Chapter 20

[*59]He died, says the anonymous author of theDiariocited above(note *,p. 80), between the fourth and fifth hour of the night, that is, between 10.30 and 11.30 p.m., and it was Tuesday. The news came to Urbino on the 10th, so, according to the Anonimo, he died on the 9th.

[*60]Capilupi, whom Isabella d'Este had sent to Urbino, describes in a long letter the mourning and grief he found there. It is too long to quote. Cf.LuzioandRenier,Mantova e Urbino(Torino, 1893), p. 185.

[61]Bibl. Magliab. Class. viii., No. 68, p. 132.

[62]"Itaque multas sæpè feminas vidi, audivi etiàm esse plures, quæ certarum omninò virtutum, optimarum quidem illarum atque clarissimarum, sed tamèn perpaucarum splendore illustrarentur: in quâ verò omnes collectæ conjunctæque virtutes conspicerentur, hæc una extitit, cujus omninò parem atque similem aut etiam inferiorem paulò, non modò non vidi ullam, sed ea ubi esset etiàm ne audivi quidem."—Bembo de Guidobaldo.

[63]The Italian name for those public establishments, at which small sums are lent on pledges under government superintendence. The Duchess is said to have introduced them at Urbino, and to have founded there an academy, which rose to considerable celebrity among similar weeds of literature that long flourished and still vegetate in Italy.

[*64]The secret is not far to seek, but it was inexplicably hidden from men in Dennistoun's day. The continuity of life and of art the most sensitive expression of life, is understood and acknowledged by too few among us; but that there is an historical continuity in art as in life would be easy to prove, since no part can be adequately grasped or explained save in relation to the whole. Of course, as Renan admitted, history has its sad days, but all are, as it were, a part of the year which would be incomplete and inexplicable without them. Thus there is no gulf fixed between the art of Greece and the art of the Middle Age or the Renaissance; each is an inevitable part of the whole, and the later was what it was because of the old. Burckhardt, one of the greatest students of our time, seems to have understood this also with his usual happiness. M. Auguste Gerard tells us in his notice of the life of its author, which serves as a Preface to the French edition ofLe Cicerone, that "Burckhardt en vrai disciple de la Renaissance considérait l'Italie comme un tout continu; et dans l'histoire de l'art de même que dans l'énumération des œuvres, il ne séparait pas l'Italie antique de l'Italie moderne. La section duCiceronequi était dédiée à l'architecture commençait aux temples de Paestum pour finir aux villas Napolitaines et Génoises des XVIIeet XVIIIesiècles." In that idea lies the future of all criticism.

[*65]Far from being indispensable, the democratic institutions had very little to do with the progress of the arts which were fostered by individuals, whether in a tyranny such as Urbino or in a so-called republic such as Florence.

[*66]Neither absurd nor revolting, I think, since, a little fantastically certainly, but very truly none the less, it expresses that continuity of the religious sense in Europe which is perhaps the one eternal thing to be found in it. If the saints are not in a very real sense the gods in exile, they are excellent imitations of them.

[*67]Not Plato, but Plethon. He refused the name of Plato with which he was hailed by Cosimo de' Medici. Cf. Ficino in preface to hisPlotini Epitome(Firenze, 1492). "Magnus Cosimus, quo tempore concilium inter Graecos et Latinos, sub Eugenio pontefice Florentinæ tractabatur, philosophum Graecum, nomine Gemistum cognomine Plethonem, quasi Platonem alterum de mysteriis Platonicis disputantem frequenter audivit; e cujus ore ferventi sic afflatus est protinus, sic animatus, ut inde Academiam quandam alta mente conceperit, hanc opportuno primum tempore pariturus." Marsilio Ficino had a poor understanding of Plato.

[*68]Cf.Georgios Trapezuntios,Comparatio Platonis et Aristotelis.

[69]Seevol. I., p. 297. His oration on the death of Federigo is No. 1233 of the Vat. Urb. MSS.

[70]Maestro Arrigo, of Cologne,aliasHeinrich v. Coln, had then a press at Urbino. The typographic art had been introduced there about 1481, and at Cagli five years earlier by Roberto da Fano and Bernardino da Bergamo.

