Pintoricchio Part 7

Some of the helpers seem to come direct from Perugino's workshop. We find the prototypes of the greybeards in the Cambio--Socrates, Pericles, and the rest. In the execution of the "Betrothal," Steinmann sees signs of a Lombard's hand, in the dress and hair of the maids-of-honour, and the groups ma.s.sed in the background. Sodoma was possibly working with Pintoricchio; he was in Siena this year, and Rumohr thinks he sees his hand in the distant figures of the crowning of the poet. Eusebio di San Giorgio, the Raffaelesque Perugian, was helping, and possibly also Pacchiarotto.

Born in 1405, at the little village of Corsignano, afterwards re-named Pienza, aeneas Piccolomini early showed a keenness of intellect and an apt.i.tude for cla.s.sic learning which induced his tutor, the great scholar Fidelfo, to send the needy young scion of a great house out into the world to seek his fortune, with introductions which carried him into the service of Domenico Capranica, Bishop of Fermo, that Cardinal whose tomb may be seen in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. Domenico made him his secretary, and, as he was on his way to the Council at Basel, he took aeneas in his suite. The story told by the frescoes begins here.

The cavalcade, having narrowly escaped shipwreck on the Libyan strand and landed at Genoa, are setting forth on their "Journey across the Apennines to Basel." Behind them is the sea; in the sky the great storm-clouds are pa.s.sing away, and the rainbow shines out. Above the bay we discern the town, the point where now stands the Doria Palace and its gardens; the solemn churchmen journeying forward on their sedate mules.

In the foreground rides aeneas and a youthful follower. The whole of the attention centres in the bright handsome figure of aeneas; our interest is at once bespoken on behalf of the gallant young adventurer going forth on his spirited white horse to seek his fortune. The young man on the bay horse beyond him, another layman among the throng of clerics and dignitaries, may be intended for his brother-secretary, Piero da Noceto.

This is one of the most charming of the frescoes, full of movement and gaiety. Pintoricchio does not give much prominence to the "Conference at Basel," which was one of anti-Papal tendencies.

In the next fresco we find the young Piccolomini on a "Mission to James I. of Scotland," to whom he was despatched by the Cardinal of Santa Croce, an able and influential man, into whose service he had entered in 1440, and who sent him to persuade the King of Scotland to cross the Border and to menace the King of England. His interview with James I.

forms the subject of the second fresco. The King, in yellow robes, and the two supporters on either hand, in blue and green, are the most prominent figures, and form between them a sort of triangle, a symmetrical manner of composition which was just coming into favour. We have to look for the beautiful and graceful figure of aeneas as, full of dignity, he comes forward to the side of the King's throne--his gesture in telling the points of his message upon his fingers is that which Pintoricchio makes use of in "St. Catherine before the Philosophers"; but this is a much more natural and easy att.i.tude. His dark red robe and violet mantle hang in simple and voluminous folds. With his flowing hair he might be a young St. John taken out of one of Perugino's pictures.

The background here is very beautiful, seen through the airy row of cinque-cento arches, with the sunny little town in the distance reflected in the lake. In his memoirs, the young secretary has left us a most graphic description of his impressions of Scotland, of his journey north from Dover, of the comely blue-eyed women and scantily-clothed men, and comments on the singular kind of sulphurous stone which they burn instead of wood. He gives a vivid picture of these islands in the first half of the fifteenth century; but the painter had no knowledge to enable him to grasp it. He has apparently heard that Scotland was a land of lakes and mountains; but though the interview took place in mid-winter, he has made the trees in full leaf.

