A Text Book of the History of Painting
J >> John C. Van Dyke >> A Text Book of the History of Painting[Illustration: VELASQUEZ. HEAD OF AESOP, MADRID.]
A TEXT-BOOK
OF THE
HISTORY OF PAINTING
BY
JOHN C. VAN DYKE, L.H.D.
PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF ART IN RUTGERS COLLEGE AND AUTHOR OF
"ART FOR ART'S SAKE," "THE MEANING OF PICTURES," ETC.
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1909
COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
* * * * *
PREFACE.
The object of this series of text-books is to provide concise
teachable histories of art for class-room use in schools and colleges.
The limited time given to the study of art in the average educational
institution has not only dictated the condensed style of the volumes,
but has limited their scope of matter to the general features of art
history. Archaeological discussions on special subjects and aesthetic
theories have been avoided. The main facts of history as settled by
the best authorities are given. If the reader choose to enter into
particulars the bibliography cited at the head of each chapter will be
found helpful. Illustrations have been introduced as sight-help to the
text, and, to avoid repetition, abbreviations have been used wherever
practicable. The enumeration of the principal extant works of an
artist, school, or period, and where they may be found, which follows
each chapter, may be serviceable not only as a summary of individual
or school achievement, but for reference by travelling students in
Europe.
This volume on painting, the first of the series, omits mention of
such work in Arabic, Indian, Chinese, and Persian art as may come
properly under the head of Ornament--a subject proposed for separate
treatment hereafter. In treating of individual painters it has been
thought best to give a short critical estimate of the man and his rank
among the painters of his time rather than the detailed facts of his
life. Students who wish accounts of the lives of the painters should
use Vasari, Larousse, and the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ in connection
with this text-book.
Acknowledgments are made to the respective publishers of Woltmann and
Woermann's History of Painting, and the fine series of art histories
by Perrot and Chipiez, for permission to reproduce some few
illustrations from these publications.
JOHN C. VAN DYKE.
* * * * *
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I.
EGYPTIAN PAINTING
CHAPTER II.
CHALDAEO-ASSYRIAN, PERSIAN, PHOENICIAN, CYPRIOTE, AND ASIA MINOR PAINTING
CHAPTER III.
GREEK, ETRUSCAN, AND ROMAN PAINTING
CHAPTER IV.
ITALIAN PAINTING--EARLY CHRISTIAN AND MEDIAEVAL PERIOD, 200-1250
CHAPTER V.
ITALIAN PAINTING--GOTHIC PERIOD, 1250-1400
CHAPTER VI.
ITALIAN PAINTING--EARLY RENAISSANCE, 1400-1500
CHAPTER VII.
ITALIAN PAINTING--EARLY RENAISSANCE, 1400-1500, _Continued_
CHAPTER VIII.
ITALIAN PAINTING--HIGH RENAISSANCE, 1500-1600
CHAPTER IX.
ITALIAN PAINTING--HIGH RENAISSANCE, 1500-1600, _Continued_
CHAPTER X.
ITALIAN PAINTING--HIGH RENAISSANCE, 1500-1600, _Continued_
CHAPTER XI.
ITALIAN PAINTING--THE DECADENCE AND MODERN WORK, 1600-1894
CHAPTER XII.
FRENCH PAINTING--SIXTEENTH, SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
CHAPTER XIII.
FRENCH PAINTING--NINETEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER XIV.
FRENCH PAINTING--NINETEENTH CENTURY, _Continued_
CHAPTER XV.
SPANISH PAINTING
CHAPTER XVI.
FLEMISH PAINTING
CHAPTER XVII.
DUTCH PAINTING
CHAPTER XVIII.
GERMAN PAINTING
CHAPTER XIX.
BRITISH PAINTING
CHAPTER XX.