[*71]Francesco da Urbino, who was certainly Michelangelo's schoolmaster, does not seem to be the same as his friend Francesco Urbino, so touchingly spoken of in the following letter from Michelangelo to Vasari:—"Messer Giorgio, Dear Friend,—Although I write but badly, yet will I say a few words in reply to yours. You know that Urbino is dead, for which I owe the greatest thanks to God; at the same time my loss is heavy and sorrow infinite. The grace is this, that while Urbino living kept me alive, in dying he has taught me to die not unwillingly but rather with a desire for death. I had him with me twenty-six years, and always found him faithful and true. Now that I had made him rich and thought to keep him on the staff and rest of my old age he has departed, and the only hope left me is that of seeing him again in Paradise, and of this God has given a sign in his most happy death. Even more than dying, it grieved him to leave me alive in this treacherous world, with so many troubles; the better part of me went with him, nothing is left to me but endless sorrow. I commend myself to you...."YourMichael Angelo Buonarroti, in Rome."The 23 day of February, 1556."See Le Lettere, No. CDLXXV., p. 539, in Brit. Museum, andHolroyd,Michael Angelo(Duckworth, 1903), p. 255.It was this Urbino's brother who was Raphael's well-known pupil,Il Fattore. Cf. alsoHolroyd,op. cit., pp. 273 and 314.

"Messer Giorgio, Dear Friend,—Although I write but badly, yet will I say a few words in reply to yours. You know that Urbino is dead, for which I owe the greatest thanks to God; at the same time my loss is heavy and sorrow infinite. The grace is this, that while Urbino living kept me alive, in dying he has taught me to die not unwillingly but rather with a desire for death. I had him with me twenty-six years, and always found him faithful and true. Now that I had made him rich and thought to keep him on the staff and rest of my old age he has departed, and the only hope left me is that of seeing him again in Paradise, and of this God has given a sign in his most happy death. Even more than dying, it grieved him to leave me alive in this treacherous world, with so many troubles; the better part of me went with him, nothing is left to me but endless sorrow. I commend myself to you...."YourMichael Angelo Buonarroti, in Rome."The 23 day of February, 1556."

"YourMichael Angelo Buonarroti, in Rome.

"The 23 day of February, 1556."

See Le Lettere, No. CDLXXV., p. 539, in Brit. Museum, andHolroyd,Michael Angelo(Duckworth, 1903), p. 255.

It was this Urbino's brother who was Raphael's well-known pupil,Il Fattore. Cf. alsoHolroyd,op. cit., pp. 273 and 314.

[72]Many curious unedited particulars regarding him, with reference to the conspiracy against Leo X. in 1517, of which he was suspected, are contained in Sanuto's Diaries, but we have not space to notice them.

[73]The MS. is No. 497-8 of the Vat. Urb. MSS. An edition in folio was published at Bâle in 1546.

[*74]For Vespasiano da Bisticci, consult (1) his own charming and exquisite work,Vite degli uomini Illustri(Firenze, 1859), with an excellent preface by Bartoli;Frati,Lettere(Bologna, 1892-93).Rossiwrites of these inGiornale Stor. d. Lett. Ital.(1892), vol. XX., p. 258, and vol. XXIV., p. 276. (2)Frizzi,Di Vespasiano da Bisticci e delle sue biografie(Pisa, 1887).

[75]Spicilegium Romanum, tom. I. (Romæ, 1839). Vat. Urb. MSS. 941.

[*76]For Castiglione, see works mentioned innote *2,p. 51supra. I understand Mrs. Ady has written a biography of Castiglione, which is shortly to appear. For Bembo, I cite here a few works more especially relating to Urbino or to his general life:Morsolin,Pietro Bembo e Lucrezia Borgia, inNuova Autologia, August, 1885. Cf.Cian, inGiornale Stor. d. Lett. Ital., XXIX., p. 425.Cian,Un decennio della vita di P. Bembo(1521-31) (Torino, 1885), andLuzio, inGiornale St. d. Lett. Ital., VI., p. 270, andd'Ancona,Studi sulla Letteratura de' primi secoli(Ancona, 1884), p. 151et seq.