aeneas spent much time in study of the cla.s.sics and on verse composition, after the manner of Cicero. He had achieved a poem of two thousand lines, ent.i.tled "Nymphilexis," which was received with acclamations by his friends. Modern critics hold its merit to be as low as its easy morality, and in fact it was a true index of the discreditable life he was at this time leading at the German Court. In 1442 he was at Basel with the German Amba.s.sador, and was commended to the service of the King of the Romans, afterwards the Emperor, Frederick III. Frederick proposed to make him one of his Imperial secretaries, and to appoint him his Court poet. It was an honour which had hitherto been in use only in the more refined Italian courts, where it had been conferred on Petrarch, Dante, and others, and was esteemed an extraordinary mark of excellence in arts and literature. Only one person in the kingdom could hold it at a time, and after receiving it aeneas Silvius signed himself "_poeta_" in all his letters, so that we need not wonder that this event was chosen as one of the most remarkable of his life. aeneas, in his flowing robes, kneels at the King's feet; the throne with its ample steps is set in a splendid, open _piazza_, with the n.o.ble flight of steps leading up to the _loggia_ and out into the blue landscape; little groups enliven the background; a man stabs at a woman on the balcony; handsome pages and courtiers stand about. It has been pointed out that, as if to mark the neutrality of Germany on the question of the Papacy, not a single ecclesiastic appears in the crowd.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Alinari photo_] [_Library, Siena_

FREDERICK III. CROWNING aeNEAS PICCOLOMINI AS POET LAUREATE]

The memoirs at this time show aeneas as a clever waiter on the favour of princes, not over-scrupulous in striving for advancement, watching the signs of the times, and chafing under his dependence and poverty. In 1445 he was sent by Frederick III. on an important mission to Pope Eugenius (fresco IV.), and from this time he becomes a figure in European history. He begins himself to plan definitely for the unity of the Church, and to desire to stem the forward movements of the Turks.

His journey from Germany to Italy in the depths of winter was an arduous one. He encountered swollen torrents and broken bridges, and guided by peasants had "to scale most high and trackless ways, and precipitous, snow-clad mountains. On the road he visited his parents at Siena, and when they tried to dissuade him from approaching the fierce and unforgiving Pope Eugenius, declared that he would carry out his emba.s.sy to a prosperous end, or perish in the attempt."

He was eminently successful in his negotiations, and effected a reconciliation between Rome and Germany, and the fresco represents him kneeling humbly before the Pope and kissing his foot. On either side sits the long row of cardinals; outside we see the busy life of the Papal Court. Here Pintoricchio has brought in a rather (for him) unusual harmony in greens on the carpeting, the baldacchino, and the Pope's robes. The two figures in the foreground are said to be portraits of the Cardinals of Como and Amiens, who were both powerful friends of aeneas.

The little scene through the arches on the right of the Pope brings in another episode, where the envoy receives (fresco V.) invest.i.ture as Cardinal.

After this successful mission the Secretary for the first time turned his mind to the ecclesiastical life, and began to reckon on all the bright prospects it was likely to open to him. He had hitherto had the honesty to regard the license of his life as a barrier to religious orders; but his pa.s.sions were growing more controllable with advancing years, and his dislike to the idea of the priesthood had pa.s.sed away. He writes that he has pa.s.sed from the worship of Venus to that of Bacchus, and appears to think nothing more could be required of anyone. In 1446 he received the tonsure, and was speedily named Bishop of Trieste; and three years later was appointed to the See of Siena. It was in this capacity that he was chosen to welcome to Italy Leonora of Portugal (fresco VI.), the bride of his late patron. Frederick III. was to come to Siena to meet her, and to proceed to Rome for the wedding. After some delays, aeneas received the princess on her landing at Leghorn; and on her arrival at Siena she was met by Frederick, accompanied by a splendid retinue, which included a hundred citizens "in scarlet and samite," a thousand knights under Duke Albert of Austria, the young King of Hungary, the precious relics of the city and clergy innumerable. The royal pair met outside the Camollia gate, and memoirs tell us that when the bride came in sight Frederick leapt from his horse and hastened to meet her, and that "he was rejoiced to see her so young and fair."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Alinari photo_] [_Library, Siena_

aeNEAS PICCOLOMINI SENT BY FREDERICK III. TO POPE EUGENIUS IV.]

This is the moment chosen for the fifth fresco, and gives the artist every scope for lively action and gay and brilliant colouring. aeneas, standing between the King and his young bride, is still the most prominent figure. The ladies of her train are grouped around the Infanta, as the attendant maidens round Mary in many a version of the "Sposalizio." Behind the Bishop stands a dignitary with a white cross on his breast, who we identify from Pintoricchio's lately finished portrait in the Baptistry, as Alberto Aringhieri, the Knight of Rhodes. The man on the left, with heavily-draped mantle and looped-up hat, is Hans Leubin, the King's Court poet, who had been appointed to deliver an address of welcome, which he is represented as just beginning to recite.

