lessons of wisdom and truth; a serious of the Venetian school of painting at calling, having an object before it real Venice, where it can alone be studied to and definite, with no regard to merely perfection. In the illustration, however, pleasing the eyes of children and dilet- of the principles arrived at, we shall refer, tanti. Generally the subject was a reli- whenever it is possible, to the works of gious one, sometimes social or ceremo- the masters of this school in our National nial; but in either case the object was Gallery, or to those otherwise accessible always stern, solid, unmistakable in its to stay-at-home students. end as it was decided and definite in its First, then, as to character: by this is utterance. That this Art should have meant choice of subject and general assumed its highest phase in Venice is mode of thinking. This had a wide neither inexplicable nor surprising. It range, but not an unlimited one. For was there, between sea and sky, that instance, it never included the modern men's minds were touched by the loftiest imitation for imitation's sake. It took no and tenderest tones of thought. For who delight in furniture or fine clothes; nor could see the wakening dawn stealing even in flowers and landscapes, except in over the silent city, and not have his soul so far as they were accessories to somekindled by it; or who could watch the thing, for them, infinitely more importglowing evening pour out his gold on ant: that is, to men and women. turret and campanile, or the silvery moon that the Venetians were incapable of rise above the blue lagoon, and not be producing these and every other object soothed by it to tender and beautiful to the utmost perfection if they wished it. thoughts? Who could go among her In the low-toned pictures of Bassano the palaces, and see her robed senators and various vessels, vegetables, viands and picturesque populace pass to and fro, and articles of domestic economy are repronot long to paint them? Every human duced with the faithfulness of a Dutch emotion was pent within the city. painting. They, however, centralized all Wealth and power found their fittest their great powers on humanity, its feelsymbols in its rulers and its people. ings and emotions. The human face was Religion "assumed her most splendid garb. Nothing was wanting to generate and sustain the conditions, external and internal, of a noble school of art. It was inevitable that Venice should attain it. Not the most lovely and interesting thing they could find, therefore they painted it again and again, and were never tired of painting it; and although their interminable Madonnas and saints may be pronounced It is far too late in the history of Art to tedious by sacrilegious tourists, to the begin to point out the special character- thoughtful student each face in the best istics of the transcendent masters of this pictures of these noble masters - many school the subdued glory of Carpac- of them overflowing even to rapture with cio, the glowing splendour of Titian, the the most delicious tenderness of the titanic power of Tintoretto and Paul sweetest of all earthly relationships, that Veronese, the penetrating sweetness of of a mother, "the holiest thing alive,"John Bellini, the spiritual grace and will speak with a new and powerful voice stately simplicity of Palma Vecchio, the to him who listens to it. branch of the subject farther, since all are familiar with the Venetian character, as to choice and composition, by means of engravings, photographs, or other reproductions, even where the pictures from which they are taken are unknown. full-blown richness of Bonifazio and It is hardly necessary to pursue this Giorgione for they are already sufficiently well known. We will at once, therefore, enter on an analysis of their work in general, without actually instituting a close comparison with modern Art at every stage of the inquiry, but leaving the intelligent reader to form his own conclusions from that which we shall lay before him. For the clearer elucidation of this part of our subject it will be better to divide it into three separate heads for consider ation: first, the character of Venetian painting; second, its manner; third, the mechanical means used in its production. It may Of its manner a little more may be said; for, in a great measure, it was special and representative. It did not propose to itself many or diverse ends, but where it aimed it reached the mark. One is almost amazed at the simplicity of means these painters used. No sparkling lights flickered about their canvases, disturbing the mind and dazzling and perplexing the eyes of the spectator; there were no spots of scattered colour to introduce distraction into their work and i act as barriers to the introduction of the | The "Bacchus and Ariadne " of Titian mind into the heart of their conception, does not offer quite so simple an exposition of the rule; yet it is, nevertheless, sufficiently discernible: 1. figures and tree; 2. warm landscape; 3. blue distance; 4. sky. In the fine "Christ appearing to Mary" it is obvious enough: 1. figures; 2. landscape, with dark tree rising into the sky; 3. blue sea; 4. warm, rich sky. no fragments of light and shade to crown confusion with confusion, destroying repose and unity of appeal: for these was substituted an ordered assemblage of facts that the mind could take in at once, whose interest and fulness increased the more they were contemplated; a great massing by which one thing was never repeated in the same picture, nor two elements introduced into the same thing. If they painted a red dress, for example, its shadows were not laid in with purple or brown, nor its lights put on with purple or pink or blue; but it was what a red dress always is, red all over, and nothing else but red. Nor was there the least confusion or uncertainty in their lights or shadows. One part of their picture took the highest light, and was thus separated from all the rest and there was one lowest shade or shadow distinguishing itself from every other. These give the keynote to their picture, and all the rest is in beautiful harmony without repetition and without confusion. Another secret of their power is, that their pictures were generally painted in planes: usually three or four; rarely more than five or six. These always harmonized with each other; so much so that they are not seen unless looked for, although the aesthetic faculty does not fail to make use of the explicitness the picture gains thereby. A few examples of this mode of treatment may be given, which any one can test by a visit to our National Gallery. This simplicity of construction is very apparent in the central portion of the altar-piece by Girolamo, Romani. It may be said to consist of five planes or compositional parts, distinctly separable as follows: 1. the whole of the figures above and below; 2. wall behind the figures; 3 and 4. landscape (including two planes); 5. sky. It will be observed in this picture the half-tints in the drapery of the Madonna are made little of, every part of it being correspondingly toned down to its proper plane, undisturbed by any foreign high lights or shadows. Again, Titian's "Venus and Adonis " is easily reducible to four elementary parts: the massing of the light figures; the dark trees; the dogs, forming the middle or connecting tone between them; and the sky. In the nameless picture of "A Warrior adoring Christ we have in the first plane, the whole group of figures and horse; 2. the middle distance, comprising trees and landscape; 3. blue distance; 4. sky. Many more examples might be given of these simple reductions, but the above are sufficient for the purpose of illustration. In all Venetian Art of the great period they are conspicuous or traceable, and generally more or less so according to the greater or less power of the work. The value of this mode of looking at picturesque facts or material is a potency of appeal, a punctuation of purpose, so to speak, a solidity and grasp of expression which crushes the centrality of the picture into the mind of the observer with irresistible force and weight without the disturbance of impertinent detail or anything to divide the attention and interfere with its proper mission. The lesson to be learned from this is, that if a single flower has to be painted, it must be painted thoroughly, as for itself alone; that if a field has to be represented for its own sake, it must shine in all its wealth of colour and bloom though, even here there is wide room for choice and selection *- but that these and all other objects serving as accessories to a large subject or idea must be used only as adjuncts in which all distinctive treatment for their own sakes or for any speciality of execution will be more than thrown away, for it will be positively injurious. True Art never deifies her material at the expense of its significance. She makes her symbols inconsiderable that their meaning may be the plainer and more immediately penetrative, just as the master rhetorician who has anything to say worth the telling abandons the flowers of oratory for a simple statement of his ideas, well assured that if they are of a sterling sort, they will reach their mark more certainly and effectually by that means than any other. Thus Art will frequently make more of a pebble than a ruby, and out of pure reticence set aside her glistening silks for unobtrusive folds of sober serge, content to be nothing so that her end be accomplished, her mission well and faithfully executed. Turner's "Crossing the Brook" and "Frosty Morning" in the National Gallery will show how much art, and a broad interpretation of nature, go to form the epic in landscape painting. One reason for the present unimagina- Jers which is worth noticing. It is that of tive want of largeness in English painting removing their figures or groups wholly is undoubtedly the confusion of Art and from the background: not bestowing the Nature. The Art which influences men's light or shadow partly on the background minds the most permanently and in the and partly on the figure, but making the largest degree is not even an attempted one altogether lighter or darker than the reproduction of nature as it really ap- other. This, of course, is by no means a pears. The "Transfiguration of Ra- rule: but where it is used, it constitutes phael has no pretensions to literal truth- a great element of force and power. It is fulness of treatment in any part of it. perhaps, however, more generally the Form and figure and fold express all that case in regard to the