[77]See above, pp.49-50,53-4,58.

[78]"Disce, puer, virtutem ex me, verumque laborem;Fortunam ex aliis."ÆneidXII., 345.Dryden has missed the point of this passage.

[78]

Dryden has missed the point of this passage.

[79]"Quid autem ineptius quam, toto seculo renovato, religione, imperiis, magistratibus, locorum vocabulis, ædificiis, cultu, moribus, non aliter audire, loqui, quam locutus est Cicero? Si revivisceret ipse Cicero, rideret hoc Ciceronianorum genus."—Erasmus.

[80]Vol. I., p. 298,392; II.,114.

[*81]On the whole subject of women, seenote *1,p. 72. Their education was the same as that of their brothers. Cf.Symonds,The Renaissance in Italy(1904), vol. V., p. 250, note 1, andBurckhardt,The Civilisation of the Renaissance(1878), vol. II., p. 161.

[82]Tiraboschi,Storia della Letteratura Italiana, VI., ii., p. 317-30;Shepherd'sLife of Poggio Bracciolini,passim;Roscoe'sLorenzo de' Medici, ch. i.

[*83]Cf.Flamini,Versi inediti da G.M. Filelfo(Livorno, 1892, per nozze).

[*84]Porcellio Napolitano was the laureate and secretary of Alphonso I. of Aragon and of Naples, and later the secretary and familiar of Sigismondo Malatesta. Porcellio seems to have hated Basinio, another court poet, whose works, with a long commentary, have been published (Battaglini,Basinii, Parmensis Poetæ Opera Præstantiora(Rimini, 1794)). Basinio seems to have proved before the Court of Rimini that Porcellio was ignorant of Greek. "One can be a fine Latin poet without knowing Greek," he answered in a rage, but truly enough. Basinio, however, asserted that not only Virgil and all the great poets and prose writers knew Greek, but showed that while that language was forgotten Italy was plunged in darkness. But enough of such absurdities, which have besides nothing to do with Urbino or even Dennistoun's history of it.

[85]Nearly all we know of him will be found in the Scriptores, XX., 67, and XXV., 1.

[86]Seevol. I., pp. 209-11. Portions of the same poem are contained in Nos. 709 and 710 of the Urbino Library, the former corrected by the author, the latter in his autograph. Some of his minor lyrics were published at Paris in 1549, along with those of two other minstrels who sang the praises of the Malatesta.

[*87]On Giovanni Santi, seeCampori,Notizie e docum. per la vita di Giov. Santi e di Raffaello Santi da Urbino(Modena, 1870);Guerrini,Elogio Stor. di Giov. Santi(Urbino, 1822);Schmarzow,Giovanni Santi der Vater Raffaels, inKunstchronik(Leipsig), An. XXIII., No. 27;Schmarzow,Giovanni SantiinVierteljahrsschrift für Kultur und Lett. der Renaissance(Leipsig), vol. II., Nos. 2-4. Cf. alsoCrowe & Cavalcaselle,History of Painting in Italy, vol. III.

[88]Elogio Storico di Giovanni Santi, pp. 14 and 69, etc.; Rafael von Urbino. The original and only MS. is described inIII. of our Appendix.

[89]See others invol. I., andpassiminBook II.; also inIV. of the Appendixbelow.

[90]See a translation of these lines,vol. I., p. 269.

[91]Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1293, 303, 699.

[92]Ibid., No. 368, f. 188.

[93]These three works are Nos. 736, 743, and 373.

[94]Stewart Rose'sTranslation, XLVI., 10.

[95]See above, pp.65-69.

[96]See these described,vol. I., App. xiii.

[*97]Cf.Vernarecci,Di Alcune Rappresentazioni Drammatiche alla Corte d'Urbino nel 1513in theArch. St. per le Marche e per l'Umbria, vol. III., p. 181et seq.

[98]See also Panizzi's London edition of theOrlando Innamoratoand theFurioso, vol. VI., p. 59.

