by Grant Allen
Number 70, a Masaccio, is a very inadequate specimen of this great painter. The Madonna and Child sit on the lap of St. Anne, a conventional position charmingly transformed by Leonardo in his well-known picture in the Louvre.
On the base of this wall are several small stories of saints which should be studied in detail. Among those by Botticelli (already referred to), notice particularly St. Eloy (St. Eligius), the holy blacksmith, cutting off the leg of a refractory horse in order to shoe it, and afterward miraculously restoring it. Compare with the same subject at Or San Michele. Close by is a very charming series by Pesellino, the best of which is the Martyrdom of the Medici saints, Cosimo and Damian. Observe them for comparison with Fra Angelico in an adjoining room. Read up in Mrs. Jameson.
Number 69, by Michele Ghirlandajo (do not confound him with his great namesake), is a Marriage of St. Catherine of Siena (not Alexandria). Distinguish these two subjects. This is an unusual treatment, the Christ being represented as adult (he is usually an infant in this scene) and the Madonna as an elderly woman. Not a good picture, but interesting for comparison with others of this subject. The assistant saints are St. Paul, King David, St. John, and St. Dominic. The insipid St. Catherine contrasts most markedly with the inimitably beautiful figure by Borgognone in the National Gallery. The picture comes from the Dominican convent of Santa Caterina at Florence, which explains all the characters.
Beyond the door is a Granacci, the Assumption of the Virgin, an unusually fine specimen of this comparatively late painter. On the ground below are St. Bernardo degli Uberti, St. Michael the Archangel, San Giovanni Gualberto, and St. Catherine of Alexandria with her spiked wheel. You will now have little difficulty in discovering for yourself that this is essentially a Vallombrosan picture. It comes from the monastery of Santo Spirito.
Recross the Perugino Room and enter the Sala Seconda del Botticelli.
On the entrance wall to the left, 98, is a *Descent from the Cross, the upper portion by Filippino Lippi, with whose style you will already have become familiar at Santa Maria Novella. Filippino died leaving it unfinished, and the lower part, with the fainting Madonna and saints, was added by Perugino. This is an excellent opportunity for comparing the styles of the two painters. The Mary to the right supporting the Madonna is extremely Peruginesque in face and attitude. Note the three nails in the foreground which recur elsewhere. Compare also the kneeling Magdalen with Fra Angelico at San Marco. Observe how differently hands and feet are by this time painted. In both parts of this picture we have good examples of the increased knowledge of anatomy, of the nude, of perspective, and of light and shade in the later Renaissance. Filippino’s somewhat fly-away style is also well contrasted with Perugino’s affectation and pietistic simplicity.
FILIPPINO LIPPI AND PERUGINO. — DESCENT FROM THE CROSS.
Beyond the doorway, 97, is a Fra Bartolommeo, the Madonna Appearing to St. Bernard. A characteristic example of this, to my mind, overrated painter. The crowded arrangement of the attendant angels is very typical. Compare with the infinitely nobler treatment of the same subject by Filippino Lippi in the church of the Badia. I advise you to go straight there from this picture to visit it.
Above it, 96, is a good Andrea del Sarto, charmingly delicate in colouring. A Vallombrosan picture; the saints are again San Giovanni Gualberto and San Bernardo degli Uberti.
Number 94 is a Lorenzo di Credi, the Nativity, with adoring angels. Compare this with 92 beside it, Adoration of the Magi, where the Child is almost identical. This exquisite painter is somewhat less successful in works on this larger scale than in the smaller examples of his art which we shall see at the Uffizi. Nevertheless, in 92 the shepherd to the left is a most charming figure. The smoothness and clearness of the style is conspicuous. Note throughout the conventional accessories. Nothing is more interesting than to see the way in which these and the landscape are transformed and improved from earlier usage. St. Joseph’s feet are deserving of study.
Above, are two ascetic Andrea del Castagnos. Of these, the companion figures of St. John the Baptist and St. Mary Magdalen (also combined in the Baptistery) must be regarded from the point of view of the lean and hungry penitent only. These pictures are good because they attain their object; they are expressions of a painful and repulsive ideal.
Number 90, a Raffaellino del Garbo, the Resurrection, with sleeping Roman soldiers, is worthy of attention for its conventional detail.
