino, and that
their verdict is accepted by the authors of the Berlin
Gallery catalogue ; but, sorry as I am to differ from men
of their standing, it is impossible for me to share their
opinion. In the pen- drawing at the Albertina, the shape
of the hand in the Madonna, and very markedly in St.
Jerome, also the shape of the ear in St. Francis, are
neither Raphaelesque, nor in the manner of Perugino
they are just those peculiar to Pinturicchio. Then the
type of the infant Christ is the same that we often meet
with in the Madonnas of Pinturicchio, for instance, in his
beautiful altar-piece, which once adorned the principal
altar of St. Anne's Church at Perugia, and afterwards
found its way into the Town Gallery. (This picture was
painted by Pinturicchio in the year 1495.^ ) Again, the
broad plate-shaped golden nimbus, with a cross on it, over
the head of the infant Christ, is found, as far as I can
remember, only in Pinturicchio, not in Perugino, nor in
young Raphael. One more remark I should like to make:
the fine pointed pen which the master used in this draw-

' Baron Kumohr has eulogized this painting (ii. 331).

326 BERLIN.

ing same that served him for most of his drawings

is tlie

at the Venetian Academy. In Perugino's drawings, on

the contrary, the lines are broader and more densely
crossed, making the shadows much deeper and darker.
Besides, I never saw a Madonna by Pietro with the infant
Christ sitting, as in this Albertina drawing, on a cushion
on his Mother's knee, though it is often the case with
Pinturicchio. But all this is merely words, and though it
may be true that we can quibble very prettily with words,
it is equally true that we cannot convince with words
alone. Therefore, to enable my young friends to form an
independent opinion on the controversy, I will, with their
permission (after completing this works
list of Raphael's
of the second period), select forthem a few photographed
drawings of pinturicchio on the one hand, and of Perugino
on the other, so that they may compare them with one
another, and learn to distinguish the style of one master
from that of the other.
9. The fine drawing of " Mary presenting a Pomegranate

to the infant Christ who sits before her ;" at the Albertina,
Vienna. This is a modified imitation of that drawing by
Perugino which has lately come to Berlin under the name
of Raphael, and which Raphael afterwards used for his
Madonna Connestabile (now at St. Petersburg).
10. The small " Salvator Mundi " at the Town Gallery
of Brescia (once belonged to Tosi).
11. The "St. Sebastian" at the Town Gallery of Ber-
gamo (formerly belonged to Lochis).

(a). PINTURICCHIO.
From this master I purposely choose some of his better
drawings in the well-known collection at the Venetian
Academy because, if these belong to Raphael, as is gene-
;
 .

THE UMBßlAN SCHOOL. 327

rally supposed since Bossi's time, the drawing in the

Albertina (for the picture at Berlin) must no longer be
ascribed to Perugino, but to Raphael ; if, on the contrary,
the drawings at Venice are by Pinturicchio, as I am con-
vinced they are, then the drawing at the Albertina must
also come from the same master.
1 A Female Figure, kneeling, with the head gently in-
clined, and folded hands. Photographed by Perini, No. 7.
In this I recognise a study of Pinturicchio for the Madonna
in his " Praesepium with St. Jerome," the fine altar-piece
(painted 1483) of the first chapel to the right in the church
of S. Maria del Popolo, Rome.
2. Two Male Figures, seen from behind ; studies of
drapery. Periai at Yenice, No. 21. Executed by Piu-
turicchio, at Perugino's order.
3. Two of the three Graces in the antique marble group,
formerly in the Libreria of Siena Cathedral, now kept
in a room of the bishop's palace. No. 59 of Perini ; in
Selvatico's catalogue, Quadro xxvi. 18 :
" bastevole intel-
ma poca correzione."
ligenza dell' antico,
These three drawings are all evidently by one and the
same hand.

(&). P. PERUGINO.
1. A Monk reading, whole-length pen-drawing in the
collection of the Uf&zi Gallery at Florence . Photographed
by Philpot, No. 628.
2. Whole-length figure of Socrates, standing (in the
Cambio at Perugia), carefully-executed drawing, Uffizi
Gallery. No. 543 in Braun's Catalogue.
8. Two Male Figures, standing, the one bending a bow,
the other shooting his off". (Probably a study for his fresco,
"The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," at the church of
328 BEELIN.

Panicale, near Perugia.) Pen-drawing in the Duke d'Au-

male's collection. Photograplied by Braun, No. 100.
4. Pen-drawing ; study of " putti " in various attitudes.
In tlie collection of the Ufl&zi Gallery ; Philpot's Catalogue,
No. 649.'
Now, if young Raphael, then about twenty years old, did
really, as I believe, paint that little picture in the Berlin
Gallery from Pinturicchio's drawing in the Albertina, we
are involuntarily led to the belief that, during his stay at
Perugia, he must have stood on a footing of intimacy with
Pinturicchio. And with such friendly relations subsisting
between the Decemvir Pinturicchio, then verging on fifty,

and Raphael, a youth of twenty, it is a very natural

conjecture that the young artist, from sheer desire of
learning, would often visit the studio of the renowned Pin-
turicchio, and pick up valuable hints from that master.
The well-known drawing' in the Oxford collection which
represents four young men standing, three of them leaning
on their lances, furnishes, I think, the best proof of the
soundness of this hypothesis. In this drawing we see the
same young man in four different postures. It is, there-
fore, a study from nature, a so-called drawing from the

model, and not a composition. Now, did Pinturicchio

make the same studies, at the same time and from the
same model as Raphael, which I think most probable, or
did he borrow this " model-drawing " from Raphael for
one of his own wall-paintings in the Libreria of Siena ?

^ Here I must remark, that a good many of Perugino's drawings in

public collections are erroneously ascribed to Raphael ; for instance, the
" Tobias with the Angel," and a study of two watchmen, for the " Resur-
rection " at Oxford.
^ No. 14 in the Catalogue of the Eaphael Drawings by Mr. J. C.
Eobinson.
 :

THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 329

This nracli is certain, that Pinturicchio, in one of his

Siena frescoes, has brought in three of these young men
in the middle-distance, with some slight alterations from
the drawing ; for instance, the young warrior with the
lance and short yellow cloak, who in Raphael's study
appears almost in profile and looking to the left, turns
his face to the right in the fresco ; the second young man^
the leader, who marches in front of the other in a red
cap, shows in the fresco the lohole of his left foot balanced
on tiptoe, while Raphael's sheet puts him in a different
attitude ; makes him stretch out his
Pinturicchio also
hand details which are
right arm, and hold a stick in his —
arranged otherwise in the drawing. The middle figure in
Raphael's " Model-drawing " is wanting in the fresco.
Moreover the group in Pinturicchio is much livelier than in
Raphael's study.
On the strength of these considerations I think we may
be allowed to presume that young Raphael drew the same
figure from nature in different attitudes in the atelier of
Pinturicchio, and very likely together with his elder
friend. would seem well-nigh ridiculous to suppose
It
that an artist who had grown grey in his profession, who
had been Court-painter to Pope Alexander YI., would have
had the composition for his work in the Libreria of Siena
Cathedral done for him by a youth of twenty.
Vasari, who (as Baron Rumohr has remarked, ii. 330)
never had a good word for Pinturicchio, seems to have
blindly taken the fable forged by Sienese municipal vanity
for sterling coin, and given it currency in his work.^

* See the comments of his Florentine editors (Ediz. Le Monnier,

V. 287). The contract which they quote says, among other things
" Item sia tenuto fare tutti li disegni delle istorie di sua mano, in
cartoni et in muro, fare le teste di sua mano tutte in fresco, et in secho
330 BEELIN.

It is my opinion that the first five pf the above-named

works, along with many drawings, of course, which it

would take too long to enumerate here, were executed by

Raphael during the first three years of his stay at
Perugia, and under the direct influence of his master
Pietro Perugino, that is, in the years 1500 1502. To- —
wards the end of the latter year Pietro went to Florence,
and then spent the greater part of the following years
—
(1603 1505), partly there and partly in Citta della Pieve,
his native town.
Left to himself after the departure of his master,^
Raphael seems to have endeavoured gradually, under the
guidance of his own great genius, to emancipate himself

ritocchare et finlre infino alia perfectione," etc. It is a puzzle to me

liow Bai'on Rumolii* came to see so many different hands in those Siena
frescoes. He says, for instance (iii. 45) :
' Visibly, many assistants lent
a hand in the Librcria ; in the ' Crowning of Aeneas Sylrius as a Public
Poet,' the hand, mind, and taste of Sodoma are not to be mistaken (! !).
In other parts Pacchiarotto makes his appearance .... while the
slighter portions of the performance have been left to less talented
helpers. EaphaeVs hand, however, betrays itself «owÄere, not even in the
two pictui'es which were certainly /?•(??« his designs ; " which is likewise
incorrect. (If any assistant's hand be discernible in one or another of
these frescoes, it might, I think, be that of Matteo Balduzzi in some of
the landscapes.)
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (iii. p. 281) are of a different
opinion when they say " We have no doubt that he is correctly
:

described by Vasari as having engaged many of the apprentices and

workmen in the School of Perugino. We shall find that among these
young Raphael was probably included." And p. 287 " And the resem- :

blance of style between those of young Sanzio now at Venice [the Bossi
drawings] and others which repeat scenes depicted in the Piccolomini (?)
library, strengthen the belief that he did so."
^ A journey of Raphael to Siena, to help Pinticricchio with his frescoes
in the Libreria of the cathedral, is what I should think no serious

inquirer will now maintain. It was plainly a pure invention of Sienese

local patriotism. There is not a feature to be found in these fi-escoes
 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 331

from the Perugino manner. One proof of this, amongst

others, is the " Madonna del Libro," painted for the
house Staffa at Perugia, after a drawing of Perugino's (at
Berlin). In the same year, 1503, he may have produced
the St. Sebastian bust, which came to the Communal
Gallery of Bergamo from the collection of the late Count
Lochis.
In the following year, 1504, he completed that beautiful
picture the "Marriage of Mary," for the church of
S. Sebastian at Citta del Castello (Brera Gallery). It is
worth noting, that, in this painting, whose composition,
we know, belongs to Perugino, Raphael partly reverts to
his former Timotean form of hand. Here also the sooty
shadows and jet-black eye-pupils of his earlier pictures
(N'os. 2, 3, 6) have disappeared, and the flesh-tints have

assumed a lighter tone, which is more like the flesh-colour

in the pictures of Timoteo than in those of Perugino.
In the spring of 1504 Raphael visited his native town,
Urbino, after an absence of nearly four years. During the
five or six months he spent there, it is more than probable

that would be beyond the artistic ability of Pinturicchio ; on the

contrary, I think the faults of the master in composition as well as in
drawing show themselves more glaringly here than anywhere else,
Passavant allows that Raphael had no direct share in these frescoes, and
quotes as a proof the "History of Siena," by Sigismund Tizio, where
there is not a word said to imply any co-operation of Raphael in those
wall-paintings. Nevertheless, as the drawing of the Graces in marble,
which were in that Libreria, is generally accepted as Raphael's (this
drawing is one of the set of " Raphael drawings," so-called, at the
Venetian Academy), we must conclude, says Passavant, that young
Raphael stayed some time at Siena (i. 60). But we have ah'eady seen
that even this drawing of the " Two Graces " is by Pintui'icchio, and not
by Raphael. This, of course, does not exclude the possibility of Raphael
having, as early as 1503, paid his friend and instructor a short visit at
Siena.
332 BERLIN.

that he executed those pictures named by Passavant/ for

Duke Guidobaldo, nay, perhaps, that he installed himself
in the studio of his friend and former master, Timoteo
Viti.
Towards the middle of October of the same year, 1504,
Raphael came for the first time to Florence. Here the
works of Leonardo da Vinci and Michel Angelo seem to
have made the profoundest and most lasting impression
on him. How strongly he was attracted by the grace
of Leonardo, may be seen not only in several drawings of
this his first Florentine period," but quite as much in his
likeness of Magdalena Doni, which involuntarily reminds
one of Leonardo's portrait of Mona Lisa del Giocondo." ^

Along with the portraits of the Doni couple (in the

Palazzo Pitti), we may place in this period " The Madonna
di Casa Tempi " (in the Munich Gallery), the so-called
" Madonna del Granduca " (in the Palazzo Pitti), and the

^ For instance, the " St. George," now in the Salon Carre of the
Louvre.
^ First of all, I mention that sheet with a hasty sketch, after the

cartoon of Leonardo's " Fight for the Flag ;" on the same page are the
an old man and the head of a horse, all three imitated from
profile of
Leonardo. Of the same period is the study of a Male Head, which
Raphael used the following year for the St. Placidus in his fresco at
St. Severo, Perugia. This drawing is to be found in the Oxford col-
lection,No. 15 Braun's Catalogue. The Dresden collection possesses a
second drawing in pen and ink, after Leonardo's cartoon. No. 79 Braun's
Catalogue. A
thh'd pen-drawing of this time, is the imitation of Michel
Angelo's " David ;" Raphael has placed the far-famed giant with his
back to us. The original drawing is in the British Museum, No. 79
Braun's Catalogue.
^ The masterly drawing for this picture is in the collection of the

Louvre ; No. 329 Reiset Catalogue, and No. 255 Braun's Catalogue.
The form of the hand is very characteristic ; the management of the pen
simple, firm, and sure. In the portrait of the husband, the shadows are
still Peruginian black, but the landscape is Timotean again.
 4» THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 333

Madonna Lord Cowper's, Panshanger, perhaps the most

at
lovely of all Raphael's Madonnas. If the first two of
these Madonnas remind ns more of Timoteo than of
Pemgino,^ the last of them sets the young artist before
our eyes in the full blaze of his independence. Prom this
picture, especially from the infant Christ, the bewitching
fragrance of his godlike soul breathes upon us in all its
richness. In the Madonna of the Berlin Gallery (No. 145),
Raphael, still clinging to Pinturicchio, retains the arrange-
ment (brought to Perugia from the Siena School) of the
two Saints standing, one on each side of the Virgin, just
as we see it in most of the Madonnas of a Tiberio d'As-
sisi, a Spagna, a Pinturicchio, etc. On the other hand,
we observe that Raphael, from the time of his first stay at
Florence, gives a greater prominence to the landscape in the
background of his Madonna pictures. In all the Raphael
Madonnas that date from the next few years, 1505, 1506, and
1507 for instance, that numbered 1470. at the Berlin Gallery,
,

the "Madonna in the Meadow" at the Belvedere, Vienna,

the Madonna del Cardellino of the Tribuna, at Plorence,
&c., we have the Virgin and Child, with the little St. John,
set before us in a cheerfulopen landscape. Later on,
Raphael sometimes surrounds the Madonna with other
members of the Holy Family, as Joseph, Elizabeth, Anna.
This is just the significant turning-point in the history of
Italian Art, where it steps out of the GJmrch, and seeks the
open air. The Madonna is Immanized, and becomes the
tender mother. Raphael's first residence at Florence may
1 In the Madonna de' Tempi, as well as in that of the Gi'an-
duca, the dreamy, longing, languishing ah* of Perugino has disap-
peared ; the flesh-tints are brighter, and more like those of Timoteo
than like Perugino's darker tone. Of course, in ingenious conception,
depth of feeling, and truth to nature, Eaphael in both pictures leaves
his former masters far behind.
 ! ;;

334 BERLIN.

have lasted till about the siimnier of 1505. He then

returned to Perugia again, where he passed nearly a
whole year before he went back to Florence. In this
period, probably, are to be placed the following works:
The fresco painting in the convent of S. Severo, Perugia
the so-called " Madonna in the Meadow " at the Belvedere,
Vienna and shall we say the Madonna, 'No. 147a. of the
;

Berlin Gallery ? For here, as in duty bound, we go on

to the consideration of that " Madonna del Duca di Terra-
nova," as it is commonly called.
If, in the Madonnas " di casa Tempi " and " del Gran-

duca," and in the portraits of the Doni couple, we had

occasion to notice a return to the manner of Timoteo
here, in " The Virgin on the Meadow," and still more in
this Madonna del Duca di Terranova, we see, side by side
with Florentine influences, his old Peruginian impressions
reviving in Raphael ; which, I am glad to say, has already
been remarked by Dr. Julius Meyer. The little Putto to
the left of the Virgin strongly recalls Master Pietro. The
round form of the picture seems to indicate a Florentine
commission. From these data we may draw the inference
that the orig'in of this beautiful picture is to be placed in
—
the latter part of the year 1505, several months before
that of the " Virgin in the Meadow." It need not at all
surprise us that, for this painting also, Raphael should
have used a drawing of his former master, Perugino, who
at that time was at Florence.^ Some months before he

* If we compai'e this timid and self-unconscious disposition which

indiiced young Raphael, in the composition of his early works, to lean
upon older and celebrated masters, with the cheerful self-reliance of his not
more gifted contemporaries, such as Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, Par-
megianino, we can only explain this psychological phenomenon by the
modest, and so to speak, feminine nature of the glorious youth, who
trusted his own powers less than those of his masters at Perugia, all

so far beneath him

 THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 335

executed this picture, Raphael, if I am not mistaken, had

made a copy, modified to his own taste, of that drawing

Drawing by Eapliael. (Lille Museum.)

by Perugiao (now at Berlin) which copy of Raphael's is

;

to be seen at Lille in a somewhat damaged condition (No.

336 BERLIN.

Drawing b}' Perugino. (Berlin Museum.)

46 Braun's catalogue).^ In his painting, however, Raphael

has left out the St. Jerome and the angel, who in the
drawing stand behind the Madonna, and has filled the

^ I advise all my young friends to study this very interesting sketch-

likedrawing in pen and gj^sum, and edify themselves by comparing it
with the drawing of Master Perugino. Such studies may well lead to
a more intimate knowledge of [Kaphael and his art than all printed
discussions.
 ;

THE UMBEIAN SCHOOL. 337

space in his Tondo better by introducing a Putto to the

left of the Yirgin.i
Raphael borrowed his composition, not,
I have said that
indeed, from Pinturicchio this time, but from his master,
Perngino. On comparing the photographs of the two
drawings, namely, of Pietro's original drawing at Berlin,
and Raphael's sketch-like copy at Lille,^ the ingenious
modifications that Raphael has thought fit to introduce into
the original of his master appear to me to be of the highest

'
It is curious that in the execution of this picture Eaphael kept
nearer to his master's original drawing than to his own modified copy.
In the picture he has introduced the following modifications of the
original drawing by Perugino. The attitude and gestures of the infant
Christ are livelier, finer in the lines, and more natural, than in Perugino's
drawing ; the left foot is laid across the right, whilst in the drawing the
right foot is awkwardly thi'ust up against the left ankle ; the rigid line
running from the neck to the tip of the left foot is altered in the picture,
whereby the movement of the body gains in elegance. The position of
left arm, and of her too straddling knees, so hard and un-
the Virgin's
graceful in the drawing,is thoughtfully toned down ; the pose of the

head, somewhat dainty and sentimental in the drawing, becomes more

dignified in the painting her left arm, with the meaningless gesture of
;

the hand, and the mantle over it, is also changed for the better
stiff

and so on. It must here be added that the Perugino drawing in question
is ascribed in the Berlin Collection to Raphael himself. I think, how-
ever, that every good connoisseur of drawings will admit that it exhibits
all the characteristics by which Perugino's drawings can be distinguished

from those of his pupUs and imitators. I will here specify only the
following The shapes of the ear and hand, which are quite those of
:

Perugino, and not at all those of young Eaphael ; the leather pouch-like
form of the body in the Infant Christ, as well as the expression of the
face ; the hard, lifeless outlines, both in the Christ and in the little St.
John ; the very black shadows, especially on the left cheek of St. Jex'ome,
The bunchy cross-puckers on the Virgin's knee, and on St. John's little
shirt are the same that we are accustomed to see in the drawings of
Perugino and also of Pinturicchio, but never in Eaphael.
^ Compare this drawing at Lille with the drawing at Oxford for the

Madonna del Cardellino (Braun 23).

Z
Drawing by Raphael for the Madonna del Cardellino. (Oxford.)
 ^

THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 339

interest, for instance, in the attitude and gestures of St.

Jerome and the Infant Christ, in the position of the Virgin's
left arm, etc. He has also rightly shortened the too elon-
gated waist of the Virgin in a word, this hasty copy by
;

young Raphael proclaims in a striking way the full inde-

pendence and superiority which by this time he had at-
tained over his former master.
In the summer of the year 1506, Raphael appears to
have returned to Florence, leaving unfinished his wall-
painting in S. Severo at Perugia, At Florence he painted,
amongst other things, the beautiful so-called Madonna del
Cardellino, which we can still admire, in spite of the de-
formities that have overlaid it. (There is a hasty pen-
and-ink sketch of it at Oxford.) There, also, he began
at a later time, the great altar-piece for the Dei family
(No. 165 in the Palazzo Pitti), in which the influence of
Fra Bartolommeo della Porta is so plainly to be traced.
Unfortunately, Raphael left this picture uncompleted also,
as pressing business seems to have called him back to
Perugia, By this time he was a master of renown, at
Florence as well as Perugia commissions came flowing
;

in from all sides, and he was obliged to have recourse to

assistants. We must not be astonished, therefore, if many
a work that issued from his studio during this period of
his activity (from the end of 1506 to the middle of 1508),
does not exhibit its Raphaelite paternity so purely as his
earlier works.

1 a Pregovi a compatirmi," writes Kaphael on the 5th of September,

1508, to Francia, "e perdonarmi la dilatione e lunghezza del mio
(namely the sending of his own portrait) che per le gravi e ineessanti
occupationi non ho potuto sin ora fare di mia mano, conforme il nostro
accordo, che ve I'avrei mandato fatto da qualche mio giovine, e da me
ritoocato. (Vasari, Ediz. Le Monnier, vi. 16.)
340 BERLIN.

In concluding my, perhaps, too lengthy chat on Timoteo

Viti's relation toyoung Raphael, I beg my readers to
pardon me the long explanations and digressions which
were necessary for establishing my hypothesis. It may
be that the result of my researches on the history of
Raphael's style is an illusion. But this much will, I
hope, be granted, that my hypothesis comes nearer the
truth than all that Vasari, Rumohr, and Passavant have

told us on the development of young Raphael.

The point I was most anxious to clear up throughout
this long discussion was —
that Timoteo Viti was in no
case a pupil or an imitator of Raphael, and I hope I have
actually proved that fact as far as lay in my power.
Before taking leave of Raphael's early works, let us give
a look to tbe much spoilt charming little picture
but still

which bears the number 147, and which the Dh-ection of

the Berlin Gallery cautiously ascribe to Raphael only in a
dubitative way. It represents Mary with the Infant
Christ and the little St. John. It appears to me that in
spite of all disfigurations there is still the Raphaelite mind
shining out of this picture. The shape of the ear and
that of the hands are his, the landscape in the background
reminds one of the Madonna di Casa Tempi in the Munich
Gallery, True, the painting has lost its epidermis ; and
the mouth and eyes especially are much repainted, as the
catalogue is careful to inform us. If I mistake not, this
painting must have taken birth a little while before the
Madonna di Casa Tempi.
I see that I have lingered disproportionately long over
the Umbrian School as an indemnity, I promise to be
;

more concise in discussing the Florentine, which I can do

with the clearer conscience, as no school of Italy has been
more studied, or is better known.
 THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. 341

The late Baron Rumohr, who paid special attention to

the Florentine School and its endeavours, has acutely
discerned in it, main tendencies in the course of the
three
fifteenth century. "
The predominating Naturalism of the
Florentines," he remarks (ii. 271), "branched out in two
opposite directions action, movement, the expression of
:

intense and strong passions became the inheritance of the

school of Fra Filippo realistic probability, and correct-
;

ness in hitting oflT the characteristics of individual things,

were the aim of a school which began, I believe, with
Cosimo Rosselli, although it shot far ahead of even his
latest achievements."
" A third division of the Florentine School was directly
produced by the efforts of sculptors " (ii. 287).

To the first group there belonged, in chronological

order, Masolino da Panicale, Masaccio, Fra Filippo Lippi,
Francesco Pesellino, Sandro Botticelli, Filippino Lippi,
and his school.
To the second Alesso Baldovinetti, Cosimo Rosselli,
:

Domenico Ghirlandajo, and his brother-in-law Mainardi.

And to the third Lorenzo Ghiberti, Antonio del PoUa-
:

juolo,Andrea del Verrocchio, and his scholars Lionardo

da Vinci and Lorenzo Credi. In no gallery this side of
the Alps, and only in the collections of Florence on the
other side of them, is the Florentine School so richly,
so favourably represented as in the halls of the Berlin
Collection.
We see several genuine Madonnas by Fra Filvppo Lippi,
who seems tohave modelled himself chiefly on Masaccio.
No. 69 is the most characteristic of the master, and also
the best preserved. Similar compositions of his are to be
found in the Florentine Academy's collection.
Even more attractive to connoisseurs than the pictures
 ;

342 BERLIN.

of this Carmelite, whose genius equalled his levity, are

those of his pupil, Sandro Botticelli; and the Berlin
Gallery, unlike any other, has the good fortune to possess
half-a-dozen of them, some of which may be reckoned
among his masterpieces.
Botticelli had several assistants and imitators, who
executed pictures after his cartoons, which still pass for
works of the master, not only in churches at Florence, but
in public collections. They differ, however, from his
original paintings, both by a rudeness of drawing and
design, and by a far feebler colouring. I take this oppor-
tunity to mention a few of the most accessible of such
studio-paintings, so that the student of art may examine
them thoroughly. In the small church of the Conserva-
torio di Ripoli (Via della Scala), at Florence, a " Corona-
tion Mary," with many saints in the Florentine
of ;

Academy, an enthroned Madonna with her Child and

Saiats, among whom are Cosimus and Damianus, repre-
sented kneeling in the Borghese Gallery, at Rome, the
;

Tondo with the Madonna surrounded with angels (Room I.)

the so-called " Abbondanza," formerly at Mr. Reiset's,
now in the possession of the Duke d'Aumale.^
Fili]3'pino Lvppi is almost as fully represented in these
rooms as his master, Botticelli. I call attention to the
two pictures bearing the numbers 82 and 101. The former
represents Mary with the Child, who is turning over the
leaves of a book which the Virgin holds in her left.
Forms of hand and ear very characteristic of the master.
The second likewise represents the Vii'gin with the Infant
Christ, who nestles His face caressingly against hers.

' All the above-named pictures are, however, considered and de-
scribed by Crowe and Cavalcaselle as originals by Botticelli (ii. 424,
425, 429).
 THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 343

Equally characteristic of its author is a charming picture

by Baffaellino del Garbo, Filippino's scholar. It is No. 90,
and represents the Virgin and Child with two angel-
minstrels. I gladly join in the praise that Director Meyer,
with his fine sense of art, bestows on this picture.
The Second group of artists designated by Rumohr
is veryfairly, though not quite so completely, represented
here.
The two pictures of Oosimo Bosselli, numbered 59 and
71, are characteristic works of this master, whom I think
the Baron makes too much of. In the we see Mary
first

in glory, with Saints ; in the second the " Entombment of

Christ." It is curious that this painter, so easily distin-
guished from his contemporaries by his noses, looking as
if stuck on with rhinoplastic, by his always bushy eye-
brows, his jDCCuliar valley-landscapes, and many other
characteristics, should have been presented to the public
at the Uflizi Gallery ever since the time of Lanzi as Pesello.
Even the Historians of Italian Painting have taken the
false attribution for sterling coin, and ascribed to Giuliano
d'Arrigo di Giuocolo Giuochi, called Pesello (born 1367),
the much repainted " Adoration of the Magi " (No. 26),
in the following words " Lanzi's assertion that the Ado-
:

ration of the Magi, commissioned for the Palazzo de'

Signori, was preserved in the Uffizi is correct, and the
student may still see, etc. —The landscape is remarkable
for its excessive study of details, and painted in with the
relief colour peculiar to the first Florentine efforts for the
introduction of oil vehicles in teinpera ]pictures''^ (ii. 360-1).
The picture, painted about 1480, has been repainted all
over ; the master, however, is still easily recognisable,
namely, in the forms, but hardly in the " oil vehicles."
The two pictures of Pier di Gosinw, scholar and assis-
 "
:

344 BERLIN.

tant of Rosselli, in possession of the Berlin Gallery, are

also cliaracteristic of the master. The picture I^o. 107,
represents Venus, Cupid, and Mars ; No. 204, " The Ado-
ration of the Shepherds."
By far the greatest and most celebrated in this group
is Domenico Bigordi, called del Ghirlandajo. By him is

the upper part of the picture N"o. 88, "

Mary and Child in
glory, with Saints." Another genuine work of the master
is the small picture, " Judith with her Maid " (No. 21).

