A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools: Including by Special Permission Notes Collected from the Works of John Ruskin
History
A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools: Including by Special Permission Notes Collected from the Works of John Ruskin
National Gallery (Great Britain); Painting -- England -- London -- Catalogs
This picture, formerly the altar-piece of the Boccaferri chapel in
S. Domenico at Bologna, is signed by the painter and is mentioned by
Vasari (iii. 287) as "the best of his works: it represents the Madonna
with numerous saints (Joseph, James, and Paul), and contains the
portrait of the person by whom the painter was commissioned to execute
the work." Girolamo, who, as we have seen, was a man of travel, "did
not remain faithful to the tradition of art as professed at Venice
and Treviso, and might be called rather a forerunner of the eclectic
schools.... The head of St. Paul is apparently copied from Raphael's
picture of St. Cecilia in Bologna. In the types of other figures, in
the colouring and in the landscape, we perceive the influence of Dosso
Dossi and of Garofalo" (Richter's _Italian Art, etc._ p. 87).
624. THE INFANCY OF JUPITER.
_Giulio Romano_ (Roman: 1492-1546).
Giulio Pippi, called "the Roman," was born at Rome, and was
Raphael's favourite pupil; to him Raphael bequeathed his
implements and works of art. But the master could not also
bequeath his spirit, and in Giulio's works (such as 643 and
644, which, however, are now attributed to a pupil), though
"the archæology is admirable, the movements of the actors are
affected and forced, and the whole result is a grievous example
of the mannerism already beginning to prevail" (Woltmann and
Woermann: _History of Painting_, ii. 562). "Raphael worked
out the mine of his own thought so thoroughly, so completely
exhausted the motives of his invention, and carried his
style to such perfection, that he left nothing unused for
his followers.... In the Roman manner the dramatic element
was conspicuous; and to carry dramatic painting beyond the
limits of good style in art is unfortunately easy.... For all
the higher purposes of genuine art, inspiration passed from
his pupils as colour fades from Eastern clouds at sunset,
suddenly" (Symonds's _Renaissance_, iii. 359).... "Giulio
Romano alone, by dint of robust energy and lurid fire of fancy
flickering amid the smoke of his coarser nature, achieved a
triumph. His Palazzo del Te at Mantua may be cited as the most
perfect production of the epoch, combining, as it does, all
forms of antique decoration and construction with the vivid
individuality of genius" (_Symonds_, ii. 319; iii. 360). It was
in 1523 that Giulio entered the service of Federigo Gonzaga,
Duke of Mantua, and besides executing a very large number of
works in oil and fresco, he was distinguished as an architect
and rebuilt nearly the whole town.[156] Vasari made his
acquaintance there, and admired his works so much that Giulio
deserved, he said, to see a statue of himself erected at every
corner of the city. During his earlier period at Rome, Giulio
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