THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL

AT the head of the various local centres of painting which form the school of Umbria we must place Alegretto Nuzi (died 1385), whose works are very rarely met with in museums north of Italy. He inherited the best Giottesque traditions, and became the teacher of Gentile da Fabriano (1360?–1428), an early master whose influence was more far-reaching and inspiring than we can to-day trace in any detail. The Louvre has the good fortune to contain a precious little predella panel of thePresentation in the Temple(No. 1278), which is very decorative and exhibits a strongly marked appreciation of architecture. It is the only separated panel from the predella of Gentile’s large and magnificent altarpiece of theAdoration of the Magi, of 1423, which was seized by Napoleon but was returned in 1815. It is now in the Accademia at Florence.

TheMiracle of St. Nicholas giving a Dowry to the Three Daughters of a Nobleman(No. 1659), which is officially classed among the unattributable works of the Florentine school, is now considered to be by Giovanni Francesco da Rimini, while theMadonna and Child(No. 1300aor 1300b) which is officially ascribed to Piero dei Franceschi, the leading painter of his generation in the school of Umbria, must, as we have seen, be given to Alessio Baldovinetti of the Florentine school.

Again, the three-panel picture (No. 1415) which is credited to Pesellino of Florence is in reality from the hand of the Umbrian artist Fiorenzo di Lorenzo (1440–1521). The collection is not rich in the works of the earliest painters of this school, but theBirth ofthe Virgin(No. 1525), a detached panel from a lost or unidentified altarpiece by Luca Signorelli (1441–1523), gives us some idea of the great power of this influential master, whose knowledge of composition and anatomy is best seen in his frescoes at Orvieto. Signorelli’s sense of complicated movement and crowded action mark an epoch in the art of Umbria. TheFragment of a Large Picture(No. 1527) seems to be imbued with his spirit, but the largeAdoration of the Magi(No. 1526) which comes from Città di Castello, and aMadonna and Child with St. Louis of Toulouse, St. Catherine, and other Saints(No. 1528), contain none of the vigorous originality of that master from whom even Michelangelo did not disdain to borrow on occasion. Three predella panels (No. 1120) have been dismembered from a large altarpiece by Niccolò da Foligno, and were originally painted for a side altar in the Church of S. Niccolò at Foligno. In the art of this over-emotional Umbrian, what is meant for deep religious feeling is by exaggeration almost transformed into grimacing passion.

Niccolò’s most illustrious contemporary in this school was Pietro Perugino (1446–1523). Over fifty of the religious pictures of this influential and accomplished master were carried off from Central Italy by Napoleon. He is well represented in this Gallery. The contemplative and deeply impressive pictures of his less mannered style are among the best pictures which Umbria has given us, but there is a tendency, notably towards the end of his career, to repeat his compositions, only altering the attitude of a single figure, and so exhibiting a marked lack of originality. His earlyHoly Family with St. Rose and St. Catherine(No. 1564), painted about 1491, is a little cramped; the tondo hardly provides sufficient space to contain the rather stiff figures, and the treatmentis unpleasantly conventional. It also recalls the art of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. TheSt. Sebastian(No. 1566a,Plate VI.), which is inscribed:

SAGITTÆ TVÆ INFIXÆ SVNT MICHI,

is a favourite subject with this master, who painted it at least eight times on a large scale, as well as in a miniature now lent to the National Gallery by Mr. H. Yates Thompson. TheHoly Family with St. Catherine(No. 1565) is said to bear the characteristic signature:

PETRUS PERVSINUS PINXIT.

