The Venetian Painte Rs of the Renaissance
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By Bernhard Berenson The Ve e an Pa e s o f the R e a ssa n ti int r n i nc e. With F s e e. Third E Re se a ronti pi c dition . vi d e e C w 8 vo and nlarg d . ro n , gilt top The F e e Pa t e s the R e a ss lor ntin in r of n i a n ce. W F s e e T e se ith a ronti pi c . hird r vi d and enlarged e C w 8v o dition . ro n . The C ent ral Italian P aint ers of the R enai s ‘ s e W F s e e e e se anc . ith a ronti pi c . S cond r vi d e e e . C w 8v o and nlarg d dition ro n . The No t ita an Pa nte s the R ena ssanc e r h li i r of i . W F s e e C w 8 v o ith ronti pi c . ro n . UT N AM ' N G P . P S SO S . N e w Yo r k Lo n d o n THE VENETIAN PAINTERS OF THE RENAISSANCE WITH AN INDEX TO THEIR WORKS BERNH ARD BERENSON ” R r n o nnmmmPAI NTE RS o r w e BN I AUTH O o R A SSAN CI . CENTRAL l TALl AN PAI NTERS o n TH E RE NAI SSANCE P P AM’S SON G. UTN S NEW YORK AND LONDON !the ‘Rntckewochet press m 1 cow nrc , 894 BY UTNAM’ S SONS G P. P ) oa e E nter ed a t Station er s H al l , L d d ’ P 'mm s SONS Bv G. u P. S es of Ame ic Made in t he United tat r a T NOT E O T H I RD E DITION . I N this edition changes have been made in the numbering of the Venice and Vi enna Galleries , as well as of some m inor collections , M to correspond to recent rehanging . any other alterations have been requ ired by the breaking up o f private collections . I n several instances it has been impossible to trace pictures to their new homes , and of such the more important remain under the names o f their former owners . To the lists of painters e Beccaru z zi P hav been added , Caprioli , olidoro Lanz ani M A e , Rocco arconi , ndr a Schiavone , e s and Girolamo da Tr viso , arti ts important e enough to be missed , but of m rit so unequal that only their more interesting works are here Bu . t given the bulk of new additions , amount ing to a third as much again as was comprised in the last edition , is of pictures in the various R 276294 I RD E D I TI ON iv N OTE TO TH . provincial galleries and private colle B F . Great ritain , rance , and Germany The author takes great pleasure in e Mr H l dging his indebtedness to . Cook for invaluable aid in visiting so e B almost numberl ss ritish collections. PR E FAC E . TH E following essay owes its origin to the author ’ s belief that Venetian painting is the most co mplete expression in art of the a e I talian Renaissance . The Renaiss nce is ven more important typically than historically . Historically it may be looked upon as an age o f glory or o f shame according to the different views entertained of European events during Bu the past five centuries . t typically it stands — for youth , and youth alone for intellectual curiosity and en ergy grasping at the whole of life as material which it hopes to mould to any shape . Every generation has an innate sympathy with some epoch of the past wherein it seems e to find itself foreshadowed . Scienc has of late revealed and given much , but its revelation and vii PRE PACE gifts are as nothing to the promise it holds o u t o f constant acqu isition and perpetual growth , of everlasting youth . We ourselves , because of e our faith in sci nce and the power of work, are instinctively in sympathy with the Renais u r sance . O problems d o not seem so easy to solve , our tasks are more difficult because our vision is wider, but the spirit which animates us was anticipated by the spirit of the Renais sance , and more than anti cipated . That spirit seems like the small rough model after which ours is being fashioned . Italian painting interests many of us more than the painting of any other school not be o f cause its essential superiority , but because it expressed the Renaissance ; and Venetian painting is interesting above all because it was at Venice alone that this expression attained . F perfection Elsewhere , particularly in lorence , it died away before it found complete utter ance . I n order to keep the main idea clearly be o f fore the mind the reader , to show him how the Renaissance reveals itself in Venetian painting, the introduction of anything not PRE FACE strictly relevant to the subject has been e avoided . The salient points once p rceived and connected with the more important ffi painters, the reader will find no di culty in seeing the proper place of any given work by a great master, or the relative importance o f those second and third - rate painters of whom no special mention has been made because they are comprised within what has been said about he t greater artists . Bu t happily art is too great and too v ital a subject to be crowd ed into any single formula ; and a formula that would , without distorting our entire view of Italian art in the fifteenth fu ll century , do justice to such a painter as Carlo Crivelli , does not exist . H e takes rank with the most genuine artists of all times and e countries , and does not weary ven when great masters grow tedious . He expresses with the freedom and spirit of Japanese design ’ To di s a piety as wild and tender as Jacopo da , a sweetness of emotion as sincere and dainty as of a Virgin and Child carved in ivory by a F rench craftsman of the fourteenth century . M the The mystic beauty of Simone artini , X PRE PACE B are agonized compassion of the young ellini , embodied by Crivelli in forms which have the strength of line and the metallic lustre of old Satsuma or lacquer, and which are no less tempting to the touch . Crivelli must be treated by himself and as the product of sta tionar . y, if not reactionary , conditions Having lived most of his life far away from the main currents o f culture , in a province where St . Bernardino had been spending his last en ergies in the endeavour to call the world back to the ideals o f an in fantile civilisation , Crivelli does not belong to a movement o f constant progress , and therefore is not within the scope of this work . To make the essay useful as a handbook to Venetian painting, lists have been appended of the works , in and out of Italy , by the principal Venetian masters . These lists d o not pretend to absolute completeness . Only such private collections have been mentioned as are well known and accessible to students , although in the case of very rare painters all of their known works are given , and even such as are of doubt r ful authenticity are alluded to . The autho PRE FACE x5 has seen and carefully considered all the pic tures he mentions , except one or two at St . P etersburg, which are , however, well known MM B from the photographs of . raun Cie . The attributions are based on the results of the most recent research . Even such painstaking critics of some years ago as Messrs . Crowe and Cav al caselle laboured under terrible disadv an tages , because most of their work was done at a time when travelling was much slower than it has now become , and when photography was not su fli ciently perfected to be of great service . Rapid transit and isochromatic pho tography are beginning to enable the student to make of connoisseurship something like an exact science . To a certain extent , therefore , Cav alcaselle Messrs . Crowe and have been superseded , an d to a great degree supple mented M by the various writings o f orelli , Friz zo ni . Richter, , and others The author takes pleasure in acknowledging his indebtedness to the first syst ematic writers on Italian painting no less than to the perfectors of the new critical method , now adopted by nearly all serious students of I talian art . To the founder of xii PREPACE M the new criticism , the late Giovanni orelli , . Frizz oni and to his able successor, Dr Gustavo , the author feels bound to ascribe many of his attributions , although a number are based on alone independent research , and for these he is responsible . Special thanks are due to a dear friend , Enrico Costa , for placing his notes of a M ’ recent visit to adrid at the author s d isposal . fi They have been used , with a con dence war ’ ranted by Signor Costa s unrivalled co nno is ’ seu rshi p, to supplement the author s own notes, taken some years ago .