,frontispiece3 ,,red ,,riding ,,hood ,from the picture by ,g4 ,f4 ,watts1 in the ,birmingham ,art ,gallery ,page #aig ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,art ,,for ,,young ,,people ,,by ,,agnes ,,ethel ,,conway ,,and ,,sir ,,martin ,,conway ,,with ,,sixteen ,,full-,,page ,,illustrations ,,in ,,colour ,a4 ,c4 ,,black1 ,,ltd4 #d1 #e #f ,,soho ,,square1 ,,london1 ,w4#a ,first published ,september #aiji as ,the ,children's ,book of ,art ,reprinted in #aiad1 #aibg1 and #aice ,made in ,great ,britain4 ,printed by ,r4 ,r4 ,,clark1 ,,limited1 ,edinburgh4 ,,to ,,my ,,little ,,friends ,,agnes ,,and ,,rosanne ,,note ,my thanks are due and are cordially rendered to the ,earl of ,yarborough1 ,sir ,frederick ,cook1 and the authorities of ,trinity ,college1 ,cambridge1 for permission to reproduce their pictures2 to ,lady ,alfred ,douglas and ,mr4 ,henry ,newbolt for leave to quote from their poems2 to ,mr4 ,everard ,green1 ,somerset ,herald1 for all that is new in the interpretation of the ,wilton diptych2 to ,miss ,k4 ,k4 ,radford for the translation in ,chapter ,,viii41 and to all the friends who have helped me with criticism and suggestions4 ,a4 ,e4 ,c4 ,,contents ,,chap4 ,,page ,i ,,introductory 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #a ,,ii ,,the ,,thirteenth ,,century ,,in ,,europe 4 4 4 4 #ad ,,iii ,,richard ,,ii4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #bi ,,iv ,,the ,,van ,,eycks 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #df ,v ,,the ,,renaissance 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #fc ,,vi ,,raphael 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #gh ,,vii ,,the ,,renaissance ,,in ,,venice 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ic ,,viii ,,the ,,renaissance ,,in ,,the ,,north 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ajd ,,ix ,,rembrandt 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aaf ,x ,,peter ,,de ,,hoogh ,,and ,,cuyp 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #acc ,,xi ,,van ,,dyck 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #adc ,,xii ,,velasquez 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aec ,,xiii ,,reynolds ,,and ,,the ,,eighteenth ,,century 4 4 4 #afe ,,xiv ,,turner 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #agf ,,xv ,,the ,,nineteenth ,,century 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ahh ,,index 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aii ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,,in ,,the ,,colours ,,of ,,the ,,original ,,paintings ,red ,ridinghood 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,g4 ,f4 ,watts ,frontispiece ,richard ,,ii4 before the ,virgin ,,page and ,child 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #cc ,the ,three ,maries 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,h4 ,van ,eyck 4 4 4 4 4 #dh ,st4 ,jerome in his study 4 4 4 4 4 ,antonello da ,messina #fe ,the ,nativity 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,sandro ,botticelli 4 4 #gf ,the ,knight's ,dream 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,raphael 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #he ,the ,golden ,age 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,giorgione 4 4 4 4 4 4 #if ,st4 ,george destroying the ,dragon 4 ,tintoret 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ajb ,edward1 ,prince of ,wales1 afterwards ,edward ,,vi4 4 4 4 4 ,holbein 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #aaa ,a ,man in ,armour 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,rembrandt 4 4 4 4 4 4 #abf ,an ,interior 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,p4 de ,hoogh 4 4 4 4 4 #acd ,landscape with ,cattle 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,cuyp 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #ada ,william ,,ii4 of ,orange 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,van ,dyck 4 4 4 4 4 4 #adf ,don ,balthazar ,carlos 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,velasquez 4 4 4 4 4 4 #afa ,the ,duke of ,gloucester 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,sir ,j4 ,reynolds 4 4 4 #agj ,the ,fighting ,temeraire 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,turner 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 #agg ,,the ,,children',s ,,book ,,of ,,art ,,chapter ,i ,,introductory ,almost the pleasantest thing in the world is to be told a splendid story by a really nice person4 ,there is not the least occasion for the story to be true2 indeed ,i think the untrue stories are the best--those in which we meet delightful beasts and things that talk twenty times better than most human beings ever do1 and where extraordinary events happen in the kind of places that are not at all like our world of every day4 ,it is so fine to be taken into a country where it is always summer1 and the birds are always singing and the flowers always blowing1 and where people get what they want by just wishing for it1 and are not told that this or that isn't good for them1 and that they'll know better than to want it when they're grown up1 and all that kind of thing which is so annoying and so often happening in this obstinate criss-cross world1 where the days come and go in such an ordinary fashion4 ,but if ,i might choose the person to tell me the kind of story ,i like to listen to1 and hear told to me over and over again1 it would be some one who could draw pictures for me while talking--pictures like those of ,tenniel in ,alice in ,wonderland and ,through the ,looking-,glass4 ,how much better we know ,alice herself and the ,white ,knight and the ,mad ,hatter and all the rest of them from the pictures than even from the story itself4 ,but my story-teller should not only draw the pictures while he talked1 but he should paint them too4 ,i want to see the sky blue and the grass green1 and ,i want red cloaks and blue bonnets and pink cheeks and all the bright colours1 and some gold and silver too1 and not merely black and white--though black and white drawings would be better than nothing1 so long as they showed me what the people and beasts and dragons and things were like4 ,i could put up with even rather bad drawings if only they were vivid4 ,don't you know how good a bad drawing sometimes seems8 ,i have a friend who can make the loveliest folks and the funniest beasts and the quaintest houses and trees1 and he really can't draw a bit2 and the curious thing is1 that if he could draw better ,i should not like his folks and beasts half as much as ,i do the lop-sided1 crook-legged1 crazy-looking people he produces4 ,and then he has such quaint things to tell about them1 and while he talks he seems to make them live1 so that ,i can hardly believe they are not real people for all their unlikeness to any one you ever saw4 ,now1 the old pictures you see in the picture galleries are just like that1 only the people that painted them didn't invent the stories but merely illustrated stories which1 at the time those painters lived1 every one knew4 ,some of the stories were true and some were just a kind of fairy tale1 and it didn't matter to the painters1 and it doesn't matter to us1 which was true and which wasn't4 ,the only thing that matters is whether the story is a good one and whether the picture is a nice one4 ,there is a delightful old picture painted on a wall away off at ,assisi1 in ,italy1 which shows ,st4 ,francis preaching to a lot of birds1 and the birds are all listening to him and looking pleased--the way birds do look pleased when they find a good fat worm or fresh crumbs4 ,now1 ,st4 ,francis was a real man and such a dear person too1 but ,i don't suppose half the stories told about him were really true1 yet we can pretend they were and that's just what the painter helps us to do4 ,don't you know all the games that begin with ',let's pretend'8--well1 that's art4 ,art is pretending1 or most of it is4 ,pictures take us into a world of make-believe1 a world of imagination1 where everything is or should be in the right place and in the right light and of the right colour1 where all the people are nicely dressed to match one another1 and are not standing in one another's way1 and not interrupting one another or forgetting to help play the game4 ,that's the difference between pictures and photographs4 ,a photograph is almost always wrong somewhere4 ,something is out of place1 or something is there which ought to be away1 or the light is wrong2 or1 if it's coloured1 the colours are just not in keeping with one another4 ,if it's a landscape the trees are where we don't want them2 they hide what we want to see1 or they don't hide the very thing we want hidden4 ,then the clouds are in the wrong place1 and a wind ruffles the water just where we want to see something reflected4 ,that's the way things actually happen in the real world4 ,but in the world of ',let's pretend1' in the world of art1 they don't happen so4 ,there everything happens right1 and everybody does1 not so much what they should 7that might sometimes be dull71 but exactly what we want them to do--which is so very much better4 ,that is the world of your art and my art4 ,unfortunately all the pictures in the galleries weren't painted just for you and me2 but you'll find1 if you look for them1 plenty that were1 and the rest don't matter4 ,those were painted1 no doubt1 for some one else4 ,but if you could find the some one else for whom they were painted1 the some one else whose world of ',let's pretend' was just these pictures that don't belong to your world1 and if they could tell you about their world of ',let's pretend1' ten to one you'd find it just as good a world as your own1 and you'd soon learn to 'pretend' that way too4 ,well1 the purpose of this book is to take you into a number of worlds of ',let's pretend1' most of which ,i daresay will be new to you1 and perhaps you will find some of them quite delightful places4 ,i'm sure you can't help liking ,st4 ,jerome's ,cell when you come to it4 ,it's not a bit like any room we can find anywhere in the world to-day1 but wouldn't it be joyful if we could8 ,what a good time we could have there with the tame lion 7not a bit like any lion in the ,zoo1 but none the worse for that7 and the jolly bird1 and all ,st4 ,jerome's little things4 ,i should like to climb on to his platform and sit in his chair and turn over his books1 though ,i don't believe they'd be interesting to read1 but they'd certainly be pretty to look at4 ,if you and ,i were there1 though1 we should soon be out away behind1 looking round the corner1 and finding all sorts of odd places that unfortunately can't all get into the picture1 only we know they're there1 down yonder corridor1 and from what the painter shows us we can invent the rest for ourselves4 ,one of the troubles of a painter is that he can't paint every detail of things as they are in nature4 ,a primrose1 when you first see it1 is just a little yellow spot4 ,when you hold it in your hand you find it made up of petals round a tiny centre with little things in it4 ,if you take a magnifying glass you can see all its details multiplied4 ,if you put a tiny bit of it under a microscope1 ten thousand more little details come out1 and so it might go on as long as you went on magnifying4 ,now a picture can't be like that4 ,it just has to show you the general look of things as you see them from an ordinary distance4 ,but there comes in another kind of trouble4 ,how do you see things8 ,we don't all see the same things in the same way4 ,your mother's face looks very different to you from its look to a mere person passing in the street4 ,your own room has a totally different aspect to you from what it bears to a casual visitor4 ,the things you specially love have a way of standing out and seeming prominent to you1 but not1 of course1 to any one else4 ,then there are other differences in the look of the same things to different people which you have perhaps noticed4 ,some people are more sensitive to colours than others4 ,some are much more sensitive to brightness and shadow4 ,some will notice one kind of object in a view1 or some detail in a face far more emphatically than others4 ,girls are quicker to take note of the colour of eyes1 hair1 skin1 clothes1 and so forth than boys4 ,a woman who merely sees another woman for a moment will be able to describe her and her dress far more accurately than a man4 ,a man will be noticing other things4 ,his picture1 if he painted one1 would make those other things prominent4 ,so it is with everything that we see4 ,none of us sees more than certain features in what the eye rests upon1 and if we are artists it is only those features that we should paint4 ,we can't possibly paint every detail of everything that comes into the picture4 ,we must make a choice1 and of course we choose the features and details that please us best4 ,now1 the purpose of painting anything at all is to paint the beauty of the thing4 ,if you see something that strikes you as ugly1 you don't instinctively want to paint it2 but when you see an effect of beauty1 you feel that it would be very nice indeed to have a picture showing that beauty4 ,so a picture is not really the representation of a thing1 but the representation of the beauty of the thing4 ,some people can see beauty almost everywhere2 they are conscious of beauty all day long4 ,they want to surround themselves with beauty1 to make all their acts beautiful1 to shed beauty all about them4 ,those are the really artistic souls4 ,the gift of such perfect instinct for beauty comes by nature to a few4 ,it can be cultivated by almost all4 ,that cultivation of all sorts of beauty in life is what many people call civilization--the real art of living4 ,to see beauty everywhere in nature is not so very difficult4 ,it is all about us where the work of uncivilized man has not come in to destroy it4 ,artists are people who by nature and by education have acquired the power to see beauty in what they look at1 and then to set it down on paper or canvas1 or in some other material1 so that other people can see it too4 ,it seems strange that at one time the beauty of natural landscape was hardly perceived by any one at all4 ,people lived in the beautiful country and scarcely knew that it was beautiful4 ,then came the time when the beauty of landscape began to be felt by the nicest people4 ,they began to put it into their poetry1 and to talk and write about it1 and to display it in landscape pictures4 ,it was through poems and pictures1 which they read and saw1 that the general run of folks first learned to look for beauty in nature4 ,i have no doubt that ,turner's wonderful sunsets made plenty of people look at sunsets and rejoice in the intricacy and splendour of their glory for the first time in their lives4 ,well1 what ,turner and other painters of his generation did for landscape1 had had to be done for men and women in earlier days by earlier generations of artists4 ,the ,greeks were the first1 in their sculpture1 to show the wonderful beauty of the human form2 till their day people had not recognised what to us now seems obvious4 ,no doubt they had thought one person pretty and another handsome1 but they had not known that the human figure was essentially a glorious thing till the ,greek sculptors showed them4 ,another thing painters have taught the world is the beauty of atmosphere4 ,formerly no one seems to have noticed how atmosphere affects every object that is seen through it4 ,the painters had to show us that it is so4 ,after we had seen the effect of atmosphere in pictures we began to be able to see for ourselves in nature1 and thus a whole group of new pleasures in views of nature was opened up to us4 ,away back in the ,middle ,ages1 six hundred and more years ago1 folks had far less educated eyes than we possess to-day4 ,they looked at nature more simply than we do and saw less in it4 ,so they were satisfied with pictures that omitted a great many features we cannot do without4 ,but painting does not only concern itself with representing the world we actually see and the people that our eyes actually behold4 ,it concerns itself quite as much with the world of fancy1 of make-believe4 ,indeed1 most painters when they look at an actual scene let their fancy play about it1 so that presently what they see and what they fancy get mixed up together1 and their pictures are a mixture of fancy and of fact1 and no one can tell where the one ends and the other begins4 ,the fancies of people are very different at different times1 and you can't understand the pictures of old days unless you can share the fancies of the old painters4 ,to do that you must know something about the way they lived and the things they believed1 and what they hoped for and what they were afraid of4 ,here1 for instance1 is a very funny fact solemnly recorded in an old account book4 ,a certain ,count of ,savoy owned the beautiful ,castle of ,chillon1 which you have perhaps seen1 on the shores of the ,lake of ,geneva4 ,but he could not be happy1 because he and the people about him thought that in a hole in the rock under one of the cellars a basilisk lived--a very terrible dragon--and they all went in fear of it4 ,so the ,count paid a brave mason a large sum of money 7and the payment is solemnly set down in his account book7 to break a way into this hole and turn the basilisk out2 and ,i have no doubt that he and his people were greatly pleased when the hole was made and no basilisk was found4 ,folks who believed in dragons as sincerely as that1 must have gone in terror in many places where we should go with no particular emotion4 ,a picture of a dragon to them would mean much more than it would to us4 ,so if we are really to understand old pictures1 we must begin by understanding the fancies of the artists who painted them1 and of the people they were painted for4 ,you see how much study that means for any one who wants to understand all the art of all the world4 ,we shall not pretend to lead you on any such great quest as that1 but ask you to look at just a few old pictures that have been found charming by a great many people of several generations1 and to try and see whether they do not charm you as well4 ,you must never1 of course1 pretend to like what you don't like--that is too silly4 ,we can't all like the same things4 ,still there are certain pictures that most nice people like4 ,a few of these we have selected to be reproduced in this book for you to look at4 ,and to help you realize who painted them and the kind of people they were painted for1 my daughter has written the chapters that follow4 ,i hope you will find them entertaining1 and still more that you will like the pictures1 and so learn to enjoy the many others that have come down to us from the past1 and are among the world's most precious possessions to-day4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,thirteenth ,,century ,,in ,,europe ,before we give our whole attention to the first picture1 of which the original was painted in ,england in #acgg1 let us imagine ourselves in the year #abjj making a rapid tour through the chief countries of ,europe to see for ourselves how the people lived4 ,the first thing that will strike us on our journey is the contrast between the grandeur of the churches and public buildings and the insignificance of most of the houses4 ,some of the finest churches in ,england1 built in the style of architecture called ',norman1' one or more of which you may have seen1 date before the year #abjj1 as for example1 ,durham ,cathedral1 and the naves of ,norwich1 ,ely1 and ,peterborough ,cathedrals4 ,the great churches abroad were also beautiful and more elaborately decorated1 in the ,north with sculpture and painting1 in the ,south with marble and mosaic4 ,the towns competed one with another in erecting them finer and larger1 and in decorating them as magnificently as they could4 ,this was done because the church was a place which the people used for many other purposes besides ,sunday services4 ,in the twelfth1 thirteenth1 and fourteenth centuries1 the parish church1 on week-days as well as on ,sundays1 was a very useful and agreeable place to most of the parishioners4 ,the 'holy' days1 or saints' days1 'holidays' indeed1 were times of rejoicing and festivity1 and the ,church processions and services were pleasant events in the lives of many who had few entertainments1 and who for the most part could neither read nor write4 ,printing was not yet invented1 at least not in ,europe1 and as every book had to be written out by hand1 copies of books were rare and only owned by the few who could read them1 so that stories were mostly handed down by word of mouth1 the same being told by mother to child for many generations4 ,the favourites were stories of the saints and martyrs of the ,catholic ,church1 for of course we are speaking now of times long before the ,reformation4 ,the ,old ,testament stories and all the stories of the life of ,christ and ,his ,apostles were well known too1 and just as we never tire of reading our favourite books over and over again1 our forefathers of #abjj wanted to see on the walls of their churches representations of the stories which they could not read4 ,their daily thoughts were more occupied with the ,infant ,christ1 the saints1 and the angels1 than ours generally are4 ,they thought of themselves as under the protection of some saint1 who would plead with ,god the ,father for them if they asked him1 for ,god ,himself seemed too high or remote to be appealed to always directly4 ,he was approached with awe2 the saints1 the ,virgin1 and the ,infant ,christ1 with love4 ,we must realise this difference before we can well understand a picture painted in the twelfth1 thirteenth1 or fourteenth centuries1 nor can we look at one without feeling that the artist and the people for whom he painted1 so loved the holy personages4 ,they thought about them always1 not only at stated times and on ,sundays1 and never tired of looking at pictures of them and their doings4 ,it is sometimes said that only ,catholics can understand medieval art1 because they feel towards the saints as the old painters did4 ,but it is possible for any one to realize how in those far-off days the people felt1 and it is this that we must try to do4 ,the religious fervour of the ,middle ,ages was not a sign of great virtue among all the people4 ,some were far more cruel1 savage1 and unrestrained than we are to-day4 ,very wicked men even became powerful dignitaries in the ,church4 ,but it was the ,church that fostered the impulses of pity and charity in a fierce age1 and some of the saints of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries1 such as ,st4 ,francis of ,assisi and ,st4 ,catharine of ,siena1 are still held to be among the most beautiful characters the world has ever known4 ,the churches of the eleventh and twelfth centuries in ,florence were lined with marble1 and a great picture frequently stood above the altar4 ,it is difficult to realize to-day that the processes which we call oil and water-colour painting were not then invented1 and that no shops existed to sell canvases and paints ready for use4 ,the artist painted upon a wooden panel1 which he had himself to make1 plane flat1 and cut to the size he needed4 ,in order to get a surface upon which he could paint1 he covered the panel with a thin coating of plaster which it was difficult to lay on absolutely flat4 ,upon the plaster he drew the outline of the figures he was going to paint1 and filled in the background with a thin layer of gold leaf1 such as is to-day used for gilding frames4 ,after the background had been put in1 it was impossible to correct the outline of the figures1 and the labour of preparing the wooden panel and of laying the gold was so great that an artist would naturally not make risky attempts towards something new1 lest he should spoil his work4 ,in the ,jerusalem ,chamber of ,westminster ,abbey there is a thirteenth-century altar-piece of this kind1 and you can see the strips of vellum that were used to cover the joins of the different pieces of wood forming the panel1 beneath the layer of plaster1 which has now to a great extent peeled off4 ,the people liked to see their ,old ,testament stories and the stories from the ,life of ,christ painted over and over again4 ,they had become fond of the versions of the tales which they had known and seen painted when they were young1 and did not wish them changed1 so that the range of subjects was not large4 ,the same were repeated1 and because of the painter's fear of making mistakes it was natural that the same figures should be repeated too4 ,thus1 whatever the subject pictured1 a tradition was formed in each locality for the grouping and general arrangement of the figures1 and the most authoritative tradition for such typical groupings was preserved in ,constantinople or ,byzantium1 from which city the ',byzantine' school of painting takes its name4 ,before #abjj1 ,byzantium had been a centre of residence and the civilizing influence of trade for eighteen centuries4 ,it had been the capital of the ,roman ,empire1 and less civilized peoples from the north had never conquered the town1 destroying the ,greek and ,roman traditions1 as happened elsewhere in ,europe4 ,you have read how the ,romans had to withdraw their armies from ,england to defend ,rome against the attacks of the ,goths from the north1 and then how ,britain was settled by ,angles1 ,saxons1 ,jutes1 and ,danes1 who destroyed most of the ,roman civilization4 ,a similar though much less complete destruction took place in ,italy a little later1 when ,goths and ,lombards1 who were remotely akin to the ,angles and ,saxons1 overwhelmed ,roman culture4 ,but next to ,constantinople1 ,rome had the best continuous tradition of art1 for the fine monuments of the great imperial days still existed in the city4 ,in ,byzantium the original ,greek population struggled on1 and continued to paint1 and make mosaics1 and erect fine buildings1 till the ,turks conquered them in #adec4 ,the ,byzantines were wealthy and made exquisite objects in gold1 precious stones1 and ivory4 ,while they were painting better than any other people in ,europe1 they too reproduced the same subjects and the same figures over and over again1 only the figures were more graceful than those of the local ,italian1 ,english1 and ,french artists1 who in varying degrees at different times tried to paint like the ,byzantine or ,greek artists1 but without quite the same success4 ,so long as there was no need for an artist to paint anything but the old well-established subjects1 and so long as people desired them to be painted in the old conventional manner1 there was little reason why any painter should try to be original and paint what was not wanted4 ,but in the thirteenth century a great change took place4 ,let us here refresh our memories of what we may have read of that delightful saint1 ,francis of ,assisi4 ,he was born in #aahb1 the son of a well-to-do nobleman1 in the little town of ,assisi in ,umbria1 and as a lad became inflamed with the ideal of the religious life4 ,but instead of entering one of the existing monastic orders1 where he would have been protected1 he gave away every possession he had in the world and adopted 'poverty' as his watchword4 ,clad in an old brown habit1 he walked from place to place preaching charity1 obedience1 and renunciation of all worldly goods4 ,he lived on what was given to him to eat from day to day2 he nursed the lepers and the sick4 ,ever described as a most lovable person1 he won by his preaching the hearts of people of all classes1 from the ,king of ,france to the humblest peasant4 ,he wrote beautiful hymns in praise of the sun1 the moon1 and the stars1 and had a great love for every living thing4 ,the birds were said to have flocked around him because they loved him1 and we read that he talked to them and called them his 'little sisters4' ,an old writer tells this story in good faith3 ,when ,st4 ,francis spake words to them1 the birds began all of them to open their beaks and spread their wings and reverently bend their heads down to the ground1 and by their acts and by their songs did show that the holy ,father gave them joy exceeding great4 ,wherever he preached he made converts who 'married ,holy ,poverty1' as ,st4 ,francis expressed it1 gave up everything they had1 and lived his preaching and roaming life4 ,st4 ,francis himself had no idea of forming a monastic order4 ,he wished to live a holy life in the world and show others how to do the same1 and for years he and his companions worked among the poor1 earning their daily bread when they could1 and when they could not1 begging for it4 ,gradually1 however1 ambition stirred in the hearts of some of the followers of ,francis1 and against the will of their leader they made themselves into the ,order of ,franciscan ,friars1 collected gifts of money1 and began to build churches and monastic buildings4 ,at first the buildings were said to belong to the ,pope1 who allowed the ,franciscans to use them1 since they might not own property2 but after the death of ,st4 ,francis1 the ,order built churches throughout the length and breadth of ,italy1 not of marble and mosaic but of brick1 since brick was cheaper2 but the brick walls were plastered1 and upon the wet plaster there were painted scenes from the life of ,st4 ,francis1 side by side with the old ,christian and saintly legends4 ,this sudden demand for painted churches with paintings of new subjects1 stirred the painters of the day to alter their old style4 ,when an artist was asked to paint a large picture of ,st4 ,francis preaching to the birds1 he had to look at real birds and he had to study a real man in the attitude of preaching4 ,there was no scene that had ever been painted from the life of ,christ or of any saint in which a man preached to a bird1 so that the artist was driven to paint from nature instead of copying former pictures4 ,let us now read what a painter who lived in the sixteenth century1 ,vasari by name1 wrote about the rise of painting in his native city4 ,some learned people nowadays say that ,vasari was wrong in many of the stories he told1 but after all he lived much nearer than we do to the times he wrote about1 and it is safer to believe what he tells us than what modern students surmise1 except when they are able to