, 1874-04-05
ART.

| TEE OLD MASTERS AND THEIR PICTURES
| Fon THE USE o. SCHOLARS AND LxAaHkas IN AIT
| BY sAnAH TxTLEH- Is no., PIP. a63. Boston: Rob
| erts Btcs.
| MODERN PAINTERS AND THEIR PAINTINGS
by SARAH Tr11Kn. Author Of THE Old Masters.
Is mo-, PIP. 3G2. Boston: Roberts Bros.
Out OF the lives Of the famous painters wht
| have fourished eince the revival Of Art in tht
| fourteenth century, with descriptions OF thei
| most important works, Miss Tytler has woven
8 delightful narrative. It is addressed directly
to the reader, in the friendly, familiar manner
| Of 3 conversation, and is kept easily within hie
understanding by an omission Of everything like
learned criticism, or the technical language oi
the schools. An abundance Of lively anecdote
is constantly employed to refresh the attention,
while the interest and value OF the facts present
ed furnish substantial reward
Miss Tytler ranger the painters according tc
their timc. country, and rank in Art; aud 60 they
follow each other in chronological sequence
down to the present hour. At the beginning o1
the long, illustrious line, numbering nearly 200
standa
who Was born near Florence, in 1867. Up to his
time, Italian Art Was scarcely worthy Of tbs
name. The knowledge OF Anatomy, which had
been the glory OF the old Greek artists, we'll
nigh gone, and, IN consequence, drawing and
form were alike untrue. The difficulties Of fore
shortening had not been mastered the re-
SOURCES Of landscape-art had not been discover
ed while the idea Of portraiture had not yet
dawned on the mind. But, when Giotto came,
he brsathed new spirit into painting, and moke
it into life. He it was who frat painted the
soul as we'll rs the body, who expressed mems
tpt t},afr in
outline, tint, and attitude, the actual semblance
Of life and motion. This was Al immense 3D.
vance in Art, and entities him who made it to be
ranked II The founder OF the earliest Italian
school.
OF Giotto tho pleasant legend is related that,
when Pope Boniface WILL, desiring to choose
painter for the decoration OF st. Peters, sent
out among the artists for specimens Of their
skill, he, with one swift, careless sweep Of the
hand, drew perfect circle in red chalk, and dis
patched it as proud example OF what be could
do. It won the imperial favor and the commits
sion for Giotto; while tho incident WAS perpetu-
ated in the Italian proTe1b, "Round as the o Of
Giotto."
OF the paintings which have survived Giotto,
the allegories in the Church Of Assist the freq
Goes in the Church Of the Cazmine 1t Florence,
and the lntely-recoyered portrai. OF his friend
Dante, attest the power and insight Of his go
MUS. But the work by which he is most widely
aud lovingly remembered is the ball-toHex Of
the Florence Cathedral,
THE MATcHLEss cANPAyuK.
Mrs. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Who had sur-
passing gift for word-painting, and Was an en-
thusiast in art, thus describes the tower, in her
"Notes in England and 1taly:
should not have supposed that = squa.e tower
could be beautiful but the C1mpanile Ii exceedingly
high. It zises alone, quite disconnected from the
Cathedral and IL, at the time, grand and beaut1-
ful. One OF my peerless old MASTERS Giotto was it's
tts znmit do not know why 1t is not there for
think It would 10 batter sven than it ia
1ow .tanot !. e climbed .S into til. hsarens He
painting tho 1ose, and certainly should dare
to finish Gtottos work As he left 1t, let it remain
How can 1t have such iudefnable grnce,-a straight
tower IS It ts7 Gotto must have dIused bis spirit
through the stones and lines. ODe Of its bells rang
oat "a We passed deep, round, liquid sound, which
WAS music dropped through vater-a novel, peculiar
and sublime tcna, worthy Of Giotto'a C.mpantIe Il
was - the great dome itself had rolled from tte soul
Of is aziet pure globe Of melody and dropped sing
ing into the o{ space.
Immediately after Giotto came Pisano, Or
eagna, Ghiborti, Masaocio, and Fra Angelica
ADEvour BROTHERHOOD OF PAINTERS,
who practiced their art in spirit Of the most
humble earncstness, solemnity, and heedfulness
Ghibcrti was the artist who, after Pisano,
wrought forty-nine years. "with infinite dill
gence and love-" to complete the wonderful
bronze gates Of tho Baptstery at Florence
those gates which Michael Angelo pronounced
u worthy to be tho gates Of Paradise" And Fra
Angelica was the gentle, sanity monk, who
took up bis brush each day with prayer and
fasting, and is said to have painted on bis knees,
30 reyerent was hia regard for the holy subject
he treated He was foally found dead at his
easel, with completed picture before him.
At the death OF Fra Angelica, in 1855, Italian
AT wss divided into many schools. Their chief
we're the Bellini brothers, Gem
tile and Clan, Of Venice, whose paintings Here
distinguished for their wonderfully rich and In
ninous colorins, and whose
MOTT nLCsTn1oUB PUpns
ware Titan and Giorgione; Montagne, Of
Padua Ghirlondajo, Of Florence; Il Franoia, Of
Bologna Fra Bartolommeo, Of Florence, .n-
other plcus artist-monk, not unlike Era Angel
leo II nature and inspiration, but unhappily born
n stormy and inauBpicious period 4nd, lastly,
Andrea del 6arto, also Of Florence, who suffered
als genius to be impaired and degraded, and bis
life to become dishonest and wretched, by the |
influence OF his besutifnl but bAse-souled wifo |
Tho lives OF these men lead III up to tbs four
IsnR&1, oalasaA aSuros Ia tts history of nasai-