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    ,^1^^4:1855 .] THcE -XJLA P--g B. *«S

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    HANDBOOK OF PAINTING. Handbook of Painti...

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    Whitelogics Swedish Embassy. Jl Journalq...

    « ermittuj «! Wm . to call * her his " Valentine , . and swear his name in her hat ' finally attending an English-feast on May ^ day , at Whitelacke ? s house ; and insisting that the ; grave . and wily lawyer , ; . then near his fiftieth year , should dance withi her at iaweddi » g ; festival . # , It M-iCiiEJous to note- similar things recur , m the pages of history . In thesevohunes we hear of a King of rDeaaaark with a ; wife by a left-handed njarriase ;; the Sound dues , now .: soiiotly questioned by the Yankee ; the exeellenee of . the . arms of Liege ; and the central subject is that alliance with Sweden , ^ offensive and defensive , whieh we are seeking now . We should do Whitelocke an injustice if we Jeft the reader to suppose that the whole , nay that even any considerable part of his time was taken discourses

    up with the levities of the court . Xhere . are here recorded grave on affairs of state , both with the Queen , her Chancellor , and his son , the prince who succeeded Christina , and the foreign ambassadors . There is inuch that is noble in Whiteloeke ' s conduct , ashore and afloat , in command of a squadron , on his journey , in his own house , and especially in his bearin < r towards others in all state affairs touching the honour of England . No minister ever upheld with more dignity the honour and . greatness of his country . He would have the High Chancellor and all others first call ^ on him ; once in court , he coolly pushed the Swedish High Admiral on one side , . and took precedence , . applauded by the Queen ; on a . third occasion , he and the Danish ambassador were invited to a ball . It was known that the Dane would insist on taking precedence . Whitelocke . made it a point of honour

    that he should have precedence or he would not . go at all . The Dane , who had been invited , was M « invited again . While be was at Upsal , Cromwell made himself Protector , and this led to some questioning of Whitelocke ' s authority and the stability of the British Government ; but bravely and ably . 1 fce British envoy insisted that in essentials the Government was the same , and would admit of no calling England to account for the form which she chose to give to her constituted authority . It is indeed pleasant to look back upon this time 'when the foreign policy of England was so enlightened , so open ,. and so manful , and when the alliance , of England was courted by all , even by the haughty monarchies of France-and Spain . Cromwell , indeed , made ihis country respected ; and in representing England at the court

    of the then powerful Swede , no man could have better performed ins part than Bulstrode Whitekjeke , lawyer , soldier , courtier , and politician , the friend of : iSelden , and the trusted servant of Cromwell .

    ,^1^^4:1855 .] Thce -Xjla P--G B. *«S

    , ^ 1 ^^ 4 : 1855 . ] THcE -XJLA P--g B . *« S

    Handbook Of Painting. Handbook Of Painti...

    HANDBOOK OF PAINTING . Handbook of Painting . The Italian Scliools . Translated from the German of Kugler . By a Lady . Edited , with Notes , by Sir Charles Easilake , F . R . S ., President of the Royal Academy . Third Edition ; with more than Oneiiundred Illustrations . In Two Parts . London , 1855 : Murray . The student who wishes" to acquire sober and almost always exact information on . the history of Italian Art will do well to have this : elaborate epitome in his possession . As it ^ at present appears before the public it is the result of the labours of many j udicious persons- When some of ; the appreciations in the . text are biassed by the peculiar predilections of the German authors they are sure to be corrected or qualified by the careful notes > of . Sir Charle _ s Eastlake ; so that it would be . difficult to point out a more complete or more trustworthy manual .

