Tuscan Sculpture of the Fifteenth Century Part 1

Tuscan Sculpture of the Fifteenth Century.

by Estelle M. Hurll.

PREFACE

This little collection is intended as a companion volume to "Greek Sculpture," a previous issue of the Riverside Art Series. The two sets of pictures, studied side by side, ill.u.s.trate clearly the difference in the spirit animating the two art periods represented.

The Tuscan sculpture of the Renaissance was developed under a variety of forms, of which as many as possible are included in the limits of our book: the equestrian statue, the sepulchral monument, the ideal statue of saint and hero, as well as various forms of decorative art applied to the beautifying of churches and public buildings both without and within.

ESTELLE M. HURLL.

NEW BEDFORD, Ma.s.s.

February, 1902.

INTRODUCTION

I. ON SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF TUSCAN SCULPTURE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

"The Italian sculptors of the earlier half of the fifteenth century are more than mere forerunners of the great masters of its close, and often reach perfection within the narrow limits which they chose to impose on their work. Their sculpture shares with the paintings of Botticelli and the churches of Brunelleschi that profound expressiveness, that intimate impress of an indwelling soul, which is the peculiar fascination of the art of Italy in that century."

These words of Walter Pater define admirably the quality which, in varying degree, runs through the work of men of such differing methods as Donatello, the della Robbia, Mino da Fiesole, and Rossellino. It is the quality of expressiveness as distinguished from that abstract or generalized character which belongs to Greek sculpture. Greek sculpture, it is true, taught some of these artists how to study nature, but it did not satisfy Christian ideals. The subjects demanded of the Tuscans were entirely foreign to Greek experience. The saints and martyrs of the Christian era were at the opposite pole from the G.o.ds and heroes of antiquity. Hence the aim of the new sculpture was the manifestation of the soul, as that of the cla.s.sic art had been the glorification of the body.

Jacopo della Quercia was one of the oldest of the sculptors whose work extended into the fifteenth century, being already twenty-five years of age when that century began. Standing thus in the period of transition between the old and the new, his work unites the influence of mediaeval tradition with a distinctly new element. His bas-reliefs on the portal of S. Petronio at Bologna are probably his most characteristic work. The tomb of Ilaria del Carretto is in a cla.s.s by itself: "In composition, the gravest and most tranquil of his works, and in conception, full ofbeauty and feeling."[1]

Donatello is undoubtedly the greatest name in Italian sculpture previous to Michelangelo. The kinship between these two men was felicitously expressed in Vasari's quotation from "the most learned and very reverend" Don Vicenzo Borghini: "Either the spirit of Donato worked in Buonarroti, or that of Buonarroti first acted in Donato."

Vitality, force, action, suggestiveness, character, such are the words which spring to the lips in the presence of both masters.

The range of Donatello's art was phenomenal, from works of such magnitude as the equestrian statue of Gattamelata, to the decorative panels for the altar of S. Antonio at Padua. At times he was an uncompromising realist, as in his statue of the bald old man, the Zuccone, who figured as King David. Again he showed himself capable of lofty idealism, as in the beautiful and heroic St. George. Which way his own tastes leaned we may judge from his favorite a.s.severation, "By my Zuccone." The point is that it mattered nothing to him whether his model was beautiful or ugly, whether he wrought out an ideal of his imagination or studied the character of an actual individual; his first care was to make the figure live. In consequence his art has what a critic has called "a robustness and a sanity" which have made it "a wellspring of inspiration to lesser men."

The only subject practically left out of Donatello's work was woman.

Children afforded him all the material he needed for the more decorative forms of his art. For the rest the problems which interested him most were perhaps best worked out in the study of the male figure.

A recent biographer of Donatello, Hope Rea, points out some interesting characteristics of his technical workmanship. In every work subsequent to his St. Mark, "the hair," she says, "is conspicuous by its appearance of living growth." And again, explaining the excellence of his drapery, she shows how he went beyond the ordinary consideration of the general flow and line of the stuffs, to a study of the sections of the folds. Hence drapery with him "is not only an arrangement of lines for decorative effect, or a covering for the figure, but it is a beauty in itself, filled with the living air."