distinctive separahe wanted them to express, and nothing tion of colour than light. would have been gained by a closer fol- One of the most marvellous instances lowing of nature and the life. It is not of power in order and mastery of breadth possible that one of the celebrated car- is the large picture of "Paradise" by toons or Vatican frescoes could enter into Tintoretto.in the Ducal Palace at Venice. the registry of fact; some of the figures It is said to be the largest picture in these works are even conventional ever painted upon canvas, and contains types adopted from previous painters. an innumerable number of faces and fig Many of the most renowned pictures rep-ures. Under any other treatment than resent several stages of the same dra- that of one of these giants in Art such a matic action. So little was actual repro- picture must have been more or less in duction or even verisimilitude aimed at by confusion: but it is not so here. Each the greatest painters that those who of these sweet and heavenly faces is an stand highest in the best schools never individual, and yet the picture is made scrupled to place names and inscriptions up of masses-is, indeed, simply conwith the utmost ingenuousness on their structed, considering the nature of the works and in this they were quite right; representation. It is painted in planes. for they knew and felt that their Art was There is a rich, dark, warm plane; there altogether something else than a poor is a light and glowing one; there is a soft, apology for nature, and thus they threw it tender, pearly-grey one: all separated wholly on its own basis and bearing by from each other, all harmonized with each getting rid of the notion that it was ever other, all contributing to make a picture their intention or desire to approach the as individual in its parts as it is grand in actual in any degree whatsoever. A its entirety; a world brought by the Hamlet, a Sylvia, or a Desdemona, never painter's magic power into the compass existed in real life as Shakespeare has of a canvas: one broad glance will see it portrayed them. We never see people as a picture; days of study will not exact, or hear them speak, precisely as they haust its almost ungraspable wealth of act and speak. Their prototypes, it is material. true, are found among us, but, we repeat, It has been said that the Venetian in no one particular are the characters of painters seldom disturbed their breadth Shakespeare, or those of any true artist, of appeal by tints or tones other than mere draughts of those they have seen local, or such as are produced by large around them. This holds good from conditions of circumstance: but this, it Eschylus to Michel Angelo, and from should be remarked, is not invariably the Michel Angelo to Walter Scott. Titian's case. Sometimes in the draperies of tree is a painter's, not a naturalist's Paul Veronese and Tintoretto we find tree. It is an organism, but an organ-varying elements introduced to a certain ism of his own mind, not of nature. extent. This, however, does not invaliEven on his faces he has bestowed date the rule. They did it subject to the as much as he found in them. Nature dominant idea of this law of breadth, and must be the artist's servant, not his for that reason these variations did not master: his language and expressional medium, not the ruler and usurper of his ideas; and if she must be reproduced at all, she must be translated through Art, not mimicked by artifice. disturb their pictures nearly so much as would be the case in a modern picture painted from no such centrality of principle. It ought to be observed that in their very finest works these freedoms are To return to the subject immediately never introduced. If we compare the under consideration, there is another "Adoration of the Magi" of Paul Vemeans of gaining impressiveness some- ronese in our National Gallery with its times made use of by the Venetian paint- (for him) unusual number of scattered 66 lights, with the broader and grander but very rich pinky grey. It has then re- have lost these. In the "Three Ages," of the canvas. It leaves nothing to be desired in colour, sentiment, and tenderness. The other example is in those marvels of manipulation in the foreground of the "Miracle of St. Mark," a broken axe, a hammer, a splinter of wood, and a piece of rope. Within the proper limit of observation, they scarcely seem to be painted at all; there is a dab of the brush for a shadow, a touch for the high light, and that is all, except the final glaze before alluded to, which appears to go over the whole picture. At the right distance, however, all of them come into perfect roundness and solidity, as if they might be picked up. Yet there is nothing vulgar in the imitation of these objects, owing to the large manner in which they are done. In the painting of them, it should be noted, Tintoretto has not used the first ground, but the already painted foreground of the picture. By this means, on the same system as if tl.e former had been the basis, he has got the form of the object, its shadow, reflected light: everything, in fact, but the high light, 'which is just touched on with a bit of opaque colour. There is a remarkable We do not remember if the same thing is observable in the replica of this picture