    A peculiar opportunity is given to this publication b y the recent reappearance , and it would seem revived popularity , of a work on Italian Art , which , in spite of some agreeable qualities , constitutes a most dangerous companion for young readers on such matters—we allude to the Pocsie Clirclienne of M . Eio , which we are surprised to see quoted , without proper warning , as an authority , even by professors . The crude theories it contains lSvelohgna ^ 6 "be " en'discussed--andr & rgottejv-elsewhere .- .- M . ~ Rio ' s object had little relation to the development of artistic ideas . He wrote from a sectarian , or rather Jesuitical , point of view , and in France his work is considered . as merely a bulky pamphlet , got up in the interest of the church party , and designed to lead , attract , or delude incautious persons back into the fold or prison from which they had strayed . M . Rio had a very fair knowledge of the history-of Art in Italy , and a considerable power of elegant appreciation . But he wrote entirely in the spirit of an , advocate or a priest ; and

    distorted facts with an audacity rarely equalled , except . at * he bar , or in ultramontane pulpits . Those who have perused his volume will remember how bitterly he libels poor Filippo Xiippi—guilty of two unpardonable sins in the eyes of the Church , namely , refusing to . remain a monk , and running away , with a nun ! He tolls this romantic story with tolerable exactness nearly to the end , and then says : " The Pope , in order to 2 > alliate the scandal , offered to give him a dispensation to marry Lucrezia , but ho did not deign to take advantage of the offer , thinking that between him and her this ceremony was superfluous . " M . Rio forgets to inform us that the bigoted relations of poor Lucrezia Luti poisoned ' 'her . lover ; and what he says of the refusal of JLippi to accept the disjjeasution is , when wo consider ¦ the epoch , as evidently against probability as it is against fact . Kugler ' s Handbook ( p . 197 ) gives the true and sensible account of the transaction . Poison did its work too rapidly . The dispensation arrived " too late . "

    'Wo might multiply instances of passionate misrepresentation equally extraordinary from the work of M . Rio , comparing them with the reserved and well-weighed statements in tho volumes under notice . This , however , would be beside our present purpose . But wo cannot refrain from pointing out > a literary delinquency of u most amusing character , which may be taken ¦ osafair Bample of if . Rio ' s manner of dealing with his materials . Although i « s spac & al favourites among tho flfcintcrs of the fourteenth century wero to Ihj found . at "Sienna ,- *!© cannot allord to throw over Giotto , whom , ncvertho-1-CHtM , 'innumerable traditions describe as a light-hearted scoffer . Ho defends tfeetfrartk shepherd , therefore , against tho charge of Rumohr , namely , that * t e ; gafve Art almost a profane direction ; and having told us in an astounding pnxenthesis that Giotto appeared at the period " when modern architecture was'throwing off the classical yoke I ' he goes on to quote Ghiberti to prove that ho . Changed painting from Greek to Latin , and so forth . He then cautiously approaches dangerous ground , with a firm determination to got over it in

    rperfect safety . * ' One of the novels of Sacehetti , " Jhe says , "inwhich Giotto figures as an-amusing and joyous personage , veryfertile iniappy jrepartees , throws a great light on the personal character of this artist . One day : as he was returning with his friends from the festival of San Gallop he entered with them the church of St . Marc , where , at right , is a picture representing a Holy Family . They asked him why the Virgin was always painted with , that melancholy air , a custom which he was well able 'to justify . * " All his answers denote a clearand cold intelligence , a penetratiruj and observing spirit , which is far from disdaining the positive things of life . " Our recollections of Sacchetti were very different ; yet , as this quotation was made in so circumstantial a manner , we turned to the volume . The truth is , that the friends of Giotto asked him why Joseph always looked so sulky and melancholy—malinconoso ; and the answer was , " Non ha egli ragione , eke vedepregna la moglie , e non sa di cuif BLaise Pascal never found a Jesuit wilfully tripping in a more comic manner than this .

    But in fact , the whole of M . Rio ' s book , whenever he has a purpose to serve , is written with the same disregard to literary and critical propriety . His object is to prove that there existed a certain succession of painters m Italy , who painted divinely because influenced by the religious spirit . Other speculators have imprudently selected very stiff ' and repulsive pictures as the finest specimens of Christian Art , and endeavoured to lash up themselves and their readers into admiration ; but M . Rio deliberately selects the princes of Italian painting , and distorts even the best-known facts of history in order to prove his thesis . The use he makes of Savonarola ' s great attempt at reform in Florence is perfectly unjustifiable . The fierymonk had no intention whatever of introducing anew principle . in Art or of advocating an old . The whole tendency of his preaching was to set aside the exercise of the Fine Arts altogether . He was a Catholic Puritan , or

