Pinturicchio, Borgia Appartments, Vatican, Rome
much individuality in the figures of his groups, the outcome perhaps of his great versatility, yet in a masterly way he invariably succeeds in uniting the various and contrasting elements of his work into one harmonious arrangement, the unity being largely assisted by the judicious disposition of his colour, which, generally speaking, is a harmony of azure and gold. Pinturicchio has been adversely criticised for his practice of giving undue prominence to some of the mouldings and other salient points of the painted architecture in his frescos, and the patterns of embroidery on the dresses of his figures, by modelling them in low relief and afterwards gilding them, the objection being that such a practice is not the function of painting; that may be, but surely an artist may be allowed to treat his subject in his own way, by using any means to produce the desired end he may have in view, especially if that end is to produce a beautiful work in harmony with its surroundings. Artistic heresies may be illogical enough, but it matters very little if the result is a production of beauty, for do we not often see that some dreadfully logical people only succeed in producing the ugliness of the commonplace however careful they may be in the due observance of artistic laws?
In the vaulted ceiling panels and on the groined ribs of the vaults in the Borgia apartments there is a good deal of stucco relief modelling of ornament and animal forms by Giovanni da Udine and Perina del Vaga, this relief decoration being coloured and gilded, similar to the cameo reliefs in the loggia of the Vatican, which the two last-named artists had executed under Raffaelle’s direction; and as Pinturicchio’s frescos were in all probability painted before the date of the ceiling decorations, it is not at all unlikely that the relief work on the wall frescos underneath suggested in a great measure a similar enrichment of the vaulted ribs and ceilings. In any case the whole of the decorations on both walls and ceilings of the Borgia apartments are in singular harmony and unity, although the work has been done by different hands.
Pinturicchio was employed by the Pope, Alexander VI, to decorate the Borgia apartments; accordingly, the frescos of the second, third, and fourth rooms were painted by him, with scenes from the life of Christ, the lives of the Saints, and with allegorical representations of the arts and sciences respectively. The most important and largest fresco has the subject of St. Catherine of Alexandria disputing before the Emperor Maximianus, in the background of which is a representation of the Arch of Constantine. This is painted on the back wall of the third room. The figure of St. Catherine is finely designed and painted, and is supposed to be a portrait of Lucretia Borgia. (See illustrations.) Among the best work of Pinturicchio are his frescos in the first chapel to the right in the Church of S. Maria Araceli, Rome, representing scenes from
Photo. Anderson.
Plate 25.—Portrait of Lucrezia Borgia. St. Catherine Disputing before the Emperor. Detail of Fresco