AMERICAN PAINTING
POSTSCRIPT
INDEX
* * * * *
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Velasquez, Head of AEsop, Madrid _Frontispiece_
1 Hunting in the Marshes, Tomb of Ti, Saccarah
2 Portrait of Queen Taia
3 Offerings to the Dead. Wall painting
4 Vignette on Papyrus
5 Enamelled Brick, Nimroud
6 " " Khorsabad
7 Wild Ass. Bas-relief
8 Lions Frieze, Susa
9 Painted Head from Edessa
10 Cypriote Vase Decoration
11 Attic Grave Painting
12 Muse of Cortona
13 Odyssey Landscape
14 Amphore, Lower Italy
15 Ritual Scene, Palatine Wall painting
16 Portrait, Fayoum, Graf Collection
17 Chamber in Catacombs, with wall decorations
18 Catacomb Fresco, S. Cecilia
19 Christ as Good Shepherd, Ravenna mosaic
20 Christ and Saints, fresco, S. Generosa
21 Ezekiel before the Lord. MS. illumination
22 Giotto, Flight into Egypt, Arena Chap.
23 Orcagna, Paradise (detail), S. M. Novella
24 Lorenzetti, Peace (detail), Sienna
25 Fra Angelico, Angel, Uffizi
26 Fra Filippo, Madonna, Uffizi
27 Botticelli, Coronation of Madonna, Uffizi
28 Ghirlandajo, Visitation, Louvre
29 Francesca, Duke of Urbino, Uffizi
30 Signorelli, The Curse (detail), Orvieto
31 Perugino, Madonna, Saints, and Angels, Louvre
32 School of Francia, Madonna, Louvre
33 Mantegna, Gonzaga Family Group, Mantua
34 B. Vivarini, Madonna and Child, Turin
35 Giovanni Bellini, Madonna, Venice Acad.
36 Carpaccio, Presentation (detail), Venice Acad.
37 Antonello da Messina, Unknown Man, Louvre
38 Fra Bartolommeo, Descent from Cross, Pitti
39 Andrea del Sarto, Madonna of St. Francis, Uffizi
40 Michael Angelo, Athlete, Sistine Chap., Rome
41 Raphael, La Belle Jardiniere, Louvre
42 Giulio Romano, Apollo and Muses, Pitti
43 Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, Louvre
44 Luini, Daughter of Herodias, Uffizi
45 Sodoma, Ecstasy of St. Catherine, Sienna
46 Correggio, Marriage of St. Catherine, Louvre
47 Giorgione, Ordeal of Moses, Uffizi
48 Titian, Venus Equipping Cupid, Borghese, Rome
49 Tintoretto, Mercury and Graces, Ducal Pal., Venice
50 Veronese, Venice Enthroned, Ducal Pal., Venice
51 Lotto, Three Ages, Pitti
52 Bronzino, Christ in Limbo, Uffizi
53 Baroccio, Annunciation
54 Annibale Caracci, Entombment of Christ, Louvre
55 Caravaggio, The Card Players, Dresden
56 Poussin, Et in Arcadia Ego, Louvre
57 Claude Lorrain, Flight into Egypt, Dresden
58 Watteau, Gilles, Louvre
59 Boucher, Pastoral, Louvre
60 David, The Sabines, Louvre
61 Ingres, Oedipus and Sphinx, Louvre
62 Delacroix, Massacre of Scio, Louvre
63 Gerome, Pollice Verso
64 Corot, Landscape
65 Rousseau, Charcoal Burner's Hut, Fuller Collection
66 Millet, The Gleaners, Louvre
67 Cabanel, Phaedra
68 Meissonier, Napoleon in 1814
69 Sanchez-Coello, Daughter of Philip II., Madrid
70 Murillo, St. Anthony of Padua, Dresden
71 Ribera, St. Agnes, Dresden
72 Fortuny, Spanish Marriage
73 Madrazo, Unmasked
74 Van Eycks, St. Bavon Altar-piece, Berlin
75 Memling (?), St. Lawrence, Nat. Gal., Lon.
76 Massys, Head of Virgin, Antwerp
77 Rubens, Portrait of Young Woman
78 Van Dyck, Portrait of Cornelius van der Geest
79 Teniers the Younger, Prodigal Son, Louvre
80 Alfred Stevens, On the Beach
81 Hals, Portrait of a Lady
82 Rembrandt, Head of a Woman, Nat. Gal., Lon.
83 Ruisdael, Landscape
84 Hobbema, The Water Wheel, Amsterdam Mus.
85 Israels, Alone in the World
86 Mauve, Sheep
87 Lochner, Sts. John, Catharine, Matthew, London
88 Wolgemut, Crucifixion, Munich
89 Duerer, Praying Virgin, Augsburg
90 Holbein, Portrait, Hague Mus.
