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

This picture was painted for the Roman sculptor Mocchi to make a bust from, hence the two profiles as well as the full face. Over the profile on the right are the words (in French), "of the two profiles this is the better." In this profile the compressed lips, the merciless eyes, the iron-gray hair and prominent nose, bespeak the great Cardinal Minister of Louis XIII., and the maker of France, who summed up his policy and his character in the words, "I venture on nothing without first thinking it out; but once decided, I go straight to my point, overthrow or cut down whatever stands in my way, and finally cover it all up with my cardinal's red robes." In the full face one sees rather the man who was also a princely patron of the arts and artists (of De Champaigne amongst their number), and the founder of the French Academy.184 The central head here was clearly used as a study for the full-length portrait, No. 1449.

802. VIRGIN AND CHILD

Bartolommeo Montagna (Venetian: about 1450-1523).

Montagna was born near Brescia, and worked at Vicenza, but must have studied at Venice.185 "He is entitled," says Kugler, "to a much higher place among the painters of the last part of the fifteenth century than that hitherto accorded to him. His art is distinct in character, with a firm outline and a bold, sure hand; his colour is low but rich, bright, and gem-like. He gives a grand, dignified expression and pose to his figures; his draperies are generally arranged in broad folds, and his landscape backgrounds, although minute, frequently denote an original and poetical fancy." His best work is the great altar-piece now in the Brera at Milan, a picture worthy to rank with those of the same kind by Bellini and Carpaccio. Other important works by Montagna are in the Public Gallery of Bergamo, in the Museo Civico at Vicenza, and in the Pilgrimage Church on Monte Berico, near Vicenza.

This picture is ascribed by some critics to Giovanni Speranza, a painter of Vicenza contemporary with Montagna.

803. THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST

Marco Marziale (Venetian: painted 1499-1507).

Marco was one of the assistants engaged to work under Giovanni Bellini in the decoration of the Ducal Palace. Whilst Bellini received sixty ducats a year, Marco received only twenty-four. Nothing else is known about his career. Of his works, which are very rare, the best are in our Gallery.

An example which shows what wealth of interest there is in the National Collection. It is only by a second-rate painter of the Venetian school; but no picture in the Gallery is richer than this in decorative design. Note first the varied and beautifully-designed patterns in the mosaics of the church – recalling one of the domes of St. Mark's. Then the lectern, covered with a cloth, and the delicately-embroidered border, wrought in sampler stitch, deserve close examination. The cushion above this, and the tassels, formed of three pendent tufts of silk hung on to a gold embroidered ball, offer good decorative suggestions to the trimming manufacturer. Attached to the front of the lectern is a label or "cartellino," setting forth that "Marco Marziale the Venetian, by command of that magnificent knight and jurisconsult, the learned Thomaseo R., made this picture in the year 1500." As it is probable that this was the first important commission Marco ever obtained on his own account, there is little wonder that he wrought the record so elaborately. This "Thomaseo R." was Raimondi, a knight of the order of Jerusalem – a man of considerable note in Cremona as a lawyer and poet. His portrait occupies the forefront of the right-hand corner of the picture, his set features recalling the lawyer rather than the poet. It is his mantle, however, which best repays notice – a sumptuous robe of raised red velvet, such a fabric as Venice was then winning industrial renown by weaving. The very pretty pattern is of the so-called "pomegranate form," and occurs also on the mantle of the donor's wife, who occupies a corresponding position on the left-hand side of the picture. In the South Kensington Museum there is a remnant of Italian silk brocade of this pattern (in the Bock collection). The robe of the High Priest is also evidently taken by the painter from a silk robe, and is very rich. The design, in which the wild pink is largely introduced, is unique. Ruskin had a wall-paper made for him in 1872 copied from this robe: it has ever since been used for the walls of the drawing-room and study at Brantwood. "It will thus be seen that this one picture brings before us a great number of suggestions in design for various technic arts; at least half a dozen patterns exist in the ornaments of the mosaic work of the vaults; five or six patterns of embroidered or woven borders will be found in it, as many designs for diapered or other surface decoration, examples of beaten metal-work and of bookbinding, besides the carved wood lectern." For notice of other points, see further the interesting article by G. T. Robinson in the Art Journal, June 1886, and cp. Vacher's Italian Ornament, No. 24.

804. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED

Marco Marziale (Venetian: painted 1499-1507). See 803.

This picture was painted seven years later (1507) than 803, which it resembles in the bright mosaics of the vault and the interesting design on the robe of the bishop on the left. Notice the little angel playing the mandoline on the steps of the throne, characteristic of the earlier Venetian painters.

805. PEELING PEARS

Teniers (Flemish: 1600-1694). See 154.

806. THE PROCESSION TO CALVARY

Boccaccio Boccaccino (Cremonese: about 1460-1525).

Boccaccino was a native of Cremona, where many of his works are still preserved. "All that is best in his art," says Morelli, "he derived from the school of the Bellini." In the Venetian Academy is a beautiful "mystic marriage of St. Catherine" which is signed by him. He is a painter, says Kugler, "of very distinct individuality, and may be easily recognised by the peculiar type and expression of his figures, and especially by his women, who generally have much grace and beauty. One of his characteristics is a light-grey eye with a dark rim." This picture is "not characteristic of Boccaccino's manner, and is probably by another hand" (ii. 389).

For some remarks on the subject of this picture see under 1143.

807. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED

Carlo Crivelli (Venetian: painted 1468-1493). See 602.

This picture (like 724) is signed by "Sir Charles": it is dated 1491. It bears the painter's sign-manual also in the fruits and the vase of flowers. The giver of the picture (which was dedicated to the Virgin, and which, as recorded in a Latin inscription below, cost no inconsiderable sum) is kneeling, in the habit of a Dominican nun, at the foot of the throne. On the Madonna's left is St. Sebastian, pierced with arrows and tied to a pillar, but with the happy look of "sorrow ended" on his face. On her right is St. Francis. Near his feet are some flowers and a snail – typical of the kindness and humbleness of the saint, of whom it is recorded that "he spoke never to bird nor to cicala, nor even to wolf and beast of prey, but as his brother," and who thus taught the lesson "Never to blend our pleasure, or our pride, With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels" (Wordsworth).

808. ST. PETER MARTYR

Giovanni Bellini 186 (Venetian: 1426-1516). See 189. See also (p. xx)

A fancy portrait of a jolly comfortable-looking Dominican monk – a faithful portrait doubtless. His face is painted as it really was, "wart and all," but it has pleased him to be represented in the character of Peter, a famous member of his order (see under 812).

809. THE HOLY FAMILY

Michael Angelo (Florentine: 1475-1564). See 790.

The Virgin mother is seen withholding from the child Saviour the prophetic writings in which His sufferings are foretold. Angelic figures beside them examine a scroll —

Turn not the prophet's page, O Son! He knewAll that Thou hast to suffer and hath writ.Not yet Thine hour of knowledge. InfiniteThe sorrows that thy manhood's lot must rueAnd dire acquaintance of Thy grief. That clueThe spirits of Thy mournful ministerings,Seek through yon scroll in silence. For these thingsThe angels have desired to look into.Still before Eden waves the fiery sword, —Her Tree of Life unransomed: whose sad treeOf Knowledge yet to growth of CalvaryMust yield its Tempter, – Hell the earliest deadOf Earth resign, – and yet, O Son and Lord,The Seed o' the woman bruise the serpent's head.D. G. Rossetti: Sonnets and Ballads.187