Behind the group is set up, by a pardonable anachronism, the marble column which was afterwards placed there as a memorial of the meeting-place. On either side is a tall, stately plane-tree and a fruit-bearing palm, typical of the bridal pair. The road winds up to the Camollia gate, beyond which we espy the tall towers of the city, "Siena of the rosy walls and rosy towers," the cathedral with its dome and campanile, and the ground falling away into the ravine which lies between it and San Domenico.

Whether Raphael's inspiration really was withdrawn at this period, or whether Pintoricchio's own fancy flagged, it is undeniable that the remaining frescoes show a falling off, and are less satisfactory than the earlier ones. The next scene shows us "aeneas Silvius receiving the Cardinal's hat." On the ride to Rome with the bridal pair, Frederick had drawn rein as they came to the brow of the hill, from which they first looked down on the valley of the Tiber, and said to aeneas, "Look now--we go up to Rome; methinks I see thee a Cardinal, and in truth thy fortunes will not tarry there, thou shalt climb yet higher; St. Peter's chair awaits thee; look not down on me when thou shalt have reached that pinnacle of honour." And though aeneas modestly disclaimed such a prospect, he confessed afterwards how great were his efforts to enter the Sacred College. His hopes were frustrated by the reigning Pope Nicolas, who was notoriously unfriendly to him, and it was not till the election of Alonso da Borgia as Calixtus II. that he saw his way to further advancement. Calixtus, who was an old man and almost bedridden, appointed, among others, his kinsman, Roderigo Borgia (after Alexander VI.), as Cardinal. To this ambitious and intriguing man aeneas attached himself, and bade farewell to Germany and his royal patron.

It was shortly before this that he began to devote all his energy and eloquence to preaching a new crusade against the Turks, whose conquest of Constantinople and succeeding inroads into Europe began seriously to alarm the civilised world. It was the only question which roused the old Pope to eagerness and determined him to invest the eloquent advocate as Cardinal in spite of bitter opposition from the Sacred College, who dreaded his keen intelligence. Though the architectural drawing, as usual, is good, the flat wall with two white windows has a bad effect.

The altar is loaded with heavily embossed gilding; the groups behind are confused, and the figure of aeneas himself is lacking in dignity and distinction. In the foreground stand two Greek patriarchs, whose presence is intended to convey their satisfaction at the elevation of their champion and that of the cause of Christendom.

We now find the Cardinal of Siena working his way to the Papal throne.

He had a powerful friend in Cardinal Borgia, with whom he was engaged in anything but reputable transactions in benefices, by which he contrived to ama.s.s sufficient wealth; but besides this he really worked hard in the cause of the Church, and his courtly manners and attractive personality, as well as his real kindliness, won him many friends. When the old Calixtus died, in August 1458, he was ready to come forward, and has left us a striking account of the incidents of the election. His only rival was the Cardinal Archbishop of Rouen, a Bourbon, rich and ambitious.

All the night before the election the princ.i.p.al of each party and his immediate supporters were holding secret meetings, pa.s.sing from cell to cell with arguments and persuasion. When at length all met, pale and trembling with excitement, to deposit their votes in the chalice, aeneas was found to have nine votes and the Cardinal of Rouen six. Three Cardinals who had voted for another candidate were now to give casting votes. "Long the whole conclave sat in silence; the slightest rustle of a robe, the turn of a head, the movement of a foot, sent a thrill of anxiety round the whole circle. At last the fine figure of Roderigo Borgia was seen to rise. Amidst breathless stillness, he in the usual form declared that he acceded to the Cardinal of Siena." After a short delay the two others followed, and thus, at the age of fifty-three, aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini became Pope, by the t.i.tle of Pius II.

