The Old Masters and Their Pictures - For the Use of Schools and Learners in Art

Sarah Tytler

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• Publié par: affe
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 79
• Langue: English

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Project Gutenberg's The Old Masters and Their Pictures, by Sarah Tytler This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Old Masters and Their Pictures For the Use of Schools and Learners in Art Author: Sarah Tytler Release Date: November 19, 2006 [EBook #19863] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD MASTERS AND THEIR PICTURES *** Produced by Peter Yearsley, Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed Proofreaders Europe at http://dp.rastko.net THE OLD MASTERS AND THEIR PICTURES For the Use of Schools and Learners in Art BY SARAH TYTLER AUTHOR OF "PAPERS FOR THOUGHTFUL GIRLS" ETC. NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION LONDON ISBISTER AND COMPANY LIMITED 15 & 16 TAVISTOCK STREET COVENT GARDEN 1893 [The Right of Translation is Reserved ] LONDON: PRINTED BY J.S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. I wish to say, in a very few words, that this book is intended to be a simple account of the great Old Masters in painting of every age and country, with descriptions of their most famous works, for the use of learners and outsiders in art. The book is not, and could not well be, exhaustive in its nature. I have avoided definitions of schools, considering that these should form a later and more elaborate portion of art education, and preferring to group my 'painters' according to what I hold to be the primitive arrangements of time, country, and rank in art. PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. The restrictions with regard to space under which the little volume called "The Old Masters" was originally written, caused me to omit, to my regret, many names great, though not first, in art. The circulation which the book has attained induces me to do what I can to remedy the defect, and render the volume more useful by adding two chapters—the one on Italian and the other on German, Dutch, and Flemish masters. These chapters consist almost entirely of condensed notes taken from two trustworthy sources, to which I have been already much indebted—Sir C, and Lady Eastlake's version of Kugler's "Handbook of Italian Art," and Dr. Waagen's "Handbook,"—remodelled from Kugler—of German, Dutch, and Flemish art, revised by J.A. Crowe. I have purposely given numerous records of those Dutch painters whose art has been specially popular in England and who are in some cases better represented in our country than in their own. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. EARLY ITALIAN ART—GIOTTO, 1276-1337—ANDREA PISANO, 1280-1345—ORCAGNA, 1315-1376—GHIBERTI, 1381-1455 —MASACCIO, 1402-1428 OR 1429—FRA ANGELICO, 1387-1455 1 CHAPTER II. EARLY FLEMISH ART—THE VAN EYCKS, 1366-1442 —MABUSE, ABOUT 1470-1532—MEMLING, ABOUT 1478-1499—QUINTIN MATSYS, 1460-1530 OR 31 41 CHAPTER III. IN EARLY SCHOOLS OF ITALIAN ART—THE BELLINI, 1422- 1512—MANTEGNA, 1431-1506—GHIRLANDAJO, 1449-1498—IL FRANCIA, 1450-1518—FRA BARTOLOMMEO, 1469-1517—ANDREA DEL SARTO, 1488-1530 53 CHAPTER IV. LIONARDO DA VINCI. 1452-1519—MICHAEL ANGELO, 14751564—RAPHAEL, 1483-1520—TITIAN, 1477-1566 83 CHAPTER V. GERMAN ART—ALBRECHT DÜRER, 1471-1528 169 CHAPTER VI. LATER ITALIAN ART—GIORGIONE, — C O R R E G G I O , ABOUT 1493-1534—TINTORETTO, —VERONESE, 1530-1588 181 1477-1511 1512-1594 CHAPTER VII. CARRACCI, 1555-1609—GUIDO RENI, 1575-1642 —DOMENICHINO, 1581-1641—SALVATOR ROSA, 1615-1673 212 CHAPTER VIII. LATER FLEMISH ART—RUBENS, 1577-1640 —REMBRANDT, 1606 OR 1608-1669—TENIERS, FATHER AND SON, 1582-1694—WOUVERMAN, 1620-1668—CUYP, 1605; STILL LIVING, 1638 —PAUL POTTER, 1625-1654—CORNELIUS DE HEEM, 1630 225 CHAPTER IX. SPANISH ART—VELASQUEZ, 1599-1660—MURILLO, 16181682 260 CHAPTER X. FRENCH ART—NICOLAS POUSSIN, 1594-1665—CLAUDE LORRAINE, 1600-1682—CHARLES LE BRUN, 1619-1690—WATTEAU, 1684-1721—GREUZE, 1726-1805 286 CHAPTER XI. FOREIGN ARTISTS IN ENGLAND—HOLBEIN, 1494-1543 —VAN DYCK, 1599-1641—LELY, 1618-1680—CANALETTO, 1697-1768 —KNELLER, 1646-1723 309 CHAPTER XII. ITALIAN MASTERS FROM THE FOURTEENTH TO THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES—TADDEO GADDI, 1300, SUPPOSED TO HAVE DIED 1366—FRA FILIPPO, 1412-1469—BENOZZO GOZZOLI, 14241496—LUCA SIGNORELLI, 1441, SUPPOSED TO HAVE DIED ABOUT 1524 —BOTTICELLI, 1447-1515—PERUGINO, 1446-1522—CARPACCIO, DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH AND DEATH UNKNOWN—CRIVELLI, FILIPPINO LIPI, EARLIER THAN 1460—ANTONELLA DA MESSINA, BELIEVED TO HAVE DIED AT VENICE, 1416—GAROPALO, 1481-1559—LUINI, DATE OF BIRTH UNKNOWN, SUPPOSED TO HAVE DIED ABOUT 1530—PALMA, ABOUT 1480-1528—PARDENONE, 1483-1538—LO SPAGNA, DATE OF BIRTH UNKNOWN, 1533—GIULIO ROMANO, 1492-1546—PARIS BORDONE, 1500-1570—IL PARMIGIANINO, 1503-1540—BAROCCIO, 15281612—CARAVAGGIO, 1569-1609—LO SPAGNOLETTO, 1593-1656 —GUERCINO, 1592-1666—ALBANO, 1578-1660—SASSOFERRATO, 16051615—VASARI, 1512-1574—SOFONISBA ANGUISCIOLA, 1535, ABOUT 1626—LAVINIA FONTANA, 1552-1614 364 CHAPTER XIII. GERMAN, FLEMISH, AND DUTCH ARTISTS FROM THE FIFTEENTH TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY—VAN DER WEYDEN, A CONTEMPORARY OF THE VAN EYCKS, 1366-1442—VAN LEYDEN, 14941533—VAN SOMER, 1570-1624—SNYDERS, 1579-1657—G. HONTHORST, 1592-1662—JAN STEEN, 1626-1679—GERARD DOW, 1613-1680—DE HOOCH, DATES OF BIRTH AND DEATH UNKNOWN—VAN OSTADE, 1610-1685—MAAS, 1632-1693—METZU, 1615. STILL ALIVE IN 1667 —TERBURG, 1608-1681—NETCHER, 1639-1684—BOL, 1611-1680—VAN DER HELST, 1613-1670—RUYSDAEL, 1625 (?)