In this designation I fully share the opinion of the editors

of the Berlin catalogue, while Messrs. Crowe and Caval-
caselle are in favour of ascribing the picture merely to the
school of Ghirlandajo (ii. 492).
As studio pictures of Domenico are to be considered
the " Enthroned Madonna with the Child and Saints
(No. 84), and the "Resurrection of Christ" (No. 76), as
well as the " St. Vincentius Ferrerius " (No. 74), and the
"St. Antony" (No. 76). The two latter, which have
been wings of an altar-piece, betray the hand of Francesco
Granacci, a conjecture for which the catalogue gives con-
vincing reasons.
To Bastiano Mainardi, another and at the same
pupil,
time brother-ia-law, of Ghirlandajo, at times comeswho
very near the master, Director Meyer has, with perfect
justice, assigned the "Enthroned Mary with the Child
and Saints," No. 68 an opinion which Messrs. Crowe and
;

Cavalcaselle seem to share (ii. 491).

Of jßidolfo, son of Domenico Ghirlandajo, the Berlin
Gallery also possesses a good picture (No. 91). It repre-

sents the " Veneration of the Infant Christ," painted about

1506 — 1510. I do not know of any reason why Cosimo
Rosselli should have been mentioned, in the catalogue, as
one of the masters of Ridolfo Ghirlandajo. Vasari, who
 ;

THE PLOEENTINE SCHOOL. 345

knew Ridolfo personally, says not a word about Bosselli

neither have the early works of Ridolfo a single feature
that reminds us of Cosimo Rosselli. Until the death of his
father Domenico, that is, till the year 1494, he certainly
remained his pupil, a fact which is proved by the drawings
of the two masters.^ After the father's death, his favourite
pupil Granacci may very likely have carried on Ridolfo's
education; and this is proved, better than words could

prove it, by two small panels, each with three adoring

angels. These two paintings may be seen in the room of
the so-called Small Pictures of the Academy at Florence
under the name of Granacci. Besides Granacci, Pier di
Cosimo must also have had an influence on the artistic
career of Ridolfo. The landscapes in the early pictures
of the latter are as good as copied from those of Pier di
Cosimo.
But when Leonardo da Vinci came and settled at
Florence in 1503, certainly none contributed so much as
he to form young Ridolfo, then twenty years old. In this
Leonardine period of our artist, I place, amongst others,
the following pictures, in all of which, Leonardo's influence
is more or less visible. They are, one and all, still at
Florence, and therefore easily accessible.
(1) " The Annunciation" (No. 1288), in the Uffizi Gallery.
A few years ago this picture came from the sacristy of
the convent church of Montoliveto (near Florence) to the
Uffizi Gallery, under the name of Ghirlandajo ;
presently,
though still doubtfully, it was ascribed by the then direc-

^ In the collection of the Corsini library at Rome are two such draw-
ings, one by Ridolfo, the other by Domenico. Even his early work in
the choir of St. Domenico at Pistoja (Saints Sebastian, Jerome, and a
third), proves Ridolfo's descent from Domenico, The St. Jerome is
taken from the father's fresco at Ognissanti, Florence.
346 BERLIN.

tors of the gallery, Messrs. Gotti and Campana, to the

great Leonardo da Vinci. The funeral urn ^
of stone in-
troduced in the picture, such as is often met with in
Domenico's pictures, might of itself have made those
gentlemen pause before delivering such a verdict. The
shape of the hands, too, especially the long fingers with
the ugly nails, reminds one rather strongly of the hands
in (2) the " Portrait of a Goldsmith " (No. 207, Palazzo
Pitti). The question is : Is this picture really a work of
Leonardo, as Signer Chiavacci's catalogue would have us
believe, or is it rather an early work of our Ridolfo del
Ghirlandajo ? In spite of repaint and dirt, one still recog-
nises in the landscape background and in the yellow rocks,
the imitator of Pier di Cosimo. Then the modelling of
the head and the formation of the hand are exactly the
same as we see in Ridolfo's early work at the house of
Cavaliere Niccolo Antinori (Via de' Servi, Florence) .^
Nowhere can we get to know Ridolfo's early period better
than in the picture just named, which represents (3) the
"Walk to Calvary," and was painted for the Antinori
house in 1505. Here we have before us about seventeen
pretty large figures with a great many small ones. On
the hair of the young man with red and white striped
hose, and a lance in his hand, the lights are laid on exactly
as they are on the angel's head in the "Annunciation"
(No. 1288) at the Uffizi. The shapes of the hands and
fingers are the same as those we see in the above-named
"Annunciation," in the "Portrait of a Goldsmith," at the
Pitti; in (4) the "Angels" at the Academy, in (5) the
"Madonna with the Marriage of St. Catherine," at the

' Compai-e the drawing by Eidolfo Ghirlandajo at the Uffizi Gallery

(PhUpot 678), which might be a study for the "Annunciation."
^ Now at the National Gallery, London.
 THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. 347

churcli of the Conservatorio in Ripoli (Via della Scala),^

and also in (6) a "
Male Portrait," No. 318, at the Louvre,
there ascribed Francia, but which I unhesitatingly
to
pronounce to be by our Ridolfo del Ghirlandajo. The
head of Longinus, with the fantastically shaped helmet,
reminds one much of Leonardo da Vinci, and so does his
horse. The cross-puckers on the sleeve of Veronica are
the same as those we noticed on the sleeve of the Madonna
in the "Annunciation " at the Uffizi; and so on.
To the same Leonardesque period of Ridolfo belong the
(7) so-called portrait of Girolamo Benivieni, in the collec-
tion of Marchese Torrigiani at Florence (Room II., Ko. 9),
there ascribed to Leonardo. It represents an old man in

a black cap and black clothes. In all these youthful

works the usually defective drawing stands in singular
contrast with the beauty of the heads in the figures.
In Ridolfo's works of the years 1506 to 1510, we re-
mark, on the contrary, the influence, partly of Fra Barto-
lommeo, and partly of his friendand contemporary Raphael
Sanzio, who at that period was making studies, apparently
with Ridolfo, on the celebrated cartoon of Leonardo da
Vinci.^ Out of these art studies, jointly pursued, there
sprang up, as Vasari an ardent friendship between
tells us,

the two congenial youths. That such an intimacy with

the far more talented Raphael could not fail to influence
Ridolfo, is natural and several paintings of this early
;

* This altar-piece stands opposite the picture of Botticelli. Besides

St. Catherine we see in it fiye other Saints. The landscape veryis stul
like those of Pier di Cosimo. The head of though not so
St. Catherine,
lovely as that of the Madonna in the Annunciation, nevertheless reminds
us of this master. In the same church are also four single figures of Saints
by the hand of Ridolfo Ghirlandajo.
^ An instance of these several influences is his picture in the Church
of San Pietro at Pistoja.
348 BERLIN.

period of the master seem to furnish evidence of such an

influence. Amongst others, besides the very good paint-
ing (No. 91) in the Berlin Grallerj, there is the "
Madonna
with St. Elizabeth and the little St. John" (No. 1110) ia
the Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery, there erroneously ascribed
to Orazio Alfani.^
Vasari relates Domenico Puligo (viii. 131,
in. his life of
132), that Ridolfo del Ghirlandajo always employed a
number of young painters in his studio, and further, that
they executed many pictures for him which were then sent
out under high-sounding names to England, Germany,
and Spain. Of these assistants of Ridolfo, Vasari names
—
amongst others Baccio Gotti, Toto del Nunziata, An-
tonio del Cerajuolo, Domenico Puligo. To one or another
of these painters may belong many a picture that is

exhibited in public or private galleries as the work of

Andrea del Sarto, of Era Bartolommeo, or of Franciabigio.

^ Most probably, I tliiak, byKidolfo Gkirlandajo. Compare it with his

paintings executed a few years after, in the same gallery ; Nos. 1275
and 1277. Compare also the treatment of the grass in the foreground
with that in the foreground of the " Annunciation," No. 1288. Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle (iii. 370), designate this pictiu-e " a fine Perugian
Domenico Alfani's style." The Florentine commentators of
woi'lc in

Vasari pronounce it an " opera certa " of Orazio Alfani, yet, a few
pages after, they maintain that the only certain woi-k of Orazio Alfani
is the " Christ crucified, with Saints Jerome and Apollonius," in the

Church of San Francesco at Perugia, of the year 1553. Passavant also

(i. 480) looks upon this picture in the Tribuna as a work of Orazio
Alfani, remarking that it is composed altogether in the manner of
Eaphael, and that the landscape with the precipitous rocks reminds one
of Pinturicchio. At the Town Gallery of Perugia they claim the
" Halt on the Flight to Egypt" (No. 11 at the Sala di Orazio Alfani)
as the only authentic work of Orazio Alfani. The Gallery at Pesth
has an " Adoration of the Shepherds," of 1510 (much repainted), eight
figures in all, with three angels in the air. Signed " Ridolfus Grillan-
:

dajus Florentinus faciebat, Instante Joanne Italiano Peri, M.D.X."

 THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. 349

Having named Franciahigio, I must not fail to mention

that the Berlin Gallery possesses a fine Male Portrait by
him (1^0. 245) ; it is marked with his name and the date
1522. The catalogue also ascribes to this master another
portrait, hanging close by, of a young man with long
brown hair and black cap (No. 245(x). But this beautiful

and interesting portrait betrays, both in the modelling and

in the laying on of the colours, another school than the
Florentine, namely, that of Perugia. The shape of the
hand, and the landscape background,^ point to the manner
of Pinturicchio ; whilst everything else, especially those
pointed, fan-shaped, reddish-yellow lights on the foliage,
rising in layers one above another, those little trees with
tall stems and brownish-yellow leaves, that reddened
horizon, as well as the black shadows in this capital
picture, seem hand of a little known but
to bespeak the
very able scholar of Pinturicchio, namely, Maiteo Balducci,
of Fontignano, in the neighbourhood of Perugia." This is
easily proved by a comparison of this painting at the

' The landscapes of Franciahigio, such as we

find in some of his
pictures, for instance, that with the so-caUed Temple of Hercules " in
•'•

the Uifiid, No. 1223, and in what is called the " Madonna del Pozzo,"
in the Tribuna of the Uffizi, all resemble more or less the landscapes of
Pier di Cosimo, in whose school must be classed as landscape painters,
not only Pranciabigio, but also Pontormo, Kidolfo Ghirlandajo, and
Andrea del Sarto. (See my pamphlet on the Borghese Gallery.)
2 Matteo must have been born between 1480 and 1490. (See Vasari,
Ediz. le Monnier, xi. 164.) This Matteo, a scholar of Pinturicchio,
and most likely one of his coadjutors in the frescoes of the Libreria at
Siena, is not to be confounded (as the commentators of Vasari have
done) with another Matteo di Giuliano di Lorenzo di Balduccio, a pupil
of Sodoma, and likewise from Pontignano. To the first Matteo, and
not to Pinturicchio, belongs, I think, the crayon drawing at the UfSzi
(frame 83), representing a woman with a satyr, and two naked men, one
of them carrying a child on his shoulder.
350 BERLIN.

Berlin Gallery with Matteo Balducci's works in the

gallery of the Siena Academy, as also with a panel-
painting (Clelia and one of her companions crossing the
Tiber on horseback) in the author's collection at Milan.
I take this opportunity to add that the totally repainted
portrait in the UJ0S.zi (No. 32) can hardly be from the
ha,nd of Franciabigio, as stated ia the Berlin catalogue.
Franciabigio was a first-rate draughtsman, as is proved
by the beautiful male head in the collection of drawings
at the Louvre (No. 93, Braun's catalogue) a smaller ;

drawing ia chalk, also characteristic of the master, is to

be found amongst the Raphael drawings in the Wicar
collection at Lille (Braun's catalogue, No. 91).^
Another distinguished Florentine portrait painter, of a
somewhat later period, was Agnolo di Cosimo, called II
Bronzino. Also by this elegant master, the Parmigianino
of the Florentine School, there is a good picture in the
Berlin Gallery. It is the portrait of Ugolino Martelli
(No. 338a). Bronzino was received into the Academy of
the Crusca because of his literary attainments.
Let us, lastly, take a brief survey of those pictures in

^ The shape of the ear in Franciabigio is enough to distinguish his

drawings both from those of his prototype, Andi'ea del Sarto, and those of
his pupil, Francesco Ubertini, called Bacchiacca. The Uffizi collection
at Florence has several female heads by this latter master, under the
name of Michelangelo ; they are studies for his fine paiating of Moses
smiting the water out of the rock, in the possession of Prince Giovanelli
at Venice. Bacchiacca's drawing has been photographed by Philpot
(under the name of Michelangelo), and is No. ] 188 in his catalogue. The
Louvre collection possesses two genuine di'awings of this rare master
(black chalk and gypsum), Nos. 352 and 353 of Reiset's catalogue.
They represent episodes in the life of Joseph in Egypt. Also the
author has at Milan a fine drawing in red chalk by Bacchiacca a study —
for one of his paintings in the Gallery Borghese. In this latter drawing
Bacchiacca shows himself strongly influenced by Pontormo.
 THE FLOEENTINE SCHOOL. 351

the collection wMch. belong to what Baron Rnmolir desig-

nates the Third branch of the Florentine School in the
fifteenth centnry, namely, that directly produced by the
efforts of the sculptors. Its chief representatives are
Antonio del Pollajuolo, Andrea del Yerrocchio, Leonardo
da Vinci, and Lorenzo Credi.
Jacopo, the father of Antonio and Piero Pollajuolo, was
a goldsmith, and his elder son Antonio was, after the
manner of those times, brought up to his father's business.
Then, according to Vasari, Antonio's studies took a wider
scope under a man famous in his day —Bartoluccio Grhi-

berti (stepfather of the great Ghiberti). was not until It

later that Antonio took to painting, as is evidenced by his
"Labours of Hercules," in the Uffizi, No. 1153. But
neither harmony of colours nor grace was the strong
point of this master. Like his great contemporary Man-
tegna, he aimed, above all, to conceive and represent
character in men and things. Among his countrymen he
passed for the foremost draughtsman of his time,^ and
such he proves himself, not only in his drawings, but also
in his rare engravings.
His brother Piero, about eight years younger, devoted
himself to painting, but, to judge by his works, not under
the gxiidanceof the rugged Andrea del Castagno, as Vasari
seems to think, but, what looks likelier to me, in the
studio of Alesso Baldovinetti."

1 See Vasari, v., 92, 98, 102.

^ The fresco paintings, as well as the panel picture of the " Angel's
Salutation," in the Chapel del Cardinale del Portogallo in S. Miniato al
Monte, near Elorence, were through an oversight ascribed by Vasari to
Piero del Pollajuolo, whereas they have
all the characteristics of Baldo-

Tinetti. Though Albertini had in his "Memoriale" (p. 17) rightly

assigned them to the latter painter, the art critics, not excepting Rumohr,
have here also blindly followed the Aretine.
 :

352 BERLIN,

Be tliat as it may, this much seems to me certain, that

for most of the early works of Piero, his brother Antonio
must have furnished the cartoons. This is proved by
forms quite peculiar to Antonio appearing in pictures of
Piero. I allow myself to name a few of these, so that my
friends may be better able to judge for themselves.
In the excellent picture with the Saints Eustace, James,
and Vincent (N'o. 1301 in the UflSzi), which once adorned
the altar in the chapel of the Cardinal del Portogallo,
both the oval of St. Vincent's face and the shape of St.
Eustace's hand are altogether those of Antonio, and
Vasari, in mentioning this picture (v. 95), says expressly
" Ed unitosi Antonio in tutto con Piero lavorarono in com-
pagnia di molte pitture, fra le quali fecero al Cardinale del
Portogallo una tavola a olio in S. Miniato al Monte, e vi
dipinsero dentro S. Jacopo, S. Eustachio e S. Vincenzio,"
etc.

The drawing and the rendering of form in the well-

known "Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," at the National
Gallery, London, likewise recalls Antonio,^ whilst it is
highly probable that Piero took part in the execution.
The " Angel with Tobias " at the Turin Gallery, and the
allegorical figure called " Prudentia," No. 1306, in the
TJffizi, may likewise belong to this series of pictures that
Piero executed in common with his brother Antonio.
Lastly, I think I can say the same of the "Annun-
ciation" (No. 73) in the Berlin Gallery. This good
picture, characteristic of Antonio as regards the forms
(hand and oval of the face), formerly bore even the name
of the elder brother, and that with as much right as it

^ A study for the figure of the Sebastian, slightly sketched with the
pen, and lightly washed with Indian ink, is in the possession of the
author. This drawing is unmistakably by Antonio.
 '

THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 353

now bears the name of the younger, Piero, to whom is

certainly to be ascribed the execution in colours.

While, therefore, I willingly concede to the editors of
the catalogue that the colon/ring in this picture recalls that
of Piero's "Coronation of Mary" in the Collegiata of S.
Gimignano, I cannot share their opinion that the type and
attitude of the Mary are equally suggestive of Piero. If
I am unable entirely to agree with Messrs. Meyer and
Bode in their criticisms about picture 'No. 73, it is equally
impossible for me not to differ from them in the judgment
they pass on Kos. 104(X and 108 in the Berlin Gallery,
No. 296 in the National Gallery, London, and No. 8 in the
Stadel Institute at Frankfurt.
The two eminent art-critics at Berlin believe that the

Virgin and Child (Ko, 104a) is to be assigned to An-

drea del Yerroccliio himself, but that the other Madonna
(ISTo. 108), as well as the above-named pictures in the
National Gallery and the Stadel Institute, belong merely
to, the sclwol of Verrocchio.
On comparing all these four pictures with one another, it
strikes me that they must all have come out of the same
master's workshop.^ In all four of them I recognise the

'
I call attention to the following characteristic signs : the pointed
faun-like ear, like that of the kneeling saint with the crosier in Piero
Pollajuolo's painting at S. Gimignano ; the nails cut sharp and with
hlack contour, as in the "Prudenza" (No, 1306) at the Uffizi, the
" Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," in London, and the " Tobias with the
Angel," at Turin ; the thumb bent back convulsively, like that of St.
Antony in the S. Gimignano picture ; the rather long and Correggiesque
folds, similar to those on the Angel's mantle at the National Gallery,
No. 781 (which picture evidently belongs, if not to the same master, at
any rate to the same studio as No. 296), and to those in P. Pollajuolo's
" Coronation of Mary," S. Gimignano. All these features speak more
for the studio of Piero del Pollajuolo than for that of Verrocchio. I
have yet to mention, that both in the Turin picture and in No. 781 of
A A
 —

356 BERLIN.

An old proverb characterizes the different provinces of

the former republic as follows :

Veneziani, gran Signori.

Padovani, gran Dottori.
Vicentini, magnagatti (cat-eaters, i.e., shabby-genteel).
Veronesi, mezzo matti (free from care, light-hearted).
Bresciani, spacca cantoni (swash-bucklers).
Bergamaschi, facoglioni (acting the fool in order to
over-reach).
And, in truth, the Venetians were grand gentlemen, gran
signori, aristocrats in the good sense of the word. The
Genoese, their rivals, are known in history always as
shrewd, enterprising merchants and clever sailors ; the
Venetians were not only that, but also lordly, like the
English of our own day. And Venetian Art gives the
most brilliant proofs of this fact.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century the school of

painting of Venice Town stood far below its school of
sculptors. The painters De Flor (Francesco and his son
Jacobello), Jacobello de Bonomo,^ and other picture-
makers of even less merit, represented pictorial art at
Venice, when Gentile da Fabriano, and his still more im-
portant fellow-labourer, the Veronese Vittor Pisano, called
Pisanello,^ were invited to Venice about the year 1419

^ There is a large authentic work of Jacobello de Flor in the sacristy

of the Ceneda Cathedral ;one of Jacobello de Bonomo, dated 1385, in
the church of S. Arcangelo, not far from Rimini.
^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle are accustomed in their voluminous
work on Italian Painting to regard a school of painting not as a living
organic whole sprung out of the soil, but rather as an accidental con-
glomeration of artists who might have been born and bred
in Apulia as
well as in Tuscany, in Finland as well as in Italy. Thus, they make
the great Veronese, Vittor Pisano, on the one hand, proceed from a
school of miniaturists (!), and, on the other, educate himself as an
artist in Umbria, and afterwards at Florence (i. 450-51-52). In sup-
 —

THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 3^7

with, the commission to decorate with paintings one room

in the Palazzo Ducale.
The presence of these two eminent artists in the City of

the Lagoons gave also a new impulse to its school of

painting. Jacopo Bellini became a scholar of Grentile, and
when his master had finished his work at Venice, he
accompanied him to Florence. During the few years of
their stay at Venice, Gentile and Pisanello must not only
have instructed Bellini in their art, but their influence on
Griambono, and especially on Antonio Vivarini of Murano,
also seems to me to be undeniable.
It was in the thirties of that century that Antonio
founded the far-famed picture-manufactory of Murano, in

port of their somewhat singular theory, they ascribe to him pictures

which are indeed erroneously attributed to him at the Municipal Gallery
of Verona, where they are at present, but which do not belong to him.
The feacocJc introduced in the " Madonna with St. Catherine" (No. 52 )
ought of itself to have taught these gentlemen that the picture be-
longed to Stefano da Zevio,not to the so-called Pisanello. According to the
Abbate Giacomo Morelli, Vittor Pisano must have been born in the village
of S. Vigilio, near the Lago di Gar da {see Anonimo Morelliano), in 1380,
—
and have died between the years 1451 55. Biondo of Forli, who wrote
his " Italia Illustrata " about 1450, says in it —
"Pictorise artis peritum
:

Verona superiori saeculo habuit Aticherium ; sed unus superest, qui fama
ceteros nostri seculi faciliter antecessit, Pisanus nomine."
Facio of Genoa, who wrote his book " De Viris Illustribus " between
1455 and 1457, says of Pisano —
" Mantuse sediculum pinxit, et tabulas
:

valde laudatas. Pinxit Venetiis in palatio Pridericum Barbarussam

Romanorum Imperatorem, et ejusdem filium supplicem, etc.; pinxit et
Eomae in Joannis Laterani templo, quae Gentilis de Joannis Baptistse
historia iuchoata reliquerat, quod tamen opus postea, quantum ex eo
audivi, parietis humectatione paene obliteratum est. Sunt ejus ingenii
atque artis exemplaria aliquot picturse in tabellulis ac membranulis, in
quis Hieronymus Christum crucifixum adorans, ipso gestu majes-
et oris
tate venerabilis, etc. Picturae adjecit fingendi artem, etc." Pisano also
painted in the Castello of Pavia. Lionello d'Este wrote of him :

"Pisanus omnium pictorum hujusce ?etatis egregius." (See Maffei, par. iii.

cap. vi. col. 153.)

358 BERLIN.

wMcli a German, apparently of the school of Cologne, the

well-known Joannes Alemanniis, found employment about
1440. From this art-factory, which provided everything
that was needed for the adornment of a church-altar, there
afterwards came forth the painters Bartolommeo Yivarini,
a younger brother of Antonio, Alvise Vivarini, Andrea da
Murano, and others/
The Berlin collection possesses, in the " Adoration of
the Kings " (No. 5), by far the most interesting work of
Antonio da Muraiw. It is a painting of his early period,
about 1435 to 1440. In this picture, so valuable to art-
history, we fail to discover the slightest influence of John
Alemannus, a painter surely much ovei'rated by modern
writers ; but we do see very marked traces of Gentile da
Fabriano and Pisanello da Verona. The landscape in the
background is altogether in Gentile's manner, and the
work is an infallible proof that Antonio must have been
already an accoviplislied artist when he founded with John-
Alemannus the well-known studio at Murano.
In the same gallery there is also an excellent picture
by Bartolommeo, the younger brother and partly a pupil of
Antonio. I do not mean the " St. George " (No. 1160), a
mere " studio-work " of the master,' but the interesting

^ John Alemannus and John de Muriano are one and the same
person j neither were there two painters Alvise Vivarini, an elder and

a younger, as is alleged.
^ The pictures executed wholly or mostly by the master himself,
never have a landscape in the background, but either gold or air ; and
are moreover easily distinguished from works that assistants finished from
his cartoons, by and precision of modelling and execution.
their delicacy
While the have merely the inscription, " Factum per Bartholo-
latter
meima," etc., those painted by Bartolommeo himself bear the signature,
" Bartholomeus de Muriano pinxit," or else " Opus Bartholomei de M."
Yet I see that Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle make no distinction
 ;

THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 359

and highly characteristic picture representing Mary with

the Child, who on the balustrade before her
sits, clothed,
above her a festoon of fruit (N'o. 27). In the catalogue
this picture is, unfortunately, still ascribed to Andrea Man-
tegna ; even Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle agree with
this verdict, and what is more, they would fain recognise
in the picture the Madonna painted by Mantegna for
Matteo Bosso, Abbot of Fiesole (ii. 386).'
Whether Bartolommeo Vivarini afterwards (?) came
under the influence of Donatello, and even of Antonello
da Messina, is what we need not stop to argue. What
would serious critics say if somebody were to explain to

whatever between the studio- works, more or less rough according to

the price charged, and* the more delicate paintings executed by the
master himself (i. 47 and 48).
^ The modelling of the face and the drawing of the folds in this picture
hare not the fine plastic precision which is never wanting in paintings
by Mantegna, also the oval of Mary's face is too full for the Paduan,
though quite in harmony with the Madonna type of Vivarini, whose
outlines, too, are always drawn darker. Then the swollen knuckles,
the sharp-pointed fingers, the bronze-coloured nimbus, the red of the
Vü'gin's dress, &c.,make it easy to distinguish the Muranese from the
Paduan. Even the shape of the cartellino (label) speaks for Barto-
lommeo Vivarini, whereas Mantegna never signs his name on cartellini.
Very likely before this Madonna was dubbed a work of Mantegna's, the
label bore the inscription, " Bartholomeus de Muriano, p." Messrs.
Ci'owe and Cavalcaselle, who look upon this picture as Mantegna's,
believe, moreover, that they can fix even the year in which it was
painted, namely, 1464, the very time when Mantegna was painting his
splendid Triptych in the Tribuna of the Uffizi (i. 386). If in this
Madonna our historians have confounded B. Vivarini with Mantegna,
they have made a similar mistake at Pavia, where a forged signature on
a Madonna of B. Vivarini has induced them to assign it in their in-
ventory to Giambellino (i. 153). The said picture is in the Malaspina
collection at Pavia, No. 9. If I am not mistaken, these frequent
qui-pro-quo's are due partly to their influence-theory, and partly to
their total neglect of the various forms prevalent in these three masters.
360 BEELIN.

the public that Goetlie, for instance, wrote this or that

poem under the influence of Herder, Wieland, Bürger,
Rousseau, Sterne, and so on ? It is certainly possible,
but who can prove it ? The great thing is to prove your
theorems. But let us go back to our Muranese.
The Enthroned Mary with the Child and Saints (No. 38),
by Alvise Vivarini, is in my eyes not only the most im-
portant work of that master, but one of the most important
productions of Venetian art in the fifteenth century. Alvise
is as noble and vigorous in this painting as Bartolommeo
Montagna, and besides Giovanni Bellini I do not know
of any master at Venice who could have produced such a
painting in the last decade of the fifteenth century. No
doubt the Muranese painters are better represented in
these rooms than anywhere else.
We find in this gallery two works of Marco Basditi,
scholar and assistant of Alvise Vivarini, as the catalogue
him The " Lamentation over the Body of
correctly calls :

Christ" (No. 6), and a "Saint Sebastian" (No. 37), a

much-restored work of the master.
Of other pupils of Alvise Vivarini, such as Jacopo da
Valenza, Lazzaro Sebastiani, Bernardo Parentino, Giro-
lamo Moceto,^ there are, as far as I know, no pictures in

^ Following Bernasconi, Messrs. Ci'o-we and Cavalcaselle count the

celebrated engraver Hieronymus Mocetus among the Veronese. Un-
fortunately, I cannot share their opinion on this point either. Surely
the circumstance that in a cliurch at Verona there is a signed picture
of Moceto cannot be considered a proof of his being a Veronese.
Moceto as an artist is thoroughly Venetian, and I presume that he was
born either at Murano or at Venice. All his works prove it. In all
probability Alvise Vivarini must have been his master. The large
glass window at S. Giovanni e Paolo (whose inscription, added only at
the beginning of this century, has misled all the writers on art), belongs
entirely to Moceto. Vasari also mentions him as an assistant of Giam-
bellino(Vol. 12 Ed. Le Monnier),
 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 361

tlie Berlin collection. On the other hand, I found in

these rooms a " Christ with the two Disciples at Btnmaus "
(N'o. 1),by Marco Marziale, a contemporary of the above-
named But, leaving all these second and third-
painters.
rate painters, let us now examine the works which this
gallery contains of the greatest of all Venetian artists,
Giovanni Bellino.
The Berlin catalogue states that Griambellino may per-
haps have been born at Rome, not at Venice, as has been
generally accepted until now ; for the present let us leave
this brand-new theory in quarantine.^
Take him all in all, Giambellino is, as I have said, the
greatest artist of Northern Italy in the fifteenth century.
Vittor Pisano was indeed, in some respects, as much a
pioneer for his age, that is, for the first half of the fifteenth
century, as Giambellino was in the second half ; look at his
capital fresco in S. Anastasia at Verona, of St. George after
his victory over the Dragon ; also at his highly interesting
pen-drawings in the so-called Vallardi collection of draw-
ings at the Louvre, and his other drawings in the Ambro-
siana at Milan ; to say nothing of his splendid medals.
Andrea Mantegna more energetic, imposing, and learned
is

than Giambellino he also brings the moment of action

;

before our eyes with greater vividness and realistic truth.

