Fig. 248.—“The Patriarch Job.” A Painting on Panel, by Fra Bartolommeo. Fifteenth Century.
(In the Gallery at Florence.)
harmony of colouring which he showed, especially in his last productions, has sometimes caused them to be attributed to Raphael, with whom he was for some time united in the bonds of friendship. But we must not confine ourselves to characterising the works of one single group of artists; for, although the revival took its rise on the banks of the Arno, it spread far and wide beyond those limits. Added to this, Giotto, when visiting Verona, Padua, and Rome, left in each place the still resplendent traces of his presence. When Fra Angelico went to adorn the Vatican, his genius spread around it a fruitful irradiation which everywhere dimmed the ancient renown of the Byzantine painters who had hitherto prevailed in the Italian cities.
At Rome we find flourishing in succession Pietro Cavallini, whom Giotto had instructed during the sojourn of the latter in the Eternal City; Gentile da Fabriano, who drew his inspiration from Fra Angelico; and Pietro della Francesca, who has been regarded as the originator of perspective. We next meet with Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino, who was born in 1446; it was owing to nothing but the force of his genius and his character that he became one of the most celebrated masters of his time. At the close of his career, Perugino had the honour of initiating into the practice of his art Raphael Sanzio of Urbino, who was in his own day, as he still is, the prince of painting.
At Venice a body of pioneers, still more numerous and compact, prepared the way for the new era, destined to be made illustrious by Titian, Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese. We will mention also Gentile and Jacopo Bellini; the former was incessantly absorbed in investigating the theories of an art which he nevertheless exercised with all the abandon of an inspired genius; the latter constantly devoted himself to the combination of power and grace; and, at the age of seventy-five years, seemed to regain a second youth in following with happy boldness the example of his pupil Giorgione.[35] This painter, who was born in 1477, and died in 1511, introduced all kinds of innovations in respect to design and colouring, and was the master of Giovanni da Udine, Sebastian del Piombo, Jacques Palma, and Pordenone, fellow-pupils and sometimes rivals of the three great artists by whose works the Venetian school was to mark its individuality.
At Parma a local school was represented by Antonio Allegri, called Correggio, born in 1494; and by Francesco Mazzuoli, called Parmigianino, born in 1503.
In other places, too, talents of a vigorous or of a graceful character were developed, but we can only cast a comprehensive glance on this memorable artistic epoch, and are unable to offer a detailed review of the artists and their works. And what further luminaries of art could we wish to embrace in our summary after having displayed in it, shining, so to speak, at one and the same epoch, Leonardo da Vinci ([Fig. 249]), Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Correggio, and Parmigianino?