in the Bridgewater Collection. It may be remarked that the mode of painting described above was not limited to the Venetian school, but was used by others scarcely less celebrated. There was a picture by Velasquez in the last Winter Exhibition of the Works of Old Masters at Burlington House, begun in the same way. There are also a head by Van Dyck in Rome, and a picture by Leonardo da Vinci at Florence, laid-in in a similar manner. instance of the painter's power over the aesthetic and spiritual training. Weighed faculty of vision in one of the splinters in respect of this quality of force, our of the handle of the axe (not the one with own Art shows itself lamentably insuffithe high light), which he has only indi- cient. The study of the artistic mission cated, commenced as it were, relying on of what should properly constitute its the eye of the spectator to point it, which expressional aim seems to be almost it actually does; for what the eye seems utterly disregarded. Not even is the to perceive at the proper distance van- picture always, perhaps hardly generally, ishes altogether on a nearer approach. thought out substantially and clearly beAnother proof of what is stated above fore its commencement. With all great may be found in the "Widow of Nain" schools the reverse is always the case, by Palmer Vecchio in the Accademia at whatever alterations may be subsequentVenice. In this picture, which is painted ly made. The Venetians always began on the panel, there is a head in the back- with an exact knowledge of what had to ground which consists entirely of the be done, alterations on their canvases ground colour, just touched here and being rare, and commonly limited to the there as thinly as possible for the lighter direction of a line; seldom or never to a parts. It is evident also that the later whole figure or group. The simplicity of pictures of John Bellini were painted in the means used and the thinness of the the same manner. This is apparent in painting generally render these alterations the three pictures collocated in the Sa- perceptible where they have been made. cristy of the Redentore at Venice, one in With many of our modern painters it is his earliest, another in his transitional, vastly different: a want of certainty of and the third in his perfected manner. plan, both in regard to manipulation and The first has been painted without any conception, involving so many changes as preparation; the second appears to have to almost destroy all delicacy and tenderreceived it; in the third a rich, low-toned ness of workmanship. Indeed it is pretty ground has been used; with what advan- evident that many must depend entirely tage-aided, it is true, by a more finely on their pencil (as a spurious composer of developed sentiment he who has seen music on his instrument) and the adventhose sweet eyes which look into the titious aid of externals, even for the sentisoul of the observer will clearly be able ment and motive of their pictures, as far to judge. The same thing is also illus- as they can be said to have sentiment or trated in the noble "Madonna and Six motive at all. There is clearly no disSaints" by this painter in the Accademia. tinct mental image formed to begin with, Although these latter observations are which makes every step towards its realderived from notes made in Venice, a ization an ordered progress undisturbed reference to such of the works of the by any uncertainty of plan. All genuinepainters mentioned above as are to be ly great Art, however imperfect in its found in our National Gallery will illus-means, or deficient in technical skill, trate more or less clearly the views here laid down. must be definite and firm in intention. The thoughtful and laborious workmen It must, however, be distinctly under- who have covered the walls of St. Mark's stood that there is no method of painting at Venice with their quaint and fanciful that should exclude all others; also that designs have been perfectly regardless of the painters whose works are here quoted their own shortcomings in the plastic lanas illustrating principles might not always guage; but their ideas are not the less and invariably have followed the same clearly set before us on that account system. It is enough if it be proved that indeed they are perhaps sometimes more therein lay their greatest force and high-impressive from the simplicity and inadest speciality, and that they were educa-equacy of their expressional faculty: tionally influenced by such a mode of they are certainly more touching. Should painting where they did not absolutely or any one come before us as a spokesman exclusively follow it. We have thus examined some of the external elements of the power which characterizes the painting of these great men: but, of course, their real vital force lay within. This is not a thing of sense and mechanism at all, and any portion of it is only to be attained by profound or in a literary capacity, we expect he has something to tell us, and accordingly look for something more than a skilful use and arrangement of words and phrases; but the artist of to-day has no misgivings in coming forward with no other object than to display a clever use of his material and to exercise his power of picturesque management: that is to say, these |