A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools

769. ST. MICHAEL AND THE DRAGON

(Umbrian: 1416-1492). See 665.

Formerly ascribed to Fra Carnovale (Bartolommeo Corradini); but between Piero della Francesca's angels in 908 and the figure of St. Michael here there is a close resemblance, which seems to identify the picture as his.

St. Michael, the angel of war against the dragon of sin, stands triumphant over his foe – emblem of the final triumph of the spiritual over the animal and earthly part of our nature. It is the most universal of all symbols. The victor is different in different ages, but the enemy is always the same crawling reptile. Christian art, from its earliest times, has thus interpreted the text, "The dragon shalt thou trample under feet" (Psalm xci. 13); and in illustrations of Hindoo mythology Vishnu suffering is folded in the coils of a serpent, whilst Vishnu triumphant stands like St. Michael, with his foot upon the defeated monster.

770. LEONELLO D'ESTE

Giovanni Oriolo (Ferrarese: painted about 1450).

Of Oriolo nothing is known. He was probably by birth a Ferrarese, and was evidently a pupil of Pisano (see 776).

Leonello (of whom also there is a medallion portrait in the frame of the picture just referred to), of the house of Este, was Marquis of Ferrara, 1441-1450. His mild and kindly face agrees well with what is known of his life. The one important action of his reign was that of a peacemaker, when he mediated between Venice and the King of Anjou. "He had not his equal," says Muratori, "in piety towards God, in equity and kindness towards his subjects. He was the protector of men of letters and was himself a good Latin scholar."

771. ST. JEROME IN THE DESERT

Bono (Ferrarese: painted about 1450).

In the signature of this picture, "Bono of Ferrara" announces himself "a pupil of Pisano's," and the figure of St. Jerome here much resembles Pisano's "St. Anthony" (776). Bono's other known work is a fresco of St. Christopher in the Eremitani Chapel at Padua. "A clumsy and inferior master," says Morelli (German Galleries, p. 11 n.); "an excellent painter," says Sir F. Burton. His style is, at any rate, precise and effective.

St. Jerome (for whom see 773 and 227) is in the desert, deep in thought; his lion couched at his feet keeps his master's thoughts company as faithfully as a scholar's dog. The desert is here shown as the saint's study; notice, especially, the little table that the rock makes behind him for his books. Ruskin says of a similar modification of accessories to express supernatural character, in Bellini's "St. Jerome" at Venice: "The Saint sits upon a rock, his grand form defined against clear green open sky; he is reading; a noble tree springs out of a cleft in the rock, bends itself suddenly back to form a rest for the volume, then shoots up into the sky. There is something very beautiful in this obedient ministry of the lower creature; but be it observed that the sweet feeling of the whole depends upon the service being such as is consistent with its nature. It is not animated, it does not listen to the saint, not bend itself towards him as if in affection; this would have been mere fancy, illegitimate and effectless. But the simple bend of the trunk to receive the book is miraculous subjection of the true nature of the tree; it is therefore imaginative, and very touching" (Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. ii. ch. v. § 8).

772. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED

Cosimo Tura (Ferrarese: 1420-1495).

Cosimo Tura (pronounced Cosmè in Ferrarese) is the first Ferrarese painter of eminence and of native talent whose works have come down to us. He was a well-to-do citizen, and, like Titian after him, dealt in timber. As an artist he was in the service of Duke Borso of Ferrara (whose portrait is introduced in the background of No. 773), and other members of the princely house of Este. The court of Ferrara was then one of the most learned of Italy. A curious instance occurs in this picture, where, on either side of the Virgin's throne, are inscribed the Commandments, in Hebrew characters. Such inscriptions are common in Ferrarese pictures, and point to the presence of some Hebrew scholar or scholars. It was at this court that Cosimo came under the influence of Flemish art as described below, for the house of Este (which was of Lombard origin, and thus had a natural affinity perhaps for northern art) had invited Roger van der Weyden to Ferrara. Tura was "first employed by the Duke of Ferrara in 1451. Between 1452 and 1456 his whereabouts are uncertain. Possibly he was then in Padua among the followers of Squarcione, or else in Venice, to the poor of which city he left by will part of the fruits of his long and industrious life. In 1458 he rose to a fixed appointment in the Ducal service. He made a fortune, risked it in trade, and died a wealthy man" (Catalogue of the Burlington Fine Arts Club's Exhibition, 1894, p. xv.). Some of his works are to be seen at Ferrara, others are in the Berlin Gallery, at Bergamo, and the Correr Museum at Venice. He is one of the most unmistakable and least fascinating, yet most interesting of painters. Of beauty or grace in the human figure he had no perception. His colour schemes are peculiar, and harmonious rather than beautiful. But he had sincerity of purpose and vigour of manipulation. Where his subjects lend themselves to strength, he is impressive, as in the "St. Jerome" (773), but his Madonnas (772 and 905) are both affected and ugly. His patience in the execution of detail, and quaint if superabundant ornament, are always interesting. The picture now before us is thoroughly characteristic of a master who alternately repels and attracts.

