forms an æra in the history of art. His principles were founded on the works of Ghiberti and Donatello; he had acquired perspective from Brunelleschi,and had long studied the remains of ancient sculpture at Rome. From his works, it is apparent that he had made a great advance in diversifying the positions and characters; and in foreshortening his figures he appears to have studied the anatomy of the body more carefully than his predecessors. The expression of his heads is often graceful and elegant; he exhibits considerable freedom and simplicity in the folds and arrangement of his drapery, and much truth, variety, and delicacy in his colouring. His pictures became the study of all the best artists in his own time, and in that of Pietro Perugino, and of his great pupil Raphael. This artist died in 1443.* Amongst the imitators of Masaccio, one of the most eminent was Ghirlandaio, the artist in whose school Michael Angelo studied; his works exhibit clearness and purity of outline, correctness of form, considerable invention and facility of expression; and he is considered by Mengs as the first Florentine who, by means of true perspective, was successful in grouping and in depth of composition. These labours of the Tuscan painters bring us to the beginning of the sixteenth century, when much that was excellent in art had been attained by the careful study and imitation of nature, which had the effect of imparting more variety and life, especially to the heads. Indeed, the artists of later times have not much surpassed their predecessors in this respect. The whole, however, that was accomplished, amounted to little more than a careful imitation; ideal beauty, fulness and grandeur of design, harmony of colouring, aërial perspective, and variety and freedom, were still wanting, in order to carry the art to the perfection which it subsequently attained. The taste for magnificent edifices having revived throughout Italy, many of the most splendid of those public and private buildings, which still remain at Rome, Florence, Milan, Mantua, and Venice, were erected about this period. The demand for ornamental architecture, as well as for interior embellishments, necessarily created a spirit of rivalry The celebrated epitaph on Sir C. Wren, in St. Paul's, was borrowed from that on Masaccio, which is in the Carmelite Church in Rome, the walls of which he had painted in fresco. "If any one seeks to know my tomb, or name, this church is my monument," &c. and emulation amongst the artists of the times, and not only tended mainly to the advancement of the art, but probably called into action powers and genius which, at a less fortunate period, would have remained dormant. The schools of Italy, before this attainment of excellence by mutual emulation, strongly resembled each other, but having arrived at maturity, each began to display a marked and peculiar character. This soon became more conspicuous, from the introduction into Italy, about the middle of the fifteenth century, of the art of painting in oil, which enabled artists, in their smaller works, to obtain more brilliancy and depth. The invention of the arts of engraving on copper and wood was also one of the great causes of the advancement of design, by spreading over the whole of Europe the compositions of the great masters, whose works, till then, had been confined to a single spot. Of the three great artists, whose genius was to bring to maturity all that was excellent in painting, and to expound and simplify the rules of art to their successors, Leonardo da Vinci appeared the first. He was born in 1432, twentythree years before Michael Angelo. His biographers concur in representing him as endowed by nature with a genius uncommonly elevated and penetrating, eager after discovery, and diligent in the pursuit not only of what related to the three arts dependent on design, but to mathematics, mechanics, hydrostatics, music, and poetry. He was versed also in the accomplishment of horsemanship, fencing, and dancing. His manners were polished and affable, fitting him for the society of the great, with whom he lived on a footing of familiarity and friendship." In addition to his great attainments as an artist, he was distinguished as a scientific writer; he was a discoverer in optics and mechanics; his hydraulic works on the Adda, which he rendered navigable for two hundred miles, continue to the present day monuments of his mechanical science. Some general observations contained in his writings, upon the inductive method of philosophizing, are almost couched in the same terms as were the great aphorisms which, in the succeeding age, rendered the name of Bacon immortal. "Experiment," says he, "is the interpreter of the secrets of nature; it never sometimes deceive itself, we must conmisleads us. Though our reason may sult experience; and vary the circumstances in our experiments until we can draw from them general rules, for it is from hence that these rules are to be derived." Again, "I am