Read Ebook: The Mentor: The National Gallery—London Vol. 4 Num. 4 Serial No. 104 April 1 1916 Great Galleries of the World by Van Dyke John Charles

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He was born in Venice in 1518. Even as a child he daubed pictures on the walls of his father's dye house. His father soon noticed this, and took him around to the studio of Titian, to see if he could be trained as an artist. The famous old painter agreed to attempt it, but Jacopo had only been ten days in the studio when Titian sent him home for good. It is said that the great master did this out of jealousy, believing that the boy might become his rival. However, it may be fairer to presume that Titian really did not think that the young dyer would ever become an artist. It is a well-known fact, however, that Titian was a bad teacher.

Then Tintoretto began studying for himself. He obtained small copies of Michelangelo's sculptures and drew from them as models. He worked night and day at this.

Many disappointments blocked his path. Titian dictated the public work among the painters of Venice, and he invariably passed by Tintoretto. Therefore, the young artist in order to make himself known, undertook to do great works without pay. He neglected no order, however humble, and he chose his subjects from all sources.

It was not until he was thirty years old that he received a commission to paint in the Ducal Palace in Venice--the desire of his heart. Hard times were then over for him. He married Faustina de'Vescovi, the daughter of a Venetian nobleman. She was a careful housewife and an excellent companion for her impetuous husband.

The next important event in Tintoretto's life was the decoration of the Scuola di St. Marco. This was in 1560. About thirty years later he did the crowning production of his life. This was the huge "Paradise." It is seventy-four feet by thirty feet, and is said to be the largest painting ever done upon canvas.

After the completion of this picture Tintoretto rested for awhile. Thereafter he never undertook any work of importance. In 1594 he was seized with an attack of sickness, and he died on May 31.

His daughter, Marietta, was also a portrait painter of some note. She died at the age of thirty, and Tintoretto grieved for her greatly. It is said that he painted her portrait as she lay dead.

Tintoretto hardly ever traveled out of Venice. He liked music, and as a youth played the lute and other instruments, some of which he invented himself. He liked to design theatrical costumes. He was an agreeable companion, but as he was a hard worker he lived a rather retired life, hardly admitting any, even his intimate friends, to his presence.

It is said that when the artist left the house his wife wrapped up money for him in a handkerchief. On his return she made him tell how it had been spent.

There are a number of Tintoretto's works in England, among them being the spirited work "St. George and the Dragon." He had few pupils.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY

GERARD TER BORCH

Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course

One of the most famous of the "Little Masters" of Holland was Gerard Ter Borch, or Terburg, as he is sometimes called. This artist, whose pictures are always full of color, loved to paint brilliant cloths and dazzling jewelry. His paintings are pictures pure and simple.

Ter Borch was born at Zwolle, Holland, in 1617. His father, who was also an artist, gave him a good education and developed the youth's talent very early. The boy evidently was in Amsterdam in 1632, studying under C. Duyster or possibly P. Codde. Duyster's influence can be traced in a picture bearing the date of 1638. Before this picture was painted, however, in 1634, he studied under Pieter Molyn in Haarlem.

About 1635 Ter Borch went to London and later on he traveled extensively in Germany, France, Spain and Italy. In 1641 he painted some small portraits on copper in Rome. Seven years later he was at M?nster during the meeting of the congress which ratified the treaty of peace between Spain and the Netherlands. It was there that he did his famous little picture on copper of the assembled ministers. This picture, together with the "Guitar Lesson" and a "Portrait of a Man Standing," is now in the National Gallery. The picture of the peace commissioners was bought by the Marquess of Hertford for ,400, and presented to the gallery by Sir Richard Wallace.

There he lived for a time at Haarlem. Later on he finally settled in Deventer, where he became a member of the town council. It is as a member of this body that he appears in the portrait now in the Gallery of the Hague. Ter Borch died at Deventer in 1681.

Some critics rank this artist very close to Rembrandt and Franz Hals. He liked to portray the higher social circles of his day with all the stately pomp that distinguished them. This took delicate technical skill in the representation of costly costumes, and in addition to all this, Ter Borch was able to give a poetic charm to the interior of the houses which he portrayed, throwing romantic interest over anything.