The decorative detail here deserves close attention. Compare, for instance, the ornament of the pilasters here with that of the pilasters in Crivelli's "Annunciation" (739), which was painted about the same time. "Crivelli follows the traditional lines common to all such features from later Roman times downwards, while Tura's accessories are full of inventiveness and are evidently designed for this especial picture. Thus the cup, balls, and wing-like appendages in the pilaster are quite original. The general scheme of colour in the picture, also, with its contrasts of red and green, is quite apart from anything existing in contemporary Italian art, and recalls rather a Flemish stained-glass window of the fifteenth century" (G. T. Robinson in Art Journal, May 1886, pp. 149, 150). The musical instruments are also worth notice. "One of the angels, on the left, holds an ornamental viol, having five strings, with a carved man's head; another angel, on the right, holds a similar viol, with a carved woman's head. In the centre is placed a positive organ – that is, a small organ not intended for removal. The player is on the left, in front of the organ; the blower is on the right, behind it. Only natural keys are visible, but there are three stops to be drawn out from the side, in the primitive way, by means of cords attached to them, to control the pipes, of which thirty are visible and three are drones. These pipes are grouped in columnar disposition, like an hour-glass, and not in the order of ranks usual with small organs. It is noticeable that the player uses both hands, held nearly in the modern position" (A. J. Hipkins in The Hobby Horse, No. i. p. 19).

773. ST. JEROME IN THE DESERT

Cosimo Tura (Ferrarese: 1420-1495). See 772.Jerome knocking at his poor old breastWith his great round stone to subdue the flesh —

and schooling himself into renunciation of the world, the flesh, and the devil. In contrast to the wildness of the surroundings, the painter introduces quite a company of birds and beasts – an owl sits in sedate wisdom above the saint, his familiar lion is walking to the stream for water, and in the crannies and ledges are other animals to keep him company. For it was his union of gentleness and refinement with noble continence, his love and imagination winning even savage beasts into domestic friends, that distinguished St. Jerome and formed the true monastic ideal (see 227).

774. MADONNA AND CHILD

Unknown (Flemish School: 15th century). See also (p. xx)

On the Madonna's right is St. Peter; on her left St. Paul, an arrangement common in early art, St. Peter and St. Paul being the two chief apostles on whom the Church of Christ is built. St. Paul offers a pink to the infant Christ. Flowers were consecrated to the Virgin, and the early painters chose those they liked best to be emblems of love and beauty. Notice the design on the stuff fixed at the back of the Madonna's throne; it is a beautiful example of the ornamental work of the time in northern Europe. The picture was formerly ascribed to Van der Goes – an artist whose only certainly known picture is the altar-piece in the hospital of S. Maria Nuova in Florence, – and is by some ascribed to Bouts (see under 783).

775. AN OLD LADY

Rembrandt (Dutch: 1606-1669). See 45.

An old lady, eighty-three years of age (as the inscription shows). This splendid portrait is dated 1634, and was made therefore when Rembrandt was twenty-eight. His mother was from the first a favourite sitter of his, and hence, perhaps, the affectionate fidelity with which he always painted the wrinkled faces of old age. In the British Museum there is an Indian-ink copy of this portrait, from which it appears that the lady's name was Françoise van Wasserhoven. Rembrandt, says M. Michel, "is most individual and moving in those portraits of old women, in which by the accidents of form and feature he so admirably suggests the moral life."

776. ST. ANTHONY AND ST. GEORGE

Vittore Pisano (Veronese: 1380-1452).

