Renaissance and modern art

Front matter

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CiO^c

Contents

I. The Renaissance Period.— Limits ot the Renaissance Period. — The Term Defined . . . • • ^5

II. Contemporaneous History . . 19

III. Position of Art in the Italian Re-

Chapter I. The Renaissance Period

Lhrdts of the Renaissa^ice Period.

The period covered by the title of my book has had a duration of about five hundred years. The Renaissance had fairly begun in the early part of the fifteenth century, and from the standpoint of general history the beginning of the Renaissance was the beginning of modern times. In a broad and general sense this period cannot be considered to have ended yet. Modern civilization dates from the Renaissance and was created by it.

This broadest and largest fact about the Renaissance Is best explained, proven, and illustrated through the history of art.

It therefore holds, in a large sense, that Renaissance art must also be conceived as still continuing. It is especially, however, in architecture and In ornament that the prooi and illustration of this fact can be most definitely given. In sculpture and In painting, although the relations and connections of modern art with Its Renaissance oriofins are perfectly definite and perfectly continuous, they are not so immediately obvious without research.

On the other hand there are uses of the term Renaissance i6

Renaissance and Modern Art.

in which, both for history in a general sense and for the history of art in a special sense, it must be considered as having long since ended. It seems then proper at the outset of this little book, to indicate the various senses in which this word may be legitimately used as regards limits of time and period ; observing, at the same time, that whenever we feel disposed to restrict the sense of the term, we have still chosen a tide for our book which is perfecdy explicit. The period to be covered began about 1400 A. D. and has not ended. No one can deny that modern art and history began about this time. Whenever the Renaissance may have ended, there is no doubt as to when it began. Our title, therefore, covers the ground in any case.

A discussion about words is never useless when it tends to bring out facts. The fact to be indicated then is this: that in some senses the term ' ' Renaissance, ' ' either in art or history, specially applies to Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and to the obvious and palpable

Fig. I.— Late French Renaissance Carved and influence of Italv OU Gilded Wooden Chest and Table. ^ /

At Moyenmoutier. f O r e 1 g n COUUtricS at

this time. This is the special and generally recognized use

'Ilie Ke7iaissance J-'eriod. 17 of the term. Although no one can deny that the seventeenth century continued to exhibit and spread this influence, the term is not so generally understood as applying to a period of history when the seventeenth century is in question. Still less would the eighteenth century be considered to come within the limits of the period, according to the usual acceptance of historic divisions. On the othei hand the history of art during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries enables us to prove without the least difficulty that the same historic influences are really always in question.

As a matter of fact the first distinct break with these Italian traditions in taste, literature, and art, occurred in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and even then it Is only in a narrow and limited sense that they can be said to have ended.

The Term Defined.

What was the Renaissance ? According to a literal rendering of the word, which is French for "rebirth," it was a rebirth of civilization, of literature, and of art, and according to universal acceptance the word relates to Italy ; for we never speak of the English, French, German, or Spanish Renaissance, without the Implication that Italy was the original home, center, and inspiration of the movement.

But "rebirth" Implies that something had ceased tQ exist which once existed. The word therefore implies two preceding periods as well as its own. It implies a preceding period which was reborn, and it implies an Inter\'ening period of cessation, a gap or chasm between that period and Itself. The word Renaissance therefore carries with itself a conception of the Middle Age as this interv^enlng period, and a conception of Itself as a rebirth of the civilizatlon of the Roman Empire. These were the conceptions of the Itahans of the Renaissance.

Now, as a matter of fact, civiHzation is never reborn; it continues — with changes. Nothing could be more differ-' ent, as a matter of fact, than was the civihzation of Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries from the civilization of ancient Rome. But this matter-of-fact distinction escaped the perception of the Italians themselves. They believed themselves to be reviving the civilization of the past, when they were in reality only learning from it. This belief colored their language, their literature, their daily life, and, therefore, their art.

In the character of the period we shall therefore gradually learn to separate two things: on the one hand, the estimate which the time made of itself, its enthusiasms, sentiment, patriotism, coloring — in brief, the dream of the Roman Empire; on the other hand, the actual conditions and facts of early modern civilization.

The first aspect of the Renaissance was mainly confined to Italy of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and its obvious reaction on other European countries. But the actual facts and conditions of early modern civilization were necessarily controlling facts and conditions for all later modern civilization. It is in these two senses that our conceptions of the Renaissance as a special period, and of modern history as a whole, either fall apart or hold together.

Chapter II. Contemporaneous History

For a perfectly practical and common-sense knowledge of facts (as distinct from theories about terms, which can only carry real meaning in so far as we know these facts) let us remember what we can of the contemporary history of Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the Renaissance began and most beneficently flourished.

In England the Wars of the Roses had ended in the exhaustion of the feudal aristocracy and the rise to power of a despotic Tudor dynasty (Henry \TI., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth) whose despotic power was mainly used to antagonize the feudal nobles and to exalt the importance of the cities and of the commercial classes. The great personal popularity of Queen Elizabeth, in spite of her arbitrary acts and despotic rule, is the best reminder of this significance of her dynasty.