TheCombat of Love and Chastity(No. 1567) was commissioned by Isabella d’Este, Duchess of Mantua, in 1505, and removed at the sack of that city in 1630 to the Château of Richelieu, where it remained down to the Revolution. TheSt. Paul(No. 1566) is a very late and not very attractive work. In his best pictures Perugino loved to paint a purist landscape with its buoyant spaciousness of view, but too frequently his figures are insufficiently dramatic and have a tendency towards sentimentality. A very lateSt. Sebastian(No. 1668a), which is on a much smaller scale than the subject of our illustration (Plate VI.), is officially catalogued as being by an Unknown Umbrian painter. TheApollo and Marsyas(No. 1509), which was purchased at Christie’s in 1850 for £70 by Morris Moore, with an ascription to Mantegna, was in 1883 sold to the Louvre for £8000. It long hung in the Salon Carré as a Raphael, but is now only attributed to him by the cataloguer. This gem of Umbrian art has successively been ascribed by critics to Pintoricchio, Timoteo Viti, Francesco Francia, and others, but is to-day generally regarded as a very fine example of the art of Perugino. Two pictures (No. 1573 and No. 1573a) of theMadonna and Childare by unidentifiable pupils of Perugino.

One of the most recent acquisitions is aMadonnaby AntoniazzoRomano (1440?–1508), the gift of M. Lucien Delamarre. The art of Pintoricchio (1454–1513) is shown in theMadonna and Child with St. Gregory and another Saint(No. 1417), while Lo Spagna (1475?–1528?), a pupil of Perugino, is represented by aNativity(No. 1539), aMadonna and Child(No. 1540), and by three small pictures illustrating theDead Christ, the Virgin, and St. John(No. 1568),St. Francis of Assisi receiving the Stigmata(No. 1569), andSt. Jerome in the Desert(No. 1570).

A mediocre pupil of Perugino and Pintoricchio, Giannicola Manni (fl. 1493–1544), is doubtless responsible for theBaptism of Christ(No. 1369), theAssumption(No. 1370), theAdoration of the Magi(No. 1371), and theHoly Family(1372) which pass under his name. The last-mentioned panel was attributed by Villot, apparently without much reason, to L’Ingegno.

The majority of the thirteen pictures which in the Louvre are unreservedly catalogued under the great name of Raphael (1483–1520) certainly belong to his third or Roman period, and in many of them he obviously received a large amount of assistance from his pupil, Giulio Romano. It is this fact, no doubt, which has led the compiler of the Catalogue to place the “Divine Urbinate” in the Roman school. It will, however, be readily admitted that such a classification is both arbitrary and misleading.

PLATE VI.—PERUGINO(1446–1523)UMBRIAN SCHOOLNo. 1566a.-ST. SEBASTIAN(Saint Sébastien)

The Saint stands with his hands behind his back bound to a pillar, with his head raised towards heaven. An arrow pierces his right arm and another his left breast. The body is nude, but for a white loin cloth striped with red and blue. In the background is a rounded arch supported by two highly ornamented pillars. Through the archway is seen a beautiful landscape.Painted in tempera on panel.Signed:—“sagittæ tvæ infixæ svnt michi.”5 ft. 7 in. × 3 ft. 10 in. (1·70 × 1·17.)

Painted in tempera on panel.

Signed:—“sagittæ tvæ infixæ svnt michi.”

5 ft. 7 in. × 3 ft. 10 in. (1·70 × 1·17.)

Although he lived but thirty-seven years, Raphael gave to the world a vast amount of art treasure. Brought up in Urbino, where his father, Giovanni Santi, was poet as well as painter, he passed before he was fifteen under the direct influence of Timoteo Viti, who had worked at Bologna under Francesco Francia. Raphael became the pupil of Perugino at Perugia about 1500, and also worked as the assistant of Pintoricchio. His artbeing thus formed on the best Umbrian tradition, Raphael in October 1504 left Perugia for Florence, and it was only at that date that he began to acquire a distinctive style of his own. During his second or Florentine period he painted theSt. George and the Dragon(No. 1503), in which is seen the chivalrous knight mounted on a pure white steed; his lance is broken in his combat with the monster, and he is forced to use his sword, while the little Princess Cleodolinda flees in abject terror into the background. The very small panel ofSt. Michael(No. 1502), which is a chessboard on the back, was painted for Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, and eventually passed into the collections of Cardinal Mazarin and Louisxiv.TheMadonna and Childwhich has come to be known asLa Belle Jardinière(No. 1496,Plate VII.) is rather later than theMadonna del Gran’ Ducain the Pitti Palace, theCardellino Madonnain the Uffizi, and theAnsidei Madonnain the National Gallery. It is one of the most famous of Raphael’s saintly and ideal Madonnas; the pose of the figures is easy, the treatment simple, the colour exquisite. The landscape background is poetic in feeling, and conveys the mood which makes this one of Raphael’s most pleasing creations. The thin feathery trees and the treatment of the Virgin’s hair are still Peruginesque, but the superiority of the pupil to the master is gradually making itself felt. The Infant Christ is standing on the right foot of His mother. Tradition says that Raphael entrusted to Ridolfo Ghirlandaio the task of painting in the blue of the Virgin’s garment. The drapery is apparently inscribed:

