PAINTING
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PAINTING
1340), those of the Church militant and the Church
teaching in the Spanish Chapel (c. 1355), or those of
the "Anchorites" and the "Triumph of Death" in
the Campo Santo of Pisa (c. 1370), all showing the
same popular and practical character. Such pictures
have the force of a sermon ; there is no strictly artistic
intention, but an ob\-ious intention to instruct and
impress. This is also made clear by the celebrated
allegories of the Franciscan Virtues, in the lower
church of Assisi (c. 13.35), and in the frequent repeti-
tion of the Last Judgment (by Giotto at Padua and
the Florence Signoria; by Orcagna at S. Maria
Novella, etc.). This theme of death and the Judg-
ment was evidently a favourite one with the Mendi-
cants : at Assisi and Padua are two frescoes represent-
ing a Friar Minor indicating a skeleton beside him.
And hence the "Triumph of Death" at Pisa and the
terrible "Dance of Death" of northern Europe.
This popular art required popular modes of expres- sion. Cavallini and Giotto still made mosaics, and Cimabue is best known to us as a mosaicist. But this slow and expensive method was unsuited to a democratic, sentimental, and impassioned art, while fresco, which had never been abandoned, even during the Byzantine period, offered to the new ideas a more plastic and animated mode of expression. With less material opulence, the latter process was rapid, cheap, and apt at reproducing the undulations of life, ex- pressing at once the exactness of nature and the emo- tion of the artist. Thereby a new element entered into the execution itself, an individual element of sentiment and spontaneity only limited by the conditions of mural painting and the exigencies of an art always somewhat oratorical. Inebriated, as it were, with this new liberty, the Giottesque painters covered Italy with innumerable paintings. Indeed, this school, as a whole, despite grave faults, constitutes the richest and freest fund of religious painting.
(2) Masaccio and His Age. — But it mu.st be ac- knowledged that the Giottesques formed a popular school which was too often satisfied with worthless improvisation. The task of imbuing painting with artistic feeling was that of the two great painters, Masolino (q. v.) and Masaccio (q. v.), the latter espe- cially, in his frescoes in the Carmelite chapel at Flor- ence (1426) sounding the keynote of the future. Nev- ertheless, despite their seriousness of conception and aim, the religious element of these frescoes is scarcely to be taken into account. There are evidences of great progress in the art, the nobility of ideas, the elevation of style, the seriousness and grandeur of the work, but the gain of Christian feeling and piety is less manifest. But Masaccio's powerful naturalness was for a time in harmony with the mystic sense, and re- ligious art then yielded perhaps its most exquisite flowers. The works of Gentile da Fabriano, such as the "Adoration of the Magi" (1423; Academy of Florence), those of Pisaniello, such as the "Legend of St. George" (c. 1425; St. Anasta.sia, Verona), and in a lesser degree those of the Milanese Stefano da Zcvio breathe the inimitable grace of a pure and holy joy, which is still more charmingly apparent in the works of the Camaldolese Lorenzo Monaco, and especially in those of the Dominican Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, whose genius won for him the surname of Angelico (q. v.).
Angelico's disciples did not reach his level, but a youthful charm distinguishes the spiritual paintings of Benozzo Gozzoli, whose "Adoration of the Magi" in the Riccardi chapel is one of the most perfect works of the Renai-ssance, while his "Genesis" frescoes in the Campo Santo of Pisa (1469-85) will always be loved for their exquisite figures amid rich landscapes. But perhaps this pious joy never inspired anything more lovable than the works of the old LTmbrian masters, Ottaviano Nelli, Allegretto Nuzi, Domenico Bontigli, and Boccati da Camerino. The early Renaissance was
a fortunate period, in which the simplicity of the soul
was not marred by the discovery of nature and art.
Even the poor Carmelite Fra Filippo Lippi, unwilling
monk as he was, whose restless life was far from ex-
emplary, was animated by true and delicate piety.
His "Nativity" (Berlin), his "Madonna" (Ufiizi),and
his "Adoration of the Holy Child" (c. 1465; Louvre)
recall Angelico.
^ C. The FiflecnihCentury in the North. — What Masac-
cio's frescoes were for fifteenth-century Italy, that and
much more was the retable of the Van Eycks for
the rest of Europe. This colossal work was begun in
1420, completed and set up in 14.32. Throughout the
fifteenth century the art of the schools of the North
retained the allegorical and symbolical character
which marks this great work. Such books as the
"Speculum humans salvationis" or the "Bibha pau-
perum" dominated iconography and furnished artists
with their favourite subjects. But, with all this, in
Flanders naturalism was unrestrained, that of the Van
Eycks making even Masaccio's seem vague and ab-
stract. A portion of the change accomplished by them
is foreshadowed in the works of the Limbourgs (see
LiMBorRd, Pol de). To the revolution which they
effected in the manner of beholding corresponds an-
other in the manner of painting. The whole fifteenth
century spoke of the "invention of the Van Eycks":
it is hard to say in what this consisted, but if they did
not, as was bcUeved, discover oil-painting, they cer-
tainly invented new processes and a new style. (See
Eyck, Hubert and J.\n Van.) Undoubtedly this
rcaUsm lacked taste and charm. The types were com-
mon, \'Tilgar, and middle-class, and these faults were
even exaggerated by the disciples of the school — Jean
Daret, Ouwater, Dirck Bouts, Van der Goes, and
Petrus Cristus. The school's photographic impassi-
bility, on the other hand, was suddenly offset by the
equally exaggerated and somewhat contorted passion
of the Braban^on Van der Wej'den, at once a reaUst
and a mystic. Such as it was, this robust school con-
quered Europe in a few years, even Italy feeling its
powerful influence. In France, Simon Marmion,
Nicolas Fremont, and Jean Fouquet were Uttle more
than somewhat refined and gallicized Flemings. In
Spain it suffices to mention Luis Dalmaii and in Portu-
gal, Nuno Gonzalez, both being pure Flemish.
German painting, on the other hand, while it owed much to the neighbouring Flemish school, remained much more original in spirit. In it is found the deep and tender sentiment lacking in the school of the Low Countries, a popular mysticism derived, not from books, but from the interior treasures of the soul. The school which produced (c. 1380) the Clarenaltar of Cologne and (c. 1400) the delightful little "Paradise" of Frankfort obviously possessed but mediocre gifts; its sense of form was often defective, but even the piety of Angelico did not speak a purer language. A superior plastic education produced the work of Stephan Lochner, the fine Domhild (1430), the "Ma- donna of the Violet", and the marvellously sweet "Madonna of the Rose Garden". From this school was descended the most famous of the Northern mys- tics, the tender and graceful Memling (q. v.). In his work a new aristocracy, that of sentiment, transfigures the Flemish opulence. The same moral delicacy and familiarity with Divine things sweeten and spiritualize the works of Gerard David, and especially of Quentin Massys, who became a painter through love. At the end of the fifteenth century there was no German town or province which had not its local school. For a long time only two of these were known or regarded: that of Cologne, with its anonymous masters, the Master of the Passion of Ly\cr;<hcrg, the Master of the Death of Mary, the Master of tlic Jloly Family (Heitigerisippe), and, most powerful of all, tlie Master of the Barthol- omdusaltar ; and the school of Nuremberg, with its two famous painters, Wohlgemuth and Pleydenwurff . But