The paintings of Ter Borch are quite rare. Only about eighty have been catalogued. His work is free from the touch of grossness that characterized many of the Dutch artists of the time.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS

Monograph Number Six in The Mentor Reading Course

Sir Joshua Reynolds was one of the greatest of English portrait painters; and as a painter of childhood he has no superior. He was a rapid worker, and it is estimated by some authorities that he finished as many as 3,000 portraits. His career was one long series of successes, and he made an immense fortune by his painting.

Reynolds was born in Devonshire, England, on July 16, 1723. Thomas Hudson was his first teacher. Then the young artist visited Italy. There he studied carefully the works of the old masters. He returned to London and almost immediately was accorded first place among the portrait painters of the day. At the same time he became one of the leading members of the famous Literary Club, among whose members were Doctor Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith, the authors, David Garrick, the leading actor of the time, and other men prominent in the fields of art and letters.

The British Royal Academy was founded in 1768, and its first president was Reynolds. There he distinguished himself by delivering his famous "Discourses" on art. With these he proved himself to be as much a master of words as of the brush.

Reynolds' success and prosperity naturally made his less fortunate rivals jealous of him; at the same time his attitude towards some of them was not altogether generous. In particular his relations with Gainsborough were not pleasant. Nevertheless, Reynolds went to Gainsborough's deathbed, and there was an apparent reconciliation.

In 1784, at the death of Ramsay, Reynolds was appointed painter to the king. Two years before a stroke of paralysis had attacked him; but he was able to resume his painting after a month of rest. In the summer of 1789, however, his sight began to fail. Nevertheless, he continued to practise his art until about the end of 1790. But from then on he began to sink gradually. He suffered for only a few months, and on February 23, 1792, passed peacefully away.

Sir Joshua Reynolds, though a great artist, lacked academic education, and therefore he never could draw the human figure properly. He sacrificed this ability to secure a thorough knowledge of the great paintings of the world, their faults and their excellencies.

GREAT GALLERIES OF THE WORLD

THE NATIONAL GALLERY

LONDON

THE MENTOR ? DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS

APRIL 1, 1916

The National Gallery, whether the tourist sees it first or last in his trip around Europe, is sure to make an impression. It is one of the famous galleries of the world, and has a rarefied atmosphere about it, even to those who know the galleries by heart. The walk up the wide stone steps approaching the first room excites a wonder that is almost amazement. The pictures have a richness--a jewel quality about them--that seems preternaturally splendid. You have not perhaps noticed such depth and mellowness of color in other galleries. What does it mean? Well, in some cases it may mean merely that the pictures are framed under glass, and get a certain tone and richness from that; but it more often means that you are looking at very unusual pictures. The National Gallery is full of masterpieces.

Where did they come from? Out of the famous private collections of England. When nobility dies without an heir, or the heir himself needs money, then the pictures collected by the art-loving elders of perhaps a dozen generations come by bequest to the National Gallery, or find their way to the auction room and are purchased for the gallery. Thus it is that the National Gallery has been the natural inheritor of the rich collections of England. It started less than a hundred years ago with the Angerstein collection, and has been growing ever since with gifts of collections such as those of Vernon, Wynn Ellis, Vaughan, Salting. If it is found necessary to bid for a picture at auction, a government grant or the subscriptions of wealthy art patrons, or both, generally carries the day against any private collector. Thus such famous pictures as Raphael's "Ansidei Madonna," Titian's "Ariosto," Holbein's "Duchess of Milan" were bought for the gallery at enormous prices--the Raphael bringing over 0,000, and the others some 0,000 each.

There are now about 3000 pictures in the gallery, though, of course, all of them are not hung at any one time. There is not enough wall space for that, though the building is in a chronic state of enlargement. New rooms are added from year to year, and new editions of the catalogue are being continually issued. The gallery is very well arranged and lighted, and very well managed. Management of a gallery seems very easy to the public because there is apparently no friction, but the director has his trials. And the pictures have their perils, not only from accidents, but from fanatical visitors. The greatest perils however, are from dust, gas, the tooth of time, and the hand of the careless cleaner. The pictures in the European galleries have suffered more from drastic scrubbing and reckless restoration than from all the other causes combined. The cleaning room has been the graveyard of many a masterpiece.