VRB. RAPHAELLO MDVII.

After working for four years in Florence, Raphael went in the summer of 1508 to Rome, where he achieved such a vast amount of work for Popes Juliusii.and Leox.Hiswork was increased by his appointment, on the death of Bramante in 1514, as Architect of St. Peter’s and Inspector of Antiquities.

About 1515–16 Raphael delighted to paint thePortrait of Baldassare Castiglione(No. 1505,Plate VIII.), who was his lifelong friend and adviser as well as the author ofIl Cortegiano. This picture, which is eloquent testimony to Raphael’s skill as a portrait painter, was originally on wood, but it was long ago transferred to canvas, which has unfortunately abraded, the paint having peeled off the hands. After the death of Castiglione in Spain, this picture which he had taken with him passed into the possession of the Duke of Mantua, and thence into the collection of Charlesi., where it seems to have been copied by Rubens. It subsequently became the property of a Dutch amateur named Van Asselen, and was copied by Rembrandt. Later, it was sold for 3500 florins to Don Alfonso Lopez, a collector at Amsterdam, and after figuring in the collection of Mazarin was acquired by Louisxiv.

TheHoly Family of Francis I.(No. 1498) was commissioned by Lorenzo de’ Medici and presented to the Queen of Françoisi.by Pope Leox.It was originally painted on wood, and was forwarded to Lyons on April 19, 1518. During the reign of Louisxiv.it hung in thegrand appartementat Versailles, and having been placed near a fireplace had to be relined. It then had wings, but they were destroyed at the time of the Revolution. Although it is very ostentatiously signed

RAPHAEL VRBINAS PINGEBAT MDXVIII

on the edge of the robe of the kneeling Madonna, there can be no question that it was only designed by Raphael, the execution being wholly or in great part carried out by the master’s best pupil, Giulio Romano. In theSistine Madonnaand such works asRaphael painted at this period entirely with his own hand we see that his technique had become masterly and his powers of composition had developed to the utmost. Compared withLa Belle Jardinièreof a decade earlier, a greater knowledge of craftsmanship has been accompanied by a loss of purity and simplicity.

PLATE VII.—RAPHAEL(1483–1520)UMBRIAN SCHOOLNo. 1496.—LA BELLE JARDINIÈRE(La ViergediteLa Belle Jardinière)

The Virgin is seated in a flowery meadow. She wears a red tunic edged with black, yellow sleeves and a blue mantle; a book is on her knees; her fair hair is confined under a transparent veil. She looks down to the left at the Infant Jesus, who leans tenderly against her knee and draws her attention to the little St. John the Baptist who kneels to the right, his reed cross in his right hand. The background shows a landscape containing a small town with its church, and a lake surrounded by mountains.Painted in oil on panel.The signature seems to be:—“vrb. raphaello mdvii.”3 ft. 8 in. × 2 ft. 7½ in. (1·22 × 0·80.)

Painted in oil on panel.

The signature seems to be:—“vrb. raphaello mdvii.”

3 ft. 8 in. × 2 ft. 7½ in. (1·22 × 0·80.)