[*99]This hardly needs comment: it has become universally accepted as the truth. ThePrediche Volgariof Fra Bernardino afford ample evidence, as do theNovellegenerally. I shall therefore confine myself to referring to two English writers who have treated of this subject:William Heywood,The Ensamples of Fra Filippo(Siena, 1902), pp. 118, 122et seq.and 295et seq., who gives an infinite number of authorities and is exhaustive in his evidence;Vernon Lee,Euphorion(Fisher Unwin, 1899), pp. 25-109, who treats of it in two essays,The SacrificeandThe Italy of the Elizabethan Dramatist, with exquisite understanding and the wide tolerance of a poet. Nothing is to be gained by going into this subject so casually as Dennistoun does. He speaks of the Italian genius without understanding either its strength or its weakness. He judges Machiavelli, for instance, or Cesare Borgia, as one might have judged an Englishman of the depressing age he himself lived in, and thus his judgment is at fault in regard to nearly every great man of whom he writes.

[100]Hodœporicon and Epistola,passim.

[101]Prescott'sFerdinand and Isabella.

[*102]I have not deleted these pages partly because it has been thought better to give the whole text as nearly as possible as Dennistoun wrote it, and partly too because they serve to show that Dennistoun was in advance of the general taste of his day in England. But, of course, the whole of our knowledge about Italian art has been revolutionized since he wrote. It is almost hopeless to try to annotate these pages. To begin with, the author is dealing with a subject of which even to-day we know very little. And then Urbino seems to have had almost nothing to do with the rise of the Umbrian school of painting. The reader must therefore accept with care every statement which follows.

[*103]This is true in a sense, but the work in the catacombs and the mosaics (III. cent.) in S. Maria Maggiore, for instance, are based on classic models, and are often very excellent and beautiful.

[*104]The Byzantine work was not always "unskilful," only its intention seems to have been rather decorative than realistic, yet inS. Maria Antigua, for instance, we can see the models were classical.

[105]A large picture of the Glorification of the Madonna, long placed in the Belle Arti at Florence, was painted by Sandro Botticelli for Matteo Palmieri, who, in his Dantesque poem entitledLa Città della Vita, has advanced a theory that, in Lucifer's rebellion, a certain number of angels assumed a neutral attitude, as a punishment for which they were doomed to a term of trial in the quality of human souls. Although never printed, this work was solemnly condemned by the Inquisition after the author's death, and the picture, which had been composed under his own direction, fell under similar suspicion of heresy. On a rigid examination, the censors having discovered a sort of fullness in the draped bosoms of some angels, pronounced them females, and for this breach of orthodoxy denounced the painting. It was accordingly covered up, and the chapel where it hung in S. Pietro Maggiore was for a time interdicted; but, having escaped destruction, it was offered for sale a few years ago by the heirs of Palmieri. The opportunity for procuring for our national collection a most interesting and characteristic example of early art was as usual lost; but it was brought to England by Mr. Samuel Woodburn in 1846, and has now found a resting-place at Hamilton Palace, in one of the few collections of art which contain nothing common-place or displeasing.[*B]

[*B]This picture, now in the National Gallery [No. 1126] is by Botticini, not Botticelli.

[106]The Gospel account of St. Thomas's doubtings finds a counterpart in the Roman legend of the Madonna, after her interment, being seen by him during her corporeal transit to heaven; whereupon, his wonted caution having led him to "ask for a sign," she dropped him her girdle orcintola, which he carried to the other apostles in proof of his marvellous tale; and the fact of her assumption was verified by their opening her tomb and finding it empty.

[107]Carteggio d'Artisti, II., p. 1.

[108]Carteggio d'Artisti, II., p. 33.

[109]Ibid., III., p. 352.

[110]Stirling'sAnnals of the Artists of Spain, p. 848.

[111]Roscoe, who wrote without an opportunity of seeing these paintings, describes this Pope as kneeling in his pontificals before the Madonna, in whom is portrayed his mistress, Julia Farnese. In this palpable blunder he has been followed by Rio and others. It would be curious to discover on what authority Gordon, in his life of Borgia, states that a likeness of La Vanosia, another of his mistresses, hung for Madonna-worship in the church of the Popolo at Rome. The circumstance coming from such a quarter is questionable; at all events, it is no longer true. Alexander kneels before the Risen, not the Ascending Christ. *Roscoe followed Vasari.

