A History of Art for Beginners and Students - Clara Erskine Clement Waters (the best books of all time txt) 📗
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Sir Edwin Landseer left an estate of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and the works unsold at his death brought about seventy thousand pounds. His will made but a few bequests, and the remainder of this large sum was divided between his brother and three sisters. With the account of Sir Edwin I shall close the account of painters given in this volume.
We have seen how few actual remains of the painting of ancient nations are now in existence. Almost nothing is left even from the times of the Greeks; in truth, there is more upon the tombs of Egypt than in the land of Hellas. We read accounts of classic painting which arouse our deepest interest one moment, only to remember in the next that we can see but the merest scraps of all this wealth of beauty which moved the cultured Greeks to write of it with such enthusiasm.
After the days of classic art we have endeavored to trace painting through a period when it could scarcely be termed an art, so little of it was done, and that little was so far below our ideal. Again, this decline was followed by a Renaissance—an awakening—and from that day in the fourteenth century when the Madonna of Cimabue was carried in triumph through the streets of Florence, this art moved on with progressive steps until Michael Angelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Titian, and others highly gifted, had set up the standards which have remained as beacons and guides to all the world.
In tracing this progress we have seen that Italy, the German nations, Spain, France, and England have all striven to dream dreams of beauty and grandeur, of tenderness and love, and to fix them in fitting colors where all the world could see them.
The past is always fascinating. No stories are so pleasantly begun as those that say, “A long time ago there lived,” etc. One can have the most complete satisfaction in the study of what has happened so far in the past that we can see all its effects and judge of it by the tests which time is sure to bring to everything. It is such a study that has been made in these pages, and I would suggest that it has a second use scarcely less important than the study of history—that is, the preparation it affords for judging of what is done in the present. A knowledge of what has been achieved enables us by comparison to decide upon the merits of new works.
The painting of to-day offers an immense field for investigation. When we remember that five centuries ago the painters of the world could be counted by tens, and are told that now there is an average of twenty-five hundred painters in some foreign cities, we see that a lifetime is scarcely sufficient in which to study the painting of our own era.
Have we not reason to hope that works are now being produced which shall be studied and admired in the future as we study and admire those of the past? Is it not true that the artistic works of any period show forth the spirit of the time? If, then, the close of the Dark Ages and the dawn of a better life could bring forth the treasures which remain from those days, what ought to be the result of the more universal learning and the advancing civilization of the nineteenth century? And so, in leaving this book, I hope that it may be useful to all who read it for one purpose that I have suggested or the other; either to present an outline of what has been done in the past, or aid in the understanding of the painting of the present.
By L. E. JONES.
