one of the primary causes of such extraor- | sion, and even a marked liveliness to the dinary results must have been the thor- movement of the head. The whole drawough training of the pupils in the studios ing exhibits evidently the hand of an of their masters. accomplished draughtsman. When we The young artists of the Renaissance examine the outlines of the limbs, we noused to leave their masters and to become tice that the artist must have had full independent members of the guild, when knowledge of the anatomy of muscles in 试 about twenty years of age. Of some of children. In Verrocchio's finished works, them we know that even at the age of representing children, we find these museighteen or nineteen they became cele- cles rendered with a great deal more care brated, and executed large pictures inde- than in the works of any other contempopendently. Very naturally such works, rary artist. The precision and fulness in executed shortly after a continuous de- the rendering of the limbs of children pendence on one single master, must have were also characteristic of his pupil Leoexhibited the influence of that necessarily nardo da Vinci. Nevertheless, the simone-sided instruction. Raphael, for in-ilar representations of the younger artist stance, executed at the age of nineteen show a distinctive diversity of style, notthe large altar-piece of the Coronation of withstanding the great similarity in the the Virgin, now in the Pinacoteca of the general conception. Vatican. Contemporaneously his former master, Perugino, executed a picture of the same subject, which is still at Perugia. During his stay at Perugia Raphael had been more of an assistant than of a pupil. Nevertheless in Raphael's picture of the Coronation we find the young master entirely dependent on the principles of Perugino's art, and we still find him a true follower of Perugino's in several other large and small pictures executed subsequently, such as the altar-piece with the Crucifixion until lately at Dudley House, the first picture on which Raphael placed his signature, and about which his biographer, Vasari, says that, if there were not his name on it, nobody would take it for a work of Raphael's, but for one by the hand of Perugino. Several of Leonardo's early drawings representing children are to be found in the British Museum. As contrasting with the heaviness which marks the drawing of Verrocchio's, we notice here a greater freedom, and an air of elegance, not only in the movement of the head, but also in its expression. And this result is obtained with a greater simplicity in the outlines, and with an easier flow of the pen, than in the drawing of the older master. With this drawing of Leonardo's may be compared a well-known sketch ascribed to the same master, in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, with the representation of the Virgin and Infant Christ, who appears to embrace a cat. This sketch has been reproduced several times. In its execution the artist appears to exLeonardo da Vinci became a member of hibit more pains than either Verrocchio the Florentine Company of St. Luke or Leonardo in the two drawings named that is to say, an independent artist-in before. The outlines are apparently done 1472, when he was twenty years of age. with more precision, also the shading is But some years later we find him still more careful. The conception of the subworking in the studio of his master, Ver-ject impresses one as being Leonardo's, rocchio. How an artist of so high a stand- but the execution is not worthy of his ing depended on his master's instruction hand. This is evidently the production of becomes evident not only when we com- an old copyist or pupil, after an original pare the finished works of the two, done in Florence, but also when we compare their preparatory drawings representing one and the same subject. sketch which is now lost. In looking at it we cannot help being impressed with the pains which the pupil seems to have taken to do his best in copying the original. The inferiority of his artistic faculties is especially apparent in the heavy outlines of the whole figure, in the clumsy rendering of the extremities, and in the want of proportion in the legs. Among the art treasures in the Louvre at Paris there is one of the very few existing sketches in pen and ink by Verroc chio on a sheet with indifferent manuscript notes. The sketches represent some nude figures of children. The artist has evi- Such copies by the hands of pupils are dently not been very careful in the draw-frequently to be met with in the public and ing of the outlines. The shading is only private collections of drawings by old massuperficially done. But with all these ters. They are, perhaps, even more nuapparent defects Verrocchio has succeeded merous than the original drawings by the in giving to the attitude a natural expres- great masters. On account of their infe. . riority they are generally considered by critics as forgeries, but in a great many instances this appears to me to be an unfounded criticism. In criticising these drawings we must not overlook the fact that most of them were done at a time when there were but few collectors, and when original drawings were still to be had in large numbers for little expense. I therefore think that most of the apparently old drawings which reproduce original sketches by the great masters, which are stil! in existence, or which may be lost, ought to be described more properly as works of pupils, and as such they have no doubt also some merits, and deserve to be appreciated. In the studios of these painters it was one of the principal occupations of the pupils to draw from the models of their masters. An evidence of this we find in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci. Among his precepts for the students of painting the following passage occurs: The youth should first learn perspective, then the proportions of the objects. Then he may copy from a good master, to accustom himself to fine forms; then from nature, to confirm by practice the rules he has learnt; then see for a time the works of various masters; then get the habit of putting his art into practice and work.