The fresco seizes the moment when the Pope, borne through the aisles of St. Peter's, is stopped, according to ancient usage, by the Master of the Ceremonies, who kindles a piece of tow dipped in spirit, and, as the light dies away, delivers the solemn warning, "Sancte Pater, Sic transit gloria mundi." The Pope, under the baldacchino, heavy with armorial bearings, and wearing the dark-blue mantle which accorded with the colours of his house, lifts his gloved fingers solemnly in blessing. He is painted here as an older man, already worn with anxiety. In the foreground two figures in Oriental dress remind us that a.s.sistance against the Turk was the mission to which the newly-made Pope had specially pledged himself. St. Peter's is, of course, the old basilica which was destroyed by Julius II.

Fresco VIII. "Congress at Mantua." In pursuance of his proposed crusade, Pius II., in 1459, summoned the powers of Christendom to hold a congress at Mantua to consider the necessary measures. It lingered on for eight months, when war against the Sultan was formally declared, but gave occasion for more intrigues and self-seeking on the part of those a.s.sembled than for any real sacrifices for the cause. Pius II. is here represented directing the deliberations of the Congress. The person of distinction pleading with the Pope is said to be the Greek Patriarch, the envoys of the persecuted Eastern Christians are grouped in the foreground, Cardinals sit on the Pope's right hand, and others--princes, ecclesiastics, and suppliants--form a crowd behind. The arrangement of this scene is not happy. The figures are cut up in an awkward way and the perspective is questionable. It is redeemed by the airy arches and the charming landscape beneath them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Alinari photo_] [_Library, Siena_

A GROUP OF MEN (A detail from Fresco IX.)]

"A Sienese filling the Chair of St. Peter may well be the instrument to call a Sienese to sainthood, and that we do with holy joy." So spoke Pius II. in p.r.o.nouncing between the claims of three holy Virgins, Rosa of Viterbo, Francesca of Rome, and Catherine of Siena. The superior claims of St. Catherine have been fully acknowledged by history: her influence in healing the great schism of the Urbanists and the Clementists, her saintly life, her magnetic personality, are sufficient reasons without adding the miracles with which she was credited.

In fresco IX. the Pope is seated on the "high and well-appointed balcony," which he had ordered should be erected in St. Peter's, whence, after a discourse on her virtues, he might proceed to her solemn canonisation. The Cardinals are gathered round, the corpse of the saint lies at his feet, clad in the black and white of the Dominican order, her book upon her breast, and the lilies, which are her attribute, in her folded hands. Below stand a crowd of spectators bearing candles. In front is a long row of persons, said to be portraits. The first on the left we should guess to be Raphael, even without the traditional confirmation. Next him is Pintoricchio himself. The others have been variously named Andrea del Sarto, Fra Bartolommeo, etc. Steinmann suggests, with more probability, that one is intended for Eusebio di San Giorgio and another for Bembo Romano, who were both working as a.s.sistants, especially as the initials of the last are to be discerned on several of the pilasters among the decorations. The composition in this scene is rather disjointed. The two halves do not seem to belong to each other, and it is curious to note the difference between the conventional arrangement of the groups in the background and the characteristic forms and much more structural figures which the painter has evidently drawn from the life. The effigy of St. Catherine is taken from her monument in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. The Dominicans and Augustinians are prominent, as it was of their order that the saint was so great an ornament.

Pope Pius was one of the few Italians of that day in whom a great love for nature declared itself. Campana tells us of his visits to beautiful places, of his landscape gardening and planting, of his fondness for distant views, and for taking his food under the trees on some hill-side. It pleased him to chat with the peasants, to joke with his friends with "free and festive converse pa.s.sing into moderate jest." He loved to build and adorn in his native city, and for a time he seemed to be only a man of cultivated and artistic life and busy pleasures. But he had not forgotten his crusading enthusiasm, and as the news travelled to Rome of the repeated victories of the Turks, of the loss of Morea, Rhodes, Cyprus, and of the Moslem advance on every side, he laid before his Cardinals his resolve to take up a holy war, counting upon the Christian princes of Europe rallying to his support. He mediated between the different quarrelsome Powers, and signed a league by which he was to meet the Venetians and an army of the Duke of Burgundy at Ancona; but the powers were half-hearted, only a small part of the promised forces arrived, and Ancona seems to have been a scene of rioting and mismanagement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Alinari photo_] [_Library, Siena_

aeNEAS PICCOLOMINI ELECTED POPE UNDER THE NAME OF PIUS II.]