Number 88, a Madonna and saints, by Botticelli, is a Franciscan Medici picture. To the extreme left is St. Mary Magdalen with the alabaster box of ointment; next her, St. John of Florence; then, the kneeling figures of Sts. Cosimo and Damian, the former significantly placed on the Madonna’s right. Beyond again are St. Francis with the Stigmata and St. Catherine of Alexandria with her wheel. The two female saints and the face of St. Damian are very characteristic of Botticelli’s manner. A beautiful but not wholly satisfactory example.
In 85, *Botticelli, Enthroned Madonna, with adoring saints, Our Lady and the Child are highly characteristic. The angels drawing the curtains and holding the crown of thorns and three nails appear to be portraits of Medici children. They are very lovely. The female saint to the left, whom I take to be St. Catherine, is the familiar model reappearing in the Three Graces of the Primavera. St. John of Florence, in the foreground, admirably represents Botticelli’s ideal. The St. Michael beside him, in refulgent armour, is also a beautiful embodiment. The other saints are St. Ambrose and St. Barnabas — the latter because the altar-piece was painted for the altar of his church in Florence. A picture not to be lightly passed over.
The ascription of 84 to Botticelli is doubted, I think unduly. Comparison of these two St. Michaels ought surely to satisfy the most skeptical. The Three Archangels conducting Tobias, who holds the fish which is to cure his father Tobit. Such pictures are often votive offerings for escape from blindness. (Read the story in the Apocrypha.) The springy step of all the characters is essentially Botticellian. Notice the contrasted faces of the elder St. Michael; the affable Archangel, Raphael, who holds the boy’s hand; and the spiritual Gabriel, with the Annunciation lily. Study these three Archangels closely. I advise you to compare all these Botticellis, noticing particularly the peculiar sense of movement, the tripping grace and lightness of his figures, as well as the spiritual and elusive tone of his somewhat morbid faces. Botticelli paints souls, where Ghirlandajo paints bodies.
You cannot spend too much time in these three rooms, which form a perfect history of the art of the Renaissance. Supplement them by visits to the Brancacci Chapel at the Carmine, and a run over to Prato, where you will find the finest works of Filippo Lippi.
CHAPTER XII.
THE TUSCAN GALLERIES.
Now, go along the Michael Angelo corridor as far as the Long Gallery, and pass into the Sala Prima Toscana.
This contains works of the earlier mediæval type, the culminating point of Giottesque painting.
In front of you as you enter, on easels in the middle, are two of the noblest and most beautiful pictures of the early fifteenth century. That to the left is * *Gentile da Fabriano’s Adoration of the Magi, the most gorgeous altar-piece of the Early Umbrian School, still enclosed in its original setting of three arches. This great work, which comes from the Sacristy of Santa Trinità in Florence, should be closely studied in all its details. Contrary to custom, the Madonna occupies the left field. The ruined temple and shed to the left, the attendants examining the Elder King’s gift, the group of the Madonna and Child, with Joseph in his conventional yellow robe, and the Star which stands “over the place where the young Child was,” should all be observed and compared with other pictures. (I may mention parenthetically that the Star of Bethlehem in Adorations is in itself worth study, being sometimes inscribed with the human face, and sometimes developed in curious fashions.) Examine also the group of the Three Kings, the eldest of whom, as usual, is kneeling, having presented his gift and removed his crown; while the second is in the act of offe
ring, and the third and youngest, just dismounted from his horse, is having his spurs removed by an obsequious attendant. The exquisite decorative work of their robes, the finest product of the Early Umbrian School, deserves close attention. Note, next, the cavern of the Apocryphal Gospels in the background, with the inevitable ox and ass of the Nativity. The two or three servants who formed the sole train of the Magi in earlier works have here developed into a great company of attendants, mounted on horses and camels, to mark their Oriental origin, and dressed in what Gentile took to be the correct costumes of Asia and Africa. Note the excellent drawing (for that date) of some of the horses, and the tolerably successful attempts at foreshortening. Observe likewise the monkeys, the hunting leopard, the falcons, and the other strange animals in the train of the Kings, to suggest Orientalism. All this part of the picture should be closely compared with the inexpressibly lovely Benozzo Gozzoli of the Procession of the Kings in the Riccardi Palace. The face of the Young King is repeated in one of the suite to the extreme right. Examine all these faces separately, and observe their characterisation. Do not overlook the fact that the principal ornaments in this splendid picture are raised in plaster or gesso-work, and then gilt and painted.