    rather a direct successor of the Iconoclasts ; and if M . Rio had written with pure and straightforward intentions , we should have said that he possessed the faculty of reading without understanding in a greater degree than any man we ever heard of . Is it possible , however , to be familiar with the narratives remaining of the processions of children that marched through Florence in order to destroy the anathema on works of Painting and Sculpture against which the preacher constantly thundered , without perceiving that that strange movement had nothing to do with Art , Christian or otherwise ? The tendency of Savonarola was to revert in practice , as Rousseau afterwards reverted in theory , towards what was supposed to have been the primitive state of humanity . Innocent barbarism was set up against corrupt civilisation ; and not further to discuss this movement at present , its signification was in no way better expressed than b y the fact that nearlyrjall the enthusiastic artists who were disciples or followers of Savonarola deserted their

    profession altogether , ! and took to an austere life of meditation . _ , As we have said , the work before us gives a far more sensible and correct account of the principles and progress of Italian _ Art . -It is entitled , moreover to great pfaise . on account of another special feature , namely , the avoidance of the elaborate divisions ' and subdivisions into schools ,, which commonly perplex the reader in similar works . This unlimited subdivision is one of the plagues of Art-history . Lanzi had already felt the evil , but even , he yielded far too much to the claims of local vanity . The true principle of division is not to create a new school unless we can point out distinct characteristics . The Florentine School and the Venetian School , had evidently a separate existence , following different principles , and aiming at different ends . The Schools of Lombardy also may be judiciously set apart . But in most other cases the division has no ground whatever . Artists who were born in one city worked in another , sometimes according to principles which tliet brought with them , sometimes according to others

    which they adopted . In the works of several , two or three different manners derived |_ from -the 9 tudy .. pf ^ different _ classei 3 ; -of masters , or depending on gradual development and increased eiperience , areT discernible : "We _ have not space here to discuss this question in detail ; but as an illustration of our meaning , we may ask what appreciable difference it is possible to point out between what are usually called the schools of Parma and Modena ? We observe , therefore , with pleasure , that M . Kugler is very sparing in his divisions . An attractive contribution to this third edition of the Handbook of Italian Painting is a more . elaborate account of the origin and progress of what may properly be called Christian Art—we mean the art which throughout . Europe , from Constantinople to the depths of Gaul and Germany , gradually succeeded . the , great school of the beau ideal . Evidently that was no slight chan « re wMch substituted for the search after serene and superhuman

    perfection of form , a sort of sanctification of ordinary humanity deteriorated by physical suffering , but made divine by moral expression . It is curious to trace the gradual progress of the new art from * the time when Christ was represented in a conventional manner as a young man of perfect beauty , of soft , supple , elegant , and feminine form , quite beardless , like the Apollo and the . Mercury , to that when his traditionary portrait—according to which his countenance was long , his cheeks thin , his expression gravo * ind melancholy , his beard forked , hia hair separated like a woman s into two tresses , which fell down in loose ringlets upon the shoulderswas substituted . The introduction of this new type constituted a wonderful revolution in Art . Modern Art may then bo said to have been born . It has aiace only grown and developed . The new principle was gradually applied to all the representations of sacred personages . Ihe Virgin alwaaton

    Mary was first figured as a Roman matron , still young , ys e , commonly upright , with Her hand on her bosom , and her eyes raised , towards heaven ; but about the end of the fifth century she began to bo painted sitting on a . tlixsono with the divine Child in her arms , or on her knees . In like manner tho wgels first appear u . s Kouian youths with tuc tuuic ana toga , and it was not until a comparatively late period that they were represented with wings . If we examine the series of copies published by Arringui and others oC tho early types of Christian Art , some of which are , reproduced in the . work before us , we shall be able to trace exactly the gradual discarding of old forms and costumes , and the adoption of tlioee which , during tho lorn ? period of stagnation called the Middle Ages , became m tkoir turn-as conventional and aa immovable as tho typos of Egyptian sculpture and

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 14, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14041855/page/19/