The earliest picture of the Veronese School in the Gallery. "No school of painting in Italy except the Florentine shows," says Morelli, "so regular and uninterrupted a development, from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, as the graceful school of Verona. If we look, for example, at some of the oldest frescoes at St. Zeno, at the frescoes of the great Pisanello in S. Anastasia of the first half of the fifteenth century, at the pictures of Liberale (1134 and 1336) and Domenico Morone (1211), and of their pupils Francesco Morone (285), Girolamo dai Libri (748), Michele da Verona (1214), Giolfino (749), and Morando (735 and 769), and then to Paolo Veronese and his followers, we find everywhere the same cheerful and graceful character looking out of each of these works of the Veronese School. The Veronese do not penetrate so deep into the essence of art as the Venetians, but they are, with few exceptions, more gracious and serene. And to this day the population of this beautifully situated town is reckoned the cheeriest and gayest in all Italy: Veronesi, mezzo natti" (German Galleries, p. 395). In the National Gallery the development of the Veronese School may, as will be seen from the references inserted above, be well studied. The importance and independence of the Veronese painters are shown by the career of Vittore Pisano, commonly called by the endearing diminutive Pisanello. He was born at St. Vigilio, near the Lake of Garda, and was probably a pupil of Altichiero, an older master of the Veronese School, and was famous as the inventor of a method of casting medals; but though better known now as a medallist, in his own day he was equally famous as a painter. In the frame of this picture are inserted casts from two of his medals, and it will be noticed that the lower one – a profile of himself – is inscribed Pisanus Pictor; Pisano the Painter. The medal above is that of Leonello d'Este, his patron, for whom this picture was probably painted, and whose portrait by a pupil of Pisano is in our Gallery (770). At Bergamo is a portrait of Leonello by Pisano himself (reproduced in the Illustrated Catalogue of the Morelli Gallery by Signor Frizzoni). Another evidence of Pisano's practice as a medallist will be noticed in the gilt embossed work of St. George's sword and spurs. Leonello wrote of Pisano as "the most illustrious of all the painters of this age," and contemporary writers similarly extol his fame. In 1421 he was summoned to Venice. "When, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, great monumental works in painting were to be carried out at Venice, the local school was still so insignificant that no native artist could be entrusted with the commission. They were obliged to summon Vittore Pisano, notwithstanding that he had once been on the list of the politically obnoxious, and as such was liable to penal consequences" (Richter). Pisano was accompanied by Gentile da Fabriano. "The presence of those two eminent artists in the city of the Lagoons gave," says Morelli, "a new impulse to its school of painting. Jacopo Bellini became a scholar of Gentile, 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 Antonio Vivarini of Murano also seems to me undeniable… Taking him all in all, I consider that Giovanni Bellini was the greatest painter in North Italy in the fifteenth century, though undoubtedly Pisano was in the first half of the century as great a painter as was Bellini in the second half" (German Galleries, p. 357; Roman Galleries, p. 267). Of Pisano's wall-paintings in the Doge's Palace, in that of the Pope, and in the castles of the foremost princes of the century, no traces remain. His fresco of "St. George mounting for the fight" may be seen in the church of St. Anastasia at Verona. Among his very rare easel-pictures the one now before us is signed and very original in conception; No. 1436 is the most important, and is especially interesting as illustrating Pisano's love of representing animals, and the high reputation he enjoyed for his skill in doing so. "Vittore lived," says Sir F. Burton, "at a time when the traditions and forms of chivalry had not yet died out; and all his works, including his delicate and spirited pen-drawings in the Louvre, have a certain stamp of knightly grace which is singularly attractive: in this respect they resemble the creations of Gentile da Fabriano."

The subject of the picture – a meeting between St. George and St. Anthony, with a vision of the Virgin and Child above – is not to be found in the legends of the saints, and Pisano's conception is quite original. St. George appears to have been a favourite subject with the artist – probably because of the way in which his armour lent itself to medallion-like treatment. There is a good instance of frank anachronism in the large Tuscan hat of Pisano's own day which he quaintly makes St. George wear, "according to the everyday custom of the Italian noblemen at their country-seats in the summer."181 Perhaps too the painter chose St. George partly because he involved a horse and a dragon, and Pisano, says Vasari, "took especial pleasure in the delineation of animals." This may have given him a weakness for the boar of good St. Anthony – the hermit saint whose temptations have passed into a proverb. The saint carries a bell, for "it is said that the wicked spirits that be in the region of the air fear much when they hear the bells ringen," and a staff, another means of exorcising the devil; whilst the boar, now tamed into service, is symbolical of the demon of sensuality which St. Anthony vanquished. And here perhaps we find the clue to the idea in the picture. For the dragon whom St. George slew represents the same sensual enemy. St. George conquered by fighting, St. Anthony by fasting. The two saints now meet when "each on his course alone" has "worked out each a way." The old man, whose life has been spent in struggle, greets the triumphant youth with curious surprise; and St. George too, with the thoughtful look on his face, will have much to say and learn. But over them both, as to all who overcome, the heavens open in beatific vision; for though there be diversity of gifts, it is the same spirit. The signature of the painter (Pisanus pinxit) is fantastically traced by herbage in the foreground.