about to treat of a particular subject; but first of all I shall make some experiments; because my plan is to appeal to experience, and from thence to demonstrate why bodies are compelled to act in a certain manner. This is the method to be pursued by such as would investigate the phenomena of nature." His different memoranda on art abound with very useful observations on the mechanical powers and muscular action of the human frame. He was originally taught by Verrochio, an artist of some eminence; he soon, however, surpassed his teacher, though it is remarked that he retained through life traces of his early education, and that, like his master, he designed more readily than he painted; and that in his designs and countenances he seems to have prized elegance and vivacity of expression more than dignity and fulness of contour. His mode of painting may be divided into two styles,-one abounding in shadow, which gives admirable brilliancy to the contrasting lights; the other more quiet, and managed by merely having recourse to middle tints. In each, the grace of his design, the expression of the mental affections, and the delicacy of his pencil, have not yet been surpassed, or perhaps equalled. He appears, however, to have been more solicitous to advance his art than to multiply his pictures; a kind of timidity, and fastidiousness,-a longing after an excellence which he considered he could not attain-appear often to have induced him to leave his works unfinished, not being able to arrive at that truth which he considered necessary to perfection. In addition to his merit as a painter, he was eminent as a sculptor. Florence before he was thirty. Whilst there, however, he painted little except his celebrated picture of the Last Supper; but, during this period, he raised the school of Milan to great eminence by superintending an academy of the arts, which produced illustrious pupils. This, and the production of his Last Supper (one of the greatest triumphs of art), render his stay at Milan one of the most important periods of his life. This picture is well known to all who take the slightest interest in the fine arts, by the celebrated engraving of Raphael Morghen. The picture itself has long been destroyed, but we are fortunate in having in this country (in the possession of the Royal Academy) a very fine copy of it by Oggione, and Sir Thomas Lawrence succeeded in collecting, at a great price, the studies made, as he conceived, by Da Vinci, for the different heads. After the misfortunes of Sforza, Leonardo returned to Florence, and during the thirteen years he remained there, painted some of his best works; and it was at this time that he executed the Cartoon of the Battle, which was designed to rival the work of Michael Angelo. He went to Rome at the time Leo X. became Pope, but remained there only for a short time; and it is stated that it was his procrastinating disposition and disinclination to finish his works, that caused Leo X. to withhold from him his patronage. The history of the misfortunes which led to the destruction of this picture are curious-it was originally painted in oil instead of fresco; and from some defect in the oil or plaster, it soon peeled off, and was at various times retouched and repainted. The refectory of the convent in which ing no great esteem for this production, the middle it was painted was low and damp: the friars havof the wall on which it was painted being in a line with their kitchen, a door-way was cut through the picture. The chief destruction took place in 1770 by one Mezza, who actually scraped off all the remaining outlines of the picture, and restored heads of his own in all the figures. And in 1796, when the French occupied Milan, the refectory was first a barrack and then for some years a magazine for forage; but notwithstanding this, in the year 1828, we saw a painter mounted upon an immense scaffolding, copying for some crowned head, with great care,this mere ghost of its former greatness. All that is known in reality of the His life is usually divided into four periods; the first during the time he remained at Florence. The second was whilst he was at Milan, where he was invited by Ludovico Sforza, and where he is represented to have delighted every one by performing on a silver lyre (a new instrument of his own construction) no less than by his eloquence and his poetry. Here he remained till 1499, absorbed in abstruse studies and in mechanical and hydrostatical labours for the state. The seventeen years he spent at Milan, were after he had attained the maturity both of his age and fame, as he did not leave founding the Sacrament of the Supper. picture is collected from tradition; and through the medium of several excellent copies, some of them by artists of note, who studied the original in the day of its greatest preservation. The one from which the celebrated engraving by Raphael Morghen was taken is from a fresco painted by Marco d'Oggione, in 1514, at the refectory of a suppressed