On June 18, 1464, the Pope, "an aged man with head of snow and trembling limbs," raised aloft the Cross at the altar of St. Peter's, and vowing himself to the service of Christendom, set forth for Ancona. "Farewell, Rome," he cried, as his barge pa.s.sed down the Tiber, "living thou shalt never see me more." He was very ill with fever, but the high spirit that had helped him all through life, did not forsake him. The weather was broiling hot, and the Pope suffered greatly on the journey. He was a month reaching Ancona, and had the added discouragement of meeting bands of deserting crusaders on the way. No ships had arrived from Venice, and when at last they appeared, the soldiers they were to embark had nearly all melted away. Pius realised at length that the undertaking had come to naught. Ill, disappointed, heartsick, he remained at Ancona, and when the Venetian fleet appeared, after long delay, he could just bear to be lifted to a window to see the long-watched-for sails.

The Doge, who accompanied the fleet, would not at first believe in the reality of the Pope's illness, and sent his physician to see if he were not feigning in order to escape the necessity of setting forth, but the end was near. It was at sunset on the 12th of August that the Venetian ships entered the harbour; at sunset on the 14th the Pope pa.s.sed away.

By his death he escaped the misery of failure; the attempt came to a natural end, and Pius was surrounded with a halo of martyrdom and heroism--not all undeserved, for, unsuccessful as he was, he yet was the only potentate who made any effort to stem the power of the infidel, and his unsupported struggle and baffled aspirations form a pathetic close to his active and successful life.

In the fresco there is no hint of the sad and wasted moments.

Pintoricchio's part was to glorify and dignify the memory of the Pope, and to please the house of Piccolomini. The Pope is raised on high and borne forward by his followers. In front, dressed in gold brocade, kneels Christoforo Morea, the Doge of Venice. On the opposite side kneels a Turk, and another fierce-looking Oriental stands behind him.

These may be recollections of Djem and his followers, whom Pintoricchio had already painted in the Borgia rooms. Behind lie the town and harbour of Ancona, with the Venetian fleet anch.o.r.ed in the bay.

There only remained for Pintoricchio to leave a memorial of the coronation of the second Pope of the House of Piccolomini, and this is placed over the door of the Library. It is something like the "Canonisation of St. Catherine," in the way in which it is divided into two parts. The perspective is not well managed. The Pope and the two Cardinals who a.s.sist him to place the mitre on his head, have the effect of a picture background to the busy scene below, and the long rows of white-mitred bishops give a very inartistic impression. Below them is a crowd of spectators, of all ages and both s.e.xes--the whole confused and not well drawn, and there is an unfortunate lack of proportion between the different figures.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Alinari photo_] [_Library, Siena_

POPE PIUS II. AT ANCONA]

The frescoes have been much retouched, though, on the whole, they are in wonderful preservation. Where the yellows and blues have been most repainted the effect is hard and glaring; but where the same colours are not meddled with, as in the Pope's blue robe, and that of the Doge of No. X., Elizabeth's robe, and the King's mantle in the meeting of the bridal pair, and in most of the pinks and rose-reds, the tones are much softer and more pleasing. Only in the hall itself can we appreciate the way in which the open-air and indoor scenes are arranged and balanced and the architectural setting worked in so as to give lightness and distinction. The line of sight is high, about two-thirds of the way up the picture; this to some extent places the spectator in a wrong position, but the whole goes back, so that, far from being oppressed with a feeling of covered walls, a sense of s.p.a.ce and withdrawal is conveyed that enlarges the room in a marvellous manner.

