Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art.

by P. H. Emerson

Titian.

The next and last great master of this period is Titian, another of the few entitled to the name of genius. His portraits are his best works. Michael Angelo is reputed to have said, “This man might have been as eminent in design as he is true to nature and masterly in counterfeiting the life, and then nothing could be desired better or more perfect.” Titian’s works show that he had much more love for nature than Michael Angelo ever showed, and we think it a pity for Michael Angelo’s sake that he did not take a leaf from Titian’s book instead of criticizing his power of design. His landscape backgrounds show a feeling for nature far above anything painted up to that time. After his day art in Italy fell into evil ways, and no Italian name stands out even to this day. The study of nature was neglected, illogical traditions slipped in, and though some writers on painting talk of “Naturalists,” in the period of decadence, citing Caravaggio and others, we would fain know what they mean by the term “Naturalists,” for the painters they cite were no students of nature, as is shown by their works, which are more realistic than naturalistic, they being as much students of nature as are the “professional” photographers of to-day, whose ideas of nature are sharpness and wealth of detail. |The camera obscura.| Canaletto’s pictures look like bad photographs, and that he used a camera obscura is well known, for Count Algarotti has told us as much. He includes Ribera and other Tramontane masters in the list of those who used the camera obscura. |Ribera.| Ribera however, is no small painter, although he is not a great master. The passages in some of his works are masterful, as in the dead Christ at the National Gallery.

From the Renascence to Modern Times.

Preamble.

We shall now glance over the works of the great artists throughout Europe from the time of the Renascence period downwards, and see how and what influence Naturalism had on them, and we shall inquire whether the loving truthfulness to and study of nature and adhesion to the subjects of every-day life was not the secret of the success of all who stand out as pre-eminent during this period. The simplest method will be to take separately the countries where art has flourished.

Spain.

Beginning with Spain, we find at the outset from history that there was but little hope for art. Religion enchained art, and that terrible stain on ignorant Spain, the Inquisition, gave rise to the office of “Inspector of Sacred Pictures.” This office was no sinecure, for it controlled all the artists' movements, even prescribing how much of the virgin’s naked foot should be shown. Comments are needless, for how could art flourish under such circumstances? One name, however, comes at last to break through all rule, and in 1599, at Seville, was born Velasquez. |Velasquez.| Velasquez, though moving from his youth up in the most refined society of his native town, had the might of genius to see that the falsely sentimental work of his predecessors was not the true stuff, and he, like all great workers, made Nature his watchword. He is reputed to have said he “would rather be the first of vulgar painters than the second of refined ones,” and though he began by painting still life straight from nature, he finally became in his portraits one of the most refined, truthful, and greatest of painters the world has ever seen. Though greatly influenced by the religious tendencies of the time, we find him often painting the life around him, and we have from his brush water-carriers, and even drunkards; but he finally reached his greatest heights and the exercise of his full powers in portraiture. All who have a chance, and all who have not should try and create one, should go to the National Gallery and study the remarkable portrait of Philip of Spain. Barely has portraiture attained such a level as in this example, and what was the oath this painter took? “Never to do anything without nature before him.” |Murillo.| The next name, great in some ways, but not to be compared with Velasquez, is Murillo; and when was he great? Was it in his sickly sentimental religious pictures? No, certainly not. It was in such pictures as the Spanish peasant boys, such as can be seen in the Dulwich Gallery. |Dulwich Gallery.| This gallery is open to the public, and quite easy of access, and should not be neglected. |Fortuny.| The last Spanish name of note is that of Fortuny, a Catalonian, who is often mistaken for a Frenchman, since he lived in Paris some years ago. Fortuny is deserving of much praise as having been the first to shake off the slavery of “geometrical perspective.” His best pictures were homely and festal scenes, chiefly interiors, which he painted as he saw them without any preconceived ideas of perspective. For this new departure, and on account of his work, Fortuny deserves all praise. Since his death, in 1874, no Spanish painter of note has come to the fore, but art in that country languishes in prettiness, false sentimentality, and works done for popularity; the ephemeridæ of art.

Germany.

Germany seems to have neglected the lessons taught her by Durer and Holbein, and the mystics seize her and carry her away from nature, and, therefore, from art. Since the days of Holbein no really great man has arisen. |Kaulbach.| Kaulbach, who has been well described as “all literature,” is praised by some, but he does not seem to have had even poetic ideas. Nature to him was nothing, but the petty doings of erring man were everything. |Makart.| |Heffner.| Makart was meretricious and small, and Heffner’s pictures are like bad photographs in colour, just the class of photography we are now writing against. Had he been a photographer, he would never have risen above the topographical, as he has never risen |Munkacsy.| above the topographical in painting. Greater is the Hungarian, Munkacsy; but is he an immortal? We doubt it.

Verestchagin.