convent at Castellazo, assisted, however, by sketches of Leonardo. It is remarkable that two judicious critics in this country have both mistaken the subject entirely. Mr. Addison calls it the Feast at Cana; and Mr. Roscoe considers the Saviour as in the act of dispensing the elements of bread and wine, and Francis I., who had seen the painting of the Last Supper at Milan, became desirous of possessing so eminent an artist; and although Da Vinci was then an old man, he invited him to his court. The rivalry which existed between Da Vinci and Michael Angelo, and, the fact that the latter was preferred to him both at Rome and at Florence, probably induced him to quit his native country with little regret, particularly as, by withdrawing from all cause of excitement and irritation, he was enabled to consult his own ease and happiness. He accordingly went to France, where, however, he expired in 1519, in the arms of his royal patron, before he had employed his pencil in his service. Raphael de Santi, or Sanzio, the third and last of the great triumvirate, was the son of an inferior painter, and was born at Urbino in 1483. He was early placed at Perugia, under Pietro Perugino, an artist of considerable celebrity, and whose style he in a great measure adopted in his early works; but, like his great contemporaries, he soon surpassed his master, abandoning the stiffness of his draperies, his dryness and harshness, and animating with spirit the gestures and countenances of his heads. The bent of his genius was towards the voluptuous and graceful, and led him to that ideal beauty, grace, and expression which may be considered as the most refined and difficult province of painting. Whilst at Rome he principally studied the remains of Grecian sculpture, by which he perfected his knowledge of the art; and he also devoted much time to the study of the ancient buildings in that city. He studied. six years under his relation Bramante, the architect, in order that at his death he might succeed him in the manage ment of the building of St. Peter's. A vivid apprehension, a sort of fervour in seizing the sudden expression of passion, and a facility of execution, seem to have marked his earliest works. The career of Raphael was, however, as short as it was brilliant; yet a careful investigation of his works, in the order of time in which they were executed, shew, even to a common observer, the continued and rapid improvements he made in the highest branches of his art; whilst Da Vinci appears to have been almost paralyzed by hesitation and doubt, and to have been in a constant state of balance betwixt his notions of elaborate finish and want of perseverance. He left behind him but few works during a life of eighty-seven years; whilst Raphael, who died at thirty-seven, in the full vigour of life, left an infinite variety of pictures*. The last, and, perhaps, greatest effort of his genius, is the Transfiguration. Mengs observes, that this contains more excellencies than any of his numerous works. It is well known by the various celebrated and costly engravings which have been made of it. We hope, however, at no very distant period, to furnish engravings of this and others of the most celebrated productions of the great masters, at a price which will enable the most humble to obtain them; so that we may be enabled, by thus diffusing the knowledge, to raise the standard of taste for works of art. In speaking of the three great masters of painting, who, together, appear to have attained every degree of excellence of which the art is susceptible, the name of Fra Bartolommeo must not be omitted, even in this short notice. "He," observes Fuseli, "first gave gradation to colour, form and masses to drapery, a grave dignity, till then unknown, to execution. If he were not endowed with the versatility and comprehension of Leonardo, his principles were less mixed with base matter, and less apt to mislead him. As a member of a religious order, he confined himself to subjects and characters of piety; but the few nudities he allowed himself to exhibit shew sufficient intelligence and still more style. He foreshortened with truth and boldness, and wherever the figure did admit of it, made his drapery the vehicle of the limb it invests. He * Raffaelle Sanzio was one of the geniuses the most favoured by nature, to whose development the culture and taste of the age, the society of the great men then living, the wise magnificence of princes, and the progress of his predecessors in the fine arts equally contributed. He was inferior to Michael Angelo in the knowledge of the human machine, and in the art of executing possible subjects; but he was superior to all in the execution of subjects of fact, in which he carried the expression of the passions and feelings of the soul to perfection. Thence as Buonaroti strikes the mind, compels it to think and to admire, Raffaello goes straight forward to the heart, overwhelming it with a magical delight, and obliges it to