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Babylonian painting, 11-13 “Bacchus and Ariadne” (Titian), 124 “Bacchus and Ariadne” (Turner), 288 Balen, Henry van, 168 “Banishment of Ovid from Rome” (Turner), 287 “Baptism of Christ,” 84-86 Barbarelli, Giorgio, 118-120 Bartolommeo, Fra, 93-94; and Raphael, 110 Bartolozzi, engraved pictures of Angelica Kauffman, 206 Bas-reliefs in Egyptian painting, 3-5 Bassano family, 132 “Bathing Soldiers” (Michael Angelo), 108 “Battle of the Standard” (Vinci), 108 Bazzi, or Razzi, 118 “Beauties at Hampton Court” (Lely), 251 “Beggar Boy” (Velasquez), 216 “Beggar Boy Munching a Piece of Pastry” (Velasquez), 216 Belgium. See Flanders “Bella, La” (Titian), 124 “Belle Ferronière, La” (Vinci), 87 “Belle Jardinière, La” (Raphael), 110 Bellini, Gentile, 80-81 Bellini, Giovanni, 80, 81-82; and Titian, 123; and Dürer, 197 Bellini, Jacopo, 80 Bellotti, Bernardo, 153 Beltraffio, Giovanni Antonio, 93 Bembo, Pietro, epitaph on Raphael, 116 “Benci, Ginevra” (Vinci), 89 Bentivoglio, Cardinal, and Vandyck, 171 Benvenuti, Lorenzo, 153 Bernardo di Daddo, 69 Berreguette, Alonzo, 208-209 Bertoldo, 96-97 “Birth of John the Baptist” (Dürer), 198 “Birth of the Virgin Mary,” 58 Blucher, portrait by Lawrence, 270 Boleyn, Anne, and Holbein, 189 Bologna school, 71, 82 “Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time” (Landseer), 298 “Bonaparte on the Bridge of Arcola” (Gros), 242 Borgia, Cæsar, appoints Da Vinci engineer, 90 Borgognone, Ambrogio, 93 Both, Jan and Andries, 187 Botticelli, Sandro, 79 Bourdon, Sebastian, 238 Bowditch, N. I., quoted, 261 “Boy with a Squirrel” (Copley), 261 Boylston, Miss Rebecca, portrait by Copley, 260 Brattle, General William, portrait by Copley, 260 Brauwer, Adrian, 178 Brenghel, Jan, 162 Brenghel, Pieter, 162 Bril, Paul, 162 “Broken Jug” (Greuze), 240 Brunn, cited, 21 “Bull, The” (Potter), 187 Burch, Bishop Van der, and Vandyck, 172 Burgkmair, Hans, instructor of Holbein, 189 Burial-places, mediæval paintings in, 41. See also Catacombs “Burning of the House of Lords and Commons” (Turner), 287 Byron’s Works illustrated by Turner, 286Back to Index
“Calumny” (Apelles), 19 Calvert, Denis, instructor of Domenichino, 141 Cammuccini, Vincenzio, 153 Canaletto, 153 Cano, Alonso, 230-232 Canova, designed a monument for Titian, 128; portrait by Lawrence, 271 “Cantarilla de Miel, La” (Utande), 212 “Capitoline Doves,” 34 “Caprices” (Goya), 233 Caracci, Annibale, 140; quoted on Correggio, 135; on Domenichino, 141; instructor of Guido Reni, 143 Caracci family and school, 140 Caravaggio, 150 “Card Players” (Wilkie), 292 Carew, Thomas, portrait by Vandyck, 174 Carreño, Juan de, 211-212 Carvings of Dürer, 198 Casa Grande, the home of Titian, 126 Castelfranco, altar-piece painted by Giorgione, 119 Castile school of painting, 208 Castillo, Juan de, instructor of Murillo, 221 Catacombs, paintings of, 42-45 “Cato of Utica” (Ribera), 151 “Cat’s Paw” (Landseer), 295 Celtic illuminated MSS., early, 49 Cenci, Beatrice, portrait by Guido Reni, 145-147 Cennino, quoted, 68 Central period of Middle Ages. See Romanesque Cespedes, Pablo de, 213-214 Charles I., and Rubens, 164; and Vandyck, 172-173; portraits by Vandyck, 174; and Dobson, 249 Charles II. and Lely, 251 Charles IV. and Goya, 232 Charles V., and Titian, 124, 126-127; and Dürer, 199-201; and Berreguette, 209 Charles X., and Gros, 242; and Vernet, 246 Chartres Cathedral, glass-painting in, 53 “Chevy Chase” (Landseer), 296-298 “Chief’s (The) Return from Deer-stalking” (Landseer), 298 Christ, paintings by Joanes of, 229 “Christ Bearing the Cross” (Morales), 210 “Christ Blessing Little Children” (Rembrandt), 186 “Christ Crowned with Thorns” (Morales), 210 “Christ Healing the Sick” (West), 266 “Christ in Glory” (Correggio), 134 Christian art. See Early Church decoration in Gothic period of Middle Ages, 60 Cimabue, G., 61-64 Cistercian monks, painted windows in churches of, 54 Clay used by Babylonian tile-painters, 12 Clement VII., portrait by Titian, 124 Club of St. Luke founded by Vandyck, 173 Coello, Alonso Sanchez,
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