91 Piloty, Wise and Foolish Virgins
92 Leibl, In Church
93 Menzel, A Reader
94 Hogarth, Shortly after Marriage, Nat. Gal., Lon.
95 Reynolds, Countess Spencer and Lord Althorp
96 Gainsborough, Blue Boy
97 Constable, Corn Field, Nat. Gal., Lon.
98 Turner, Fighting Temeraire, Nat. Gal., Lon.
99 Burne-Jones, Flamma Vestalis
100 Leighton, Helen of Troy
101 Watts, Love and Death
102 West, Peter Denying Christ, Hampton Court
103 Gilbert Stuart, Washington, Boston Mus.
104 Hunt, Lute Player
105 Eastman Johnson, Churning
106 Inness, Landscape
107 Winslow Homer, Undertow
108 Whistler, The White Girl
109 Sargent, "Carnation Lily, Lily Rose"
110 Chase, Alice, Art Institute, Chicago
* * * * *
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.
(This includes the leading accessible works that treat of painting in
general. For works on special periods or schools, see the
bibliographical references at the head of each chapter. For
bibliography of individual painters consult, under proper names,
Champlin and Perkins's _Cyclopedia_, as given below.)
Champlin and Perkins, _Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings_, New York.
Adeline, _Lexique des Termes d'Art_.
_Gazette des Beaux Arts_, Paris.
Larousse, _Grand Dictionnaire Universel_, Paris.
_L'Art, Revue hebdomadaire illustree_, Paris.
Bryan, _Dictionary of Painters_. _New edition_.
Brockhaus, _Conversations-Lexikon_.
Meyer, _Allgemeines Kuenstler-Lexikon_, Berlin.
Muther, _History of Modern Painting_.
Agincourt, _History of Art by its Monuments_.
Bayet, _Precis d'Histoire de l'Art_.
Blanc, _Histoire des Peintres de toutes les Ecoles_.
Eastlake, _Materials for a History of Oil Painting_.
Luebke, _History of Art, trans. by Clarence Cook_.
Reber, _History of Ancient Art_.
Reber, _History of Mediaeval Art_.
Schnasse, _Geschichte der Bildenden Kuenste_.
Girard, _La Peinture Antique_.
Viardot, _History of the Painters of all Schools_.
Williamson (Ed.), _Handbooks of Great Masters_.
Woltmann and Woermann, _History of Painting_.
* * * * *
HISTORY OF PAINTING.
INTRODUCTION.
The origin of painting is unknown. The first important records of this
art are met with in Egypt; but before the Egyptian civilization the
men of the early ages probably used color in ornamentation and
decoration, and they certainly scratched the outlines of men and
animals upon bone and slate. Traces of this rude primitive work still
remain to us on the pottery, weapons, and stone implements of the
cave-dwellers. But while indicating the awakening of intelligence in
early man, they can be reckoned with as art only in a slight
archaeological way. They show inclination rather than accomplishment--a
wish to ornament or to represent, with only a crude knowledge of how
to go about it.
The first aim of this primitive painting was undoubtedly
decoration--the using of colored forms for color and form only, as
shown in the pottery designs or cross-hatchings on stone knives or
spear-heads. The second, and perhaps later aim, was by imitating the
shapes and colors of men, animals, and the like, to convey an idea of
the proportions and characters of such things. An outline of a
cave-bear or a mammoth was perhaps the cave-dweller's way of telling
his fellows what monsters he had slain. We may assume that it was
pictorial record, primitive picture-written history. This early method
of conveying an idea is, in intent, substantially the same as the
later hieroglyphic writing and historical painting of the Egyptians.