feel, though uneducated and unused to the language of the fine arts. Recognising, however, the excelheart than mind, and are more touched by fact than by the possible, though sublime, Raffaello has, for three centuries, been deservedly considered as the prince of painting; and if men were differently formed, the crown of supremacy would belong to Michael Angelo. Raffaello was a good architect; he author, at least as far as the substance of it, of a commented Vitruvius, and he is thought to be the beautiful letter to Leo X., on the manner of drawing copies of the antiquities of Rome. He also directed, and perhaps modelled, the statue of Jonas, which is still in Rome, at the Madonna del Popolo. lence of both, each in his line, as men have more was the true master of Raphael, whom his tuition weaned from the meanness of Perugino, and prepared for the mighty style of Michael Angelo. "Whilst Michael Angelo, Da Vinci, and Raphael had thus raised the character of the Tuscan, Roman, and Lombard schools, Giorgione (Giorgio Barbarelli) first, and then Titian (Tiziano Vecelli,) about the same period, displayed in their works the more alluring charm of colour,thus founding what has been termed the Venetian school. To no colourist did nature unveil herself with that dignified familiarity in which she appeared to Titian. His organ, universal and equally fit for all her exhibitions, rendered her simplest and her most compound appearances with equal purity and truth. He penetrated the essence and the general principle of the substances before him, and on them exhibited his theory of colour." * The last great advance in art was made by Correggio (Antonio Allegri); he it was who attained that peculiar harmony and grace, which had never before been so fully and strikingly developed; and added a magnificence of breadth and ofrelief which has been exhibited only by himself. "The harmony and the grace of Correggio are proverbial; the medium by which breadth of gradation unites the two opposite principles-the coalition of light and darkness by imperceptible transition, are the elements of his style: this inspires his figures with grace, and to this their grace is subordinate. The most appropriate,the most elegant attitudes were adopted, rejected, perhaps sacrificed, to the most awkward ones, in compliance with this imperious principle. Hosts vanished, were absorbed, or emerged in obedience to it. This union of the whole predominates over all that remains of him, from the vastness of his cupolas to the smallest of his oil pictures. The harmony of Correggio, though assisted by exquisite hues, was entirely independent of colour; his great organ was light and shade in its most extensive sense. The bland, central light of a globe imperceptibly gliding through lurid demi-tints into rich reflected shades, composes the style of Correggio, and affects us with the soft emotions of a dream+." Such were the singular effects of genius, that in so short a period raised modern art to its highest pitch. So rapid was its progress, that one enjoying the common term of life, might have witnessed its rise, progress, and decline. After the works of those who have been mentioned, little was done by the artists who followed, except in refining and ornamenting that which had been struck out by their great predecessors. Whilst Raphael died too early to witness the decline of the art he had so materially assisted to perfect, the long life of Michael Angelo permitted him to see and to lament the perversion of those principles which he had developed. Amongst the most distinguished disciples of the Roman schools may be mentioned Pelegrino Tebaldi of Bologna, Julio Pipi (Romano) and M.A. Amerigi (Il Caravaggio). The principle of Correggio found no worthy follower except in Parmegiano (Francesco Muzzuoli), who may be said to have refined upon the grace of his master, to a degree of elegance, which, however, was too often allied to weakness and affectation. Towards the end of the sixteenth century arose at Bologna the school of the three Carracci, known by the name of the Eclectic School, from its leading principle of endeavouring to select the beauties, correct the faults, supply the defects, and avoid the extremes of the different styles; a union which the slightest consideration shews to be entirely incompatible. These principles of the eclectic school speedily caused its decay, and the most eminent of the scholars, such as Domenichino, Schedoni, Guido Reni, and Guercino, soon found their peculiar bias, and followed their own course, unfettered by such inconsistent rules. As even a short notice of the life of Michael Angelo would have been imperfect without a sketch of the rise and progress of art to excellence, so the singularity of its almost equally rapid decline was too curious to pass entirely without notice; and this must be the apology for the few meagre extracts which have been given from Mr. Fuseli's very spirited notice of the art of the moderns in his second lecture. CHAPTER