* Again, he says in another place: The artist ought first to exercise his hand by copying drawings by the hand of a good master. And having acquired this practice under the criticism of his master, he should next practise drawings in relief of a good style, following the rules which will be given to him.* The fitness of a boy for an artistic career was judged by his ability in executing his drawings, as Leonardo puts it very distinctly. Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent, and never finish their drawings with shading.† In a special chapter on the necessity of being very accurate in drawings he says: If you who draw desire to study well and to good purpose, always go slowly to work in your drawing, and discriminate in the lights which have the highest degree of brightness, and to what extent, and likewise in the shadows, which are those that are darker than the others, and in what way they intermingle; then their masses, and the relative proportions of one to the other. And note in their outlines which way they tend, and which part of the lines is curved to one side or the other, and where they are more or less conspicuous that your light and shade blend without strokes and consequently broad or fine; and finally, and borders, but looking like smoke. And when you have thus schooled your hand and your judgment by such diligence you will ac quire rapidity before you are aware.‡ The plan of the young artist's education, as framed here by Leonardo da Vinci, is on a somewhat larger scale than was the practice of the time. We know that Leonardo attached great importance to a scientific study of the proportions of the It was one of the rules of the old Verohuman figure. Albert Dürer and a few nese painters' guild, as I have shown when others occupied themselves with similar treating of the guilds of the early Italian studies, which they intended to make prof-painters, that during the winter season the itable to their pupils, whereas other great artists, like Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and Correggio, took little or no interest in such mathematical inquiries. Among Leonardo's writings there are a few other precepts which throw a fuller light on the method of instruction as practised in the painter's studio. A short but interesting chapter, with the heading "Of the Order of Learning to Draw," runs thus: First draw from drawings by good masters, done from works of art and from nature, and not from memory; then from plastic work, with the guidance of the drawing done from it (viz., by your master); and then from good natural models; and this you must put into practice.t See the Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, edited by J. P. Richter (London, 1883), vol. i., p. 243, $483. 1 P. 243, § 484. pupils had to occupy themselves especially with drawing. A similar sugges tion we find two centuries later in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci, and we may therefore suppose that this practice was a generally accepted one. In a chapter headed "Of the Time for Studying Selection of Subjects" the great Floren tine painter says: Winter evenings ought to be employed by young students in carrying out the studies made during the summer; that is, all the drawings from the nude done in summer made of the best studies of limbs and bodies should be brought together, and so a choice among them, to apply in practice and commit to memory. After this in the following sum 8 Nineteenth Century, November, 1800. p. 791 f. T mer, you should select some one who is well grown, and who has not been brought up in the doublets, and so may not be of stiff car riage, and make him go through a number of agile and graceful actions; and if his muscles do not show plainly within the outlines of his limbs, that does not matter at all. It is enough that you can see good attitudes, and you can correct the drawings of the limbs by those you studied in the winter.* We must not suppose that such careful studies in drawing were uncommon with in stood in about the same estimation as nowadays the fresco paintings by Raphael and Michelangelo in the Vatican, or the finest antique sculptures. They were, deed, considered to be the best models for the students to draw from. Ample proof of this we find in Vasari's writings. To quote only one passage: Masaccio's works [so he says] certainly merit all the praise they have received, the opened to the excellent manner prevalent in more so as it was by him that the path was the rest of the old masters. In Vasari's our times, to the truth of which we have testilives of the Renaissance artists we oc-mony in the fact that all the most celebrated casionally come across reports which sculptors and painters since Masaccio have clearly show that similar rules were prac- become excellent and illustrious by studying tised also by other artists. Thus of their art in making copies of the figures in the Francia Bigio it is related that he studied Brancacci Chapel.* his art so zealously, and with so much delight, that there was no day through the summer months wherein he did not copy some nude figure from the life in his studio, and to this end he kept persons constantly in his pay.† Of the Florentine Baccio Bandinelli the same writer relates that, when he was a youth, he used to go to Pinzirimonte, a villa purchased by his father. There he would stand long before the laborers, who were working, and who, on account of the great heat in summer, were half naked, and would draw the figures of these men with great zeal and delight, proceeding in like manner with the cattle on the farm, which he would copy with equal care.