1051. Lo Spagna (Perugia: painted 1503-1530). OUR LORD, ST. THOMAS, AND ST. AN THONY. Unknown (Umbrian: 16th century). Our Lord extends his hand and foot to the doubting St. Thomas: "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; . . and be not faithless, but believing." To the right, resting his hands on the shoulder of the donor of the picture, is St. Anthony of Padua, another saint who doubted "till "-as the legend (painted by Murillo) describes—“ in his arms," so it is told, "The saint did his dear Lord enfold, And there appeared a light like gold From out the skies of Padua." 929. THE "BRIDGEWATER MADONNA." Copy after Raphael. This is an ancient Italian copy of the original, which is in the possession of the Earl of Ellesmere at Bridgewater House. It belongs to Raphael's second, or Florentine, period (see p. 110). 288. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, MICHAEL AND RAPHAEL. Pietro Perugino (Perugia: 1446–1524). Pietro Vanucci, a native of Castello della Pieve, was called Perugino from the town of which he afterwards became a citizen. His earliest master was probably Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, and he is known to have also worked under Piero della Francesca. Afterwards he went to Florence, where he studied with Leonardo da Vinci under the sculptor Verocchio. "He there remained," says Vasari, "for many months without even a bed to lie on, and miserably took his sleep upon a chest; but, turning night into day, and labouring without intermission, he devoted himself most fervently to the study of his profession." And in time he became himself a famous master, with Raphael for his pupil, and "he attained to such a height of reputation that his works were dispersed, not only through Florence and all over Italy, but in France, Spain, and other countries." He was himself too of a roving disposition. But according to Vasari's gossip he was very careful of his money-as one who had seen such hard times might well be; would only paint for cash down, and on all his wanderings carried his money-box with him. "When it is fair weather," he used to 1 See Morelli, pp. 285-291, for a record of his movements. say, "a man must build his house, that he may be under shelter when he most needs it." It was not, however, till late in life that he did literally build himself a house. At the same time he married a very beautiful girl, and is said to have had so much pleasure in seeing her wear becoming head-dresses that he would spend hours together in arranging that part of her toilet with his own hands. Perugino's work is well represented in the National Gallery, and its several characteristics are pointed out under the pictures themselves (cf. 181 and 1075, pp. 115, 116). Of his life and work as a whole Mr. Ruskin gives this summary : "A sound craftsman and workman to the very heart's core. A noble, gracious, and quiet labourer from youth to death,-never weary, never impatient, never untender, never untrue. Not Tintoret in power, not Raphael in flexibility, not Holbein in veracity, not Luini in love,— their gathered gifts he has, in balanced and fruitful measure, fit to be the guide, and impulse, and father of all" (Ariadne Florentina, § 72). One of the most valuable pictures in the gallery alike for its own beauty and for its interest in the history of art. For Perugino is the final representative of the old superstitious art, just as Michael Angelo and Raphael (in his later manners) were the first representatives of the modern scientific and anatomical art; the epithet bestowed on Perugino by Michael Angelo, goffo nell' arte (dunce, or blockhead in art), shows how trenchant the separation is between these two forms of artists. One may notice, then, in this picture as a perfect example of the earlier art: first, that everything in it is dainty and delightful, and all that it attempts is accomplished. Michael Angelo, dashing off his impetuous thoughts, left much of his work half done (see I. 790, p. 15); Perugino worked steadily in the old ways and indeed repeated ideas with so little reflection that, according to Vasari, he was blamed for doing the same thing over and over again. But everything is finished, even to the gilding of single hairs. Notice also the beautiful painting of the fish. Secondly, it is a work in the school of colour, as distinguished from the school of light and shade. Clear, calm, placid, perpetual vision, far and near; endless perspicuity of space, unfatigued veracity of eternal light, perfectly accurate delineation of every leaf on the trees and every flower in the fields" (notice especially in the foreground the "blue flower fit for paradise" of the central compartment). "There is no darkness, no wrong. Every colour is lovely, and every space is light. The world, the universe, is divine; all sadness is a part of harmony; and all gloom a part of peace." In connection with the lovely blue in the picture (which was painted in 1494-98 for the Certosa of Pavia), one may remember the story told of an earlier picture, how the prior of the convent for which Perugino was painting doled out to him the costly colour of ultramarine, and how Perugino, by constantly washing his brushes, obtained a surreptitious hoard of the colour, which he ultimately restored to shame the prior for his suspicions. Thirdly, in its rendering of landscape, the picture is characteristic of the "purism" of older art as compared with the later "naturalism." "The religious painters impress on their landscape perfect symmetry and order, such as may seem consistent with the spiritual nature they would represent. The trees grow straight, equally branched on each side, and of slight and feathery frame. The mountains stand up unscathed; the waters are always waveless, the skies always calm." 1 Notice also that the sentiment of the whole picture is like its landscape: there is no striving, nor crying, no convulsive action; it is all one "pure passage of intense feeling and heavenly light, holy and undefiled, glorious with the changeless passion of eternity—sanctified with shadeless peace." Notice lastly, how in this, as in many sacred compositions, a living symmetry, the balance of harmonious opposites, is one of the profoundest sources of their power. Madonna of Perugino in the National Gallery, with the angel Michael on one side and Raphael on the other, is as beautiful an example as you can have" (Elements of Drawing, p. 258). The subject of the right-hand compartment is Raphael and Tobias 2 (for which