Nanni di Banco is a name naturally a.s.sociated with that of Donatello, not only on account of the friendship between the two, but from the fact that both worked on the church of Or San Michele. Nanni was one of the smaller men whose work is overshadowed by the fame of a great contemporary. His art has not sufficient distinction to give it a prominent place; yet it is not without good qualities. Marcel Reymond insists that the public has not yet appreciated the just merits of this neglected sculptor. In his opinion the St. Philip was the inspiration of Donatello's St. Mark, while Nanni's St. Eloi had an influence upon St. George.

With Luca della Robbia began the "reign of the bas-relief," as Marcel Reymond characterizes the period of fifty years between Donatello and Michelangelo. Women and children were the special subjects of this sculptor's art, and it is perhaps in the Madonna and Child that we see his most characteristic touch. How well he could represent spirited action, we see in some of the panels of the organ gallery. How dignified was his sense of repose, is seen in the lunette of the Ascension.

Much as he cared for expression,--"expression carried to its highest intensity of degree," as Walter Pater put it,--he never found it necessary to secure this expression at the cost of beauty. That he studied nature at first hand his works are clear evidence, but that did not preclude the choice of attractive subjects. His style is "so sober and contained," writes a recent critic, "so delicate and yet so healthy, so lovely and yet so free from prettiness, so full of sentiment, and devoid of sentimentality, that it is hard to find words for any critical characterization."[2] "Simplicity and n.o.bility," the words of Cavalucci and Molinier, is perhaps the best phrase in which to sum up the art of Luca della Robbia.

In his nephew, Andrea della Robbia, the founder of the school had a successor whose best work is worthy of the master's teaching. If he lacked the simplicity and severity of the older man, he surpa.s.sed him in depth of Christian sentiment. Sometimes, it is true, his tenderness verges on weakness, his devoutness on pietism. If we are tempted to charge him with monotony we must remember what pressure was brought upon a man whose works attained such immense popularity. The bambini of the Foundling Hospital and the Meeting of St. Francis and St.

Dominick show the high level to which his art could rise.

Antonio Rossellino and Mino da Fiesole may be cla.s.sed together as sculptors to whom decorative effect was of first importance; they loved line and form for their intrinsic beauty. They delighted in elaborate and well ordered compositions. Elegance of design, delicacy and refinement in handling, are invariable qualities of their work.

Such qualities were especially to be desired in the making of those sepulchral monuments which were so numerous in their period. Of the many fine works of this cla.s.s in Tuscany each of these two sculptors contributed at least one of the best examples.

It is superfluous to point out that the sweetness of these sculptors is perilously near the insipid, their grace too often formal. We are brought to realize the true greatness of the men when we behold the grave and tranquil beauty of the effigy of the Cardinal of Portugal, or the vigorous characterization of the bust of Bishop Salutati.

It is John Addington Symonds who says the final word when he declares that the charm of the works of such men as Mino and Rossellino "can scarcely be defined except by similes." And these are the images which this master of similes calls up to our mind as we contemplate their works: "The innocence of childhood, the melody of a lute or a song bird as distinguished from the music of an orchestra, the rathe tints of early dawn, cheerful light on shallow streams, the serenity of a simple and untainted nature that has never known the world."

[Footnote 1: Sidney Colvin.]

[Footnote 2: Notes on _Vasari's Lives_, edited by E. H.

and E. W. Blashfield and A. A. Hopkins.]

II. ON BOOKS OF REFERENCE.

There are but few works devoted exclusively to the subject of Italian Renaissance sculpture. For many years American students seeking information in this direction have relied chiefly upon the works of C.

C. Perkins: "Tuscan Sculptors" (2 vols.), London, 1864; "Italian Sculptors" (in Northern, Southern and Eastern Italy), London, 1868; and finally the volume which unites and revises the material of both earlier works, "Historical Handbook of Italian Sculpture," New York, 1883.