ITALIAN MASTERPIECES

Beyond doubt the Italian pictures here are the most important, both in quality and in quantity. No gallery in Europe quite equals that of London in its Renaissance masterpieces. And its Pre-Renaissance pictures are not to be despised. Of their kind nothing could be finer than the altar-piece by Orcagna and the panels of Duccio or Monaco; but they are not carried so far, or so effectively, as the works of the later men--the "Doge Loredano" by Bellini, for example. Bellini is not the final word in art, but how perfect of its kind is this portrait of the Doge with its serene poise and supreme dignity! How devoid of anything like ostentation or display! And how direct it is in the revelation of the stern old warrior, who, when Doge of Venice, did not hesitate to wage war against France, Germany, and the Papacy--all three together. There are a number of attractive Madonnas by Bellini in the gallery, and an "Agony in the Garden" with a famous landscape at the back; but none of them quite comes up to the Doge in force or conviction of reality.

In the same vein, but with less nobility and more detail, is the "Portrait of a Young Man" by Antonello da Messina and the "Young Venetian" by Basaiti-- both contemporaries of Bellini in Venice. They were not his equals, however. Basaiti was his follower, as was also Catena, who is represented here by a large "Warrior Adoring the Infant Christ"--a notable picture for Catena. Among the early Venetians in the gallery Crivelli makes a distinct impression. There are half a dozen altarpieces by him, and one hesitates to say which is the best, so very perfect in workmanship are all of them. The "Annunciation" is perhaps the type, and for pure decorative charm few pictures go beyond it. The architecture of it, the rugs, curtains, bedspread, costumes, even the peacock and the children, are all put in for color effect and to carry out the scheme of making the picture beautiful to look at, as well as interesting in story. It fairly reeks with color. Crivelli's pictures are the most brilliant and the best preserved in surface of any of the early Venetian works; and, oddly enough, they are all painted, not in oil, but in distemper--the medium used before the introduction of oil. It was the Antonello da Messina mentioned above who is credited with bringing oil-painting to Venice about 1470, but Crivelli declined to use it.

GREAT VENETIANS

Bellini was as famous for his pupils as for his work, he having been the master, or the influencer, of almost all the great Venetians. Giorgione and Titian were his direct pupils, and the difference between the portrait of the "Doge Loredano" and the portrait of "Ariosto" by Titian is the difference between master and pupil. Both portraits are reproduced herewith in photogravure, and the student has a good opportunity to compare them. Bellini belonged to the Early and Titian to the High Renaissance, and, in a measure, the portraits emphasize a difference in time, though they may have been painted in the same year. Bellini lived to be old--lived into the High Renaissance--and must have painted this portrait after 1501, when Loredano became Doge; Titian was young, and probably painted the "Ariosto" about 1508; but the style of the one is early, the style of the other late. The "Doge" has great dignity, but with it rigidity of poise, sharpness of line, paucity of light and shade, thinness of color. It is emphatic rather than insinuating, and a little awkward in its positive truth. The "Ariosto," on the contrary, is superb in its easy graceful poise, its inherent nobility of look, its perfect repose. The workmanship of it is infallibly right in its composition, its full light and shade, and its gamut of greys, browns and flesh colors. Compare the drawings of the robes for the difference between the men, and other differences will make themselves manifest. Both portraits are excellent, but they are by no means alike in point of view or method.