777. MADONNA AND CHILD

Paolo Morando (Veronese: 1486-1522). See 735.

A picture of great beauty, which goes far to justify the title of "the Raphael of the Veronese School" by which Morando has been distinguished. Every visitor will be struck by the unpretentious simplicity of conception, the rich colours and the sweet faces – with just a dash of Raphaelesque affectation. It is interesting to note that Morando was almost exactly contemporary with Raphael, while his art exhibits a maturity developed under totally different circumstances. For Morando never left Verona, and was thus, says Sir F. Burton, "a pure growth of the native Veronese School. His colouring, though often brilliant, is rather cold; the pale flesh-tints, glossy in surface, are shadowed with grey, and even the lake reds introduced in garments tend towards that purplish hue which the best colourists avoid."

778. MADONNA AND CHILD

Martino da Udine (Venetian: 1470-1547).

Martino of Udine was called also Pellegrino of San Daniele (a village near the former place). According to Vasari, he was a pupil of Giovanni Bellini, who, astonished at the marvellous progress of his pupil, gave him the name of Pellegrino – that is, rare, extraordinary. More probably, however, it should be interpreted merely as a stranger or foreigner at Udine, Martino being of Dalmatian origin (see for a full account and discussion of this painter Morelli's German Galleries, pp. 18-23). He was, says Sir F. Burton, "one of those men who, with little native genius, have yet the capacity of absorbing material from others, and of working it into new forms with success. Thus Pellegrino turned out some works which, while they carry the foreign stamp of Giorgione, Titian, Pordenone, or other great contemporaries, nevertheless show considerable freshness of conception and treatment." His altar-piece, of 1494, in the church of Osopo, shows the influence of Cima da Conegliano. From 1504 to 1512 he was frequently at Ferrara working for the Duke Alfonso. In 1519-1521 he painted a part of the choir of S. Antonio at S. Daniele (the earlier part was painted in 1497); in this, his best work, he appears as an imitator not only of Pordenone but of Romanino. In 1526 he went, apparently for the first time, to Venice, there to buy colours for a large picture which he had engaged to paint for the church of Cividale: that picture shows his study of Palma. Pellegrino combined with painting the business of a timber merchant. "That so mediocre a painter as Pellegrino should have attained high honour in Friuli need," says Morelli, "surprise no one who knows the other painters of that little country. The value of anything in the world is comparative. The Friulan race never manifested the same talent for art as, for instance, their neighbours of Treviso."

On the right of the throne is St. James, with his hand on the shoulder of the donor of the picture; on the left St. George, with the dead dragon at his horse's feet.

779, 780. FAMILY PORTRAITS. 182

Borgognone (Lombard: about 1455-1523). See 298. See also (p. xx)

On the left (779) a group of nine men, above them a hand, probably of some patron saint; on the right (780) a group of thirteen women, kneeling (apparently) by the side of a tomb – studies of character drawing. These pictures are painted on silk (now attached to wood), and were originally part of a standard. Mr. Pater says of Borgognone that "a northern temper is a marked element of his genius – something of the patience, especially, of the masters of Dijon or Bruges, nowhere more clearly [seen] than in the two groups of male and female heads in the National Gallery, family groups, painted in the attitude of worship, with a lowly religious sincerity which may remind us of the contemporary work of M. Legros. Like those northern masters, he accepts piously, but can refine, what 'has no comeliness'" ("Art Notes in North Italy," in the New Review, November 1890).