This picture was at one time attributed to Domenico Ghirlandajo; and Signor Frizzoni now attributes it to Granacci. But, says Sir Edward Poynter, "the beauty of the figures, the nobility of the heads, and the fine qualities of drawing and modelling stamp it as the work of the great master himself." "In my judgment," says Symonds (Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti, i. 65), "this is the most beautiful of the easel pictures attributed to Michelangelo… Florentine painters had been wont to place attendant angels at both sides of their enthroned Madonnas. But their angels were winged and clothed like acolytes; the Madonna was seated on a rich throne or under a canopy, with altar-candles, wreaths of roses, flowering lilies. It is characteristic of Michelangelo to adopt a conventional motive, and to treat it with brusque originality. In this picture there are no accessories to the figures, and the attendant angels are Tuscan lads half draped in succinct tunics. The types have not been chosen with regard to ideal loveliness or dignity, but accurately studied from living models. This is very obvious in the heads of Christ and St. John. The two adolescent genii on the right hand possess a high degree of natural grace. Yet even here what strikes one most is the charm of their attitude, the lovely interlacing of their arms and breasts, the lithe alertness of the one lad contrasted with the thoughtful leaning languor of his comrade. Only perhaps in some drawings of combined male figures made by Ingres, for his picture of the 'Golden Age,' have lines of equal dignity and simple beauty been developed."

810. PARDON DAY IN BRITTANY

Charles Poussin (French: born 1819).

M. Pierre Charles Poussin, a pupil of L. Cogniet, was an exhibitor at the French Salon from 1842 to 1882. Many of his pictures were, like this one, of scenes in Brittany.

The scene is that of a fête held in honour of Notre Dame de Bon Secours of Guingamp in Brittany, on the 2nd of July in every year. Pope Paul V. in 1619 granted a plenary indulgence to all persons "who truly confessed and communicated, who shall visit the said church of Notre Dame de Guingamp on the day and fête of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which it is the custom every year to celebrate on the 2nd day of July; who shall devotionally pray for the preservation of concord and peace among all Christian princes; who shall render hospitality to the poor pilgrims; who shall make peace with their enemies, and shall promote it amongst others – shall, in short, sweetly bring into the way of salvation some unfortunate and erring soul." An English visitor published a long account of the fête in the Standard of July 5 and following days in 1870, describing "the frank but sedate festivity and merry-making under the trees." That was twenty years after this picture was painted.

811. TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL

Salvator Rosa (Neapolitan: 1615-1673). See under 84.

For the subject of Tobias, who is in the water holding the fish, see 781. The wild rocky landscape conveys a general sense of savage power. Salvator, says Ruskin, is "a good instance of vicious execution, dependent on too great fondness for sensations of power, vicious because intrusive and attractive in itself, instead of being subordinate to the results and forgotten in them" (Modern Painters, vol. i. pt. i. sec. ii. ch. ii. § 9).

812. THE DEATH OF ST. PETER MARTYR

Giovanni Bellini 188 (Venetian: 1426-1516). See 189.

"Peter Martyr was general of the Dominicans in 1252, a most powerful person in the Holy Inquisition, and a violent persecutor for what he deemed the true faith, which made him many inveterate enemies. There was one family in particular which he had treated with excessive cruelty, and their relations, who were in the army, were so enraged by Peter's barbarity that they resolved to revenge themselves… Having been informed that he was to make a visit to a distant province in pursuit of some wretched heretics, who had been denounced to the inquisition, they lay in wait for him in a wood, through which they knew he must pass, in company with one person, a friar of his convent; here they attacked him, cleft his skull with a sabre, and left him dead on the spot" (Mrs. Jameson; Handbook to the Public Galleries, 1842, i. 70).

This picture, one of the painter's latest works, is interesting, first, for its skill in landscape. It is a true piece of local scenery that Bellini paints, – "all Italian in masses of intricate wood and foliage, in plain, mountain, and buildings, and glowing, not under direct sunshine, but with the soft suffusion of southern light" (Layard, i. 312). It is, says Ruskin, one of the six most beautiful landscapes in the earlier mediæval art, of the "purist" school, "being wholly felicitous and enjoyable." Every leaf is painted with loving care, and Bellini treats the incident in the foreground as "entirely cheerful and pleasing; it does not disturb or even surprise him, much less displease in the slightest degree." "You see in a moment the main characteristic of the school, – that it mattered not in the least to John, and that he doesn't expect it to matter to you, whether people are martyred or not, so long as one can make a pretty grey of their gown, and a nice white of their sleeves, and infinite decoration of forest leaves behind, and a divine picture at last out of all. Everything in the world was done and made only that it might be rightly painted – that is the true master's creed" (Verona and its Rivers, § 27, and Lectures on Landscape, pp. 22, 65, 73).189 Notice, further, Bellini's compliance, as far as the subject admitted, with one of the conditions of the greatest art, "serenity in state or action." "You are to be interested in the living creatures; not in what is happening to them… It is not possible, of course, always literally to observe this condition, that there shall be quiet action or none; but Bellini's treatment of violence in action you may see exemplified in a notable way in his "St. Peter Martyr." The soldier is indeed striking the sword down into his breast; but in the face of the Saint is only resignation and faintness of death, not pain – that of the executioner is impassive; and while a painter of the later schools would have covered breast and sword with blood, Bellini allows no stain of it; but pleases himself with most elaborate and exquisite painting of a soft crimson feather in the executioner's helmet" (Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret, p. 16).