‡ About the same time [so Vasari continues in his account of Baccio's life, whom he had known personally] it was the young artist's frequent habit to repair in the early morning to Prato, which was at no great distance from this villa, and where he would remain the whole day, drawing, in the Chapel of La Pieve, or cathedral, from the fresco paintings of Fra Filippo Lippi. Nor did he cease until he had copied the whole, more particularly imitating the draperies of that master, who was most excellent in respect of drapery criticism wh is much to the credit of the artist, when we consider that the prevailing taste of those days was no more what it had been at Fra Filippo's time, a hundred years earlier. Gr a As Bandinelli went to Prato to draw from Fra Filippo's works, so most of the Florentine students of painting used to draw from the frescoes by Masaccio in the Brancacci chapel of the church "Del Carmine" at Florence. In the eyes of the Florentine Renaissance artists these Literary Works. vol i., p. 249 f. § 497.. † Vasari, ed. Milanesi, Firenze, 1880, vol. v., p. 196. Vol. vi., p. 136. Then he goes on to enumerate the artists of whom he knew that they had copied from Masaccio's paintings, and among them he names Fra Filippo and Filippino Lippi, Sandro Botticelli and Domenico del Ghirlandajo, Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolommeo and Albertinelli, Michelangelo, Andrea del Sarto and Raphael, all artists who aimed at the very highest standard in the drawing of the figure; and to these names he adds a few others, such as Lorenzo di Credi, Francia Bigio, and Pontormo, who were of less repute, but who, as students, had been under the rule of very good mas. ters, who doubtless directed them to copy from Masaccio. Of all writers on art Leonardo da Vinci was perhaps the first who duly acknowledged the exceptional merits of that early Florentine master who had died in 1428 at the age of twenty-seven years.† Leonardo thought it very important that the artist should draw from a variety of models. He was even of the opinion that the painter, when investigating the beautiful in nature, should rather rely on the generally accepted views of the public than satisfy himself with his own conceptions.‡ No doubt there must have been some great danger in the one-sided and uniform instruction which the masters of the Renaissance imparted to their pupils within their studios. It seems to me to be no small charm in a painter when he gives his figures a pleasing air; and this grace, if he have it by nature, he may acquire by incidental study in this way. Look about you, and take the best parts of many beautiful faces, of which the beauty is confirmed rather by public fame than by your own judgment; for you might be mistaken, and choose faces which have some resemblance to your own. For it would seem that such resemblances often please us, and if you should be ugly you would select faces that were not beautiful, and you would then make ugly faces, as many painters do. For often a master's work resembles himself. So select beauties, as I tell you, and fix them in your mind.† Now if we examine the pictures painted during Leonardo's lifetime, and before that date, from the point of view indicated in this remarkable sentence, we feel bound to say that there is really a great truth in the statement that every artist of those days had a quite peculiar manner of his own of drawing faces, hands, and other limbs - nay, even draperies and landscape backgrounds - so much so, indeed, that such peculiarities become a special means for the identification of the works of the several masters. Nor do I believe that the art-critic is going too far when he says that an old master may reveal his own style and manner in his works, not only by drawing hands, or limbs, with a clumsiness peculiar to him, as Leonardo expresses himself, but also, when representing the human body, by some special delicacy and refinement. In short, every master, whatever may have been his standard of beauty, has his own individual manner of realizing it. And we may also say that the scrutinizing eye of the critic is sure to detect in the works of the greatest masters some particular habits in the drawing of certain details, which reveal their individual style. Neither Michelangelo, nor Leonardo, nor Titian, is an exception to this rule. some other Thus, to quote a few instances, Michelangelo, in drawing the outlines of the legs, is wont to represent the lower part Vol. i., p. 293, § 586. of the leg, where it is connected with the foot, with a pronounced narrowness, which surpasses the common standard of nature. Again, Titian, in drawing the hands, is wont to give to the palm of the thumb an unusually prominent shape. Raphael, again, in drawing the ear, represents that part of the human face in a peculiar way, quite different from that of any of his pupils or imitators, and so on. Again, Pinturicchio, the companion of Perugino, has a peculiar manner of drawing the outlines of the hands and of the ear, which is quite different from that which we al ways meet with in the works of Perugino. In paying attention to such details we become enabled to distinguish also be tween works which, for instance, Pintu under the more direct influence of his ricchio painted at an early age, when master, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, and those of his riper age, because in the former his mode of drawing the ear has an unmistak able affinity with that of the earlier Um. brian master, whose works he then used to take as his models. In his later works, however, this peculiarity disappears. Fra Bartolommeo and Albertinelli were two artists who worked much in common, the latter executing sometimes works for which the former had done the design. But when we compare their drawings we detect that each of them had a special habit of shading his figures, by which they may be distinguished, notwithstanding the great similarity of their general appearance. From what is known to us about the organization of the guilds it becomes evident