The difference between them is merely one of development. Thus there
is an indication in the art of Primitive Man of the two great
departments of painting existent to-day.
1. DECORATIVE PAINTING.
2. EXPRESSIVE PAINTING.
Pure Decorative Painting is not usually expressive of ideas other than
those of rhythmical line and harmonious color. It is not our subject.
This volume treats of Expressive Painting; but in dealing with that it
should be borne in mind that Expressive Painting has always a more or
less decorative effect accompanying it, and that must be spoken of
incidentally. We shall presently see the intermingling of both kinds
of painting in the art of ancient Egypt--our first inquiry.
CHAPTER I.
EGYPTIAN PAINTING.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: Brugsch, _History of Egypt under the
Pharaohs_; Budge, _Dwellers on the Nile_; Duncker, _History
of Antiquity; Egypt Exploration Fund Memoirs_; Ely, _Manual
of Archaeology_; Lepsius, _Denkmaler aus Aegypten und
Aethiopen_; Maspero, _Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria_;
Maspero, _Guide du Visiteur au Musee de Boulaq_; Maspero,
_Egyptian Archaeology_; Perrot and Chipiez, _History of Art
in Ancient Egypt_; Wilkinson, _Manners and Customs of the
Ancient Egyptians_.
LAND AND PEOPLE: Egypt, as Herodotus has said, is "the gift of the
Nile," one of the latest of the earth's geological formations, and yet
one of the earliest countries to be settled and dominated by man. It
consists now, as in the ancient days, of the valley of the Nile,
bounded on the east by the Arabian mountains and on the west by the
Libyan desert. Well-watered and fertile, it was doubtless at first a
pastoral and agricultural country; then, by its riverine traffic, a
commercial country, and finally, by conquest, a land enriched with the
spoils of warfare.
Its earliest records show a strongly established monarchy. Dynasties
of kings called Pharaohs succeeded one another by birth or conquest.
The king made the laws, judged the people, declared war, and was
monarch supreme. Next to him in rank came the priests, who were not
only in the service of religion but in that of the state, as
counsellors, secretaries, and the like. The common people, with true
Oriental lack of individuality, depending blindly on leaders, were
little more than the servants of the upper classes.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--HUNTING IN THE MARSHES. TOMB OF TI, SACCARAH.
(FROM PERROT AND CHIPIEZ.)]
The Egyptian religion existing in the earliest days was a worship of
the personified elements of nature. Each element had its particular
controlling god, worshipped as such. Later on in Egyptian history the
number of gods was increased, and each city had its trinity of godlike
protectors symbolized by the propylaea of the temples. Future life was
a certainty, provided that the Ka, or spirit, did not fall a prey to
Typhon, the God of Evil, during the long wait in the tomb for the
judgment-day. The belief that the spirit rested in the body until
finally transported to the aaln fields (the Islands of the Blest,
afterward adopted by the Greeks) was one reason for the careful
preservation of the body by mummifying processes. Life itself was not
more important than death. Hence the imposing ceremonies of the
funeral and burial, the elaborate richness of the tomb and its wall
paintings. Perhaps the first Egyptian art arose through religious
observance, and certainly the first known to us was sepulchral.
ART MOTIVES: The centre of the Egyptian system was the monarch and his
supposed relatives, the gods. They arrogated to themselves the chief
thought of life, and the aim of the great bulk of the art was to
glorify monarchy or deity. The massive buildings, still standing
to-day in ruins, were built as the dwelling-places of kings or the
sanctuaries of gods. The towers symbolized deity, the sculptures and
paintings recited the functional duties of presiding spirits, or the
Pharaoh's looks and acts. Almost everything about the public buildings
in painting and sculpture was symbolic illustration, picture-written
history--written with a chisel and brush, written large that all might
read. There was no other safe way of preserving record. There were no
books; the papyrus sheet, used extensively, was frail, and the
Egyptians evidently wished their buildings, carvings, and paintings to
last into eternity. So they wrought in and upon stone. The same
hieroglyphic character of their papyrus writings appeared cut and
colored on the palace walls, and above them and beside them the
pictures ran as vignettes explanatory of the text. In a less
ostentatious way the tombs perpetuated history in a similar manner,
reciting the domestic scenes from the life of the individual, as the
temples and palaces the religious and monarchical scenes.
