Where Art Begins

RY EXAM

r great National Exhibition, at least round that portion of it

re reverence than the modern art critic might talk about a Millais or a Leighton, or any other living master who by reason of his body being still with us, and being

faults of men who, coming before the modern masters, had so many more technical difficulties to overcome than their successors had at the start of their professional education; but I wish to look at their works as the production of human beings who lived in t

and view the man in the same independent spirit in which you would look at the work of a man whom you might meet any day in the street, do not go on, for I shall only rouse in you a fury of scorn or indignant pity; and although I do not mind personally be

hings as they really are, and not as they have been taught to believe they are. I will try to be plain if terse, and

pity my feelings, when, with a temerity approaching to the suicidal, I begin my critical and analytical remarks with the picture which, 'by common consent, is considered to be one of the most perfect pictures in the world,' as

ties, i.e. bring it down to the standpoint of a picture painted by a living artist, and exhibited, say, in last year's Academy; for that is the way I am going to treat them a

As the design for an altar window, to be reproduced in stained glass, it

s greatly inferior as a painting to 'Pope Julius II.,' No. 27, which is, in technique, the best work we have of Raphael's. It is not nearly

hich breaks the picture into three parts, and utterly destroys all sense of unity and harmony. The emblems, although freely enough painted, are forced and badly placed. The Virgin Mother's face has no expression, unless it be that of inane conten

e of work; the position is strained even for ecstatic contemplation; the advanced leg does not seem to be connected enough with the body, and in its pose appears to be pointed with the exaggerated attempt at grace of a dancing master; therefore, although the ge

a picture pure and simple. In consideration of its merits, which certainly counterbalance its demerits, I would fix its price as it now stands at 500l.; but because it was painted by Raphael Santi, and the

l round us; to weigh it in the balance and think whether the spiritual or artistic pleasure which the contemplation of that work gives or may give to the educated masses is a just and fair equivalent for the starving or slaughtered thousands which the money that purchased it might have kept in comfort and life. If the wo

oes not give me complete satisfaction as an artist, and none whatever as a d

work of art which may be examined by both artist and amateur with unqualified pleasure and instruction. It ranks with such r

rings are splendidly painted, the expression is masterly in its combination of power and repose. Anyone can tell at a glance that this is a true likeness of the Pope, taken when he had an hour of leisure, and faithfully reproduced withou

colour. It is all beautiful and human. The comely mother with two lovely children beside her gives us the true divinity of holy maternity; the landscape behind is deliciously and tenderly painted, and the only blemish in the composition is that discordant and mannered pill

ainted as to flesh tones and other details. So also is No. 269, 'The Vision of a Knight,' which is, as an example of this painter at the age of seventeen, positively marvellous; yet for all that, although the design is good, and the composition freer than the gener

ather to point out, as they occur to me, those masterpieces, the studying of which may educate the mi

me room, as I think it will make your minds rebound with real relief; at any rate, I know that it will go far to educate you

tudent cannot do better than read 'Annals of the Artists of Spain,' by

ed, it was considered so life-like when it was first painted that King Philip mistook it for the man himself, and gave it a royal chiding for wa

le figure than from a crowded composition, and the drawing out and copyi

e. It is all fire, dash, and vigour, bold and free as the best work of our own contemporary, James McNeill Whistler. The drawing is perfect and

quality, although not quite so simply treated, No. 1316, 'An Italian Nobleman,' by Moroni-the pain

t the student is apt to begin copying without considering the difficulties before him; therefore I would advise him

years ago; it is so highly finished in all its details, so perfect in its expression and pose, and, as I have said, so undemonstrative on the part of the master, that one is apt not to wonder he had

s; 742, 'Portrait of a Lawyer,' in black velvet; 1024, 'Portrait of an Italian Ecclesiastic;' and 1022, 'Portrait of an Italian Nobleman.' While the student may satisfy his cravings with that li

stly impressed me as being more or less useful to take in this course of study for their special qualities, after

st for a young artist who has experience enough with his brush to paint it quickly. You may labour with improvement up

acy of execution. One is 585, 'Portrait of Isotta da Rimini,' by Piero della Fra

e century, the fifteenth, and are distinguished by their high and min

termine, if he possibly can, how many workings the master took to complete his work. In this case, Guido Reni began and finished his sketch at one sitting, meaning it only as a rough study for some larger work. Rubens did a number of his in the same method; indeed, if the artist is decided enoug

out so much damage, but excepting those masters who cultivated and depended upon the art of glazing,[17] most of the best men finished their backgrounds and draperies before they touched t

nsely sentimental, with lavish masses of fair hair floating about, while the face expresses a sweet abandonment of large-eyed sorrow. I am afraid

painters of his age, and his pictures command high prices. They are excellent alike in tone and the other academical qualities which are useful to young painters who aim rather at mastering the technical diffic

