LATE VENETIAN AND BOLOGNESE SCHOOLS.
We turn now to the master-colorists, the Venetians. Busied with per fecting the exquisite warm tones of their clear and harmonious coloring, the members of this school set less value on inventiveness in composi tion or a dramatic treatment of the subject ; they arranged their groups simply and preferred a certain natural calmness and both in bodily action and in expression. Religious subjects were never treated with less reverence or in a more unsuitable manner, being made merely a pretext instead of an end.
Titian.—Tiziano Vecellio—commonly known as Titian—who was horn near I'icve di Cadore, Friuli, in 1477 and died in Venice in 1576, is the type and culmination of Venetian art. He was a man full of enjoy ment of life. Like Michelangelo, he continued his creative activity into extreme old age; he was, however, no brooding solitary, like the great Florentine, but of cheerful and social disposition, looking always on the best side of things. In his religions paintings the usual ecclesiastical tra dition makes way for humanity in its purely material aspect. This pure humanitarianism, with its love for and its appreciation of sensuous bestuty, is stamped upon our two pictures by Titian, one depicting a biblical, the other a mythological, subject. In the Chris/ and Mc 33, fig. 3) we see morality and mild clearness of intellect opposed to selfish slyness and impudence; and these qualities are marked, not in the faces only, but also in the hands—in the simplicity of Christ's gesture and in the knavishly-crooked fingers of the Pharisee. The situation, resulting in an intellectual victory of nobleness over baseness, is intense, yet is treated with an absence of effort that seems magical.
There still survive several pictures by Titian in the style of the Reclining UCIMS (fig. 2)—Women stretched languidly upon soft couches, splendid displays of feminine beauty. An excuse or motive for their nudity was found in the name of Venus, which applied even when, as in the one before us, a youth in the costume of the period touches his lute beside the voluptuous form, whose mythological character is sug gested by the Love that places a wreath upon her head. This nudity implies no wantonness or lasciviousness of the painter's imagination: he simply joys in the glorious beauty of the human body and conceives nature in a spirit no less grand and noble than was that of ancient art.
In the treatment of the flesh and the harmony of the tones the picture is a triumph of painting. The backgrounds, too, are noticeable here, as in Palma Vecchio's portrait of his daughters (fig. I). A strong feeling for nature drew the Venetians out under the open sky, into the woods and fields; the importance they give to the backgrounds of figure-pieces earns them praise as landscape-painters.
Palma Palma—called Il Palma Vecchio—was born near Bergamo about 148o, and died in 1528. The records concerning him are meagre, but he is believed to have studied under Giovanni Bellini. Vecchio was a prolific painter, and contributed much to the expansion of the art of the sixteenth century. Except for the portrait like female heads, he did not depart from the range of Madonnas and saints then most in vogue. Vecchio's picture of his three fair and stately Daughlers (fig. I) furnishes us an example of the admirable portrait-painting of the Venetians, and embodies his conception of blooming womanhood. Examples of his work are preserved in the various art-centres of Italy.
Paid is known of the life of Paolo Cagliari—called Paul Veronese (1528-1588)—except that Venice seems to have been his principal residence, where lie produced those numerous grand dramatic compositions which add an air of Italian splendor to every gallery they adorn. The works of Veronese exhibit the distinctive principles of the Venetian school, and his reputation rests chiefly on his representations of festivals. The (fig. 4) transports us, not to Cana, but to Venice. Christ sits at the table among Venetian lords and ladies, who are full of talk and mirth. There is no question of the miracle, of which we see nothing, but it is evident that the new wine has an excellent flavor, especially to the distinguished-looking man in the foreground, who, rising from hi: seat, holds aloft his elegant drinking-cup with the air of a con noi.seur. Altogether, the religious picture may be said to have already become simply genre on a large scale. This is merely one example of w hat had become a general rule.