|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 37
Through all had gone on their study of the Florentine painters. After
much patient work given to pictures of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, they were now quite revelling in the beauty of those of the
sixteenth century, or the High Renaissance. This was all the more
interesting since they had seen how one after another the early
difficulties had been overcome; how each great master succeeding Cimabue
had added his contribution of thought and endeavor until artists knew
all the laws that govern the art of representation; and how finally, the
method of oil-painting having been introduced, they then had a fitting
medium with which to express their knowledge and artistic endeavor.
They had read about Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest masters, so
famous for his portrayal of subtile emotion, and were wonderfully
interested in his life and work; had been to the Academy to see the
_Baptism of Christ_, painted by his master, Andrea Verrocchio, and were
very positive that the angel on the left, who holds Christ's garment,
was painted by young Leonardo. They had studied his unfinished
_Adoration of the Magi_ in the Uffizi--his only authentic work in
Florence--and had wished much that they could see his other and greater
pictures. Mr. Sumner had told them that in the early summer they would
probably go to Milan, and there see the famous _Last Supper_ and _Study
for the Head of Christ_, and that perhaps later they might visit Paris
and there find his _Mona Lisa_ and other works.
They had been much interested in the many examples of Fra Bartolommeo's
painting that are in San Marco--where he, as well as Fra Angelico, had
been a monk;--in the Academy, and in the Uffizi and Pitti galleries; and
had learned to recognize the peculiarities of his grouping of figures,
and their abstract, devotional faces, his treatment of draperies, and
the dear little angels, with their musical instruments, that are so
often sitting at the feet of his madonnas.
They were fascinated by Andrea del Sarto, whom they followed all over
the city wherever they could find either his frescoes or easel pictures.
His color especially enchanted them, after they had looked at so many
darkened and faded pictures. The story of his unquenchable love for his
faithless wife, and how he painted her face into all his pictures,
either as madonna or saint, played upon their romantic feelings. Margery
learned Browning's poem about them, and often quoted from it. They were
never tired of looking at his _Holy Families_ and _Madonnas_ in the
galleries, but especially loved to go to the S.S. Annunziata and linger
in the court, surrounded by glass colonnades, where are so many of his
frescoes.
"Do you suppose it is true that his wife, Lucrezia, used to come here
after he was dead and she was an old woman, to look at the pictures?"
asked Margery one morning, when they had found their favorite place.
"I think it would be just like her vanity to point out her own likeness
to people who were copying or looking at the frescoes, according to the
old story," answered Bettina, with a disapproving shake of the head.
"Well," said Barbara, "the faces and figures and draperies are all
lovely. But I suppose it is true, as Mr. Sumner says, that Andrea del
Sarto did not try to make the faces show any holy feeling, or indeed any
very noble expression, so that they are not so great pictures as they
would have been had he been high-minded enough to do such things."
"It is a shame to have a man's life and work harmed by a woman, even
though she was his wife," said Malcom, emphatically.
"All the more that she was his wife," said Barbara. "But I do not
believe he could have done much better without Lucrezia. I think his
very love for such a woman shows a weakness in his character. It would
have been better if he had chosen other than sacred subjects, would it
not, Howard?"
They were quite at home in their study of these more modern pictures,
with photographs of which they were already somewhat familiar. Howard,
especially, had always had a fine and critical taste regarding art
matters, and now, among the works of artists of whom he knew something,
was a valuable member of the little coterie, and often appealed to when
Mr. Sumner was absent.
And thus they had talked over and over again the impressions which each
artist and his work made on them, until even Mr. Sumner was astonished
and delighted at the evident result of the interest he had awakened.
But the chief man and artist they were now considering, was Michael
Angelo; and the more they learned of him the more true it was, they
thought, that he "filled all Florence." They eagerly followed every step
of his life from the time when, a young lad, he entered Ghirlandajo's
studio, until he was brought to Florence--a dead old man, concealed in a
bale of merchandise, because the authorities refused permission to his
friends to take his body from Rome--and was buried at midnight in Santa
Croce.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|