Vasari's opinion of the style and manner of Tintoret: Of all the extraordinary geniuses,' says he, that have practised the art of painting; for wild, capricious, extravagant, and fantastical inventions for furious impetuosity, and boldness in the execution of his work-there is none like Tintoret; his strange whimsies are even beyond extravagance, and his works seem to be produced rather by chance than in consequence of any previous design, as if he wanted to convince the world that the art was a trifle, and of the most easy attainment. For my own part, when I speak of the Venetian painters, I wish to be understood to mean Paolo Veronese and Tintoret, to the exclusion of Titian; for, though his style is not so pure as that of many other of the Italian schools, yet there is a sort of senatorial dignity about him which, however awkward in his imitators, seems to become him exceedingly. His portraits alone, from the nobleness and simplicity of character which he always gave them, will entitle him to the greatest respect, as he undoubtedly stands in the first rank in this branch of art. It is not with Titian, but with the seducing qualities of the two former, that I could wish to caution you against being too much captivated. These are the persons who may be said to have exhausted all the powers of florid eloquence to debauch the young and inexperienced, and have, without doubt, been the cause of turning off the attention of the connoisseur and of the patron of art, as well as that of the painter, from those higher excellences of which the art is capable, and which ought to be required in every considerable production. By them and their imitators, a style merely ornamental has been disseminated throughout all Europe. Rubens carried it to Flanders, Vouet to France, and Luca Giordano to Spain and Naples."

Of the assistants and scholars of Paolo, among the most distinguished were his brother Benedetto, and his son Carlo Caliari, called Carletto. Gabriele Caliari, likewise the son of Paolo, was also a painter; but the most eminent of all his followers was Battista Zelotti. BENEDETTO CALIARI, and CARLO CALIARI the son of Paolo, are known as the heirs of Paul Veronese. They completed his unfinished works, and commonly signed themselves GLI EREDI DI PAOLO VERONESE, or Heredes Pauli Caliari Veronensis. In Vienna is an Adoration of the Shepherds, signed HAE. PA. “ VE. IS FA. Benedetto, whose speciality was architecture, was the principal painter of the magnificent architectural backgrounds which enrich many of Paolo's pictures. He died in 1598, aged sixty. Carlo, commonly called Carletto, the better painter of the two, preceded his uncle to the grave. He died still very young, aged only twenty-four, in 1596. He had studied under old Bassano, as well as his father, and acquired somewhat of the

execution of that painter; but Zanetti mentions a few pictures by Carlo which are so like his father's as to be easily mistaken for them. Gabriele, though a painter for some time, forsook the arts for commerce, and it seems was not one of the "Eredi” of Paolo. There is no work by him known. He died in 1631, aged sixty-three. BATTISTA ZELOTTI of Verona (about 153292) is called Battista da Verona by Vasari, who states also that he studied with Titian. He was the fellow-pupil of Paolo Veronese in the school of Badile, and was for some time his assistant, and quite his equal as a fresco-painter. Battista is by some considered to have been superior to Paolo in the warmth of his colour and in the correctness of his drawing. His reputation is less than he deserves, as his works were executed for the most part for obscure provincial towns or for private families. His oil-pictures, however, have been frequently taken for those of his great rival. The pictures by Zelotti in the Sala del Consiglio de' Dieci, in the Ducal Palace at Venice, were engraved as Paolo's by Valentine Le Febre. His "Presentation of the Infant Christ in the Temple," in the Gallery of Berlin, is completely in the style and manner of Paolo Veronese. Zelotti was, however, less graceful and less effective than Paolo. Zelotti's principal work is the series commemorating the history of the Obizzi family, in the former villa of the count of that name at Cataio, painted in 1570.' Other great painters of Verona, were Paolo Morando, who died young; Battista D'Angelo, called Del Moro; Domenico Riccio, called Brusasorci ; and Paolo Farinato, surnamed degli Uberti.

An interesting picture by Morando, one of the earliest of the good Veronese painters, has been recently added to the National Gallery, the "San Rocco," formerly in the Church of Santa Maria della Scala at Verona, where it was seen by Vasari, who has noticed it. The saint is looking up at an angel, above; at his feet is a little dog: the picture, executed in a fine Cinquecento taste, is signed PAULUS MORADUS, V. P: and was originally dated MDXVIII., but the last five figures have been obliterated. PAOLO MORANDO, Sometimes called, after his father, CAVAZZOLA, was born in Verona apparently in 1484, and died there, August 13th, 1522, aged 37.2

BATTISTA D'ANGELO, still living in 1568, was called DEL MORO from having married Il Moro's daughter. He studied in her father's school. Battista painted in competition with Paul Veronese in the cathedral of Mantua; and there are good works by him in the churches of Venice and Verona. Marco del Moro, his son, and Giulio, his brother, were his assistants. Del Moro painted

1 Ridolfi; Zanetti; Lanzi; and Dal Pozzo, "Pittori Veronesi," &c.

2 See Da Persico "Descrizione di Verona" &c., 1820, 1. 227; and the National Gallery Catalogue, 39th Edition, 1864.

also miniatures, and was an engraver. His family adopted Moro as a surname. Giulio inscribed a statue in San Salvatore in VeniceJulius Maurus Veronensis, Sculptor, Pictor, et Architectus, f.

DOMENICO RICCIO (1494-1567), nicknamed BRUSASORCI from the circumstance of his father having invented a rat-trap, has been called the Titian of Verona. There are still great works by him at Verona as the frescoes of the Palazzo de' Murari, a mythological series; the Cavalcade of Clement VII. and Charles V., at Bologna, in 1530, in the Ridolfi Palace; and the Saint Mark in the church of the Padri Agostiniani. Like the Venetians generally, he devoted more attention to ancient mythology and civil history than to the hackneyed traditions of the Church.