see I. 781, p. 17); that of the left-hand one 66 The 1 With regard to the "purist ideal" it should be noticed that "these fantasies of the earlier painters, though they darkened faith, never hardened feeling; on the contrary, the frankness of their unlikelihood proceeded mainly from the endeavour on the part of the painter to express, not the actual fact, but the enthusiastic state of his own feelings about the fact; he covers the Virgin's dress with gold, not with any idea of representing the Virgin as she ever was, or ever will be seen, but with a burning desire to show what his love and reverence would think fittest for her. He erects for the stable a Lombardic portico, not because he supposes the Lombardi to have built stables in Palestine in the days of Tiberius, but to show that the manger in which Christ was laid is, in his eyes, nobler than the grandest architecture in the world. He fills his landscape with church spires and silver streams, not because he supposes that either were in sight at Bethlehem, but to remind the beholder of the peaceful course and succeeding power of Christianity" (Modern Painters, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. iv. § 10). For a different kind of feeling in "naturalistic" art, see under 744, p. 113. 2 The whole, or part, of this picture was at one time freely ascribed to Raphael; but Morelli, p. 289, has effectually disposed of the superstition, is "the orderer of Christian warfare, Michael the Archangel; not Milton's with hostile brow and visage all inflamed;' not even Milton's in kingly treading of the hills of Paradise; not Raphael's with expanded wings and brandished spear; but Perugino's with his triple crest of traceless plume unshaken in heaven, his hand fallen on his crossleted sword, the truth-girdle binding his undinted armour; God has put his power upon him, resistless radiance is on his limbs; no lines are there of earthly strength, no trace on the divine features of earthly anger; trustful and thoughtful, fearless, but full of love, incapable except of the repose of eternal conquest, vessel and instrument of Omnipotence, filled like a cloud with the victor light, the dust of principalities and powers beneath his feet, the murmur of hell against him heard by his spiritual ear like the winding of a shell on the far-off sea shore." He is thus armed as the orderer of Christian warfare against evil; in his other character, as lord of souls, he has the scales which hang on a tree by his side (Ariadne Florentina, pp. 40, 265, 266; On the Old Road, i. § 529; Modern Painters, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. i. ch. x. § 4, sec. ii. ch. v. § 20). 693, ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA, Pinturicchio (Perugia: 1454-1513). Bernardino di Betto, or the son of Benedetto, commonly called Pinturicchio, "the little painter," was an assistant of Perugino. His principal works are the frescoes in the Library of Siena, which represent the life of the Pope Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini. He is not strongly represented in the National Gallery, for the two genuine works by him (this and 703) are unimportant, whilst the more important works (911-914) are somewhat doubtful. He has been called "the Umbrian Gozzoli," and in these latter pictures there is at any rate a kind of childlike grace and a vivacity which explain the comparison. Vasari, who did not like Pinturicchio, describes him as somewhat of a hack, and still more of a lover of money. Among other qualities he possessed that of giving considerable satisfaction to princes and nobles because he quickly brought the works commanded by them to an end." As for his love of money, he died of vexation, Vasari assures us, "because a certain trunk which he had insisted on being removed from his painting room in Siena was afterwards found to be full of gold pieces." According, however, to a contemporary writer, 66 by showing, amongst other arguments, that the drawings for Tobias and the Angel (in the Oxford University Gallery and in the British Museum) are undoubtedly by Perugino. his wife left him alone in his house when ill, and he was starved to death.1 St. Catherine of Alexandria was of all the female saints next to Mary Magdalen the most popular: she meets us in nearly every room in the National Gallery, and even in London, churches and districts once placed under her protection still retain her name. Her general attributes are a book, a sword, and a wheel. The meaning of these will be seen from the legend of her which crusaders brought from the East. She was the daughter of a queen, and of marvellous wisdom and understanding. And when the time came that she should govern her people, she, shunning responsibility and preferring wisdom before sovereignty, shut herself up in her palace and gave her mind to the study of philosophy. For this wilful seclusiveness her people wished her to marry a husband who should at once fulfil the duties of government and lead them forth to battle. But she, to prevent this repugnant union, made one more spiritual by her mystical marriage with Christ. And for this and other unworldly persistencies, the heathen tyrant Maximin would have broken her on a wheel, but that "fire came down from heaven, sent by the destroying angel of God, and broke the wheel in pieces." Yet for all this the tyrant repented not, and after scourging St. Catherine with rods beheaded her with the sword, and so having won the martyr's palm, she entered into the joy of her Lord. 1220. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD. L'Ingegno (Umbrian: painted 1484). Andrea di Luigi, a native of Assisi, was called L'Ingegno on account of his "talent," a description which is fully borne out by this picture, but hardly by the other ascribed to him (702, p. 101). He is said to have assisted Perugino in some of his works, and the resemblance to that artist in this picture is strong. Compare for instance even so small a thing as the dress patterns here with those in 288, p. 102, as also the close resemblance to the "purist " landscape there described. 1032. CHRIST'S AGONY IN THE GARDEN. Lo Spagna (Perugia: painted 1503-1530). Giovanni di Pietro, called Lo Spagna (the Spaniard), presumably from being a native of Spain (see Room XV., p. 385), was a pupil 1 For the latest account of "poor, unappreciated Pinturicchio," see Morelli, pp. 264-285, who makes out a strong case for attributing to him most of the drawings in the so-called " Raphael sketch-book" at Venice. |