60SSELIN
664
GOSSELIN
fixion". The execution is bold, the painting compact
and smooth, hut the faces are wooden and sHglitly
grimacing, the emotional portrayal being weak. What
is most striking is the power of touch, the carving of
the faces as with a chisel, the almost sculptural effect.
They recall those clumsy Gothic groups of painted
wood, so popular in the countries of the North during
the fifteenth century. At Rome, on the contrary, he
formed an entirely different conception of beaiity, or
rather he obtained an insight into absolute beauty.
The revelation did not come to him through modern
artists. In 1509 not one of the great works of Michael
Angelo or Raphael was yet completed. But all Italy
was filled with enthusiasm for the monuments of
antiquity. Mabuse devoted his whole sojourn to
stud},^ng and copying for Philip of Burgundy the ruins
of Rome. The iirst result of this journey was a change
in his decorative scheme, to which we owe the archi-
tectural backgrounds, the colonnades, the palaces, the
visions of a world of marble with magnificent pedi-
ments, which raise their noble outlines in his pictures.
It is plain that all this archieology is quite destitute of
scientific value. It is nevertheless of extreme impor-
tance, since it was by no mere chance that the great
beginners of the Renaissance movement — Brunel-
lesco, Alberti, and Bramante — were architects. It was
through them that the world of Vitruvius dethroned
the Gothic world, \\ith architecture the whole sys-
tem of the arts altered its principles, and was reorgan-
ized on a rational basis and a monumental scale.
This revolution is readily apparent in the works of Mabuse. Statures grow taller, forms expand to pre- serve their proportion with the heroic scale of the decorative scheme; the nude banishes the flowing draperies; colour becomes thin; edges begin to merge into less rigid lines ; the palette fades and assumes the cold tones of fresco. Mabu.se 's chief work, the triptj'ch of the " Descent from the Cross" in the church of the Preraonstratensians at Middelburg, which Diirer ad- mired in December, 1520, was unfortunately burned in 1568. But the triptych of Prague, " St. Luke painting the Blessed Virgin (1515), and above all the "Adora- tion of the Magi" of Howard Castle (Earl of Cariisle), with its twenty figures of life size, its animation, its breadth of conception, its vibrating life, ena- ble us to understand the emotion produced in the Flemish school bj' such original conceptions. It was in fact the grand historical style of painting that Mabuse brought to his coimtrymen. As a decorator and as author of cartoons for tapestry ("Legend of Herkenbald", Brussels) he retains, nevertheless, min- gled with the taste of the Renaissance something of the flamboyant imagination displayed in the cathe- dral of Brou. He seems less happy in his easel pictures, above all in the treatment of mythological subjects, which he was the first to treat and to spread through- out the North. His "Amphitrite" at Berlin (1510), his "Danae" at Munich (1527), his "Lucretia" at the C'olonna Gallery are paintings at once awkward and affected, unnatural, almost ridiculous. All the splen- did sentiment of paganism escapes him. Yet it was this portion of his work which most impressed his con- temporaries, and Guichard, as well as Van Maiuler, lauds him as the first to emancipate Flemish art from theology and transport it to the wholly natural sphere of humanism.
Finally, Mabuse was a portraitist of considerable importance. The "Children of Christian of Denmark" at Hampton Court, the "Carondelet" at the Louvre (1517), and the "Monk" at the same museum, are pieces of a vigour that has never been surpa.s.se(l. The outline of the model here attains a relief comparable to high relief. The painting is in a silver tone, thin, al- mo.st without shadows. The design is less incisive but quite as accurate a-s that of Holbein. The "Virgins" of Mabuse are also portraits; the best, those of the Louvre and of Douai, already portray the beautiful
Flemish type, the fleshy oval, the transparency of the
skin, which subsequently constitute the uniform grace
of the Madonnas of Rubens. The spiritual beauty of
Memling is absent; the charm is that of a beautiful
woman. The nimbus has lost its significance ; the ideal
nature is expressed only by a sweeter model and a
more resplendent light. Mabuse's historical impor-
tance is very great. Although he trained no pupils, his
influence was felt by all. At Flanders he pointed out
the way of the future, the path of the Renaissance.
He had the good fortune to be the first-comer, and to
be preserved from the excesses of unintelligent and
ridiculous imitation into which his successors fell, e. g.
the Heemskirks, the Floris, and Martin de Vos. What
he most lacked was feeling, true inspiration. He falls
far below the exquisite poetry of Massys, but he real-
ized much more clearly the trend of art. If his master-
piece, the picture at Howard Castle, were not almost
inaccessible to the general public, it would be seen that
Rubens, throughout the sixteenth century, had no
greater precursor in his country.
K.\REL VAN Mander, Le lirre des peinlres (1604), Fr. tr. with notes and commentaries by Hymans (Paris, 1884); Van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerfsche schilderschool (Antwerp, 1878-83); Waagan, Manuel de V H istoire de la ■peinture, on Ger- man, Flemish, and Dutcli schools (3 vols., Brussels, 1S63); Weale in Burlington Magazine (May, 1903), II, 369; Gossart, Jean Gossart de Maubeuge, sa vie et son ocuvre d'apr^s Ics der- nieres recherches et documents incdits (Lille, 1903 ) ; Wurtzbach, Niederlandisches Kunstlerlexikon, II (Leipzig, 1906).
Louis GiLLET.
Gosselin, Jean-Edme-Auguste, ecclesiastical au- thor; b. at Rouen, France, 28 Sept., 1787; d. at Paris, 27 Nov., 1858. He studied philosophy and theology at St-Sulpice, Paris, 1806-11; became professor of dogma, while yet a subdeacon, after the expulsion of the Sulpicians from the seminary by Napoleon, ISll; was ordained priest, 1812. On the return of the Sul- picians (1814) he entered their society; was vice-presi- dent of the seminary at Issy, 1814-30; professor of theology to the candidates for the society, 1814-18; superior of the seminary from 18.31 to 1844, when the feeble state of his health, which had always been ileli- cate, obliged him to resign. His increasing infirmi- ties from that time till his death permitted him to ren- der little service except by his pen and the example of his piety, industry, and fortitude. A charming por- trait of \\. Gosselin has been left by Ernest Renan; in his " Lettres du Seminaire " we see the impression pro- duced on the young man by his kindness, gentleness, sober piety, and prudence, his vast and varied erudi- tion. And in the work of his old age, "Souvenirs d'enfance et de jeunesse", Renan says: "He was the most polished and amiable man whom I have ever known."
Besides many minor writings of service in their day, Gosselin left three works which are still of great value. The fir.st is the standard edition of Fenelon in twenty- two volumes (1820-24), to which he added his corre- spontlence in eleven volumes (1827-29), besides a cor- rected and enlarged edition of Bausset's " Histoire de F6nelon" and other smaller works devoted to the Archbishop of Cambrai. Gosselin's edition is valu- able for its notes and discussions, but its accuracy has been somewhat marred by his partiality for Fenelon. Out of it grew his best-known work, " Pouvoir du Rape au moyenage" (1839; 2nd edition, 1845; tr. as "The Power of the Popes during the Middle Ages", Balti- more, 1853). This remains the classic study of its subject, though in part superseded by Mgr Du- chesne's researches. It proved beyond question that the popes exercised temporal power over sovereigns during the Middle Ages. Orestes Brownson, in sev- eral articles devoted to it, while admitting its great erudition, attacked its position (adopted from Fene- lon), that this power was derived not from Divine authority, but from the public law of that period. C5osselin lived to complete his valuable "Vie de M.