cite other old authorities to which ,vasari did not have access4 ,the endless flood of misfortunes which overwhelmed unhappy ,italy not only ruined everything worthy of the name of a building1 but completely extinguished the race of artists1 a far more serious matter4 ,then1 as it pleased ,god1 there was born in the year #abdj1 in the city of ,florence1 ,giovanni1 surnamed ,cimabue1 to shed the first light on the art of painting4 ,instead of paying attention to his lessons1 ,cimabue spent the whole day drawing men1 horses1 houses1 and various other fancies on his books and odd sheets1 like one who felt himself compelled to do so by nature4 ,fortune proved favourable to his natural inclination1 for some ,greek artists were summoned to ,florence by the government of the city for no other purpose than the revival of painting in their midst1 since the art was not so much debased as altogether lost4 ,in this way ,cimabue made a beginning in the art which attracted him1 for he often played the truant and spent the whole day in watching the masters work4 ,thus it came about that his father and the artists considered him so fitted to be a painter that if he devoted himself to the profession he might look for honourable success in it1 and to his great satisfaction his father procured him employment with the painters4 ,thus by dint of continual practice and with the assistance of his natural talent he far surpassed the manner of his teachers4 ,for they had never cared to make any progress and had executed their works1 not in the good manner of ancient ,greece1 but in the rude modern style of that time4 ,cimabue drew from nature to the best of his powers1 although it was a novelty to do so in those days1 and he made the draperies1 garments1 and other things somewhat more life-like1 natural1 and soft than the ,greeks had done1 who had taught one another a rough1 awkward1 and commonplace style for a great number of years1 not by means of study but as a matter of custom1 without ever dreaming of improving their designs by beauty of colouring or by any invention of worth4 ,if you were to see a picture by ,cimabue 7there is one in the ,national ,gallery which resembles his work so closely that it is sometimes said to be his71 you would think less highly than ,vasari of the life-like quality of his art1 though there is something dignified and stately in the picture of the ,virgin and ,child with angels that he painted for the ,church of ,st4 ,francis at ,assisi4 ,another story is told by ,vasari of a picture by ,cimabue1 which tradition asserts to be the great ,madonna1 still in the ,church of ,santa ,maria ,novella at ,florence4 ,cimabue painted a picture of ,our ,lady for the church of ,santa ,maria ,novella4 ,the figure was of a larger size than any which had been executed up to that time1 and the people of that day who had never seen anything better1 considered the work so marvellous that they carried it to the church from ,cimabue's house in a stately procession with great rejoicing and blowing of trumpets1 while ,cimabue himself was highly rewarded and honoured4 ,it is reported1 and some records of the old painters relate1 that while ,cimabue was painting this picture in some gardens near the gate of ,s4 ,piero1 the old ,king ,charles of ,anjou passed through ,florence4 ,among the many entertainments prepared for him by the men of the city1 they brought him to see the picture of ,cimabue4 ,as it had not then been seen by any one1 all the men and women of ,florence flocked thither in a crowd with the greatest rejoicings1 so that those who lived in the neighbourhood called the place the ',joyful ,suburb' because of the rejoicing there4 ,this name it ever afterwards retained1 being in the course of time enclosed within the walls of the city4 ,for this story we may thank ,vasari1 because it helps us to realize the love the people of ,florence felt for the pictures in their churches1 and the reverence in which they held an artist who could paint a more beautiful picture of the ,virgin and ,child than any they had seen before4 ,it is difficult to think of the population of a town to-day walking in procession to honour the painter of a fine picture2 but a picture of the ,madonna was a very precious thing indeed to a ,florentine of the thirteenth century1 and we may try to imagine ourselves walking joyfully in that ,florentine procession so as the better to understand ,florentine ,art4 ,i have repeated this legend about ,cimabue1 because he was the master of ,giotto1 who is called the ,father of ,modern ,painting4 ,the story is that ,cimabue one day came upon the boy ,giotto1 who was a shepherd1 and found him drawing a sheep with a pointed piece of stone upon a smooth surface of rock4 ,he was so much struck with the drawing that he took the boy home and taught him1 and soon he in his turn far surpassed his master4 ,in order to appreciate ,giotto we need to go to ,assisi1 ,florence1 or ,padua1 for in each place he has painted a series of wall-paintings4 ,in the great double church of ,assisi1 built by the ,franciscans over the grave of ,st4 ,francis within a few years of his death1 ,giotto has illustrated the whole story of his life4 ,an isolated reproduction of one scene would give you no idea of their power4 ,in many respects he was an innovator1 and by the end of his life had broken away completely from the ,byzantine school of painting4 ,he composed each one of the scenes from the life of ,st4 ,francis in an original and dramatic manner1 and so vividly that a person unacquainted with the story would know what was going on4 ,standing in the nave of the ,upper ,church1 you are able to contrast these speaking scenes of the lives of people upon earth1 with the faded glories of great-winged angels and noble ,madonnas with ,greek faces1 that were painted in the ,byzantine style when the church was at its newest1 before ,giotto was born4 ,these look down upon us still from the east end of the church4 ,giotto died in #accg1 and for the next fifty years painters in ,italy did little but imitate him4 ,scenes from the life of ,st4 ,francis and incidents from the legends of other saints remained in vogue1 but they were not treated in original fashion by succeeding artists4 ,the new men only tried to paint as ,giotto might have painted1 and so far from surpassing him1 he was never even equalled by his followers4 ,we need not burden our memories with the names of these ',giottesque' artists2 and now1 after this glimpse of an almost vanished world1 we will turn our attention to ,england and to the first picture of our choice4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,richard ,,ii4 ,our first picture is a portrait of ,richard ,,ii4 on his coronation day in the year #acgg1 when he was ten years old4 ,it is the earliest one selected1 and the eyes of those who see it for the first time will surely look surprised4 ,the jewel-like effect of the sapphire-winged angels and coral-robed ,richard against the golden background is not at all what we are accustomed to see4 ,nowadays it may take some time and a little patience before we can cast ourselves back to the year #acgg and look at the picture with the eyes of the person who painted it4 ,let us begin with a search for his purpose and meaning at least4 ,the picture is a diptych--that is to say1 it is a painting done upon two wings or shutters hinged1 so as to allow of their being closed together4 ,you have no doubt been wondering why ,i called it a portrait1 for the picture is far from being what to-day would commonly be described as such4 ,richard himself is not even the most conspicuous figure2 and he is kneeling and praying to the ,virgin4 ,what should we think if any living sovereign1 ordering a state portrait1 had himself portrayed surrounded on one side by his predecessors on the throne1 and on the other side by the ,virgin and ,child and angels8 ,but1 in the fourteenth century1 it was nothing strange that the ,virgin and ,child1 the angels1 ,john the ,baptist1 ,edward the ,confessor1 ,edmund the ,martyr1 and ,richard ,,ii4 should be thus depicted4 ,when we have realized that it was usual for a royal patron to command and an artist to paint such an assemblage of personages1 as though all of them were then living and in one another's presence1 we have learnt something significant and impressive about a way of thinking in the ,middle ,ages4 ,richard ,,ii4 thought of himself as the successor of a long line of kings1 appointed by the ,divine ,power to rule a small portion of the ,divine ,territories1 so what more natural than that he1 as the newly reigning sovereign1 should have his portrait painted1 surrounded by his holiest predecessors upon the throne1 and in the act of dedicating his kingdom to the ,virgin ,mary8 ,in an account given of his coronation we read that1 after the ceremony in ,westminster ,abbey1 ,richard went to the shrine of ,our ,lady at ,pewe1 near by1 where he made a special offering to ,our ,lady of eleven angels1 each wearing the ,king's badge1 one for each of the eleven years of his young life4 ,what form this offering of angels took1 we know not2 they may have been little wooden figures1 or coins with an angel stamped upon them2 but it is reasonable to connect the offering with this very picture of ,our ,lady and the angels4 ,the ,king's special badges were the ,white ,hart and the ,collar of ,broom-pods which you see embroidered all over his magnificent red robe4 ,the ,white ,hart is pinned in the form of a jewel beneath his collar1 and each of the eleven angels bears the badge upon her shoulder and the ,collar of ,broom-pods round her neck4 ,one of the ,king's angels gives the ,royal ,standard of ,england with the ,cross of ,st4 ,george on it to the ,infant ,christ in token of ,richard's dedication of his kingdom to the ,virgin and ,child4 ,edward ,,iii4 died at ,midsummer #acgg and ,richard succeeded him in his eleventh year1 having been born on ,january #f1 #acfg4 ,it is necessary to note the exact day of the year when these events took place1 for it can have importance in determining the saint whom a personage chiefly honoured as patron and protector4 ,in this instance ,st4 ,john the ,baptist1 whose feast occurs on ,june #bc1 near to the day of ,richard's accession1 obviously stands as patron saint of the young ,king4 ,next to him is ,king ,edward the ,confessor1 the founder of ,westminster ,abbey1 who was canonized for his sanctity and who points to ,richard ,,ii4 as his spiritual successor upon the throne4 ,in medieval art the saints are distinguished by their emblems1 which often have an association with the grim way in which they met their death1 or with some other prominent feature in their legend4 ,here ,edward holds up a ring1 whereof a pretty story is told4 ,edward once took it off his finger to give it to a beggar1 because he had no money with him4 ,but the beggar was no other than ,john the ,evangelist in disguise1 and two years later he sent the ring back to the ,king with the message that in six months ,edward would be in the joy of heaven with him4 ,william ,caxton1 the first ,english printer1 relates in his life of ,king ,edward that when he heard the message he was full of joy and let fall tears from his eyes1 giving praise and thanksgiving to ,almighty ,god4 ,illustration3 ,,richard ,,ii4 ,,before ,,the ,,virgin ,,and ,,child ,from a picture by an unknown artist in the ,wilton ,house ,collection ,st4 ,edmund1 who stands next to ,edward the ,confessor1 is the other saintly ,king of ,england2 after whom the town of ,bury ,st4 ,edmunds takes its name4 ,he was shot to death with arrows by the ,danes because he would not give up ,christianity4 ,if ,i could show you several suitably chosen pictures at once1 you would recognize in the arrangement of the three ,kings here 7two standing1 one kneeling before the ,virgin and ,child7 a plain resemblance to the typical treatment of a well-known subject--the ,adoration of the ,magi4 ,you remember how when the three ,wise ,men of the ,east--always thought of in the ,middle ,ages as ,kings--had followed the star which led them to the manger where ,christ was born1 they brought ,him gold and frankincense and myrrh as offerings4 ,this beautiful story was a favourite one in the ,middle ,ages1 often represented in sculpture and painting4 ,one ,king always kneels before the ,virgin and ,child1 presenting his gift1 whilst the other two stand behind with theirs in their hands4 ,the standing ,kings and the kneeling ,richard in our picture1 are grouped in just the same relation to the divine ,infant as the three ,magi4 ,the imitation of the type is clear4 ,there was a special reason for this1 in that the birthday of ,richard fell upon ,january #f1 the feast of the ,epiphany1 when the ,wise ,men did homage to the ,babe4 ,the picture1 by reminding us of the three ,wise ,men1 commemorated the birthday of the ,king as well as his coronation1 the two chief dates of his life4 ,you have some idea now of the train of thought which this fourteenth-century painter endeavoured to express in his picture commemorative of the coronation of a ,king4 ,a medieval coronation was a very solemn ceremony indeed1 and the picture had to be a serious expression of the great traditions of the throne of ,england1 suggested by the figures of ,st4 ,edward and ,st4 ,edmund1 and of hope for future good to the realm1 to ensue from the blessings of the ,virgin and ,child upon the young ,king4 ,religious feeling is dominant in this picture1 and if from it you could turn to others of like date1 you would find the same to be true4 ,the meaning was the main thing thought of4 ,when ,giotto painted his scenes from the life of ,st4 ,francis1 his first aim was that the stories should be well told and easily grasped by all who looked at them4 ,their beauty was of less importance4 ,this difference between the aim of art in the ,middle ,ages and in our own day is fundamental4 ,if you begin by picking to pieces the pictures of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries because the drawing is bad1 the colouring crude1 and the grouping unnatural1 you might as well never look at them at all4 ,putting faults and old fashions aside to think of the meaning of the picture1 we shall often be rewarded by finding a soul within1 and the work may affect us powerfully1 notwithstanding its simple forms and few strong colours4 ,nevertheless1 after the painter had planned his picture so as to convey its message and meaning1 he did try to make it beautiful to look upon1 and he often succeeded4 ,in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was beauty of outline and a pleasant patching together of bright colours for which the painters strove1 both in pictures and in manuscripts4 ,if you think of this picture for a moment as a coloured pattern1 you will see how pretty it is4 ,the blue wings against the gold background make a hedge for the angel faces and look extremely well4 ,if the figure of ,richard ,,ii4 seems flat1 if you feel as though he were cut out of cardboard and had no thickness1 then turn your mind to consider only the outline of the figure4 ,it is very graceful4 ,artists in the thirteenth century sometimes made their figures over-long if they thought that a sweep of graceful line would look well in a certain position in their picture2 the drapery was bent into impossible curves if so they fell into a pretty pattern4 ,in the fourteenth century1 beauty of outlines still prevailed1 even when they contained plain masses of brilliant colour so pure and gem-like that the pictures almost came to look like stained-glass windows4 ,in fact probably the constant sight of stained-glass windows in the churches greatly influenced the painters' way of work4 ,the contrast of divers colours placed next one another was more startling than we find in later painting1 whilst an effort was made to finish every detail as though it were to be looked at through a magnifying glass4 ,in this picture which we are now learning how to see1 the ,virgin was to be shown standing in a meadow of flowers4 ,a modern artist knows how to paint the general effect of many flowers growing out of grass1 but the medieval painter had not the skill to do that4 ,he had not learnt to look at the effect of a mass of flowers as a whole1 nor could he have rendered such an effect with the colours and processes he possessed4 ,he knew what one flower looked like1 and thought that many must be a continued repetition of one4 ,but it was impossible to paint a great number of flowers close together1 each finished in detail1 so he chose instead to paint a few as completely as he could1 and leave the rest to the imagination of the spectator4 ,that was his way of making a selection from nature2 thus he hoped to suggest the idea of a flowery meadow1 since he could not hope to render the look of it4 ,likewise1 all the details of the dresses are minutely painted4 ,the robes of ,richard and of ,edmund the ,martyr are beautiful examples of the careful and painstaking work characteristic of the ,middle ,ages4 ,no medieval painter spared himself trouble4 ,although he had not mastered the art of drawing the figure1 he had learnt how to paint jewellery and stuffs beautifully1 and delighted in doing it4 ,the drawing of the figures you can see to be imperfect1 yet nothing could be sweeter in feeling than the bevy of girl angels with roses in their hair surrounding the ,virgin4 ,most of them are not unlike ,english girls of the present day1 and the critics who say that this picture must have been painted by a ,frenchman may be asked where he is likely to have found these ,english models for his angels4 ,possibly the face of ,richard himself may have been painted from life1 for the features correspond closely enough with the large full-face portrait of him in ,westminster ,abbey1 and with the sculptured figure upon his tomb4 ,he certainly does not look like a child of ten1 for his state robes and crown give him a grown-up appearance4 ,but if you regard the face carefully you can see that it is still that of a child4 ,the gold background in the original shines out brilliantly1 for after the gold was laid on1 it was polished with an agate1 which gives it a burnished effect1 and then the little patterns were carefully punched so as not to pierce the gold and thereby expose the white ground beneath4 ,there is a jewel-like quality in the colour such as you can see in manuscripts of the time1 and it is possible that the painter may have learned his art as an illuminator of manuscripts4 ,artists in those days seldom confined themselves to one kind of work4 ,we do not know this man's name1 and are not even certain whether he was ,french or ,english4 ,before1 as in the time of ,richard1 painting had been mainly a decorative art1 and the object of making pictures was to adorn the pages of a book1 or the walls and vaults of a building4 ,the most vital artistic energies of ,western ,europe in the thirteenth century had gone into the building of the great cathedrals and abbeys1 which are to-day the glory of that period4 ,most medieval paintings that still exist in ,england are decorative wall-paintings of this kind1 and only traces of a few remain4 ,in many country places you can see poor and faded vestiges of painting which adorned church walls in the thirteenth century1 and occasionally you may come upon a bit by some chance better preserved4 ,these old wall-paintings were done upon the dry plaster4 ,the discovery1 or rather the revival1 of 'fresco' painting 7that is1 of painting done upon the wet surface of freshly plastered walls1 a more durable process7 was made in ,italy and did not penetrate to ,england4 ,richard ,,ii4 was not the only art-loving ,king of his time4 ,you have read of ,john1 ,king of ,france1 who was taken prisoner at the ,battle of ,poitiers by the ,black ,prince1 father of ,richard4 ,during his captivity he lived in considerable state in ,london at the ,savoy ,palace1 which occupied the site of the present ,savoy ,hotel in the ,strand2 he brought his own painter from ,france with him1 who painted his portrait which still exists in ,paris4 ,this ,king ,john was the father of four remarkable sons1 ,charles ,v41 ,king of ,france1 with whom ,edward ,,iii4 and the ,black ,prince fought the latter part of the ,hundred ,years' ,war2 ,philip the ,bold1 ,duke of ,burgundy2 ,john1 ,duke of ,berry2 and ,louis1 ,duke of ,anjou4 ,in this list1 all are names of remarkable men and great art-patrons1 about whom you may some day read interesting things4 ,numerous lovely objects still in existence were made for them1 and would not have been made at all if they had not been the men they were4 ,it was only just becoming possible in the fourteenth century for a prince to be an art-patron4 ,that required money1 and hitherto even princes had rarely been rich4 ,the increasing wealth of ,england1 ,france1 and ,flanders at this time was based upon the wool industry and the manufacture and commerce to which it gave rise4 ,the ,lord ,chancellor in the ,house of ,lords to this day sits on a woolsack1 which is a reminder of the time when the woolsacks of ,england were the chief source of the wealth of ,english traders4 ,after the ,black ,death1 an awful plague that swept through ,europe in #acdi1 a large part of the land of ,england was given up to sheep grazing1 because the population had diminished1 and it took fewer people to look after sheep than it did to till the soil4 ,although this had been an evil in the beginning1 it became afterwards a benefit1 for ,english wool was sold at an excellent price to the merchants of ,flanders1 who worked it up into cloth1 and in their turn sold that all over ,europe with big profits4 ,the larger merchants who regulated the wool traffic were prosperous1 and so too the landowners and princes whose property thus increased in value4 ,the four sons of ,king ,john became very wealthy men4 ,philip the ,bold1 ,duke of ,burgundy1 by marrying the heiress of the ,count of ,flanders acquired the ,flemish territory and the wealth obtained from the wool trade and manufacture there4 ,berry and ,anjou were great provinces in ,france yielding a large revenue to their two ,dukes4 ,each of these princes employed several artists to illuminate books for him in the most splendid way2 they built magnificent chateaux1 and had tapestries and paintings made to decorate their walls4 ,they employed many sculptors and goldsmiths1 and all gave each other as presents works of art executed by their favourite artists4 ,in the ,british ,museum there is a splendid gold and enamel cup that ,john1 ,duke of ,berry1 caused to be made for his brother ,king ,charles ,v42 to see it would give you a good idea of the costliness and elaboration of the finest work of that day4 ,the courts of these four brothers were centres of artistic production in all kinds--sculpture1 metal-work1 tapestries1 illuminated manuscripts and pictures1 and there was a strong spirit of rivalry among the artists to see who could make the loveliest things1 and among the patrons as to which could secure the best artists in his service4 ,these four princes gave an important impulse to the production of beautiful things in ,france1 ,burgundy1 and ,flanders1 but it is needless to burden you with the artists' names4 ,in the fourteenth century an artist was a workman who existed to do well the work that was desired of him4 ,he was not an independent man with ideas of his own1 who attempted to make a living by painting what he thought beautiful1 without reference to the ideas of a buyer4 ,of course1 if people prefer and buy good things when they see them1 good things will be likely to be made1 but if those with money to spend have no taste and buy bad things or order ugly things to be made1 then the men who had it in them to be great artists may die unnoticed1 because the beautiful things they could have made are not called for4 ,to-day many people spend something upon art and a few spend a great deal4 ,let us hope we may not see too much of the money spent in creating a demand for what is bad rather than for what is beautiful4 ,it was not unusual in the fourteenth century for a man to be at one and the same time painter1 illuminator1 sculptor1 metal-worker1 and designer of any object that might be called for4 ,one of these many gifted men1 ,andre ,beauneveu of ,valenciennes1 a good sculptor and a painter of some exquisite miniatures1 is sometimes supposed to have been the painter of our picture of ,richard ,,ii4 ,in the absence of any signature or any definite record it is impossible to say who painted it1 but it is unnecessary to assume that it must have been painted by a ,french artist1 since we know that at the end of the fourteenth century there were very good painters in ,england4 ,it was by no means an exception not to sign a picture in those days1 for the artists had not begun to think of themselves as individuals entitled to public fame4 ,hand-workers of the fourteenth century mostly belonged to a corporation or guild composed of all the other workers at the same trade in the same town1 and to this rule artists were no exception4 ,each man received a recognized price for his work1 and the officers of the guild saw to it that he obtained that price and that he worked with good and durable materials4 ,there were certain advantages in this1 but it involved some loss of freedom in the artist1 since all had to conform to the rules of the guild4 ,the system was characteristic of the ,middle ,ages1 and arose from the fact that in those troublous times every isolated person needed protection and was content to merge his individuality in some society in order to obtain it4 ,the guilds made for peace and diminished competition1 so that a guildsman may have been less tempted to hurry over or scamp his task4 ,the result was much honest1 careful work such as you see in the original of this picture4 ,we are told by those who know best that there has never been a time when the actual workmanship of the general run of craftsmen was better than in the ,middle ,ages4 ,this picture of ,richard ,,ii4 has not faded or cracked or fallen off the panel1 and it seems as though we may hope it never will1 for it was well made and1 what is even more important1 it seems always to have been well cared for4 ,if only the nice things that are produced were all well cared for1 how many more of them there would be in the world6 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,van ,,eycks ,before passing to ,hubert van ,eyck1 the painter of the original of our next picture1 please compare carefully the picture of ,richard ,,ii4 and this of the ,three ,maries1 looking first at one and then at the other4 ,the subject of the visit of the ,maries to the ,sepulchre is1 of course1 well known to you1 but let us read the beautiful passage from ,st4 ,matthew telling of it1 that we may see how faithfully in every detail it was followed by ,hubert van ,eyck4 ,in the end of the ,sabbath1 as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week1 came ,mary ,magdalene1 and the other ,mary1 to see the ,sepulchre4 ,and1 behold1 there was a great earthquake3 for the ,angel of the ,lord descended from ,heaven1 and came and rolled back the stone from the door1 and sat upon it4 ,his countenance was like lightning1 and his raiment white as snow3 ,and for fear of him the keepers did shake1 and became as dead men4 ,surely this would be thought a beautiful picture had it been painted at any time1 but when you compare it with the ,richard ,,ii4 diptych does it not seem to you as though a long era divided the two8 ,yet one was painted less than fifty years after the other4 ,it is the attitude of mind of the painter that makes the difference4 ,in the diptych1 although the portrait of ,richard himself was a likeness1 the setting was imaginary and symbolic4 ,the artist wished to tell in his picture how all the ,kings who succeed one another upon the throne of ,england alike depend upon the protection of ,heaven1 and how ,richard in his turn acknowledged that dependence1 and pledged his loyalty to the ,blessed ,virgin and her ,holy ,child4 ,that picture was intended to take the mind of the spectator away from the everyday world and suggest grave thought1 and such was likewise in the main the purpose of all paintings in the ,middle ,ages4 ,but we are now leaving the ,middle ,ages behind and approaching a new world nearer to our own4 ,hubert van ,eyck1 in attempting to depict the event at the ,sepulchre as it might actually have occurred outside the walls of the ,city of ,jerusalem1 was doing something quite novel in his day4 ,his picture might almost be called a ,bible illustration4 ,it is at least painted in the same practical spirit as that of a man painting an illustration for any other book4 ,it is not a picture meant to help one to pray1 or meditate4 ,it does not express any religious idea4 ,it was intended to be the veracious representation of an actual event1 shown as1 and when1 and how it happened1 true to the facts so far as ,hubert knew them4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,three ,,maries ,from the picture by ,hubert van ,eyck1 in ,sir ,frederick ,cook's ,collection1 ,richmond ,he has dressed the ,maries in robes with wrought borders of ,hebrew characters1 imitated from embroidered stuffs1 such as at that time were imported into ,europe from the ,east4 ,the dresses are not accurate copies of eastern dresses2 ,hubert would scarcely have known what those were like1 but was doing his best to paint costumes that should look oriental4 ,mary ,magdalen wears a turban1 and the keeper on the right has a strange peaked cap with ,hebrew letters on it4 ,hebrew scholars have done their best to read the inscriptions on these clothes1 but we must infer that ,hubert only copied the letters without knowing what they meant1 since it has not been possible to make any sense of them4 ,in the foreground are masses of flowers most carefully painted1 and so accurately drawn that botanists have been able to identify them all2 several do not grow in the north of ,europe4 ,the town at the back is something like ,jerusalem as it looked in ,hubert van ,eyck's own day4 ,a few of the buildings can be identified still1 and a general view of ,jerusalem taken in #adhf1 sixty years after the death of ,hubert1 bears some resemblance to the town in this picture4 ,the city