781. RAPHAEL AND TOBIAS

Florentine School (15th century). See also (p. xx)

The Hebrew legend of Tobit and his son Tobias (told in the Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha) was a favourite one with the Mediæval Church, and became therefore a traditional subject for painting; see e. g. in the National Gallery, 288, 72, and 48. Tobit, a Jewish exile, having fallen also into poverty, and afterwards becoming blind, prays for death rather than life in noble despair. "To him the angel of all beautiful life (Raphael) is sent, hidden in simplicity of human duty, taking a servant's place for hire, to lead his son in all right and happy ways of life" (Fors Clavigera, 1877, p. 31). Here we see Raphael leading the young Tobias into Media, where he was to marry Sara, his rich kinswoman, the daughter of Raguel. But she was haunted by an evil spirit, who had slain her seven husbands, each on their wedding-day, and the angel bade Tobias take the gall of a certain fish, wherewith afterwards to heal his father's blindness, and its heart and liver wherewith to drive away the evil spirit from his bride. Tobias is carrying the fish, Raphael has a small box for the gall. The "rising step" and the "springy motion in his gait" are characteristic of him who was the messenger of heaven, the kindly companion of humanity —

Raphael, the sociable spirit, that deignedTo travel with Tobias, and securedHis marriage with the seven times wedded maid.Milton: Paradise Lost, v. 221.

For the authorship of this picture, see under 296. "This picture," says a critic who gives both to Verrocchio, "may possibly be not entirely from his hand, but there is no doubt that it is essentially his, and that to his fancy for painting boyhood and opening youth we owe that curious misreading of the story of Tobias, representing him as a young lad instead of a grown man, which is to be found through all the numerous Florentine picture of him by the school of Botticelli, by Piero di Cosimo and the rest" (Times, October 26, 1888).

782. MADONNA AND CHILD

Botticelli (Florentine: 1447-1510). See under 1034. See also (p. xx)

Probably only a "school picture." Most of the old masters kept schools, or shops, in which several pupils served as apprentices and worked at pictures under the master's directions. The sale of such pictures under the master's name was (and is) a very common occurrence, and even in those days forged signatures were not unusual.

783. THE EXHUMATION OF BISHOP HUBERT

Unknown (Early Flemish: 15th century).

This beautiful work was formerly in the collection of Mr. Beckford at Fonthill, where it was described as the Burial of a Bishop by Jan Van Eyck. It has also been ascribed to Gerard Van der Meire (see 1078) and to Thierri Bouts (about 1420-1475). This latter painter – called by early authors Thierry, or Dierik of Haarlem, from the name of his native town, and by modern writers Thierri Stuerbout, – was town's painter of Louvain, and a pupil probably of Roger van der Weyden. His principal works are now in the Brussels Museum. Other pictures in the Gallery attributed to him by some critics are 664, 774, and 943. Van der Meire, Justus of Ghent, and Albert Van Ouwater have also been suggested as the painters of this picture; it closely resembles the "Raising of Lazarus" ascribed to the last-named painter in the Berlin Gallery.

St. Hubert was originally a nobleman of Aquitaine, much addicted to all worldly pleasures, and especially to that of the chase. But one day in Holy Week, when all good Christians were at their devotions, as he was hunting in the forest of Ardennes, he encountered a milk-white stag bearing the crucifix between his horns. Filled with awe and astonishment, he renounced the pomps and vanities of the world, turned hermit in that very forest of Ardennes, was ordained, and became Bishop of Liège. So the legend runs, embalming, we may suppose, the conversion of some reckless lover of the chase, like the wild huntsman of the German legend. And at Liège he was buried, but thirteen years afterwards his body was disinterred, and lo! it was found entire; even the episcopal robes in which he had been interred were without spot or stain. A century later the body was removed from Liège and reinterred in the abbey church of the Benedictine monks of Ardennes. The Emperor Louis le Débonnaire assisted at the translation of the relics, and the day was long kept as a festival throughout this part of Flanders. This is the subject of the present picture, of which the scene is laid in the choir of a beautiful Gothic church. On the altar behind the principal group stands a shrine, on which is a little figure of St. Hubert with his hunting-horn. The royal personage assisting represents Louis le Débonnaire. The picture is of wonderful beauty, finished in every part (abridged from Mrs. Jameson: Sacred and Legendary Art, pp. 431, 432). Though it is thus an historical picture, the artist takes the figures from his own time, and the heads, like miniatures in character and delicacy of expression, are doubtless portraits – the whole scene being a picture of a Flemish Cathedral on some festival day. Notice, as a particularly interesting little piece of life, the man flattening his nose against the screen on the left, with a jeering expression, as if he "didn't half believe it all." It is a piece of living grotesque, exactly such as meets one in the sculptured stones of a mediæval cathedral itself – "peeping round the corner at you and lurking in secret places, like a monk's joke whispered in church" (Conway's Early Flemish Artists, p. 17).