hence the words on the open book which he is represented as holding in his left hand, "Father, I have manifested thy name to men." The Gospel which he preached was "Salvation through Jesus Christ:" hence the circle in his right hand with the Latin monogram "I.H.S." (Jesus the Saviour of mankind). He came of a noble family, but the secret of his power was his determination to live amongst the poor ones of the earth: hence at his feet are mitres inscribed with the names of the three cities of which he refused the bishoprics. The attendant saints are Sts. Jerome, Joseph, Francis (to whose order Bernardino belonged), and Nicholas of Bari. Above is a vision of the only crown to which St. Bernardino aspired the company of the saints, the Virgin and Child, St. Catherine, and St. Clara. Into the pervading expression of simple and humble piety the artist has put, perhaps, something of his own character; for he was a man of great personal piety, and he is said to have always prepared himself (like Fra Angelico before him) by prayer and fasting for any important work of sacred art. Something, too, of this ascetic ideal may be seen in the attenuated figures of his saints.

802. THE MADONNA OF THE CHERRY.

Bartolommeo Montagna (Venetian: died 1523).
See under 1098, p. 131.

1023. AN ITALIAN LADY.

Moroni (Bergamese: 1525-1578).

We now come to another provincial school—that of Bergamo, distinguished, says Morelli, by "manly energy," but also by "a certain prosaic want of refinement." See, for other Bergamese painters, Previtali (695, p. 178) and Cariani (1203, p. 151). Palma Vecchio, the greatest of them, is not represented in the National Gallery. Giambattista Moroni was a painter without honour in his own country, and when people from Bergamo came to Titian to be painted, he used to refer them to their own countryman—no better face painter, he would tell them, existed. "No portrait-painter ever placed the epidermis of the human face upon canvas with more fidelity, and with greater truth than Moroni: his portraits all have a more or less prosaic look, but they must all have had that startling likeness to the original which so enchants the great public, who exclaim 'The very man! just how he looks!' And it was with the eyes of the great public that Moroni did look at his subjects; he was not a poet in the true sense of the word, but a consummate painter. Yet, now and then, he manages to go beyond himself, and to pierce the surface till he reaches the soul of the sitter.

In such cases his portraits may rank with those of Titian" (Morelli, p. 48). He was a pupil of Il Moretto, but this picture is an example of his manner before he came under Il Moretto's influence-the reddish hue of his flesh-tints being characteristic. In his second period he adopted the "silvery" manner of Il Moretto: see 697, p. 152, and 1022, p. 139; whilst for his third, or naturalistic manner, see 742, p. 158. 748. MADONNA AND CHILD, WITH ST. ANNE.

Girolamo dai Libri (Veronese: 1472-1555).

A picture "with a pedigree," being mentioned by Vasari. "In the church of the Scala (at Verona)," he says, in his life of the painter, "the picture of the Madonna with St. Anna is by his hand, and is placed between the San Sebastiano of Il Moro and the San Rocco of Cavazzola (Morando).” Beside this latter picture (735, p. 149) the present one was, until the last rehanging of the Gallery, still placed. Girolamo dai Libri (of the books) was a miniature painter, and was so called from the choral books he illuminated. In the composition of this. picture one may trace, perhaps, the influence of the dainty work he was first accustomed to. Thus the trefoil, or cloverleaf pattern, is followed both in the arrangement of the Virgin, St. Anne, and the Child, and in that of the little playing angels below. Notice the pretty trellis-work of roses on either side, and the slain dragon at the Virgin's feet, emblematic (the latter) of Christ's victory over the powers of evil, and (the former) of the "ways of pleasantness" and "paths of peace" that he came to prepare.

16. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON.

Tintoretto (Venetian: 1518-1594).

Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto (the little dyer) from the trade of his father, is the last great master of the Venetian School and the most imaginative of all painters. He is, however, so poorly represented in the National Gallery that to speak of him here as he deserves would perhaps excite little but incredulity, though this picture may give some idea of his power of imagination. It is only in Venice that this great master can properly be studied, and only in the works of Mr. Ruskin that any due appreciation of his powers is to be found.1 One or two points, however, may profitably be mentioned which visitors who come across pictures by Tintoret in foreign galleries should bear in mind.

1 Visitors to Venice may like to be reminded that most of Mr. Ruskin's criticism upon Tintoret's works there, is now easily accessible in (1) The Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret, (2) The Stones of Venice, travellers' edition, and (3) the reissue of the second volume of Modern Painters.

First, he is the most unequal in execution of all painters. The Venetians used to say he had three pencils—one of gold, one of silver, and a third of iron. Secondly, "when no one would pay for his colours (and sometimes nobody would even give him space of wall to paint on), he used cheap blue for ultramarine;" and he worked so rapidly (Sebastiano del Piombo used to say that Tintoret could paint as much in two days as would occupy him two years), "and on such large spaces of canvas, that, between damp and dry, his colours must go, for the most part." Thirdly, Tintoret "is entirely unconcerned respecting the satisfaction of the public. He neither cares to display his strength to them, nor convey his ideas to them; when he finishes his work, it is because he is in the humour to do so; and the sketch which a meaner painter would have left incomplete to show how cleverly it was begun, Tintoret simply leaves because he has done as much of it as he likes" (Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret, passim). The well-founded pride which is thus stamped on Tintoret's art is conspicuous in his life. From the first he stood alone. He was sent to Titian's school, but Titian dismissed him and he returned to work out his own ideal-an ideal which he wrote on his studio walls: "The design of Michael Angelo and the colouring of Titian." For some time he worked in poverty, often accepting commissions without pay, and when he became famous he often worked "for nothing." For years he painted in the Scuola di San Rocco at the rate of 100 ducats a year. For his " Paradise" in the Ducal Palace, "the greatest picture in the world," he was asked to name his own price, but he left it to the State, and abated something from what they tendered. He lived aloof from the world, seldom leaving Venice. His house, on the Fondamenta de' Mori, is still standing, and there are stories told of the way in which his wife, the daughter of a Venetian nobleman, tried to guard against his unworldliness. He died at the age of seventy-six, leaving as the record of a long life, devoted with rare single-mindedness to his art, the remark that the art of painting was one which became ever increasingly difficult.