is painted in miniature1 much as it would look if you saw it from near at hand4 ,every tower1 house1 and window is there4 ,you can even count the battlements4 ,the great building with the dome in the middle of the picture1 is the ,mosque of ,omar1 which occupies the supposed site of ,solomon's ,temple4 ,some people have thought that perhaps ,hubert van ,eyck1 and his brother ,john1 actually went to the ,east4 ,many men made pilgrimages in those days1 and almost every year parties of ,christian pilgrims went to ,jerusalem4 ,it was a rough and even a dangerous journey1 but not at all impossible for a patient traveller4 ,dr4 ,hulin1 who has made wonderful discoveries about the early ,flemish painters1 found a mention1 in an old sixteenth-century list1 of a ',portrait of a ,moorish ,king or ,prince' by ,van ,eyck1 painted in #adad or perhaps #adah4 ,if he painted a portrait of an oriental prince1 he may have visited one oriental country at least1 or at any rate the south of ,spain4 ,probably enough during that journey he made studies of the cypress1 stone-pine1 date-palm1 olive1 orange1 and palmetto1 which occur in his pictures4 ,they grow in the south of ,spain and other ,mediterranean regions1 but not in the cold north where ,hubert spent most of his days4 ,it is difficult at first to realize what an innovation it was for ,hubert van ,eyck to paint such a landscape4 ,in the ,richard ,,ii4 diptych there is just a suggestion of brown earth for the saints to stand upon1 but the rest of the background is of gold1 as was the common practice at the time4 ,the great innovator1 ,giotto1 in some of his pictures had attempted to paint landscape backgrounds4 ,in his fresco of ,st4 ,francis preaching to the birds there is a tree for them to perch on1 but it seems more like a garden vegetable than a tree4 ,even his buildings look as though they might fall together any moment like a pack of cards4 ,hubert not only gives landscape a larger place than it ever had in any great picture before1 but he paints it with such skill and apparent confidence that we should never dream he was doing it almost for the first time4 ,st4 ,matthew says3 ',as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week1 came ,mary ,magdalene1 and the other ,mary1 to see the ,sepulchre4' ,even in this point ,hubert wished to be accurate4 ,the rising sun is hidden behind the rocks on the left side of the picture1 for it was not until years later that any painter ventured to paint the sun in the heavens4 ,but the rays from the hidden orb strike the castles on the hills with shafts of light4 ,the town remains in shadow1 while the sky is lit up with floods of glory4 ,an effect such as this must have been very carefully studied from nature4 ,hubert was evidently one who looked at the world with observant eyes and found it beautiful4 ,when he had flowers to paint1 he painted the whole plant accurately1 not the blossoms individually1 like the painter of ,richard ,,ii4 ,he liked fine stuffs1 embroideries1 jewels1 and glittering armour4 ,he was no visionary trying to free himself from the earth and live in contemplation of the angels and saints in ,paradise1 like so many of the thirteenth and fourteenth century artists4 ,in this new delightful interest in the world as it is1 he reflected the tendency of his day4 ,the fifty years that had elapsed between the painting of ,richard ,,ii4's portrait and the work of the ,van ,eycks1 had seen a great development of trade and industry in ,flanders4 ,hubert was born1 perhaps about #acfe1 at ,maas ,eyck1 from which he takes his name4 ,maas ,eyck was a little town on the banks of the river ,maas1 near the frontier of the present ,holland and ,belgium4 ,he may have spent most of his life in ,ghent1 the town officials of which city paid him a visit in #adbe to see his work1 and gave six groats to his apprentices in memory of their visit4 ,where he learnt his art1 where he worked before he came to ,ghent1 we do not know for certain1 but there is reason to think that he was employed for a while in ,holland by the ,count4 ,john1 his brother1 concerning whom more facts have been gathered1 is said to have been twenty years younger than ,hubert4 ,he was a painter too1 and worked in the employ of ,philip the ,good1 ,duke of ,burgundy and ,count of ,flanders1 the grandson of ,philip the ,bold1 who was one of those four sons of ,king ,john of ,france mentioned in our last chapter4 ,philip the ,good continued the traditions of his family and was in his time a great art-patron4 ,his grandfather had fostered an important school of sculpture in ,flanders and ,burgundy1 which culminated in the superb statues still existing at ,dijon4 ,like his brother the ,duke of ,berry1 he had given work to a number of miniature painters4 ,the ,count of ,holland also employed some wonderful miniature painters to beautify a manuscript for him4 ,this manuscript and one made for the ,duke of ,berry were among the finest ever painted so far as the pictures in them are concerned4 ,the ,count of ,holland's book used to be in the library at ,turin1 where it was burnt a few years ago1 so we can see it no more4 ,but the fortunate ones who did see it thought that the pictures in it were actually painted by the ,van ,eycks when they were young4 ,the ,duke of ,berry's finest book is at ,chantilly and is well known4 ,both this and the ,turin book contained the loveliest early landscapes1 a little earlier in date than this landscape in the ',three ,maries' picture4 ,so you see why it is said that the illuminators first invented beautiful landscape painting1 and that landscapes were painted in books before they were painted as pictures to hang on walls4 ,the practical spirit in which ,hubert van ,eyck worked exactly matched the sensible1 matter-of-fact ,flemish character4 ,the ,flemings1 even in pictures of the ,madonna1 wanted the ,virgin to wear a gown made of the richest stuff that could be woven1 truthfully painted1 with jewels of the finest ,flemish workmanship1 and they liked to see a landscape behind her studied from their own native surroundings4 ,no man could try to paint things as they looked1 in the way ,hubert did1 without making great progress in drawing4 ,if you compare the drawing of the angel appearing to the ,maries with any of the angels wearing the badge of ,richard ,,ii41 you will see how much more life-like is the angel of ,hubert4 ,the painter of ,richard ,,ii4 was not happy with his figures unless they were standing up or kneeling in profile1 but ,hubert van ,eyck can draw them with tolerable success lying down1 or sitting huddled4 ,he can also combine a group in a natural manner4 ,the absence of formal arrangement in the picture of the ,maries is quite new in medieval art4 ,the painter of ,richard ,,ii4 had known very little about perspective4 ,the science of drawing things as they look from one point of view has no doubt been taught to all of you4 ,you know certain rules about vanishing points and can apply them in your drawing4 ,but you would have found it very hard to invent perspective without being taught4 ,i can remember drawing a matchbox by the light of nature1 and very queer it contrived to become4 ,medieval artists were in exactly that same case4 ,the artists of the ancient world had discovered some of the laws of perspective1 but the secret was lost1 and artists in the ,middle ,ages had to discover them all over again4 ,hubert van ,eyck made a great stride toward the attainment of this knowledge4 ,when you look at the picture the perspective does not strike you as glaringly wrong1 though there was still much that remained to be discovered by later men1 as we shall see in our next chapter4 ,the brothers ,van ,eyck were1 first and foremost1 good workmen4 ,few other painters in the whole of the world's history have aimed at anything like the same finish of detail4 ,in the original of this picture the oriental pot which the green ,mary holds in her hand is a perfect marvel of workmanship4 ,there is no detail so small but that when you look into it you discover some fresh wonder4 ,a story is told of how ,hubert van ,eyck painted a picture upon which he had lavished his usual painstaking care4 ,but when he put it in the sun to dry1 the panel cracked down the middle4 ,after this disappointment ,hubert went to work and invented a new substance with which colours are made liquid1 a 'medium' as it is called1 which when mixed with colour dried hard and quickly4 ,it was possible to paint with the new medium in finer detail than before1 and the ,flemish artists universally adopted it4 ,while very little was remembered about the facts of ,hubert van ,eyck's life1 his name was always associated with the discovery of a new method of painting1 and on that account held in great honour4 ,the ',three ,maries' is in many respects the most attractive of the pictures ascribed to ,hubert1 but his most famous work was a larger picture1 or assemblage of pictures framed together1 the ',adoration of the ,lamb1' in ,st4 ,bavon's ,church at ,ghent4 ,it is an altar-piece--a painting set up over an altar in a church or chapel to aid the devotions of those worshipping there4 ,many of the panels of the ,ghent altar-piece are now in the ,museums of ,berlin and ,brussels4 ,they belonged to the wings or shutters which were made to close over the central parts1 and which used also to be painted outside and inside with devotional or related subjects4 ,the four great central panels on which these shutters used to close are still at ,ghent4 ,the subject of the ',adoration of the ,lamb' was taken from ,revelations1 where before the ,lamb has opened the seals of the book1 ,st4 ,john says3 ,and every creature which is in heaven1 and on the earth1 and under the earth1 and such as are in the sea1 and all that are in them1 heard ,i saying1 ,blessing1 and honour1 and glory1 and power1 be unto him that sitteth upon the throne1 and unto the ,lamb for ever and ever4 ,hubert has figured this verse by assembling1 as in one time and place1 representatives of ,christendom4 ,they who worship are the prophets1 apostles1 popes1 martyrs1 and virgins4 ,on each side of the central panel the just judges1 the soldiers of ,christ1 the hermits1 and the pilgrims1 advance to join the throng around the ,lamb4 ,most beautiful of all is the crowd of virgin martyrs bearing palms1 moving over the green grass carpeted with flowers1 to adore the ,lamb of ,god1 the ,redeemer of the ,world4 ,above1 ,god the ,father1 the ,virgin ,mother1 and ,st4 ,john the ,baptist1 with crowns of wonderful workmanship1 are throned amid choirs of singing and playing angels on either hand4 ,the picture does not illustrate the description of the ,adoration of the ,lamb in the fifth chapter of ,revelations so faithfully as the picture of the ',three ,maries' illustrated ,st4 ,matthew4 ,the ,lamb has not seven horns and seven eyes1 and the four beasts and twenty-four elders are not falling down before it and adoring4 ,the ,lamb is an ordinary sheep1 and the picture is a symbolic expression of the ,catholic faith1 founded upon a biblical text1 but not what could be described as 'a ,bible illustration4' ,people in the ,middle ,ages liked to embody their faith in a visible form1 and we are told that theologians frequently drew up schemes of doctrine which painters did their best to translate into pictures1 and sculptors into sculpture4 ,such works of art were for instruction rather than beauty1 though some also served well the purpose of decoration4 ,josse ,vyt1 who ordered the picture1 and whose portrait1 with that of his wife1 is painted on the shutters1 no doubt explained exactly what he wanted1 and ,hubert sought to please him4#a ,but although the design of the central panel was old-fashioned and symbolic1 ,hubert was able to do what he liked with the landscape1 and with the individual figures4 ,they are real men and women with varieties of expression such as had not been painted before1 and the landscape is even more beautiful than the one at the back of the ',three ,maries4' ,snow mountains rise in the distance1 and beautiful cypresses and palms of all kinds clothe the green slopes behind the ,lamb4 ,there are flowers in the grass and jewels for pebbles in the brook4 ,behind1 you can see the ,cathedrals of ,utrecht and ,cologne1 ,st4 ,john's of ,maestricht1 and more churches and houses besides1 and the walls of a town1 and wide stretches of green country4 ,footnote #a3 ,there are reasons for thinking that the picture may have been ordered by some prince who died before it was finished1 and that ,vyt only acquired it later1 in time to have his own and his wife's portraits added on the shutters4 ,hubert van ,eyck died in #adbf1 and the picture was finished by his younger brother ,john1 of whose life1 though more is known than of ,hubert's1 we need not here repeat details4 ,many of his pictures still exist1 and the most delightful of them for us are his portraits4 ,he was not the first man to paint good portraits1 but few artists have ever painted better likenesses4 ,it seems evident that the people in his pictures are 'as like as they can stare1' with no wrinkle or scratch left out4 ,portraits in earlier days than these were seldom painted for their own sake alone4 ,a pious man who wanted to present an altar-piece or a stained-glass window to a church would modestly have his own image introduced in a corner4 ,by degrees such portraits grew in size and scale1 and the neighbouring saints diminished1 till at last the saints were left out and the portrait stood alone4 ,then it came about that such a picture was hung in its owner's house rather than in a church4 ,one of the best portraits ,john van ,eyck ever painted is at ,bruges--the likeness of his wife4 ,the panel was discovered about fifty years ago in the market-place of ,bruges1 where an old woman was using the back of it to skin eels on2 but so soundly had the picture been painted that even this ill-usage did not ruin it4 ,the lady was a very plain ,flemish woman with no beauty of feature or expression1 but ,john has revealed her character so vividly that to look at her likeness is to know her4 ,it is indeed a long leap from the ,richard ,,ii4 of fifty years before1 with its representation of the outline of a youth1 to this ample realization of a mature woman's character4 ,john lived till #adda1 and had some pupils and many imitators4 ,one of these1 ,roger van der ,weyden by name1 spread his influence far and wide throughout the whole of the ,netherlands1 ,france1 and ,germany4 ,how important this influence was in the history of art we shall see later4 ,many of the imitators of ,john learnt his accuracy and thoroughness of workmanship1 but none of them attained his deep insight into character4 ,during the next fifty years many and beautiful were the pictures produced throughout ,flanders4 ,all of them have a jewel-like brilliance of colour1 approaching in brightness the hues of the ,richard ,,ii4 diptych4 ,the landscape backgrounds are charming miniatures of towns by the side of rivers with spanning bridges4 ,the painting of textures is exquisite4 ,but the ,flemish face1 placid1 plump1 and fair-haired1 prevails throughout4 ,in the pictures of ,paradise1 where the saints and angels play with the ,infant ,christ1 we still feel chained to the earth1 because the figures and faces are the unidealized images of those one might have met in the streets of ,bruges and ,ghent4 ,this is not a criticism on the artists4 ,the merit of their work is unchallenged2 and how could they paint physical beauty by them scarce ever seen8 ,yet when all has been said in praise of the ,flemish ,school1 the brothers ,van ,eyck1 the founders of it1 remain its greatest representatives1 and their work is still regarded with that high and almost universal veneration which is the tribute of the greatest achievement4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,renaissance ,who is this old gentleman in our next picture reading so quietly and steadily8 ,does he not look absorbed in his book8 ,certainly the peacock1 the bird1 and the cat do not worry him or each other1 and there is still another animal in the distance--a lion6 ,can you see him8 ,he is walking down the cloister pavement on the right1 with his foot lifted as though it were hurt4 ,the story is that this particular lion limped into the monastery in which this old man lived1 and while all the other monks fled in terror1 this monk saw that the lion's fore-paw was hurt4 ,he raised it up1 found what was the matter1 and pulled out the thorn2 and ever afterwards the lion lived peacefully in the monastery with him4 ,now1 whenever you see a lion in a picture with an old monk1 him you will know to be ,st4 ,jerome4 ,he was a learned ,christian father who lived some fifteen hundred years ago1 yet his works are still read1 spoken1 and heard every day throughout the world4 ,he it was who made the standard ,latin version of the ,scriptures4 ,the services in ,roman ,catholic churches in all countries are held in ,latin to this day1 and ,st4 ,jerome's translation of the ,bible1 called the ,vulgate1 is the version still in use4 ,here you see ,st4 ,jerome depicted sitting in his own study1 reading to prepare himself for his great undertaking2 and what a study it is6 ,you must go to the ,national ,gallery to enjoy all the details1 for the original painting is only #ah inches high by #ad inches broad1 and the books and writing materials are so tiny that some are inevitably lost in this beautiful photograph4 ,the study is really a part of a monastery assigned to ,st4 ,jerome himself1 his books1 manuscripts1 and other such possessions4 ,he has a pot of flowers and a dwarf tree1 and a towel to dry his hands on1 and a beautiful chair at his desk4 ,he has taken off his dusty shoes and left them at the foot of the steps4 ,the painter of this picture1 must have had in his mind a very happy idea of ,st4 ,jerome4 ,others have sometimes painted him as they thought he looked when living in a horrible desert1 as he did for four years4 ,but at the time this picture was painted1 about the year #adgj1 ,st4 ,jerome in his study was a more usual subject for painters than ,st4 ,jerome in the desert4 ,one reason of this was that in ,italy1 in the latter half of the fifteenth century1 ,st4 ,jerome was considered the patron saint of scholars1 and for the first time since the fall of the ,roman ,empire1 scholars were perhaps the most influential people of the day4 ,illustration3 ,,st4 ,,jerome ,,in ,,his ,,study ,from the picture by ,antonello da ,messina1 in the ,national ,gallery1 ,london ,of course you all know something about the remarkable revival of learning in the fifteenth century1 which started in ,italy1 spread northward1 and reached ,england in the reign of ,henry ,,viii4 ,before the fifteenth century1 ,italians seem to have been indifferent to the monuments around them of ancient civilization4 ,suddenly they were fired with a passion for antiquity4 ,they learnt ,greek and began to take a keen interest in the doings of the ,greeks and ,romans1 who in many ways had lived a life so far superior to their own4 ,artists studied the old statues1 which taught them the beauty of the human figure4 ,the reacquired wisdom of the ancients by degrees broke down the medieval barriers4 ,there was born a spirit of enterprise into the world of thought as well as into the world of fact1 which revolutionized life and art4 ,the period which witnessed this great mental change is well known as the ,renaissance or 'rebirth4' ,when you first looked at this picture you must have thought it very different from the two earlier ones4 ,such a subject could only have been painted thus in an age when men admired the scholar's life4 ,though the figure is called that of ,st4 ,jerome1 there is really nothing typically saintly about him2 he is only serious4 ,the subjects chosen by painters of the ,renaissance were no longer almost solely religious1 but began to be selected from the world of everyday life2 even when the subject was taken from ,christian legend1 it was now generally treated as an event happening in the actual world of the painter's own day4 ,the manner in which this picture is painted is still more suggestive of change than the subject itself4 ,our artist knew a great deal about the new science of perspective1 for instance4 ,one might almost think that1 pleased with his new knowledge1 he had multiplied the number of objects on the shelves so as to show how well he could foreshorten them4 ,medieval painters had not troubled about perspective1 and were more concerned1 as we have seen1 to make a pretty pattern of shapes and colours for their pictures4 ,the ,van ,eycks1 as we noted1 only acquired the beginnings of an understanding of it1 and were very proud of their new knowledge4 ,it was in ,italy that all the rules were at last brought to light4 ,the ,renaissance ,period in ,italy may be considered as lasting from #adjj to #aeej4 ,the pioneer artists who mastered perspective and worked at the human figure till they could draw it correctly in any attitude1 lived in the first seventy-five years of the fifteenth century4 ,they were the breakers of stone and hewers of wood who prepared the way for the greater artists of the end of the century1 but in the process of learning1 many of them painted very lovely things4 ,the painter of our picture lived within those seventy-five years4 ,he was1 probably1 a certain ,antonello of ,messina--that same town in ,sicily recently wrecked by earthquakes4 ,of his life little is known4 ,he seems to have worked chiefly in ,venice where there was a fine school of painting during the ,renaissance ,period2 his senior ,giovanni ,bellini1 one of the early great painters of ,venice1 some of whose pictures are in the ,national ,gallery1 taught him much4 ,it is also said that ,antonello went to the ,netherlands and there learnt the method of laying paint on panel invented by the ,van ,eycks4 ,modern students say he did not1 but that he picked up his way of painting in ,italy4 ,certainly he and other ,venetians and ,italians about this time improved their technical methods as the ,van ,eycks had done1 and this picture is an early example of that more brilliant fashion of painting4 ,there is here a ,flemish love of detail4 ,the ,italian painters had been more accustomed to painting upon walls than the ,flemings1 for the latter had soon discovered that a damp northern climate was not favourable to the preservation of wall-paintings4 ,fresco does not admit of much detail1 as each day's work has to be finished in the day1 before the plaster dries4 ,thus1 a long tradition of fresco painting had accustomed the ,italian painters to a broad method of treatment1 which they maintained to a certain extent even in their panel pictures4 ,but in our ,st4 ,jerome we see a wealth of detail unsurpassed even by ,john van ,eyck4 ,one needs a magnifying-glass to see everything there is to be seen in the landscape through the window on the left4 ,besides the city with its towers and walls and the mountains behind1 there is a river in the foreground where two little people are sitting in a boat4 ,observe every tiny stone in the pavement1 and every open page of the books on the shelves4 ,here1 too1 is breadth in the handling4 ,hold the book far away from you1 so that the detail of the picture vanishes and only the broad masses of the composition stand out4 ,you still have what is essential4 ,the picture is one in which ,italian feeling and sentiment blend with ,flemish technique and love of little things4 ,there has always been something of a mystery about the picture1 and you must not be surprised some day if you hear it asserted that ,antonello did not paint it at all4 ,such changes in the attributions of unsigned paintings are not uncommon4 ,one of the greatest pioneer artists of the fifteenth century was ,andrea ,mantegna of ,padua in the north of ,italy4 ,more than any other painter of his day1 he devoted himself to the study of ancient sculpture1 even to the extent of sometimes painting in monochrome to imitate the actual marble4 ,paintings by him1 which look like sculptured reliefs1 are in the ,national ,gallery2 and at ,hampton ,court is a series of cartoons representing the ,triumph of ,julius ,caesar1 in which the conception and the handling are throughout inspired by old ,roman bas-reliefs4 ,in other pictures of his1 the figures look as though cast of bronze1 for he was likewise influenced by the sculptors of his own day1 particularly by the ,florentine ,donatello1 one of the geniuses of the early ,renaissance4 ,mantegna's studies of form in sculpture made him an excellent draughtsman4 ,strangely enough1 it was this very severe artist who was1 perhaps1 the first to depict the charm of babyhood4 ,often he draws his babes wrapped in swaddling clothes1 with their little fingers in their mouths1 or else in the act of crying1 with their eyes screwed up tight1 and their mouths wide open4 ,such a combination of hard sculpturesque modelling with extreme tenderness of feeling has a charm of its own4 ,we have now just one more picture of a sacred subject to look at1 one of the last that still retains much of the old beautiful religious spirit of the ,middle ,ages4 ,the painter of it1 ,sandro ,botticelli1 a ,florentine1 in whom were blended the piety of the ,middle ,ages and the intellectual life of the ,renaissance1 was a very interesting man1 whose like we shall not find among the painters of his own or later days4 ,he was born in #addf1 in ,florence1 the city in ,italy most alive to the new ideas and the new learning4 ,its governing family1 the ,medici1 of whom you have doubtless read1 surrounded themselves with a brilliant society of accomplished men1 and adorned their palaces with the finest works of art that could be produced in their time4 ,the best artists from the surrounding country were attracted to ,florence in the hope of working for the family1 who were ever ready to employ a man of artistic gifts4 ,in such an atmosphere an original and alert person like ,botticelli could not fail to keep step with the foremost of his day4 ,his fertile fancy was charmed by the revived stories of ,greek ,mythology1 and for a time he gave himself up to the painting of pagan subjects such as the ,birth of ,venus from the ,sea1 and the lovely allegory of ,spring with ,venus1 ,cupid1 and the ,three ,graces4 ,he was one of the early artists to break through the old wall of religious convention1 painting frankly mythological subjects1 and he did them in an exquisite manner all his own4 ,the true spirit of beauty dwelt within him1 and all that he painted and designed was graceful in form and beautiful in colour4 ,if1 for instance1 you look closely into the designs of the necks of dresses in his pictures1 you will find them delightful to copy and far superior to the ordinary designs for such things made to-day4 ,in his love of beauty and his keen appreciation of the new possibilities of painting he was a true child of the ,renaissance1 though he had not the joyous nature so characteristic of the time4 ,moreover1 as ,i have said1 he retained the old sweet religious spirit1 and clothed it with new forms of beauty in his sacred paintings4 ,there is something pathetic about many of these--the ,virgin1 while she nurses the ,infant ,christ1 seems to foresee all the sorrow in store for her1 and but little of the joy4 ,the girl angels who nestle around her in so many of his pictures1 have faces of exquisite beauty1 but in most of them1 notwithstanding the fact that they are evidently painted from ,florentine girls of the time1 ,botticelli has infused his own personal note of sadness4 ,at the end of the fifteenth century1 when ,botticelli was beginning to grow old1 great events took place in ,florence4 ,despite the revival of learning1 we are told by historians that the ,church was becoming corrupt and the people more pleasure-loving and less interested in the religious life4 ,then it was that ,savonarola1 a friar in one of the convents of ,florence1 all on fire with enthusiasm for purity and goodness1 began to awaken the hearts of the people with his burning eloquence1 and his denunciations of their worldliness and the deadness of the ,church4 ,he prophesied a great outpouring of the wrath of ,god1 and in particular that the ,church would be purified and renewed after a quick and terrible punishment4 ,the passion1 the conviction1 the eloquence of ,savonarola for a time carried the people of ,florence away1 and ,botticelli with them1 so that he became one of the 'mourners' as the preacher's followers were called4 ,at this time many persons burnt in great 'bonfires of vanities' all the pretty trinkets that they possessed4 ,but when the prophecies did not literally come true1 and the people began to be weary of ,savonarola's vehemence1 we read that a reaction set in1 which afforded a chance for his enemies within the ,church1 whom he had lashed with his tongue from the pulpit of the cathedral4 ,they contrived to have him tried for heresy and burnt in the market-place of ,florence1 in the midst of the people who so shortly before had hung on every word that fell from his lips4 ,this tragedy entirely overwhelmed ,botticelli1 who thenceforward almost abandoned painting1 and gave up his last years to the practices of the religious life4 ,it was at this time1 says ,mr4 ,horne1 and under the influence of these emotions1 in the year #aejj1 when he was sixty years of age1 that he painted the picture here reproduced1 as an illustration to the prophecies of ,savonarola1 and a tribute to his memory4 ,savonarola had been wont to use the descriptions1 in the ,book of ,revelations1 of the woes that were to fall upon the earth before the building of the new ,jerusalem1 to illustrate his prophecy of the scourge that was to come upon ,italy1 before the ,church became purified from the wickedness of the times4 ,at the top of the picture is written in ,greek3 ,i1 ,sandro1 painted this picture at the end of the year #aejj1 during the troubles of ,italy1 in the half year after the first year of the loosing of the ,devil for #c-a_/b years1 in accordance with the fulfilment of the #aath chapter of the ,revelations of ,st4 ,john4 ,then shall the ,devil be chained1 according to the #abth chapter1 and we shall see him trodden down as in the picture4 ,the ,devil which was loosed for three and