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Page 33
"I fear we could not appreciate the best things, though," said Barbara.
"We imagined ourselves in old Florence of the fifteenth century, and
tried to recognize the mountains and palaces in the backgrounds, and we
enjoyed the people and admired their fine clothes. I do think, however,
that these last seem often too stiff and as if made of metal rather than
of silk, satin, or cloth. And when Howard told us that Mr. Ruskin says
'they hang from the figures as they would from clothes-pegs,' we could
but laugh, and think he is right with regard to some of them. Ought we
to admire everything in these old pictures, Mr. Sumner?" she earnestly
added.
"Not at all; not by any means. I would not have you think this for a
moment. Ghirlandajo's paintings are famous and worthy because they are
such an advance on what was before him. Compare his men and women with
those by Giotto. You know how much you found of interest and to admire
in Giotto's pictures when you compared them with Cimabue's and with the
old Greek Byzantine paintings. Just so compare those by Masaccio and
Ghirlandajo with what was done before. See the growth,--the steady
evolution,--and realize that Ghirlandajo was honest and earnest, and
gifted too; that his drawing is firm and truer to nature than that of
most contemporary artists; that his portraits possess character; that
they are well-bred and important, as the people they represent were;
that his mountains are like mountains even in some of their subtile
lines; that his rivers wind; that his masses of architecture are in good
perspective and proportion; and then you will excuse his faults, though
it is right to notice and feel them. We must see many in the work of
every artist until we come to the great painters of the High
Renaissance. You must find Ghirlandajo's other pictures, and study them
also."
"Now about Botticelli," he added. A little rustle of expectancy swept
through the group of listeners. Bettina drew nearer Barbara and clasped
her hand; and all settled themselves anew with an especial air of
interest. "I see you, like most other people, care more for him. He is
immensely popular at present. It is quite the fashion to admire him.
But, strangely enough, only a few years ago little was known or cared
about his work, and his name is not even mentioned by some writers on
art. He was first a goldsmith like Ghirlandajo, then afterward became a
pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi, father of the Filippino Lippi who finished
Masaccio's frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel. Botticelli wrought an
immense service to painting by widening greatly the field of subjects
hitherto assigned to it, which had been confined to Bible incidents.
Others, contemporary with him, were beginning to depart slightly from
these subjects in response to the desires of the pleasure-loving
Florentines of that day; but Botticelli was the first to come
deliberately forth and make art minister to the pleasure and education
of the secular as well as the religious world. By nature he loved myths,
fables, and allegories, and freely introduced them into his pictures. He
painted Venuses, Cupids, and nymphs just as willingly as Madonnas and
saints.
"I hope you will read diligently about him. The story of how his
pictures, and those of other artists who were influenced by him, led to
the protest which Savonarola (who lived at the same time) made against
the 'corrupting influence of profane pictures' and his demand that
bonfires should be made of them is most interesting. Botticelli
devotedly contributed a large number of his paintings to the burning
piles."
"But he painted religious pictures also, did he not?" queried Barbara.
"Oh, yes. His works were wrought in churches as well as in private
houses and palaces. He even received the honor of being summoned to Rome
by Pope Sixtus IV. to assist in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel of
the Vatican, where Michael Angelo afterward performed his greatest
work. There he painted three large religious frescoes--by the way,
Ghirlandajo painted there also. Now we must find what is the charm in
Botticelli's painting that accounts for the wonderful present interest
in his work. I think it is in a large degree his attempt to put
expression into faces. While Masaccio had taken a long step in advance
of other artists by making man himself, rather than events, the chief
interest in his pictures,--Botticelli, more imaginative and poetic,
painted man's moods,--his subtile feelings. You are all somewhat
familiar, through their reproductions, with his Madonna pictures. How do
these differ from those of other painters?"
"The faces are less pretty."
"They are sad instead of joyous."
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