In France the same alliance of royal despotism and commerce against feudalism was still more apparent during the reigns of Louis XL, Charles VIIL, Louis XIL, Francis L, and their successors. During these two centuries England, France, and Spain all illustrate the tendency to national consolidation and concentration, as opposed to the earlier dismemberment of these countries in local feudal principalities.

As regards the existence of modern monarchies and modern states, the history of modern Europe at this time, therefore, clearly begins to show its character. In Ger-

Reyiaissance and Modern Art.

many we find at this time the memorable events of the Reformation. Otherwise, the great maritime discoveries made first by Portugal and Spain, the invention and spread

Fig. 2. — Armor of Christian II. of Denmark. Italian Renaissance Ornamentation. First half of Sixteenth Century.

of the art of jDrinting, the use of gunpowder, and ol standing armies of artillery and infantry, and the astronomical announcements of Copernicus regarding the true nature of the planetary system are to be mentioned as leading facts of general history. Where then, the student may ask, does the Renaissance appear to be a controlling fact of history ?

To this we might answer: first, that in so far as the organization of a modern state is concerned, its necessary

Cojitemporaneous History.

basis is admitted to be a uniform system of taxation; and this again presupposes a census, an administrative system, and settled and prosperous industries. Now in all these things it is known that Italy was the teacher of Europe. As opposed to the arbitrary, oppressive, spasmodic, and illadjusted levies of money made by the sovereigns of northern Europe down to the close of the Middle Ages, Italy was the country where a census and uniform taxation were first generally in use, and they spread from this

Fig. 3.— Tomb of the Children of Charles VIII. Tours. Renaissance style.

country to the North. The state of Ferrara has been much quoted for its especially fine administrative system. Florence and Venice were also among the foremost in matters of the census and of regular taxation. The diplomatic system of Venice was so highly developed that the reports of her ambassadors to the various states of Europe are at present our best authority for the history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The histories of the German historian Ranke, which are the best authority for all countries of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, are largely founded on these reports. What the Rothschilds are to the countries of modern Europe, the bankers of Florence were to the sovereigns of the North during the fifteenth century.* Most of the industries of modern civilization can either be traced to the North from Italian sources or w^ere found in Italy in highest perfection. The manufactures of silks, velvets, and laces may be mentioned as cases in point.

It would appear then for the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, that while the size and power of the modern monarchies in England, France, and Spain may first attract attention, their very existence in the matter of administration was due to Italy. It is- significant that it was customary for the courts of northern Europe during the sixteenth century to have an Italian diplomatist in their employ. Such, for instance, was the true position of the unfortunate Rizzio at the court of Mary Queen of Scots, although he is generally quoted by English historians as having been a musician.

In the matter of the maritime discoveries, which are the most obvious distinction of the fifteenth century, it should not be forgotten that Columbus was a Genoese, that the Cabots were Venetians, and that the knowledge of the earth's rotunditv, which was the basis of the search of Columbus for the eastern shores of Asia, was spread by

* For an account of their enormous loans to French sovereigns, see the History of France by Michelet.

Florentine astronomers and men of learning. As regards the science of modern warfare, we may mention that the first treatise on gunnery was written by the artist Leonardo da Vinci, who was himself a practical artilleryman. Although printing was invented in Germany, it was in Venice that the art found its early highest development. Copernicus was a native of Prussia, but he had studied five years in Rome before reaching his conclusions regarding the planetary system.

It would appear from the above suggestions that even where other countries of Europe seem to have been foremost, an Italian influence may frequently or generally be traced and proven. As regards the general system of modern law we know that the University of Bologna was the ereat center of legfal studies durinsr the centuries which

Fig. 4. — German Renaissance Fowling Pieces (about 1600).

Style and designs Italian.

In Vienna.

Renaissance and Modern Art.

prepared the way for modern times, and that the University of Padua was the famous center of Europe for the study of anatomy and medicine. It is no mere chance which has made the vioHns of Cremona famous above all others, and that the word "piano " is Italian, or that Lombard Street in London has its name from the Italian bankers who were settled there. It is no mere chance which carries the names of Torricelli and Galileo wherever the study of physics travels, or that the name of Galvani has coined a new English word. It is no mere chance that the finest European palace of the nineteenth century, architecturally speaking-, was built for the residence of a Florentine banker of the fifteenth century (the Pitti Palace), or that * ' Venetian glass ' ' is still a synonym for all that is elegant and graceful in that material. It is no mere chance that the parks of French Versailles or / German Schwetzingen and Hesse Cassel were imitations of Italian originals, whose landscape gardening was the in- FiG. 5.-French Renais- spiratiou of all modcm art in this direc- SyS^ Collection of the tiou. It is not chauce that artificial Louvre, Paris. flowcrs were known as ' ' Italian flowers' '

in Germany, or that the lace manufactures of Valenciennes and Alen^on were transplanted from the Island of Murano, or that the high ruffs of Queen Elizabeth point to a fashion which came from Italy.