a half years stood for the stage of wickedness through which ,botticelli believed that ,florence was passing in #aejj4 ,in the bottom corners of the picture you can see minute little devils running away discomfited2 otherwise all is pure joy and peace1 symbolic of the gladness to come upon ,italy when the ,church had been purified3 ,when ,life is difficult1 ,i dream ,of how the angels dance in ,heaven4 ,of how the angels dance and sing ,in gardens of eternal spring1 ,because their sins have been forgiven4444 ,and never more for them shall be ,the terrors of mortality4 ,when life is difficult1 ,i dream ,of how the angels dance in ,heaven4444#b ,footnote #b3 ,by ,lady ,alfred ,douglas4 ,that is what ,botticelli dreamed4 ,he saw the beautiful angels in green1 white1 and red dancing with joy1 because of the birth of their ,saviour1 and into their hands he put scrolls1 upon which were written3--',glory to ,god in the ,highest4' ,the rest of the verse1 ',peace and goodwill towards men' is on the scrolls of the shepherds1 brought by the angel to behold the ,babe lying in the manger4 ,the three men1 embraced with such eagerness and joy by the three angels in the foreground1 are ,savonarola and his two chief companions1 burnt with him1 who1 after their long suffering upon earth1 have found reward and happiness in heaven4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,nativity ,from the picture by ,sandro ,botticelli1 in the ,national ,gallery1 ,london ,such is the meaning of this beautiful little picture1 as spiritual in idea as any of the paintings of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries4 ,but while the earlier painters had striven with inadequate powers to express the religious feeling that was in them1 ,botticelli's skill matched his thought4 ,his drawing of the angels in their ,greek dresses is very lovely1 and one scarce knows in any picture a group surpassing that of the three little ones upon the roof of the manger1 nor will you soon see a lovelier ,virgin's face than hers4 ,botticelli had great power of showing the expression in a face1 and the movement in a figure4 ,here the movements may seem overstrained1 a fault which grew upon him in his old age2 the angel1 with the two shepherds on the right1 has come skimming over the ground and points emphatically at the ,babe1 and the angel in front embraces ,savonarola with vehemence4 ,the artists of the early ,renaissance had learnt with so much trouble to draw figures in motion that their pleasure in their newly acquired skill sometimes made them err by exaggeration as their predecessors by stiffness4 ,the way in which ,botticelli treated this subject of the ,nativity of ,christ1 is1 as you see1 very different from the way in which ,hubert van ,eyck painted the ,three ,maries at the ,sepulchre4 ,we saw how the latter pictured the event as actually taking place outside ,jerusalem4 ,to ,botticelli the ,nativity of ,christ was emblematic of a new and happier life for people in ,florence1 with the ,church regenerated and purified1 as ,christ would have wished it to be4 ,to him the ,nativity was a symbol of purity1 so he painted the picture as a commentary on the event1 not as an illustration of the ,biblical text4 ,the angels rejoice in heaven as the shepherds upon earth1 the devils flee away discomfited1 and ,savonarola and his companions obtain peace after the tribulations of life4 ,such was the message of ,botticelli in the picture here reproduced4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,raphael ,the original of our next picture is very small1 only seven inches square1 yet ,i hope it will instantly appeal to you4 ,the name of the artist1 ,raphael1 is perhaps the most familiar of all the names of the ,old ,masters1 mainly1 it may be1 because he was the painter of the ,sistine ,madonna1 the best known and best loved of ,madonnas4 ,when ,raphael drew and painted this picture of the ',knight's ,dream1' about the year #aejj1 he was himself like a young knight1 at the outset of his short and brilliant career4 ,as a boy he was handsome1 gifted1 charming4 ,his nature is said to have been as lovely as his gifts were great1 and he passed his short life in a triumphant progress from city to city and court to court1 always working hard and always painting so beautifully that he won the admiration of artists1 princes1 and popes4 ,his father1 ,giovanni ,santi1 was a painter living in the town of ,urbino1 in ,central ,italy1 but ,raphael when quite young went to ,perugia to study with the painter ,perugino1 a native of that town4 ,perugia stands upon a high hill1 like the hill in the background of the picture of the ',knight's ,dream1' only higher1 for from it you can overlook the wide ,umbrian plain as far as ,assisi--the home of ,st4 ,francis--which lies on the slope of the next mountain4 ,that beautiful ,umbrian landscape1 in which all the towns look like castles perched upon the top of steep hills1 with wide undulating ground between1 occurs frequently in the pictures of ,perugino1 and often in those of his pupil ,raphael4 ,if you have once seen the view from ,perugia for yourself1 you will realize how strongly it took hold of the imagination of the young painter4 ,raphael had a most impressionable mind4 ,it was part of his genius that1 from every painter with whom he came in contact he imbibed the best1 almost without knowing it4 ,the artists of his day1 ,michelangelo1 ,leonardo da ,vinci1 and the other great men1 were each severally employed in working out once and for all some particular problem in connection with their art4 ,michelangelo1 a giant in intellect1 painter1 sculptor1 architect1 and poet1 studied the human body as it had not been studied since the days of ancient ,greece4 ,his sculptured figures on the tombs of the ,medici in ,florence rank second only to those of the greatest ,greek sculptors1 and his ceiling in the ,sistine ,chapel is composed of a series of masterpieces of figure-painting4 ,he devoted himself largely in his sculpture and his painting to the representation of the naked human body1 and made it futile in his successors to plead ignorance as an excuse for bad drawing4 ,as a colourist he was not pre-eminent1 and his few panel pictures are for the most part unfinished4 ,leonardo da ,vinci1 the older contemporary of ,raphael1 first in ,florence and afterwards in the north of ,italy1 left a colossal reputation and but few pictures1 for in his search after perfection he became dissatisfied with what he had done and is said to have destroyed one masterpiece after another4 ,for him the great interest in the aspect of man and woman was not so much the form of the body as the expression of the face4 ,what was fantastic and weird fascinated him4 ,at ,windsor are designs he made for the construction of an imaginary beast with gigantic claws4 ,he once owned a lizard1 and made wings for it with quicksilver inside them1 so that they quivered when the lizard crawled4 ,he put a dragon's mask over its head1 and the result was ghastly4 ,the tale gives us a side light on this extraordinary personage4 ,when you are led to read more about him you will feel the fascination of his strong1 yet perplexing personality4 ,the faces in his pictures are wonderful faces1 with a fugitive mocking smile and a seeming burden of strange thought4 ,by mastery of the most subtle gradations of light1 his heads have an appearance of solidity new in painting1 till ,raphael and some of his contemporaries learnt the secret from ,leonardo4 ,heretofore1 ,italian painters had been contented to bathe their pictures in a flood of diffused light1 but he experimented also with effects of strong light and shade on the face4 ,his landscape backgrounds are an almost unearthly cold grey1 and include the strangest forms of rock and mountain4 ,his investigations into several of the scientific problems connected with art led to results which affected in an important degree the work of many later artists4 ,if ,raphael had less originality than ,michelangelo or ,leonardo1 if ,leonardo was the first artist to obtain complete mastery over the expression of the face and ,michelangelo over the drawing of the figure1 ,raphael was able to profit at once by whatever they accomplished4 ,yet never was he a mere imitator1 for all that he absorbed became tinged with a magical charm in his fertile brain1 a charm so personal that his work can hardly be mistaken for that of any other artist4 ,our picture of a ',knight's ,dream' was probably painted while ,raphael was under the influence of a master named ,timoteo ,viti1 whose works you are not likely to know1 or much care about when you see them4 ,it was just after he had painted it that he came into ,perugino's hands4 ,although the ',knight's ,dream' is so small1 and ,raphael was but a boy when he painted it1 the picture has the true romantic air1 characteristic of the joyful years of the early ,renaissance4 ,he does not seem to have felt the conflict between the old religious ideal and the new pursuit of worldly beauty as ,botticelli felt it4 ,yet he chose the competition of these two ideals as the subject of this picture4 ,the ,knight1 clothed in bright armour and gay raiment1 bearing no relation at all to the clothes worn in #aejj1 rests upon his shield beneath the slight shade of a very slender tree4 ,in his dream there appear to him two figures1 both of whom claim his knightly allegiance for life3 one1 a young and lovely girl in a bright coloured dress with flowers in her hair1 tempts him to embrace a life of mirth1 of ,jest and youthful ,jollity1 ,quips and ,cranks and wanton ,wiles1 ,nods and ,becks and wreathed ,smiles4 ,the other resembles the same poet's ,pensive ,nun1 devout and pure1 ,sober1 steadfast1 and demure4 ,she holds sword and book1 symbols of stern action and wise accomplishment4 ,which the knight will choose we are not told1 perhaps because ,raphael himself never had to make the choice4 ,he was too gifted and too fond of work to be tempted from it by anything whatever4 ,always joyous and always successful1 he was able to paint any subject1 sacred1 profane1 ancient1 or modern1 so long as it was a happy one4 ,he was too busy and too gay to feel pain and sorrow1 as ,botticelli felt them1 and to paint sad subjects4 ,to him the visible world was good and beautiful1 and the invisible world lovely and happy likewise4 ,his ,madonnas are placid or smiling mothers4 ,the fat and darling babies they hold are indeed divine but not awesome4 ,yet the extraordinary sweetness of expression1 nobility of form1 and beauty of colouring in the ,madonnas make you almost hold your breath when you look at them4 ,in the ',knight's ,dream' there is a simple beauty in the pose and grouping of the figures4 ,you can hardly fancy three figures better arranged for the purpose of the subject4 ,there is something inevitable about them1 which is the highest praise due to a mastery of design in the art of composition4 ,raphael's surpassing gift was in fitting beautiful figures into any given space1 so that it seems as though the space had been made to fit the figures1 instead of the figures to fit the space4 ,you could never put his round ,madonnas into a square frame4 ,the figures would look as wrong as in a round frame they look right4 ,if you were to cut off a bit of the foreground in any of his pictures and add the extra piece to the sky1 you would make the whole look wrong1 whereas perhaps you might add on a piece of sky to ,hubert van ,eyck's ',three ,maries' without spoiling the effect4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,knight',s ,,dream ,from the picture by ,raphael1 in the ,national ,gallery1 ,london ,the colouring of the picture1 too1 is jewel-like and lovely1 but the uncoloured drawing is itself full of charm4 ,the grace of line1 which was to distinguish all the works of his mature years1 is already manifest in this effort of his boyhood4 ,it seems to foretell the sweep of the ,virgin's drapery in the ,sistine ,madonna1 and the delightful maze of curves flowing together and away again and returning upon themselves which outline the face1 the arms1 hands1 and draperies of ,st4 ,catherine in the ,national ,gallery4 ,you will find it well worth a little trouble to look long and closely at one of ,raphael's well-known ,madonnas till you clearly see how the composition of all the parts of it is formed by the play of long and graceful curves4 ,you can see from the drawing of the ',knight's ,dream1' which is hung quite near the painting in the ,national ,gallery1 how carefully ,raphael thought out the detail of the picture before he began to paint4 ,he seems even to have been afraid that he might not be able to draw it again so perfectly2 therefore he placed the drawing over the panel and pricked it through4 ,the marks of the pin are quite clear1 and it brings one nearer this great artist to follow closely the process of his work4 ,it makes the young boy genius of #aejj almost seem akin to the struggling boy and girl artists of the present time4 ,from ,perugia ,raphael went to ,florence1 where he painted a number of his most beautiful ,madonnas4 ,then1 in #aejh1 he was called to ,rome by ,pope ,julius ,,ii4 to decorate some rooms in the ,vatican ,palace4 ,the ,renaissance popes were possessed of so great wealth1 and spent it to such purpose1 that its spending influenced the art of their age4 ,many of the rooms in the ,vatican had been decorated by ,botticelli and other good artists of the previous half-century1 but already the new pope considered their work out of date and ordered it to be replaced by ,michelangelo and ,raphael4 ,for nine years ,raphael worked at the decoration of the palace1 always being pressed1 hurried1 and even worried by two successive popes who employed him4 ,the wall spaces which he had to fill were often awkwardly broken up with windows and doors1 but he easily overcame whatever difficulties were encountered4 ,to succeed apparently without struggle was a peculiar gift granted to ,raphael above any other artist of his day4 ,the frescoes painted by him in the ,vatican illustrated subjects from ,greek philosophy and medieval ,church history1 as well as from the ,old and ,new ,testament4 ,as an illustrator of sacred writ he never attempted that verisimilitude in ,eastern surroundings to which ,hubert van ,eyck leaned1 neither was he satisfied with the dress of his own day in which other painters were wont to clothe their sacred characters4 ,the historical sense1 which has driven some modern artists to much antiquarian research to discover exactly what ,peter and ,paul must have worn1 did not exist before the nineteenth century4 ,raphael felt1 nevertheless1 that the clothes of the ,renaissance were hardly suitable for ,noah and ,abraham1 so he invented a costume of his own1 founded upon ,roman dress1 but different from oriental or contemporary clothes4 ,the ,scripture illustrations of ,raphael most familiar to you may probably be his cartoon designs for tapestry in the ,south ,kensington ,museum1 which were bought by ,charles ,i4 ,in these you can see what is meant about the clothes1 but you will not be surprised at them1 because the same have been adopted by the majority of ,bible illustrators ever since the days of ,raphael4 ,his pictures became so popular that it was thought whatever he did must be right4 ,the dress was a mere detail in his work1 but it was easy to copy and has been copied persistently from that day to this4 ,it is curious to think that the long white robes1 which ,christ wears in the illustrations of our present-day ,sunday ,school books and other religious publications1 are all due to imitation of ,raphael's designs4 ,the first room he finished for ,julius ,,ii4 was so rich in effect and beautiful in colour that the ,pope could scarcely wait for more rooms as fine4 ,raphael had to call in a large number of assistants to enable him to cover the walls fast enough to please the ,pope1 and the quality of the work began to deteriorate4 ,the uneven merit of his frescoes foretold the consequence of overwork despite his matchless facility and power4 ,but in his panel pictures1 when he was not hurried1 his work continued to improve until he reached his crowning achievement in the ,sistine ,madonna painted three years before his death4 ,raphael was thirty-seven when he died in #aebj1 and very far from coming to the end of his powers of learning4 ,each picture that he painted revealed to him new difficulties to conquer1 and new experiments to try1 in his art4 ,we seem compelled to think that had he lived and laboured for another score of years1 the history of painting in ,italy might have been different4 ,in ,rome and ,florence no successor attempted to improve upon his work4 ,his pupils and assistants were more numerous than those of any other painter1 but when they had obtained some of his facility of drawing and painting they were contented4 ,none of them had ,raphael's genius1 yet all wished to paint like him2 so that for the following fifty years ,rome and ,florence and ,southern ,italy were flooded with inferior ,raphaelesque paintings1 which tended to become more slip-shod in execution as time went on1 and more devoid of any personal note4 ,it was just as though his imitators had learnt to write beautifully and then had had little to say4 ,leonardo da ,vinci died a few months before ,raphael4 ,several of his pupils were artists of ability1 and lived to carry on his traditions of painting in the north of ,italy4 ,leonardo himself had been so erratic1 produced so little1 and so few of his pictures survive1 that many know him best in his pupils' work1 or through copies and engravings of his great ',last ,supper'--a picture that became an almost total wreck upon the walls of the ,refectory in ,milan1 for which it was painted4 ,his influence upon his contemporaries at ,milan was very great1 so that during some years hardly a picture was painted there which did not show a likeness to the work of ,leonardo4 ,he had created a type of female beauty all his own4 ,the face will impress itself upon your memory the first time you see it1 whether in a picture by ,leonardo or in one by a pupil4 ,you can see it in the ,national ,gallery in the great ',madonna of the ,rocks1' and in the magnificent drawing at ,burlington ,house4 ,it is not a very beautiful face1 but it haunts the memory1 and the ,milanese artists of ,leonardo's day never threw off their recollection of it4 ,with far less power than ,leonardo1 one of his imitators1 ,bernardino ,luini1 painted pictures of such charm and simplicity that almost everyone finds them delightful4 ,if you could see his picture of the angels bearing ,st4 ,catherine1 robed in red1 through the air to her last resting-place upon the hill1 you would feel the beauty and peace of his gentle nature revealed in his art4 ,but the spell of ,leonardo vanished with the death of those who had known him in life4 ,the last of his pupils died in #aeej1 and with him the ,leonardo school of painting came to an end4 ,there is one more painter belonging to the full ,renaissance too famous to remain entirely unmentioned4 ,this is ,correggio1 a painter affected also by the pictures of ,raphael and ,leonardo1 but individual in his vision and his work4 ,he passed his life in ,parma1 in the north of ,italy1 inheriting a ,north ,italian tradition1 and hearing only echoes of the world beyond4 ,his canvases are thronged with fair shapes1 pretty women and dancing children1 ethereally soft and lovely4 ,but it is in his native town that the angels soar aloft with the ,virgin in the dome of the cathedral1 and the children frolic on the walls of the convent4 ,these are his masterpieces you would like best4 ,in #aeej the impetus given to painting in ,italy by the ,renaissance was drawing to an end4 ,the great central epoch may be said to have terminated in ,tuscany a few years after the deaths of ,leonardo and ,raphael in #aebj4 ,but we have said nothing yet of ,venice1 where1 in #aebj1 artists whose visions and whose record of them were to be as wonderful as those of ,botticelli and ,raphael1 were as yet sleeping in their cradles4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,the ,,renaissance ,,in ,,venice ,a visit to ,venice is one of the joys which perhaps few of us have yet experienced4 ,but whether we have been there or not1 we all know that the very sound of her name is enchanting for those who are fresh from her magic--her sunrises and sunsets unmatched for colour1 and her streets for silence4 ,the ,venetians were a proud and successful people1 wealthier by virtue of their great sea-trade than the citizens of ,florence or of any other town in ,italy2 their foremost men lived in great high-roomed palaces1 richly furnished1 and decorated with pictures of a sumptuous pageantry4 ,but the ,venetians were not merely a luxurious people4 ,the poetry of the lagoons1 and the glory of the sunset skies1 imparted to their lives the wealth of a rare romance4 ,even in ,venice to-day1 now that the steamers have spoilt the peace of the canals and the old orange-winged sailing-boats no longer crowd against the quays1 the dreamy atmosphere of the city retains its spell4 ,few artists ever felt and expressed this atmosphere better than ,giorgione1 the painter of the first of our ,venetian pictures4 ,he was one of the great artists of the ,renaissance who died young1 ten years before ,raphael1 but their greatness is scarcely comparable4 ,like ,raphael1 ,giorgione was precocious1 but unlike him he painted in a style of his own that from the very beginning owed little to any one else4 ,he saw beauty in his own way1 and was not impelled to see it differently by coming into contact with other artists1 however great4 ,unlike ,raphael1 he was not a great master of the art of composition4 ,in the little picture before us the grouping of the figures is not what may be called inevitable1 like that in the ',knight's ,dream4' ,it seems as though one day when ,giorgione was musing on the beauties of the world1 and the blemishes of life1 even life in ,venice1 he thought of some far-off time beyond the dawn of history when all men lived in peace4 ,the ancient ,greeks called this perfect time the ',golden ,age' of the world4 ,in many ways their idea of it tallies with the description of the ,garden of ,eden1 and they were always contrasting with it the ',iron ,age' in which they thought they lived1 as the ,hebrews contrasted the life of ,adam and ,eve in the garden with their own4 ,as the fancy flashed across ,giorgione's mind1 perchance he saw some just king of whom his subjects felt no fear seated upon a throne like this4 ,a dreamy youth plays soft music to him1 and another hands him flowers and fruit4 ,books lie strewn upon the steps1 and a child stands in a reverent attitude before him4 ,wild and domestic animals live together in harmony2 the ground is carpeted with flowers2 all is peaceful4 ,such a subject suited the temperament of ,giorgione1 and he painted it in the romantic mood in which it was conceived4 ,nothing could be further from everyday life than this little scene4 ,it has the unlaboured look that suits such an improvised subject4 ,of course no one knows for certain that this is a picture of the ,golden ,age1 and you may make up any story you like about it for yourselves4 ,that is one of the charms of the picture4 ,it has been said that the throned one is celebrating his birthday1 and that his little heir is reciting him a birthday ode accompanied by music4 ,you may believe this if you like1 but how do you then account for the leopard and the peacock living in such harmony together8 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,golden ,,age ,from the picture by ,giorgione1 in the ,national ,gallery1 ,london ,giorgione painted a few sacred pictures and many mythological scenes1 besides several very beautiful portraits of dreamy-looking poets and noblemen4 ,but even when he illustrated some well-known tale1 he did not care to seize upon the dramatic moment that gives the crisis of the story1 as ,giotto would have done1 and as the painter of our next picture does4 ,violent action did not attract him4 ,whatever the subject1 if it were possible to group the figures together at a moment when they were beautifully doing nothing1 he did so4 ,but he liked still more to paint ideal scenes from his own fancy1 where young people sit in easy attitudes upon the grass1 conversing for an instant in the intervals of the music they make upon pipes and guitar4 ,he was the first artist1 so far as ,i know1 to paint these half real1 half imaginary scenes1 of which our picture may be one4 ,in all of them landscape bears an important part1 and in some the background has become the picture and completely subordinated the figures4 ,in this little ',golden ,age' the landscape is quiet in tone1 tinged with melancholy1 romantic1 to suit the mood of the figures4 ,its colouring1 though rich1 is subdued1 more like the tints of autumn than the fresh hues of spring4 ,the ,venetians excelled in their treatment of colour4 ,they lived in an uncommon world of it4 ,giorgione saw his picture in his mind's eye as a blaze of rich colour2 he did not see the figures sharply outlined against a remote background1 as are the three in ,raphael's ',knight's ,dream4' ,that does not mean that ,raphael1 like the artist of the ,richard ,,ii4 diptych1 failed to make his figures look solid1 but that he saw beauty most in the outlines of the body and the curves of the drapery1 irrespective of colour1 whereas to ,giorgione's eye outline was nothing without colour and light and shade4 ,the body of the ,king upon the throne in our picture is massed against the background1 but there is no definite outline to divide it from the tree behind4 ,in this respect ,giorgione was curiously modern for his date1 as we shall see in pictures of a still later time4 ,giorgione was only thirty-three years old when he died of the plague in #aeaj1 the same year as ,botticelli4 ,his master1 ,giovanni ,bellini1 who was born in #adbh1 outlived him by six years1 and the great ,titian1 his fellow-pupil in the studio of ,bellini1 lived another half-century or more4 ,titian in many ways summed up all that was greatest in ,venetian art4 ,his pictures have less romance than those of ,giorgione1 except during the short space of time when he painted under the spell of his brother artist4 ,it is extremely difficult to distinguish then between ,titian's early and ,giorgione's late work4 ,titian perhaps had the greater intellect4 ,giorgione's pictures vary according to his mood1 while ,titian's express a less changeable personality4 ,in spite of his youth1 ,giorgione made a profound impression upon all the artists of his time4 ,they did not copy his designs1 but the beauty of his pictures made them look at the world with his romantic eyes and paint in his dreamy mood4 ,it was almost as though ,giorgione had absorbed the romance of ,venice into his pictures1 so that for a time no ,venetian painter could express ,venetian romance except in ,giorgione's way4 ,but in #aeah1 eight years after ,giorgione's death1 another great innovating master was born at ,venice1 ,tintoret by name1 who in his turn opened new visions of the world to the artists of his day4 ,while painting in the rest of ,italy was becoming mannered and sentimental1 lacking in power and originality1 ,tintoret in ,venice was creating masterpieces with a very fury of invention and a corresponding swiftness of hand4 ,he was his own chief teacher4 ,outside his studio he wrote upon a sign to inform or attract pupils--',the design of ,michelangelo and the colouring of ,titian4' ,profound study of the works of these two masters is manifest in his own4 ,like ,michelangelo he worked passionately rather than with the sober competence of ,titian4 ,his thronging visions1 his multitudinous and often vast canvases are a surpassing record4 ,prolonged study of the human form had given to him1 as to ,michelangelo1 a wonderful power of drawing groups of figures4 ,his mere output was marvellous1 and much of it on a grandiose scale4 ,he covered hundreds of square feet of ceilings and walls in ,venice with paintings of subjects that had been painted hundreds of times before2 but each as he treated it was a new thing4 ,centuries of tradition governed the arrangement of such subjects as the ,crucifixion and the ,last ,judgment1 so that even the free painters of the ,renaissance had deviated but little from it4 ,in ,tintoret the freedom of the ,renaissance reached its height4 ,for him tradition had no fetters4 ,when he painted a picture of ,paradise for the ,doge's ,palace it measured #hd by #cd feet1 and contained literally hundreds of figures4 ,his imagination was so prolific that he seems never to have repeated a figure4 ,new forms1 new postures1 new groupings flowed from his brush in exhaustless multitude4 ,it is necessary to go to ,venice to see ,tintoret's most famous works1 still remaining upon the walls of the churches and buildings for which they were painted1 or in which they have been brought together4 ,but the ,national ,gallery is fortunate in possessing one relatively small canvas of his which shows some of his finest qualities4 ,the subject of ,st4 ,george slaying the dragon was not a new one4 ,it had been painted by ,raphael and by several of the earlier ,venetian painters1 but ,tintoret's treatment of it was all his own4 ,in the earlier pictures1 the princess1 for whose sake ,st4 ,george fights the dragon1 was a little figure in the background fleeing in terror4 ,st4 ,george occupied the chief place1 as he does upon the back of our gold sovereigns1 where the princess has been left out altogether4 ,tintoret makes her flee1 but she is running towards the spectator1 and so1 in her flight1 stands out the most conspicuous figure4 ,one of the victims that the dragon has slain lies behind her4 ,in the distance ,st4 ,george fights with all his might against the powers of evil1 whilst 'the splendour of ,god' blazes in the sky4 ,there is a vividness and power about the picture that proclaims the hand of ,tintoret4 ,in contrast to ,giorgione he liked to paint figures in motion1 yet he was as typical an outcome of ,venetian romance as the earlier painter4 ,nothing could be more like a fairy-tale than this picture4 ,it was no listless dreamer that painted it1 but one with a gorgeous imagination