that the narrow sphere of the education of these artists sufficiently accounts for such peculiarities of style, and in not a few cases these can be traced back to some special feature in the works of the masters under whose guidance they had studied the profession. later When Leonardo da Vinci settled down at Milan, a large number of pupils gathered around him, many of whom have, in years, become famous artists of independent position. The school thus founded by Leonardo da Vinci appears to have been based on a wider plan, and on more scientific principles, than had been the case before with any other teaching master. There are, unfortunately, no contemporary records of the organization of that school. Besides the statements of its existence, in Vasari's and in Lomazzo's writings, we have no information whatever about it. But the style and character of the comparatively numerous drawings and SC 20 t C pictures, still in existence, which have prototype of Leonardo's academy, we find some detailed information in Vasari's life of the sculptor Torrigiano, the well-known rival of Michelangelo, who, in later years, came to England, where he executed several excellent works. In the life of this artist the biographer relates that: About the lives of most of them we know next to nothing. Their names have been preserved to us, and, in the case of some of them, also a few dates. Nor do Lorenzo il Magnifico allowed him to visit his Leonardo's own writings supply the want-garden, which was on the Piazza di San Marco, ing information. They abound in exposi- and which had been decorated profusely with tions of scientific matter, but are scant in figures from the antique and with examples of their references to the occurrences of the best sculptors. In the loggie, the walks, daily life and to the persons who con- and in all the buildings there were the noblest stantly surrounded him. Art historians statues in marble, admirable works of the of a later date have ventured upon specu- of art by the most prominent masters of Italy ancients, with pictures and other productions lations about the school of Leonardo da and other countries. All the treasures, in Vinci, to which the great artist had given addition to being a noble ornament to the the name of an "accademia," evidently garden, were also a school or academy with the object of marking it out as a Vasari uses here this very word-for the school of a higher order than the ordinary young painters and sculptors, as well as for teaching of the painters of the day. But all others devoted to the art of design, but this very name "accademia " is not to be more particularly for the young nobles, seeing met with among his writings, which cover that Lorenzo il Magnifico held the firm conviction that those who are born of noble race about five thousand closely written pages, are in all things capable of attaining perfecand we have no other authentic informa- tion more easily than, for the most part, are tion at hand to confirm the statement that men of lower extraction, in whom we do not his school really bore this name than the commonly find that quickness of perfection, fact that the inscription "Leonardi Vincii nor that elevation of genius, which is so often Accademia" is to be found inside six perceptible in those of noble blood.* shields of twisted ornaments, executed in woodcut, of which the original blocks have been preserved to us in the department of prints in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. Impressions of these knots of varying design may be supposed to have served for the covers of the portfolios in the painter's school. At the time of Lorenzo il Magnifico there had been founded, at Florence, an accademia by several literary men, who thus intended to revive antique institutions of the time of Plato. Another accademia of similar tendencies had been founded in Rome at about the same time, but Leonardo da Vinci, was, it appears, the first who gave to a school of painters this classical name, which, at a much later date, has been accepted by all prominent similar institutions and associations of artists. It is quite possible that Leonardo, in choosing the name of academy for his own school, intended to characterize it as an institution in which scientific principles were to be the guiding rules of study. Lorenzo il Magnifico, in whose house at Florence the Platonic academy of literary men held its meetings, had also founded in his garden a museum with which an art school was connected. About this, which appears to me to have been a After some more observations on this subject Vasari continues :— Men of genius were always protected by Lorenzo il Magnifico, and more especially did he favor such of the nobles as he perceived to have an inclination for the study of art. It is, therefore, no matter for astonishment that masters should have proceeded from this school some of whom have awakened the surprise as well as admiration of the world. And not only did Lorenzo provide the means of instruction, but also the means of support for all who were too poor to pursue their studies without such aid. Nay, he further supplied them with proper clothing, and even bestowed considerable presents on any one among them who had distinguished himself from his fellows by some well-executed design. All which so encouraged the young students of our arts that, striving to emulate one another, many of them became excellent masters. The guardian and head of these young men was, at that time, the Florentine sculptor Bertoldo, an old and experienced master, who had been a disciple of Donatello. From him the students received instruction, while he also had charge of all the treasures contained in the garden, with the numerous designs, drawings, cartoons, and models collected there by the hand of Donatello, Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Fra Giovanni Angelico, Fra Filippo, and other masters, native and foreign. Vol. iv., p. 256 ƒ. T |