814. DUTCH BOATS IN A CALM

P. J. Clays (Belgian: 1818-1900).

Paul Jean Clays was a native of Bruges. He studied art in Paris under Gudin, and afterwards settled at Brussels, where in 1851 he received a gold medal. He frequently exhibited at the French Salon, and was a chevalier of the Legion of Honour as well as of the Order of Leopold. For a long time, says a French critic, "the sea, or rather the water, has had no interpreter more exact than Clays: he knows its clearness, and he knows how to render the little noisy waves, all bathed in light." "He does not paint the sea," says another, "but the Scheldt where it widens, and those gray and light waters that bear you on a steamer from Moerdyk to Rotterdam. With a profound feeling for these things he expresses the humidity of the skies of Western Flanders, the sleep of the calmed waters, or the caressing, and sometimes menacing, of the breeze which makes the little uneasy waves stride around the barges loaded to the brim." Some of his pictures have fetched very large prices – one having sold in New York for £3550 (Miss Clement and Laurence Hutton: Artists of the Nineteenth Century).

815. DUTCH BOATS AT FLUSHING

P. J. Clays (Belgian: 1818-1900). See 814.

816. THE INCREDULITY OF ST. THOMAS

Cima da Conegliano (Venetian: 1460-1518). See 300.

A picture interesting among other things for its history. It is signed and dated (1504), and was painted as a commission for a religious fraternity, for the altar of their patron saint, St. Thomas, in the church of St. Francesco at Portogruario (near Conegliano). The price paid for it was equal to about £17 sterling, at that time representing a considerable sum. The account of its cost and of a law-suit instituted by the painter against the fraternity is still preserved. For 328 years it remained in its original place; it was then removed by the local authorities, and in 1870 was sold to our Government. When bought it "was greatly disfigured by various repaints, and was otherwise in bad condition. Judicious cleaning and restoration (by Mr. Wm. Dyer) have brought out its fine qualities. The heads are highly expressive, and some of the figures … of great dignity" (Layard, i. 325).

817. TENIERS'S COUNTRY-SEAT AT PERCK

Teniers (Flemish: 1600-1694). See 154.

"A perfect type of the Unromantic Art which was assailed by the gentle enthusiasm of the English School of Landscape. It represents a few ordinary Dutch houses, an ordinary Dutch steeple or two, some still more ordinary Dutch trees, and most ordinary Dutch clouds, assembled in contemplation of an ordinary Dutch duck-pond; or, perhaps, in respect of size, we may more courteously call it a goose-pond. All these objects are painted either gray or brown, and the atmosphere is of the kind which looks not merely as if the sun had disappeared for the day, but as if he had gone out altogether, and left a stable lantern instead. The total effect having appeared, even to the painter's own mind, at last little exhilatory, he has enlivened it by three figures on the brink of the goose-pond – two gentlemen and a lady, – standing all three perfectly upright, side by side, in court dress, the gentlemen with expansive boots, and all with conical hats and high features. In order to invest those characters with dramatic interest, a rustic fisherman presents to them, as a tribute, – or, perhaps, exhibits as a natural curiosity, – a large fish, just elicited from the goose-pond by his adventurous companions, who have waded into the middle of it, every one of them, with singular exactitude, up to the calf of his leg" (Art of England, pp. 209, 211). The group on the left comprise the painter and his wife, another lady, and his son.

