GIUSEPPE
573
GIUSEPPE
examples of Elysian happiness in a race in the state
of innocence, Giulio's decorations resemble saturnalia
of lubricity itself. The vulgarity of the drawing leaves
no illusion as to the nature of its intention; nothing
remains of the ancient myth, thus stripped of all its
ideal signification, but what serves to excite the senses.
Thus art, losing all moral import, sinks inevitably to
the level of a game of conventional rules, and the cloak
of fiction serves only to disguise the grossness of the
instincts, which have ousted every laudable ideal.
Such was the result of "art for art's sake" in his
case, and the danger of such principles was aggra-
vated by the superstitious reverence for the antique
in the sixteenth centur)-. The word antique was held
to purify and sanctify everything: all things were law-
ful in the name of erudition, the antique became a
fetish. In the Hall of Troy (1534-1.5:58) in the Palazzo
di Corte, and in his " Triumph of Titus and Vespasian "
in the Louvre, Giulio, following in the footsteps of
Mantcgna, had given e\i-
dcnce that he too was among
the learned, the connoisseurs,
the men of disinterested cul-
ture, and no doubt con-
cluded that he was thereby
entitled to ilispense with the
claims of moraUty in the rest
of his works. It was not
long until the same specious
reasoning became the fash-
ion in Europe. Primatice
introduced it to the Court
of Fontainebleau ; and Ru-
bens, who spent eight years
(1600-1608) at the Court of
Mantua, brought it back
with him to Flanders. Giulio
is the originator of those
lascivious pictures, dating
from 1630 to 1638, which are
in the Prado and Torre de la
Pareja galleries at Madrid.
Mantua, Giulio's towTi, rather
than Rome was the teacher
of the seventeenth century.
The consequences of these
lirinciples were disastrous.
The anti(iue, indeed, could
only be the rcUgion of the
few, but, by constituting
fable the sole vehicle of the
beautiful, Giulio, vulgarian
though he was, fell into the error of "aristocratiz-
ing" art, and thus of severing its indispensable
bond with the real. Henceforth its public became
fewer; art, becoming the property of an intellectual
class, was exposed to all the risks inherent in caste and
party spirit. It was now a priWleged possession, a code-
language for use only among the initiated. Emanci-
pated from morality (thanks to the sophism of the
antique), deprived of the necessan,- support of reality,
and immune from the common-sense verdict of the
general public, it gave utterance only to aimless, use-
less, soulless, Ufeless abstractions. As an example may
be cited the most famous of Giulio's works, the "Hall
of the Giants" (1532-1.534) in the Palace of the Ta-
jetto. It is difficult to say whether the artist was
here the dupe of his imagination, or whether the work
was the result of a jocose wager, for it is certainly a
freak, a shock like those that used to startle the
yokels in the Gardens of CasteUo and of PratoUno.
I?ut the effect here is brought about by such palpable
illusion, the imposture is so enormous, it demands so
many concessions from the spe»tator. it presupposes
such a lack of all critical power on his part, that it is
hard to understand such a pleasantni', though for
Giulio's sake one would gladly wish it such. The
Giulio
By himseU', Uffi
effort is so out of proportion to the result that one can-
not repress a feeling of pity. Such a lack of dignity
comes as a shock. There is, of course, in the Italian
genius a substratum of scepticism, of irony, of parodj',
which outsiders can never quite reahze. But was it
worth while to heap Pelion on Ossa, to shake the whole
world, to create such a cataclysm of colour, merely to
raise a smile? Or can it be that the logical outcome
of the doctrine of "art for art's sake" is nothing more
or less than the bizarre and the burlesque?
Distinguished by such characteristics and marked by such defects, Giulio Romano occupies nevertheless an important place in the history of art. More than any other, he aided in propagating the pseudo-classi- cal, half-pagan style of art so fashionable during the seventeenth century, and it is mainly through his influence that after the year 1600 we find so few re- ligious painters in Europe. It was reserved to a Dutchman — Rembrandt. — to reconcile artand moral- ity once more. By his influ- ence as a pupil of Raphael, Giulio contributed to spread the evil germs of Italian Art — carelessness of finish, bravura, lack of sincerity, lack of truth, mannerism, love of the grotesque. He painted many altar-pieces; the best is the "Stoning of St. Stephen" in S. Stefano at Genoa, executed before leaving Rome, when the mantle of Raphael was stiU on him. His Madonnas, such as the "Madonna della Gatta" (Naples), the "Ma- donna della Catina" (Dres- den), are mere genre pictures without feeling or religious depth, having the sort of ab- stract beauty we expect in bas-reliefs. The "Nati\ity" of the Louvre is an attempt to reproduce the chiaro- oscuro of Corregio.
Vasaui, Vife de* pix'i eccetlenli pittori, ed. MiLANEsi {Florence, 187S); D'Arco, htoria della Vila e delle opere di Giulio Romano (1838; 2nd ed. with appendi.x, 1842); Arti ed arlcjici di Mantova (Mantua, 1857); Woermann, Geschichle der Malerei, II (Leip- zig, 18S2); Crowe and Cavai/- CASELLE. Hislon/ of Italian Painting; Buckiiardt. Der Cicerone, ed. Bode (Berlin. 1S79); Berenson, Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance (New York, 1903).
Louis Gillet.
Giuseppe Maria Tommasi, Blessed, cardinal, noted for his learning, humility, and zeal for reform ; b. at Licata, Sicily, of a princelv family. 12 September, 1649 ; d. in Rome, 1 January, 1713. Though destined by his father for the Spanish Court, he joined the Clerks Regular of the Theatine Order at Palermo, 24 March, 1665, renovmcing his primogeniture and the princedom in favour of his brother. He was profes.sed 25 March, 1666. He studied philosophy, first at Mes- sina, and later, owing to poor health, at Ferrara and Modena; and theology in Rome and Palermo. He was ordained priest on Christmas Day, 1673. To a wide knowledge of Greek, he united the study of Ethi- opic. Arabic, Syriac, Chaldaic and Hebrew — convert- ing his master, a Jewish rabbi, to Christianity. From the Psalters in these different languages, he collected the titles of the Psalms. He devoted himself to the studv of Scri]iture and the Fathers. Searching the chief libraries, archives, and monvuuents, he retraced the ancient ecclesiastical discipline and liturgy.
His valuable works {Codici Tommasiani), published
Gallery, Florenc