The repose of the hall in its entirety is very striking; hardly a figure is in anything like violent action, all move and stand with quiet dignity, all the movement takes place well within the picture, and the extraordinarily clever use made of the sky, ceiling, floor, and wide retreating background, give us breath and air, and a sense of delight and freedom. In as many as eight of these frescoes we have an enthroned figure, yet treated with what variety and absence of monotony. The first scene shows us a joyous youth setting out on a stormy journey; the last, an old man, pale and careworn, carried by loving friends, and behind him, an untroubled sea and the calm of sunset. The ceiling is a curious mixture of sacred subjects and mythological ones, after the manner of that in the Colonna Palace, but not very appropriate to the Pope's Chapel; sporting of fauns and nymphs, Cupid riding on a green dolphin, grotesques, recalling the choir of Santa Maria del Popolo, but richer in colour and more delicately harmonised. The dark oak, the blue and white-tiled floor, with the yellow crescent of the Piccolomini, and the pilasters repeating the blue and white, are all part of the design, in which there is one guiding hand. It is all well adapted to give brightness to the long room, so slightly arched, and lighted only from one end. The room is so beautiful that it is hard to say that it is mechanical--yet a.s.suredly there is something stiff and academic about it, some loss of grace and the joyous sense of creation, a feeling that the painter was growing old and tired, and that the childlike enjoyment of beauty was less keen. In the first fresco, whether we owe it to the young Raphael's help or to the natural interest at starting, we recognise buoyancy and the love of experiment; and we have something of it again in the fairy-tale tableau, where the prince and the lady meet, but the colour has become gaudier and cheaper, the _navete_, the enchantment, the unconsciousness, have in some measure pa.s.sed away, the tide of fancy is running lower, and it is now that we chiefly feel the lack of that well of science from which the artist can drink ever deeper as the years go by.

CHAPTER X

PANEL PAINTINGS

It is difficult to arrange Pintoricchio's pictures into distinct groups.

He wandered backwards and forwards between Rome and Umbria for so many years, and his art, during the whole time, though showing variations, never undergoes any radical change or development. He arrived early at a point which satisfied his employers, and there he remained. He did not attempt to try experiments, or to unravel new problems. He was almost always engrossed by great undertakings, and had little time to think of anything beyond getting them creditably executed in a given time.

"La preoccupation d'etre original n'empechait pas de dormir, encore moins de travailler, les artistes d'alors. Leur personalite ne s'elaborait que sur le tard, quand ils reussissent sans le chercher beaucoup a le faire eclore."[32]

[32] Broussolle, _Pelerinages...o...b..iens_.

This constant employment on fresco accounts for the small number of panel paintings he has left, nor do we hear of more than one or two, other than those which have come down to us. I have already noticed the "St. Christopher" and the "Madonna" in the Gallery at Valencia. His finest work in _tempera_ is the great polyptych or ancona, painted in 1498 for the monks of Santa Maria dei Fossi, and which is an extraordinarily dainty piece of work. The heavily-gilt framework is divided into compartments. In the central one the Madonna is enthroned, the Child sits upon a little cushion on her knee, half-draped in a striped and brocaded mantle. With one hand He offers the mystic pomegranate to His mother, with the other grasps a jewelled cross, held by the little St. John Baptist, who, with his cloak clasped upon the breast, sandals on his feet, his eyes uplifted in devotion, strides forward, with the air of one starting on a pilgrimage. This attractive little figure is borrowed from the Bernardino Mariotto, with whom Pintoricchio was so often confused. The Virgin's eyes are cast down, and both her face and that of the Child are rather expressionless.

The upper part of the framework is filled by a Pieta, which nearly equals the middle panel in size and importance. The half-length of the dead Christ is draped with a striped cloth, above the open tomb. It is reminiscent of Perugino's beautiful Pieta in the same Gallery. The hands have the backs turned outwards, displaying the palms instead of the backs, as the northern painters usually represent them. The arms are supported by angels, who are adapted from the over-door by Fiorenzo in the Sala del Censo. The pathetic figure of the Saviour is the most satisfactory rendering of the nude that Pintoricchio produced. The muscles are carefully modelled, the flesh is firmly painted, and the touch of the angels convincing, the group is full of repose, sad dignity, and refinement. The Angel and Virgin of the "Annunciation" on either side are a reduced _replica_ of those in the Borgia Apartments and at Spello. Though painted in _tempera_, this work is extremely full and vivid in colour, almost resembling oils, and is executed throughout with minute delicacy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Alinari photo_] [_Picture Gallery, Perugia_