The recent work of Marcel Reymond, "La Sculpture Florentine,"

Florence, 1898, has been heartily welcomed by students of all nationalities. It consists of four volumes, all well ill.u.s.trated, devoted respectively to: (1) Les Predecesseurs de l'Ecole Florentineet la Sculpture Florentine au XIV^e siecle [The Precursors of the Florentine School and Florentine Sculpture of the 14th Century]. (2) Premiere moitie du XV^e siecle [First half of the 15th century]. (3) Seconde moitie du XV^e siecle [Second half of the 15th century]. (4) Le XVI^e siecle et les Successeurs de l'Ecole Florentine [The 16th Century and the Successors of the Florentine School]. As it has not been translated into English this work is not so widely read by the general public as it should be, but it is probably to be found in most large libraries.

A newly published book, "Italian Sculpture of the Renaissance," by L.

J. Freeman, M. A., appears just as this volume goes to press. It is a brief survey, critical and interpretative, of the princ.i.p.al works of the most prominent Florentine sculptors of the period, with some account of the characteristics of the early and later Renaissance work. Some forty fine ill.u.s.trations elucidate the study.

Of the general works on the history of art from which material on our subject may be drawn, the most important is of course Vasari's "Lives." In the recently revised English version, edited by E. H. and E. W. Blashfield and A. A. Hopkins (New York, 1897), are some valuable footnotes summing up the characteristics of the individual sculptors.

Of inestimable value for purposes of serious study are the volumes by Eugene Muntz, "Histoire de l'Art pendant la Renaissance." The material bearing on the sculptors ill.u.s.trated in this present collection is found in his volume devoted to "Les Primitifs" (Paris, 1889). Those to whom the French text presents no difficulty will derive much benefit from the study of this book, which may be consulted in the large public libraries.

A book available to all, and of a delightfully popular nature, is the volume on "The Fine Arts" in John Addington Symonds's series of The Renaissance in Italy. This writer had a remarkable gift for putting much suggestive comment into a compact and readable form.

General histories of sculpture allotting a proportionate s.p.a.ce to the consideration of the Italian sculptors of the Renaissance are, by Lucy Baxter, "Sculpture, Renaissance and Modern" (New York, 1891); Lubke, "History of Sculpture," translated from the German by F. E. Bunnett (London, 1878); Allan Marquand and A. L. Frothingham, "Textbook of the History of Sculpture" (New York, 1896).

A special study of the work of Donatello is made by Hope Rea in a volume of the series of Handbooks of the Great Masters in Painting and Sculpture. A complete list of the sculptor's works is given. Luca della Robbia is the subject of two important French works: by Cavalucci and Molinier, "Les Della Robbia" (Paris, 1884); by Marcel Reymond, "Les Della Robbia" (Florence, 1897). There is a chapter on Luca della Robbia in Walter Pater's "Studies in the History of the Renaissance" (1890), and another in Mrs. Van Rensselaer's "Six Portraits" (Boston, 1889).

Mrs. Oliphant has written pleasantly both of Donatello and of Luca della Robbia in "The Makers of Florence."

III. HISTORICAL DIRECTORY OF THE WORKS IN THIS COLLECTION.

Frontispiece. _Il Marzocco_ (the heraldic lion of Florence).

(Donatello.) Made of pietra serena and originally placed on the _ringhiera_ of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Now in the National Museum (Bargello) of that city, while a bronze copy occupies its place in front of the palace.

1. _Musical Angels._ (Donatello.) Bronze bas-reliefs from the high altar of S. Antonio, Padua. Ordered in 1448. Completed in 1450. Marcel Reymond holds that the execution of these reliefs was committed to a.s.sistants. In 1576 a new altar was ordered, and Donatello's bronzes were dispersed. In 1895 a reconstruction of Donatello's altar was made, setting the parts in place according to what is supposed to have been the original design.