But, after all, Pisanello and Mantegna evince a certain
monotony in conception and representation, while Giovanni
Bellino as an artist displays the greatest variety. From
his thirtieth year, i.e. from 1456, down to his last known

' Gentile da Fabriano, the master of Jacopo Bellini, did certainly

live at Eome from about 1430 until his death, which must have taken
place about 1440. —
But during the years 1425 27 he was employed at
Orvieto. It is not very likely either that Jacopo Bellini dragged his
wife and children about the world with him.
 ;

362 BERLIN.

works of 1513 and 1514 (S. Giovan Crisostomo at Venice,

and the Bacch.anal at the Duke of ISTorthumberland's), he
is in continual growth, in one unceasing evolution, so that
Dürer was quite right when, in 1506, he pronounced him
the " best " painter in Venice. Giambellino is serious and
grave, graceful and loving, naive and simple, each in its
right place, and when the subject demands it. His women
and children, his old men and youths, are never the same,
and seldom have a similar type or expression.
All this may be said without wishing in the least to
detract from the eminent merits of the great Mantegna
the fact is, I am not one of those critics who look to find
all any one extraordinary individual. Nay, I
excellences in
mind and disposition positively
believe that certain gifts of
exclude others, and that neither Mantegna nor Michel-
angelo would have attained the pinnacle of greatness in
their style, had the Graces stood beside their cradle. To
raake myself better understood, I would say: Had Bismarck
possessed all those qualities which some of his opponents
sadly miss in him, the unity of Germany would hardly
have become a fact.

During the period when it was the principal endeavour

of art to portray character, Giambellino is, after Mantegna,

the greatest drawer of character in N'orthern Italy ; later

on, whenbecame the principal task of art to represent
it

emotions of the soul, he is second to none in rendering

maternal love, piety, the artless gaiety of childhood, as
also religious humility in women, and holy fervour in men.
Bellini is never dramatic, yet his saints are all full of life,

energy, and dignity.

The works of Giambellino began, very soon after his
death, to be confounded with those of his scholars and
imitators ; nay, some of the latter, to insure a readier
 !

THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 363

market and higlier price for their own wares, did not
hesitate to mark them with the master's name. These
forged signatures (cartellini) are, however, easily distin-
guished from the genuine, and still more easily the pic-
tures themselves.^
Whilst, on the one hand, many pictures by scholars and
imitators are ascribed to the master himself, there are, on
the other hand, not a few early works of his which are to
this day attributed, some indeed to a Mantegna or Ercole
Roberti, but many to inferior masters, a Francesco Maria
Pennacchi, a Zaganelli, Rondinelli, and the like. To make
it easier for my young friends to distinguish the works of
Giambellino from those of Mantegna, with whom he is
mostly confounded at one stage of his career (1460 —1480),
I will here mention some easily discernible test-marks
which struck me during my own studies. These hints, of
course, are only for beginners : it would be ridiculous to
offer such ABC work to the great educated Art-public
of civilized Europe
The shapes of the hand and ear are very different in the
two masters. In Giambellino the ear is round and fleshy, in
Mantegna longish and gristly the hand and fingers, on
;

the contrary, are shorter and more fleshy in Mantegna,

more bony and pointed and with strongly-marked joiats
in Giambellino. In the pictures of this latter master (till

about the first years of the sixteenth century, when his

landscapes become realistic), the background generally

^ I have already had the opportunity of drawing the attention of my

readers to the fact that, in the first place, the Cartellini of Giambellino
when ; and secondly, that in his own genuine
in italics, are always forged
signatures one of the two L's always higher than the other. But in
is

genuine Cartellini that have been touched up, the restorer has not seldom
shortened the taller L, so as to give them both the regulation height.
 ^ ;

364: BERLIN.

represents a plain witli rivulets, fortified places in the

middle distance, and mountains behind ; for the most part
a winding road meanders through the middle and fore-
ground. The colours in these landscapes were originally
pale green in the foreground and dark green in the middle
but these colours have become so oxydized in course of
time, that now they generally look black.
Mantegna had not much feeling for lines in land-
scape, or for colours either. His landscape backgrounds
generally represent a fortified place on a steep hill, with a
winding path leading to it ; sometimes, also, jagged masses
of rock.
Now, as the greater part of Giambellino's pictures are
thickly painted over, it is often his most characteristic and
strongly-marked forms that have been toned down by
restoration, to suit the rules of the various schools, so that
they do not readily strike the eye. If, therefore, we would
study the master in his rendei'ing of forms, we must look
up his early works painted " a tempera," which are less
injured than the works of his later periods, these being all
glazed with oil colours, and nearly all obliterated by the
restorer.
And this remark applies not only to the works of Giam-
bellino, but to those of all the great Venetian masters of

^ In tlie Contarini hall of the Venetian Academy we do see a realisti-

cally coloured landscape in a Madonna of Giambellino's (No. 94), signed
and dated 1487 ; but whoever narrowly examines the signature will, I

think, agree with me that it is apocryphal. In my opinion this picture

of Giambellino's belongs to the early years of the sixteenth century,
about 1503 or 1504; compare with it the great altar-piece at S. Zaccaria
of the year 1505. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (i. 166) call the
picture " Giorgionesque." For the rest, I make bold to remark, that
this Madonna is far too much restored and repainted for anyone to be
able seriously to give an opinion on the " touch of the trees."
 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 365

that period. It is in their early works that the peculiari-

ties of each as an artist are most prominent.
If the
« Pieta " in the Brera at Milan (Ko. 278), and the " Trans-
figuration " in the Gallery of Naples, had not been signed
with the master's name, they, too, would most likely have
been handed over to Mantegna, as is the case with so
many other paintings of that period by Bellini. I need
only mention here, as instances of such blundering, the
" Agony in the Garden," at the National Gallery, London,
(No. 726), the "Transfiguration" in the Correr Museum,
Venice (No. 14), as well as the " Pieta " at Sign. Men-
ghini's at Mantua, and another " Pieta " at the Vatican
Gallery.'
The Lamentation over Christ was during a certain
period (1460 — 1470) a favourite subject with the master^
Two of these "Pieta" are to be found in the Correr
Museum at Venice. One of the two (No. 27) bears the
forged cipher of Albrecht Dürer, and is ascribed by Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle to Pietro Maria Pennacchi (ii. 227).
It is very similar to the picture at the Berlin Gallery
(No. 28), and might very well be of the same period. The
other "Pieta" (No. 18) is so much disfigured by coarse
painting that one can hardly recognise in it the master.
To a still earlier period of Giambellino I would assign

^ This coarse-grained painting at the Vatican is in my opinion only

a studio-picture or a copy (after an original by Giambellino), most
probably by Giovanni Buonconsigli, called II Marescalco. Compare,
for instance, the head of the Magdalen in this " Pieta" with the head
of the Saint in picture No. 272 at the Academy of Venice. Some years
ago I saw a second and still weaker copy of the same subject (under the
name of Giambellino) in the Costabili collection at Ferrara. And it

may have been this latter picture that induced Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle to ascribe the painting at Rome to Giovanni Bellini,
(i. 157).
 :

366 BERLIN.

the little picture of " Christ Crucified," at the Museo

Correr, 'No. 46. This very characteristic and well pre-
served tempera picture, which stronglj reminds us of
Giovanni's father, Jacopo, is likewise assigned at Venice
to Mantegna. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (i. 534), on
the contrary, ascribe it to Ercole Roberti of Ferrara.
Another early work of our master is the overpainted,
but still attractive, Madonna (No. 372), at the Academy
of Venice : Mary with the sleeping Child on her knees.
We find the same motive repeated in the beautiful picture
of Bartolomm'eo Vivarini, of the year 1464, at the same
gallery (No. 1).
If I have lingered over these interesting and for the
most part grossly misunderstood works of Giambellino's
early period somewhat longer than time and space would
permit, it has been purely in the hope of inducing some
young student to bestow a more searching investigation
than has hitherto been done on this great master and his
school.
Let us now examine those works of his which the
Berlin Gallery boasts of possessing. The catalogue names
no less than four, namely
(1) The "Lamentation over Christ" (No. 4). This
picture, though greatly painted over, seems an original
work of the master.
(2) The "Virgin and Child" (No. 10), on the other
hand, I consider a mere studio-picture. The original
painting is in private possession at Milan. Another much
over-painted studio-picture with the same subject hangs in
the picture-gallery of the Town Library, Treviso.^ As for

' Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle speak of both pictures as original

works of Giambellino's (i. 152 and 153).
 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL, 367

this Berlin picture, it is hung too high to enable me to

judge of the minuter details.
(3) The "Virgin and Child" (No. 11) appears to me
to be also a studio-picture. The original might well be
the much over-painted picture (No. 94), with the forged
signature and date 1487, in the Academy of Venice.

(4) Very noble, on the contrary, is the " Pieta " (N'o, 28),
the dead Christ supported and bewailed by two angels. I
cannot help heartily eulogizing the directors of the gallery
for their courage in restoring to its rightful owner this
beautiful and characteristic picture, which until then had
been assigned to Mantegna.^
The " Pieta " in the Brera at Milan is of an earlier date
than this one. A similar " Pieta," under the
name of
Mantegna, owned by Signer Menghini of Mantua,
is

though much daubed over and disfigured. Of all the

Pieta representations by the master, the noblest in my
eyes is the one at the Town Hall of Rimini. Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle, however (i. 191), would dispute
Giambellino's claim to this delicate and deeply-felt picture,
assigning it to that very insignificant painter, Zaganelli
of Cotignola. In this they greatly wrong not only Bellini,
but Vasari; for Messer Giorgio, besides quoting the picture
as a work of Giambellino's, expressly asserts that it was
painted for Sigismondo Malatesta, and therefore before
1468, the year of Sigismondo's death.^
Of the numerous scholars and imitators of Giambellino,

^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle seem to ascribe this picture to

Bonsignori (i. 387, i).

^ " Fece in Arimino al Signor Sigismondo Malatesta una Pietk con

due (there are three) puttini che la reggono, la quale e oggi in S. Fran-
cesco di quella citta." (Vasari, Ed. le Monnier, y. 17.) It is only the
Aretine's carelessness that makes him say two angels instead of three.
368 BERLIN.

not a few are represented in tlie rooms of the Berlin

Gallery.
Of Cima da Coneg-
the dignified, but rather one-sided
liano, there isunder No. 2 an enthroned Virgin and Child
with Saints, and two good Madonnas under Nos. 7 and 17.
Of Pier Maria Pennacchi there is a " Pieta " under No^
1166, Christ in the Tomb, supported by Angels. Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ii. 227) speak in words of praise
of this youthful work of Pennacchi, an appreciation with
which we entirely agree ; but they add, that the early
works of this Trevisan are so different from his later ones,
that they would have doubted the genuineness of the
picture had it not been for the signature. They explain
this phenomenon by supposing that Pennacchi, before
entering the studio of Bellini, must have been under the-
influence of the school of Squarcione at Padua a circum- —
stance which would give his works that " mixed Trans-
alpine and Paduan look " which makes the pictures of so
many early painters of Northern Italy so unattractive.
Pennacchi (say they) must have painted the "Pieta"
with the forged Dürer-monogram (now at the Museo
Correr, 'No. 27) very soon after coming from Padua to
Venice, for, while the picture by its refined style betrays
the influence of the Bellini and the Vivarini, it is never-
theless still so German in expression that Dürer's monogram
and the date, 1499, have to this day passed for genuine.
So then, in the opinion of these famous historians of Ita-
lian Painting, the style of Squarcione was a " mixture of the
Transalpine and the Paduan," a definition which cannot
be accused of too much lucidity.
Squarcione, as we see by the polyptych (at the Town
Gallery of Padua) which has come down to us, was
not a painter of the first magnitude, but probably, like his
 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 369

contemporary Pier della Francesca, rather a first-rate

This is evident from
teacher, especially of perspective.
the works of his various pnpils ; for it is precisely their
strict Linear Perspective that makes the school of Padua
easy to recognise —an advantage shared by all the scholars
of Squarcione, Marco Zoppo as well as Gregorio Schiavone,
Mantegna as well as Ansuino da Forli, Carlo Crivelli,

Nicoletto Pizzolo, or Dario, and the elder Girolamo da

Treviso.'' From, one or the other of the two last-named
Squarcionesques P. M. Pennacchi may very well have
received the rudiments of his education. But the state-
ment of Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle that the works of
these Squarcionesques bear such a decided Transalpine
character ^ that they might be taken for works of Dürer,
appears to me devoid of all foundation. It is true that a
forger has put Dürer's monogram and the date 1499 on
the beautiful " Pieta " at the Museo Correr, evidently for
the purpose of selling his picture better. Neither do I

' Sigaor Prizzoni-Salis, of Bergamo, possesses a " Pieta" by Dax'io of

Treviso, representiBg the dead Christ lamented by two angels ; on the
sleeve of one of these angels we read " DARIVS TARVI " a second
;

picture of his, at the Town Gallery of Bassano, is signed " DARIVS p."
The "Angel's Academy,
Greeting," in the Gallei-y of the Venetian
by him, and not by Giovanni
Nos. 581 and 583, 1 consider to be likewise
and Antonio of Murano, as the catalogue would have it. Even Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle mention it as a work of the Muranese (i. 27).
In the cathedral of Treviso one sees a Virgin and Child by the elder
Girolamo, with the Saints Sebastian and Rochus, and on the steps of the
throne two angel-minstrels signed " Hieronymus Tarvisius pinxit
;

1487." Also the Tadini Collection at Lovere (province of Bergamo)

has a " Pieta," much repainted, with the signature, " Hieronymus Tar-
visio pinsit " (No. 250).
^ I can scarcely think that by this expression Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle mean merely what is angular, clumsy, and at the same
time petty.
370 BERLIN,

deny that the monogram has in the eyes of a superficial

public passed for an authentic one, a thing that has hap-
pened and still happens with forged signatures on other
pictures. But we ask all earnest connoisseurs who have seen
the picture at the Museo Correr whether they, like Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle, perceive in it a Transalpine cha-
racter, namely, that of a Dürer, or of the Cologne or some
Low Countries school, or rather, like ourselves, discern
in it the stamp of a great Venetian artist? That Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle could so entirely fail to recognise
Giambellino in his noble and deep-felt rendering of the
subject, is what I honestly regret, both for their own sake
in missing a high artistic treat, and still more for the
multitude of their pupils and followers, who are thus led
aside from the broad road of Art-science into a thicket of
thorns, out of which it will cost them no little time and
trouble to extricate themselves.
Of Cima and Pennacchi's numerous fellow-students in
Giambellino's studio (1480 — 90), Cristoforo Caselli of
Parma, Mansueti, Lattanzio of Rimini,^ Niccolo Rondi-
nelli of Ravenna, Jacopo of Montagnana, and others, the

Berlin Gallery has no specimens. On the other hand, we

meet with several pictures by later pupils of Bellini, namely,
Giorgione, Lorenzo Lotto, Vicenzo Catena, and Francesco

^ There are two great altar-pieces by Lattanzio da Rimini, one in the

church of Piazza, the other in that of Piazzatorre, two villages in the

Brembo Valley, near Bergamo; further, a Madonna worshipping the
Child, at Signor F. A. Frizzoni's, Bergamo, and another Madonna
signed with his name, belonging to the antiquary Guggenheim, at
Venice. By Jacopo da Mmitagnana there are pictures in the church of
the Santo and in the bishop's palace, Padua. At Venice the antiquary
Guggenheim has the " Transfiguration of Mary," with prophets, angels,
and apostles ; a picture that may be reckoned among the better works of
this rare master.
 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 371
•«a

Bissolo. These four, together with. Cima and Pennacchi,

were all sons of the Marca Trevisana, a district known
all over Italy as early as the thirteenth century for its

elegance and luxury and its splendid and joyous feasts,

and therefore called " amorosa" and "giocosa."^
The supposed picture of Giorgione (Ko. 152) contains
the portraits of two men, both of middle age, in black
caps and black clothes; Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
(ii. 155) suppose this picture to be the one that Vasari
saw at Florence in the house of the sons of Borgherini,
representing young Borgherini with his tutor.^ The
directors of the gallery, however, by appending a note of
interrogation, seem to question the truth of this conjecture ;

and I think they are not altogether wrong there. For, in

the first place, the picture mentioned by Vasari repre-
sented a youth and an older man, the pupil and his tutor,
whilst in the picture before us we have two middle-aged
men ; secondly, both the drawing and painting, and also
the conception of the picture, point not only not to Gior-
gione, but to a later period altogether than that of Grior-
gione ; and, lastly, the painting is in so wretched a con-

dition that it seems to me, as well as the directors, too

hazardous to pass a decided opinion upon it.

Of Lorenzo on the contrary, there are no less than

Lotto,
four pictures in the gallery, all good and genuine works
of the master. The likeness of an Architect (]S"o. 153) is

a capital portrait of Lotto's riper period (1530 — 1540).

Likewise genuine is the picture representing the Saints
Sebastian and Christopher, of the year 1531. The so-called

» See "Archivio Storico," Serie i. 8, 622.

* Vasari vii, 83 " In Fiorenza e di man sua in casa de' figliuoli di
:

Gioyan Borgherini il ritratto d'esso Giovanni, quando era gioyine in

Venezia, e nel medesimo quadro il maestro che lo guidaya."
372 BERLIN.

Portrait of the Artist himself bears the mamber 326.

Lotto, born about 1477, must therefore have painted this
picture in the first decade of the fifteenth century, sup-
posing it own likeness.
to be his Both drawing and
workmanship, however, point to a much later period.
That he signed it L. Lotus pict. instead of pinsit, is
nothing to the purpose, as we find the very same signature
on another picture by his hand (N'o. 325), '' Christ taking
leave of His Mother " —
a subject also treated by Correggio
about 1520, in a small picture now in London, but much
damaged. The picture at Berlin (325) was painted by
Lotto at Bergamo, for Domenico Tassi the foundress, with
;

a prayer-book in her hands, being Tassi's wife, Elizabeth

Rota.^ From theTassi house the picture came into that
of the Canonicus Count Zanchi of Bergamo, and was sold
by him to the picture-dealerAbate Massinelli, who sold
it again to Mr. Solly. I saw some years ago an old copy
of this picture with the same signature, at the antiquary
Baslini's, Milan.
Also the two pictures ascribed to Vicenzo Catena are
good, and characteristic of him ; !N"o. 19 represents Mary
with the Child and Saints N"o. 32 is a portrait of one of
;

the Fuggers of Augsburg settled at Venice, and may be

considered one of the best portraits by this master.
Catena's first instructor may well have been his country-
man, the elder Jerome of Treviso and I think this is
;

evident from some early works of Catena. One of these,

signed with the artist's name, is in the picture-gallery at
Pesth, and another at the Town Gallery of Padua.-

' See Francesco Maria Tassi, " Vite de' Pittori, Scultori e Architetti

Bergamaschi," i, 125.
2 The picture at Pesth (No. 1 38) represents Mary with the child on

her knee, at the sides St. Joseph and a female saint ; signed " VIZENZO
 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 373

To Francesco Bissolo, another Trevisan, and a scliolar

and even imitator of Giambellino, belongs the "Resur-

rection of Christ" (No. 43). The better works of this
master are often ascribed to Bellini himself;
inferior
amongst others, the much admired Madonna in the
Sacristy of the Redentore at Venice.
Of Giambellino's pnpils from the Bergamo district, we
find also afew works here amongst others, a very superior
:

portrait of a woman by Palma Vecchio,'^ that comes very

near to Lorenzo Lotto (I^o. 197a), painted between the years

1512 and 1520 ; and an "Adoration of the Magi " (Ko. 22)
by Francesco Rizo of Santa Groce (a village in the district
of Bergamo). Another replica at the Town Gallery of
Yerona. The original picture with this composition was,
I have very little doubt, one by Andrea Mantegna where ;

it may be now is more than I can say. But I am very

sure that at the photographer Perini's at Venice I saw a

C. P." The execution recalls Girolamo da Treviso, the composition,

Giambellino. The "Presentation at the Temple" (No. 29 of the Town
GaUery, Padua) is signed " VICENTIVS de Tarvisio."
^ Drawings by the Venetians, taken as a whole, are very rare,
at all events much rarer than those of equally important masters of
Umbria and Tuscany. The Ambrosiana (Libro Eesta) possesses two
by L. Lotto I have never yet
studies for a St. Joseph (in black chalk) ;

met with drawings by Palma Vecchio that drawing in red chalk, Mary
;

with the naked child in her arms (in possession of the Marquis de
Chennevieres), which at the great Paris Exhibition was admired as a
Palma Vecchio, and designated a "Palma Conde7ise" by Mr. Charles
Ephrussi ("Les dessins desmaitres anciens," &c., p. 145), belongs, in my
opinion, not to Palma, but to G. A. da Pordenone. Compare, e.cf., the
Child with that in Pordenone's drawing at the Venetian Academy (No.
155 in the photographer Perini's catalogue). The photograph of the
Chennevieres drawing is numbered 212 in Braun's Catalogue. The
bunchy mantle and the type of Mary's face are enough to betray Por-
denone. In Palma's pictures the drawing is always more quattrocentist,
and never has the breadth and freedom of this red-chalk drawing.
374 BERLIN.

copy of it, an intentional forgery. In that copy tlie out-

lineshad probably been traced (by pressure) for the forms ;

agreed exactly with those peculiar to Mantegna. Fran-

cesco Rizo must have been born about 1480, and must have
come to Venice and joined the studio of Giovanni Bellini
when very youug. His " Annunciation," signed with
still

his name, and the date 1504, now at the Town Gallery of
Bergamo,^ is out-and-out Bellinesque, and has a close
affinity to the early works of his countryman and fellow-

student, Andrea Previtali.

Of this latter artist, we have before us a good picture
(No. 39), " Mary with the Child and Saints."
By a second Santa Croce, the dry stereotyped Girolamo,
perhaps a relation, anyhow a pupil of Francesco Rizo, we
find four pictures in this gallery —the "IS'ativity" (No. 24);
the " Martyrdom of St. Sebastian " (No. 26) the " Coro- ;

"
nation of Mary " (No. 33) and lastly, the " Crucifixion
;

(No. 35). It is Girolamo's early works, of which there

are some in the Town Gallery of Bergamo, that set him
before us as a scholar of Francesco. Afterwards he occa-
sionally imitates Cima,as well as others. His small pictures,
all painted in one monotonous manner, which are to be
met with in nearly every picture-gallery, seem to belong
to his middle period (1 525 — 1540). In many of his pictures
he introduces a parrot ; another characteristic of the master
is his landscape, with stiff round little trees set in rows,
and a striped hoi'izon. The technical power of Girolamo
da Santa Croce is great, his taste and imagination very
commonplace therefore he succeeded best in portraits, of
;

which there is one in the Poldi-Pezzoli collection at Milan.

^ It formerly adorned the village churcli of Spino in the Brembo

Valley, near Bergamo.
 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 375

A same name, Pietro Paolo of Santa

third painter of the
Croce, who worked end of the sixteenth century,
until the
was, though perhaps not the son, yet certainly a pupil and
imitator of Girolamo. At the altar of the Scrovegni
Chapel, Padua, one may see a signed picture of his ; also
in the Museo Correr, at Venice, there are several pictures
by Pietro Paolo, and one, " Cristo in casa delle Marie,"
with the forged signature " Laurentii Canotii de Lendinaria
opus " (No. 312), at the Academy of Venice.^
Before we pass on to examine the pictures of a far more
celebrated imitator of Girolamo, namely, Antonello da
Messina, I wish draw the attention of my readers to
first to

some good productions of Vittor Carpaccio, which hang in

the Berlin Gallery.
To this naive, always pleasant, and often roguish teller

of legends belongs the " Consecration of St. Stephen,"

and the " Madonna with Saints " (No. 14). The
(N"o. 23),

first two pictures was one of five painted by the

of these
master for the Scuola di S. Stefano, at Venice but who- ;

ever wishes to know this master well must hunt him up

in Venice, where, both at S. Gregorio degli Schiavoni,
and still more at the Academy, he may be seen at his
best.2
I will just remark, in passing, that the direction of
the Berlin Gallery have, to their honour, enriched their

^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle also detected the forgery of the

signature on this picture (i. 371, 5).
^ The large picture in the National Gallery, London, No. 750, which
bears Carpaccio's name, is a very feeble work of his, and not worthy to
represent the master in the capital of England. A genuine and very
interesting picture of hisis in the collection of Mr. Cavendish Bentinck,

M.P. It represents a Virgin with the Infant Christ on the sides, Tobias
;

and the Angel. Unfortunately, it has been much disfigured by restora-

tion (ascribed to the Veronese master, Girolamo das Libri).
 —

376 BERLIN.

collectionhj a treasure, which all the galleries in the

"world willenvy them, namely, the splendid portrait of a
daughter of Roberto Strozzi, by Titian (No. 160a), ac-
quired in 1878 from the Palazzo Strozzi at Florence.
Before taking leave of the Venetian painters, I must for a
short time draw the attention of my readers to several
pictures bearing the name who was born far
of an artist
enough from Venice, and whose earliest artistic education
was likewise an alien one, but who in spite of all this,
must in some respects be classed with the Venetian school
of art. I refer to Antonello da Messina, who has of late
become so celebrated.
In the foremost rank of those opinions which in the
course of long years have assumed the character of dogmas,
and which no one now thinks it needful to prove, stands
the conviction that " Antonello travelled to Flanders,
and there learned oil-jpainting of John van Eyck." Some
modern writers substitute Roger van der Weyden, or else
Hans Memling, for Van Eyck, who died in IMl. Unless
I am grossly mistaken, this fable owes its origin to nothing
but the vain and lively imagination of some Sicilian.
Let us look into the question closely, and without pre-
conceived opinion.
That the painters of Europe, long before the brothers
Van Eyck, had made use of the " oil medium " (to use a

favourite expression of Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle),

is evident not only from the Trattato della Pittura of
Cennino Cennini, which was compiled in the year 1437, but
"
also from the much earlier " Diversarum artium schedulae
of the monk Theophilus.
The inscription placed on Jan van Eyck's memorial in
the ^Netherlands has not one syllable about his invention
of oil painting :
 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 377

Hie jacet eximia clarus virtute Joannes,

In quo picturse gratia mira fuit, etc.^

And among the German writers of the fifteenth centur j,

not one speaks of this discovery of Van Eyck's, while the
greater number of German painters, as Martin Schongauer,
Michel Wohlgemuth, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the
elder, Burckmair, and others, had adopted the system of
oil painting perfected by the brothers Van Eyck, without
anyone north of the Alps making a noise about it.
But even in Italy there appears to have been no par-
ticular stir made about the new Flemish method of paint-
ing till the biography of Antonello da Messina appeared
in the " Vite " of Vasari in 1550.
Bartholomeus Pacius, indeed, in his book, "De viris
illustribus," written in 1456, says of Joannes Gallicus
(Van Byck), whom, as a practical painter, he calls " prin-
ceps pictorum," that he " multa de colorum proprietatibus
invenisse, quae ab antiquis tradita, ex Plinii et ab aliorum
auctorum lectione didicerat."
A contemporary of Pacius, the Plorentine architect and
sculptor, Antonio Averulino (named Pilarete), says, in
Book 24 of his " Trattato della Architettura," etc. (M.S.
in the Trivulzio Library, Milan, and in the Magliabecchiana,
Florence) :
" And in oil also can they lay all these colours
upon canvas or on wood, but thereto goeth another metlwd
of painting, exceeding fair for them that know it. In
Lamagna (Germany) they work well on this wise, and
specially doth Master John, of Bruges, and Master Roger
(van der Weyden), excel therein, who both work right
skilfully in oil colours. Qu. Tell me how they apply this
oil, and what manner of oil it be ? Ans. Linseed oil. Qu.