and yet a full knowledge of the world1 enabling him to give substance to his visions4 ,tintoret's stormy landscapes are as beautiful in their way as ,giorgione's dreamy ones1 and each carries out the mood of the rest of the picture4 ,this one is full of power1 mystery1 and romance4 ,tintoret had modelled his colouring upon ,titian and was by nature a great colourist1 but too often he used bad materials that have turned black with the lapse of years4 ,in this picture you see his colour as it was meant to be1 rich1 and boldly harmonious4 ,the vivid red and blue of the princess's clothes are a daring combination with the brilliant green of the landscape1 but ,tintoret knew what he was doing1 and the result is superb4 ,with his death in #aeid the best of ,venetian painting came to an end4 ,illustration3 ,,st4 ,,george ,,destroying ,,the ,,dragon ,from the picture by ,tintoretto1 in the ,national ,gallery1 ,london ,there were as many excellent painters in the fairy city as there had been in ,florence2 contemporaries of ,giovanni ,bellini 7who1 in his early years1 worked in close companionship with ,mantegna1 his brother-in-law71 as well as contemporaries of ,titian and ,tintoret4 ,the painter ,veronese1 for instance1 died a few years before ,tintoret4 ,for pomp and pageantry his great canvases are eminent4 ,standing in some room of the ,doge's ,palace1 decorated entirely by his hand1 we are carried back to the time when ,venice was ,queen of the ,seas1 unrivalled for magnificence and wealth4 ,he was the ,master of ,ceremonies1 before whom other painters of pomps and vanities pale4 ,gorgeous colouring is what all these ,venetian painters had in common4 ,we see it in the early days when ,venetian art was struggling into existence4 ,in her art1 as in her skies and waters1 we are overwhelmed by a vision of colour unsurpassed4 ,we have now touched on a few prominent points in the history of painting in ,italy from its early rise in ,florence with ,giotto2 through its period of widespread excellence in the first quarter of the sixteenth century1 when ,raphael1 ,giorgione1 ,michelangelo1 and ,leonardo were all painting masterpieces in ,florence1 ,venice1 ,rome1 and ,milan at the same moment2 to its final blaze of sunset grandeur in ,venice4 ,it is time to return to the north of ,europe4 ,in the next chapter we will try to gain a few glimpses of the progress of painting in ,germany1 ,holland1 ,flanders1 and our own country4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,the ,,renaissance ,,in ,,the ,,north ,the ,renaissance involved a change of outlook towards the whole world which could not long remain confined to ,italy4 ,there were then1 as now1 roads over the passes of the ,alps by which merchants and scholars were continually travelling from ,italy through ,germany and ,flanders to ,england1 communicating to the northern countries whatever changes of thought stirred in the south4 ,in ,germany1 as in ,italy1 men speedily awoke to the new life1 but the awakening took a different form4 ,we find a different quality in the art of the north4 ,italian spontaneity and child-like joy is absent2 so1 too1 the sense of physical beauty1 universal in ,italy4 ,you remember how the successors of the ,van ,eycks in ,flanders painted excellent portraits and small carefully studied pictures of scriptural events in wonderful detail4 ,they were a strictly practical people whose painting of stuffs1 furs1 jewellery1 and architecture was marvellously minute and veracious4 ,but they were not a handsome race1 and their models for saints and virgins seem to have been the people that came handiest and by no means the best looking4 ,thus the figures in their pictures lack personal charm1 though the painting is usually full of vigour1 truth1 and skill4 ,when ,flemings began to make tours in ,italy and saw the pictures of ,raphael1 in whom grace was native1 they fell in love with his work and returned to ,flanders to try and paint as he did4 ,but to them grace was not ,god-given1 and in their attempt to achieve it1 their pictures became sentimental and postured1 and the naive simplicity and everyday truth1 so attractive in the works of the earlier school1 perished4 ,the influence of the ,van ,eycks had not been confined to ,flanders4 ,artists in ,germany had been profoundly affected4 ,they learnt the new technique of painting from the pupils of the ,van ,eycks in the fifteenth century4 ,like them1 too1 they discarded gold backgrounds and tried to paint men and women as they really looked1 instead of in the old conventional fashion of the ,middle ,ages4 ,schools of painting grew up in several of the more important ,german towns1 till towards the end of the fifteenth century two ,german artists were born1 ,albert ,durer at ,nuremberg in #adga1 and ,hans ,holbein the younger at ,augsburg in #adig1 who deserve to rank with the greatest painters of the time in any country4 ,durer is commonly regarded as the most typically ,german of artists1 though his father was ,hungarian1 and as a matter of fact he stands very much alone4 ,his pictures and engravings are 'long1 long thoughts4' ,every inch of the surface is weighted with meaning4 ,his cast of mind1 indeed1 was more that of a philosopher than that of an artist4 ,in a drawing which ,durer made of himself in the looking-glass at the age of thirteen1 we see a thoughtful little face gazing out upon the world with questioning eyes4 ,already the delicacy of the lines is striking1 and the hair so beautifully finished that we can anticipate the later artist whose pictures are remarkable for so surprising a wealth of detail4 ,the characteristics of the ,flemish ,school1 carefulness of workmanship and indifference to the physical beauty of the model1 to which the ,italians were so sensitive1 continued in his work4 ,for thoroughness his portraits can be compared with those of ,john van ,eyck4 ,in the ,national ,gallery his father lives again for us in a picture of wonderful power and insight4 ,durer was akin to ,leonardo in the desire for more and yet more knowledge4 ,like him he wrote treatises on fortifications1 human proportions1 geometry1 and perspective1 and filled his sketchbooks with studies of plants1 animals1 and natural scenery4 ,his eager mind employed itself with the whys and wherefores of things1 not satisfied with the simple pleasure that sight bestows4 ,in his engravings1 even more than in his pictures1 we ponder the hidden meanings2 we are not content to look and rejoice in beauty1 though there is much to charm the eye4 ,his problems were the problems of life as well as the problems of art4 ,the other great artist of ,germany1 ,hans ,holbein the younger1 was the son of ,hans ,holbein the elder1 a much esteemed painter in ,augsburg4 ,this town was on the principal trade route between ,northern ,italy and the ,north ,sea1 so that ,venetians and ,milanese were constantly passing through and bringing to it much wealth and news of the luxury of their own southern life4 ,as a result the citizens of ,augsburg dressed more expensively and decorated their houses more lavishly than did the citizens of any other town in ,germany4 ,after a boyhood and youth spent at ,augsburg1 ,holbein removed to ,basle4 ,he was a designer of wood-engravings and goldsmiths work and of architectural decoration1 besides being a painter4 ,in those days of change in ,south ,germany1 artists had to be willing to turn their hands to any kind of work they could get to do4 ,north of the ,alps1 where the ,reformation was upsetting old habits1 an artist's life was far from being easy4 ,reformers made bonfires of sacred pictures and sculptured wooden altar-pieces4 ,indeed the ,reformation was a cruel blow to artists1 for it took away ,church patronage and made them dependent for employment upon merchants and princes4 ,except at courts or in great mercantile towns they fared extremely ill4 ,altar-pieces were rarely wanted1 and there were no more legends of saints to be painted upon the walls of churches4 ,the demand for portraiture1 on the other hand1 was increasing1 whilst the growth of printing created a new field for design in the preparation of woodcuts for the illustration of books4 ,thus it came to pass that the printer ,froben1 at ,basle1 was one of the young ,holbein's chief patrons4 ,we find him designing a wonderful series of illustrations of ,the ,dance of ,death1 as well as drawing another set to illustrate ,the ,praise of ,folly1 written by ,erasmus1 who was then living in ,basle and frequenting the house of ,froben4 ,erasmus was a typical scholar of the sixteenth century1 belonging rather to civilized society as a whole than to any one country4 ,he moved about ,europe from one centre of learning to another1 alike at home in educated circles in ,england1 ,flanders1 and ,germany4 ,he had lived for some time in ,england and knew that there were men there with wealth who would employ a good painter to paint their portraits if they could find one4 ,erasmus himself sat to ,holbein1 and sent the finished portrait as a present to his friend ,sir ,thomas ,more1 ,lord ,chancellor of ,england4 ,in ,england1 owing to the effects of the ,wars of the ,roses1 good painters no longer existed4 ,a century of neglect had destroyed ,english painting4 ,henry ,,viii41 therefore1 had to look to foreign lands for his court painter1 and where was he to come from8 ,france was the nearest country1 but the ,french ,king was in the same predicament as ,henry4 ,he obtained his painters from ,italy1 and at one time secured the services of ,leonardo da ,vinci2 but ,italy was a long way off and it would suit ,henry better to get a painter from ,flanders or ,germany if it were possible4 ,so ,erasmus advised ,holbein to go to ,england1 and gave him a letter to ,sir ,thomas ,more4 ,on this first visit in #aebf1 he painted the portraits of ,more and his whole family1 and of many other distinguished men2 but it was not till his second visit in #aecb that he became ,henry ,,viii4's court painter4 ,in this capacity he had to decorate the walls of the ,king's palaces1 design the pageantry of the ,royal processions1 and paint the portraits of the ,king's family4 ,although ,holbein could do and did do anything that was demanded of him1 what he liked best was to paint portraits4 ,romantic subjects such as the fight of ,st4 ,george and the dragon1 or an idyll of the ,golden ,age1 little suited the artistic leanings of a ,german4 ,to a ,german or a ,fleming the world of facts meant more than the world of imagination2 the painting of men and women as they looked in everyday life was more congenial to them than the painting of saints and imaginary princesses4 ,but how unimportant seems all talk of contrasting imagination and reality when we see them fused together in this charming portrait of ,edward1 the child ,prince of ,wales4 ,it belongs to the end of the year #aech1 when he was just fifteen months old1 and the imagination of ,holbein equipped him with the orb of sovereignty in the guise of a baby's rattle4 ,it is in the coupling of distant kingship and present babyhood that the painter works his magic and reveals his charm4 ,illustration3 ,,edward1 ,,prince ,,of ,,wales1 ,,afterwards ,,edward ,,vi4 ,from the picture by ,holbein1 in the ,collection of the ,earl of ,yarborough1 ,london ,if you recall for a moment what you know of ,henry ,,viii41 his masterful pride1 his magnificence1 his determination to do and have exactly what he wanted1 you will understand that his demands upon his court painter for a portrait of his only son and heir must have been high4 ,no one could say enough about this wonderful child to please ,henry1 for all that was said in praise of him redounded to the glory of his father4 ,the following is a translation of the ,latin poem beneath the picture3 ,child1 of thy ,father's virtues be thou heir1 ,since none on earth with him may well compare2 ,hardly to him might ,heaven yield a son ,by whom his father's fame should be out-done4 ,so1 if thou equal such a mighty sire1 ,no higher can the hopes of man aspire2 ,if thou surpass him1 thou shalt honoured be ,o'er all that ruled before1 or shall rule after thee4#c ,footnote #c3 ,translated by ,miss ,k4 ,k4 ,radford4 ,in justice be it said that the little ,edward ,,vi4 was of an extraordinary precocity4 ,when he was eight years old he wrote to ,archbishop ,cranmer in ,latin4 ,when he was nine he knew four books of ,cato by heart as well as much of the ,bible4 ,to show you the way in which royal infants were treated in those days1--we read that at the time this picture was painted1 the little prince had a household of his own1 consisting of a lady-mistress1 a nurse1 rockers for his cradle1 a chamberlain1 vice-chamberlain1 steward1 comptroller1 almoner1 and dean4 ,it is hard to believe that the child is only fifteen months old1 so erect is the attitude1 so intelligent the face4 ,the clothes are sumptuous4 ,a piece of stuff similar in material and design to the sleeve exists to-day in a museum in ,brussels4 ,in the best sense ,holbein was the most ,italian of the ,germans4 ,for in him1 as in the gifted ,italian1 grace was innate4 ,he may have paid a brief visit to ,italy1 but he never lived there for any length of time1 nor did he try to paint like an ,italian as some northern artists unhappily tried to do4 ,the ,german merits1 solidity1 boldness1 detailed finish1 and grasp of character1 he possessed in a high degree1 but he combined with them a beauty of line1 delicacy of modelling1 and richness of colour almost southern4 ,his pictures appeal more to the eye and less to the mind than do those of ,durer4 ,where ,durer sought to instruct1 ,holbein was content to please4 ,but like a ,german he spared no pains4 ,he painted the stuff and the necklace1 the globe and the feather1 with the finish of an artist who was before all things a good workman4 ,observe how delicately the chubby little fingers are drawn4 ,holbein's detailed treatment of the accessories of a portrait is only less than the care expended in depicting the face4 ,he studied faces1 and his portraits1 one may almost say1 are at once images of and commentaries on the people they depict4 ,thus his gallery of pictures of ,henry and his contemporaries show us at once the reflexion of them as in a mirror1 and the vision of them as beheld by a singularly discerning and experienced eye that not only saw but comprehended4 ,this is the more remarkable because ,holbein was not always able to paint and finish his portraits in the presence of the living model1 as painters insist on doing nowadays4 ,his sitters were generally busy men who granted him but one sitting1 so that his method was to make a drawing of the head in red chalk and to write upon the margin notes of anything he particularly wanted to remember4 ,afterwards he painted the head from the drawing1 but had the actual clothes and jewels sent him to work from4 ,in the ,royal ,collection at ,windsor there are a number of these portrait drawings of great interest to us1 since many of the portraits painted from them have been lost4 ,as a record of remarkable people of that day they are invaluable1 for in a few powerful strokes ,holbein could set down the likeness of any face4 ,but when he came to paint the portrait he was not satisfied with a mere likeness4 ,he painted too 'his habit as he lived4' ,erasmus is shown reading in his study1 the merchant in his office surrounded by the tokens of his business1 and ,henry ,,viii4 standing firmly with his legs wide apart as if bestriding a hemisphere4 ,but ,i think that you will like this fine portrait of the infant prince best of all1 and that is why ,i have chosen it in preference to a likeness of any of the statesmen1 scholars1 queens1 and courtiers who played a great part in their world1 but are not half so charming to look upon as little ,prince ,edward4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,rembrandt ,after the death of ,holbein1 artists in the north of ,europe passed through troublous times till the end of the sixteenth century4 ,france and the ,netherlands were devastated by wars4 ,you may remember that the ,netherlands had belonged in the fifteenth century to the ,dukes of ,burgundy8 ,through the marriage of the only daughter of the last ,duke1 these territories passed into the possession of the ,king of ,spain1 who remained a ,catholic1 whilst the northern portion of the ,netherlands became sturdily ,protestant4 ,their struggle1 under the leadership of ,william the ,silent1 against the yoke of ,spain1 is one of the stirring pages of history4 ,by the beginning of the seventeenth century1 seven of the northern states of the ,netherlands1 of which ,holland was the chief1 had emerged as practically independent4 ,the southern portion of the ,netherlands1 including the old province of ,flanders1 remained ,catholic and was governed by a ,spanish ,prince who held his court at ,brussels4 ,when peace came at last1 there was a remarkable outburst of painting in each of the two countries4 ,rubens was the master painter in ,flanders4 ,of him and of his pupil ,van ,dyck we shall hear more in the next chapter4 ,in ,holland there was a yet more wide-spread activity4 ,indomitable perseverance had been needed for so small a country to throw off the rule of a great power like ,spain4 ,the long struggle seems to have called into being a kindred spirit manifesting itself in every branch of the national life4 ,dutch merchants1 ,dutch fishermen1 and ,dutch colonizers made themselves felt as a force throughout the world4 ,the spirit by which ,dutchmen achieved political success was pre-eminent in the qualities which brought them to the front rank in art4 ,there were literally hundreds of painters in ,holland1 few of them bad4 ,that does not mean that all ,dutchmen had the magical power of vision belonging to the greatest artists1 the power that transforms the objects of daily view into things of rare beauty1 or the imagination of a ,tintoret that creates and depicts scenes undreamt of before by man4 ,many painted the things around them as they looked to a commonplace mind1 with no glamour and no transforming touch4 ,when we see their pictures1 our eyes are not opened to new effects4 ,we continue to see and to feel as we did before1 but we admire the honest work1 the pleasant colour1 and the efficiency of the painters4 ,in default of ,raphaels1 ,giorgiones1 and ,titians1 we should be pleased to hang upon our walls works such as those4 ,but towering above the other artists of ,holland1 great and small1 was one ,dutchman1 ,rembrandt1 who holds his own with the greatest of the world4 ,he was born in #afjf1 the son of a miller at ,leyden1 who gave him the best teaching there to be had4 ,soon he became a good painter of likenesses1 and orders for portraits began to stream in upon him from the citizens of his native town4 ,these he executed well1 but his heart was not wrapped up in the portrayal of character as ,john ,van ,eyck's had been4 ,neither was it in the drawing of delicate and beautiful lines that he wished to excel1 as did ,holbein and ,raphael4 ,he was the dramatist of painting1 a man who would rather paint some one person ten times over in the character of somebody else1 high priest1 king1 warrior1 or buffoon1 than once thoroughly in his own4 ,but when people ordered portraits of themselves they wanted good likenesses1 and ,rembrandt was happy to supply them4 ,at first it was only when he was working at home to please himself that he indulged his picturesque gift4 ,he painted his father1 his mother1 and himself over and over again1 but in each picture he tried some experiment with expression1 or a new pose1 or a strange effect of lighting1 transforming the general aspect of the original4 ,his own face did as well as any other to experiment with2 none could be offended with the result1 and it was always to be had without paying a model's price for the sitting4 ,thus all through his life1 from twenty-two to sixty-three1 we can follow the growth of his art with the transformation of his body1 in the long series of pictures of his single self4 ,more than any artist that had gone before him1 ,rembrandt was fascinated by the problem of light4 ,the brightest patch of white on a canvas will look black if you hold it up against the sky4 ,how1 then1 can the fire of sunshine be depicted at all8 ,experience shows that it can only be suggested by contrast with shadows almost black4 ,but absolutely black shadows would not be beautiful4 ,fancy a picture in which the shadows were as black as well-polished boots6 ,rembrandt had to find out how to make his dark shadows rich1 and how to make a picture1 in which shadow predominated1 a beautiful thing in itself1 a thing that would decorate a wall as well as depict the chosen subject4 ,that was no easy problem1 and he had to solve it for himself4 ,it was his life's work4 ,he applied his new idea in the painting of portraits and in subject pictures1 chiefly illustrative of dramatic incidents in ,bible history1 for the same quality in him that made him love the flare of light1 made him also love the dramatic in life4 ,rembrandt's mother was a ,protestant1 who brought up her son with a thorough knowledge of the ,scripture stories1 and it was the ,bible that remained to the end of his life one of the few books he had in his house4 ,the dramatic situations that he loved were there in plenty4 ,over and over again he painted the ,nativity of ,christ4 ,sometimes the ,baby is in a tiny ,dutch cradle with its face just peeping out1 and the shepherds adoring it by candle-light4 ,often he painted scenes from the ,old ,testament2 such as ,isaac blessing ,esau and ,jacob1 who are shown as two little ,dutch children4 ,simeon receiving the ,infant ,christ in the ,temple is a favourite subject1 because of the varied effects that could be produced by the gloom of the church and the light on the figure of the ,high ,priest4 ,these1 and many other beautiful pictures1 were studies painted for the increase of the artist's own knowledge1 not orders from citizens of ,leyden1 or of ,amsterdam1 to which capital he moved in #afcj4 ,at the same time he was coming more and more into demand as a portrait-painter4 ,these were days in which he made money fast1 and spent it faster4 ,he had a craving to surround himself with beautiful works of art and beautiful objects of all kinds that should take him away from the dunes and canals into a world of romance within his own house4 ,he disliked the stiff ,dutch clothes and the great starched white ruffs worn by the women of the day4 ,he had to paint them in his portraits2 but when he painted his beautiful wife1 ,saskia1 she is decked in embroideries and soft shimmering stuffs4 ,wonderful clasps and brooches fasten her clothes4 ,her hair is dressed with gold chains1 and great strings of pearls hang from her neck and arms4 ,rembrandt makes the light sparkle on the diamonds and glimmer on the pearls4 ,sometimes he adorns her with flowers and paints her as ,flora4 ,again1 she is fastening a jewel in her hair1 and ,rembrandt himself stands by with a rope of pearls for her to don4 ,all these jewels and rich materials belonged to him4 ,he also bought antique marbles1 pictures by ,giorgione and ,titian1 engravings by ,durer1 and four volumes of ,raphael's drawings1 besides many other beautiful works of art4 ,these were splendid years1 years in which he was valued by his contemporaries for the work he did for them1 and years in which every picture he painted for himself gave him fresh experience4 ,a picture of the anatomy class of a famous physician had been among the first with which ,rembrandt made a great public success4 ,every face in it--and there were eight living faces--was a masterpiece of portraiture1 and all were fitly grouped and united in the rapt attention with which they followed the demonstration of their teacher4 ,in #afdb he received an order to paint a large picture of one of the companies of the ,city ,guard of ,amsterdam4 ,according to the custom of the day1 each person portrayed in the picture contributed his equal share towards the cost of the whole1 and in return expected his place in it to be as conspicuous as that of anybody else4 ,such groups were common in ,holland in the seventeenth century4 ,the towns were proud of their newly won liberties1 and the town dignitaries liked to see themselves painted in a group to perpetuate remembrance of their tenure of office4 ,but ,rembrandt knew that it was inartistic to give each and every person in a large group an equal or nearly equal prominence1 although such was the custom to which even ,franz ,hals' brush had yielded full compliance4 ,for his magnificent picture of the ,city ,guard1 ,rembrandt chose the moment when the drums had just been sounded as an order for the men to form into line behind their chief officers' march-forth4 ,they are coming out from a dark building into the full sunshine of the street4 ,all in a bustle1 some look at their fire-arms1 some lift their lances1 and some cock their guns4 ,the sunshine falls full upon the captain and the lieutenant beside him1 but the background is so dark that several of the seventeen figures are almost lost to view4 ,a few of the heads are turned in such a way that only half the face is seen1 and no doubt as likenesses some of them were deficient4 ,rembrandt was not thinking of the seventeen men individually4 ,he conceived the picture as a whole1 with its strong light and shade1 the picturesque crossing lines of the lances1 and the natural array of the figures4 ,by wiseacres1 the picture was said to represent a scene at night1 lit by torch-light1 and was actually called the ',night ,watch1' though the shadow of the captain's hand is of the size of the hand itself1 and not greater1 being cast by the sun4 ,later generations have valued it as one of the unsurpassed pictures in the world2 but it is said that contemporary ,dutch feeling waxed high against ,rembrandt for having dealt in this supremely artistic manner with an order for seventeen portraits1 and that he suffered severely in consequence4 ,certainly he had fewer orders4 ,the prosperous class abandoned him4 ,his pictures remained unsold1 and his revenue dwindled4 ,rembrandt was thirty-six years of age and at the very height of his powers1 at the time of the failure of this his greatest picture4 ,his mature style of painting continued to displease his contemporaries1 who preferred the work of less innovating artists who painted good likenesses smoothly4 ,every year his treatment became rougher and bolder4 ,he transformed portraits of stolid ,dutch burgomasters into pictures of fantastic beauty2 but the likeness suffered1 and the burgomasters were dissatisfied4 ,their conservative taste preferred the smooth surface and minute treatment of detail which had been traditional in the ,low ,countries since the days of the ,van ,eycks4 ,year after year more of their patronage was transferred to other painters1 who pandered to their preferences and had less of the genius that forced ,rembrandt to work out his own ideal1 whether it brought him prosperity or ruin4 ,these painters flourished1 while ,rembrandt sank into ever greater disrepute4 ,it is certain1 too1 that he had been almost childishly reckless in expenditure on artistic and beautiful things which were unnecessary to his art and beyond his means1 although those for a while had been abundant4 ,at the time of the failure of the ',night ,watch1' his wife ,saskia died1 leaving him their little son1 ,titus1 a beautiful child4 ,through ever-darkening days1 for the next fifteen years1 he continued to paint with increasing power4 ,it is to this later period that our picture of the ',man in ,armour' belongs4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,man ,,in ,,armour ,from the picture by ,rembrandt1 in the ,corporation ,art ,gallery1 ,glasgow ,the picture is not a portrait1 but rather a study of light upon armour4 ,no man came to ,rembrandt and asked to be painted like that2 but ,rembrandt saw in his mind's eye a great effect--a fine knightly face beneath a shadowing helmet and set off against a sombre background4 ,a picture such as this is a work of the imagination in the same sense as the ',saint ,george and the ,dragon' of ,tintoret4 ,it was an effect that only ,rembrandt could see1 painted as only he could paint it4 ,the strongest light falls upon the breastplate1 the next strongest upon the helmet1 and the ear-ring is there to catch another gleam4 ,when you look at the picture closely1 you can see that the lights are laid on 7we might almost say 'buttered on'7 with thick white paint4 ,more than once ,rembrandt painted armour for the sake of the effects of light4 ,in one of the portraits of himself he wears a helmet1 and he painted his brother similarly adorned4 ,a picture of a person wearing the same armour as in the ,glasgow picture is in ,st4 ,petersburg1 but the figure is turned in a slightly different direction and reflects the light differently4 ,it is called ',pallas ,athene1' and was no doubt painted at the same time as ours2 but the person1 whether named ,pallas ,athene or knight1 was but a peg upon which to hang the armour for the sake of the light shining on it4 ,rembrandt was a typical ,dutch worker all his life4 ,besides the great number of pictures that have come down to us1 we have about three thousand of his drawings1 and his etchings are very numerous and fine4 ,i wonder if you know how prints are made8 ,there are1 broadly speaking1 two different processes4 ,you can take a block of wood and cut away the substance around the lines of the design4 ,then when you cover with ink the raised surface of wood that is left and press the paper upon it1 the design prints off in black where the ink is but the paper remains white where the hollows are4 ,this is the method called wood-cutting1 which is still in use for book illustrations4 ,in the other process1 the design is ploughed into a metal plate1 the lines being made deep enough to hold ink1 and varying in width according to the strength desired in the print4 ,you then fill the grooves with ink1 wiping the flat surface clean1 so that when the paper is pressed against the plate and into the furrows1 the lines print black1 out of the furrows1 and the rest remains white4 ,there are several ways of making these furrows in a metal plate1 but the chief are two4 ,the first is to