The century of ColumbusWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
History
The century of Columbus
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Renaissance
Everywhere a great spirit entered into art and produced a series of
artists with an originality and a power of expression that has given
them a place in the history of art. The first important development of
the modern period in France came among the illuminators of books and
is well illustrated by the work of Jean Fouquet of Tours, the Court
Painter of Louis XI. I have mentioned some of the books illuminated by
him in the chapter on Books and Prints, and a copy of one of his
illuminations from the famous Livy manuscript will be found there. He
did a series of larger works which entitles him to the name of
painter, and his portraits are worthy of the time. Bourdischon and
Perreal, the first a painter of historical subjects and portraits in
the reign of Louis XI, and the second, attached to the army of Charles
VIII in his Italian expedition, painted many battle scenes. These
first French artists were little influenced by Italian art, and then
come a group, Jean Cousin and the Clouets, especially François, who is
often called Janet, who, though under Italian influence to some
extent, yet showed, especially taken in connection with the sculptors
Colombe and Jean Goujon, that France possessed artists capable of
forming a native school. Clouet's portrait of Elizabeth of Austria,
wife of Charles IX, is worthy of the great portrait painters of this
time.
{81}
[Illustration: NAVARRETE, ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL (ESCURIAL)]
In Spain, as in France, there was a development of art in Columbus'
Century that owes nothing to external influence and shows the
originality of the time. As early as 1454 one Sanchez de Castro, "the
Morning Star" of Andalusia, painted a _retablo_ in the Cathedral of
Seville and a fresco of St. Julian in the Church of the same city. He
was still painting in 1516, so {82} that he must have enjoyed as long
a life as many of the great Italian artists of the time. Juan de
Borgona was working at Toledo in 1495 at a series of paintings which
recall Perugino, yet have an originality of their own. It is not
surprising, then, to find Luis de Morales, born about the beginning of
the sixteenth century, called "the Divine" and hailed as the first
Spaniard whose genius and good fortune have obtained him a place among
the great painters of Europe. One of the master painters of this time
is Juan Fernandez Navarrete, most of whose pictures were painted after
the close of our century, but who had passed some twenty-five years of
his life in it and been subjected to its influence and received his
education from it. He is extremely interesting, because his nickname
_el Mudo_, the Dumb, recalls the fact that he was one of the
unfortunate deaf who, for lack of hearing, cannot speak, and yet
succeeded in developing a great mode of expression for himself. Such
opportunities for the defective are supposed to be quite modern, but
as a matter of fact, in spite of difficulties and obstacles, genius
usually finds a mode of expression.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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