n which I place them. Begin with Fra Filippo Lippi. I do not mean the whole of his compositions, but a few of the solitary figures. Take next that spiritual and melancholy pi

e National Gallery a picture where the flesh tones on a nude figure are more perfectly painted. There is hardly any shadow at all

study one or two of the living masters, if you think fit, and have the time. If you have worked conscientiously with the earlier masters and in the spirit of the later ones, I can trust your own judgment to choose which modern man you are inclined to follow for a little while; but if you have got the gift of the true

only interesting as a painting, but also for the uncouth historical object which occupies the centre of the foreground, a kind of ex libris puzzle, meaning the painter's name, which does not improve the painting as a work of art, even although Shak

d men and women as he saw them, without attempting much in the way of grouping or posing; he painted them hard and fast in their extravagant costumes, with all their family jewelry upon them, and as many accessories round them as he could possibly cram in, because he loved to work and did not think to spare himse

refore he exactly suited him, but he possessed the talent of infinite patience; and so I offer you Hans Holbein as the best mechanical workman of his country. He is a typical German in the hardy sens

nter has given us: 'A Spanish Peasant Boy,' 74; 'St. John and the Lamb,' 176; 'The Birth of the Virgin,' 1257; and 'Boys Drinking,' 1287. I like all his pictures, but I like his boy best of a

aroscuro and bluff power; 'The Dead Christ,' 235, by Spagnoletto, for vigour and stren

that you have got real men to deal with and to copy, instead of

Teniers the younger. Consider Cuyp, with his precise touch; Van Eyck, the father of oils, with his quaint medi?valism and patient symbolism; Weyden, as in 653, with his rigid adherence to facts; Quintin Matsys, with his hard high finish; Rubens, the lavish and exuberant; Van

res unless he can paint a picture himself, or at least i

rtistic exultation. But before I can tell you all these secrets about the mystic dead, I must first study his work by copying it; it would be only guesswork were I to content myself with looking at his canvas or panel; and what I am unable to do with my long and extensive training as a painter, I defy any non-painting art-critical dilettante to be able to do. John Ruskin qualified himself as an art critic by learning to draw and paint, and when bigotry or bilious bad temper does not interfere with his critical vision, he stands, and must for ever stand, pre-eminent amongst art critics. No human being

that we had an apartment devoted entirely to him, as we have to Turner. I should have been well content, and should never have uttered a word about the indigent poor, had the 70,000l. been spen

is in any other painter who had not his scheme of chiaroscuro and colour-intentions, but with him I would not have them altered. As they are, they all go to complete the harmony; indeed,

'A Man's Portrait:' all these portraits are so splendid in their qualities, and appeal at once so strongly to the sympathies of artists and ordinary sightseers, that I must leave them to speak for themselves. You look into the frames as through

wns and siennas and lakes to get at that translucent depth, and at your colour lists with dissatisfaction. This master will be too much for you to penetrate through all his films, yet rest content if you are able to dive a little way

rs. With paint we may, after a measure, imitate a painter as he left his picture when finished; but Time, the constant w

entleman,' a head only, therefore we are not aggravated by the display of any of those unnaturally refined hands w

of painting worth looking twice at in the Gallery; he d

Lady of the Rocks.' It is a heavy but fine piece of work, a

of a satyr; the other portions of this picture

h no works in the Gallery are more useful to the young painter. His scheme of colour is low-

e three specimens we have, yet they are worth looking at. Titian of course is always masterly, both in his landscape and in h

orenzo (I name this early painting for its exquisite decorative qualities and its harmonious combination of carving, gold and paint, as well as for the general design); 'Bacchus and Ariadne,' No. 35, by Titian; 'Mercury, Venus, and Cupid,' No. 10, by Correggio, for its fine drawing and colour; 'San Arnolfina and his Wife,' No. 186, by Jan van Eyck, for its minute detail and realism; 'The Virgin and Child,' 274, by

said, as they are mostly conventional, and were painted in the studio f

he Avenue, Middelharnis,' 830, is as fine a piece of work as any modern work; it is true and rigid to facts, wit

them, even if it is nature convulsed, which is often lacking about the manufactured efforts of his contemporaries, Claude Lorraine and Gaspard Poussin. 'Mercury and the Woodman,' 84; 'Tobias and the Angel,' 811; and 'A River Scene,' 935, are fair examples of this vigorous artist and versifier. That of 'Mercury and the Woodman' I like

does not, of course, paint atmosphere; only one master did this properly, and that was Turner, but he presents to us a placid and smiling world which promotes comforting thoughts of rest and joy, and so I give him all

all his pictures must, and leave only a few stains and cracks behind. So much for the modern masters when they try to compete with their manufactured tube colours against the wise men of old, who ground their own paints, studied the chemistry of colours, and knew how to prepare their own canvases. A century after this, readers of old books will won

RM