plough into the metal with a sharp steel instrument called a burin4 ,the second is to bite them out with an acid4 ,this is the process of etching with which ,rembrandt did his matchless work4 ,he varnished a copper plate with black varnish4 ,with a needle he scratched upon it his design1 which looked light where the needle had revealed the copper4 ,then the whole plate was put into a bath of acid1 which ate away the metal1 and so bit into the lines1 but had no effect upon the varnish4 ,when he wanted the lines to be blacker in certain places1 he had to varnish the whole rest of the plate again1 and put it back into the bath of acid4 ,the lines that had been subjected to the second biting were deeper than those that had been bitten only once4 ,the number of plates etched by ,rembrandt was great1 at least two hundred2 some say four hundred4 ,their subjects are very various--momentary impressions of picturesque figures1 ,scriptural scenes1 portraits1 groups of common people1 landscapes1 and whatever happened to engage the artist's fancy1 for an etching can be very quickly done1 and is well suited to record a fleeting impression4 ,thousands of the prints still exist1 and even some of the original plates in a very worn-down condition4 ,in spite of the quantity and quality of ,rembrandt's work1 he was unable to recover his prosperity4 ,he had moved into a fine house when he married ,saskia1 and was never able to pay off the debts contracted at that time4 ,things went from bad to worse1 until at last1 in #afef1 when ,rembrandt was fifty1 he was declared bankrupt1 and everything he possessed in the world was sold4 ,we have an inventory of the gorgeous pictures1 the armour1 the sculptures1 and the jewels and dresses that had belonged to ,saskia4 ,his son ,titus retained a little of his mother's money1 and set up as an art dealer in order to help his father4 ,it is a truly dreary scene1 yet ,rembrandt still continued to paint1 because painting was to him the very breath of life4 ,he painted ,titus over and over again looking like a young prince4 ,in these later years the portraits of himself increase in number1 as if because of the lack of other models4 ,when we see him old1 haggard1 and poor in his worn brown painting-clothes1 it hardly seems possible that he can be the same ,rembrandt as the gay1 frolicking man in a plumed hat1 holding out the pearls for ,saskia4 ,in his old age he received one more large order from a group of six drapers of ,amsterdam for their portraits4 ,it has been said that the lesson of the miscalled ',night ,watch' had been branded into his soul by misfortune4 ,what is certain is that1 while in this picture he purposely returned to the triumphs of portraiture of his youth1 he did not give up the artistic ideals of his middle life4 ,he gave his sitters an equal importance in position and lighting1 and at the same time painted a picture artistically satisfying4 ,not one of the six men could have had any fault to find with the way in which he was portrayed4 ,each looks equally prominent in vivid life4 ,yet they are not a row of six individual men1 but an organic group held together you hardly know how4 ,at last you realize that all but one are looking at you4 ,you are the unifying centre that brings the whole picture together1 the bond without which1 metaphorically speaking1 it would fall to pieces4 ,this picture of six men in plain black clothes and black hats1 sitting around a table1 is by some considered the culmination of ,rembrandt's art4 ,it shows that1 in spite of misfortune and failure1 his ardour for new artistic achievement remained with him to the end4 ,in #affb ,rembrandt seems to have paid a brief and unnoticed visit to ,england4 ,if ,charles ,,ii4 had heard of him and made him his court painter1 we might have had an unrivalled series of portraits of court beauties by his hand instead of by that of ,sir ,peter ,lely4 ,as it was1 a hasty sketch of old ,st4 ,paul's ,cathedral1 four years before it was burnt down1 is the sole trace left of his visit4 ,the story of his old age is dreary4 ,even ,titus died a few months before his father1 leaving him alone in the world4 ,in the autumn of #affi he himself passed away1 leaving behind him his painting-clothes1 his paint-brushes1 and nothing else1 save a name destined to an immortality which his contemporaries little foresaw4 ,all else had gone3 his wife1 his child1 his treasures1 and his early vogue among the ,dutchmen of his time4 ,the last picture of all was a portrait of himself1 in the same attitude as his first1 but disillusioned and tragic1 with furrowed lines and white hair4 ,no one cared whether he died or not1 and it is recorded that after his death pictures by him could be bought for sixpence4 ,thus ended the life of one of the world's supremely great painters4 ,,chapter ,x ,,peter ,,de ,,hoogh ,,and ,,cuyp ,let us now turn from the splendid gloom of ,rembrandt's ',knight in ,armour1' to delight in this beautiful little interior of a ,dutch house by ,peter de ,hoogh4 ,still you see the prepossession for light1 but for more tempered rays and softer shadows4 ,the sunshine is diffused by the yellow curtains throughout the room4 ,the old lady need not fear its revelations1 to be sure1 for it is ,holland--she knows that the whole house has been duly scrubbed with soap and water4 ,dust and dirt are banished4 ,it is a cloudless day and dry under foot1 otherwise the little boy would have worn clogs over his shoes1 and you might see them outside4 ,mud on the polished stones of the passage would have ruffled the housewife's calm4 ,as it is1 we can see she has had no worries this morning4 ,she has donned her fresh red dress and clean white apron1 and will soon be seated to prepare the vegetables and fruit that are being brought her4 ,perhaps they are a present from the old lady in the house over the way1 who from her front door watches the child delivering the gift4 ,illustration3 ,,an ,,interior ,from the picture by ,pieter de ,hoogh1 in the ,wallace ,collection1 ,london ,it is a domestic scene that you might witness in any of the old towns of ,holland to this day4 ,the insides and outsides of the houses are still scrubbed with soap and water2 rows of clogs stand outside the front doors on muddy days2 the women wear the same bright coloured gowns fully gathered round the waist1 with the cleanest of white aprons2 their faces are placid and unruffled as they pursue the even tenour of their way4 ,this atmosphere of ,dutch life1 peaceful1 home-loving1 and competent1 is rendered by ,peter de ,hoogh in most of his pictures4 ,it is not the atmosphere of ,rembrandt's art1 yet he never could have painted thus except for ,rembrandt4 ,the same love of sunlight and shadows prevailed with ,peter de ,hoogh1 and it was no less the aim of his art to attain mastery over the painting of light1 but light diffused and reflected4 ,he loved to show the sunlight shining through some coloured substance1 such as this yellow curtain1 which scatters its brightness and lets it fall more evenly throughout the room4 ,he never painted such extreme contrasts as make manifest ,rembrandt's power4 ,rembrandt's light had been so vivid that it seemed to overwhelm colours in a dazzling brilliancy4 ,peter de ,hoogh's lights are just strong enough to reveal the colours in a milder illumination4 ,in our picture the sunshine diffused by the yellow curtains mingles with the red of the woman's dress and creates a rich orange4 ,little does she know how well her dress looks4 ,but it was only after incessant study of the way in which ,rembrandt had mastered the whole range from light to dark1 that ,peter de ,hoogh became able to paint as he did within his narrower scale1 abridged at both extremes4 ,begin with the room1 then the passage1 then the farther hall1 then the highway open to the unseen sky above1 then the house-front beyond it1 and the hall beyond the lady in the neighbouring doorway2 there are at least four distinct distances in this picture each differently lighted1 and the several effects worked out with scrupulous painstaking fidelity4 ,it is worth your while1 with your own eyes rather than with many words of mine1 to search out on the original all these beautifully varied gradations4 ,in many of his pictures one part is lighted from the sunlit street1 and another from a closed court4 ,sometimes his figures stand in an open courtyard1 whilst behind is a paved passage leading into the house4 ,all his subjects are of the domestic ,dutch life of the seventeenth century1 but the arrangement in rooms1 passages1 courtyards1 and enclosed gardens admitted of much variation4 ,we never feel that the range of subjects is limited1 for the light transforms each into a scene of that poetic beauty which it was ,peter de ,hoogh's great gift to discern1 enjoy1 and record4 ,the painting is delicate and finished1 meant to be seen from near at hand4 ,it is always the room that interests him1 as much as the people in it4 ,the painting of the window with its little coats of arms1 transparent yet diffusing the light1 is exquisitely done4 ,a chair with the cushion upon it1 just like that1 occurs again and again in his pictures1 the cushion being used as a welcome bit of colour in the scheme4 ,most of all1 the floors1 whether paved with stone as in this picture1 or with brick as in the courtyards1 are painted with the delightful precise care that the ,van ,eycks gave to their accessories4 ,in ,peter de ,hoogh's vision of the world there is the same appreciation of the objects of daily use as was displayed by the fifteenth-century ,flemish painters whenever their sacred subjects gave them opportunity4 ,in the seventeenth century it was more congenial to the ,flemish and ,dutch temperament to paint their own country1 and domestic scenes from their own lives1 than pictures of devotion4 ,other artists besides ,peter de ,hoogh painted people in their own houses4 ,in the pictures of ,terborch ladies in satin dresses play the spinet and the guitar4 ,jan ,steen depicted peasants revelling on their holidays or in taverns4 ,peter de ,hoogh was the painter of middle-class life1 and discovered in its circumstances1 likewise1 abounding romance4 ,the ,dutchman of the seventeenth century loved his house and his garden1 and every inch of the country in which he lived1 rescued as it had been from invasions by armies and the sea4 ,many painters never left ,holland1 and found beauty enough there to fill well-spent lives in painting its flatness beneath over-arching clear or clouded skies4 ,although the earlier ,flemings had had a great love of landscape1 they had not conceived it as a subject suitable for a whole picture1 but only for a background4 ,in the sixteenth century the figures gradually get smaller and less important1 and towards the end of the century disappear4 ,as the song says1 'a very different thing by far' is painting a landscape background and painting a whole landscape picture4 ,before the end of the century ,rubens painted some wonderful landscapes1 and he was soon followed by a great number of very fine landscape painters in ,holland4 ,cuyp was one of many4 ,in a ,dutch landscape we cannot expect the rich colouring of ,italy4 ,the colouring of ,holland is low toned1 and tender gradations lead away to the low and level horizon4 ,the canals are sluggish and grey1 and the clouds often heavy and dark4 ,we saw how the brilliant skies and pearly buildings of ,venice made ,venetian painters the gayest colourists of the world4 ,so the ,dutch painters took their sober scale of landscape colouring as it was dictated to them by the infinitely varied yet sombre loveliness of their own land4 ,in the great flat expanses of field1 intersected by canals and dotted with windmills1 the red brick roof of a water-mill may look 'loud1' like an aggressive hat4 ,but the shadows cast by the clouds change every moment1 and in flat country where there is less to arrest the eye the changes of tone are more marked4 ,in an etching1 ,rembrandt could leave a piece of white paper for the spot of highest sunlight1 and carry out all the gradations of tone in black and white1 until he reached the spot of darkest shadow4 ,a painted landscape he indicated in the same way by varying shades of dull brown4 ,in all of them you seem to feel the interposition of the air between you and the distant horizon at which you are looking4 ,what else is there8 ,at each point in the picture the air modifies the distinctness with which you can see the objects4 ,this consciousness of air in a picture of low horizon is a very difficult thing to describe and explain4 ,we know when it is there and when it is not4 ,it has to be seen1 to be enjoyed1 and recorded4 ,holbein painted ,edward ,,vi4 standing1 so to speak1 in a vacuum4 ,every line of his face is sharply defined4 ,in real life air softens all lines1 so that even the edge of a nose in profile is not actually seen as a sharp outline4 ,the figures in ,richard ,,ii4's picture stand in the most exhausted vacuum1 but ,hubert van ,eyck had already begun to render the vision or illusion of air in his ',three ,maries4' ,in this respect he had learnt more than the early painters of the ,italian ,renaissance2 but ,raphael and the ,venetians1 especially ,giorgione and ,titian1 sometimes bathed their figures in a luminous golden atmosphere with the sun shining through it4 ,the ,dutch painters carried this still further1 particularly in their pictures of interiors and landscapes4 ,it is the atmosphere in the rooms that makes ,peter de ,hoogh's portrayal of interiors so wonderful4 ,in our little picture the light coming through the window makes the air almost golden4 ,when this painting of air and tone is set forth by the exquisite colour of ,peter de ,hoogh1 you see this kind of ,dutch achievement at its best4 ,cuyp's love of sunshine is rare among ,dutch landscape painters4 ,he suffuses his skies with a golden haze that bathes his kin and kine alike in evening light4 ,in our picture you can feel the great height of the sky and the depth of the air between the foreground and the horizon4 ,the rendering of space is excellent4 ,but ,cuyp has not been content with the features of his native ,holland4 ,he has put an imaginary mountain in the distance and a great hill in the foreground4 ,it is certainly not a view that ,cuyp ever saw in ,holland with his own eyes4 ,he thought that the mountain's upright lines were good to break the flatness2 and the finished composition1 if beautiful1 is its own excuse for being4 ,illustration3 ,,landscape ,,with ,,cattle ,from the picture by ,cuyp1 in the ,dulwich ,gallery ,rembrandt is an exception to all rules1 but most of the ,dutch painters did not allow themselves these excursions within their studios to foreign scenes4 ,they faithfully depicted their own flat country as they saw it1 and added neither hills nor mountains4 ,but they varied the lighting to express their own moods4 ,ruysdael's sombre tone befits the man who struggled with poverty all his life1 and died in a hospital penniless4 ,cuyp is always sunny4 ,in his pictures1 cattle browse at their ease1 and shepherds lounge contented on the grass4 ,he was a painter of portraits and of figure subjects as well as of landscapes1 and his little groups of men and cattle are always beautifully drawn4 ,ruysdael1 ,hobbema1 and many others were landscape painters only1 and some had their figures put in by other artists4 ,often they did without them1 but in the landscapes of ,cuyp1 cows generally occupy the prominent position4 ,the black and white cow in our picture is a fine creature1 and nothing could be more harmonious in colour than the brown cow and the brown jacket of the herdsman4 ,there were some painters in ,holland in the seventeenth century who made animals their chief study4 ,theretofore it had been rare to introduce them into pictures1 except as symbols1 like the lion of ,st4 ,jerome1 or where the story implied them2 or in allegorical pictures1 such as the ',golden ,age4' ,but at this later time animals had their share in the increased interest that was taken in the things of daily life1 and they were painted for their handsome sakes1 as ,landseer painted them in ,england fifty years ago4 ,thus the seventeenth century in ,holland shows an enlargement in the scope of subjects for painting4 ,devotional pictures were becoming rare1 but illustrations1 sacred and secular1 portraits1 groups1 interiors1 and landscapes1 were produced in great numbers4 ,dutch painters outnumbered those of ,flanders1 but among the latter were at least two of the highest eminence1 ,rubens and ,van ,dyck1 and to these we will next direct our attention4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,van ,,dyck ,the great painter ,rubens lived at ,antwerp1 a town about as near to ,amsterdam as ,dover is to ,london4 ,yet despite the proximity of ,flanders and ,holland1 their religion1 politics1 social life1 and art were very different in the seventeenth century1 as we have already seen4 ,rubens was a painter of the prosperous and ruling classes4 ,he was employed by his own sovereign1 by the ,king of ,spain1 by ,marie de ,medicis1 ,queen of ,france1 and by ,charles ,i4 of ,england4 ,his remarkable social and intellectual gifts caused him to be employed also as an ambassador1 and he was sent on a diplomatic errand to ,spain2 but even then his leisure hours were occupied in copying the fine ,titians in the ,king's palace4 ,one day he was noticed by a ,spanish noble1 who said to him1 ',does my ,lord occupy his spare time in painting8' ',no1' said ,rubens2 'the painter sometimes amuses himself with diplomacy4' ,in his life as in his art he was exuberant4 ,an absurd anecdote of the time is good enough to show that4 ,some people1 who went to visit him in his studio at ,antwerp1 wrote afterwards that they found him hard at work at a picture1 whilst at the same time he was dictating a letter1 and some one else was reading aloud a ,latin work4 ,when the visitors arrived he answered all their questions without leaving off any of those three occupations6 ,we must not all hope to match ,rubens4 ,rubens's great ceremonial paintings1 containing numerous figures and commemorating historical scenes in honour of his ,royal patrons1 were executed by his own hands1 or by the hands he taught and guided1 with great skill and speed4 ,he painted also beautiful portraits of his wife and family1 and pictures of his own medieval castle1 which he restored and inhabited during the last years of his life1 with views of the country stretching out in all directions4 ,he liked a comfortable life and comfortable-looking people4 ,he painted his own wives as often as ,rembrandt painted ,saskia2 both were plump enough to make our memories recur with pleasure to the slenderer figures preferred by ,botticelli and the painters of his school4 ,to accomplish the great mass of historic1 symbolic1 and ceremonial painting that still crowds the walls of the galleries of ,europe1 ,rubens needed many assistants and pupils1 but only one of them1 ,van ,dyck1 rose to the highest rank as a painter4 ,he was a ,fleming by birth1 and worked in the studio at ,antwerp for several years as an assistant of ,rubens2 then he went to ,italy to learn from the great pictures of the ,italian ,renaissance1 as so many ,northern artists wished to do4 ,it has been said that the works of ,titian influenced his youthful mind the most4 ,van ,dyck spent three years in ,genoa1 where he was employed by those foremost in its life to paint their portraits4 ,many of these superb canvases have been dispersed to enrich the galleries of both hemispheres1 public and private2 but the proud1 handsome semblances of some of his sitters1 dressed in rich velvet1 pearls1 and lace1 look down upon us still from the bare walls of their once magnificent palaces1 with that 'grand air' for which the eye and the brush of ,van ,dyck have long remained unrivalled4 ,when he returned to ,flanders from ,italy1 he had attained a style of painting entirely his own and very different from that of his great master1 ,rubens4 ,the ,william ,,ii of ,orange picture is an excellent example of ,van ,dyck's work4 ,the child is a prince3 we know it as plainly as if ,van ,dyck had spoken the word before unveiling his canvas4 ,his erect attitude1 his dignified bearing1 his perfect self-possession and ease1 show that he has been trained in a high school of manners4 ,but there is also something in the delicate oval of the face1 the well-cut nose and mouth1 and the graceful growth of the hair1 that speak of refined breeding4 ,distinction is the key-note of the picture4 ,illustration3 ,,william ,,ii4 ,,of ,,orange ,from the picture by ,van ,dyck1 in the ,hermitage ,gallery1 ,leningrad ,this little ,prince had in his veins the blood of ,william the ,silent1 and became the father of our ,william ,,iii4 ,poor human nature is too easily envious1 and some deny the reality1 in fact1 of the distinction1 the grace1 of ,van ,dyck's portrayed men and women4 ,nevertheless1 ,van ,dyck's vision1 guiding his brush1 was as rare an endowment as envy is a common one1 and has higher authority to show us what to look for1 to see1 and to enjoy4 ,van ,dyck was the first painter who taught people how they ought to look1 to befit an admirer's view of their aristocratic rank4 ,his portraits thus express the social position of the sitter as well as the individual character4 ,although this has been an aim of portrait-painters in modern times1 when they have been painting people of rank1 it was less usual in the seventeenth century4 ,there was hardly scope enough in ,antwerp for two great painters such as ,rubens and ,van ,dyck1 so in #afcb ,van ,dyck left ,flanders and settled permanently in ,england1 as ,court painter to ,charles ,i4 ,all his life ,charles had been an enthusiastic collector of works of art4 ,born with a fine natural taste1 he had improved it by study1 until ,rubens could say of him3 ',the ,prince of ,wales is the best amateur of painting of all the princes in the world4 ,he has demanded my portrait with such insistence that he has overcome my modesty1 although it does not seem to me fitting to send it to a ,prince of his importance4' ,two of our pictures1 the ,richard ,,ii4 diptych and the ,edward ,,vi4 of ,holbein1 were in his collection1 besides many we have mentioned1 such as ,holbein's ',erasmus1' ,raphael's cartoons1 and ,mantegna's ',triumph of ,caesar4' ,before ,charles came to the throne he had gone to ,spain to woo the daughter of ,philip ,,iii4 ,the magnificent ,titians in the palace at ,madrid extorted such admiration from the ,prince that ,philip felt it incumbent upon him as a host and a ,spaniard to offer some of them to ,charles4 ,charles sent his own painter to copy the rest4 ,he kept agents all over ,europe to buy for him1 and spent thousands of pounds in salaries and presents to the artists at his ,court4 ,as in the time of ,henry ,,viii41 there were still no first-rate ,english painters4 ,james ,i4 had employed a ,fleming1 and an inferior ,dutchman1 whom ,charles retained in his service for a time4 ,then he experimented with a second-rate ,italian artist1 who painted some ceilings which still exist at ,hampton ,court4 ,rubens was too much in demand at other ,courts for ,charles to have his exclusive service1 but the courtly ,van ,dyck was a painter after his own heart4 ,for the first time he had found an artist who satisfied his taste1 and ,van ,dyck a ,court in which he could paint distinction to his heart's content4 ,charles would have squandered money on him if he had then had it to squander4 ,as it was1 he paid him far less than he had paid his inferior predecessors1 but ,van ,dyck continued to paint for him to the end1 and by ,heaven's mercy died himself before the crash came1 which overthrew ,charles and scattered his collection4 ,between the years #afcb and #afdb1 ,van ,dyck painted a great number of portraits of the ,king4 ,it is from these that we obtain our vivid idea of the first ,charles's gentleness and refinement4 ,he has a sad look1 as though the world were too much for him and he had fallen upon evil days4 ,we can see him year by year looking sadder1 but ,van ,dyck makes the sadness only emphasize the distinction4 ,queen ,henrietta ,maria was painted even more often than the ,king4 ,she is always dressed in some bright shimmering satin2 sometimes in yellow1 like the sleeve of ,william ,,ii4's dress1 sometimes in the purest white4 ,she looks very lovely in the pictures1 but lovelier still are the groups of her children4 ,even ,james ,,ii4 was once a bewitching little creature in frocks with a skull-cap on his head4 ,his sister ,mary1 aged six1 in a lace dress1 with her hands folded in front of her1 looks very good and grown-up4 ,when she became older1 though not even then really grown-up1 she married the ,william of ,orange of our picture4 ,he came from ,holland and stayed at the ,english ,court1 as a boy of twelve1 and it was then that ,van ,dyck painted this portrait of him4 ,later on1 when they were married1 ,van ,dyck painted them together1 but ,william was older and looked a little less beautiful1 and ,mary had lost the charm of her babyhood4 ,with all her royal dignity and solemnity1 she is a perfect child in these pictures4 ,refined people1 loving art1 have grown so fond of the ,van ,dyck children1 that often when they wish their own to look particularly bewitching at some festivity1 they dress them in the costumes of the little ,mary and ,elizabeth ,stuart1 and revive the skull-caps and the lace dresses for a fresh enjoyment4 ,van ,dyck's patrons in ,england1 other than the ,king1 were mostly noblemen and courtiers4 ,they lived in the great houses1 which had been built in many parts of the country during the reigns of ,elizabeth and her successors4 ,the rooms were spacious1 with high walls that could well hold the large canvases of ,van ,dyck4 ,sometimes a special gallery was built to contain the family portraits1 and ,van ,dyck received a commission to paint them all4 ,often1 several copies of the same picture were ordered at one time to be sent as presents to friends and relations4 ,usually the artist painted but one himself2 the rest were copies by his assistants4 ,van ,dyck's portraits were designed to suit great houses4 ,in a small room1 which a portrait by ,holbein would have decorated nobly1 a canvas by ,van ,dyck would have been overpowering4 ,in spite of the fact that the expressions on the faces are often intimate and appealing1 domesticity is not the mark of his art4 ,in ,van ,dyck's picture of our 'heir of fame1' the white linen1 the yellow satin1 and the armour please us as befitting the lovely face4 ,there is a glimmer of light on the armour1 but you see how different is ,van ,dyck's treatment of it from ,rembrandt's4 ,van ,dyck painted it as an article of dress in due subordination to the face1 not as an opportunity for reflecting light and becoming the most important thing in the picture4 ,we have seen how ,rembrandt1 ,peter de ,hoogh1 ,cuyp1 ,rubens1 and ,van ,dyck were all contemporaries1 born within an area of ground smaller far than ,england4 ,yet the range of their subjects was widely different1 and each painter gave his individuality full play4 ,the desires of the public were not stereotyped and fixed1 as they had been when all alike wanted their religious aspirations expressed in art4 ,the patrons of that epoch had various likings1 as we have to-day1 and the painter developed along the lines most congenial to himself4 ,unless he could make people like what he enjoyed painting1 he could not make a living4 ,if they had no eyes to learn to see1 he might remain unappreciated1 like ,rembrandt1 until long after his death4 ,yet ,van ,dyck's portraits were popular4 ,people could scarcely help enjoying an art that showed them off to such advantage4 ,having found a style that suited him1 he adhered to it consistently1 thenceforward making but few experiments4 ,this little picture before us is an admirable example of the gentle poetic grace and refinement always recalled to the memory by the name of ,van ,dyck4 ,so long as men prize the aspect of distinction1 which he was the first ,northern painter to express in paint1 ,van ,dyck's reputation will endure4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,velasquez ,during the years in which ,van ,dyck was painting his beautiful portraits of the ,royal ,family of ,england1 another painter1 ,velasquez1 was immortalizing another ,royal ,family in the far-away country of ,spain4 ,cut off by the great mountains of the ,pyrenees from the rest of ,europe1 ,spain did not rank among the foremost powers until after the discovery of ,america had brought wealth to her from the gold mines of ,mexico and ,peru4 ,in the sixteenth century the ,king of ,spain's dominions1 actual or virtual1 covered a great part of ,western ,europe1 excepting ,england and ,france4 ,germany1 ,spain1 ,italy1 and the ,netherlands1 owned the sovereignty of the ,holy ,roman ,emperor1 ,charles ,v4 ,his son was ,philip ,,ii4 of ,spain1 the husband of our ,queen ,mary of ,england1 and his great-grandson was ,king ,philip ,,iv41 the patron of ,velasquez1 as ,charles ,i4 was of ,van ,dyck4 ,it is the little son of ,philip ,,iv41 ,don ,balthazar ,carlos1 whose portrait is before us--as manly and sturdy looking a little fellow as ever bestrode a pony4 ,he was but six years old when ,velasquez painted the picture here reproduced4 ,certainly he was not fettered and cramped and prevented from taking exercise like his little sisters4 ,the princesses of ,spain were dressed in wide skirts1 spread out over hoops and hiding their feet1 from the time they could walk4 ,the tops of the dresses were as stiff as corselets1 and one wonders how the little girls were able to move at all4 ,as they grew older the hoops became wider and wider1 until in one picture of a grown-up princess1 the skirts are broader than the whole height of her body4 ,stringent ,court etiquette forbade a princess to let her feet be seen1 but so odd may such conventions be1 that it was nevertheless thought correct for the ,queen to ride on horseback astride4 ,it is from the canvases of ,velasquez that we know the ,spanish ,royal ,family and the aspect of the ,court of ,philip ,,iv4 as though we had lived there ourselves4 ,the painter was born in the south of ,spain in the same year as ,van ,dyck1 and