ITALIAN PAINTING OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
While during the preceding period Italy alone plays an important part in the development of painting, throughout the centuries of the Renaissance Germany and the Netherlands take rank almost by her side, though without producing men of such transcendent genius.
The opening years of the fifteenth century saw radical changes and unequalled activity in both architecture and sculpture, but painting seems not only to have lagged behind in the race, but also not to have felt the same impulses. However strange this may at first appear, it is easily explained. Of all the fine arts, painting is the most psychological and individual, that which receives the strongest impress of each individual artist—that in which, consequently, the greatest diversity is found. It is, therefore, the last to show the effects of a new movement, the art in which such a movement is represented with least uniformity and clearness.
Schools of Mc sculpture we have already noticed three currents—the Religious, the Classical, and the Naturalistic; in painting these same currents are visible, but in a more complicated form. In the early Renaissance the religious school, in a new form, is represented by Fra Angelico, by Filippo Lippi, and by the Sienese school; at the head of the classical school stands the great Mantegna; while naturalism and realism are represented by Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno, and others. But many masters, such as the BeMill, Antonello da Messina, and Masolino, it is impossible to classify in this way. There are also several whose genius was so broad as to include elements apparently discordant.
first painter who entered frankly and fully on the path of realism seems to have been Masaccio (1402-1429), who flourished early in the fifteenth century. In the frescos which decorate the Braucacci Chapel in the Church of S. Maria del Carmine at Florence, we must distinguish what is due to Masaccio and what to a later master, Filippino Lippi. The most authentic work by Masaeeio is that repre senting a napiism by Si. Peicr 30, jg, 1). A youth has stepped clown into the stream, and the apostle pours the consecrating water upon his head; another is laying aside his garments, and a third stands naked, waiting. Not only are the nude figures excellently modelled, but the artist has also reproduced to the life the shudder on entering the cold waves and the shivering in the chilly air. In the heads we see faithful portraits of the Florentines among whom the painter lived, and whom he took as models instead of drawing on his imagination and ideal faculty.
In this work we seem to pass without transition from the pale imi tations of Giotto's style to the full blooming of naturalism. The same careful study of nature appears in the figures of Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise (fig. 2). But Masaccio remained for some time an isolated instance; he was a pioneer of the style which the masters of the early sixteenth century made their own. Raphael even gave a free reproduc
tion of these figures of Adam and Eve in his Expulsion from Paradise in the Loggie of the Vatican.
Lippi (146o-15o4), who flourished half a century after Masaccio, executed the remainder of the frescos in the Brancacci Chapel, in which he shows a style strongly akin to that of his illustrious pre decessor. Figure 3 represents Si. Peter in Prison visiied by Si. Paul, and Figure 4 St. Peier released from Prison by an Ancel while the keeper sleeps. In their simplicity and breadth these compositions approach great perfection, but the realism, though not exaggerated, does not suf ficiently remove them from scenes of every-day life. The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is the best place to study the style of Filippino especially in its relation to that of the other prominent masters of his time, many of whom have left in this chapel specimens of their skill.
Classic Influences before the time when the study of the antique became prevalent the first awakening of a love for classic art can be discerned among men of letters and artists. It is strange that the earliest and strongest signs of this awakening should be found in Northern Italy—a field the least prolific in remains of ancient art. For our purpose it will be sufficient to mention that Padua, that great intel lectual centre, the neighbor of Venice, saw at the beginning of the fifteenth century the formation of one of the earliest collections of antiques made for the express purpose of serving as artistic models. This collection was made by the painter Francesco Squarcione (1394-1474), who even travelled through Greece in search of works with which to enrich it. The fruits of this spirit are seen in Squarcione's great pupil, Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506), the greatest painter of the early Renaissance. He was so thoroughly imbued with the antique spirit that we can almost believe the figures carved on the Arch of Titus to have come down to take part in the procession of the Tniemph of Julius Caesar, a section of which is reproduced in Figure 31). In this painting the Roman soldiers are bearing the trophies of war, some staggering under the weight of the captured panoplies, others bearing aloft the vessels of gold and silver. (Compare jig. t, pl. with jig. 12, pl. to.) But Mantegna united to the study of the antique both that of nature and that of the laws of perspective. He became a master of the technique of his art; this sometimes appears to lead him into the mistake of placing his figures iu artificial positions or of attempting effects merely to show his skill at overcoming technical difficulties. But this is rarely the case, and his art remains simple and grand. It is not realistic, for in no painter of this period except Fra Angelico do we find less imitation of the human nature of the day, and yet it cannot be termed ideal. Strength, boldness, and simplicity are characteristics which he can certainly claim.