A History of Sculpture

by Ernest Henry Short

Bargello, Florence

Born at Feltre, Vittorino went as a youth to Padua, one of the leading humanistic centres at the end of the fourteenth century. After a period as Professor of Rhetoric, the ruling Gonzaga invited Vittorino to Mantua to educate his children. This was in 1425, and Vittorino remained there until his death in 1446. His first step was to abolish the luxury which had environed the young Gonzagas. He made “The House of Joy” a seat of plain living and regular study. Youths from other courts flocked to Mantua. At his own expense, Vittorino maintained a number of poor scholars, who lived near the villa and shared in all the privileges of the school. Music and such elementary sciences as geometry and astronomy were taught, in true Hellenic fashion. The Latin classics were studied without the fantastic pedantries of the ecclesiastical era. The grand truth was accepted that every man was possessed of a free but responsible personality. Each one saw that his task in this world was to mould his individuality, and by the exercise of his own free will to prove how far he was above the brutes. The one end of education was to make the boy or girl, not a specialist, but a perfectly developed man or woman. The expert had no place in Italy in those days. Throughout the Renaissance all education aimed at the production of all-round men and women, physically, emotionally, and intellectually sound.

It needs little imagination to see the effect of this general acceptance of Greek ideals of life and conduct upon sculpture. It rendered possible the production of hundreds of statues which would have been meaningless a century earlier. Beyond this we may not go. Every vital art must be largely indebted to the Greek tradition, and Renaissance sculpture was no exception. But, in the end, a great style cannot be transferred. A second-hand style, like a second-hand coat, is apt to be an ill-fit. Taking a few typical fifteenth-century sculptures we do not say “how Greek they are.” On the contrary, it is at once apparent that the difference underlying Italian and Greek sculpture is far more noticeable than any external resemblance.

When once we realize the cause, it is easy to see that it could not be otherwise. In Italy, the relation of the individual to society differed entirely from that in any Greek state. Whereas the individuality of the Greek was constantly sacrificed to the interests of his state, in Italy everything tended to the free emergence of individual personalities. The Italian was in touch with no overpowering political unity. Nothing hampered the attainment of personal ambition or the satisfaction of personal passions. What he desired was not civic or national success, but the foundation of a new age of art and culture in which every type of individuality would have its place. The Italian longed for individual fame, for individual power. This could not but entail the loss of that grand unity of aim which was the great glory of Athenian art. Instead, it led to the growth of a wonderful diversity of character and an extraordinary variety of interests. Whereas the Greek had been content to portray a few supreme types, the artist of the Italian Renaissance wished to show humanity in every aspect. He was not even content with the limits set by the bounds of grace and beauty. The expression of spiritual tension and mental energy could not be indicated without a departure from that harmony of the planes which the Hellenic sculptor regarded as essential. The Italian boldly adopted other means. He depicted with cruel emphasis the play of muscles and tendons which accompanies physical and mental tension. His mission was to present strongly individualized character. To him every human energy was fit for sculptural treatment.

JACOPO DELLA QUERCIA

TOMB OF ILARIA DEL CARETTO

Lucca Cathedral

Reviewing our argument we find that by the last quarter of the fifteenth century the art of sculpture was in this position. A long series of remunerative public and private commissions had educated bands of sculptors of real talent in several Italian centres but particularly in Florence. Their work was held in such public esteem that they no longer regarded themselves as mere artizans. Moreover, while the sculptor had been making himself more and more capable of expressing the thoughts and emotions of his countrymen, they, for their part, were deepening and widening their experience. Not only had they come to realize the manifold beauties of nature, but they were learning man’s intimate relation with it. At the same time the revelation of what the Greeks had done and what Hellenic culture really meant was leading to an entirely new regard for mankind and a desire to cultivate the whole, as opposed to a mere fragment, of the human capital. In other words, while the sculptor was increasing his power of interpretation, thoughts of the highest value and emotions of real depth were being aroused. Comparing the sculpture of Ghiberti, Donatello, Quercia, della Robbia and the rest, with that of the Pisani a century earlier, it is seen that the essential difference depends upon the general adoption of a new philosophical standpoint. Previously, both the artist and his public viewed man from the heavens and found him a drowning mite in an ocean of divinity. Now both looked man in the face and recognized a brother, set for a time in the world to witness to the abiding beauty of the Eternal Reality. In the light of this conception, what had been negligible became of prime importance. The shameful became entirely satisfying.

The truth of this proposition is seen at once if we look at a few typical fifteenth-century works. Take, as the first instance, the beautiful tomb of “[Ilaria del Carretto],” by Jacopo della Quercia (born 1374). It was erected about 1406. The young wife of Paolo Guinigi lies in simple garb upon the bier—the dog at her feet an emblem of womanly faithfulness. Comparing the work with, let us say, the [Pisan Pulpit] by Niccola Pisano, we are struck by the beautiful simplicity of the design. The over-crowded detail has vanished. Instead we have a scheme of monumental breadth. The difference in spirit is even greater. The nude children, with their wreaths of flowers, which decorate the bier, witness to the transition from the Gothic gloom to the Renaissance joy in the beauties of the natural world.