• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

d:J3 , / ü / J> ITALIAN MASTERS IN GERMAN GALLERIES. ITALIAN MASTERS IN GEKMAN GALLEEIES. A CEITICAL ESSAY ON THE ITALIAN PICTURES IN THE GALLERIES OF MUNICH—DRESDEN—BERLIN, BT GIOVANNI MORELLI, MEMBER OF THE ITAXIAX SEXATE. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY MRS. LOUISE M. RICHTER. LONDON: G-EORGE BELL AND SONS, YOEE STEEET, COVENT GARDEN. 1883. CHISWICK PRESS :—C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. TVF GUTY CCr^IU PEEFACE. THE most important work on Italian painting, as re- gards both contents and compass, is incontestably " A New History of Painting in Italy, in three volumes, London, 1866," with the continnations, " A History of Painting in North Italy (1871), in two volumes, by J. A. Crowe and Gr. B. Cavalcaselle," and " Tiziano, la sua vita ed i suoi tempi, di G. B. Cavalcaselle e J. A. Crowe, in two volumes, 1877." These seven volumes are known throughout civilized Europe, and are the foundation of all study of Italian painting in England, Germany, and France. This work contains the results of the latest researches by specialists, and is compiled with the greatest industry and a most praiseworthy knowledge of existing records. It has, moreover, the advantage over other histories of Italian art, that it is the work not of one m.an alone, which is sure to make a book on art one-sided, but of two men of equal capacity, one belonging to the Teutonic race, the other to the Latin. The judgments and opinions laid down in the work have by that means acquired a solidity VI PKEFACE. which puts all national prejudice out of the question. We need not wonder, therefore, that it has every- where the highest reputation, nay, that the opinion of these celebrated authors on Italian works of art is univer- sally considered decisive and final. But whüst I join in fully recognizing the merits of Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's labours, these could not prevent me from being in not a few instances of a different opinion ; and to maintain and prove these adverse opinions, is one of the principal aims of the present Critical Studies. The reason of such different opinions lies essentially in my method of study, which deviates from that of the distinguished critics I have named. My views and my judgment on the dif- ferent painters are based solely on the study of their works, and not only of one work, or of a few, but of all that I could possibly examine. Again, apart from histori- cal data, there is not much that I have gleaned from books, having come very early to the conclusion that there is but little to be learnt from books on art, —nay, that most of them blunt and paralyze our taste for a true living know- ledge of art, rather than quicken and refine it. This re- pugnance to a bookish study of art is probably the reason why my researches sometimes lead to other conclusions than those of Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle. But I am far from thinking my own judgment infallible, nor do I wish at all to detract from the well-earned fame of the two celebrated critics. If I place our several opinions, on one and the same subject, side by side, it is because I do not put absolute faith in my own knowledge, and would gladly submit the controversy to the close examination of professionals and connoisseurs. May I also express the hope that the famous authors of the "New History of Painting in Italy," should these PREFACE. Vn modest lucubrations meet their eye, will not blame me for not always sharing their opinion, but will grant me the same freedom in the republic of thought which I do not grudge to them, or to any fellow-workers ? To bickering and strife I am a declared enemy. Life is too short and time too precious to waste on the weary polemics daily waged by art-critics. Whoever is not opposed to my experimental method, but sees in it a way to get out of dreary dilet- tantism, and attain to a real Science of Art, let him take np the cross and follow me. Whoever, on the contrary, finds my method too materialistic and unworthy of a lofty mind, let him leave the heavy ballast of my work un- touched, and soar to higher spheres in the balloon of fancy. He is sure to have the applause of the gaping multitude. Giovanni Morelli. Milan, 20th July, 1877. —— TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page Munich : Introduction ......... 1 Tlie Venetians ......... 8 The Ferrarese and Bolognese . 55 The Lombards ......... 59 The Tuscans 70 The Umbrians 76 Drawings by Italian Masters ...... 86 DRESDEN : — Introduction . .100 The Ferrarese 101 The Venetians 137 The Lombards 198 The Tuscans 200 The Eomans 210 Drawings by Italian Masters . .213 Berlin : Introduction ......... 