Titian was perhaps the master-painter of the craft in Italy, and the "Ariosto" is not his only masterpiece in the National Gallery. There is an early "Madonna" and a "Christ and the Magdalen," both of them excellent, and yet giving way in interest to his large "Ariadne and Bacchus," the most considerable of his figure pictures north of the Alps. It is a little cold in its blue color, but perfect in workmanship, and a marvel of life and movement. Tintoretto's "St. George and the Dragon" is a romantic canvas that in life and spirit presses the Titian very hard. It is not possible to pick flaws in it, which cannot be said about every Tintoretto. The charging St. George, the hurrying princess, the dead body, the sea, the sky, the distance, are quite as they should be. And what a beautiful piece of color! Tintoretto was a genius of exalted rank, as was also Paolo Veronese, some of whose best canvases are here--notably the large "Family of Darius at the Feet of Alexander."

The "St. Helena" is put down to Paolo in the catalogue, and, though it may not be by him, is, nevertheless, a fine picture in decorative arrangement and color. Lotto in a superb "Family Group" and Paris Bordone in the "Portrait of a Lady," of a patrician type, are both extremely well represented in the gallery; but perhaps they do not attract so much attention as a more commonplace portraitist--Moroni. The reason of this is that the National Gallery has two of the very best works by Moroni--the "Tailor" and the "Lawyer." The "Tailor" is very much admired, and justly so. He is shown standing at his cutting board, shears in hand, and as the door opens he looks up to see who has entered. What a very natural action! And what a serene, even noble, type of man! The portrait is modern enough in method to have been done today, only there is no painter of today who could do it. It is not, however, in the class with the Titian "Ariosto." Compare them and you will see that intellectually the Titian is the more profound, as technically it is the more subtle.

THE FLORENTINES

The Florentine trio--Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo--are represented here in rather dubious examples. The two Michelangelos are school pieces, though very good work, and the genuineness of the Leonardo da Vinci "Madonna of the Rocks" is disputed by a similar picture in the Louvre. The London picture has much beauty about it, and no doubt Leonardo had some hand in its production, but he was probably assisted in it by a pupil. As for Raphael, there are several pictures assigned to him, but none of them gives much of an idea of that great artist. The "Ansidei Madonna" cost a great deal of money, and has renown; but it is a thin, cold work of Raphael's youth. If you would see Raphael and judge him justly, you must go to Florence and Rome. Florence, too, is the proper place to see painters such as Andrea del Sarto, while Perugia is the spot for Perugino, and Parma for Correggio . One's opinion of an Italian painter is not to be formed from seeing one or more isolated examples of him in the northern galleries.

FLEMISH MASTERS

Among the Early Flemish painters there is nothing finer than the Arnolfini portraits by Jan Van Eyck, the pathetic "Deposition" by Bouts, or the two large panels by Gerard David . Work of a similar nature is shown by Gerard of Haarlem in his "Madonna and Child." It is delicate, miniature-like work, and not painting in any Hals or Velasquez sense; but done with tremendous earnestness and sincerity and without a slip or flaw technically. A much later man, Gossart tried to elaborate the miniature method of the early men, and apply it to large canvases. The result is here shown in the large "Adoration of Kings," wherein everything is so realized in surface appearance that you could pick up the tiles or hats or jewelled presents, so deceptively are they portrayed. This is, of course, considered a great feat in art, and ever since the picture was added to the gallery there have been many admirers about it. But art consists of something more than cats and fiddles to be picked up, as Sir Joshua Reynolds remarked many years ago.

The Later Flemings, Rubens and Van Dyck, did not despise a surface realism, but they spent no time on petty details. They struck out with a large brush, and sought to give also the body and bulk of things. Rubens, all told, had perhaps the most learned and facile brush of any of the great painters. He was more sure than Hals, more swift than Titian, more learned than Velasquez. He was the master craftsman of them all. His "Drunken Silenus," "Judgment of Paris" and "Chapeau de Paille" in this gallery will give you an excellent idea of his skill, his color sense, his Flemish point of view. His pupil, Van Dyck, never reached up to him, and was not the greatest portrait painter of the world, though he occasionally did a great portrait. One of them is in this gallery, the "Portrait of Cornelius Van der Geest," a perfect head, done in Van Dyck's early period; and done so surely and truly that it will stand comparison with the best works of any period or country.

THE DUTCHMEN

SPANISH AND GERMAN PICTURES

ENGLISH MASTERS

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