[*112]For instance, in the work of Botticelli, I suppose, or Verrocchio, or Mantegna?

[113]Gaye,Carteggio, II., 500.

[*114]Can this be an allusion to S. Francesco of Assisi?

[115]Our reference to this quotation (made long ago) has been mislaid, but it appears perfectly consistent with Hogarth's habitual train of ideas, and quaint rendering of them. SeeIreland'sHogarth Illustrated, I., p. lxix.; II., p. 194, 195; III., p. 226-40.Nichol'sAnecdotes of Hogarth, p. 137. In his plate of Enthusiasm Delineated, he has actually appended a pair of duck's legs to a cherub.

[116]Art Union, January and April, 1847. We have read with regret, in a periodical justly entitled to great weight, criticisms so at variance with its wonted candour and good sense.

[*117]Evidently Chinese and Japanese art were not understood in England in 1859.

[118]Cunningham'sLife of Wilkie, II., pp. 197, 506.

[119]Wordsworth'sExcursion.

[*120]Cimabue raising a holy war against Byzantine mannerism is an amusing spectacle. All we know of him was that his pupil was a great painter. Whether or no he painted at Assisi it is impossible to say.

[121]Rev. M.H. Seymour'sPilgrimage to Rome, a work remarkable for accurate observation of facts, and the candid tone of its strictures.

[122]In 1843, I saw fragments of fine frescoes in two churches at Cagli which had just been cleared of this abomination; and I was assured that the small church of Monte l'Abbate near Pesaro has but recently been subjected to it, by order of its ignorant curate. The abbey church of Pietra Pertusa at the Furlo is another of many similar instances.

[*123]It still remains to be written; but see the Essay ofBerenson,Central Italian Painting(Putnams, 1904), and the valuable list of pictures appended to it.

[*124]This is an example of the taste of our fathers, almost inexplicable to-day. To consider Raffaele as a greater "devotional" painter than Duccio, Simone Martini, Fra Angelico, Sassetta, or Perugino might almost seem impossible.

[*125]The Roman school was painting at Assisi in the Upper Church before Giotto. Cf.Crowe & Cavalcaselle,op. cit., vol. II., p. 4.

[*126]The Pisan sculptors were for the most part Maitani, the Sienese. Cf.L. Douglas, inArchitectural Review, June, 1903.

[*127]Dennistoun says nothing of the magnificent work of Simone Martini, the Sienese, in S. Francesco, at Assisi.

[*128]Cf.Venturi,Storia dell'Arte Italiana(Milano, 1907), vol. V., 837, 1003-4, 1014, 1022.

[129]Carey'sDante, Purg. XI., 76.

[130]The Ordo Officiorum Senensis Ecclesiæ, a MS. of 1215, in the library of Siena, has been ascribed to him, by confusion with another Oderico, a canon there; it possesses no artistic merit whatever.

[*131]He refers to S. Antonio Abate, I suppose. There is nothing by Palmerucci in S. Maria Nuova, but a Madonna and Saints and Gonfaloniere kneeling are attributed to him in the Prefettura.

[*132]Cf.Mazzatinti,Documenti per la storia delle Arti a Gubbio, inArch. St. per le Marche e per l'Umbria, vol. III., p. 1-48. Ottaviano was living certainly after 1444.

[133]Carteggio d'Artisti, I., p. 131. Countess Caterina, to whom it is addressed, was wife of Count Guidantonio, mentioned invol. I., p. 42. For some notices of Ottaviano, I am indebted to a short account of him by Signor Luigi Bonfatti of Gubbio, whose zealous researches will, it is to be hoped, soon enable him to illustrate as it deserves the hitherto neglected art of Umbria. His theory that Gentile was a pupil of Ottaviano may be redargued by their ages being nearly equal, but an examination of the surviving frescoes at Gubbio has inclined me to believe that the former drew from the same school of Oderigi, as represented by the Nelli, some of those inspirations of holy pathos, and something of that playful brilliancy of tints, which he subsequently combined with new principles.