* See Zani's " Encyclopedia," &c. yoI. ii. 305.

378 BERLIN.

Is it not very dim ? Ans. Tea, but they purge off the
dimness; in what way, I cannot tell."^

In the year 1464, when Filarete wrote his Trattato,

Antonello, born (according to the historians) about 1414,
numbered some fifty years of age, yet he is never mentioned
by Filarete in connection with the subject. And the same
silence is maintained by Ciriacus of Ancona, and the
Tuscan Albertini.
The only writer of the 15 th century that ever names
Antonello is the Sicilian Matteo Collaccio, and that in a
letter to another Sicilian, Antonio Siciliano, Principal of
Padua University. Speaking of the celebrated men of his
time, he says :
—
" Habet vero haec aetas Antonellum Sicu-
lum, cujus pictura Venetiis in Divi Cassiani aede magnae est
admiration!."
Albrecht Dürer, who visited Yenice for the first time in

1494, when Antonello had just died, does not once men-
tion him in his letters or notes, a sign that Antonello could
not have enjoyed that fame at Venice nor that consideration
in the eyes of connoisseurs which was attempted to be
bestowed on him fifty years later, as in Vasari's biographies.
In 1524 the Venetian patrician Marcantonio Michiel,
an intelligent amateur,^ addressed himself to the architect
Summonzio, of N"aples, with the view of getting fuller
information about Antonello da Messina. The ITeapo-
litan's reply to the Venetian ran thus :
— "From the time
of King Ladislaus down to our ^Neapolitan master Colan-

' This shows that at the time of Filarete the new Van Eyck system
of painting was theoretically known, but that no Italian painter had as
yet felt prompted to abandon for it the native method of tempera
painting.
^ I suspect this Marcantonio Michiel to be the " Anonymus " of

Morelli.
 ;

THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 379

tonio, we never possessed a man with so great a talent

as he for painting had he not died young, he would
;

have done great things. And if this Colantonio never

reached the same perfection in his art as his well-known
pupil at Venice, Antonello da Messina, it was only the

fault of the times he lived in. The declared aim of

Colantonio was, according to the general fashion then at
Naples, to paint in the manner of the Low-Countrymen
and being passionately fond of his art, he had resolved
to go to Flanders, in order to perfect himself therein at
the fountain-head. But King Roger ^ of Anjou diverted
him from his intended journey, by himself instructing him,
both in the application of oil (pratica) and in the mystery
of mixing colours (tempera) And it was from Colantonio,
.

who died young, that his pupil Antonello da Messina

^
learned it."

Modern criticism has clearly demonstrated that Sum-

monzio's " Neapolitan painter Colantonio " was nothing
but one of the numerous inventions or illusions of Neapo-
litan local patriotism ;
^ but that has nothing to do with
our immediate object. I only wish to draw the attention
of my readers to the fact that the first writer who gives
us any account of Antonello's artistic training, the Neapo-
litan architect Summonzio, makes him learn the new
Flemish manner of painting in oil, not in Flanders, as
.'^
Vasari tells us, but in Italy

' King Roger reigned at Naples from 1435 to 1442.

2 Lanzi, " Storia Pittorica della Italia," Milano, 1842, ii. 319.
^ Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i. 335, and ii. 78, and Dr. Gustavo
Frizzoni ("Archivio Storico Italiano ") :
" Napoli nei suoi rapporti colY
arte del Rinascimento."
* The ignorance as well as the ridiculous patriotic vanity of Sum-
monzio will not seem strange to students acquainted with the books of
the Neapolitan, De Dominici, or those of the still living Sicilian, De
 !

380 BERLIN.
•
In flatcontradiction to this statement of the Neapoli-
tan is the information imparted to Vasari for his " Vite,"
some five-and-twenty years later, by (as I have some
reason for believing) a Sicilian savant. His account is

that Antonello learnt drawing at Rome (of whom ?) ; that

he then retired to Palermo,^ where he acquired great
celebrity, and after several years' residence there, returned
to his native town Messina, where he set the seal to the
fame he had won at Palermo. But, having gone to Naples
one day, he was there shown the beautiful picture by Jan
van Eyck, which had been sent from Flanders to King
"Rene;" and the glowing, vivid colours of that painting
so impressed him, that he resolved there and then to set
out for Bruges, where, being received in the friendliest
way by Jan van Eyck, he was initiated forthwith into the
mysteries of oil-painting. On returning from Flanders to
Messina (say, about 1440 or 1441, as Jan van Eyck died
in the latter year), Antonello remained a very short time
and then repaired to Venice therefore,
in his native town, —
abont the year 1442 or 1443.
Let ns now hear another and later Sicilian, Maurolicus
("Hist. Sican,," fol. 186). According to him, Antonello
" ob mirum Ingenium Venetiis aliquot annos pvhlice con-
diictus vixit : Mediolani quoque fuit percelehris." Strange
to say, not a single contemporary writer of Milan records
the presence of the thrice- celebrated Antonello da Messina
in the Lombard capital
If, aswe have seen, the statement of Summonzio sounded
rather stujDid, so, on the other hand, provincial pride and
childish vanity peep so simply out of the lines of the

— —
Marzo. ]\Ian especially man born in a Southern clime is apt to brag
most of what he has least of,
' The Palermitan
patriot seems to me to peep out in this passage.
 -

THE VE]N"ETIAN SCHOOL, 381

Sicilians, Matteo Collaccio and Manrolicns, as well as out

of Antonello's biography in Vasari's work-of-many-liands,
that we can hardly forbear smuing at it. And, in fact, of
all the biographies of celebrated artists in Vasari's " Vite,"
there is none that so persistently runs foul of chronology

and history as this one of Antonello da Messina.

To crown all, the biography concludes with the follow-
ing Epitaph, inscribed on the grave of the artist, who had
died at Venice in the year 1493 —
an epitaph which, often
and eagerly searched for, has never yet been found by
mortal man : —
D.O.M. «
Antonius prKcipuum Messan© suee et Siciliee^
picfcor,

totius ornamentum, hac humo contegitur. J^on solum

suis picturis, in quibus singulare artificium et venustas
fuit, sed et quod coloribus oleo miscendis splendorem et
perpetuitatem (!) primus italicte picture contulit, summo

semper artificum studio celebratus."

All this, as well as the story interwoven with it about
Domenico Veneziano and Andrea del Castagno, really does
not sound like earnest, but seems to me rather comical and
childish and it is incomprehensible to me, that in Italy,
;

where so many learned men have, ever since the last cen-
tury, puzzled their brains over Antonello's biography, none
should until now have been struck by the absurdity of the
whole narrative in Vasari,
If, therefore, we want to get some light about this
master, we must entirely banish the Vasari biography
from our minds, and look elsewhere for the light. Sup-
pose we let his works speak for themselves !

^ An Italian of Middle or Northern Italy would probably have said

Italise instead of Sicilife.
 ;:

382 BERLIN.

The oldest dated picture of Antonello da Messina that

has come down to us is of the year 1465, and as far as I
know, there is no earlier work of his. This is the paint-
ing now at the National Gallery, London (No. 673), repre-
senting the Salvator Mundi. Marked on a Cartello of
larger size than is usual in his later works, are the words
Antonellus Messaneus. The painting, both in expression
and colouring, looks still very Flemish.
The same JSTetherlandish aj^pearance we find in several
small Ecce Homo's, without signature, one of which is in
the house Spinola delle Pelliccierie at Genoa, and another
at the municipal picture-collection of Vicenza (Room 3,
No. 12). Both pictures, much disfigured, may possibly
date from even before the year 1465. To that same early
Flemish period of the master (1465 — 70) may also belong
the much-injured Ecce Homo of Signer Zir at Naples.
All these four heads of Christ are as yet very weak in
their modelling, and, as I have said, look very Memish
both in conception and in the ruddy complexion peculiar
to the school of Van Eyck. Compared with works of the
same master some ten years later, they are evidently pro-
ductions of anything hut a finished artist.

In the beginning of the year 1473 the triptych for the

church of S. Gregorio, of Messina, must have been finished

whether at Messina itself or at Venice (whence he might

easily send it to Sicily by sea), cannot be determined.^ It

^ This picture is now in the University building at Messina, and in a

deplorable state. It is signed: " Ano. Dm. m. cccc. septuagesimo tertio.
Antonellus Messanesis pinxit." It has still a very Flemish look, and
indicates an artist who knows perfectlyhow to handle the brush, but is
not yet master of the forms of the human body. Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle seem to be of the same opinion (ii. 86).
 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 383

seems certain that in that year Antonello was already at

Venice.
His practical mastery of the new method, still nnknown
in the City of the Lagoons, of glazing in oil colours a
ground laid in tempera, must have given Antonello a
higher status at Yenice than his intrinsic merits as an
artist would have warranted. We see that he is at once
honoured with a commission from the wardens of S. Cas-
siano. Unhappily the altar-piece there, so highly praised
by Matteo Collaccio and Sabellico, and signed with the
year 1473, has long since disappeared. And not only do
the church dignitaries of Venice patronize him, but the
patricianswere eager to have their likenesses taken on
the new by Antonello and, to judge
principle practised ;

by the number of portraits he turned out in those years,

he must for a time have been the most popular portrait-
painter at Venice.
A male portrait, of the year 1474, signed Antonellus
Messaiieus, formed part of the Duke of Hamilton's collec-
tion.^ Of the year 1475 is the precious and highly- prized
portrait in the Salon Carre at the Louvre, likewise signed
Antonellus Messaneus ; of the same year, and with the
same signature, is the " Crucifixion " at the Antwerp
Gallery, in which picture a slight tinge of Carpaccio's
influence on the Messinian is very visible to me.
If Antonello brought with him to Venice the so-called
mystery of the new Van Eyck method, he must neverthe-
less have an artist, occupying a subordinate
felt himself, as

position as compared with the brothers Bellini, the Viva-

rini, and even Carpaccio. The productions of his later

1 An excellent picture of his, representing an " Ecce Homo," is in

the collection of Mr. Fr. Cook, Kichmond.
384 BERLIN.

years make it evident to me tliat Aatonello gradually

formed himself by studying tlie works and seeking the
society of the great Venetian masters, till he reached that
degree of perfection (especially in the rendering of form
and in linear perspective) which we miss in his early
Ecce Homo's, and admire in his portraits of 1475, 76, and
78. Up to the last-named year the flesh colours in Anto-
nello's pictures still retain the ruddy tint of the Flemings,^
whereas the male portrait of 1478 at the Berlin Gallery
(N"o. 18) has acquired a lighter flesh-colour, similar to
that of Giambellino. Amongst the whole of Antonello's
portraits, I give the preference to this one at Berlin. In
all his other likenesses, both those of his early period and
those of the ninth decade (1480 —1490), for instance, in the
capital Portrait of a Man, now belonging to the lawyer
Molfino of Genoa, and in that of a man crowned with
laurel at the Museo Civico of Milan, Antonello exaggerates
the linear perspective of the eye to such a degree that the
look of the person represented becomes unnaturally sharp ;

a thing that also happened to Dili'er in his otherwise mag-

nificent portrait of the old shoemaker at JSTiirnberg.

To this, his later Venetian period, I would assign, be-

sides the S. Sebastian at Dresden, also the beautiful por-
trait of a young man at the Berlin Gallery (No. 25),
further, a Christ on the Cross (in possession of the late
Duca di Castelvecchio at Eome), and the totally over-
painted S. Sebastian (No. 16), in the Stadel Gallery at
Frankfort.
It is not likely, however, that from the year 1478 until

^ So in tlie male portrait at the Trivulzio house at Milan, of the year

1476, in that of the Borghese Gallery at Eome, and in that of Prince
Giovanelli's collection at Venice.
 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 385

1493 Antonello should have contented himself

his death in
with producing this half-dozen of pictures, mostly small,
that are known to us ; we may with good reason suppose
that other and larger works of his must be in existence ;

though what corner they may be hiding in, is more than

I can say offliand.
We have seen that the earliest works of Antonello can
only be traced back to the year 1464 or 1463 at the
farthest, and that those heads of Christ betray the hand
of a still very imperfect artist. 'Now, if the Messinian
really came into the world in 1414, as all the historians
repeat after Vasari, the question arises, what has become
of his early works, unless we are to conclude that he
began the study of painting in his fiftieth year Vasari, !

after introducing him into the world in 1414, makes him

die in 1493 at the age (not of seventy- nine, but) of forty-nine

years. Let us keep to this last item, and Antonello's birth

would not have taken place till 1444, which under all the
circumstances appears the likeliest thing. Gallus, in his
"Annals of Messina,"^ places the birth of Antonello ahout
eleven years before the death of King Alfonso, who died
in 1458, therefore about 1447.Let us then suppose that
Antonello was born in the beginning of 1445, and died
towards the end of 1493.
According to this calculation, he must have painted the
Salvator Mundi, at the National Gallery of London, in his
twentieth year, an age with which the workmanship of
that picture agrees yerj well. From this point of time to
the year 1478, we are able to follow his progress almost
year by year. His Italian nature gradually works its way
through the Flemish shell in which his first master had

^ Hackert, " Memorie dei Pittori Messinesi."'

C C
386 BERLIN.

encased his hand as well as mind ; at length the son of

the South stands fully revealed in the portrait of the year
1475 at the Louvre, and that of 1476 in the Trivulzio house
at Milan, while the portrait of 1478 (No. 18) in the Berlin
Gallery, sets before ns the Sicilian modified into a Venetian.
And if in this formation and transformation of Antonello
as an artist, Giovan Bellini had,
Venetian painters,
of all
obviously the greatest share on the other hand, as
;
yet,
we had occasion to remark in examining the St. Sebastian
at the Dresden Gallery, Mantegna's wall-paintings at
Padua were also not without influence on his artistic
development.^
From the above we may conclude that it was in Venice
that Antonello completed his artistic education, which
could not well have been the case, had he come there at
the age of eight or nine and fifty. I have yet to add that
Scardeone, in his " Antiquitates Patavienses," relates that
the Paduan sculptor Andrea Riccio,^ born in 1440, and an
intimate friend of Antonello's, "deeply lamented his death,"
—a grief that probably would not have been so keen at the
man of eighty.
decease of an old
And now, lastly, we put the question. Was it really
necessary to make an Italian travel to Bruges for a

^ A view radically
different from ours, as to Antonello's significance
in thedevelopment of Italian art, was propounded by the celebrated Baron
von Eumohr. In his " Three Journeys to Italy," he says " Besides :

the beautiful Van Eycks, the Berlin Gallery has three works by Anto-
nello da Messina. With these our gallery acquh-ed the unique and
inestimable advantage of being able to demonstrate that the Venetian
School, commonly and nothing more, I mean that
called 'Venetian'
which propagated itself to the Bellini and further on,
from Antonello
had really derived both the technic of oil-painting, and in particular its
Naturalistic tendency , from these old Ketherlanders.''
^ Should be Antonio Eiccio of Verona.
 "

THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 387

purpose which he could just as well have gained in his

own country ? Were there not painters enough o£ the
school of Van Ejck in Italy, both at Naples and elsewhere,
in the middle of the 15th century ? We know that the
celebrated Roger van der Weyden himself stayed several
years in the Peninsula at that very time. The possibility,
then, of Antonello's having acquired the Van Eyck method
from some Flemish painter in Italy itself, instead of in
the Netherlands, must, I think, be conceded. I ask no
more all the inferences I leave to the discernment of my
;

kind readers.
more than twenty
Antonello's activity at Venice during
years, and the prominent position he had won there as a
portrait-painter, could not remain without influence on his
own narrower native land. Whoever visits the churches
of Messina and of the towns and villages along that eastern
coast of Sicily as far as Syracuse, will sHll find in many
of them Madonnas, whether in colours or in marble, that
remind him of Antonello as well as Giambellino, sometimes
also of Cima da Conegliano and perhaps he will soon be
;

convinced that there can be no talk of a really native

"Messinian School," any more than of a " Palermitan.
The paintings of an Antonio and Pietro da Messina, a
'^

Maso, an Antonello Saliba, a Salvo d' Antonio, the so-

called Francesco Cardillo, and others, as well as the marble
statues of the Virgin with the Infant Christ in her arms
at the churches of Messina, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse,

^
A
picture by Antonio da Messina is in the collection of Mr. Francis
Cook, Eichmond. It represents the Virgin with the Infant Christ,
standing on her knees two angels are holding a crown above the Vir-
;

gin's head. The picture is signed ANTVS DE MESSINA OPVS-

The execution of this very feeble production is in the style of Giovanni
Bellini.
388 BERLIN.

and other have one and all the stamp of the

places,
Venetian school and they give room to the conjecture
;

that all these East Sicilian artists, drawn to Venice by their

famous countryman Antonello, may have there received
their artistic training, whether as painters or as sculptors.
And not only did Antonello act powerfully on his own
Sicilian countrymen we also discern his influence in
;

several portraits by painters of Upper Italy for instance, —

those of Jacopo de Barbari, Filippo Mazzola, Andrea
Solari (portrait of a Venetian Senator at the National
Gallery, London).
The Berlin Catalogue assigns to Antonello da Messina
three picturesthe "St. Sebastian" (No. 8), the "Virgin and
:

Child" (No. 13), and the celebrated portrait of a young

man in Venetian costume (No, 18).
The picture of St. Sebastian bears the inscription on a
balustrade ": ANTONELLUS MESANEVS .
" (sic). In

this painting theworkmanship is far too weak in drawing,

and much too rough in execution for Antonello besides, ;

the master alivays signed his name on a label, and spelt

Messaneus with a double s. I therefore take this St.
Sebastian, as well as the one similar to this at the Town
Gallery of Bergamo, to be impiW work. The signature
was evidently put on the picture after the death of
Antonello.
The second "Virgin and Child," has, in
picture, the
my opinion, also a forged signature,and may very pro-
bably be the work of Pietro da Messina. The hand of Mary
here comes nearer to the form of the hand of Giambellino
than that of Pietro's picture S. Maria in the Church
Formosa, Venice both the shape of the legs in the Infant
;

Christ and the head of the Virgin are likewise imitated

from Giambellino but the shape of the ear, with the lobe
;
 THE VENETIAN SCHOOL. 389

terminating in a point, th.e stiff little trees set in rows, and

the pale red horizon, appear to me to indicate Pietro
rather than any other pupil of Antonello. Be that as it

may, the picture seems to me far too weak for a work of

the master himself.
Very fine, on the contrary, is the third little picture,
the portrait of a young man (N'o. 18). In this painting

our Messinian is already quite Giambellino-Venetian.

The 1478 or 1479, has been changed by a
original date,
forger into 1445, probably with the view of bringing the
picture more into harmony with the supposed date of
Antoneilo's birth, 1414.
Besides this little picture, I believe that the Berlin
Gallery possesses a second portrait by Antonello da Mes-
sina. It represents likewise a young man, bears the
number 25, and is ascribed in the catalogue to the
Venetian school, which I take as another proof of my
thesis, that the Sicilian at Venice became in time a Vene-
tian. I would place this painting in the decade 1480 90. —
A clever writer on art, M. A. Michiels,^ speaks of yet
another portrait by Antonello, which he thinks he has dis-
covered at the Berlin Gallery. " C'est I'image de Philippe
le Bon. Le style du peintre s'y manifeste au premier coup
d'oeil" ('No. 537). At present there still hangs under
this number a portrait of Philip the Good, but it is
obviously the work of a Plemish artist, and M. Michiels
surely cannot have confounded that master with Antonello.
But enough of the Messinian. I am only afraid I have
offended many an art-student by the somewhat original
view I have taken of this highly-praised master, and my
endeavour to assign him a lower position in art-history

1 " Histoire de la Peinture Flamande," ii. 393.

390 BERLIN.

than he has hitherto occupied in the eyes of the orthodox.

Among so many heresies, let them pardon this one also ;

we live in times when many a principle once held sacred

and unassailable has to make room for contrary views.
And now we take leave of Venice from the golden atmo-
;

sphere of the " Bride of the Sea " we go to the clearer and
but also more colourless air of the " terra ferma."
drier,

Along the stream of the Brenta, through the midst of

cheerful villas, the favourite resort of Venetian patricians
in the IGth century, we arrive at the old and world-
renowned University town of Padua.

THE PADUANS.
Padovani, gran Dottori. In truth, of all the schools of
painting in the fertile valley of the Po, that of Padua is

the most learned. Here the far-travelled Paduan, Fran-

cesco Squarcione, set up his famous school, where pre-
eminently the study of linear-perspective was fostered
and furthered. These studies may also have received a
fresh impulse from the presence of the insufficiently appre-
ciated Florentine, Paolo Uccello.^ The school of Squar-
cione enjoyed in its day such a reputation, that travelling
princes and great lords used to honour it with their visits.

Of this Squarcione school of painting, the Berlin Gal-

lery possesses one work by the Dalmatian, Gregorio
ScMavone,^ and two by its incomparably greatest represen-

1 Paolo Uccello is said to have adorned with frescoes the fa9ade of the
Vitaliani (afterwards Borromei) Palace at Padua during the thirties of
the 15th century.
* formed the middle piece of a triptych
It enthroned Virgin and
:

Child (No. 1162). The children of this Dalmatian clodhopper hare as

yet a very foetus-like appearance ; his pictures have only a historical
value.
 — ;;

THE PADUAN SCHOOL. 391

tative, Andrea Mantegna.^ The Berlin Catalogue sup-

poses Mantegna's father-in-law, Jacopo Bellini, to have
contributed to his artistic development. It would be a
hard matter to find proofs to justify such a hypothesis.
On the other hand, I readily allow the influence that the
plasticworks of Donatello must have had on young
Mantegna in fact, Mother N'ature had cut him out more
;

for a sculptor than for a painter.

Mantegna's two pictures at the Berlin Gallery bear
the numbers 9 and 29. The first represents a clergyman
in advanced years. This bust looks as if cast in bronze,
the eye stern and life-like, chin and neck very skilfully
modelled. If I see aright, this portrait must have been
painted about 1460 ; at a time, therefore, when Matteo
Bosso, whose likeness the catalogue (following Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle) affirms it to be, was a much
younger man than the subject of Mantegna's picture. It
seems to me, therefore, more advisable to keep to the former
statement of the catalogue, namely, that the man here
represented is the Cardinal- Archbishop of Florence, Louis
of Padua."

^ Other scholars of Squarcione were —Marco Zoppo, from Bologna

Dario, from Treviso; Ansuino, fromForli ; Niccolo Pizzolo, from Padua

Matteo del Pozzo, Carlo Crivelli, &c.

2 In 1865 a certain Signor Giuseppe Barbieri, of Padua, sold the

portrait of another clergyman, an Augustine monk, to the MUanese

antiquary Baslini. This likeness, which in course of time found a pur-
chaser in England, had the following inscription :

" Praeditus ingenio tenui, quem rite magistrum

Effigiat Paulum Mantinea, cernite, quaeso."
Even this picturewas not only quoted, but highly praised, by the late
—
Pietro Selvatico in his commentary which, by the way, proved a
—
thorough failure on the " Vita " of A. Mantegna in the Plorentine
edition of Vasari (v. 185). To my thinking, the picture was only a
piece of joiirney-work by some quite subordinate scholar of Squarcione,
392 BERLIN.

The "Presentation of Christ in the Temple" (ßo. 29).

This tempera-painting, partly obliterated and partly dis-
figured by restoration, is one of the later works of the
master (1490 —1500). Like the great altar-piece of 1497
in the Trivnlzio House, and, if I remember right, like
Mantegna's two pictures in the sacristy of S. Andrea at
Mantua,^ it is painted a colletta, that is, without imprimitura.
In the Querini-Stampalia Collection at Venice, there is

a replica of this subject on ivood, eight figures in all.^ The

"Anonymus" of Morelli (p. 17) describes, no doubt, this
latter picture, and not that in the Berlin Gallery, as being
in the possession of Pietro Bembo of Padua :
" el quadro in
iavola della N". D. che presenta el puttino alia circonoisione.^^
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle are right in calling
Mautegna the Luca Signorelli of the N'orth (p. 328), or in
other words, the most eminent representative in North
Italy of that period of art-history which I call the epoch
of Character. Thus, when an artist in Central Italy,
like Signorelli, resembles one in North Italy of the same
art-period, we have no right to say, as it has been said till

Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (i. 321), in stating their opinion of this
portrait, follow the Marcbesc Selvatico, and say '' This may be an early
:

Mantegna," but prudently add, that it might also be an early Schiavone

—
or Zoppo, or some other as if the forms in all Mantegna's paintings were
not rather different from those in Schiavone's, Marco Zoppo's, and di tutti
quanti! Why, Mantegna's forms remain always the same, from his
work of the year 1450 (gate-lunette of the church S. Antonio at Padua)
to his " Lamentation over the Dead Chi'ist," at the Brera Gallery, of the
j-ear 1506, which may be regarded as his last picture.
^ These two pictures are cited by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle

(i. 416-7) as works of Mantegna's sons, with the remark that they are

painted in oil.

2 The re-painting to which the picture has lately been subjected by

the ignorant directors of that institution has dealt it the stroke of grace,
so that in its present barbarous condition it va.a.j be regarded as lost.
 THE PADUAN SCHOOL. 393

now, that the one has imitated and been influenced by the
other the true reason being, that both the artists are at
;

the same stage of artistic development, that they belong

to the same period, and are swayed by a similar taste.
From Vasari down to our
own time, the maddest mischief
has been wrought with the so-called influence theory, and
we turn positively giddy over this incessant chassez-croisez
which the historians make their artists dance. It is surely
high time to give up this utterly unhistorical, and at the
same time silly mania. It might, partly at least, help us
out of the dismal chaos introduced into the history of Italian
art by the abuse of a pretty game meant to be ingenious.

The notion an original Vicbntine School cannot be

of
entertained at Ko doubt the great Bartolommeo Mon-
all.

tagna founded a school of painting at Yicenza, out of which

sprang not only Benedetto Montagna, better known as an
engraver than as a painter, but also Giovanni Speranza,
an imitator of Bartolommeo; partly, also, Giovanni Boncon-
siglio and Francesco da Ponte, father of Jacopo Bassano ;

but Bartolommeo Montagna was a Brescian by birth, and

his artistic training he must have received mainly at
Venice.^ That in this latter town he also received in-
fluences from Yittor Carpaccio, seems evident to me, not
only from his picture of 1487 (the enthroned Madonna
with Saints) at the Town Gallery of Bergamo, but also
from the technic of his drawings. His most important
work is probably the great altar-piece of the year 1499

'
Several of his drawings are still ascribed to Giambellino, as we have
seen ; so, to give one more instance, is a Virgin and Child in the Uffizi
at Florence (Philpot, No. 1199). At the Louvre they even confound
Montagna with Dossi drawing (black chalk and gypsum) represent-
in a
ing a noble lady with four lady companions (without number).
394 BERLIN.

