George Merula was another celebrated illuminator, whose works possess a wonderful vivacity of colouring, graceful intricacy, and playfulness, with great truth in the figures of children, animals, flowers, festoons, and every variety of the arabesque. It was the custom for princes who aimed at literary fame, to keep some of these illumi nators constantly in their service, who travelled about wherever there were valuable works to be copied, and by that means formed a collection for their employer. Some of these works are of such delicacy and richness, as to be truly magnificent, and worthy to be collected, had they no other merit than their beauty alone. But in fact the great talent in painting of that period seems to have merged in this art ; it was most in request, and best paid, and would therefore naturally enough, become the pursuit of who ever felt a disposition for the cultivation of the arts.
To return to the school of Florence; Pope Sixtus IV. prepared to call forth the best talents of the age, in paint ing his celebrated Sextine chapel, which was begun in the year 1474. As Florence was at that time the capital of the arts, he summoned from thence the painters of the greatest reputation to undertake the work, among whom was Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, Rosselli, Lucca di Cortona, and Arezzo. This pontiff had no intelligence in the art himself, but was very desirous of the glory which it might add to his name. Of these artists, Ghirlandajo, whose real name was Dominic Corradi, obtained the greatest re putation, and was the first of the Florentines who seems to have studied aerial perspective, and by that means gave such depth to his pictures as astonished his contempora ries. It is quite surprising that this effect of aerial per spective should so long have escaped the notice of artists; so very obvious is the progressive degradation occasioned by the intervention of air, as objects are more or less re moved from the eye: its effect in softening down the co lour, and blending of the lights and shades, can scarce escape observation. The effect is no doubt less striking under the clear limpid atmosphere of Italy, than in a more northern climate; but still it must, in every case, be suf ficiently obvious, one would think, to command attention.
It is usual to talk in raptures of the clear diaphanous atmosphere of Italy ; and doubtless few can be insensible of its delicious serenity ; but in a picturesque point of view, so much are we in love with the magic of aerial per spective, that we claim the preference for that climate where its effects are so much more strikingly and beauti fully exemplified; where every progressive mountain reach of our own romantic valleys takes its place in the scale of distance, with a precision, and at the same time a playful ness, in the succession of vanishing tints, unknown under the clear sky of Italy. There, the visible intervention of
air is so imperceptible as utterly to bewilder our northern eyes, accustomed to measure distance so accurately by that medium, and where every part of the landscape, com pared to the gradations we arc accustomed to, is equally bright, clear, and defined.
Ghirlandajo obtained a name for having made this disco very, the magical effect of which is denied to sculpture, and perhaps constitutes the principal advantage which painting possesses over sculpture. This power of repre senting distance, which is so fascinating to all, and seems so surprising to the uninformed, is seldom discoverable in any of the more ancient works. Landscape, of which it is the soul, was, however, as yet very little cultivated, and must have excited great admiration when joined to the charms of novelty. However excellent a foreground may be, of which alone an historical picture consists, it is but an approach, more or less, to truth, from its distinctness, and supposed vicinity to the eye ; but when we come to look at the lovely demi-tints of the middle ground, the uncertain vanishing of the distance. it seems nature itself. It is the part of the picture where the eye reposes with perfect freedom, and the impression of which on the me mory will most probably be of longest duration; it invites imagination to dwell upon the idea : whereas in the fore ground there is little scope for imagination ; we must take it in all the distinctness in which it is placed before us. Every one must have experienced the difficulty with which we withdraw the eye from an extensive scene in nature; there is a fascination in the progressive indistinct ness of distance which rivets the mind, and transports us into a pleasing state of reverie : it is this magic which aerial perspective has the power excite, and that in a de gree scarcely inferior to nature.
There are many works of Ghirlandajo's at Florence, of which the Massacre of the Innocents, in the church of St. Maria Novella, is looked upon as one of the best. He has given in it the protraits of most of the principal citi zens of Florence of his time, whether from necessity or choice is uncertain; but it must have had the effect of cramping his genius, in so far as it excluded the workings of invention. Ghirlandajo omitted much of the gilding which tarnished the works of his predecessors : he aimed at a nobler and more effectual means of producing effect and beauty. He was very partial to mosaic, and used to say, that the works in perishable colours were but the draw ing, whilst mosaic only constituted real painting, in so far as it was capable of eternal duration. He had a nu merous school, and many pictures of the scholars now pass for those of the master. He failed, however, in that great test, the painting of hands and feet.