seven years earlier than ,rembrandt4 ,to paint the portrait of his sovereign was the ambition of the young artist4 ,when his years were but twenty-four the opportunity arrived1 and ,philip was so pleased with the picture that he took the young man into his household1 and said that no one else should ever be allowed to paint his portrait4 ,velasquez welcomed with gratified joy the prospect of that life-long proximity1 although neither his earnings nor his station at all matched the service he rendered to his sovereign4 ,as the years went on he was paid a little better1 but his days and hours were more and more taken up with duties at ,court1 and his salary was always in arrears4 ,he could not even reserve his own private time for his art1 but as he waxed higher in the estimation of the ,king1 the supervision of ,court ceremonies1 entrusted to him as an honour1 deprived him of leisure1 and at last brought his life prematurely to a close4 ,from the time when ,velasquez entered the service of the ,king1 he painted exclusively for the ,court4 ,we have eight portraits by him of ,philip ,,iv41 and five of the little ,don ,carlos1 besides many others of the queens and princesses4 ,we can follow the growth of his art in the portraits of ,philip ,,iv41 as we can follow that of ,rembrandt in portraits of himself4 ,but while ,rembrandt might make of the same person1 himself1 or another model1 a dozen different people1 so that it mattered little who the model was1 ,velasquez was concerned with a different problem4 ,in the seventeenth century almost any good painter could draw his models correctly1 but ,velasquez reproduced the living aspect of a man as no one else had done4 ,we have already spoken of the feeling of atmosphere that ,cuyp and ,peter de ,hoogh were able to bring into their pictures4 ,velasquez1 knowing little or nothing of the contemporary ,dutchmen1 worked at the same art problems all his life1 and at last mastered the atmosphere problem completely1 whether it was the air of a closed room in the dark palace of ,philip1 or the air of the open country1 as in our picture4 ,in this there is no bright light except upon the face of the little prince4 ,it is dark and gloomy weather1 but if on such a day you were to see the canvas in the open air it would almost seem part of the country itself1 as ,velasquez's picture of a room seems part of the gallery in which it hangs4 ,it was only by degrees that he attained this quality in his work4 ,he had had the ordinary teaching of a painter in ,spain1 but the level of art there at the time was not so high as in ,holland or ,italy4 ,like ,rembrandt he was to a great extent his own master4 ,in his early years he painted pictures of middle-class life1 in which each figure is truthfully depicted1 as were the early heads in ,rembrandt's ',anatomy4' ,like ,rembrandt in his youth1 he looked at each head separately and painted it as faithfully as he could4 ,the higher art of composing into the unity of a group all its parts1 and keeping their perfections within such limits as best co-operate in the transcendent perfection of the whole--this was the labour and the crown of both their lives4 ,velasquez's best and greatest groups are such a realized vision of life that they have remained the despair of artists to this day4 ,velasquez came to ,court in the year in which ,charles ,i41 as ,prince of ,wales1 went to ,madrid to woo the sister of ,philip ,,iv4 ,he painted her portrait twice1 and made an unfinished sketch of ,charles1 which has unfortunately been lost4 ,five years afterwards ,rubens was a visitor at the ,spanish ,court on a diplomatic errand4 ,the painters took a fancy to one another1 and corresponded for the remainder of their lives4 ,they must have talked long about their art1 and the elder painter1 ,rubens1 is thought to have promoted in ,velasquez a desire to see the great treasures of ,italy4 ,at all events we find that in the next year he has obtained permission and money from ,philip to undertake the journey1 which kept him away from ,spain for two years4 ,there is an amusing page1 in doggerel verse1 which ,i remember to have read some years ago4 ,i trust the translator will pardon the liberty ,i am taking in quoting it4 ,it reports a perhaps imaginary conversation between ,velasquez and an ,italian painter in ,rome4 ',the ,master' in this rhyme is ,velasquez4 ,the ,master stiffly bowed his figure tall ,and said1 ',for ,raphael1 to speak the truth1 --,i always was plain-spoken from my youth1-- ,i cannot say ,i like his works at all4' ',well1' said the other1 'if you can run down ,so great a man1 ,i really cannot see ,what you can find to like in ,italy2 ,to him we all agree to give the crown4' ,velasquez answered thus3 ',i saw in ,venice ,the true test of the good and beautiful2 ,first1 in my judgment1 ever stands that school1 ,and ,titian first of all ,italian men is4' ,velasquez in ,rome was already a ripening artist1 whose vision of the world was quite uncoloured and unshaped by the medieval tradition4 ,raphael's pictures with their superhumanly lovely saints1 their unworldly feeling1 and their supernaturally clear light1 doubtless imparted pleasure1 but not a sympathetic inspiration4 ,tintoret's immense creative power and the colours of ,titian's painting which inspired ,tintoret's ambition1 as we remember--these were the effective influences ,velasquez experienced in ,italy4 ,his purchases and his own later canvases afford that inference4 ,on his return from ,italy he painted a ceremonial picture as wall decoration for one of the palaces of ,philip1 and in it we can trace the influence of the great ceremonial paintings of the ,venetians4 ,the picture commemorates the surrender of ,breda in ,north ,brabant1 when the famous ,general ,spinola received its keys for ,philip ,,iv4 ,it is far more than a series of separate figures4 ,two armies1 officers and men1 are grouped in one transaction1 in one near and far landscape4 ,it is a picture in which the foreground and the distances1 with the lances of the soldiers and the smoke of battle1 are as indispensable to the whole as are the central figures of the ,dutchman in front handing the city keys to the courtly ,spanish general4 ,don ,balthazar ,carlos was born while ,velasquez was in ,italy4 ,on his return he painted his first portrait of him at the age of two4 ,the little prince is dressed in a richly-brocaded frock with a sash tied round his shoulder4 ,his hair has only just begun to grow1 but he has the same look of determination upon his face that we see four years later in the equestrian portrait4 ,a dwarf about his own height stands a step lower than he does1 so as again to give him prominence4 ,another picture of ,don ,balthazar a little older is in the ,wallace ,collection in ,london4 ,velasquez's power with his brush lay in depicting vividly a scene that he saw2 thus in portraiture he was at his best4 ,he knew how to pose his figures to perfection1 so as to make the expression of their character a true pictorial subject4 ,in our picture it is on high ground that the hoofs of the pony of ,don ,balthazar ,carlos tread4 ,so to raise the little ,prince above the eye of the spectator was a good stroke1 suggesting an importance in the gallant young rider4 ,the boy's erect figure1 too1 firmly holding his baton as a king might hold a sceptre1 and the well-stirruped foot1 are all perfect posing4 ,velasquez does not give him distinction in the manner of ,van ,dyck1 by delicate drawing and gentle grace1 but in a sturdier fashion1 with speed and pose and a fluttering sash in the wind4 ,all the portraits of this lad are full of charm4 ,he was heir to the throne1 but died in boyhood4 ,illustration3 ,,don ,,balthazar ,,carlos ,from the picture by ,velasquez1 in the ,prado ,museum1 ,madrid ,velasquez paid another visit to ,italy1 twenty years after his first1 for the purpose of buying more pictures to adorn ,philip's palaces4 ,again we find him in ,venice1 where he bought two ,tintorets and a ,veronese1 and again he made a long stay in ,rome1 this time to paint the portrait of the ,pope4 ,when he returned to ,spain in #afea he had still nine years of work before him4 ,there were portraits of ,philip's new ,queen to be painted--a young girl in a most uncomfortable dress--and portraits of her child1 the ,infanta ,marguerita4 ,bewitching are the pictures of this little princess at the ages of three1 of four1 and of seven1 with her fair hair tied in a bow at the side of her head1 and voluminous skirts of pink and silver4 ,but sweetest of all is the picture called ',the ,maids of ,honour' 7',les ,meninas'71 in which the princess1 aged about six1 is being posed for her portrait4 ,she is petulant and tired1 and two of her handmaidens are cajoling her to stand still4 ,her two dwarfs and a big dog have been brought to amuse her1 and the ,king and ,queen1 reflected in a mirror at the end of the room1 stand watching the scene4 ,velasquez himself1 with his easel and brushes1 is at the side1 painting4 ,the picture perpetuates for centuries a moment of palace life4 ,in that transitory instant1 ,velasquez took his vivid impression of the scene1 and has translated his impression into paint4 ,everything is simple and natural as can be4 ,the ordinary light of day falls upon the princess1 but does not penetrate to the ceiling of the lofty room1 which is still in shadow4 ,all seem to have come together haphazard without being fitted into the canvas4 ,there is little detail1 and the whole effect seems produced by the simplest means2 yet in reality the skill involved is so great that artists to-day spend weeks copying the picture1 in the endeavour to learn something of the secret of ,velasquez4 ,the best judges are among those who rank him highest1 so that he is called pre-eminently 'the painter's painter4' ,it is impossible for any one but a painter to understand how he used paint4 ,from near at hand it looks a smudge1 but at the proper distance every stroke takes its right place4 ,such freedom was the result of years of careful painting of detail1 and is not to be attained by any royal road4 ,velasquez seldom seems to have made preliminary drawings1 but of that we cannot be sure4 ,certainly he had learned to conceive his vision as a whole1 and we may fancy at least that he drew it so upon the canvas--altering the lines as he went--working at all the parts of the picture at once1 keeping the due relation of part to part2 not as if he finished one bit at a time1 or thought of one part of a figure as distinct from the rest4 ,to have drawn separate studies for legs and arms would have been foreign to his method of working4 ,the pictures painted in this his latest style are few1 for the court duties heaped upon him left too little time4 ,maria ,theresa1 the sister of ,don ,balthazar ,carlos1 was engaged to be married to ,louis ,,xiv41 ,king of ,france4 ,the marriage took place on the border of ,france and ,spain1 and ,velasquez was in charge of all the ceremonies4 ,the ,princess travelled with a cavalcade eighteen miles long1 and we can imagine what work all the arrangements involved4 ,the marriage over1 the ever loyal ,velasquez returned to ,madrid1 but he returned only to die4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,reynolds ,,and ,,the ,,eighteenth ,,century ,hitherto we have travelled far and wide in our search for typical examples of the beautiful in painting4 ,we went from ,flanders to ,italy1 from ,italy to ,germany1 back to ,holland1 and thence to ,spain4 ,it is true that we began in ,england with our first picture1 and that we have returned twice1 once with ,holbein1 and again with ,van ,dyck1 both foreign born and trained artists4 ,we will finish with examples of truly native ,english art4 ,in the eighteenth century ,england for the first time gained a foremost place in painting1 though the people of the day scarcely realized that it was so4 ,even the poet ,gray1 writing in #agfc1 could say3 ,why this nation has made no advance hitherto in painting and sculpture1 it is hard to say4444 ,you are generous enough to wish1 and sanguine enough to foresee1 that art shall one day flourish in ,england4 ,i1 too1 much wish1 but can hardly extend my hopes so far4 ,yet in #agfc ,reynolds was forty years of age and ,gainsborough but four years younger4 ,hogarth was even sixty-six1 and at work upon his last plate4 ,although1 hitherto1 the best painting in ,england had been done by foreign artists such as ,holbein and ,van ,dyck1 yet there had always been ,englishmen of praiseworthy talent who had painted pleasing portraits4 ,hogarth carried this native tradition to a high point of excellence4 ,he painted plain1 good-natured-looking people in an unaffected and straightforward way4 ,but he was a humourist in paint1 and as great a student of human nature as he was of art4 ,his insight into character and his great skill with the brush1 combined with his sensitiveness to fun1 make him in certain respects a unique painter4 ,in the ,national ,gallery there is a picture of the heads of his six servants in a double row4 ,they might all be characters from ,dickens1 so vividly and sympathetically humorous is each4 ,in his engravings ,hogarth satirised the lives of all classes of the society of his day4 ,when we look at them we live again in eighteenth-century ,london1 and walk in streets known to fame though now destroyed1 thronged with men and women1 true to life4 ,as an artist1 ,hogarth occupies a position between the seventeenth-century ,dutch painters of low life and the ,english painters that succeeded him1 who expressed the ideals of a refined society4 ,his portraits have something of the strength of ,rembrandt's4 ,his street and tavern scenes rival ,jan ,steen's2 but behind the mere representation of brutality1 vice1 crime1 and misery we perceive not merely a skilled craftsman but a moral being1 whom contact with misery deeply stirs and the sight of wickedness moves to indignation4 ,after #agbj a succession of distinguished painters were born in ,england4 ,many of them first saw the light in obscure villages in the depths of the country4 ,reynolds came from ,devonshire1 ,gainsborough from ,suffolk1 ,romney from the ,lake country4 ,the eighteenth century was a time when politicians and men of letters had the habit of gathering in the coffee-houses of ,london--forerunners of the clubs of to-day4 ,conversation was valued as one of life's best enjoyments1 and the varied society of actors1 authors1 and politicians1 in which it flourished best1 could only be obtained in the town4 ,to the most distinguished circle of that kind in ,london1 our painter ,reynolds belonged4 ,in the eighteenth century1 society had also begun to divide its time in modern fashion between town and country4 ,many of the large country houses of to-day1 and nearly all the landscape-gardened parks1 belong to that date4 ,nevertheless it was a time of great artificiality of life4 ,the ladies had no short country skirts1 and none of the freedom to which we are accustomed4 ,in ,london they wore long powdered curls and rouged1 and in the country too they did not escape from the artificiality of fashion4 ,indeed1 their great desire seems to have been to get away from everything natural and spontaneous4 ,the artificial poetry of that time deals with the patch-boxes and powder-puffs of the fashionable dames of the town1 and with nymphs and ,dresden china shepherdesses in the country4 ,even on ,reynolds' canvases the desire to improve upon nature is apparent4 ,in his young days he painted the local personages of ,devonshire4 ,then he made a journey abroad and spent three years in ,rome and ,venice4 ,on his return he settled in ,london1 and the most distinguished men and women of the day and their children sat to him4 ,it seems that he would have liked his lords and ladies to look as heroic or sublime as the heroes or gods of ,michelangelo4 ,instead of painting them in the surroundings that belonged to them1 as ,holbein or ,velasquez would have done1 he dressed his ladies in what he called white 'drapery1' a voluminous material1 neither silk1 satin1 woollen1 nor cotton1 and painted them sailing through the woods4 ,the ladies themselves liked to look like nymphs1 characterless and pretty1 so the fashion of painting portraits in this way became common4 ,the pictures are pleasing to look at1 although so artificial1 and after all it was only full-length portraits of ladies that ,reynolds treated in this way4 ,they were a small part of his whole output4 ,but he and ,velasquez worked in a totally different spirit4 ,velasquez made the subject before him1 however unpromising1 striking because of its truth4 ,reynolds liked to change it on occasion into something quite different1 for the sake of making a picture pretty4 ,nevertheless1 his strength lay in straightforward portraiture1 and in the rendering of character4 ,his portraits of men1 unlike those of women1 are dignified1 simple1 and restrained4 ,his art was one long development till blindness prevented him from working4 ,every year he attained more freedom and naturalness in his pose and developed more power in his use of colour4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,duke ,,of ,,gloucester ,from the picture by ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds1 in ,trinity ,college1 ,cambridge ,many would say that his loveliest achievements were portraits of children1 yet he did not attain the same freedom in his child poses till late in life4 ,you have all seen photographs1 at any rate1 of the ',age of ,innocence' and the ',heads of ,angels1' but this little picture of the ,duke of ,gloucester1 nephew of ,george ,,iii41 will not be so familiar4 ,i wonder whether it reminds you of anything you know8 ,it reminds me of ,van ,dyck4 ,the little duke stands with an air of importance upon the hillside1 which is raised above the eye of the spectator as ,velasquez raised the ground beneath the pony of ,don ,balthazar ,carlos4 ,there is no mistake about the child being a simple ,english boy1 with a nice chubby face and ordinary straight fair hair4 ,but he is a prince and knows it4 ,for the sake of having his picture painted1 he poses with an air of conscious dignity beyond his years4 ,he sweeps his cloak around him like any grown-up cavalier1 and holds out a plumed hat and walking stick in a lordly fashion4 ,the child is consciously acting the part of a grown-up person1 which only emphasizes his childhood4 ,but the air of refinement and distinction in the picture comes straight from ,van ,dyck4 ,as you look at the portraits of the ,duke of ,gloucester and ,william ,,ii4 of ,orange side by side1 it may puzzle you to say which is the more attractive4 ,van ,dyck has painted the clothes in more detail4 ,a century later ,reynolds has learnt to paint with dash1 though not with the mastery of ,velasquez4 ,the effect of the cloak of the little ,duke1 its shimmering shades of mauve and pink1 is inimitable4 ,it tones beautifully with the background1 varying from dull green to brightest yellow4 ,the background happens to be sky1 but it might as well have been a curtain1 as long as its bit of colour so set off the clothes of the little ,duke4 ,when ,reynolds painted children he delighted in making them act parts4 ,even in the ',age of ,innocence' the little girl is looking how very very innocent4 ,he painted one picture of a small boy1 ,master ,crewe1 dressed to look like ,henry ,,viii4 in the style of ,holbein4 ,with broad shoulders and a rich dress1 he stands on his sturdy legs quite the figure of ,henry4 ,but the face is one beam of boyish laughter1 and on the top of the little replica of the body of the corpulent monarch the effect of the childish face is most entertaining4 ,when ,reynolds puts away his ideas of the grand style of ,michelangelo to paint pictures such as these1 he is entirely delightful4 ,he sometimes painted ,holy ,families and classical subjects1 but the more the spirit of medieval sacred art has sunk into us1 the less can we admire modern versions of the old subjects4 ,the sacred paintings of the ,middle ,ages owe some of their charm to the fact that they do not make upon us the impression of life4 ,in ,reynolds' ,holy ,families1 the ,mother and ,child are painted with all the skill of a modern artist and look as human as his portraits of the ,duchess of ,devonshire and her baby4 ,it is no longer possible to think of them as anything but portraits of the models whom ,reynolds employed for his picture4 ,another method that modern artists have sometimes adopted in painting sacred subjects1 is to imitate the faulty drawing and incomplete representation of life which are present in the art of the ,old ,masters4 ,but this conscious imitation of bygone ignorance beguiles no one who has once felt the charm of the painters before ,raphael4 ,reynolds' great contemporary1 ,gainsborough1 has been called 'a child of nature4' ,he would have liked to live in the country always and paint landscapes4 ,he did paint many of his native ,suffolk1 but in his day landscapes were unsaleable1 so he was driven to the town and to portrait painting to make a living4 ,less than ,reynolds a painter of character1 ,gainsborough reproduced the superficial expression of his sitters4 ,but he had so natural an eye for grace and beauty1 that his portraits always please4 ,he did not attempt ,reynolds' wide range of subjects or the same difficulties of pose4 ,of ,reynolds he said3 ',how various he is1' but his admiration did not make him stray from his natural path to attempt the variety of another4 ,reynolds1 equally admiring1 said of him3 ',i cannot make out how he produces his effects4' ,perhaps ,gainsborough did not know either4 ,he does seem to paint by instinct1 and successive pictures became more pleasing4 ,buoyant in his life as in his art1 his last words were3 ',we are all going to ,heaven1 and ,van ,dyck is of the company4' ,another great contemporary painter was ,romney1 whose portraits of ladies are delightful4 ,figured as nymphs too1 they are so buoyant with bright expressions and wayward locks1 that one wishes he had depicted in their faces a soul4 ,all over ,england and ,scotland portrait painters flourished at this time4 ,there were so many ,english artists that in #agfh the ,royal ,academy was founded1 with ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds as its first president4 ,it was to the students of the ,royal ,academy that he delivered his ,discourses upon ,art1 setting forth the principles which he judged to be sound4 ,he was an indefatigably hard worker until within two years of his death in #agib4 ,all classes of men esteemed and regretted him1 clouded though his intercourse with them had been by the deafness from which he suffered during the greater part of his life4 ,goldsmith1 the author of the ,vicar of ,wakefield1 wrote this character 'epitaph' for him3 ,here ,reynolds is laid1 and to tell you my mind1 ,he has not left a wiser or better behind4 ,his pencil was striking1 resistless and grand2 ,his manners were gentle1 complying and bland2 ,still born to improve us in every part1 ,his pencil our faces1 his manners our heart4 ,to coxcombs averse1 yet most civilly steering ,when they judged without skill1 he was still hard of hearing4 ,when they talked of their ,raphaels1 ,correggios and stuff1 ,he shifted his trumpet and only took snuff4 ,by flattery unspoiled 444 ,the end is missing1 for while ,goldsmith was versifying so feelingly about his friend1 death overtook the writer1 eighteen years before the subject of the epitaph4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,turner ,i wonder which of you1 if seeing this picture for the first time1 will realize that you are looking at the old familiar ,thames8 ,it would seem rather to be some place unknown except in dreams1 some phantasy of the human spirit that we ourselves could never hope to see4 ,and yet1 in fact1 this is what ,turner actually did see one evening as he was sailing down the ,thames to ,greenwich with a party of friends4 ,suddenly there loomed up before his eyes the great hull of the ,temeraire1 famous in the fight against the fleet of ,napoleon at ,trafalgar1 and so full of memories of glorious battle1 that it was always spoken of by sailors as the ,fighting ,temeraire4 ,at last1 its work over as a battleship1 or even as a training-ship for cadets1 dragged by a doughty little steam-tug1 it was headed for its last resting-place in the ,thames1 to be broken up for old timber4 ,as the ,temeraire hove in sight through the mist1 a fellow-painter said to ,turner3 ',ah1 what a subject for a picture6' and so indeed it proved4 ,the veteran ship1 for ,turner1 had a pathos like the passing of a veteran warrior to his grave4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,fighting ,,temeraire ,from the picture by ,turner1 in the ,national ,gallery1 ,london ,turner loved the sea1 and was very sensitive to its associations with the toils and triumphs of mankind4 ,born beside the ,thames1 he grew up among boats and fraternized with sailors all his life4 ,it was impossible for him to be the beholder of such a scene as the ,temeraire's approach to her last moorings1 save as a poet-painter2 and stirred to the putting forth of all his powers1 this ,fighting ,temeraire is his surpassing poem4 ,it was in #agge1 while ,reynolds was at the height of his fame1 that ,turner saw the light1 born of obscure parents in an obscure house1 but with a gift of vision that compelled him to the palette and the pencil his whole life long4 ,yet1 when he was apprenticed to an architect to learn architectural drawing1 he had to be dismissed after two periods of probation because of his absolute inability to learn the theory of perspective or even the elements of geometry4 ,but the time was not far off when he was to become in his turn ,professor of ,perspective at the ,royal ,academy4 ,the popular distaste1 or unborn taste1 for landscape1 which had prevented ,gainsborough from following his natural bent1 was changing at last4 ,the end of the eighteenth century saw the beginning of a return to nature in art as well as in poetry4 ,some artists in the eastern counties1 older than ,turner1 were already spending their lives in the not too lucrative painting of landscape4 ,these men took for their masters the seventeenth-century painters of ,holland4 ,old ,crome1 so called to distinguish him from his son1 founded his art upon that of ,hobbema1 and came so close to him in his early years that it is difficult to distinguish their pictures4 ,in the works of this ',norwich ,school' the wide horizons of the ,dutch artists often occur4 ,but there is a brighter colour1 a fresher green1 recalling ,england rather than ,holland4 ,turner never felt the influence of the ,dutch painters so strongly as these artists did4 ,like ,gainsborough1 and many another artist before him and since1 ,turner was to be dominated by the necessity of making a living4 ,at the end of the century a demand arose for ',topographical ,collections1' of views of places1 selected and arranged according to their neighbourhood4 ,these were not necessarily fine works of art1 but they were required to be faithful records of places4 ,topographical paintings1 drawings1 and prints took the place now filled by the photograph and the postcard4 ,turner found employment enough making water-colour sketches to be engraved for such topographical publications4 ,but sketches that might be mere hack-work became under his fingers magically lovely4 ,we may follow him to many a corner of ,england1 ,wales1 and ,scotland1 sketching architecture1 mountain1 moor1 mists1 and lakes4 ,his earliest sketches are rather stiff and precise4 ,but he developed with rapidity1 and soon painted them in tones of blue and grey1 so soft that the stars and the horizons merge into one lovely indefiniteness4 ,not till much later is there a touch of brighter colour in them such as fires the ',temeraire1' but in all there is the same spirit of poetry4 ,turner longed to be a poet1 although he could hardly write a correct sentence even in prose4 ,but he was a poet in his outlook upon life2 he seldom painted a scene exactly as he saw it1 but transfused it by an imaginative touch into what on rare occasions1 with perfect conjuncture of mist and weather1 it might possibly become4 ,he gave extra height to church spires1 or made precipices steeper than they were1 thus to render the impression of the place more explicit than by strict copying of the facts4 ,yet he could be minutely accurate in his rendering of all effects of sky1 cloud1 and atmosphere when he chose4 ,other landscape painters have generally succeeded best with some particular aspect of nature1 and have confined themselves to that4 ,cuyp excelled in painting the golden haze of sunshine1 and ,constable in effects of storm and rain4 ,but ,turner attempted all4 ,sunset1 sunrise1 moonlight1 morning1 sea1 storm1 sunshine3 the whole pageantry of the sky4 ,he never made a repetition of the golden hazes of ,cuyp1 who in his particular field stands alone2 but it was a small field compared with that of ,turner1 who held the mirror up to ,nature in her every mood4 ,later in life1 ,turner travelled in ,france1 ,germany1 and ,italy4 ,in ,venice his eyes were gladdened by the gorgeous colours above her lagoons4 ,henceforth he makes his pictures blaze with hues scarcely dared by painter before4 ,but so great was his previous mastery of the paler shades1 that a few touches of brilliant colour could set his whole canvas aflame4 ,even in the ',temeraire1' the sunset occupies less than half the picture4 ,the cold colours of night have already fallen on the ship1 and there remains but a touch of red from the smoke of the tug4 ,as ,venice enriched his vision of colour1 ,rome stimulated him to paint new subjects suggested by ancient history and mythology4 ,he knew little of ,roman history or classical literature1 yet enough to kindle his imagination2 witness his ',rise and ,fall of the ,carthaginian ,empire' in the ,national ,gallery4 ,in these the figures are of no importance4 ,the pictures still are landscapes1 but freed from the necessity of being like any particular place4 ,in work such as this1 ,turner had but one predecessor1 the ,french ,claude ,lorraine4 ,while the ,dutchmen of the seventeenth century were painting their own country beautifully1 ,claude was living in ,rome1 creating