(No. 163) at the Brera Gallery. His painting in the

Berlin Gallery (I^o. 44) represents an enthroned Virgin
and Child with Saints ; it is signed with the master's
name and the date 1500, and therefore belongs to his
best period. Bartolommeo Montagna was born at Orzi-
novi, between Brescia and Crema.

THE VERONESE.
Along the magnificent mountain chain that divides the
Vicentine district from the Tyrolese Alps, we reach in
a few honrs old Verona, the home of the Scaligers, the
river-town so often sung by Shakespeare, with its high
steeples and dark cypress trees, between which there gazes
at us from afar the majestic summit of Monte Baldo. And
" aria di Montebaldo " expresses the unrestrained gaiety
of the Veronese.
ISTo school of painting in Italy, except the Florentine,
shows so regular and uninterrupted a development, from
the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, as the graceful
school of Verojta. If we look for example at some of the
oldest frescoes at S. Zeno's, if we examine the pictures of
Turoni, the wall-paintings of and Giacomo
Altichiero
Avanzi of the fourteenth century, the frescoes of the great
Pisanello in the church S. Anastasia of the first half of
the fifteenth century, the pictures of Stefano da Zevio, of
Liberale, of Domenico Morone, and their pupils Francesco
Morone, Girolamo dai Libri, Michele da Verona, Giolfino,
Carotto, Torbido, and Cavazzola and then when we come
;

from Antonio Badile and Domenico Brusasorci, to Paolo

Veronese and his followers, we find everywhere the same
cheerful, amiable, and graceful character looking out of each
of these works of the Veronese school. The Veronese do
 THE VERONESE SCHOOL. 395

not penetrate so deep into the essence of art as the Vene-

tians, but they are, with few exceptions, more gracious
and serene. And to this day the population of this beau-
tifully situated town is reckoned the cheeriest and gayest
of all Italy (Yeronesi, mezzo matti).^
Of this school the Berlin Gallery contains but few re-
presentatives —namely, one picture by Francesco Morone,
and one by Girolamo dai Libri.
The small Madonna of Francesco Morone (No. 46) is
signed with the artist's name, but is, unfortunately, much
injured, and is quite unfit to give us an adequate notion of
the importance of this excellent painter. We must learn
to know him at Verona. Francesco Morone was the pupil
of his father, Domenico from his early works (in the
;

church of S. Bernardino at Verona) to his latest he always

keeps the same character. As for any " influence of Man-
tegna and Montagna," I think it impossible to perceive the
slightest trace of it in his pictures. The " Enthroned
Virgin and Child, two saints and three singing angels," by
Girolamo dai Libri (No. 30), has likewise sustained much
injury. The angels, for instance, have quite lost their

^ The drawings of the Veronese school of painting are not so scarce

as those of the Venetian. The Louvre possesses in the so-cailed Vallardi
book a number of interesting drawings by Pisanello; and the Ambro-
siana Collection still has several, in spite of the spoliation that has taken
place. Drawings in pen and ink, by Liberale da Verona, are to be found
in the Uffizi Gallery; and in Germany (always under the name of
Mantegna), at Munich (see p. 105), at Brunswick (a man with a mantle
holding the Zodiacus,[on parchment) 5 at the Stadel Institute, Frankfort
(the Dead Christ, Mary and John, a pelican, and St. Magdalen), pro-
bably figures used in niello-works ; also in the Albertina at Vienna are
several good drawings by the master. The Albertina in Vienna pos-
sesses the only drawing I ever saw by Giovan Francesco Carotto (No.
18); it represents an allegorical figure with two naked putti. We
recognise in it the pupil of Liberale.
 ;

396 BERLIN.

original character; the Madonna is still prettj well pre-

served, and characteristic of the master. As far as I know,
it is the only picture in Germany of this Veronese painter.
The finest works of Girolamo are at Verona viz., in S. —
Giorgio, in S. Paolo, in the Town Gallery, and one of his
best in S. Tommaso. This last magnificent picture repre-
sents three saints, Rochus, Sebastian, and Job ; and is

there erroneously ascribed to Carotto. Girolamo dai Libri

probably studied first under Liberale, perhaps also under
Domenico Morone, but not under Francesco Carotto, who
was only a few years older than himself. His early works
(S. Anastasia) recall Liberale more than Mantegna, the
later ones Francesco Morone (S. Giorgio, and Town Gallery).

THE BRESCIANS.
The LakeGarda and its outlet the Mincio, at once
of
part the territory ofVerona from that of Brescia, and also
the Veronese school of painting from the Brescian.
Whilst I could only light upon one solitary painting of
the Brescian school on the left shore of Lake Garda,^ we
come across several works of Veronese artists - on the right
or Brescian shore; —a fact that speaks, I think, for the
greater vigour and expansive power of the Veronese
school. The dialect of the Brescians is very like that of
their neighbours of Bergamo, but not so harsh and rugged

^ In the church of Torre, a village between Garda and Malcesine, is

a picture by Sebastian Eagonese (Aragonese), a pupil of Romanino.

'^
At Limone a (certainly much injured) picture by Fr. Torbido,
there ascribed erroneously to Moretto at the cathedral of Said, a
;

" Christ in Purgatory," by Zenon, 1537 (fourth altar on the right) ; the
Saints Antony, Sebastian, and Rochus, with two founders (fourth altar
on the left), by Fr. Torbido again ; at the church of Desenzano, another
picture by Zenon; and so on.
 THE BRESCIAN SCHOOL. 397

is more lively and frank,

the character of the people, too,
more given to show and swagger (Bresciani spacca-ean-
toni). The Brescians, wedged in between the Veronese
and Bergamese, unite, to some extent, the manly energy of
the latter with the greater vivacity and pliancy of the
former.
So far as it is possible now to survey the Brescian
school, we may assert that, like the Bergamese, it only
began to flourish and to unfold its peculiar and individual
character in the second half of the 15th century. It is true
that as early as the time of the Veronese painter Altichiero
da Zevio, that is, in the second half of the 14th century,
there lived a painter called Ottaviano Prandino of Brescia,
and if we may trust Michele Savonarola (de laudibus
Patavii), he, jointly with Altichiero, decorated with fres-

coes the " Hall of Giants " in the Palazzo del Capitanio of
Padua. This Ottaviano is likewise mentioned by the
chronicler Elia Capriolo in his " Chronicon de rebus
Brixianorum," written at the beginning of the 16th cen-
tury :
— " Eo tempore haec civitas Octaviano Prandino et
Bartholino cognomento Testorino pictoribus floruit, quorum
muneri in colorandis imaginibus nemo adhuc par
virtuti et
usque inventus fuit, quamquam Gentüis pictor Florentinus
(da Pabriano) Pandulpho tunc^ principi sacellum in priB-
sentiarum usque Pandulphi capellam vocitatum et ipse
graphice pinxerit."
But no work has come down to us from the hand of
these two painters so highly lauded by Capriolo, and we
can form no opinion of their merits.
At the Turin Gallery (placed in the Conservator's room)

1 In 1421, Pandolfo Malatesta of Rimini ceded the sovereignty of

Brescia to Philip Maria Visconti for 34,000 gold florins.
 ;

398 BERLIN.

I was shown some years ago a panel-picture of Mary

enthroned, with the Child lying naked on her knee, and
the Saints Laurentius, Anrelius, Albinus, and Amicus
the picture bore the inscription: "Paulus Brisiensis
pinxit, 1458." This Paulus seemed to me an insignificant
handicraftsman without artistic character.^
At length, in the second half of the 15th century, the
great but far too little appreciated Vincenzo Foppa arose
in his native town of Brescia," and he it was that laid the
foundation of a school of painting in that town. Both in
the school of Brescia, and especially in that of Milan/

Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (i. 589) would set this painter
'*

before us as the author of the " Annunciation " (second altar on the
right) in the church of S. Alessandi'o at Brescia (there ascribed to B.
Angelico da Fiesole). This ijictui'e, if I mistake not, came to that church
about the year 143S, and, moreover, betrays the school of Gentile da
Fabriano, especially in the landscape of the small predella picture. I
cannot see in it the remotest affinity with the manner of Paulus at the
Turin Gallery.
^ If we are to believe Lomazzo, Foppa removed from Brescia to Milan
in 1460. The same writer tells us that Foppa composed a book on
39 and 55).
linear-perspective (" Trattato della Pittura," We know i.

that Foppa worked at MUan as early as 1457.

^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle are wrong in making Foppa a

Pavian. Amongst other contemporaries of Foppa, Calepino (of Bergamo)

and the " Anonj^mus" of Morelli call him a Brescian, and his picture
of 1456 at the Town Gallery of Bergamo (No. 54), " Christ on the
Cross," bears the inscription " VINCEN-CIVS (not CIVIS) BEIXI-
:

ENSIS, p.'' Also on his great altar-piece at Savona Cathedral, com-

pleted in 1489 with the help of the Nizzard Brea, we read :
" Vincenzo
de Foppa de Brisia."' (See Stefano Fenaroli, " Dizionario degli artisti
Bresciani," p. 131). We must not, as people often do, confound
this Vincenzo Foppa, Vincenzo il VeccJiio (as he was called, to dis-
tinguish him from the younger Foppa) -nith his pupil Vincenzo
Verchio, that is, Civerchio, who was afterwards " civis Brixise donatus,"
that nominated honorary citizen of Brescia. Civerchio came from
is,

Crema, and is a much less important man than his master Foppa.
Civerchio worked until the year 1540 ; Foppa died in 1492. Works of
 ;

THE BRESCIA]Sr SCHOOL. 399

Foppa holds the same place that the mighty Mantegna does
at Padua and Mantua, Liberale at Verona, Cosimo Tura at
Ferrara, &c. According to Füarete and Girolamo Savo-
narola, he was a scholar of Squarcione.
From the school of Foppa came forth, amongst other
inferior artists, Floriano Ferramola, to whom destiny dealt
out the good fortune of initiating into art one of the most
brilliant and delightful painters of Upper Italy, the great
Alessandro JBonvicino, called Moretto. In the church of
S. Maria at Lovere (on Lake Iseo) are to be seen signed
pictures by Ferramola of the year 1514. He died in 1528.
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle maintain (ii. 363) that
Ferramola was formed under the influence of the schools
of Foppa, Costa, and Francia. What the Bolognese school

Vincenzo Foppa are to be found at the Brera Gallery, Milan, the " Mar-
:

tyrdom of S. Sebastian" (fresco), and the panel-pictures which, united,

formed the polyptych seen by Morelli's " Anonymus" in the church of
S. Maria delle Grazie at Bergamo, now stupidly exhibited under the
name of Zenale, and quoted as such by INIessrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
(ii. 40— 3) ; at the Museo Areheologico, Milan, the fresco
" Virgin and
Child between two Prophets ; " at the Poldi-Pezzoli Collection, Milan,
Mary holding in her arms the Child, clothed in a yellow shirt, land-
scape background ; at the Borromeo Collection, Milan, the " Procession
to Golgotha," panel-picture, chef d'auvre of the master ; at Dr. Gustavo
Prizzoni's, Milan, " Virgin and Child, with two Angels ;" at the Town
Gallei'y of Bergamo, the above-named " Christ on the Cross," and a
" St. Jerome scourging himself," likewise signed with the name.—
If I am not mistaken, there are some drawings by Poppa in the British
Museum Collection, but, as a matter of course, under the name of
Mantegna, " Three Warriors " (photographed by Braun), (No. 54), and
the "Crucifixion" (Braun, No. 55), a washed drawing finely executed.
By Vincenzo Civerchio there are signed pictures : at the Town Gal-
lery of Brescia, a triptych of 1495 with the genuine signatiu'e, " Vincen-
tius Cremensis; "
one of 1504 in the church of S. Alessandro at Brescia ;

one dated 1525 in the church (sacristy) of Palazzuolo (all' Oglio)

another in the cathedral of Crema. Of his latest period (1537 and
1539), one at the gallery of Lovere, another in the church of S. Giovanni
sopra Lecco.
 400 BERLIX.

of Costa and Francia can have to do with the Brescian

Ferramola, the gods alone, barring those famed historians,
can tell.

The catalogue of the Berlin Gallery says that JMoretto

was born at Rovato, and that he died in 1560 both of ;

which are mistakes. Moretto was born at Brescia iu 1498,

and died there at the end of the year 1555 (Fenaroli, "Diz.
d. art. Bresc." 35 and 57). The last date on his works is
1554 ; it is on the great altar-piece, the "Lamentation over
Christ," belonging to Signer Frizzoni-Salis, of Bergamo.
I have no wish to dispute that Moretto, when twenty-
four years old, may have studied and learned a good
deal from Titian's polyptych of the "Resurrection,"'
painted in 1522 for the church of S. Nazzaro e Celso,
at Brescia ; but that he ever tried in his best period to

imitate the Cadorian, as Messrs. Crowe and Cavalca-

selle will have it, I really cannot see.^ Examine his
works of the year 1521, in S. Giovanni Evangelista at
Brescia, his male portrait of 1526 (now at the I*fational
Gallery, London), his "St. Margaret" of 1530 in S. Fran-
cesco at Brescia another picture of 1540 in S. Giorgio
;

at Yerona and you will grant, I hope, that in these

;

works no one can seriously find a trace of Titian's in-

"
He have been specially impressed by the nude figure of San
seems to
Sebastian in that pictiu'e. The too accentuated muscles on the arms and
legs of his figures Moi-etto may have adopted from this St. Sebastian by
Titian.
^ In his later time Moretto docs seem occasionally to have thought of
Titian. When he painted his " St. Magdalen at the Pharisee's House,"'
signed " Alexander Morettus Brix. 1544," for the Convent Church of S.
Giacomo at Monselice (now in S. Maria della Pieta at Venice), he
appears to have paid a short visit to Venice, and there painted his
portrait of Pietro Aretino. It stands to reason that during this visit lie

saw and studied many works of the great Venetian painters.

 —

THE BRESCIAN SCHOOL. 401

fluence on Moretto^ and still less of any direct influence

of Palma Yecchio on the art of tMs thoroughly original
Brescian. This, again, is one of those purely imaginary
assumptions that find their sole origin in the everlasting
system of "influences" of the famed historians. Why,
the forms of the Brescian, always elegant, are utterly
different from the forms of the Bergamese ; and then the
deep golden tints of the latter are in striking contrast
with the delicate silver tones in Moretto's paintings. His
harmonies of colour are as original as they are graceful
they delight the eye.^
Moretto, in contrast to his rival Romanino, is hardly
ever negligent in his works : pictures intended for village
churches are painted as lovingly and carefully as those
for the town. Moretto may
be said to have worked almost
exclusively for his native town and the province of Brescia,
and it is there that nearly the whole work of his life is
still to be found.3 He was, therefore, little known beyond
the frontiers of the Brescian district. The " Anonymus " of
Morelli has not dropped a syllable about him, a certain proof

' Even the otherwise fanciful A. F. Rio (

" Leonard de Vinci et son
Ecole," p. 306) remarks :
" La difference qui continua de subsister entre
sa maniere (Moretto's) et celle de I'ecole Venitienne n'a pu ^chapper
qu'a des observateurs superficiels."
^ Father Lanzi describes the harmony of colours in Moretto as follows :

" H piu che lo caratterizzi e un gi'aziosissimo giuoco di bianco e di scuro

in masse non grandi, ma ben temperate fra loro e ben contraposte . , .

ama per lo piu fondi assai chiari, dai quali le figure risaltano mirabil-
mente poco adopera nei panni I'azzurro, piu gradisce di unire
. . .

insieme in un quadro varie specie di rossio di gialli, e cosi di altri colori."

—Stor. Pitt. iii. 141.

^ If we except two pictures for S. Andrea and S. Francesco of Ber
gamo, one for S. Celso at Milan, a few for churches at Verona, one for
Monselice, one for Trent, and one for Lonigo, Moretto seems to have
worked only for his immediate fatherland.

D D
402 BERLIN.

that Moretto was then held in no sort of repnte at Venice.

His fame, like that of his pupil G. B. Moroni, dates only
from about half a century ago. But even in our time this
great master is not appreciated according to his deserts,
either in Italy or abroad. The galleries of Tuscany possess
not a single work of his.^ Rome has only one, and that
among his weakest, namely, the entirely repainted Mary
enthroned between Saints Jerome and Bartholomew, at
the Vatican Gallery.'^ So, if my young friends wish to
know more about this refined and elegant painter, they
would do well to stay a few days at Brescia, where nearly
every church has a Moretto to show, and some have several.
His earliest picture, not signed with his name, but dated
1518, is perhaps the " Christ bearing the Cross, with

the donor kneeling," at the Town Gallery of Bergamo

(No. 132).^ It is there ascribed to Titian, but Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle rightly discern in it the charac-

^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle ascribe the male portrait (No. 493)
at the Palazzo Pitti to Moretto. Apart from the texture and concep-
tion, the mere shape of the hands in the picture might have taught them
better.
^ This totally ruined picture is of his latest time. About twenty
years ago it belonged to Count Costa of Piacenza, who, injured as it
was, had it —
restored that is, re'painted, by Brisson of Milan, and after-
wards sold it to a Roman picture-dealer. Messi's. Crowe and Cavalca-
selle call this painting " a fair and well-preserved specimen of the
master" (II. 416).
* The great " lunetta " in the Fabbricieria of S. Giovanni Evangelista
at Brescia (Coronation of the Virgin, with Saints) bears the signature :

" Alexander Brix. faciebat." This picture, which in many ways recalls
Jerome Komanino, must on no account be attributed to Alessandro
Moretto, the forms being so different from Bonvicino's. Here also
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ii. 397) blindly follow Signor Penaroli,
and do not hesitate to assign this feeble work to Moretto. This lunetta
may, perhaps, turn out to be the work of Alessandro Romanino, a
younger brother of Jerome.
 —

THE BEESCIAN SCHOOL. 403

teristics of the Brescian school. In this little picture, as

well as in the " Christ at the Grave, between the Saints
Jerome and Dorothy," at S. Maria in Calchera (Brescia),
and in several other pictures of his early time — at Sir H.
Layard's, Venice, at Signor Cereda-Bonomi's, Milan —we
note the absence as yet of that beautiful silver tint, so
characteristic of the master, which distinguishes works
his
from 1521 1541; after that his
until colour becomes
heavier, the fleshspongy and brick-coloured. The best
works of Moretto are to be found in the churches of
Brescia (S. Nazzaro, S. Clemente, choir of S, Giovanni
Evangelista, S. Eufemia), and out of Italy, in the Belvedere
of Vienna.^
The drawings of Moretto are rare ; one is to be found
in the Collection of the Academy at Venice, several in
the ante-room of the Town Gallery at Brescia.
The Glory of Mary and Elisabeth" (No. 197), at the
«'

Berlin Gallery, is but an indifferent work; still it gives a

more favourable idea of the master than his second picture in
that gallery, the "Adoration of the Shepherds" (No. 187).
Of Girolamo Bomanino, the rival of Moretto, the cata-
logue of the Berlin Gallery quotes three pictures. We
shall examine them later on; but first we have to make
room for a few corrections of data given in the catalogue
about this master.
Romanino was born at Brescia, not at Romano. His
came from Romano, a small town
ancestors, indeed, close
to the Brescian frontier, but within the territory of Ber-

' Among the better-known pupils and imitators of Moretto are

Giovan Battista Moroni, of Bergamo ; Luca Mombello, of Orzinuovi (see
his picture at the Bishop's Palace,Brescia) ; Agostino Galeazzi, of Brescia
(picture at the Bishop's Palace, Brescia) Francesco Richini, of the Val
;

Sabbia (pictures at S. Maria della Face, Brescia), &c.

40-4 KERLIN^.

gamo. His graudfatlior Lucliino already bore tlie sur-

name of Romanino. In a document of the year 1517,
communicated by Grasselli ( Abecedario), we read " Magis- :

tro Hieronimo de Romani, filio che fü de maistro Romano

da Brexa." ^ So that Roraanino's father was a painter too,
and probably the first instructor of his sons, for Girolamo
had two bi'others, Antonio and Alessandro (born 1490),
who were also painters, and probably his assistants.'^
Stefano Rlzzi, whom the local writers name as the teacher
of Romanino, is quite an unknown
But I have master.
grounds for throwing out the conjecture that Romanino
must have been influenced in his youth more by Yincenzo
Civerchio than by Ferramola.^ In the years 1509 to 1513
he appears to have lived and laboured partly at Padua, and
partly also at Venice ; here he took Giorgione for his pat-
tern, and then it w'as that he acquired his brilliant golden
colouring. In 1514 Romanino was back at Brescia ; his
grandest work, the great altar-piece in the church S. Fran-
cesco, if I am not mistaken, dates from that year. The
beautiful frame that encloses this great picture, which was
made by Stefano Lamberti of Brescia,^ in 1502, has induced
several German writers to believe that the picture itself
was of the same date. Romaniuo's best period is that
between the years 1510 and 1520 it was during that time
;

that he painted, amongst others, his pictures for S. Gius-

^ The inscription on the picture for S. Giustina at Padua is " Hiero-

nymi Rumani de Brixia opus;" that on a pictiu'e at Salo is likewise
" Hieronymi Eumani de Brixia opus 1529."
^ See Fenaroli, Dizion. d. art. Bresciani, p. 203.
^ It is known that Civerchio worked at Brescia from 1493 till at least
1504 ; nay, his picture, the Pieta, at the church of S. Giovanni Evan-
gelista, there asci'ibed to Giambellino, is of the year 1509 (see Fenaroli
as above, p. 1 64).
* See Fenaroli as above, p. 164.
 THE BllESCIAN SCHOOL. 405

tina at Padua (now in the Town Gallery there), and for

S. Francesco, S. Maria in Calchera, and S. Giovanni Evan-
gelista, all at Brescia ; and to the same period belongs the
fine Giorgionesque Portrait of a Cavalier, formerly at
Countess Fenaroli's house, where it was ascribed to
Titian.'
In Roraanino's large pictures for S. Giustina and S.
Francesco, already find that harmony of colours which
we
became characteristic of the Brescian school. Moretto,
from 1521 onwards, only developed, and perhaps refined
it. Romanino in his later years became careless, and
sometimes slovenly, of which would not be difficult to
it

find specimens.- He, like Moretto, was little known out-

side the district of Brescia. Few can have surpassed him
as a fresco-painter, of which his wall-paintings in the Val
•Camonica, at Cremona, at Trent (the Castle), and at
Brescia, furnish proof. Amateurs now and then confound
him with Moretto.^

^ It represents a young man of quality in a golden cap, with white

feathers, and a brocade dress striped Avith black and gold ; he holds his
sword by the hilt. Now in the possession of the Countess's heirs.
2 Among the numerous scholars of this master, the following may be
mentioned here : Altobello Melloni, of Cremona (see Morelli's " Anony-
mus," p. 37, "discepolo de Armanin," meaning, doubtless, Eomanin).
Compare his frescoes in Cremona Cathedral.
Giovan Francesco Bembo, called Bembino, of Cremona (frescoes in
Cremona Cathedral).
Calisto Piazza of Lodi (compare his pictures of the years 1524-25, at
the Town Gallery of Brescia and S. Maria in Calchera).
Francesco Prato, of Caravaggio (Manerbio, Chiesetta dell' Annunziata).
Sebastiane Aragonese, of Brescia (Torre on L. Garda).
Girolamo Muziano, of Brescia (Eome, Doria-Pamfili Gallery, and
elsewhere).
Lattanzio Gambara, his son-in-law (frescoes in Via del Gambaro, at
Brescia).
^ I will here quote an instance accessible to all. On the organ-wings
406 BERLIN.

The Berlin Gallery lias two pictures by this master,

Nos. 151 and 157. The formei% " The Dead Christ bewailed
by His kinsfolk," is a work of his middle period, not very
correct in drawing, but full of action and luminous colour ;

it once adorned the church of S. Faustino at Brescia. The

other, the " Virgin enthroned with the Child and Saints,"
belongs to the master's early time. It came from S. Fran-
cesco into the possession of Count Teodoro Lecchi (Fena-
roli, "Dizion." 213). But where any influence of Palma
Vecchio is visible in this picture, is really more than I
can say (see Crowe and Cavalcaselle, ii. 370). As far as
I know, Palma never was in the Brescian district, but
stayed with hardly any break at Yenice and during the ;

years that Romanino spent on Paduan soil (1510 13), —

Palma was not yet celebrated, nor had he worked out his
magnificent colouring. Both Palma and Romanino pur-
sued a common aim, both had chosen Giorgione for their
pattern, and hence it may be that we sometimes find in
same Giorgionesque harmonies.
their paintings the
The catalogue names a third picture as the work of
Romanino, namely, the "Judith" (No. 155). But the

that came from the church of Sts. Faustinus and Jovita to that of S.
Maria at Lovere on the Lago d'Iseo, there is painted on the outside the
"Annunciation," by FeiTamoIa (1518); on the inside are the Saints
Jovita and Faustinus, surrounded by frolicking putti, and this last pic-
ture is to any connoisseur a highly characteristic work of Romanino.
But as tradition ascribes these two saints to Moretto, they are generally
looked at and admired as his work. Even Fenaroh quotes them as
works of Moretto ("Dizion." p. 123), and Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle
willingly follow their Brescian guide (ii. 396). Yet the forms of hand
and ear are very different in tlie two masters, to say nothing of the con-
ception. In the collection of the Ambrosiana, at Milan, there is a good
drawing by Romanino of the " Woman taken in Adultery " (third
room) 5 another in the Uffizi Collection, " Studies of Children," No.
1465.
 THE BRESCIAN SCHOOL. 407

flesh-colour in this woman is too cold, the drawing too

hard, the execution too timid and cramped for Romanino ^ ;

nor has she the drooping corners of the mouth so charac-

teristic of his women. The Marchesa Arconati- Visconti,
at Milan, has a similar picture ; and this, too, passed for a
work of Romanino, till the process of restoration brought
to light the real author's name. The signature runs :

"Fzw CARAVAGIENSIS OPYS," that is, work of Fran-

cesco Prato of Caravaggio, a pupil and imitator of Roma-
nino.^ He is sometimes very like his master, but never
so thoughtful and
lifelike in conception, so free and broad

in execution shadows are more sooty and opaque, and

; his
the drawing tamer than in Romanino.
Besides the above-named masters of Brescia, we meet
in these .rooms with a third Brescian painter, Giovan
Girolamo Savoldo, of the same age as Romanino, and per-
haps his fellow-pupil. He visited Florence in 1508, and
we find him enrolled as master in the Painters' guild
there (Hieronymus de Savoldis de Brixia) ; his stay, how-
ever, cannot have been of long duration, as none of his
works known to us betray the slightest Florentine in-
fluence. Later on, he settled at Yenice, and there studied
the works of Giambellino (S. Giovan Crises tomo, of the

^ The may probably be brought home to Romanino though

original ;

I cannot say where it is now to be found. Compare this " Judith " with
the "Herodias" of another scholar of Romanino, Calisto Piazza da
Lodi, No. 7 on the ground-floor of the Belvedere at Vienna.
^ By this Francesco Frato of Caravaggio, who is not to be confounded,
as some writers do, with the Florentine goldsmith (from the town of
Prato) mentioned by Vasari (" Vita di "Francesco Salviati"), there are
pictures at S. Agata and S. Francesco, at Brescia, and a " Descent from
the Cross," signed with his name, in a small church at Manerbio (near
Brescia). Other pictures of the master bear the name either of Calisto
da Lodi (S. Rocco at Brescia) or of Romanino himself (Madonna, at the
Town Gallery of Bergamo, No. 162).
408 BERLIN.

year 1513) and Titian.^ The most important work of

this rather rare master is in the Brera Gallery at Milan
(No. 142). A replica of his "Venetian Lady," as she is

styled in the Berlin Catalogue (No. 307), or "St. Mag-

dalen," as she used to be called, was a short time ago still in
the house of Count Fenaroli, at Brescia, but has lately been
purchased by the picture-dealer Baslini, and sold to the
National Gallery, London. Carlo Ridolfi (" Vite," &c. i.

