Line and Form (1900) Part 16

The ring of angels above, for instance, is partly relieved upon a gilded ground--to represent the dome of heaven. They bear olive branches, and the colour of their robes alternates in the following order: rose, olive (shot with gold), and white.

The _rose-coloured_ angels have _olive and white wings_; the _white angels, rose and olive wings_; and _the olive angels, white and rose wings_.

This part of the picture by itself forms a most beautiful pattern motive, while it expresses the idea of peace and goodwill.

Then on the brown and gold thatch of the stable occur three more angels in white, rose, and green, respectively. Against a pale sky rise rich olive-green trees, forming the background.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f136): Botticelli: "The Nativity" (National Gallery).]

The Virgin strikes the brightest ray of colour in red under-robe and sky-blue mantle. There is a gray white a.s.s and a pale brown cow behind her.

St. Joseph is in steel gray with a golden orange mantle over.

The brightest white occurs in the drapery upon which the infant Christ lies.

An angel with a group of men appears, kneeling on the left relieved against white rocks; their colours are--the angel's wings--peac.o.c.k blue and green, and a pale rose robe. The next figure is in scarlet; the next yellow; and the third man wears pale rose over rich gra.s.s-green.

Of the shepherds on the right the first one is in russet and white, the next steely gray, and the angel is in white with rose and pale green wings.

The ground is generally warm white and brown, with dark olive-coloured gra.s.s and foliage, so that the pattern of the picture is mainly a ground of olive, gold, and white, relieved by spots of rose, white, blue, yellow, and rose-red and scarlet--the colour in the groups of angels embracing men in front being the deepest in tone.

The first angel in this group (on the left) wears green shot with gold, with shot green and gold wings, the human being in dark olive and rich crimson red.

Next is a white angel with pale rose wings; the man in gray with a red mantle over.

Last is an angel in rose, with rose and red wings, the man being in scarlet with gray mantle over. All the men hold olive branches, and the group emphatically ill.u.s.trates the idea of "on earth peace and goodwill towards men," thus ending on the keynote both of colour and idea given in the ring of angels above.

Thus it is not only a lovely picture, but an exquisite pattern.

[Holbein]

Another instance of a picture-pattern extremely strong and brilliant in its realization of the full force and value of bright colour opposed by the strongest black and white, may be found in Holbein's splendid "Amba.s.sadors," also in our National Collection.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f137): Holbein: "The Amba.s.sadors" (National Gallery).]

[Botticelli]

The circular picture of the Madonna and Child, with St. John and an angel, by Botticelli, is also another beautiful instance of pictorial pattern, and of design well adapted and adequately filling its s.p.a.ce, while full of delicate draughtsmanship, poetic sentiment, and extremely ornate in its colour.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f138): Botticelli: "Madonna and Child" (National Gallery).]

[Carlo Crivelli]

Still more strictly ornamental in character and aim is Carlo Crivelli's "Annunciation." Amazingly rich in invention, and beautifully designed detail, and magnificently decorative in its colour scheme of brick reds and whites, and pale pinks and steel grays, and yellows, varied with scarlet and black, green, blue and gold, in the costumes and draperies, sparkling with jewels, and brightened with rays and patterns of gold.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f139): Carlo Crivelli: "The Annunciation" (National Gallery).]

[Perugino]

Hardly less ornamental in its more conscious grace and Renaissance feeling is Perugino's triptych of the Virgin adoring, with St. Michael on one wing and St. Raphael and Tobias on the other. It is a splendid deep-toned harmony of blues, and warm flesh tones and golden hair, varied by opals, rose red, bronze, green, white, and purple and orange.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f140): Perugino: "The Virgin in Adoration, with St.

Michael and St. Raphael and Tobias" (National Gallery).]

[t.i.tian]

t.i.tian's "Bacchus and Ariadne" is, perhaps, more what I have described as a pattern-picture, and is of a much later type. The full flush of colour and pagan joy of the Renaissance is here paramount, expressed with the masterly freedom of drawing and magnificent colour sense of the great Venetian master. Yet, looking through the life, the movement, the swing and vitality of the figures, and the power and poetry by which the story is conveyed, we shall find a fine ornate design, sustaining an extremely rich and sumptuous pattern of colour. We have a spread of deep-toned blue sky barred with silvery white and gray clouds, great ma.s.ses of brown and green foliage swaying against it, above a band of deep blue sea, and a field of rich golden brown earth. Warm flesh tones, deep and pale, break upon this with a gorgeous pattern of flying rose, blue, scarlet, orange, and white draperies, varied with the spotted coats of the leopards, the black of the dog, and the copper vessel and warm white of tumbled drapery.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f141): t.i.tian: "Bacchus and Ariadne" (National Gallery).]

Keats might have had this picture in his mind when he wrote the song in "Endymion":

"And as I sat, over the light blue hills There came a noise of revellers: the rills Into the wide stream came of purple hue.

'Twas Bacchus and his crew!

"The earnest trumpet speaks, and silver thrills From kissing cymbals made a merry din-- 'Twas Bacchus and his kin!

"Like to a moving vintage down they came, Crowned with green leaves, and faces all on flame; All madly dancing through the pleasant valley, To scare thee, Melancholy!"

The "Sacred and Profane Love" of the same painter, in the Borghese Gallery at Rome, is an even more splendid example of colour and tone, and is probably the finest of all t.i.tian's works.

[Paul Veronese]

In Paul Veronese we find a cooler key of colour generally, with a fondness for compositions of figures with cla.s.sical architecture, the rich patterned robes and varied heads contrasting pleasantly with the severe verticals and smooth surfaces of the marble columns--a sumptuous and dignified kind of picture-pattern, and fully adapted to the decoration of Venetian churches and palaces of the Renaissance.

[F. Madox Brown]

Madox Brown's "Christ washing St. Peter's Feet," now in the Tate Gallery, is a modern picture-pattern, and an extremely fine one.

These are but a few instances out of many, and the subject of colour and pattern, like the expression of line and form, of which it is a part, is so large and its sides so mult.i.tudinous that to deal with the subject fully and ill.u.s.trate it adequately would need, not ten chapters, but ten hundred, and could only be compa.s.sed by the history of art itself.

[Ill.u.s.tration (f142): Madox Brown: "Christ Washing St. Peter's Feet"

(Tate Gallery).]

[Conclusion]

If anything I have said on the subject, or have been able to show by way of ill.u.s.tration, has served in any way to clear away obscurities, or to lighten the labours of students, or to suggest fresh ideas to the minds of any of my readers in the theory, history, or practice of art, I shall feel that my work has not been in vain, and, at all events, I can only say that I have endeavoured to give here the results of my own thoughts and experience in art.

Some may look upon art as a means of livelihood only, a handmaid of commerce, or as a branch of knowledge, to be acquired only so far as to enable one to impart it to others; others may regard it as a polite amus.e.m.e.nt; others, again, as an absorbing pursuit and pa.s.sion, demanding the closest devotion: but from whatever point of view we may regard it, do not let us forget that the pursuit of beauty in art offers the best of educations for the faculties, that its interest continually increases, and its pleasures and successes are the most refined and satisfying.