In one form or another it was all record of Egyptian life, but this
was not the only motive of their painting. The temples and palaces,
designed to shut out light and heat, were long squares of heavy stone,
gloomy as the cave from which their plan may have originated. Carving
and color were used to brighten and enliven the interior. The battles,
the judgment scenes, the Pharaoh playing at draughts with his wives,
the religious rites and ceremonies, were all given with brilliant
arbitrary color, surrounded oftentimes by bordering bands of green,
yellow, and blue. Color showed everywhere from floor to ceiling. Even
the explanatory hieroglyphic texts ran in colors, lining the walls and
winding around the cylinders of stone. The lotus capitals, the frieze
and architrave, all glowed with bright hues, and often the roof
ceiling was painted in blue and studded with golden stars.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--PORTRAIT OF QUEEN TAIA. (FROM PERROT AND
CHIPIEZ.)]
All this shows a decorative motive in Egyptian painting, and how
constantly this was kept in view may be seen at times in the
arrangement of the different scenes, the large ones being placed in
the middle of the wall and the smaller ones going at the top and
bottom, to act as a frieze and dado. There were, then, two leading
motives for Egyptian painting; (1) History, monarchical, religious, or
domestic; and (2) Decoration.
TECHNICAL METHODS: Man in the early stages of civilization comprehends
objects more by line than by color or light. The figure is not
studied in itself, but in its sun-shadow or silhouette. The Egyptian
hieroglyph represented objects by outlines or arbitrary marks and
conveyed a simple meaning without circumlocution. The Egyptian
painting was substantially an enlargement of the hieroglyph. There was
no attempt to place objects in the setting which they hold in nature.
Perspective and light-and-shade were disregarded. Objects, of whatever
nature, were shown in flat profile. In the human figure the shoulders
were square, the hips slight, the legs and arms long, the feet and
hands flat. The head, legs, and arms were shown in profile, while the
chest and eye were twisted to show the flat front view. There are only
one or two full-faced figures among the remains of Egyptian painting.
After the outline was drawn the enclosed space was filled in with
plain color. In the absence of high light, or composed groups,
prominence was given to an important figure, like that of the king, by
making it much larger than the other figures. This may be seen in any
of the battle-pieces of Rameses II., in which the monarch in his
chariot is a giant where his followers are mere pygmies. In the
absence of perspective, receding figures of men or of horses were
given by multiplied outlines of legs, or heads, placed before, or
after, or raised above one another. Flat water was represented by
zigzag lines, placed as it were upon a map, one tree symbolized a
forest, and one fortification a town.
These outline drawings were not realistic in any exact sense. The face
was generally expressionless, the figure, evidently done from memory
or pattern, did not reveal anatomical structure, but was nevertheless
graceful, and in the representation of animals the sense of motion was
often given with much truth. The color was usually an attempt at
nature, though at times arbitrary or symbolic, as in the case of
certain gods rendered with blue, yellow, or green skins. The
backgrounds were always of flat color, arbitrary in hue, and
decorative only. The only composition was a balance by numbers, and
the processional scenes rose tier upon tier above one another in long
panels.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--OFFERINGS TO THE DEAD, WALL PAINTING, EIGHTEENTH
DYNASTY. (FROM PERROT AND CHIPIEZ.)]
Such work would seem almost ludicrous did we not keep in mind its
reason for existence. It was, first, symbolic story-telling art, and
secondly, architectural decoration. As a story-teller it was effective
because of its simplicity and directness. As decoration, the repeated
expressionless face and figure, the arbitrary color, the absence of
perspective were not inappropriate then nor are they now. Egyptian
painting never was free from the decorative motive. Wall painting was
little more than an adjunct of architecture, and probably grew out of
sculpture. The early statues were colored, and on the wall the chisel,
like the flint of Primitive Man, cut the outline of the figure. At
first only this cut was filled with color, producing what has been
called the koil-anaglyphic. In the final stage the line was made by
drawing with chalk or coal on prepared stucco, and the color, mixed
with gum-water (a kind of distemper), was applied to the whole
enclosed space. Substantially the same method of painting was used
upon other materials, such as wood, mummy cartonnage, papyrus; and in
all its thousands of years of existence Egyptian painting never
advanced upon or varied to any extent this one method of work.