Two years before his death Raphael had designed the large but by no means imposingSt. Michael overcoming Satan(No. 1504), the execution of which on panel was certainly due to Giulio Romano. It was a gift from Lorenzo de’ Medici to Françoisi., the original cartoon being presented by Raphael to the Duke of Ferrara. This picture, like theHoly Family of Francis I., was originally protected by folding wings, the inner sides of which were lined with green velvet, while the outer were gilded and painted with arabesques. The two pictures arrived at Fontainebleau in July 1518, having been carried on the back of mules by way of Florence and Lyons. As early as 1530 theSt. Michaelwas restored by Primaticcio and by many others subsequently, notably in 1752. The picture was transferred to canvas by Picault, who received for his labours the large sum of 11,500livres, a sum quite out of proportion to its æsthetic or financial value to-day. It was again restored in 1776, 1800, and 1850. It is signed in gilt characters on the edge of the Archangel’s tunic:

RAPHAEL VRBINAS PINGEBAT MDXVIII.

The Demon is not shown, as in the early and small picture of the same subject (No. 1502), as a dragon, but as a half-human monster with horns and tail. The foreshortening is undoubtedly clever, but the picture is too instantaneous in its dramatic action. In the course of time the high lights have gone down and the shadows darkened in the metallic-looking figure of the Archangel.

TheVirgin with the Blue Diademor theVirgin with the Veil(No. 1497) is one of at least ten pictures in this collection whichwere carried out by Giulio Romano (1492?–1546). It is here credited to Raphael. It has been repeatedly restored. A very large number of replicas, variants, and old copies of this panel exist. The following “Raphaels” may be regarded as the work of Giulio: theSmall Holy Family with St. Elizabeth(No. 1499); the much restoredSaint Margaret(No. 1501); thePortrait of Joan of Arragon(No. 1507), whom Raphael apparently never saw; and thePortraits of Two Men seen to the Bust(which has been calledRaphael and his Fencing Master) (No. 1508). Giulio certainly painted theTriumph of Titus and Vespasian(No. 1420), theVenus and Vulcan(No. 1421), and thePortrait of a Man(No. 1422), which are catalogued under his name, and in all probability the three large Cartoons entitledA Triumph,The Triumph of Scipio, andThe Taking and Burning of a City, which hang on the Escalier Daru. TheCircumcision(No. 1438) which figures officially under the name of the Bolognese painter Bartolommeo Ramenghi (Il Bagnacavallo) (1484–1542) is by Giulio Romano.

The fresco painting ofThe Eternal Father(No. 1512), which is now inserted over the door of the Salle des Primitifs (Room VII.), was certainly executed during the lifetime of Raphael, and probably under his supervision. It was painted for the chapel attached to the Villa Magliana, a favourite hunting-box of Pope Leox., who commissioned it. It was purchased in 1873 for the large sum of £8280.

From the hand of Giannicola Manni (fl. 1493–1544) come theBaptism of Christ(No. 1369), theAssumption(No. 1370), theAdoration of the Magi(No. 1371), and aHoly Family(No. 1372), while a fully signedDead Christ supported by Two Angels(No. 1400) is by the mediocre Umbrian artist Marco Palmezzano (fl. 1456–1538). The latter’s pupil, Zaganelli da Cottignola (1460?–1531), may have painted theChrist bearing His Cross(No. 1641) which is catalogued as an unattributable Italian work.

PLATE VIII.—RAPHAEL(1483–1520)UMBRIAN SCHOOLNo. 1505.—PORTRAIT OF BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE(Portrait de Balthazar Castiglione, ambassadeur et littérateur)

He is seen nearly in full face. He wears a white linen under-garment, an over-dress of black velvet with grey sleeves, and a cap.Painted in oil on canvas.2 ft. 0½ in. × 2 ft. 2½ in. (0·62 × 0·67.)

He is seen nearly in full face. He wears a white linen under-garment, an over-dress of black velvet with grey sleeves, and a cap.

Painted in oil on canvas.

2 ft. 0½ in. × 2 ft. 2½ in. (0·62 × 0·67.)

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