GENTILE DA FABRIANO. — ADORATION OF THE MAGI.
The background of the main picture also contains three separate scenes of the same history. In the left arch, the Three Kings, in their own country, behold the Star from the summit of a mountain. In the centre arch, they ride in procession to enter Jerusalem and inquire the way of Herod. In the right arch, they are seen returning to their own country. Do not be satisfied, however, with merely identifying these points to which I call attention; if you look for yourself, you will find others in abundance well worth your notice. This is a picture before which you should sit for long periods together.
Two subjects remain in the predella, the third is missing here (now in the Louvre, Presentation in the Temple). To the left is the Nativity, with the angels appearing to the shepherds. In the centre is the Flight into Egypt.
The gable-ends or cuspidi also contain figures, which do not seem to me by the same hand. On the right and left is the Annunciation, in two separate lozenges; in the centre, the Eternal Father, blessing. The scrolls with names will enable you to identify the recumbent kings and prophets.
This picture, dated 1423, strikes the key-note for early Umbrian art. Observe how its Madonna leads gradually up to Perugino and Raphael. Softness, ecstatic piety, and elaborate decoration are Umbrian notes. You cannot study this work too long or too carefully.
FRA ANGELICO. — DESCENT FROM THE CROSS.
The second of these great pictures is Fra Angelico’s Descent from the Cross, — his finest work outside the realm of fresco. This also deserves the closest study. Observe that, in spite of its large size, it is essentially miniature. To the left is the group of the Mater Dolorosa and the mourning Maries. Hard by, the Magdalen, recognisable (as always) by her long golden hair, is passionately kissing the feet of the dead Saviour. St. Nicodemus and St. Joseph of Arimathea, — the latter a lovely face, — distinguished by their haloes, are letting down the sacred body from the Cross, which St. John and another believer receive below. To the extreme right is a group of minor disciples, one of whom (distinguished by rays, but I cannot identify him) exhibits the Crown of Thorns and the three nails to the others. The figure in red in the foreground is possibly intended for St. Longinus. Above, in the arches, are sympathising angels. This is a glorious work, full of profound feeling. The towers and wall of the city, recalling those of Florence, should also be noticed. The trees and landscape are still purely conventional.
On the frame are figures of saints: to the left St. Michael the Archangel, a glorious realisation; St. Francis with the Stigmata; St. Andrew; and St. Bernardino of Siena; to the right St. Peter with the keys; St. Peter Martyr with his wounded head; St. Paul with the sword (observe the type); and a bearded St. Dominic, with his red star and lily. In the gable ends or cuspidi are three saints by Don Lorenzo Monaco, who can usually be recognised by the extreme length and curious bend of his figures. (See him better at the Uffizi.) On the left are Christ and the Magdalen in the garden; in the centre, the Resurrection; on the right, the three Maries at the tomb. Compare with the Annunciation just to the right on the wall, by the same painter.
Now begin at the left wall by the door. These pictures represent the earliest art of Tuscany, and are mostly altar-pieces.
High up is a curious “Byzantine” (say rather, barbaric) figure of St. Mary Magdalen, as the Penitent in Provence (see Mrs. Jameson). As always in this subject, she is clad entirely in her own hair, which the modesty of the early Christian artist has represented as covering her from head to foot like a robe. It is here rather red than golden. She holds a scroll with the rhyming Latin inscription, —
Ne desperetis, vos qui peccare soletis, Exemploque meo vos reparate Deo:
that is to say: “Despair not ye who are wont to sin, and by my example make your peace with God.” At its sides are eight small stories from the life of the saint, biblical and legendary. Beginning at the top, on the left is the Magdalen washing the feet of Christ; the canopy represents a house; the tower shows that it takes place in a city; on the right, the Resurrection of Lazarus, represented (as in all early pictures) as a mummy; note the tower, and the bystanders holding their noses. In the second tier: on the left are Christ and the Magdalen in the garden; on the right, she goes to Marseilles, with Martha and St. Maximin, and converts the people of that city, which observe in the background. In the third tier: on the left, she takes refuge as a penitent, now clad only in her luxuriant hair, in the Sainte Baume (a holy cave in Provence), where she is daily raised to see the Beatific Vision by four angels. (Look out for later representations of this subject, often improperly described as the Assumption of the Magdalen.) On the right, the Magdalen, at the mouth of the cave, has the holy wafer brought her by an angel. In the fourth tier: on the left, St. Maximin, warned by an angel that the Magdalen is dying, brings her the Holy Sacrament to her cave; on the right, he buries the Magdalen at Marseilles; canopy and tower again representing church and city.
