CHAPTER VII.—EARLY VENETIAN PAINTING
[70]. Little literature of a general sort is available to the English speaking reader. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Northern Italy, admirably edited by Tancred Borenius, in three volumes, London, 1913, is the chief repository of facts. Evelyn March Phillipps, The Venetian School of Painting, London, 1912, is an excellent brief survey. For readers of Italian Lionello Venturi’s Le Origini della Pittura Veneziana, Venice, 1911, is the best book. A treasure house of materials in Laudadeo Testi’s two volumes, La Storia della Pittura Veneziana, Bergamo. John Ruskin’s masterpiece, Stones of Venice, may be consulted with profit and delight. There are treasures of antiquarian information in Pompeo Molmenti, La Storia di Venezia nella Vita Privata, 3 vols., Bergamo, 1905.
[71]. Jacopo Bellini. The extraordinary and fascinating sketch books are published in two forms, by Corrado Ricci, Jacopo Bellini e i suo libri di designi, 2 vols., Florence, 1908, and by V. Goloubew, Les Dessins de Jacopo Bellini, Bruxelles, 1908.
[72]. G. McNeill Rushforth, Carlo Crivelli, London, 1900.
[73]. Andrea Mantegna. The standard work is by Paul Kristeller, Andrea Mantegna, London and New York, 1901. Maud Crutwell’s short biography, Andrea Mantegna, London, 1901, is excellent. Mr. Berenson’s subtle analysis in North Italian Painters of the Renaissance perhaps overstresses Andrea’s defects. Mantegna’s complete works are reproduced in Klassiker der Kunst, No. XVI, Stuttgart, 1910.
[74]. Antonello da Messina. See L. Venturi, Le Origini, and A. Venturi, Storia, VII, pt. 4. Recent attributions, Bernard Berenson, Study and Criticism of Italian Art, 3rd Series, London, 1916, p. 79 ff.
[75]. Giovanni Bellini. Nothing notable in English except casual criticism by Ruskin and Roger E. Fry’s admirable little book, Giovanni Bellini, London, 1899, which is unfortunately out of print. For such as read German—Georg Gronau, Die Künstler-familie Bellini, Leipzig, 1907, with abundant illustrations. Recently discovered pictures and a better chronology, in Bernard Berenson: Venetian Painting in America, New York, 1916.
[76]. Vettor Carpaccio. Ludwig and Molmenti’s The Life and Works of Victor Carpaccio, London, 1907, gives, aside from its main topic, a vivid picture of the cultural condition of Venice about 1500. See my essay review of it in The Nation, Vol. 86, (1908) pp. 315 ff. John Ruskin’s delightful comments on Carpaccio are mostly in the Guide to the Academy at Venice and in St. Mark’s Rest, chapter The Shrine of the Slaves, Library ed. Vol. XXIV.
[77]. Giorgione. For the smallest list L. Venturi, Giorgione e il Giorgionismo, Milan, 1913; for the longest list Herbert Cook, Giorgione; for a middle view L. Justi, Giorgione, 2 vols., Berlin, 1908, most useful plates.
The general conditions of the problem are clearly stated by the late Richard Norton in Bernini and other Studies, New York, 1914. L. Hourticq, in La Jeunesse de Titien, Paris, 1919, has lately worked over the pictures which lie between Titian and Giorgione in an interesting but highly subjective fashion. Kenyon Cox, Art in America, Vol. I, pp. 115 ff., makes the plausible suggestion that the several portraits signed V or VV are by Titian, the letters meaning Vecellius Venetus. This would make the Berlin portrait a Titian.
Walter Pater’s essay on The School of Giorgione, in The Renaissance is as masterly for insight as it is for verbal beauty.
I hesitate to add one more to the varying opinions concerning Giorgione’s paintings. At least I may introduce a novelty by classing them according to probability, or rather according to the completeness of my own conviction. In the whole matter we are largely in the field of taste and opinion. E means early.
Paintings, m. j. surely by Giorgione
1. The Shepherds finding the Infant Paris (repainted fragment, E) Budapest
2. “The Soldier and the Gipsy” E. Prince Giovanelli
3. Madonna with St. Francis and St. George (1504) Castelfranco
4. The Three Philosophers (finished by Sebastiano del Piombo) Vienna
5. Orpheus and Eurydice (cassone panel) Bergamo
6. The Sleeping Venus (landscape by Titian) Dresden
7. Fresco of Nude Woman, nearly effaced (1508), represented by Zanetti’s print Fondaco de’ Tedeschi
8. Judith (cut down at sides) Petrograd
9. His own Portrait (much cut down and damaged) Brunswick
10. Christ with his Cross Church of S. Rocco
11. The Concert (finished by Titian? or repainted in his manner?) Florence
Paintings probably by Giorgione. I accept these, but do not think the evidence demonstrative.
12–13. Stories of the Infant Paris (two cassone panels, E.) Sir Martin Conway, Allington Castle, Maidstone, England
14. The Fire Ordeal of Moses (door panel, E.) Florence
15. The Judgment of Solomon (door panel, E.) Florence
16. Christ bearing his Cross, E. Fenway Court, Boston.
17. Homage to a Poet, E. London
18. Portrait of a Young Man (possibly an early Titian) Berlin
19. Boy With an Arrow (old copy?) Vienna
20. Shepherd with a Flute Hampton Court
21. David with Goliath’s Head (copy? or ruined original?) Vienna
22. Altar-piece of St. John Chrysostom (mostly executed by Sebastiano del Piombo) S. Giovanni Crisostomo
23. The Pastoral Symphony (radically repainted in recent times.) Paris
24. Portrait of a Man New York
This list might still be extended by half a dozen numbers by including pictures which may represent lost originals by Giorgione, but here we are in a field too subjective for profitable discussion in a handbook.
Pictures generally ascribed to Giorgione, I think erroneously.
The Knight of Malta (probably a Titian about 1515) Florence
Portrait of Broccardo Budapest
Storm Calmed by St. Mark (probably a Palma) Venice
Judgment of Solomon (Hourticq plausibly regards as copy of lost fresco by Titian) Banks Coll., Kingston Lacy
Madonna with St. Antony and St. Roch (probably a Titian) Madrid
Portrait of a Woman Casino Borghese, Rome
The reason for excluding such works is their over-pathetic or over-dramatic quality. The argument applies especially to the Adulteress before Christ at Glasgow. Corroborative technical evidence against this group may be found in L. Venturi’s excellent monograph.