A picture of particular interest in the National Gallery, being a representation by one of the greatest of artists of the patron saint of England. The fight of St. George with the dragon is familiar to every one, being on the reverse of our gold sovereigns, and in the new coinage on that of our silver crowns. “As a piece of mere die-cutting, that St. George is one of the best bits of work we have on our money," but a reference to its absurdities in design will serve admirably to bring out some of the imaginative merits of this picture. On our coins St. George's horse looks abstractedly in the air, instead of where it would have looked, at the beast between its legs. Here Tintoret has admirably brought out the chivalry of the horse. Knight and charger are alike intent upon their foe, and note that St.

George wears no spurs: the noble animal nature is attuned to his rider. But, though unspurred, St. George is every inch a knight. His whole strength is given in the spear-thrust which is to kill the dragon: compare this with St. George on our coins, "with nothing but his helmet on (being the last piece of armour he is likely to want), putting his naked feet, at least his feet showing their toes through the buskins, well forward, that the dragon may with the greatest convenience get a bite at them; and about to deliver a mortal blow at him with a sword which cannot reach him by a couple of yards." To understand the other touches of true imagination in Tintoret's picture, it is necessary to recall the meaning of the legend of St. George and the Dragon (identical with that of Perseus and Andromeda).1 The dragon represents the evil of sinful, fleshly passion, the element in our nature which is of the earth, earthy. Notice with what savage tenacity, therefore, the beast is made to clutch at the earth. From his mouth he is spitting firethe red fire of consuming passion. St. George is the champion of purity he rides therefore on a white horse, white being the typical colour of a blameless life. He wears no helmet-for that might obscure his sight, and the difficulty in this warfare is not so much to kill your dragon as to see him. In front of him is the dead body of another man :

He gazes on the silent dead :

'They perish'd in their daring deeds." This proverb flashes through his head,

"The many fail, the one succeeds."

Behind him is a long castle wall, the towers and battlements perhaps of some great city. In many pictures of this subject (see e.g. XIII. 75, p. 323) there are crowds of spectators on the walls, who will cheer the knight in his struggle and applaud him in his victory. But here the walls are deserted, and but for the princess in the foreground, there are no spectators of the struggle: it is one which has to be fought alone and in secret places. The princess had been given, in the story, as a sacrifice to the dragon, and St. George, who comes to rescue

1 For an exhaustive and interesting history of the legend see Mr. J. R. Anderson's Supplement to St. Mark's Rest. One account, it seems, places both Perseus and St. George in the Nile Delta. Politicians who say that England has gone to Egypt to save that country from itself may perhaps see some significance in this. The superstitious in such things will not forget either that one of Gordon's names was George.

her, is thus the type of noble chivalry. "She turns away for flight; and if her hands are raised to heaven, and her knees fall to earth, it is more that she stumbles in a woman's weakness, than that she abides in faith or sweet surrender. Tintoret sees the scene as in the first place a matter of fact, and paints accordingly, following his judgment of girl nature." But in another sense the princess of the allegory represents the soul of man, which has to be freed from subjection to the dragon of the flesh. And so perhaps Tintoret makes her fly, "from a certain ascetic feeling, a sense growing with the growing license of Venice, that the soul must rather escape from this monster by flight than hope to see it subdued and made serviceable" (St. Mark's Rest, Second Supplement, pp. 14, 21, 33; Fors Clavigera, 1873, xxv. and xxvi.)

24. AN ITALIAN LADY AS ST. AGATHA.

Sebastiano del Piombo (Venetian: 1485-1547).
See under I, p. 141.

The nimbus around the head indicates the saint; the palm branch and the pincers indicate St. Agatha, who was "bound and beaten with rods, and her tender bosom was cruelly torn with iron pincers; and as her blood flowed forth, she said, 'O thou tyrant! shamest thou not to treat me so-thou who hast been nourished and fed from the breast of a mother?' And this was her only plaint." See also lower, under 20, p. 142. 1105. THE PROTHONOTARY-APOSTOLIC, JULIANO. Lorenzo Lotto (Treviso: 1476-1555).1

Lotto, though born at Treviso in the Venetian State, went up early to Venice, where he entered Bellini's studio. For some further notes on his life, see below under 1047, p. 163.

See for the subject under 1024 below, p. 163.

26. THE CONSECRATION OF ST. NICHOLAS.

Paolo Veronese (Veronese: 1528-1588).

Paolo Cagliari, called "Veronese" from his birthplace, Verona, stands at the head of the great colourists. With him "the whole picture is like the rose,-glowing with colour in the shadows, and rising into paler and more delicate hues, or masses of whiteness, in the lights."

1 These dates are given on the authority of Morelli, who furnishes much fresh information about Lotto (pp. 31-40). In the Official Catalogue the picture is only "ascribed" to him, but there is little doubt of its genuineness.