[134]Palliotto was the painting or wood-carving occasionally placed on the altar-front in early times, for which a hanging of brocade or muslin was afterwards substituted.

[*135]Some magnificent works by Allegretto Nuzi of a most surprising loveliness may be seen in Fabriano.

[136]Such testimony, from artists so antipathic to his practice, is a curious tribute at once to his merit and influence.

[*137]Gentile da Fabriano was the pupil of Allegretto Nuzi, not of Fra Angelico.

[*138]There is only one fragment of Gentile's work in the Duomo of Orvieto: a Madonna, painted in 1425.

[*139]A fine work still remains at Perugia, No. 39, in Sala V., Pinacoteca.

[*140]We do not know who Perugino's Perugian master was; but it was more likely to be Fiorenzo di Lorenzo than Bonfigli.

[*141]There is no trace of Masaccio's influence in Perugino's work. He was influenced by Signorelli, and slightly by Verrocchio.

[*142]Piero della Francesca was the pupil of Domenico Veneziano.

[*143]Piero was born in 1416.

[*144]Cf.Pichi,La Vita e le Opere di Piero della Francesca(Borgo S. Sepolcro, 1893);Witting,Piero dei Franceschi(Strassburg, 1898);Crowe & Cavalcaselle,op. cit., vol. III.Berenson,op. cit., p. 69, says: "The pupil of Domenico Veneziano in characterisation, of Paolo Uccello in perspective, himself an eager student of this science, as an artist he [Piero] was more gifted than either of his teachers." Fra Luca Pacioli, one of the finest mathematicians of his day, praises Piero, and speaks of his renowned treatise on perspective, "now in the library of our illustrious Duke of Urbino."

[*145]Cf. on this pointMuntz,Precursori e propugnatori del Rinascimento(Firenze, 1902), p. 59et seq.For his lifeVita Leonis Baptistae de Albertis, by an anonymous author, believed to be Alberti himself, inMuratoriR.I.S., vol. XXV., partly translated inEdward Hutton,Sigismondo Malatesta(Dent, 1906), pp. 163-9. Cf. alsoMancini,Vita di L.B.A.(Firenze, 1882), andNuovi documenti e notizie sulla vita e gli scritti di L.B.A., inArch. St. It., Series IV., vol. XIX.; alsoScipioni, inGiornale St. d. Lett. Ital., vol. II., p. 156et seq., and vol. X., p. 255et seq.

[*146]This is a tale like so much in Vasari. Piero was never blind at all it seems.Bossi, in his work on Leonardo'sCenacolo(Milan, 1810), deals minutely with this libel.

[147]Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1374 and 632. The manuscripts by him, mentioned in No. 131 of theQuarterly Review, as in the possession of his descendant, Count Marini, of Borgo S. Sepolcro, no longer exist; and a small portrait there of himself does not appear to be by his hand. As a further specimen of the Friar's ideas on this matter, we may offer an extract from hisDe Divina Proportione Epistola(Venice, 1509), wherein he compares perspective to music, ranking both with the geometrical sciences, since just as "the former refreshes the mind with harmony, the latter delights it greatly by correct distance and variety of colours." "Who, indeed, is there that, seeing an elegant figure with its exact outlines well defined, and seeming to want nothing but breath, would not pronounce it something rather divine than human? And painting imitates nature as nearly as can be told, which is proved to our eyes in the exquisite representation, so worthily composed by the graceful hand of our Leonardo, of the ardent desire after our salvation; wherein it is impossible to imagine greater attention than that of the apostles, aroused on hearing, in the words of infallible truth, 'One of you shall betray me,'—when, interchanging with each other attitudes and gestures, they seem to converse in startled and sad astonishment."

[*148]"He was perhaps the first," says Mr. Berenson, "to use effects of light for their direct tonic or subduing or soothing qualities." He uses light as the "plein air" school of France uses it. See a chapter devoted to his work in myCities of Umbria(Methuen, 1904).

[*149]They are in quite fair preservation as things go.

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