818. COAST SCENE

Bakhuizen (Dutch: 1631-1708). See 204.

819. OFF THE MOUTH OF THE THAMES

Bakhuizen (Dutch: 1631-1708). See 204.

On representations of rough weather by this painter and Vandevelde, Ruskin writes as follows: "If one could but arrest the connoisseurs in the fact of looking at them with belief, and, magically introducing the image of a true sea-wave, let it roll up through the room, – one massive fathom's height and rood's breadth of brine, passing them by but once, – dividing, Red-Sea like, on right hand and left, – but at least setting close before their eyes, for once in inevitable truth, what a sea-wave really is; its green mountainous giddiness of wrath, its overwhelming crest – heavy as iron, fitful as flame, clashing against the sky in long cloven edge, – its furrowed flanks all ghastly clear, deep in transparent death, but all laced across with lurid nets of spume, and tearing open into meshed interstices their churned veil of silver fury, showing still the calm gray abyss below; that has no fury and no voice, but is as a grave always open, which the green sighing mounds do but hide for an instant as they pass. Would they, shuddering back from this wave of the true, implacable sea, turn forthwith to the papillotes? It might be so. It is what we are all doing, more or less, continually" (Harbours of England, p. 19). In default of the actual sea-wave, the visitor may be recommended to look next at Turner's rough seas (472 and 476). Such a comparison will show how much of the roughness in the Dutch pictures is due to mere blackness, how little to any terror in the forms of the waves, such as Turner depicts.

820. LANDSCAPE WITH RUIN

Berchem (Dutch: 1620-1683). See 78.

821. A FAMILY GROUP

Gonzales Coques (Flemish: 1618-1684).

In spite of his Spanish-sounding name, this artist was a pure Fleming. He was born at Antwerp and appears never to have left his native town. His father, whose surname was Cocx, gave the child the name of Gonzalvus: these names the painter afterwards changed to Gonzales Coques. His first master was Peter Breughel (the third painter of that name). He afterwards studied under David Ryckhaert the Elder, whose daughter he married. His first subjects were conversation-pieces and assemblies; but the extraordinary reputation acquired by Van Dyck for his portraits inspired Coques with the ambition to distinguish himself in like manner, although on a smaller scale. There is in the little works of Coques the same air of elegance and refinement which distinguishes Van Dyck. Hence he has been called "the Little Van Dyck." His works, says Bürger, are "Van Dycks seen through the wrong side of the glass"; or as another critic puts it, "Van Dycks in 18mo." They were greatly admired during his lifetime, and he was patronised by Charles I., the Archduke Leopold, and the Prince of Orange. His works, however, are very rare; about half of them are in this country. He was admitted as a master in the Guild of Painters in 1640-41, and twice served as its Dean, in 1665-66 and 1680-81.

Notice the youngest child in the go-cart, which is being pushed by another of the children, whilst the eldest sister, as befits her years, is playing the guitar. And the little dogs, as befits them, are sporting in front. It is pretty of the painter or his sitters to include them in the family group.

822. AN EVENING LANDSCAPE

Cuyp (Dutch: 1620-1691). See 53.

An excellent example of the hazy, drowsy effect in which Cuyp excelled. "A brewer by trade,190 he feels the quiet of a summer afternoon, and his work will make you marvellously drowsy. It is good for nothing else that I know of; strong, but unhelpful and unthoughtful. Nothing happens in his pictures, except some indifferent persons asking the way of somebody else, who, by the cast of countenance, seems not likely to know it. For further entertainment, perhaps, a red cow and a white one; or puppies at play, not playfully; the man's heart not going even with the puppies. Essentially he sees nothing but the shine on the flaps of their ears" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. chap. vi. § 12).

823. ON THE MEUSE

Cuyp (Dutch: 1620-1691). See 53.

Notice the reflections. Cuyp "is a man of large natural gift, and sees broadly, nay, even seriously; finds out – a wonderful thing for men to find out in those days – that there are reflections in the water, and that boats require often to be painted upside down" (Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vi. § 12).

824. A RUINED CASTLE