-1682—HOBBEMA, 16381709—BERCHEM, 1620-1683—BOTH 1600 (?)-1650(?) DU JARDIN, 16251678—ADRIAN VAN DE VELDE, 1639-1672—VAN DER HEYDEN, 16371712—DE WITTE, 1607-1692—VAN DER NEER, 1619 (?)-1683—WILLIAM VAN DE VELDE, THE YOUNGER, 1633-1707—BACKHUYSEN, 1631-1708 —VAN DE CAPELLA, ABOUT 1653—HONDECOETER, 1636-1695—JAN WEENIX, 1644-1719—PATER SEGERS, 1590-1661—VAN HUYSUM, 16821749—VAN DER WERFF, 1659-1722—MENGS, 1728-1774 391 INDEX. THE OLD MASTERS AND THEIR PICTURES. CHAPTER I. EARLY ITALIAN ART—GIOTTO, 1276-1337—ANDREA PISANO. 1280-1345 —ORCAGNA, 1315-1376 GHIBERTI, 1381-1455—MASACCIO, 1402-1428 OR 1429—FRA ANGELICO, 1387-1455. A pencil and paper, a box of colours, and a scrap-book, form so often a child's favourite toys that one might expect that a very large portion of men and women would prove painters. But, as we grow in years and knowledge, the discrepancy between nature and our attempts to copy nature, strike us more and more, until we turn in dissatisfaction and disgust from the vain effort. There was only one old woman in an Esquimaux tribe who could be called forward to draw with a stick on the sand a sufficiently graphic likeness of the Erebus and the Terror. It is only a few groups of men belonging to different countries, throughout the centuries, who have been able to give us paintings to which we turn in wonder and admiration, and say that these are in their degree fair exponents of nature. The old painter's half-haughty, half-humble protest was true—it is 'God Almighty,' who in raising here and there men above their fellows, 'makes painters.' But let us be thankful that the old propensity to delight in a facsimile, or in an idealized version of nature, survives in the very common satisfaction and joy —whether cultivated or uncultivated—- derived from looking at pictures, thinking over their details, striving to understand the meaning of the painters, and proceeding farther to consider the lives and times which throw light on works of genius. Music itself is not more universally and gladly listened and responded to, than pictures are looked at and remembered. Thus I have no fear of failing to interest you, my readers, in my subject if I can only treat it sympathetically,—enter at a humble distance into the spirit of the painters and of their paintings, and place before you some of the paintings by reverent and loving word-painting such as others have achieved, and such as I may strive to attain to, that you may be in a sort early familiar with these paintings, before you see them in engravings and photographs, and on canvas and in fresco, as I trust you may be privileged to see many of them, when you may hail them not only for what they are, the glories of art, but for what they have been to you in thoughts of beauty and high desires. Of the old Greek paintings, of which there are left isolated specimens dug up in Herculaneum and Pompeii, I cannot afford to say anything, and of the more modern Greek art which was spread over Europe after the fall of Constantinople I need only write a few words. While Greece was to Europe the birthplace of painting as of other arts, that Greek painting which illustrated early Christianity, was painting in its decline and decay, borrowing not only superstitious conventionalities, but barbaric attributes of gilding and blazoning to hide its infirmity and poverty. Virgins of the same weak and meaningless type, between attenuated saints or angels, and doll-like child-Christs in the one invariable attitude holding up two fingers of a baby hand to bless the spectator and worshippers, were for ever repeated. In a similar manner the instances of rude or meagre contemporary paintings with which the early Christians adorned their places of worship and the sepulchres of their dead in the basilicas and catacombs of Rome, are very curious and interesting for their antiquity and their associations, and as illustrations of faith; but they present no intrinsic beauty or worth. They are not only clumsy and childish designs ill executed, but they are rendered unintelligible to all save the initiated in such hieroglyphics, by offering an elaborate ground-work of type, antitype, and symbol, on which the artist probably spent a large part of his strength. Lambs and lilies, serpents, vines, fishes, dolphins, phœnixes, cocks, anchors, and javelins played nearly as conspicuous a part in this art as did the dead believer, or his or her patron saint, who might have been suppos