354) mentions such a picture as belonging to the Averoldi

house, at Brescia :
" ed in casa Averolda una figura della
Maddalena, involta in drappo col vaso dell' alabastro, in-

camminata al sepolcro, celebre pittura, della quale si sono

tratte molte copie. Madame Ardier, ambasciatrice fran-
cese, aveva una delle Maddalene suddette ... e in casa
Antelmi (of Brescia) yi e un Deposto di croce." This
last picture was in the House of Torre, at Brescia, before
it came into the Gallery of Berlin (No. 307«).

THE BERGAMESE.
On the school of Bergamo I hare already found occasion
to write, if hastily, yet, on the whole, sufficiently, in the

two preceding chapters devoted Munich

to the galleries of
and Dresden. I will, therefore, only remark in passing,
that the famous portrait-painter, Giovan Battista Moroni
could hardly have been born so early as 1510, but more
likely about 1525, and also not anywhere near Brescia.
His native place, Bondo, near Albino, in the Serio valley,
lies within half-a-dozen miles of Bergamo. Neither did
he die at Brescia, but at Bergamo. I do not know of any

^ I certainly cannot share the opinion of Messrs.Crowe and Caval-

caselle in ascribing to Savoldo the aged Giambellino's small Madonna
behind the chief altar of Bergamo Cathedral (ii. 419).
 THE BERGAMESE SCHOOL. 409

dated pictures o£ his belonging to the " forties " of the

century. The pictures of his early days (1545 — 1550), for
instance, the Madonna, 252 of the Brera Gallery,
'No.

Milan (a copy after his master Moretto, all but the figure
of the Donor), have their flesh invariably of a reddish
still

brick colour. The best period of Moroni falls between

the years 1556 —
1565. The " Portrait of a Young Man," at
the Berlin Gallery (No. 167), with the year 1553, bears
the earliest date known to me of this master. In this
picture the form of the hand, with the pointed finger-tips,
is still much the same as that of Moretto. Very superior
too is the " Portrait of a Scholar" (N"o. 193a).
Because of some rebuilding going on in the gallery, I
was unable to see the male portrait (No. 188) ascribed to
another great portrait-painter of Bergamo, Giovanni de
Busi, called Oariani. Another portrait, which in Waagen's
Catalogue was still ascribed to this master, has with better
knowledge been transferred by the new directors to John
of Calcar, a scholar and imitator of Titian. Whoever
wishes to know Cariani must hunt him up at Bergamo and
in the collections at Milan it is only there that one can
;

become intimate with him. I have never yet come across

a work of Cariani's in those galleries of Germany that are
known to me, provided always that the Giorgionesque or
rather Palmesque portrait at the Munich Gallery really
belongs not to him, but to Palma Vecchio.^

THE LOMBARDS.
The Adda separates the Bergamese hill-country from
the Milanese plain. At Canonica, the frontier town of

^ I am told that there was once a good picture by Cariani in the

Schönborn Collection at Pommersfelden.
410 BERLIN.

Bergamo province, the ear is still saluted by tlie guttural

Bergamese; across the Adda bridge, at Yaprio, they
already speak the Milanese dialect. And it is exactly
down to Vaprio that the school of painting also extends
whose focus is to be found at Milan I mean the Milanese- ;

Lombard school.
The stately structures of Milan Cathedral, and the
Certosa near Pavia, gave a great stimulus, especially in
the first half of the 15th century, to sculpture, thrusting
painting meanwhile somewhat into the background; hence,
under the reign of Filippo Maria Visconti (1405 1447), —
we meet with few painters of name (Michelino and the
Zavattari, the portrait-painter Zanetto Bugatto, Costan-
tino Zenone da Vaprio, Leonardo Ponzoni, and so on).
Francesco Sforza, on the contrary, seems to have favoured
painters as much and under him the
as other artists ;

painters Bembo, otherwise called Pacio da

Bonifacio
Valdarno, and the Cremonese Cristoforo Moretti distin-
guished themselves. Of the works of these two masters
only a few fragments have come down to us.^ At that
very time, however (1455 —
1466), the Brescian Vincenzo
Poppa was making himself noted, and it is to this power-
ful and (I may say) great master that Milan, where he
lived and worked, is indebted for her principal school of
painting. —
Out of it came forth Zenale and Buttinone of
Treviglio, perhaps also Giovanni Donato da Montorfano -^

1 The Poldi-Pezzoli Collection at Milan possesses a signed Madonna

of Ci'istoforo Moretti ; to Bonifacio Bembo belong the life-size portraits

of Francesco Sforza and his consort, Bianca Maria Visconti, in the church
of S. Agostino at Cremona, and probably the fragment of a fresco-
painting in the church dell' Annunziata at Abbiategrasso, of the year
1472. JFacio Bembo died in 1496.
* There are wall-paintings by him in the refectory of S. Maria delle
 ;

THE L03IBAKr> SCHOOL. 411

Bartolommeo Suardi of Milan, who afterwards studied

nnder Bramante, and was therefore called Bramantino
Ambrogio da Fossano, named Borgognone Ambrogio ;

Bevüacqua Vincenzo Civerchio of Crema Macrino of

;
^
;

Alba 2 Bernardino de' Conti of Pa via, &c.

;

But in the last decade of the fifteenth century the

Milanese school split into two branches, one of which was
directly dependent on Leonardo da Vinci, the other only
indirectly influenced by him.
The school of LoDi is represented chiefly by the Piazza
family.^
Among representatives of the Pavian school there is

none above mediocrity, except perhaps Bernardino dei

Grazie, in a chapel of S. Pietro at Gessate, and in the courtyard of the

Ambi'osiana at Milan.
^ There are works by master in the parish church of Landriano,
this
near ^lilan, of the year 1483 in the church of S. Vito of Soma, there
;

ascribed to Borgognone 5 at the Br er a Gallery, of the year 1502

(No. 476) ; at the Municipal Gallery of Bergamo (No. 5, the Enthroned
Vh'gin and Child, between the Baptist and a sainted bishop (not
named) ; and elsewhere.
^ By this master there ai*e several works
Turin Gallery, in the
at the
churches of Asti, at Alba, in the Certosa near Pavia. The canopy in
the earlier Madonnas of Borgognone and Macrino is derived from their
master Foppa. By Macrino it was passed on to the school of Vercelli,
viz., Gaudenzio Ferrari, Sodoma, Defendente Ferrari, Girolamo Giove-

none, &c.
3 Old Bertino, who, according to Filarete, lost his life in the Po, has
no works behind, but his descendants have, viz., the brothers Martino
left
and Albertino Piazza, in several chui'ches of Lodi and at Castiglione
d'Adda ; Albertino also, in the Town Gallery of Bergamo, the " Mar-
riage of St. Catherine " (No. 199), there assigned to the Eoman (?)
school, and at Signor Frizzoni-Sali's, Bergamo, an " Adoration of the
Shepherds ;" Martino Piazza, at the Ambrosiana, Milan, a small picture

signed with the monogram M4^ (Martinus Platea Pinxit), a " John

the Baptist ''

with the same signature at the barrister Bossi's, Milan ; in
the Malaspina Gallery at Pavia, a small signed Madonna (No. 79), &c.
412 BERLIN.

Conti. Lorenzo and Bernardino Fasolo, Pierfrancesco

Sacclii and his feeble scholar, Cesare Magni ^
are nothing
bnt imitators, who had well got up the technic of their
profession, and were able to produce works agreeable to
the eye because of their pleasing harmony of colours, but
which leave the mind and heart untouched. Moreover,
more or less that light gracefulness
their figures all possess
of expression, attitude, and movement, which not only
was peculiar to the Italian in those happy times for art,
but which in part he possesses to this day ; so that his
artistic efforts, however empty and meaningless they may
sometimes be, still contrast favourably with those of other
nations, and are liked by the great public.
At Vekcelli the artist family of the Oldoni," who had
moved there from Milan, worked from the middle of the
fifteenth century, as another artist family, that of the
Ferrari,^ likewise Milanese, did at Casale.
If I am not much mistaken, Macrino d'Alba also must
have worked'* for some length of time at Vercelli in the

^ Baron von Rumohr (" Three Journeys to Italy ") has confounded
this Cesare Magni (in a picture then at Duke Melzi's, Milan, now at Mr.
Cook's in Richmond), with Cesare da Sesto :
" In the Melzi house, a
Madonna, the Child a whole figure, by Cesare da Sesto, in a fine land-
scape. Here also there is something of Leonardo. I should have taken
Cesare da Sesto for a pupil of his if he had not lived too late. Here we
read: Cesar Triagrius (Magnus) pinxit 1530." There are pictures by
Cesare Magni in Vigevano Cathedral, and at Saronno.
- Boniforte Oldoni worked from 1463 till about 1510. His three sons
were called Ercole, Giosue, and Eleazar. There is a signed fresco-
painting by Giosue in the parish church of Verrone near Biella; by
Eleazar, a small " Adoration of the Infant Christ," signed, at Countess
Castelnovo's, Turin.
3 Erom this latter family sprang the somewhat rough painter Gram-
morseo, by whom there is a signed picture in the Bishop's Palace at
Vercelli.
* We know that he afterwards worked for many years at the Abbey
 —

THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 413

last decade of the fifteenth century ; he may therefore

have had some influence on the first development of Griro-
lamo Giovenone, of Eleazar Oldoni/ and even of Defendente
Ferrari of Chivasso.
Among Leonardo da Vinci's direct pupils at Milan, of
whom we possess authenticated works, we reckon Giovan
Antonio Marco d'Oggionno, Andrea Sala, called
Boltrafiio,
Salaino, Sala; Giovan Antonio Bazzi, called
i.e. little

Sodoma at Siena Cesare da Sesto and the so-called Giam-

; ;

pietrino.^ Among those indirecthj influenced by him the —

Milanese Ambrogio de Prodis,^ Bernardino dei Conti of

of Lucedio (uear Casale), and was therefore known as "pittore di

Lucedio."
^ Compare the signed pictm-e by Macrino, of his early time (1490
1495), at the gallery of the Stadel Institute at Frankfort (No. 5), with the
pictures of Gh'olamo Giovenone at the Tui-in Gallery, of the year 1514
(No. 43), and with the small picture signed " Eleazar de Oldonibus,"
at Countess Castelnovo's, Turin. Of Defendente Ferrari the picture-
gallery at Stuttgart possesses a painting signed with the monogi'am
-+-

ß
H.E.H.
(Perrarius pinxit), " Christ in the Temple," of the year 1526

Darmstadt, the fortunate owner of the

Pi'incess Charles of
5

original Madonna of Holbein, has a "

St. Catherine ; " the Turin Gallery

several works, the Town Gallery of Bergamo an "Adoration of the

Shepherds" (No. 283), signed with the same monogram. This last
picture betrays the influence of Parmigianino's engravings.
^ I reckon among the maturest works of Giampietrino the large altar-

pieces in the church S. Marino at Pavia, and in S. Sepolcro (sacristy)

at Milan. The first one, asci'ibed to Pasolo, represents the enthroned
Mai'y with the undressed Infant Christ on her knee, who blesses St.
Jerome kneeling beforeHim ; on the left side of the throne St. John the
Baptist. The other panel represents Mary and Joseph worshipping the
new-born Babe.
^ Ambrogio Preda, in Latin de Predis, an unknown painter, whom I

have the pleasure of introducing to my readers, appears to have been a

great favourite of the Emperor Maximilian I. In the Ambraser Collec-
tion at Vienna we find a portrait of that Emperor in profile by Preda.
414 BERLIN.

Pavia, Andrea Solari of Milan, Bernardino Luini, Gaudenzio

Ferrari, &c.

The Emperor wears a black cap, his breast is adorned with the order of the
Golden Fleece, the long light-brown hair falls heavily on the shoulders ;
the portrait is on poplar wood, and signed, '" Ambrosius de pdis (predis)
ralanen (milanensis) 1502 " (see Nagler's "Monogrammists," i. 414). This
good painting is unfortunately dh'ty, and moreover the eyes and mouth
partly repainted. A
small washed sketch in pen-and-ink for this
portrait is in the collection of the Venetian Academy, under the name
of Leonardo ; on the same page we also find a sketch for the profile
portrait of the Emperor's second wife, Bianca Maria Sforza, niece of
Lodovico il Moro, and moreover the study of an Infant Christ blessing
(photograph by Antonio Perini at Venice, No. 178). Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle mention this portrait of Maximilian I., but transfer it to
the Schönborn Gallery, and besides ascribe it to Ambrogio Borgognone
(ii. 50). To this Ambrogio Preda I make bold also to restore without
hesitation the celebrated profile portrait of Bianca Maria Sforza in the
Ambrosiana at Milan (there erroneously called Beatrice Sforza), which
all writers hitherto have assigned to Leonardo. In this portrait,
Ambrogio Preda must have represented the noble lady as the affianced
bride of the emperor, therefore in the year 1493. She wears the same
pearls on her neck and bosom (probably the present of her imperial
bridegroom) as in the above-named sketch in pen-and-ink at the Academy
of Venice. The female portrait in the Ambrosiana is likewise painted
on poplar-wood. In 1525 this picture was in possession of Taddeo Con-
tarino of Venice, and is thus described by the " Anonymus " of Morelli,
p. 65 " El retratto in profilo insino alle spalle de Madonna .... fiola
:

(ought to be nipote) del Signor Lodovico (il Moro de Milano) maritata

nello Imperatore Massimiliano fil de mano de ... milanese." The
.

painter's name was unknown to the " Anonymus," perhaps even to the
owner of the picture, but no connoisseur in Venice at that time ever
thought of ascribing this portrait to Leonardo da Vinci.
A third portrait by this Ambrogio Preda is in my possession. It
represents a young man with long, light-bro«Ti hair, and a small white
cap ; full face, and likewise painted on poplar-wood. And this portrait
also was formerly assigned to Leonardo da Vinci.
Among many drawings at the Uffizi, erroneously ascribed to
Leonardo, there are two, slightly washed with Indian ink one repre- ;

sents a young woman, elegantly dressed, almost a front face, the fore-
head adorned with a Sevigne. At the top of the page we read, on the
 ;!

THE LOMBAED SCHOOL. 415

Bartolommeo Suardi, called Bramantino, after com-

pleting his studies under the great Donato Bramante (who
worked at Milan from 1474 to 1499), founded a school of
his own at Milan about the year 1500.
Zenale and Buttinone, the brothers Ambrogio and Ber-
nardino Borgognone, A. BeTilacqua, Giovannni da Mon-
torfano, as also Civerchio and others, quietly held on their
course in the direction given them by Vincenzo Foppa,
unmoved by influences either from Bramante or from
Leonardo da Vinci.
Of this specifically Milanese school of the 15th century,
we have work at the Dresden Gallery, by
already found a
Ambrogio Bevilacqua (there called Borgognone) and the ;

Berlin Gallery, according to the catalogue, has one picture

by Zenale, and two by Ambrogio Borgognone.

right hand, " Beatrice Estense," on theleft, " Leonardo da Vinci." This
is probably the portrait of Isabella d'Aragoua, and not of Beatrice
d'Este (M. Philpot's, Florence, No. 2888).
The second of these washed drawings represents the head of a boy
covered with a cap, three-quarters face ; this sheet has the inscription :

"Francesco Sforza Conte di Pavia figlio di Gio. Galeazzo Sforza e

d'Isabella d'Aragona, pronipote di LodoYico Sforza 11 Moro, disegnato
da Lionardo da Vinci" (Philpot, No. 2887).
Both drawings betray the same hand, and perfectly agree in their
rendering of forms with the above-mentioned three likenesses painted
by Ambrosius de Predis.
The well-known miniature painter of Modena, Christophorus de
Predis, seems to have been a relation, perhaps the father, of Ambrogio.
There is a very fine miniature of his in the Koyal Library at Turin,
signed: —^- —"—
G5. MA
DVX.MLL QVINTVS
OPVS. XPOFOEL DE PEEDIS
MVT. DIE 3. APEILIS, 1474.
I wish it were in my power to cite other works of Ambrogio Preda
ma}' it fall to the lot of some of my younger readers to discover more
portraits by an able Milanese painter so highly honoured by the Sforzas
416 BERLIN.

It is only in a doubting way that the Madonna, No. 90a,

is assigned to Zenale by the discriminating new directors
of the Gallery. I think that this weak picture does not
belong to the Milanese school, but that it is most likely an
old copy or imitation after Bernardino Conti. Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle declare it to be painted in the
manner of Zenale but I venture to ask them, wTiere
;

authenticated works of Zenale's are to be seen ?

Vasari (vii. 127) says " There was, moreover, at Milan,
:

a Bernardino da Trevio (Treviglio), engineer and architect

of the cathedral, an excellent draughtsman and much
honoured of Lionardo da Vinci, albeit in painting his
manner be rough and something dry." In this Zenale,
then, on the testimony of Vasari's informant, we have to
look more for the engineer and architect than the painter.
Certain it is, that no authentic picture by Zenale is now to
be found. The large altar-piece, the " St. Martin," behind
the principal altar of the parish church of Treviglio, is

indeed a joint work of Zenale and Buttinone (a copy of

the original contract is preserved in the archives of the
church) ; but we cannot
tell what part of the work is

Zenale's, and what Buttinone's. Even Messrs. Crowe and

Cavalcaselle must confess that it is hard to distinguish
Zenale's figures from those of his fellow-workman. And
the same is true of the all but obliterated wall-painting
by these two masters in the Griffi chapel at St. Peter's in
Gessate, Milan in viewing these frescoes, we are encoun-
;

tered by the same difficulty. N'otwithstanding this, and

their own previous confession, the renowned historians
would fain distinguish in these all but invisible paintings
the manner of one painter from that of the other, for in
Buttinone's work they recognise the character of the
Paduan school, derived either from the Mantegnesques or
 THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 417

from Carlo Crivelli (!), and in Zenale's work more grace-

fulness of form, traceable to Leonardo da Yinci. I fancy
this "Paduan" or Squarcionesqne pedigree of Buttinone
may have been suggested more by the
to our liistorians
so-called Btittinone in theBorromeo Gallery at Isola
Bella, than by straining their eyes at those frescoes. That
little Borromeo picture of the enthroned Virgin and Child,

accompanied by John the Baptist and St. Justina (the

favourite saint of the Paduans), does indeed look very
Squarcionesque. It bears the inscription in gold letters :

"Bernardinus ^e/tinonus (sic) de Trivilio." On a coat

of arms at the bottom, we read the motto adopted by the
Borromeo family in the 15th century, "Humilitas." To
my thinking, this little picture has nothing to do
with those authentic works of Buttinone and Zenale at
Treviglio and at S. Pietro-in-Gessate ; on the contrary,
both in the type of the figures and in techuic, it agrees
entirely with the other works of the Dalmatian Gregorio
Schiavone, and his work I pronounce it to be.^ Gregorio
seems to have painted this little picture for the Borromeo
(Vitaliani) family, settled at Padua. The signature is a
manifest forgery.
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle mention, further, as a
work of Buttinone the male portrait in the Borromeo
house at Milan.' On the longish cartellino at the bottom
(exactly the shape of the cartellini in genuine pictures of
Antonello da Messina), the name of the author has been
effaced,and that of Leonardo substituted. The workman-
ship poiats to an imitator of Antonello, and even the green

^ The National Gallery in Loudon possesses also a few pictures of

Gregorio Schiavone.
^
Yet even they, looking at the picture, seem to have thought of F.
Mazzola (ii. 36).
E E
416 BERLIN.

It is only in a doubting way that the Madonna, JSTo. 90«,

is assigned to Zenale by the discriminating new directors
of the Gallery. I think that this weak picture does not
belong to the Milanese school, but that it is most likely an
old copy or imitation after Bernardino Conti. Messrs.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle declare it to be painted in the
manner of Zenale but I venture to ask them, lohere
;

authenticated works of Zenale's are to be seen ?

Vasari (vii. 127) says " There was, moreover, at jMilan,
:

a Bernardino da Trevio (Treviglio), engineer and architect

of the cathedral,an excellent draughtsman and much
honoured of Lionardo da Vinci, albeit in painting his
manner be rough and something dry." In this Zenale,
then, on the testimony of Yasari's informant, we have to
look more for the engineer and architect than the painter.
Certain it is, that no authentic picture by Zenale is now to
be found. The large altar-piece, the " St. Martin," behind
the principal altar of the parish church of Treviglio, is

indeed a joint work of Zenale and Buttinone (a copy of

the original contract is preserved in the archives of the
church) ; but we cannot
tell what part of the work is

Zenale's, and what Buttinone's. Even Messrs. Crowe and

Cavalcaselle must confess that it is hard to distinguish
Zenale's figures from those of his fellow-workman. And
the same is true of the all but obliterated wall-painting
by these two masters in the GriflB. chapel at St. Peter's in
Gessate, Milan in viewing these frescoes, we are encoun-
;

tered by the same difllculty. iNotwithstanding this, and

their own previous confession, the renowned historians
would fain distinguish in these all but invisible paintings
the manner of one painter from that of the other, for in
Buttinone's work they recognise the character of the
Paduan school, derived either from the Mantegnesques or
 THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 417

from Carlo Crivelli (!), and in Zenale's work more grace-

fulness of form, traceable to Leonardo da Vinci. I fancy
this "Paduan" or Squarcionesqne pedigree of Buttinone
may have been suggested to our historians more by the
so-called Bnttinone in the Bon'omeo Gallery at Isola
by straining their eyes at those frescoes. That
Bella, than
Borromeo picture of the enthroned Virgin and Child,
little

accompanied by John the Baptist and St. Jnstina (the

favourite saint of the Paduans), does indeed look very
Squarcionesque. It bears the inscription in gold letters :

" Bernardinus ^e/tinonus (sic) de Trivilio." On a coat

of arms at the bottom, we read the motto adopted by the
Borromeo family in the 15th century, "Humilitas." To
my thinking, this little picture has nothing to do
with those authentic works of Buttinone and Zenale at
Treviglio and at S. Pietro-in-Gessate ; on the contrary,
both in the type of the figures and in techuic, it agrees
entii'ely with the other works of the Dalmatian Gregorio
ScMavone, and his work I pronounce it to be.^ Gregorio
seems to have painted this little picture for the Borromeo
(Vitaliani) family, settled at Padua. The signature is a
moMifest forgery.
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle mention, further, as a
work of Buttinone the male portrait in the Borromeo
house at Milan.' On the longish cartellino at the bottom
(exactly the shape of the cartellini in genuine pictures of
Antonello da Messina), the name of the author has been
effaced,and that of Leonardo substituted. The workman-
ship poiats to an imitator of Antonello, and even the green

^ The National Gallery in Loudon possesses also a few pictures of

Gregorio Schiavone.
^ Yet even thoy, looking at the picture, seem to have thought of F.
Mazzola (ii. 36).
E E
418 BERLIN.

ground of the painting indicates Fllippo Mazzola, to whom,

I think, I may without hesitation assign this portrait.
Compare it with Mazzola's other portraits, with that in
the Brera Gallery, or with another male portrait at the
Berlin Gallery (No. 225, here ascribed to Boltraffio), and
I defy you to come to any other conclusion.
Meantime, a genuine work of Bernardino Bvittinone,
signed with his name, has lately come into the possession
of the Brera Gallery, at Milan. It came from the Castel-
barco house. The middle compartment represents the
enthroned Virgin, with the Infant Christ standing erect
on her I'ight knee ; to the left of the throne an angel
looking towards Mary (recalling strongly the manner of
Bramantino) ; the right wing of the triptych holds St.
Bernardinus, the left St. Leonardus. The signature runs:
" Bernardinus. Bu de Trivilio 1484" (?).
In this work, Buttinone appears to me as a pupil of
Foppa, and as a very indifferent painter. But enough of
him ; let us dwell a little while on his fellow- workman,
Zenale.
To Zenale Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle ascribe works
that differ widely among themselves for instance, as we :

saw above, the great polyptych of Vincenzo Foppa ^ in the

Brera (once in S. Maria delle Grazie, at Bergamo) fur- ;

ther, the altar-piece which once stood in the church of S.

Ambrogio ad nemus at Milan, under the name of Leonardo
da Vinci, but when moved to the Brera Gallery it was quite

^ The " Anonymus " of Morelli (p. 52) describes it thus :

" La Ancona
deir altar grande della N. D. con le due figure per ciascun lato in nichii
dorati, a guazzo, fu de man de maestro Vicenzo Bressano vecchio (to
distinguish him from Vicenzo Civerchio), come credo." This panel
came to Milan after the suppression of the convent S, Maria delle
Grazie.
 THE LOMBAKD SCHOOL. 419

arbitrarily assigned to Zenale, and has ever since been

regarded by young and old as the principal work of Zenale.
We have more to say of this picture further on. Again,
they mention as a work of Zenale the small Madonna
suckling her Babe, signed "Bernar . . . Zinalia," at the
Town Gallery of Bergamo (Section Lochis, No, 148). Yet
to any connoisseur at all intimate with the Lombard
school, it is unmistakably a work of Arabrogio Borgognone,
and the signature on the picture a clumsy forgery.
Zenale's "Scenes from the Life of St. Magdalen" in
the Carmelite Church of Milan, cited by Lomazzo (" Trat-
tato della Pittura,"ii. 47), those others in the convent of

S.Maria delle Grazie, in the chapel of St. Peter and St.

Paul at S. Francesco, &c,, as well as his works at Brescia,
have all perished so that we are left quite in the dark
;

about his merits as a painter. Lomazzo praises Zenale

chiefly for his " foreshortenings."
Ambrogio da Fossano, called Borgogno7ie, must have been
born between the years 1450 and 1460, and at Milan, not
Fossano. The Fossano or Possani family still existed in
Lombardy in recent times. It may have been Ambrogio's
grandfather or great-grandfather that left the little Pied-
montese town to settle at Milan ;
^ one of his ancestors
had probably lived some time in Flanders (then called
Borgogna by the Italians), and had thus received the
surname of Borgognone.- Ambrogio died at Milan, in

His father, Stefano, is already " Mediolanensis," a native of Milan.

^

The Michelozzo family, at Florence, had also the surname of Bor-

^

gognone " Lionardo, Michelozzo, Giovanni, fratelli e figliuoli di Bar-

:

tolommeo di Gherardo Borgognoni" (Gaye, "Carteggio," etc. i. 117).

Napoleone Citadella ("Notizie," etc. 671) mentions a metal founder of
Ferrara, called Annibale Borgognone; and Zani, a certain Alfonso
Borgognone of Cento, brass-founder. The race of the Borgognoni is
 :

420 BERLIN.

1523, probably of the plague. He had a brother Bernar-

dino, somewhat younger, also a painter. Signor Enrico
Andreossi of Milan (Via Clerici, No. 2), has a picture by
the latter, signed with his name, and dated 1523, repre-
senting St. Rochus. Ambrogio Borgognone, who holds
the same central place in the Milanese school of painting
as P. Perugiuo in that of Perugia, Lorenzo Costa and
Francia in that of Bologna, Panetti in that of Ferrara, and
Francesco Morone in that of Verona, was, according to
my view, a pupil of Vicenzo Foppa the elder, and the
real master Luini, the Raphael of the
of Bernardino
Milanese school. Borgognone was certainly not influenced
by Leonardo da Vinci, still less by Bernardino Zenale, as
Girolamo Calvi has written down at random. He remains
in all his works a thorough Lombard.^ The first work

now quite unknown at Fossano. Alike charactei'istic of the Frencli-

man, and indicative of the historian's gi'avity, is tlie neat theory thrown
out by Mons. A. J. Eio on the origin of the surname (as above, p. 184)
" Ce surnom de Bourguignou, substitue partout ä son nom de famille, ne
se rapporte pas au heu de sa naissance, puisque nous savons (?) qu'il
etait ne ä Fossano, en Piemont, mais il pourrait bien exprimer une
filiation artistiquc entre lui et I'ecole qui, a I'epoque oii il dut faire son
apprentissage. florissait dans les etats des dues de Bourgogne. Ce qui
donne ä cette conjecture beaucoup de vraisemblance, c'est que le style
d'Ambrogio differe radicalement de celui de tous les peintres Lombards
ses contemporains, et que ses compositions et ses types offrent parfois
une ressemblance frappante et qui ne serait etre fortuite avec les com-
positions et les types d'un peintre Bolonais surnomme la Fraiicc, et

immortalise dans I'histoii'e de la peinture chretienne sous le nom de

France&co Fraticia." We know that Francia is an abbreviation of Fran-
cesco (Francia-Bigi, Francione, at Florence).
^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, however (ii. 43), find that Borgo-
gnone, in his frescoes at S. Simphciano, reminds them of Perugino,
Francia, and also Leonardo da Vinci ; in S. Maria della Passione, of
the manner of B. Peruzzi ; in S. Ambrogio, of B. Luini, the '
' favourite
pupil (!) of Leonardo."
 THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 421

which he executed for the Certosa at Pavia was painted

in 1488 —
1489 his drawings for the stalls and the choir-
;

door, which were finished bj the Mantuan Bartolommeo

de Polli, date from the year 1490/ Messrs. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle make this Bartolommeo come from Pola (!),
and place his work in the year 1486. The often men-
tioned altar-piece in the village church of Cremeno (Val-
sassina) is the work of a Lombard without character, and
in no case belongs to Borgognone.
The "Enthroned Virgin and Child" (N'o. 51), at the

Berlin Gallery, belongs to the early time of the master

(1490—1500).
Pictures of the same period : at the Incoronata of Lodi,
at the Certosa near Pavia, at Arona, at the Ambrosiana,
in the Borromeo house, Milan,^ at the London N'ational
Gallery, &c. The other " Enthroned Virgin and Child
with Saints " (No. 52), must be assigned to a later time
(1505 — 1510).
His chef d'oeitvre of this period is in S.
Bergamo, of 1508. The presence of St. Ambrose
Spirito at
in the background is an allusion to the victory of Para-
biago, won by the Milanese under Azzone Visconti, in
1336, through the intercession of that saint. The picture
was most likely painted for some member of the Visconti
family.
We now come to Bernardino dei Conti, a rare, and cer-

^ See Arcliivio storico Lombarde, Anno vi. Memorie inedite sulla

Certosa.
^ The finest picture of this early time of the master is, in my opinion,

the " Christ bearing the Cross, accompanied by Cartliusian Monks," in

the collection of the Academy of Fine Arts at Pavia. In the background
of this glorious painting is seen tlie Certosa of Pavia, on the front of
which there is building going on It was not finished, therefore,
still.

till near the end of the 15th century, and by Amadeo.