HISTORIC PERIODS: Egyptian art may be traced back as far as the Third
or Fourth Memphitic dynasty of kings. The date is uncertain, but it is
somewhere near 3,500 B.C. The seat of empire, at that time, was
located at Memphis in Lower Egypt, and it is among the remains of this
Memphitic Period that the earliest and best painting is found. In
fact, all Egyptian art, literature, language, civilization, seem at
their highest point of perfection in the period farthest removed from
us. In that earliest age the finest portrait busts were cut, and the
painting, found chiefly in the tombs and on the mummy-cases, was the
attempted realistic with not a little of spirited individuality. The
figure was rather short and squat, the face a little squarer than the
conventional type afterward adopted, the action better, and the
positions, attitudes, and gestures more truthful to local
characteristics. The domestic scenes--hunting, fishing, tilling,
grazing--were all shown in the one flat, planeless, shadowless method
of representation, but with better drawing and color and more variety
than appeared later on. Still, more or less conventional types were
used, even in this early time, and continued to be used all through
Egyptian history.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--VIGNETTE ON PAPYRUS, LOUVRE. (FROM PERROT AND
CHIPIEZ.)]
The Memphitic Period comes down to the eleventh dynasty. In the
fifteenth dynasty comes the invasion of the so-called Hyksos, or
Shepherd Kings. Little is known of the Hyksos, and, in painting, the
next stage is the
Theban Period, which, culminated in Thebes, in Upper Egypt, with
Rameses II., of the nineteenth dynasty. Painting had then changed
somewhat both in subject and character. The time was one of great
temple and palace building, and, though the painting of _genre_
subjects in tombs and sepulchres continued, the general body of art
became more monumental and subservient to architecture. Painting was
put to work on temple and palace-walls, depicting processional scenes,
either religious or monarchical, and vast in extent. The figure, too,
changed slightly. It became longer, slighter, with a pronounced nose,
thick lips, and long eye. From constant repetition, rather than any
set rule or canon, this figure grew conventional, and was reproduced
as a type in a mechanical and unvarying manner for hundreds of years.
It was, in fact, only a variation from the original Egyptian type seen
in the tombs of the earliest dynasties. There was a great quantity of
art produced during the Theban Period, and of a graceful, decorative
character, but it was rather monotonous by repetition and filled with
established mannerisms. The Egyptian really never was a free worker,
never an artist expressing himself; but, for his day, a skilled
mechanic following time-honored example. In the
Saitic Period the seat of empire was once more in Lower Egypt, and art
had visibly declined with the waning power of the country. All
spontaneity seemed to have passed out of it, it was repetition of
repetition by poor workmen, and the simplicity and purity of the
technic were corrupted by foreign influences. With the Alexandrian
epoch Egyptian art came in contact with Greek methods, and grew
imitative of the new art, to the detriment of its own native
character. Eventually it was entirely lost in the art of the
Greco-Roman world. It was never other than conventional, produced by a
method almost as unvarying as that of the hieroglyphic writing, and in
this very respect characteristic and reflective of the unchanging
Orientals. Technically it had its shortcomings, but it conveyed the
proper information to its beholders and was serviceable and graceful
decoration for Egyptian days.
EXTANT PAINTINGS: The temples, palaces, and tombs of Egypt
still reveal Egyptian painting in almost as perfect a state
as when originally executed; the Ghizeh Museum has many fine
examples; and there are numerous examples in the museums at
Turin, Paris, Berlin, London, New York, and Boston. An
interesting collection belongs to the New York Historical
Society, and some of the latest "finds" of the Egypt
Exploration Fund are in the Boston Museum.