imaginary landscapes4 ,he called his pictures by the names of ,scriptural incidents1 and placed figures in the foreground as small and unessential as those of ,turner4 ,these classical landscapes1 with their palaces and great flights of steps leading down to some river's edge1 and the sea in the distance covered with boats carrying fantastic sails1 never for a moment make the impression of reality4 ,but they are beautiful compositions1 designed to please the eye and stimulate the fancy1 and are even attractive by virtue of their novel aloofness from the actual world4 ,turner set himself to rival ,claude in his ideal landscapes1 founded upon the stories of the ancient world4 ,in his picture of ',dido building ,carthage1' he painted imaginary palaces1 rivers1 and stately ships1 in the same cool colouring as ,claude1 and bequeathed his picture to the ,national ,gallery1 on condition that it should hang for ever between two pictures by ,claude to challenge their superiority4 ,opinions are divided as to the rank of ,turner's ',carthage1' so when you go to the ,national ,gallery1 you must look at them both and prepare to form a preference4 ,turner was incited to this rivalry with ,claude by the popularity that painter enjoyed among ,english collectors of the day1 who were less eager to buy ,turner's great oil-paintings than those of his predecessor4 ,incidentally this rivalry was the origin of the great series of etchings executed by or for him1 known as ,the ,book of ,studies 7,liber ,studiorum74 ,this book was suggested by ,claude's ,libri di ,verita1 six volumes of his own drawings 7of pictures he himself had painted and sold7 made in order to identify his own1 and detect spurious1 productions4 ,but ,turner's book was designed to show his power in the whole range of landscape art4 ,the drawings were carefully finished productions1 work by which he was willing to be judged1 and many of them he etched with his own hands4 ,his favourite haunts1 the abbeys of ,scotland and ,yorkshire1 the harbours of ,kent1 the mountains of ,switzerland1 the lochs of ,scotland1 and the ,river ,wye1 he chose as illustrating his best power over architecture1 sea1 mountain1 and river4 ,he repeated several of the same subjects later in oils1 such as the pearly hazy ',norham ,castle' in the ,tate ,gallery4 ,turner painted still another kind of imaginary landscape1 not in rivalry with any one1 but to please himself4 ,of course you all know the story of ,ulysses and the one-eyed giant1 ,polyphemus1 in the ,odyssey of ,homer8 ,turner chose for his picture the moment when ,ulysses has escaped from the clutches of ,polyphemus1 and sailing away in his boat1 taunts the giant1 who stands by the water's edge1 cursing ,ulysses and bemoaning the loss of his sight4 ,turner has used this mythical scene as an opportunity for creating stupendous rocks never seen by a pair of mortal eyes1 and a galley worthy of heroes or gods4 ,the picture is the purest phantasy1 even more like a fairy-tale than the story it illustrates4 ,he has made the whole scene burn in the red light of a flaming sunrise1 redder by far than the sunset of the old ',temeraire4' ,the story is told of a gentleman who1 looking at a picture of ,turner's1 said to him1 ',i never saw a sunset like that4' ',no1 but don't you wish you could8' replied ,turner4 ,that is what we feel about the sunrise in the picture of ,ulysses and ,polyphemus4 ,next to it in the ,national ,gallery hangs another picture called ',rain1 ,steam1 and ,speed'--the ,great ,western ,railway4 ,from the realm of the mythical1 this takes us back to the class of scenes of which the ',fighting ,temeraire' is one1 actually beheld by ,turner1 but magically transfigured by his brush4 ,a train is coming towards us over a bridge1 prosaic subject enough1 especially in #ahdd1 when railways were supposed to be ruining the aspect of the country and were hated by beauty-loving people4 ,but ,turner saw romance in the swift passage of a train1 and painted a picture in which smoke and rain1 cloud and sunset1 river and bridge1 boats and trees1 are all fused in a mist1 pearly and golden as well as smutty and grey4 ,when you look at it1 you must stand away and look long1 till gradually the vision of ,turner shapes itself before your eyes and the scene as he beheld it lives again for you4 ,we saw how ,venice opened his eyes to flaming colour4 ,in his pictures of ,venice1 her magic beauty is revealed by a delicate sympathy1 that re-creates the fairy city in her day of glory4 ,never tired of painting her in all her aspects1 at morning1 at even1 in pomp1 and at peace1 a sight of his pictures is still the best substitute for a visit to the city itself4 ,other artists have interpreted scenery beautifully1 and a few have painted ideal landscapes1 but who besides ,turner has ever united such diversities of power8 ,he continued to paint water-colour sketches to the end of his life1 for these were appreciated by a public that did not understand1 and neglected to buy1 his oil-paintings4 ,he sketched throughout ,france and ,switzerland for various publications as he had sketched in ,england4 ,time has not damaged these drawings1 as it has the pictures in oil1 for to the end of his life ,turner sometimes used bad materials4 ,even the sky of the ',fighting ,temeraire' has faded considerably since it was painted1 and others of his oil-pictures are mere shadows of their former selves4 ,it is pathetic to look upon the wreck of work not a century old and to wonder how much of it will be preserved for future generations4 ,turner himself deemed the ',temeraire' one of his best pictures1 and from the beginning intended to bequeath it to the ,national ,gallery1 refusing to sell it for any price whatever4 ,there's a far bell ringing1 ,at the setting of the sun1 ,and a phantom voice is singing ,of the great days done4 ,there's a far bell ringing1 ,and a phantom voice is singing ,of renown for ever clinging ,to the great days done4 ,now the sunset breezes shiver1 ,temeraire6 ,temeraire6 ,and she's fading down the river1 ,temeraire6 ,temeraire6 ,now the sunset breezes shiver1 ,and she's fading down the river1 ,but in ,england's song for ever ,she's the ',fighting ,temeraire4'#d ,footnote #d3 ,the ,fighting ,temeraire4 ,henry ,newbolt4 ,,chapter ,,xv ,,the ,,nineteenth ,,century ,since we began our voyagings together among the visionary worlds of the great painters1 five hundred and thirty years ago1 at the accession of ,king ,richard ,,ii41 we have journeyed far and wide1 trudging from the rock where ,cimabue found the boy ,giotto drawing his sheep's likeness4 ,the battleship of ,turner has now brought us to the mid-nineteenth century1 a time within the memories of living men1 and still our journey is not ended4 ,hitherto we have been guided in our general preference for certain artists and certain pictures by the concurring opinion of the best judges of many successive generations4 ,but while we are looking at modern paintings1 we cannot say1 as some one did1 that in our opinion1 'which is the correct one1' such and such a picture is worthy to rank with ,titian4 ,the taste of one age is not the taste of another4 ,who can surely pronounce the consensus of opinion to-day8 ,who can guess if it will concur with that of future decades--of future centuries8 ,we can but hope that learning to see and enjoy the recognized masterpieces of the past will teach us what to like best among the masterpieces of the present4 ,a great love of the ,old ,masters inspired the work of a group of young artists1 who1 about the year #ahej1 banded themselves together into a society which they called the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood4 ,the title indicates their aim1 which was to draw the inspiration of their art from the fifteenth-century painters of ,italy4 ,the sweetness of feeling in a picture such as ,botticelli's ',nativity1' the delicacy of workmanship and beautiful painting of detail in ,antonello's ',st4 ,jerome' and other pictures of that date1 had an irresistible fascination for them4 ,they fancied and felt that these artists had attained to the highest of which art was capable1 so that the best could only again be produced by a faithful study of their methods4 ,the aims of the ,brotherhood were not imitation of the artists but of the methods of the past4 ,they held that every painted object1 and every painted figure should be as true as it could be made to the object as it actually existed1 rather than to the effect produced upon the eye1 seeing it in conjunction with other objects4 ,these men heralded a widespread medieval revival1 but all the study in the world could not make them paint like born artists of the fifteenth century4 ,yet there are those who think that much of the spirit of beauty1 which had dwelt in the soul of ,botticelli and his contemporaries1 was born again in ,rossetti and ,burne-,jones4 ,their feeling for beauty of form and purity of colour1 and their aloofness from the modern world1 impart to their work an atmosphere that may remind us of the fifteenth century1 though the fifteenth century could never have produced it4 ,rossetti and ,burne-,jones1 indeed1 never formally joined the ,brotherhood1 though they were influenced by its ideals and pursued the same strict fidelity to nature in all the accessories of a picture4 ,millais and ,holman ,hunt1 original members of the ,brotherhood1 painted men and women of the mid-,victorian epoch with every detail of their peaked bonnets and plaid shawls1 and were comparatively indifferent to beauty of form and face4 ,but ,rossetti and ,burne-,jones created a type of ideal beauty which they employed on their canvases with persistent repetition4 ,burne-,jones founded his type upon the angels of ,botticelli1 and his drapery is like that of the ring of dancers in the sky in our picture of the ',nativity4' ,you are probably familiar with some of his pictures and perhaps have felt the spell of his pure gem-like colouring and pale1 haunting faces4 ,it was the people of their minds' eye who sat beside their easels4 ,rossetti lived and worked in the romantic mood of a ,giorgione1 but instead of expressing the atmosphere of his fairy city of ,venice1 he created one as far as possible removed from his own mid-,victorian surroundings4 ,his imaginary world was peopled by women with pale faces and luxuriant auburn hair1 pondering upon the mysteries of the universe4 ,like ,rossetti's ',blessed ,damozel1' they look out from the gold bar of heaven with eyes from which the wonder is not yet gone4 ,one of the best ,pre-,raphaelite landscapes is the ',strayed ,sheep' of ,holman ,hunt4 ,the sheep are wandering over a grass hillside of the vividest green1 shot with spring flowers1 and every sheep is painted with the detail of the central sheep in ,hubert van ,eyck's ',adoration of the ,lamb4' ,the colouring is almost as bright and jewel-like as that of the fifteenth-century painters1 for one of the theories of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood was that grass should be painted as green as the single blade--not the colour of the whole field seen immersed in light and atmosphere1 which can make green grass seem gray or even blue4 ,in ,brett's ',val d',aosta1' another ,pre-,raphaelite landscape1 we look from a hill upon a great expanse of valley with mountains rising behind4 ,every field of corn and every grassy meadow is outlined as clearly as it would be upon a map4 ,every stick can be counted in the fences between the fields and every tree in the hedge-rows4 ,when we look at the picture we involuntarily wander over the face of the country4 ,there is no taking in the view at a glance2 we must walk through every field and along every path4 ,after seeing these ,pre-,raphaelite landscapes1 let us imagine ourselves straightway turning to one of the numerous scenes by ,whistler of the ,thames at twilight1 with its glimmering lights and ghostly shapes of bridges and hulks of steamers4 ,nothing is outlined1 nothing is clearly defined1 but the mystery of ,london's river is caught and pictured for ever4 ,let us look1 too1 at his ',valparaiso1' bathed in a brilliant ,south ,american sunshine1 where all is pearly and radiant with southern light4 ,even here the impression is not given by the power of the sun revealing every detail4 ,there are few touches1 but like ,velasquez1 he has made every touch tell4 ,as the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood kindled their inspiration by the vision of the fifteenth-century painters of ,italy1 so ,whistler and many other modern artists have turned to ,velasquez for guidance4 ,till the last half of the last century his name had been almost forgotten outside ,spain4 ,now1 among the modern 'impressionists' so-called1 he is perhaps more studied than any other painter4 ,when we were looking at the pictures of this great man1 we saw how he and ,rembrandt were among the earliest to learn the value of subordinating detail in the parts to the better general effect of the whole1 so as to present no more than the eye could grasp in a comprehensive glance4 ,every tree and stick in ,brett's ',val d',aosta' is truthfully painted1 but the picture as a whole does not give the spectator the impression of truth1 for the simple reason that the eye can never see at once what ,brett has tried to make it see4 ,all the wonderfully veracious detail in the work of the ,pre-,raphaelite does not give the impression of life4 ,men like ,holman ,hunt1 on the one hand1 and on the other hand ,whistler1 living and working at the same time1 exhibiting their works in the same galleries1 differ even more in their ideals than ,velasquez differed from the fifteenth-century painters of ,italy4 ,facts such as these make the study of modern art difficult4 ,before the nineteenth century1 pictures of the same date in the same country were painted in approximately the same style4 ,but during the last fifty years many styles have reigned together4 ,at one and the same time painters have been inspired by the ,greek and ,roman sculptors1 by ,botticelli1 ,mantegna1 ,titian1 ,tintoret1 ,velasquez1 ,rembrandt1 ,reynolds1 and ,turner1 and the work of each is1 notwithstanding1 unmistakably nineteenth century1 and could never have been produced at any other date4 ,every artist finds a problem of his own to solve1 and attacks it in his own way4 ,when ,whistler painted a portrait he endeavoured to express character in the general aspect of the figure1 rather than in the face4 ,the picture of his mother is a wonderful expression of the sweetness and peace of old age1 given by the severe lines of her black dress and the simplicity and nobility of her pose4 ,the great painter ,watts1 who by the face chiefly sought to express the man1 never painted a full-length figure portrait4 ,his long life1 covering nearly the whole of the century1 enabled him to portray many of the foremost men of the age--statesmen1 poets1 musicians1 and men of letters4 ,in his portrait gallery their fine spirits still meet one another face to face4 ,but his portraits1 in and through likenesses of the men1 are made to express the essence of that particular art of which the man was a spokesman4 ,in his portrait of ,tennyson1 the bard with his laurel wreath is less ,tennyson the man1 if one may say so1 than ,tennyson the poet4 ,the picture might be called 'poetry1' as that of ,joachim could be called 'music1' for the violinist with his dreamy beautiful face1 playing his heart out1 looks the soul of music's self4 ,watts was never a ,pre-,raphaelite1 clothing anew his dreams of medieval beauty2 nor a seeker after the glories of ,greece and ,rome1 like ,leighton and ,alma ,tadema2 nor a student of the instant's impression1 like ,whistler4 ,to penetrate beneath the seen to the unseen was the aim of his art4 ,he wrestled to express thoughts in paint that seem inexpressible4 ,when we go to the ,tate ,gallery in ,london1 to the room filled with most precious works of ,watts1 we feel almost overawed by the loftiness of his ideas1 though they may seem to strain the last resources of the painter's art4 ,one of them is a picture of ',chaos' before the creation of the world4 ,half-formed men and women struggle from the earth to force themselves into life1 as the half-wrought statues of ,michelangelo from the marble that confines them4 ,near by is a picture of the ',all-pervading1' the spirit of good that penetrates the world1 symbolized as a woman gazing long into a globe held upon her knee4 ,opposite is the ',dweller in the ,innermost1' with deep1 unsearchable eyes4 ,these are pictures that constrain thought rather than charm the eye4 ,when the thought is less obscure1 it is better suited to pictorial utterance1 and ,watts sometimes painted pictures as simple as these are difficult4 ,there is nothing obscure in our frontispiece picture of ',red ,ridinghood4' ,it sets before us a child's version and vision of a child's fable that is imperishable1 and as such makes an immediate appeal to the eye4 ,she is not acting a part or posing as a princess1 but is simply a cowering little girl1 frightened at the wolf and eager to protect her basket4 ,in her freshness and simplicity1 a cottage maiden with anxious blue eyes1 most innocent and childish of children1 she need not shun proximity to ,richard ,,ii41 ,edward ,,vi41 ,william of ,orange1 ,don ,balthazar ,carlos1 and the ,duke of ,gloucester4 ,and thus we conclude our procession of royal children with a child of the people4 ,beginning with ,richard ,,ii41 a portrait of a king rather than a child1 we end with a picture in which childhood merely1 without the gift of distinction or the glamour of royalty1 suffices to charm a great painter's eye and inspire his thought4 ,with the sweetness and grace of modern childhood filling our eyes1 may we not well close this children's book8 ,,index ',adoration of the ,lamb1' #ef-ei ,adoration of the ,magi1 treatment of1 #cc ',age of ,innocence1' #aga ,alice in ,wonderland1 #b ',all-pervading1' the1 #aif ,animals1 painting of1 #adb ,antonello of ,messina1 #fg-fi ,art1 definition of1 #d ,atmosphere1 #aj treatment of by ,dutch ,school1 #aci1 #adj by ,holbein1 #aci by ,velasquez1 #aef ,beauneveu1 ,andre1 of ,valenciennes1 #dc ,bellini1 ,giovanni1 #ih1 #ajb ,black ,death1 influence of1 #da ,botticelli1 #gj-gg1 #ade influence of1 on ,burne-,jones1 #aia ,brett's ',val d',aosta1' #aib et seq4 ,burne-,jones1 #aij et seq4 ,byzantium1 influence of1 #ai ,turkish conquest of1 #bj ',chaos1' #aif ,charles ,i4 employs ,rubens1 #adc employs ,van ,dyck1 #adg painted by ,velasquez1 #aeg ,charles ,,ii41 #aca ,charles ,v41 ,king of ,france1 #dj ,charles ,v41 ,emperor1 #aec ,chillon1 ,castle of1 #aa ,churches1 medieval grandeur of1 #ad ,cimabue1 ,vasari's account of1 #bd picture in ,national ,gallery1 #be picture in ,santa ,maria ,novella1 #be training of ,giotto1 #bg ,civilization1 definition of1 #i ,claude ,lorraine1 #aha-ahc ,constable1 #ahj ,correggio1 #ia ,crome1 ,old1 #agh ,cuyp1 #ach-adb1 #ahj ',dido building ,carthage1' #ahb ,don ,balthazar ,carlos1 #aed et seq41 #afj et seq4 ,douglas1 ,lady ,alfred1 #ge ,dragons1 fear of1 #ab ,duke of ,gloucester1 #agj-aga ,durer1 #ajf-ajg compared with ,holbein1 #aac ,dutch expansion in the seventeenth century1 #aag ',dweller in the ,innermost1' #aif ,edward the ,confessor1 story of1 #cb ,edward ,prince of ,wales1 #aaa-aae ,eighteenth century1 artificiality of1 #afh ,erasmus1 #aji-aaj portrait of1 #aad ,etching1 process of1 #abg ,fighting ,temeraire1 #agf et seq4 ,francis of ,assisi1 life of1 #ag1 #ba ,franciscans1 foundation of the order of1 #bb ',fresco' painting1 #ci ,gainsborough1 #agc et seq4 ,garden of ,eden1 #ie ,giorgione1 #id-ih1 #adj ,giotto1 #bg1 #bh1 #ce1 #ej ',golden ,age1' #ie-ih1 #adb ,goldsmith1 #agd ,greeks1 influence of1 #aj1 #fe ,henrietta ,maria1 #adi ,henry ,,viii41 #aji et seq4 employs ,holbein1 #aaj portrait of1 #aad ,hobbema1 #ada1 #agh ,hogarth1 #aff et seq4 ,holbein1 #ajb-aae1 #aci1 #aea ',erasmus' in collection of ,charles ,i41 #adg ,holman ,hunt1 #aij1 #aia ,horne1 ,herbert ,p41 #gd ,hubert van ,eyck1 #df et seq41 #adj ,hulin1 ,dr41 #di ,il ,penseroso1 #hc ,impressionism1 beginning of1 #afb ,infanta ,marguerita1 #afa et seq4 ,james ,,ii41 #adi ,jerusalem ,chamber1 #ah view of1 taken in #adhf1 #di ,joachim1 portrait of1 #aie ,john1 ,duke of ,berry1 #dj1 #db1 #ec ,john1 ,king of ,france1 #dj ,john van ,eyck1 #fj compared with ,durer1 #ajg ,josse ,vyt1 #eh ,julius ,,ii41 ,pope1 #hh ',knight's ,dream1' #gh1 #hb-hf ,l',allegro1 #hc ,landscape painting1 beginning of1 #ej ,lely1 ,sir ,peter1 #aca ,leonardo da ,vinci1 #hj-ha1 #hi-ij1 #aaj compared with ,durer1 #ajg ',les ,meninas1' #afb ,liber ,studiorum1 #ahc ,louis1 ,duke of ,anjou1 #dj ,luini1 ,bernardino1 #ij-ia ',madonna of the ,rocks1' #ij ',man in ,armour1' #abf-abg ,mantegna1 #fi1 #gj1 #ajb ',triumphs of ,caesar1' #adh ,maria ,theresa1 #afc ,marie de ,medicis1 #adc ,mary ,stuart1 #adi-aej ,medieval detail1 #cg coronation1 solemnity of1 #cd guilds1 #dd ,michelangelo1 #hj influence on ,reynolds1 #afi1 #agb influence on ,tintoret1 #ii ,millais1 #aij ,milton1 #hc ,more1 ,sir ,thomas1 #aji1 #aaj ,mosque of ,omar1 #di ,newbolt1 ,henry1 #ahg ',night ,watch1' ,rembrandt's1 #abc-abd ',norham ,castle1' #ahc ',norwich ,school1' #agh ',pallas ,athene1' #abg ,perspective1 #ff absence of1 #ee ,hubert's improvement in1 #ee mastery of1 in ,renaissance1 #fg ,perugino1 #gi ,peter de ,hoogh1 #acc-acf ,philip ,,iv41 #aed1 #aee ,philip the ,bold1 #dj1 #da ,philip the ,good1 #eb ,photographs and pictures1 the difference between them1 #d ,portraiture1 in the fifteenth century1 growth of1 #fj ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood1 #ahi et seq4 ',rain1 ,steam1 and ,speed1' #ahd ,raphael1 #gh-hi1 #adj cartoons1 in collection of ,charles ,i41 #adg comparison with ,giorgione1 #id1 #ig influence on ,velasquez1 #aei ',red ,ridinghood1' #aig ,reformation1 effect of on art1 #ajh ,rembrandt1 #aah-acb1 #ace ',anatomy1' #abb1 #aeg compared with ,peter de ,hoogh1 #acd compared with ,van ,dyck1 #aea compared with ,velasquez1 #aef landscapes of1 #aci ,syndics1 #acj ,revelations1 #eg1 #gd ,revival of learning1 #fe ,reynolds1 #afi-age ,richard ,,ii41 portrait of1 #bi et seq4 diptych1 #dg1 #ej1 #aci1 #aig diptych in collection of ,charles ,i41 #adg ,roger van der ,weyden1 #fa ,rome1 influence on ,turner1 #aha ,rossetti1 #aij et seq4 ,royal ,academy1 #agd ,rubens1 #ach1 #adc-ade friendship with ,velasquez1 #aeg on ,charles ,i41 #adg ,ruysdael1 #ada ,santi1 ,giovanni1 #gi ,st4 ,catherine1 ,raphael's1 #he burial of1 #ij ,st4 ,catherine of ,siena1 #ag ,st4 ,edmund1 #cc ,st4 ,francis of ,assisi1 #ag1 #ba preaching to the birds1 #d1 #bc1 #ej ,st4 ,george slaying the dragon1 #ajj-ajb ,st4 ,jerome's cell1 #f1 #fc-fi lion of1 #adb ,st4 ,matthew1 #df ,saskia1 #aba1 #abb et seq4 ,savonarola1 #gc-gf ,sistine ,madonna1 #he ,spain1 greatness of1 in sixteenth century1 #aec ,stained-glass windows1 influence of in the fourteenth century1 #cf ,steen1 ,jan1 #acg1 #afg ',strayed ,sheep1' #aia ',surrender of ,breda1' #aei ,tenniel1 #b ,tennyson1 portrait of1 #aie ,terborch1 #acg ',three ,maries1' #df-ei compared with ,botticelli's ',nativity1' #gg compared with ,raphael's ',knight's ,dream1' #he treatment of atmosphere in1 #adj ,timoteo ,viti1 #hb ,tintoret1 #ii-ajb influence on ,velasquez1 #aei ,titian1 #ih1 #ii1 #adj1 #aei ,turner1 #agf-ahg sunsets of1 #i ',ulysses deriding ,polyphemus1' #ahd ,umbrian landscape1 beauty of1 #gi ',valparaiso1' #aic ,van ,dyck1 #ade-aeb compared with ,reynolds1 #agj et seq4 comparison with ,velasquez1 #afa ,van ,eyck's influence in ,germany1 #aje ,vasari1 #bc1 #be ,velasquez1 #aec-afd compared with ,reynolds1 #afi influence of1 #aic ,venice1 influence on ,turner1 #ahj1 #ahe influence of on ,venetian artists1 #ic et seq4 ,veronese1 #ajb ,watts1 #aie-aig ,whistler1 #aib et seq41 #aic ,william the ,silent1 #aaf1 #adf ,william ,,ii4 of ,orange1 #adf-aeb ,william ,,iii41 #adf ,wood-cutting1 process of1 #abg ,wool industry1 importance of1 #da ,,the ,,end ,printed in ,great ,britain by ,r ,r4 ,,clark1 ,,limited1 ,edinburgh4 ,,uniform ,,with ,,this ,,volume ,,each #es4 ,,net ,,aesop',s ,,fables ,,andersen',s ,,fairy ,,tales ,,arabian ,,nights ,,bunyan',s ,,pilgrim',s ,,progress ,,grimm',s ,,fairy ,,tales ,,swiss ,,family ,,robinson ,,tales ,,from ,,the ,,earthly ,,paradise ,,john ,,halifax1 ,,gentleman ,,count ,,of ,,monte ,,cristo ,,uncle ,,tom',s ,,cabin ,,book ,,of ,,celtic ,,stories ,,book ,,of ,,edinburgh ,,mr4 ,,midshipman ,,easy ,,book ,,of ,,london ,,book ,,of ,,the ,,railway ,,each #fs4 ,,net ,,tales ,,of ,,english ,,castles ,,and ,,manors ,,tales ,,of ,,the ,,covenanters ,,scott',s ,,tales ,,of ,a ,,grandfather 7,,abridged7 ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,scotland ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,stars ,,with ,,commodore ,,anson ,a4 ,c4 ,,black1 ,,ltd41 #d1 #e1 #f ,,soho ,,square1 ,,london1 ,w4#a ,new ,york ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company ,melbourne ,,the ,,oxford ,,university ,,press ,cape ,town ,,the ,,oxford ,,university ,,press ,toronto ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company ,,of ,,canada ,bombay ,calcutta ,madras ,,macmillan ,,and ,,company1 ,,ltd4 ,,how ,,to ,,enjoy ,,pictures ,by ,j4 ,,littlejohns1 ,r4,i41 ,r4,b4,a41 ,r4,c4,a41 ,r4,b4,c41 ,r4,w4,a4 ,with #h full-page illustrations in colour1 one in black and white1 and #dc constructional drawings in the text4 ,small ,crown #dto4 #f_/- net 7,by post1 #f_/f7 ,mr4 ,littlejohns explains very simply and pleasantly a method of approach to pictures intended for those who have no knowledge of them and no trained sensibility4#a ,the book deals simply and briefly with many of the considerations involved in composing a picture1 and gives an analysis1 illustrated by diagrams1 of nine well-known masterpieces4 ,the author does his work very well1 and no one who reads carefully what he says and carries out his instructions can fail to find added interest if not also keener enjoyment in the contemplation of pictures4#b ,mr4 ,littlejohns writes1 not only with the artist's intuition1 but with the clearness and simplicity derived from his experiences as a teacher of children4#c ,the colour reproductions are excellent and could not be bought separately for the price of the whole book4#d ,footnote #a3 ,the ,times ,literary ,supplement4 ,footnote #b3 ,scottish ,educational ,journal4 ,footnote #c3 ,the ,church ,times4 ,footnote #d3 ,monthly ,notes of the ,national ,society of ,art ,masters4 ,,black',s ,,dictionary ,,of ,,pictures ,a ,,guide ,,to ,,the ,,best ,,work ,,of ,,the ,,best ,,painters ,,edited ,,by ,,randall ,,davies ,demy #hvo4 #c_/f net 7,by post1 #d_/-7 ,this book contains descriptive accounts1 with full and accurate particulars1 of nearly #ajjj of the most important pictures in public galleries in this country and on the ,continent4 ,they have been selected out of the immense number of exhibited works as being those which1 in view of the opinions of the best critics1 or in some cases by popular suffrage1 are such as practically everybody who cares about pictures ought1 or would like1 to know something about4 ,a4 ,c4 ,,black1 ,,ltd41 #d1 #e ,,and #f ,,soho ,,square1 ,,london1 ,w4#a ,,reproductions ,,of ,,great ,,masters ,,facsimile ,,reproductions ,,in ,,colour ,,of ,,the ,,originals ,large ,mounted ,prints1 ,series #a-df4 ,average size of printed surface1 #ag-a_/b x #ad-a_/b ins4 ,each #aj_/- net1 mounted2 in black frame1 unglazed1 but with picture varnished1 price #ag_/f net each2 in narrow antique gold frame1 price #ba_/- net each2 or in ducat gold frame1 price #be_/- net each4 #a4 ,the ,age of ,innocence ,reynolds #b4 ,william ,,ii41 ,prince of ,orange-,nassau ,van ,dyck #c4 ,lady ,hamilton as a ,bacchante ,romney #d4 ,the ,laughing ,cavalier ,franz ,hals #e4 ,study of ,grief ,greuze #f4 ,portrait of ,mrs4 ,siddons ,gainsborough #g4 ,nelly ,o',brien ,reynolds #h4 ,portrait of the ,doge ,leonardo ,loredano ,bellini #i4 ,portrait of an old ,lady ,rembrandt #aj4 ,the ,virgin and ,child ,botticelli #aa4 ,the ,hay ,wain ,constable #ab4 ,madame ,le ,brun and ,her ,daughter ,le ,brun #ac4 ,the ,broken ,pitcher ,greuze #ad4 ,the ,parson's ,daughter ,romney #ae4 ,the ,milkmaid ,greuze #af4 ,portrait of ,miss ,bowles ,reynolds #ag4 ,la ,gioconda ,leonardo da ,vinci #ah4 ,ulysses deriding ,polyphemus ,turner #ai4 ,chapeau de ,paille ,rubens #bj4 ,portrait of ,mrs4 ,siddons ,sir ,t4 ,lawrence #ba4 ,head of a ,girl ,greuze #bb4 ,the ,san ,sisto ,madonna ,raphael #bc4 ,the ,dead ,bird ,greuze #bd4 ,princess ,margarita ,marla ,velasquez #be4 ,the ,tribute ,money ,titian #bf4 ,sir ,walter ,scott ,raeburn #bg4 ,robert ,burns ,nasmyth #bh4 ,the ,swing ,fragonard #bi4 ,inside of a ,stable ,george ,morland #cj4 ,head of a ,girl ,rembrandt #ca4 ,embarking for ,cythera ,watteau #cb4 ,anne of ,cleves ,holbein #cc4 ,the ,avenue1 ,middleharnis1 ,holland ,hobbema #cd4 ,interior of a ,dutch ,house ,peter de ,hoogh #ce4 ,charles ,i4 ,van ,dyck #cf4 ,st4 ,john the ,baptist ,leonardo da ,vinci #cg4 ,a ,young ,man ,raphael #ch4 ,a ,party in a ,park ,watteau #ci4 ,his ,majesty ,king ,george ,v4 ,h4 de ,t4 ,glazebrook #dj4 ,the ,surrender of ,breda ,velasquez #da4 ,prince ,balthasar ,carlos ,velasquez #db4 ,the ,maids of ,honour ,velasquez #dc4 ,the ,tapestry ,weavers ,velasquez #dd4 ,the ,topers ,velasquez #de4 ,the ,immaculate ,conception ,murillo #df4 ,the ,blue ,boy ,gainsborough ,a complete list of the ,large and ,small ,series will be sent post free on application to the ,publishers4 ,,elementary ,,water-,,colour ,,painting ,by ,j4 ,,hullah ,,brown ,second edition1 containing an outline drawing and six full-page illustrations in colour1 including guides for gradations of colour1 colour washes1 mixing of colour1 etc4 ,demy #hvo4 ,,price #b_/f ,,net ,quarter ,canvas ,,press ,,opinions ,an attractive and well-illustrated little book1 which will help to initiate members of sketching classes into methods of getting effects4--,times ,educational ,supplement4 ,an accurate little brochure 444 well illustrated in colour1 and containing sound instructions as to the mixing and putting on of water-colours4 ,it would really be of service to anyone not too youthful who was out of the way of obtaining personal instruction ,in the matter4--,the ,educational ,times4 ,a4 ,c4 ,,black1 ,,ltd41 #d1 #e ,,and #f ,,soho ,,square1 ,,london1 ,w4#a