422 BERLIN.

tainly not imimportant master, of whom the Berlin Gallery-

can boast of possessing almost the only signed and dated
picture.
No writer on art, except the unreliable Lomazzo, and
after him, Orlandi, has left any record of this master.
He is said to have been a Pavian, and as such he may
have had his first lessons in art from Vincenzo Foppa,.
who, we know, often lived and worked in the native town
of his wife, or rather from a pupil of Foppa, Vincenzo
Civerchio of Crema. But Conti must afterwards have
settled at Milan,and there received various influences,
amongst others from Leonardo da Vinci.
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle make short work of
this Lombard painter (ii. Q7\ by introducing him without
much ado as a pupil of Zenale, and then mentioning some few
of his works, namely, the signed " Portrait of a Prelate of
the year 1499 " (No. 55), at the Berlin Gallery a Virgin ;

suckling her Babe at the Schleissheim collection ; a replica

of it at the Town Gallery of Bergamo ; a Marriage of St.
Catherine, at the same place ; and lastly, a Madonna at
the Poldi-Pezzoli collection, Milan.
But the ]\Iadonna at Schleissheiru, and those two pic-
tures at the Town Gallery of Bergamo (Nos. 126 and 254)^
can only be regarded, I think, as atelier works ; the Italian
signature on one of the two latter (No. 126), giving the
year 1501, was not inscribed by Bernardino himself.
On the other hand, both genuine and well preserved,,
though not one of his better works, seems to me the
Madonna with the sucking Babe, in the Poldi-Pezzoli
collection (No. 59)/ If this picture be really the work

^ In the Borromeo house at Milan there is an old, but inferior, copy

of this Madonna.
 THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 423

of Bernardino dei Conti, as I believe, then he, and not

Zenale, is the true author of the Enthroned Mary with
the Infant Christ blessing, the Four Fathers, and the
kneeling family of Lodovico il Moro, at the Brera Gallery
(No. 449) ; and also of the St. Ambrose, No. 166, at the
Town Gallery of Bergamo (Section Lochis), there assigned
to Zenale.
To the same master I would also ascribe the charming
littlepicture of Mary nursing the Child, formerly in
the Litta house at Milan, now in the Gallery of the
'

Hermitage at St. Petersburg ; and this would have to be

regarded as the best of his known works. Bernardino
borrowed the head for this Madonna from a beautiful
drawing of Leonardo's, now at the Louvre (Braun photo,
168).
In all the above-named pictures we find the same some-
what uncouth formation of the hand (similar to the hand
in the pictures of Antonio del Pollajuolo), with the nails
cut short, the same modelling of the Infant Christ, the
same grey flesh- tints.
I remember to have seen in the house Castelbarco at
Milan, the nearly life-size portrait, in profile, of a rather
stout lady of rank ; it was there ascribed to Leonardo da
Vinci, though it obviously belonged to our Bernardino de'
Conti. This portrait is now in the possession of Mr. Alfred
Morrison in London. Another good portrait, of a Young
Man with his hand stretched out, went likewise to England
from the house Archinto of Milan, and this likeness must
also be ascribed to the same master as the large " En-
throned Virgin with the Sforza family," at the Brera
Gallery (449). As for the so-called Self-portrait of Lucas
van Leyden, at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence (N"o. 444), it
seems to be only an old copy from a portrait by Bernardino,
 —

424 BEELIN.

supposing tlie author of the group of pictures which I have

been naming to be really Bernardino de' Conti.
At the Art Exhibition of Turin, 1880, I saw a second
signed and dated vrork by Bernardino Conti. It is the
nearly life-size profile portrait of a Young Man, with long
brown hair, wearing a black cap adorned with the order
of St. Michael. The somewhat gloomy-looking cavalier
wears a poniard at his side. The flesh-tints in this picture

are also grey, as in other paintings by Conti. At the top

of the panel we read: "Catellanus Trivulcius, ann. 26
1505 " at the bottom the inscription
; : "Bernardini Comitis
opus." This valuable portrait belongs to the heirs of the
late senator Marchese Giorgio Pallavicino-Trivulzio of
Milan. Catellanus Trivulcius may in all probability have
been a natural son of the well-known French field-marshal
Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. He is not mentioned in Pompeo
Litta's book.
I could name some more pictures that betray the same
origin, but I must here content myself with mentioning
a few drawiwjs of the same master, which are generally
introduced to students under the name of Leonardo da
Yinci.
One of these drawings is in the collection of the British
Museum (in black chalk and gypsum) ; here we see Mary,
Avith the un drained Infant Christ standing on her right
knee, in the act of blessing. The loose hair of the Madonna
comes down to her shoulders, the shape of the ear agrees
exactly with that in the profile portrait of the boy Maxi-
milian Sforza in the above-named Xo. 449 of the Brera
Gallery, and is very diSerent fi'om the form of ear in
Leonardo : the strokes, too, are di'awn from right to left,

and not, as is nearly always the case with Leonardo, from

left to right. This superior drawing has been photo-
 THE LOMBAED SCHOOL. 425

graphed by Braun under the name of Leonardo (No. 45).

To the same master, and not to Leonardo, belongs also
the well-executed drawing in silver-point at the Louvre
(Braun, 169).
One more example of these drawings by my supposed
Bernardino dei Conti, which in public collections are
ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci, is preserved in the Ambro-
siana, namely, a dotted portrait in profile of young Maxi-
milian Sforza (photograph by Marville, No. 127) ;
it is a
study from life for the Brera picture No. 449. Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle, following the crowd, ascribe this drawing
also to Leonardo :
^
a further proof, to my mind, that even
those famed historians are no better acquainted with
Leonardo da Vinci than the majority of writers who have
hitherto expressed their minds on that great artist.
The repairs going on in the Gallery unfortunately pre-
vented me from entering those rooms where the pictures
of the Lombard-Milanese school are hung ; I am therefore
compelled, for the present at least, to put together a few
hasty remarks only on those works of Leonardo's imme-
diate pupils mentioned in the catalogue, that were in the
rooms accessible to the public. According to the catalogue,
these pictures belong to Boltraffio, to Balthasar Peruzzi,
and to Francesco Melzi.
The noble and truly monumental figure of St. Barbara
by Boltraffio or Beltraflo (No. 207), which at the end of
last century was still in the sacristy of San Satiro at Milan,
is among the few works of a large size that have come

^ " We can scarcely hesitate to believe that the sketch was given by
Lionardo, because his d.raiving of the boy ^Maximilian Sforza at the
Ambrosiana was used for the occasion ; but the execution again is as
certainly that of one of his scholars," etc. (ii. 39).
426 BEKLIN.

down to us from this refined painter most of his pictures ;

seem to have been destined for the interior of houses, and

are therefore of small dimensions, some of them very-
small/ Of these there are a half-dozen at Milan in private
possession,^ two at Bergamo,^ and about another half-dozen
in England.^ Except the St. Barbara at Berlin, I know of
only two pictures by Bol traffic in any German or Austrian
gallery. One is the charming Madonna at the Town Gal-
lery of Pesth (No. 175) ; the other I saw in the Exhibition
of Paintings at Munich, in 1869, under the false name
of Francesco Melzi. It represents the Madonna, seen in
front, presenting some flowers to the Infant Christ, who
stands undraped on a balustrade, and leans forward. The
ground is dark. The picture is in private possessioa, and
measures about l-^- ft. in height, and 4-|- ft. in width ;
it is,

unfortunately, damaged by restoration.

^ Among the larger works of Boltraffio I still reckon : "Mary with

the Child, sitting in an open landscape, with John the Baptist, St. Sebas-
tian, and the two kneeling donors," from the Casio house at Bologna,
now Louvre Gallery, No. 72 ; and the " Madonna with the Child,
in the
seated in the cleft of a rock, with the same two Saints, John and
Sebastian, and the donor Bassano da Ponte," a patrician of Lodi, for
whose chapel in the cathedral of that place Boltraffio painted the picture
in 1508. The pastil-drawing for the portrait of this donor may be seen
at the Ambrosiana, among the drawings of Leonardo 5 the picture itself,
much restored, was sold some years ago by the picture-dealer Baslini,
who had bought it at Bergamo, to a Count Palffy of Pressbui-g (?).
- Belonging to Dr. G. Frizzoni, to Counts Sola and Borromeo, to the

Poldi collection, to the Ambrosiana, to the Author ; and one at Isola

Bella.
^ In the Town Gallery, and at Signor Federico Antonio Frizzoni's.
^In the upper corridor of the back church in the Monastero Maggiore
at Milan, we see twenty al fresco painted pictures and busts of female
martyrs. If I am not mistaken, some of them, as St. Catherine, Agnes,
Agatha, and Apollonia, may belong to Boltraffio himself, the others are
executed after his cartoons by assistants.
 :

THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 427

The epitaph, of Boltraffio runs thus

10. ANTONIO BELTRAFIO ET

CONSILII ET MOEVM GRAVITATE
SVIS CIVIBYS GRATISS. PROPINQVIORES
AMICI DESIDERIO AEGRE TEMPERANTES
p. VIXIT ANN. 49.
PICTVRAE AD QYAM PVERVM SORS
DETYLERAT STYDIA INTER SERIA NON
ABSTINYIT NEC SI QYID EFFINXIT
ANIMASSE OPYS MINYSQYAM SIMYLASSE
YISYS EST.
From this we gather, that Boltraffio did not apply him-
self seriously to art till rather late. And in fact, in 1490,
when he was already twenty-three, we find him still a
boarder at Leonardo's house. He came of a noble family
of Milan, and in later yea,rs filled some public offices in his

native place. He cannot, indeed, be regarded as a pro-

fessional painter, but still less is he a mere dilettante. His
pictures are all executed with the greatest industry, with
the most loving care, and as far as his abilities would go,
he tried to come up as near as possible to his great master.
To delineate the human figure on a large scale, or human
passions, was not his forte ; he succeeded better in express-
ing naive innocence in children, and gentle grace in the
Mother of God, and in devout women. To Boltraffio, and
to no other, would I also assign the twenty Tondos al
fresco in the upper gallery of S. Maurizio (Monastero
Maggiore) at Milan. They represent female martyrs, and
among them are heads that must be classed with the most
exquisite things ever produced by the Milanese school.
His portraits are all nobly conceived, and skilfully executed.
Of the male portrait (No. 225) ascribed to him in the
428 BERLIN.

catalogue, I have already expressed my opinion by pro-

posing to the directors to assign it rather to Filippo
Mazzola/
Besides Boltraffio's " St. Barbara," and Melzi's " Yer-
tumnus and Pomona," a third little picture of the Leo-
nardine school attracted my attention
particularly I ;

mean the charming figure of " Caritas" (No, 109), men-

tioned in the catalogue as a work of B. Peruzzi, but which,
according to my present (altered) opinion ought rather to
be given to 8odoma. Giovan Antonio Bazzi, for that was
Sodoma's real name, learned the first rudiments of his art
from the painter on glass, Martino Spanzotti of Vercelli,
but only ripened into an artist during the two years he
spent at Milan with Leonardo da Vinci (1498 — 1500).
Sodoma is therefore to be reckoned as one of the Milanese-
Lombard school. Nay, I believe I should not be far
wrong were I to maintain that the majority of the better
works ascribed to Leonardo in private collections are by
Giovan Antonio Bazzi. Thus, the magnificent Leda
(Room I. of the Borghese Gallery) was, until a few years
ago, ascribed to Vinci himself, and has only of late been
banished into the Leonardine school ; so a small and much
darkened Madonna at the Town Gallery of Bergamo
(Section Lochis, No. 207) still bears the name of Leonardo,
though every connoisseur must recognise it as a work of
Sodoma and so with several other Madonnas in private
;

collections, both in Italy and in England." Young Bazzi,

while at Milan, seems to have taken Leonardo for his

^ There are some five pastil-drawings by Boltraffio, almost life-size,

in the Ambrosiana, under the name of Leonardo da Vinci ; two, repre-
senting a man and his wife, are extraordinarily beautiful.
- Also the Head of Christ in Indian-ink at the Albertina, Vienna

(Braun, No. 90), belongs rather to Bazzi than to Leonardo.

 .

THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 429

model, not only in art, but even in personal appearance

and fancies. All his life he loved to play the cavalier,
and like Leonardo, always kept saddle-horses in his
stable, and all kinds of queer animals in his house (see
Vasari)
Again, if many of his works are ascribed to Vinci, it
isnot so very long ago that the beautiful drawing in red
—
chalk at the Albertina the sketch for his " Marriage of
Alexander and Roxana " was hailed by high and low,—
. the specialist Passavant included, as an uncommonly fine
drawing by Raphael of Urbino.'^ In the same Albertina,
the fine life-size portrait, in black chalk, of a Young Man
with long hair and black cap, seen in front, was likewise
ascribed to Raphael, till the practised eye of Director
Moritz Thausing gave it back to its true author, Sodoma.
A similar male portrait ia black chalk, at the British

^ The three large wall-paintings by Sodoma in tlie upper storey of the

Farnesina represent — (1) Young Alexander breaking-in Bucephalus;
this fresco, utterly disfigured by a barbarous restoration, has for some
time been ascribed to Vasari (2) The Marriage of Alexander and
;

Roxana ; (3) the Family of Darius before Alexander. The Uffizi has a,
pen-and-ink sketch by Sodoma for the Marriage of Alexander, there
ascribed to the "school of Raphael" (Philpot, No. 1145). There cer-
tainly exists awashed drawing also by Raphael which represents the
marriage of Alexander with Roxane. This fine di'awing, however, is
not to be found at the Albertina in Vienna, but is amongst the collection
at Windsor Castle (vol. ii. Raphael's drawings). This remarkable fact
might perhaps be explained thus Raphael painted, as it appears, his
:

so-called Galathea at the Farnesina, where in the upper storey of the

same palace Sodoma was executing his Alexander frescoes. Sodoma
may have shown to his friend Raphael his drawing (at Vienna), in red
chalk, for the marriage of Alexander, and he, large-hearted as ever,
may have modified his sketch. It is in this way that I explain to myself
the origin of the Raphael drawing at Windsor. Sodoma in his fresco
kept closer to the modified drawing of his friend (at Windsor) than to
bis own (at Vienna).
430 BERLIN.

Museum, is photographed by Braun under the name of

Raphael (No. 94-95).
On the other hand, an excellent, though partly repainted
Portrait of a Lady, by Sodoma, goes among the paintings
of the Stadel Institute, Frankfort (No. 22), under the name
of Fra Sebastiano del Piombo.^
On this occasion we cannot refrain from noticing that
the magnificently decorated ceiling of the so-called Camera
della Segnatura in the Vatican, was thought so perfect by
Raphael himself, that he not only left it as it was, but
testified his esteem for Sodoma by introducing his portrait
(by the side of his own, and that of his literary adviser,
in the " Scuola d'Atene."
"
Count Castiglione)
Some years ago, basing my judgment on a photograph,
I ascribed the " Caritas " in the Berlin Gallery to Bal-
thasar Peruzzi ; but on seeing the picture itself I retracted

that opinion, for I became convinced that this lovely

" Caritas " (No. 109) showed much more the work of
Sodoma himself than of his imitator Peruzzi. It seems to
me that both the form of hand in the " Caritas " and the
type of head in the Putti (though greatly disfigured by

^ Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ii. 355) also take this female
portrait for a work of Piombo, but remark at the same time that it

reminded them of Bronzino, i.e. of a Tuscan. In this painting I request

the special attention of my young friends to the landscape, the for-
mation of the hand, and the almond-shaped eye so characteristic of
Sodoma. In England, as elsewhere out of Italy, the works of Sodoma
are seldom to be met with. There is in Lord Elcho's collection a fine
Tondo, representing the Holy Family with the infant St. John. The
collection of Mr. Francis Cook at Richmond contains a poetically con-
ceived representation of St. George fighting the Dragon.
^ The man garment and white cap, near Raphael, repre
in a white
sents not (as is who never had anything to
generally thought) Perugiuo,
do in this room, and was also much older than the man represented
here, but Sodoma, who had decorated the ceiling of the room.
 THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 431

restoration), and, moreover, the landscape in the back-

ground, reveal altogether the manner of Bazzi.^
Balthasar Peruzzi, of whom
no German collection of
pictures has a single specimen that I know of, was for a
considerable time an imitator of Sodoma, as anyone can
see at a glance by his fine wall-painting at the Ponzetti
chapel in S. Maria della Pace. At a later time he was
also influencedby Raphael.- Herr Albert Jansen (" Life
and Works of the Painter G. A. Bazzi," 1870), remarks
very correctly " Sodoma had a poetic soul, full of glowing
:

and deep feeling, a richly-endowed creative mind, but no

inclination for severe, earnest work. Never did man more
freely indulge his whims ; never did artist live more un-
concernedly under the influence of his genius. He cared
little and others still less for him. Sodoma
for others,
therefore never worked as he might have worked, and was
esteemed less than he was worth."
After these few remarks on Boltraf&o and Giovan
Antonio Bazzi, my readers will allow me to dwell a
moment on the picture of " Vertumnus and Pomona,"
because for a long time it has been ascribed to a master of
whom not a single authentic work has come down to us :

I mean Francesco Melzi. In uttering this name I would

first of all put the preliminary question : Was there ever,
in the true sense of the word, a painter Melzi ? In spite

1 Herr von Kestner of Hanover, a warm friend of Italy and her art,
possesses a " Roman Lucretia " by Sodoma, with the same type of head
as the " Caritas " at Berlin.
^ Proof of such influence is to be found, amongst other pictures of

Peruzzi, in his " Presentation of Mary in the Temple " at S. Maria

della Pace, Eome ; in the cartoon representing the adoration of the Magi,
at the National Gallery, London ; and the fine drawing representing the
same subject in the library of the Castle of Sigmaringen.
 —

432 BERLIN.

of all my researches I have not succeeded in finding an

authentic picture of this friend (and partly pupil) of
Leonardo da Vinci. Vasari breathes not a syllable about
a pcdnter of that name, though he says in his life of
Leonardo " Of the said anatomical drawings of Leonardo
:

the greater part is in the hands of Master Francesco di

Melzo, a Milanese nobleman, who in Leonardo's time was an
exceedingly handsome lad, and had his entire affection,
even as he is now (in 1566) a right goodly and gracious

senior, and for remembrance keepeth these drawings and

sundry papers of Leonardo, &c."
In Vasari's words we find not the slightest allusion to
any artistic talent of Melzi. Some ten years later the
pompous Lomazzo published his " Trattato della Pittura,"
in which he compliments Melzi as a "wonderful miniature
painter."^ InTow, everyone who is even superficially ac-
quainted with Italian history knows that drawing was at
that time part of the regular education of a perfect
gentleman." On the other hand, the Marchese Campori
of Modena some years ago, a letter from
published,
Bendedei, the ambassador at Milan, to his
Ferrarese
master, Duke Alfonso d'Este of FeiTara, from which we
might infer that Melzi really was a painter. The letter
is dated 1523, and runs as follows: "Et perche ho fatto
mentione de la casa de Melzi, aviso a V. Ex. che un

^ Lomazzo, Trattato, etc. (i. 1 74) :

•'
Secondo che mi ha raccontato il

Sig. Francesco Melzi, suo disccpolo, grandissimo miniatoreP

• Amongst others, see Dolce's " Dialogo della Pittura,'' p. 130
(Florence edition, 1735) :
" E oggidi qui in Venezia Monsignor Barbaro
eletto Patriarca d'Aquileia, Signor di gran valore e d' infinita bonta ; e
parimente il dotto gentilomo M. Francesco IMorosini, i quali due diseg-
nano e dipingono leggiadramente ; altre una infinita di altri gentil-
uomini, che si dilettano della pittura ; tra i quali v' e il Magnifico M.
Alessandro Contarini, non meno ornato di lettere che di altre vh*tü."
 THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 433

fratello di questo che ha gostrato (i.e., giostrato, jousted

in a tournament), fu creato (pupil) de Lionardo da Vinci,
et herede, et ha molti de' suoi secret! et tutte le sue
opinioni, et di/pinge molto hen, per quanto intendo (i.e. by
what I hear), et nel sue ragionare mostra d' avere iuditio,
et e gentilissimo giovane. L' ho pregato assai volte che el

venghi a Ferrara, promettendogli che Y. S. 11 vedra con

buona ciera, et dopo ch' io son venuto 1' ho replicato ad un
suo Barba (uncle), gentilhomo molto da ben et honorato,
ch' e a lui non ho potuto dirlo, perche sta in Villa per la
febbre quartana. Se piacera a V. Ex. ne faro ancora
maggiore istantia. Credo ch' egli habbia quelli libriccini
de Lionardo de la Notomia, et de molte altre belle cose.
— Di V. Illma et Exma Sa Servo Alberto Bendedei. Di —
Milano, 6 de Marzo, 1523."
Unless I am blinded by a preconceived opinion, this very
letter of contemporary plainly suggests that Melzi
a
painted indeed, but only as an amateur. But presently
out of Lomazzo's miniaturist and Bendedei's amateur, up
springs the painter Melzi, ^ and he being a nobleman
besides,would of course be presented to us as the most
eminent of Leonardo's pupils. Then came the collectors,
hunting for the works of this rare master, and, ere long,
to meet the demand, appeared also the forgers, who put the
name of Melzi under any picture they pleased that was of

^ Giannambrogio Mazzenta, in the last years of the sixteenth century,

remarks in a note on that Leonardo Codex, which was afterwards used

for the first edition of the ' Trattato della Pittura " " Francesco
:

Melzo, suo scolare ed erede, erasi avvicinato piii che altro alia maniera
del Vinci ; lavorb poco, perch' era ricco, ma i suoi quadri sono ben
finiti e sovente confondonsi coi lavori del maestro." Mazzenta, how-
ever, specifies none of these works of Melzo. See " Amoretti, Memorie
storiche sulla vita di Lionai'do da Vinci," 1804 (p, 130).
P P
 —

434 BERLIN.

the Milanese-Lombard school, and of the first half of the

sixteenth century. Several of these forgeries have come
under my notice ; one of them, perhaps the clumsiest of
all, is in the house of Dute Lodovico Melzi d'Eril at
Milan. It is a half-length portrait of a young man with
a parrot in his right hand, and bears the signature,
" FR. MELZIVS," a very stupid work by some Florentine
of the latter half of the sixteenth century. On the other
hand, a small drawing in red chalk, exhibited in the Ambro-
siana among the drawings of Leonardo, might be of great
importance to the solution of our question. We see in
profile the bald head of an elderly man, and read at the
top of the page :
" 1510 a di 14 Augusto, cavata de
relevo," consequently copied from a bust —a proof that
Melzi at that time did not yet draw from nature, and was
still but a beginner. At the bottom of the page are the
words, "Franceschp da Melzo de anni 17," so that Melzi
was born in 1493. This head is thoroughly Leonardesque,
both as to character and in the form of the ear. It seems
likely, therefore, that Melzi, then seventeen years old,

copied the head, perhaps from a model in wax by Leonardo,

which may be alluded to in the " per cavata de rilievo."
And the corrections made in the position of the ear and
in the outlines suggest that the master Leonardo may
Lave had his hand in the business. The writing has the
characteristics of the first half of the sixteenth century.^

1 Leonardo himself in his Will calls Melzi " Messer Francesco " :

" Item, the said testator doth will and derise to Master Francesco da
Melzo, noble of Milan, in consideration of his loving services, all
his books, whereof at present the testator and all the
is possessed,
drawings that pertain to the art of painting. Item, the testator
. . .

wiUs and bequeaths to the aforesaid Messer Francesco Melzo, presente

et acceptante, the residue of his pension (the pension bestowed on
 THE LOMBAED SCHOOL. 435

The " Vertummis and Pomona," at the Berlin Grallery

(No. 222) has not the character of a mere dilettante's
work, but rather indicates that of a painter by profession.
Mons. A. J. Rio (as above, 200), and also director Julius
Meyer, maintain that the original drawing for this picture
is at Windsor. I have searched there, but had not the
luck to find it. To which pupil or imitator of Leonardo
are we then to ascribe this " Yertumnus and Pomona," if
we will not acknowledge Francesco Melzi as its author ?