PAOLO FARINATO (1526-1606) must be accounted among the great ornamental painters. Some of his works are worthy of Paul Veronese himself. He was the scholar of Niccolo Giolfino, and a student of the works of Titian and Giorgione. His pictures are bold, vigorous, and tasteful: a "Pagan Sacrifice" at Vienna is a magnificent picture. His master-piece is considered the "Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes," in the church of San Giorgio at Verona, which was painted in his old age. It is a composition of many figures, containing several fine groups of women and children, among which he has introduced portraits of his own family, and is inscribed, MDCIV. PAULUS FARINATUS DE UBERTIO FECIT AETATIS SUE LXXIX. Farinato and his wife died on the same day. No doubt many works painted by Paolo Farinato now pass as pictures of Paolo Veronese.

Before proceeding with the history of the decline of Painting in Italy, it is necessary to give some account of the progress of the art in Transalpine Europe, where, as we have seen, it had likewise advanced to a high degree of development in many respects at a very early period; and as it appears independently of the revived art of Italy.

267

BOOK V.

TRANSALPINE ART. DETERIORATION OF PAINTING IN ITALY THROUGH THE ASCENDANCY OF THE SENSUOUS ELEMENT OF ART. MATERIALISM AND ECLECTICISM.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE SCHOOLS OF THE NETHERLANDS UNDER ITALIAN INFLUENCE.-CHURCH

PATRONAGE.

WHILE the art was hurrying to a rapid consummation in Italy, owing to the growing preponderance of colour, and the morbid desire for striking effects of composition, produced rather by spasmodic action than by natural vigour and perfect development of form, the sober Flemings were plodding on producing their quaint forms, until gradually becoming aware of the higher attainments of the Italian cinquecentisti, they turned all their energies into a competing rivalry, and laboured hard to appropriate the more showy style of design of their fellow-labourers in Italy.

QUINTIN METSYS, MASSYS, or MATSYS (he wrote his name all three ways), the celebrated smith of Antwerp, who was born apparently at Louvain' about 1450, was in every respect one of the most extraordinary painters of this period, both in his personal history and for the diligent labour of his elaborate works. He was brought up as a blacksmith, and was distinguished for his skill in ornamental ironwork. At Louvain and its neighbourhood, and in Antwerp, where he eventually settled, there are still shown several good examples of his skill in working iron. It is popularly recorded that, while engaged on one of these works at Antwerp, he

1 L. Guicciardini, "La Description des Pays Bas," 1569, p. 131. This authority is not admitted by Antwerp critics, as a family of the name was established in that city some time before the birth of Quintin, and one Jean Metsys was distinguished as a Smith there: he died in 1490-1. But Molanus also, in his unpublished "History of Louvain," "Historiæ Lovaniensium Libri XIV.," auctore JOANNE MOLANO, Speaks of Quintin as a native of Louvain. See extracts given by E. Van Even, in the "Dietsche Warande," Amsterdam, 1858.

fell in love with a painter's daughter, and in order to please the father and win the daughter, Quintin forsook the anvil for the easel he received some instruction, says Molanus, from Roger Vander Weyden (the younger), and not only gained his suit, but became the most able painter in the city, and raised the reputation of the school of Antwerp to a celebrity equal to that of the school of Bruges. He was admitted Franc-Maître into the Antwerp Guild of Painters in 1491.

His master-piece, the great altar-piece in the Museum at Antwerp, is one of the wonders of its age. It consists of a centre and two folding wings or doors: in the centre is represented, The Taking Down from the Cross, a composition of many figures; on the left wing, Herodias is carrying the head of John the Baptist to Herod; on the right wing, is St. John the Evangelist in the cauldron of boiling oil: the figures are of the natural size, and the most important are finished with the utmost elaboration, though somewhat Gothic in taste of design, and there is a want of depth in the general tone. It was painted in 1508, the year that Raphael went to Rome, for the altar of the chapel of the Joiners' Company, in the cathedral at Antwerp, for the small sum of 300 florins, about 251. sterling, only enough to pay for five such dinners as Lucas Van Leyden gave the painters of Middelburg in 1521; but, as already observed, money had then about twenty times its present value. Philip II. of Spain offered large sums for it in vain; and Queen Elizabeth of England is said to have been likewise refused at the enormous price of 5,000 rose nobles, or 40,000 florins. It was eventually purchased, through the recommendations of Martin de Vos, in 1577, by the magistracy of Antwerp, for 1500 florins, and was placed in the chapel of the Circumcision, in the cathedral, where it remained until 1794. It is now one of the chief ornaments of the Gallery there.

:

Though Quintin's works are generally of a religious character, he painted some portraits, and a favourite subject with him was a couple of Misers or Money-changers counting their money; a fine example of this, a man and his wife, known as "The Misers," is at Windsor and two admirable examples, of a different character, Christ as the Saviour of the World, and the Virgin in Adoration, have been lately added to the National collection; they were formerly in the King of Holland's Gallery at the Hague, and, like all the other works of the painter, are distinguished for a carefulness of execution, elaborated to a perfection rivalling that of John Van Eyck. Two similar heads are in the Antwerp Gallery. The "Mater Dolorosa " and the "Ecce Homo," two of the Wallerstein pictures in the National collection, appear to be by the same hand. Quintin died of the suette in the Carthusian Convent at Antwerp,