VIII. Character of Michael Angelo as a Sculptor and Painter. HAVING thus shortly traced the history of painting and sculpture, both ancient and modern, we shall, before we refer to the architectural productions of Michael Angelo, consider his character and rank as a painter and sculptor. An estimate of his powers in these two branches of art may be best formed by a reference to the opinions of some of the most eminent writers on art of our own country. Although we may not have produced any artists worthy to contend with the great Italian painters, yet it may be affirmed that no country has hitherto produced writers more fully capable of appreciating the merit and beauties of the Italian school, or of developing the principles of its great masters, than our English artists. Neither Italy nor France has produced works equal to the lectures of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Fuseli, and Flaxman. In general, the Italian and French have wasted their time in antiquarian discussions on minute points, or in subtle metaphysical theories on beauty, ideality, and grace. The paintings of Sir Joshua Reynolds have deservedly placed him at the head of our English school, and his Discourses, taken as a whole, perhaps, place him in the first rank of critics on subjects relating to art. The following extracts, from the lectures of Sir Joshua Reynolds, contain his opinions on the merits of Michael Angelo as a painter. "When we consider that Michael Angelo was the great archetype to whom Parmegiano was indebted for that grandeur which we find in his works, and from whom all his contemporaries and successors have derived whatever they have possessed of the dignified and the majestic; that he was the bright luminary, trom whom painting has borrowed a new lustre; that under his hands it assumed a new appearance, and is become another and superior art; I may be excused if I take this opportunity, as I have hitherto taken on every occasion, to turn your attention to this exalted founder and father of modern art, of which he was not only the inventor, but which, by the divine energy of his own mind, he carried at once to its highest point of possible perfection. 66 The sudden maturity to which Michael Angelo brought our art, and the comparative feebleness of his followers and imitators, might perhaps be reasonably, at least plausibly, explained, if we had time for such an examination. At present I shall only observe, that the subordinate parts of our art, and perhaps of other arts, expand themselves by a slow and progressive growth; but those which depend on a native vigour of imagination generally burst forth at once into fulness and beauty. Of this, Homer, probably, and Shakspeare more assuredly, are signal examples. Michael Angelo possessed the poetical part of our art in a most eminent degree; and the same daring spirit, which urged him first to explore the unknown regions of the imagination, delighted with the novelty and animated by the success of his discoveries, could not have failed to stimulate and impel him forward in his career beyond those limits, which his followers, destitute of the same incentives, had not strength to pass. "To distinguish between correctness of drawing, and that part which respects the imagination, we may say the one approaches to the mechanical (which, in its way too, may make just pretensions to genius) and the other to the poetical. To encourage a solid and vigorous course of study, it may not be amiss to suggest that, perhaps, a confidence in the mechanical produces a boldness in the poetic. He that is sure of his ship and tackle, puts out fearlessly from the shore; and he who knows that his hand can execute whatever his fancy can suggest, sports with more freedom in embodying the visionary forms of his own creation. I will not say Michael Angelo was eminently poetical, only because he was greatly mechanical; but I am sure that mechanical excellence invigorated and emboldened his mind to carry painting into the regions of poetry, and to stimulate that art in its most adventurous flights. Michael Angelo equally possessed both qualifications. Yet, of mechanical excellence, there were certainly great examples to be found in ancient sculpture, and particularly in the fragment known by the name of the Torso of Michael Angelo; but of that grandeur of character, air, and attitude which he threw into all his figures, and which so well corresponds with the grandeur of his outline, there was no example; it could, therefore, proceed only from the most poetical and sublime imagination. "It is impossible not to express some surprise, that the race of painters who preceded Michael Angelo, men of acknowledged great abilities, should never have thought of transferring a little of that grandeur of outline which they could not but see and admire in ancient sculpture, into their own works; but they appear to have considered sculpture as the later schools of artists look at the inventions of Michael Angelo, |