This question I am, unfortunately, not able to answer

with any degree of confidence.
The pictures by Bernardino Luini and Gaudenzio Ferrari
at the Berlin Gallery were not accessible to the public
during my visit. I shall therefore restrict myself to
adding a few details to the information given in the cata-
logue on the lives of these two chief representatives of the
Lombard-Milanese School. >

According to Argellati ("Script. Mediol.," ii. 816),

Bernardino was the son of Giovanni Lutero, of Luino, a
village on the Lago Maggiore. "We are still in the dark
about the year of his birth but, anyhow, instead of the
;

commonly-accepted year 1470, I would place it in the

interval between 1475 and 1480. I think Messrs. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle (ii. 43) are wrong in making Luini a
pupil of Leonardo. His large picture, the " Lamentation

Leonardo by Francis I.), et Summa de danari quäl a lui (Leonardo) sono

debiti del passato fino al di della sua morte per il Tesaurario general
M. Joban Sapin .... et similmente el dona et concede al dicto de
Melze tucti et ciascheduni suoi vestimenti quali ha al presente ne lo dicto
loco de Cloux, tarn per remuneratione di boni et grati serritii a lui facti,
che per Ii suoi salarii, vacationi et fatiche ch' el potra avere circa la
executione del presente Testamento .... 23 April, 1518." Francesco
Melzi, in his letter to Leonardo's brother at Florence, calls the master
" mio quanto optimo patre."
 ^ —

436 BERLIN.

over Christ,"^ in the choir of S. Maria della Passions at

Milan, which might well be the earliest of his known
works (of about 1505 — 10), exhibits him still as a tho-
roughly Lombard master, without the slightest trace of
Leonardine influence, but plainly betraying the school of
Ambrogio Borgognone, together with sundry influences of
Bramantino.^
It is when we come to his second manner (about 1510
20) that the imitation of Leonardo shows itself in his
works.
In his third or "blond" manner, as it is called (1520
29), Luini comes out in the fulness and freedom of his
independence. His best works are doubtless of this period,
e.g., the cycle of frescoes in the Monastero Maggiore,

1 At the top of this interesting picture we see the risen Saviour

between two angels these three figures, as also the two bishops in the
;

body of the picture, and still more the landscape, remind us very clearly
of Borgognone ; then one of the Marys, the one with folded hands and a
pink kerchief on her head, recalls Bramantino. The two apostles, Peter
and Paul, at the extreme ends of the Predella, look as if painted by
Gaudenzio Ferrari.
2 Until a short time ago Bramantino's Putto, painted al fresco (No. 7

of the Brera Gallery), and his " St. Martin " (No. 8), passed for works
of Luini and, per contra, Luini's two giants (Hercules and Atlas
;

painted grey in grey, in the cortile of the Palazzo Melzi, Borgonuovo,

Milan), are ascribed to Bramantino. In the same way the small
" Pietä " in the house Marietti (Piazza S. Sepolcro) at Milan, is
generally taken for a Bramantino, whilst I do not hesitate for a moment
to assign this interesting little picture to the youth of Luini. The
frescoes painted for the Convent delle Vetere, now in the Brera, may
also be of the master's early (Borgognonesque) period (No. 23, " Eesur-
rection of Christ No. 39, " Thomas Aquinas," etc.).
;
"

3 "Virgin and Child" in the

I assign to this epoch, for instance, the
Brera (No. 89) ; " Modestia e Vanita," Sciarra Colonna, Eome ; the
large " Holy Family " in the Ambrosiana the " Virgin and Child, with
;

Saints Catherine and Barbara," at the Town Gallery of Pesth (No. 173);
the " Madonna " at the Louvre, etc.
 THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 437

Milan; "Mary with the Child," at the widow Arconati-

Visconti's, Milan ; the glorious polyptych in the parish
church of Legnano ; the frescoes at Saronno ; the three
pictures in Como Cathedral ; the frescoes at Lugano.
After the year 1529 we lose all trace of Luini ; he may
therefore have died about that time.'^ The greatest part
of his pictures are not signed ; I know only four that
bear his name, and all four belong to this his last period.^
According to Lomazzo, both Luini and his rival Caudenzio
Ferrari cultivated poetry as well as painting.^

^ If we may Capuchin monk F, Salvatore, there is a wall-

believe the
painting at the Capuchin convent of S. Vittore all' Olmo^ Milan, of the

year 1547, begun by Bernardino and finished by his son Anselio. Did
the good padre invent the names of the father and the son to enhance the
value of the picture at his convent ? See " Archivio Storico Lombardi/'
foot-note 3, vol. ii. (269).
^ Bernardino Luini left Milan at the end of 1523 to settle at Legnano,
where he stayed about a year, and painted amongst other things the
magnificent polyptych just mentioned. The contract for this, his prin-
cipal work, was drawn up by the notary *' I'lsolano " in 1523, and signed
by the respective parties in the archbishop's palace at Milan. A copy
of this contract is preserved in the archives of the parish church of
Legnano. In 1525 Luini completed his frescoes at Saronno; in the
following year he worked at Como, whence he made an excursion to
Ponte in the Valteline, and there painted on the wall over the church-
door the beautiful lunette of " Mary and St. Martin." Finally, in 1528
and 1529, he executed his frescoes at Lugano.
^ Drawings by Luini are scarce. Like Gaudenzio Ferrari, he used
black chalk and gypsum, as well as the pen and sepia. I will here men-
tion a few of them. The Ambrosiana at Milan possesses several studies
of children in Indian-ink, and a " St. Tobias before his Father," drawn
in black chalk and heightened with gypsum ; the Academy of Yenice,
an "Expulsion from Paradise," black chalk (Perini, 199); the collec-
tion of the Louvre, two very beautiful heads of children on yellow-
grounded paper (Nos. 237 and 238 of the catalogue), quite characteristic
of Luini, though M. Eeiset seems to doubt their genuineness lastly, ;

the Albertina at Vienna may boast of possessing a good drawing of the

master in its " Christ Among the Doctors " (No. 75). This is a study
438 BERLIN.

Lomazzo, wiio as a boy may liave known Gaudenzio

Ferrari in his old age, and, at all events, as a pupil of one
of his pupils, was in a good way to know all about his
artistic training, represents him first as a pupil of Scotto
at Milan, and then of Bernardino Luini. To the first
statement we can say neither yes nor no, as no other
writer makes mention of Scotto, and we know of no
authentic work of his but it seems quite likely that
;

Luini at a certain period had a great influence on Gaudenzio,

his junior by some six or eight years. We have evidence
of this, not only in the seated female figure with the two
Putti, which among the drawings at the Venetian Academy
is ascribed to Luini (Perini, Xo. 198), though it is by

Gaudenzio but quite as much also in the frescoes painted

;

for the church S. Maria della Pace at Milan, now exhibited in

the Brera Gallery under the name of Luini, and numbered
1, 4, 40, 41 (" Presentation in the Temple "), 62 (" Nurture
of Mary"), 67 (" Dream of St. Joseph"). Though ascribed
in the Brera Catalogue to B, Luini, the forms, the types of
the head, and the freer handling of the brush, point rather
to Gaudenzio and his school.^
An old tradition credits Perrari with a precocity of
talent ; having regard to this, and still more to certain

for LuiDi's celebrated picture at the National Gallery, London. Among

the valuable drawings in the collection of Mr. Malcolm of Poltalloch,
London, there is the coloured portrait of Biagio Arcimboldi, bearing the
signature " Bernardino Lovino fa."' The Museum of Christ Church
College, Oxford, also contains a genuine drawing of his, under the false
name of Leonardo da Vinci. It is executed in black chalk and gypsum.
This cycle of frescoes may perhaps have been executed by an able
^

assistant from Gaudenzio's cartoons. They are on no account to be

ascribed to Luini. Several other frescoes by the same hand, but stUl
under the name of Luini, are in the jMuseo Archeologico of the Brera,
and have likewise come from S. Maria della Pace.
 —

THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 439

habits that clung to him all his life, and which remind us
of Macrino d'Alba and the Oldoni of Vercelli, it seems to

me not improbable that he had already acquired the first

rudiments of his art at Vercelli, before coming to Milan ;

not indeed, as Bordiga and other of his followers would

have us believe, from the weak-minded Girolamo Giove-
none, who was from six to eight years his junior,^
but more likely from Macrino d'Alba.' At Milan, how-
ever, Gaudenzio must have visited, not only the studios
of Scotto and Luini, but also that of Bramantino. This
master's influence on him is, I think, apparent in his four
little panel pictures (Nos. 52, 53, 57, and 58) at the Turin
Gallery, and in the habit (which he retained almost all his
life) of throwing the light on his figures from below, after
the manner of Bramantino.^

^ Prof. Colombo, of Moncalieri, rightly considers Gio. Giorenone to

have been younger than Gaudenzio ; he places his birth in the year
1491 ("Vita e opere di Gaudenzio Ferrari, per Giuseppe Colombo,"
1881, p. 9).
^ Gaudenzio may probably have taken from Macrino d'Alba (who
in his turn, had boiTOwed it fi'om Ambrogio Borgognone) the low,
broad canopy o^er his A-radonnas, the type of head in his Apostle Paul
(No. 33 in the Turin Gallery, of the year 1506), as well as other things.
The earliest known picture by Girolamo Giovenone, is dated 1514, and
is to be found in the Timn Gallery, No. 43. In his later period he
imitated Gaudenzio Ferrari, as anyone can see by his painting in
]\Iortara church, there ascribed to Gaudenzio. Two other pictures of
Giovenone's are also attributed to Gaudenzio both are in the Malaspina
;

Gallery at Pavia, one representing four Fathers of the Church, the other
eight Saints bearing the cross.
^ To give an instance accessible to all, there is in the Uffizi collection
at Florence a washed drawing, of Gaudenzio's middle period (1520
1525), a study for his large wall-painting "The Crucifixion," in the
well-known chapel at Varallo. At Florence this drawing is curiously
enough ascribed to Giorgione, and is photographed as such by Philpot,
No. 1350.
440 BERLIN.

In 1508 Gaudenzio, then about twenty-four years old,,

was commissioned to paint a picture for a church at

Vercelli. A copy of the contract is possessed by Padre
Bruzza at Rome/ In this document Gaudenzio is called
Gaudentius de Vincio de Varali. Vinci was the name of
his mother's family ; it is a surname that still holds its

ground in the Valduggia. And that explains why Gau-

denzio, in 1511, still signs himself Gaudentius Vincius on
his magnificent triptych in the church of Arena (G.
Colombo's "Vita," p, 49). In a document of 1514 he is

for the first time called Gaudentius de Ferariis Vallis

Sicide (Val Sesia) ; see Colombo, p. 296. In the same year,
1508, he married his first wife, by whom he had two children.
If I mistake not, it was Federico Zuccari that first set

the fable afloat, that Gaudenzio studied for some time

under Perugino at Perugia, together with Raphael, there-
fore between 1500 and 1508.' This again seems to me
one of those bare assertions devoid of all foundation, with

1 G. Colombo's " Vita," pp. 286 and 288.

^ Baldinucci, and then the Perugians Orsini and Mezzanotte, repeat
it after Zuccari; next, Baron Kumohr (vol. viii. p. 88) explains to us,
that Gaudenzio Ferrari, as well as E. Garofalo, learned the new technic
of painting from Raphael and Michel Angelo (consequently after 1514),
and so introduced it into Lombardy But Passavant goes farther, and
!

remarks: "Eaffael se lia encore vers 1502 avec I'aimable et habile (!)
Gaudenzio Ferrari de Valduggia. Leur amitie devint si e'troite que
Gaudenzio accoinpagna Rafael ä Borne, et, sauf de rares intervalles, il
resta son inseparable compagnon." That is how art history was written
only forty years ago. Now-a-days we at least know from written
documents, that Gaudenzio Ferrari passed his life exclusively in Lorn-
bardy, where nearly all his works are stiH to be found at Vercelli, at ;

Milan, at Turin, at Novara, and all up the Valsesia as far as Varallo

(Colombo's " Vita," p. 302). Without authentic proofs we have no right
to assume that Gaudenzio ever lived for any length of time in Tuscany,
or at Perugia, or at Rome. And in the whole of Central Italy we should
look in vain for any works of his. Vasari (in his life of Garofalo) says :
 ;

THE LOMBARD SCHOOL. 441

which the history of Italian painting is so richly inter-

larded. The influence of Perugino or of Raphael is not
more and not less perceptible in Ferrari's paintings than
in those of nearly all the great masters of that happy
period, generally called the golden age of Italian art,

during which Gaudenzio and Luini hold much the same

place in their own school, the Milanese, as Raphael does
in the Umbrian, Oavazzola and Carotto in the Veronese,
Garofalo and Dosso in the Ferrarese, and Fra Bartolommeo
and Andrea del Sarto in the Florentine.
Gaudenzio, it is true, has not the gi-ace of Luini, neither
are hisworks so perfect in execution as those of his rival
but take him for all in all, as regards inventive genius,
dramatic life, and picturesqueness, he stands far above
Luini. In his hot haste Ferrari often loses his balance,
and becomes quaint and aflPected many of his larger com-
;

positions, too, are overcrowded with figures but in his

;

best works he is inferior to very few of his contemporaries,

and occasionally, as in some of those groups of men and
women in the great " Crucifixion " at Varallo, he might
challenge a comparison with Raphael himself.
The drawings of this great but not sufficiently known
and appreciated master are mostly executed on the method
introduced into the Lombard schools by Vincenzo Foppa,
that is, in black chalk and gypsum on blue-grounded
paper; later in life he sometimes used Indian-ink. His
finest drawings are to be found in the Royal Library at
Turin ; the Ambrosiana also possesses several, two or
three of which, set by the side of Bramantino's drawings,

" Gaudenzio Terrari, a painter of the Milanese, that was reputed a

skilful master while he lived, painted at S. Celso." etc.
; but neither he
nor Lomazzo hints at any connection between him and Perugino or
Raphael.
442 BERLIN.

would show more convincingly than all discussion the

partial descent of Gaudenzio as an artist from Bartolom-
meo Suardi, called Bramantino.^

CONCLUSION
And now let these Critical Studies, with all their
deficiencies, come to an end; perhaps they have already
tired out the patience of my young friends. In a time
like ours, when the pulse of life beats faster with the
thousand fascinations and excitements which this beautiful
world affords, it was no doubt a double sin in me to expect
a youthful mind, aspiring to the highest enjoyments of art,
to fritter his time on such prosaic, unsesthetic first-

studies, dealing with mere material form, at the risk of

cooling, if not quenching, his enthusiasm for "real high art."
On the other hand, there is consolation in the firm con-
viction, ripened by long exjDerience, that without these
studies of form and detail, our so-called science of art will
never be more than a building reared on sand.
The attire in which these Critical Essays come before the
public is, alas ! so careless as to be almost inadmissible ; and
perhaps I am quite as conscious of it as any of my indul-
gent readers. But the plain truth is, I am not a literary

^ A
few such drawings by Gaudenzio are in the collection of the
Uffizi; for instance, Mary in a Glory of Angels (No. 198), and Mary
with the Child and Two i^.ngels (No. 238), under the false name of
Giacomo Francia. There is no picture by Gaudenzio in the National
Gallery, London. One of the finest panel-pictures he ever executed is
at Dorchester House, London, in the collection of Mr. Holford. It
represent s the Holy Family with Cardinal Taverna of Milan in adoration.
Sir Henry Layard's collection, so rich in excellent Italian pictures, con-
tains an Annunciation by Gaudenzio, and also a Madonna -picture by
Bernardino Luini.
 CONCLUSION. 443>

man, and, with the best will in the world, I have not
managed to turn out one of your majestic, well-rounded,,
awe-inspiring paragraphs. And if I had succeeded, why,
my plain, unpretending, matter-of-fact thoughts must have-
cut a ludicrous figure in so gorgeous a garb ; for, what
says the proverb ? " Only gems deserve to be set in gold."

I piiblish these Critical Studies solely with the hope

of encouraging young and as yet unprejudiced students,
who visit Italy for the purpose of studying Italian art, to
make an independent and searching inspection of the
actual worhs of the masters ; and also with the purpose of
stimulating them not to take the matter too easily, like
those who, after three or four flying visits to the Penin--
sula, find they "know all about Italian art." It is easy
enough to sestheticize and philosophize about art, without
taking the slightest notice of the worTis of art; and so
long as these well-meant exercitations are only looked
upon as an intellectual pastime, well and good though ;

one would think the mind of man might find some more
wholesome nutriment than wind.
I can see that many of the thoughts hastily thrown off in

these Studies require fuller development only that course ;

would have led me too far aside from my immediate aim.

Thus, where I speak of naturally artistic and non-artistic
races, I ought to have sketched out a sort of art-
geography, so as to convince my readers of the literal
truth of my was only by utterly ignoring this
thesis. It
doctrine, that it could have occurred to anyone to make,
for instance, Mccolo Pisano suddenly emerge out of a tribe
which had always shown itself destitute of the art-instinct.^

^ See E. Dobbert, " On the Style of Niccola Pisano," and that meri-
torious little book, "Italian Studies," by H. Hettner, pp. 3—10.
444 CONCLUSION.

And where in Apulia could Pisano have found an outlet

for his industry ? The Neapolitan races have never shown
a feeling for bounded form, for contour nowhere among
;

them do we find a native school of painting or of sculpture.

Per contra, they have given Italy her greatest musicians
and philosophers.
Again, my division of art-history into several periods,
organically grown out of each other, might well have been
set before the reader with more method and precision.
I am well aware of all these and many other defects.
Should these my humble Critical Studies nevertheless
find favour with young students of art, I shall hope that
I do not this day take leave of them for ever.
 INDEX.
AGOSTmOdaCayersegno, 180. Beccafumi, 61, 99.
Albani, 58. Bellini, Gentile, 10, note, 139.
AlbertineUi, 74, 75. Bellini, Giovanni, 8, 9, 10, 41, 110,
Altichiero, 397. 137, 214, 215, 361-363.
Amadeo, 6, note 2, 421. Bellini, Jacopo, 6, 357.
Amalteus, 52. Bellunello, Andrea, 23.
Andrea del Sarto, 203. BeltraffiO; see Boltraffio.
Angelo di Baldassare, 261. Bellotto, 197.
Antonello da Messina, 104, note, 140, Bembo, Benedetto, 187.
141, 376-389. Bembo, Bonifazio, 187, 410.
Antonio da Ferrara, 104, note. Bembo, Giov. Franc, 405, note 1,

Antonio da Messina, 387, note 1. Benaglio, 12.

Antonio da Murano, 357. Bevilacqua, 199, 411, 4l5.
Ai'agonese, see Eagonese. Bianchi, 121, 238-240.
Aspertini, 235, 244. Bicci, 261.
Bissolo, 373.
Badiü, 261. Boccaccino, Bartolomeo, 60.
Bagnacavallo, see ßamenghi. Boccac-ino, Bixcaccio, 60.
Balducci, Matteo, 349. Boltraffio, 413, 425-428.
Barbari, Jacopo de', see Jacopo. Bonfigli, 257, 261.
Bartolomeo (Venetian sculptor), 5. Bonifazi, 17, 51.
Bartolomeo da Murano, 358, 359. Bonifazio (Veronese), senior, 28, 31,
Bartolomeo, Fra, della Gatta, 73, 74, 184-194.
98, 224. Bonifazio (Veronese),junior, 28, 184-
Bartolomeo, Veneto, 138. 194.
Basaiti, 360. Bonifazio, Veneziano, 178, 184-194.
'446 INDEX.
Bono, 11. Cesare da Sesto, 62, 225, 412, note 1,
Bonsignori, 103, note 1. 413.
Bordone, 45, 51, 195. Cliiodarolo, 235.
Borgognone, 198, 411, 415, 419-421. Cima da Conegliano, 368.
Boselli, 4. Civerchio, 398, note 3, 411.
Botticelli,201, 202, 2-24,235,236,342. Colantonio, 379.
Bramante, 249. Conti, Bernardino dc', 62, 411, 413,
Bramantino, 6, note 2, 65,250, 411, 421-425.
415, 436, note 2. Correggio, 36,37, 38, note 1, 58, 59,
Brescianino, Andrea del, 74. 120-136, 166, 220.
Bronzino, 350. Cossa, 57, 103, 106-109.
Bugatto, 410. Costa, 57, 106-109, 233-240.
Buonconsiglio, 365, note 1. Credi, Lorenzo di, 73, 206-209,218,
Buttinone, 410, 415-41S. 219, 224, 355. .

Crivelli, Carlo, 102.

Calderari, 23, 188, note 1.

Calendario, 5. Dario, 102, 369, note 1.

Caliari, Carletto, and Gabriel, 197. Diana, 24.

da Lodi, 405, note 1.
•Callisto Domenico di Bartolo, 260.
Cambiaso, Luca, 225. Domenichino, 58.
Camelo, 1 0, note. Dosso, Battista, 115, 116, 119.
Campagnola, Dom., 196, 216, 222. Dosso Dossi, 6, 114-120, 123, 241,
Canaletto, 197. 242.
Caporale, Bart., 261. Dürer, 35, 104, note, 365.
Caprioli, Dom., 55.
Caravaggio, Michelangelo da, Poli- Ercole, Grandi, see Grandi.
doro da, and Prato da, see under Ercole, Roberti, see Grandi.
M. and P. Eusebio da San Giorgio, 313, 314,
Cariani, Giov., 5, 17,"31, 152, 153, Eyck, Tan, 376, 377.
192, 193, 409.
Carlevaris, Luca, 197. Falconet to, 250.
Camevali, Fra, 226, 250. Farinato, Paolo, 27, 223.
Carotto, 51, 52, 53, 89, 103, note 1, Fasolo, Bernardino, 197, 412.
395, note 1. Fasolo, Giovan Antonio, 197.
Carpaccio, 214, 375. Fasolo Lorenzo, 412.
Carpi, Gir., 115, 119, 120. Ferramola, 406, note.
Carracci, 58, 89. Ferrari, 412.
Castagno, Andrea del, 102, 205. Ferrari, Defendente, 413.
Castiglione, 227. Ferrari, Gaudenzio, 51, 220, 435,
Catena. 150, 151, 179, note, 372. 438-442.
Cavazzola, 53, 54. Feti, 59.
Cavedone, 58. Fiesole, see Giovanni da Fiesole.
 IXDEX. 447

Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, 80, 262. 263. Guercino, 58.

Flor, De, 356. Guido da Siena. 260.
Florigerio, 23. 24. Guido Reni, 58.
Foppa, 6, note 2, 51, 102, 398, 410,
411,418. Jacopello de Bonomo, 356, note 1.

Francia, Francesco, 56, 57, 136, 234, Jacopo de" Barbari, 141-150, 224.
243, 244. Johannes Alemanus, 5.
Francia, Giacomo and Giulio, 243, Johannes de Boccatis, 261.
245.
Franciabi^o, 349. Leonardo da San Daniele, 23.
Francucci, 58, 247. Leonardo da Vinci, 8, 37, 61-62, 87-
95, 124, 125, 206-210, 217-219,
Galassi, 104, note. 223,411.
Galeazzi, 403, note 1. Leopardi, 6.

Galizzi, 17. Liberale, 6, 51, 88, 102, 395. note 1.

Gambara, 405, note 1. Lippi, Filippino,72,78, 216,235,236,
G^ofalo, 56, 114-120, 123, 241, 242. 342.
Gavazzi. 4. Lippi, Filippo, 70-72, 102. 235, 341.
Genga, Gir., 251. Lodi, Callisto, see CaUisto.
Gentile da Fabriano, 5, 11, note 1, Lodo^ico di Angelo, 261.
255, 361, note, 397, Lomazzo, 51.
Ghirlandajo, Domenico, 72, 89, 344. Lombardi, 6. 147.
Ghirlandajo, Ridolfo del, see Ridolfo. Longhi, Luca, 248, 252.
Giarabellini, see Bellini, Giovanni. Longhi, Pietro, 19S.
Giampietrino, 413. Lorenzo di Credi, see Credi.
Giolfino, 52, 103, note 1. Lotto, 29-40, 124, ISO, 181,371,372.
Giorgione, 12, 40-42, 51, 151-16S, Luigi di Francesco Tinghi, 260.
371. Luini, Aurelio, 225.
Giotto, 75, 260. Luini, Bern., 62, 63, 414, 435-438.
Giovanni da Fiesole, 70, 216.
Girolamo dai Libri, 375, note 2, 395, Macrino d'Alba, 412.
396. Magnaseo, 199.
Girolamo da Treviso, 369. Magni, Cesare, 69, 412.
Giovenone, 413. Mainardi, 344.
Giulio Eomano, 52, 212. Mansueti, 10.
Gozzoli, B., 259, 261. Mantegna, 8, 11, 87, 102, 103, 140,
Granacci, 74, 344. 362-367, 391, 392.
Grandi, Ercole Robert i, 106-113. Marchesi, of Cotignola, 247.
Grandi,Ercole di Giulio Cesare, 107, Marco d'Oggionno, 413.
113, 237. Marconi, Rocco, 54, 195.
Grassi, Giov. Batt., 19. Martini, 23.
Grassi, Girol.. 23. Marziale, 361.
448 INDEX.
JIassegne, 5. Palmezzano, Maroo, 248.
Mazzola, Filippo, 418. Panetti, 106, 240, 241.
Mazzolino, 56, 114, 240, 241. Paolino da Pistoja, 99.
Melloni, 405, note 1. Paolo Veronese, 196, 223.
Melozzo da Forli, 248, 249. Pellegrino da San Daniele, 18, 23.
Melzi, 431-435. Pennachi, 368-370.
Meo di Guido, 260. Perugino, 76, 77, 287-291, 310, 311,
Messina, see under Antonello and 313, 315, 327, 328, 335, 336.
Pietro da Messina. Peruzzi, 61, 219, 245, 250, 431.
Miani, 23. Pesellino, 224.
Michelangelo Buonarotti, 125, 126. Pesello, 343.
Michelangelo da Caravaggio, 199. Piazza, 405, note 1.

Michele da Verona, 54. Pier di Cosimo, 200, 201, 343.

Michelino, 410. Piero della Francesca, 102, 226, 260.
Mombello, 403, note 1. Pietro da Messina, 388, 389.
Montagna. Bart., 20, 99, 393. Pietro Paolo da Todi, 227.
Montorfano, Giov. da, 410. Pinturicchio, 210, 264-285, 313, 316,
Monverde, 23. 326-329.
Morando, see Cavazzola. Pisanello, 5, 11,255, 357, note, 395,
Moretti, Cristoforo, 410. note 1.

Moretto, 27, 47-50, 165, 169-171, Polidoro, Veneziano, 177.

399-403. PoUajuolOv Antonio del, 90-97, 102,
Morone, 51, 395, 396. 282, 284, 351-353.
Moroni, 27, 47-51, 178, 409, 410. Pollajuolo, Piero, 351-353.
Morto da Feltre, 18. Ponzoni, 410.
Murano, ste Antonio and Bartolom- Pordcnone, 18,21,23,21 5, 373, note 1.
meo da M. Prandino, 397.
Muziano, Girolomo, 405, note 1. Prato, Fr. da Caravaggio, 195, 405,
note 1.

Nelli, Ottaviano, 254. Predis, Ambi'ogio, 413-415.

Xelli, PlautUla, 223. Previtali, 5, 65, note 2, 178-181.
Niccolo(Alunno)daFoligno,257-259.
Nuzi, Alegretto, 254. Ramenghi da Bagneavallo, 137, 246.
Raphael, 57, 80-85, 97, 98, 210, 221,
Oggionno, ste under Marco d'O. 270-274, 282, 285, 286, 309-317,
Oldoni, 412, 413. 319-326, 328-340, 429.
Eaffaelino del Garbo, 77, 220, 343.
Palma, Antonio, 194. Ragonese, Sebastian, 405, note 1.
Palma, Giacomo, 4, 194. Reni Guido, see Guido R.
Palma, il Giovane, 194. Richini, 403, note 1.

Palma Vecehio, 5, 13-17, 24-31, 45, Riccio, Antonio, 6.

182, 183,373. V-^6. Riccio, Domenico, 222.
 INDEX. 449
Ridolfo del Ghirlandajo, 212, 344- Stefano of Ferrara, 106.
348. Stefano da Zevio, 27, 357, note.
Eoger van der "Weyden, 255. Suardi, see Bramantino.
Eomanino, Hieron ymus, 21, 403-407.
Rondinelli, Niccolo, 9, note 1. Taddeo di Bartolo, 257, 260.
Roselli, Cosimo, 343. Tamarozzo, 246.
Tiarini, 58.
Sacchi, 69. Tintoretto, 194.
Salaino, 413. Titian, 25, note 1, 40-46, 51, 159,
Sanseverino, G. and L. da, 255.
167, 171-177,215,216,222.
Santa Croce, Francesco Rizo da, 5, Tolmezzo Dom. and Gian. Francesco
373. da, 23.
Santa Croce, Girol. da, 5, 27, 374. Toto, 348.
Santa Croce, Pietro Paolo, 5, 375. Torbido, 51-53.
Santi, Giov., 251.
Tiu-a, 103, 106,232, 233, 237, 238.
Savoldo, 407, 408.
Schedone, Bartolomeo, 59, 60.
Uccello, Paolo, 260.
Schiavone, Andrea, 191, note.
Schiavone, Gregorio, 390, 391.
Veronese, see Paolo Veronese.
Scipione of Averara, 4.
Sebastian (Luciani) del Piombo, 133,
Veronese School, 12.
Verrocchio, 73, 89, 353-355.
134.
Viti, Timoteo, 25], 252, 291-310,
Seccante, 23.
317-319, 340.
Signorelli, 200, 217, 224.
Vittore di Matteo, 10, note.
Simone da Pesaro, 58.
Vivarini, 6, 102, 261.
Sodoma, 61, 97, 413, 428-431.
Vivarini, Alvise, 360.
Sogliani, 99.
Vivarini, Bartolomeo, 366.
Solario,Andrea,6,note 2, 64-69,414.
Solai'io, Antonio, 69.
Solario, Cristoforo, 6, note 2, 63, 65, Zavattari, 410.
note 1. Zenale, 410, 415-419.
Spagua, 80, 314, 315. Zenone, 410.
Squarcione, 105, 368, 369. Zoppo, 57, 243.

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