227 The FeiTarese and Bolognese ...... 232 The Umbrians 252 The Florentines 339 The Venetians .355 The Paduans 390 TheBrescians 396 The Bergamese ......... 408 The Lombards 409 Index 445 I. MUNICH. THE Munich Gallery has been the subject, as I am aware, of a careful critical notice from the pen of my late friend, Otto Mündler. In order, however, to avoid all influence from the judgment of another, I have pur- posely refrained from reading it—and the more so from the high esteem for Mündler's rich knowledge and dis- criminating eye which I entertain. His well-known work, " Essai d'une analyse critique de la Notice des tableaux Italiens du Musee ITational du Louvre," 1850, is in many respects a model of art-criticism ; and, I have no doubt, even the foremost art-critics of our time, Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, would admit that they have found in that little volume many hints for their own guidance. Mündler possessed the genuine artist-nature, sensitive, in- genuous, susceptible to all that is beautiful, and capable of the highest and purest enthusiasm. It was this enthu- siasm, iadeed, which too often played him a shabby trick, of which I could easily furnish instances. In his day no one was more intimately acquainted with Italian art or better able to appreciate it. How comes it, then, that one so highly gifted and so indefatigable in study should not B 2 MUNICH, have avoided nurnerons and grave mistakes ? In my opinion these are traceable to the fact that while Mündler relied solely on his fine memory and marvellons gift of intuition, he followed no regular method in his researches ; and without method, the most experienced connoisseur will ever waver in his judgment, and never be quite sure of his facts. And this method, as I take it, can only be of that experimental kind which from the time of Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo, to that of Volta and Darwin, has led to such glorious discoveries. By far the greater number of pictures which have descended to us from the best periods have been subjected to barbarous restorations,^ so that instead of beholding the physiognomy of a master in his work, the connoisseur sees only the black mask with which the restorer has covered it, or, at best a skinned and utterly disfigured surface. In such a ruin there is no possibility of recognising the hand of the master, or of distinguishing an original from a copy. Only a close ob- servation of the forms peculiar to a master in his repre- sentation of the human figure, can lead to any adequate results. This remark applies, of course, only to those genuine artists, who, in their manner of conception and expression, have a style of their own ; and not to those imitators who, in the history of Art, as in that of Science, only figure as mere nonentities. Insignificant as they are, they can only attract minds of a kindred sort, and those at most for certain technical merits. As my multiplied studies have convinced me that this experimental method may be of use, if I do not deceive myself, to young ^ In the last century they generally contented themselves with paint- ing a picture over ; of late they have taken to effacing it first, which is still worse, especially in Venetian pictures of the sixteenth century. ; INTEODUCTION. 3 students, I shall, as opportunity oflfers, give further in- stances of my meaning. But I must remark beforehand, that it is no such easy matter as might be thought to discern the forms peculiar to a master ; and that just as the acquisition of a foreign language demands time and toil, so the eye requires long, very long practice, to learn to see correctly. I will begin with the Venetians. And by the Venetian School I do not only mean that belonging to Venice itself, but, as generally acknowledged, all the schools in those portions of Upper Italy which once belonged to the Re- public, and which, while showing more or less the in- fluence of the City of Waters, did not forfeit their respec- tive local characteristics. This provincial character, this peculiar physiognomy, the offspring of difference of race, stronger in one province and weaker in another, is not a thing to be studied and learned in picture galleries, chiefly brought together on the most eclectic principles. No, it must be sought on the very soil whence it grew, and with which it stands in the closest organic connexion for nowhere in the world has painting been so spontane- ously the language of a people as in Italy. The literature of the Italians, from various causes, needless here to specify, never developed itself into a popular form ; art, on the contrary, meeting no obstruc- tion, was the genuine outcome of the people.

Load more

  468

Copy Link