Beneath this, 100, is a similar early figure of St. John in the desert, with his own head in a charger before him: ill described as Byzantine.
Number 101 is a curious barbaric picture of Madonna and saints, with scenes from the life of Christ: brought from the Franciscan convent of Santa Chiara at Lucca. The saints can be sufficiently identified by their inscriptions. Compare the quaint St. Michael with Fra Angelico’s, and the St. Anthony and St. Francis with those later types with which we are already familiar. Never forgot that these rude early works form the basis of all later representations. Notice Santa Chiara, to whom the work is dedicated (see Baedeker, Assisi).
Number 102, a Cimabue, Madonna and angels, resembles the picture in Santa Maria Novella, but with a considerable variation in the angelic figures, here rather less successful. It is, I think, an earlier picture. Beneath it are four prophets in an arcade, holding scrolls with inscriptions from their own writings, interpreted by mediæval theologians as prophecies of the Holy Virgin.
Next it, 103, is a similar altar-piece by Giotto, with same central subject, where the difference of treatment and the advance in art made by the great painter are tolerably conspicuous. At the same time, Giotto is never by any means so interesting or free in altar-pieces as in fresco. The best figures here are the angels in the foreground. The details of both these pictures deserve attentive study and comparison.
Then, 116, Taddeo Gaddi, the Entombment, with the risen Christ in a mandorla above, and angels exhibiting the instruments of the Passion. The attendant St. John and other figures in this fine work should be compared with the corresponding personages in Fra Angelico’s Descent from the Cross. They serve to show how much the Friar of San Marco borrowed from his predecessors, and how far he transformed the conceptions he took from them. This is one of the best altar-pieces of the school of Gi
otto. Do not hurry away from it. The OSM stands for Or San Michele, from which church the picture comes.
Number 127 is an Agnolo Gaddi, Madonna and Child, with six Florentine saints. Note the dates and succession in time of all these painters. Compare the central panel with the Giotto close by to show its ancestry. The other saints are St. Pancratius (from whose church and high altar it comes); St. Nerius; St. John the Evangelist; St. John the Baptist; St. Achileus; and Santa Reparata of Florence. For these very old Roman saints, little known in Florence save at this ancient church, consult Mrs. Jameson. Omit the predella for the moment.
GIOTTO. — ADORATION OF THE MAGI.
Beneath these pictures is a set of panels, attributed to Giotto, and representing scenes in the life of Christ. They originally formed part of a chest or cupboard in the sacristy of the church of Santa Croce in Florence, as the very similar series by Duccio still do at Siena; (if you go to Siena, you should compare the two). Though not important works, they deserve study from the point of view of development. Note, for example, in the first of the series, the Visitation, the relative positions of the Madonna and St. Elizabeth, and the arch in the background — an accessory which afterward becomes of such importance in the Pacchiarotto in an adjacent room, and in the Mariotto Albertinelli in the Uffizi. Observe, similarly, the quaint Giottesque shepherds in the second of the series: their head-dress is characteristic; you will meet it in many Giottos. The Magi, with their one horse each, may be well compared with the accession of wealth in Gentile da Fabriano; while the position of the elder king and the crown of the second are worth notice for comparison. Observe how almost invariably the eldest king has removed his crown and presented his gift at the moment of the action. Earlier works are always simpler in their motives: never forget this principle. Not less characteristic is the Presentation in the Temple, with fire in the altar, where the figures of St. Joseph, on the right, and St. Simeon, on the left, are extremely typical. The Baptism has the unusual feature of the Baptist and the angels on the same bank, while a second figure waits beyond with the towel. The Transfiguration prepares you for Fra Angelico’s in St. Marco. The Last Supper, with Judas leaving the table, is an interesting variant. The Resurrection shows most of the conventional features. The Doubting Thomas also sheds light on subsequent treatments.