For the matter of refinement in behavior, we have the opinion of Dr. Samuel Johnson that the finest work ever

Contemporaneous History.

written on good breeding was that entitled ' ' The Courtier," which came from the pen of Raphael's friend, the Count Castiglione. For the matter of general education, we have the opinion of Gregorovius, the greatest German authority on the history of medieval Rome, that the Italian ladies of the fifteenth century were the superiors in education of the German ladies of our own day. We know that lady professors were lecturing in the University of Bologna some centuries before the American colleges were hesitating to admit a female student. It Is only necessary to glance at the portraits of fifteenth and sixteenth century Italians, which will be found in later pages, to be aware of their intellectual and personal refinement; a refinement which does not equally distinguish, for instance, the German portraits of the same age.

Finally, in the matter of literature let us notice the Italian inspiration of Spenser's "Faerie Queene," and the dramas of Shakespeare which are founded on Italian stories or whose scenes are laid in Italy — then those additional ones (all of the antique subjects) based on the "Lives " of Plutarch, a work which found its way into Shakespeare's

Fig. 6. — Renaissance Italian silver-gilt Wine

Pitcher. Sixteenth Century. School of Een-

venuto Cellini. Pitti Palace, Florence.

26 Reyiaissmice and Modern Art.

library through a French translation, but which first came into notice through Italian students. Or turn to the "Paradise Lost" of Milton, who had traveled in Italy, and consider the classical citations and references drawn from Italian learning. In the literature of the French, the comedies of Moliere or the tragedies of Corneille and Racine will offer still more striking illustrations.

It is apparent from these references that the statues of Michael Angelo, Donatello, and Verocchio, the paintings of Raphael, Correggio, and Titian, the buildings of Brunellesco, of Bramante and Palladio, are not isolated facts explained by isolated individual genius in the history of art. They are facts of general history, phases of general civilization, illustritions parallel to those which I have just advanced in other lines of intellectual activity, of education, culture, and refinement.

Chapter III. Position Of Art In The Italian Renaissance

It is interesting to inquire, for a moment, why the art of the Renaissance has assumed such proportions in the pubUc eye as to dwarf its other claims to glory.' Why is it that the influence of Italian studies on Harvey' s announcement of the circulation of the blood or the precedence of Italian students in the investigations of political economy is less prominent in the public mind than the frescoes of the Vatican or the tombs of the Medici ?

One obvious answer is that modern science and modern civilization at large have far outstripped their first beginnings— so far, that these beginnings are forgott'en in the magnitude and wonders of later and recent discoveries; whereas the absolute superiority of Italian art in the early sixteenth century to our own art of the nineteenth century is still uncontested and incontestable. No critic has ever claimed that the art of the nineteenth century rivals the Italian art of the early sixteenth century — that we have produced anything to compare with the color of Venetian paintings, with the figure composition of Raphael, or with the colossal genius which reveals itself in the ceiling decoration of the vSistine Chapel.

In other words, modern civilization has gone forward as a whole, but in its later art it has neither surpassed nor equaled its earliest achievements. The verdict of the modern artist and the modern critic still awards the palm

Fig. 7. — Wi'ought iron Standard-holder on the Strozzi Palace, Florence. By Caprarra. Fifteenth Century Renaissance.

Position of Art in the Italiayi Renaissance. 29 to Ghiberti or to Titian, while the man of science who stands on the shoulders of Galileo possibly forgets him in the marvels of his own discoveries.

One task, therefore, of the art critic and the art historian is to explain the reasons why art and science have so far parted company; to show the peculiar position of art in the Renaissance period, the special causes of its special excellence and the reasons for its later relative decline; but without forgetting to point out that the excellence of Renaissance art was only one phase of a general culture which otherwise has culminated in the triumph of later civilization.

Some further

Fig.

,.— Carved wooden Trousseau Chest, supporting the Roman Wolf. Early Italian Renaissance. Siena.

points regarding the relations of art to the public and social life of early Italy have been m e n - tioned in my "Roman and Medieval Art," in matter relating to the Italian paintings of the fourteenth century, the late Gothic period

of Italy.

If we again turn to our question — why is it that the art of the Renaissance has assumed such proportions in the public eye as to dwarf its other claims to glory ? — we shall find another obvious answer waiting for us.

The paintings of Raphael and the statues of Michael Angelo can be seen. Every traveler in Italy makes acquaintance with them. The beauties of Italian art are

30 Renaissayice and Modern Art.

familiar to every picture gallery of Europe. Engravings and photographs and casts and copies have spread the knowledge of this art wherever modern civilization has made its way. It is quite a different matter to laboriously search for the principles of law, of governmental science, for the connections of literary influence, to trace out the history of inventions and industries, to follow the course of social life, the history of music or of medicine, of diplomacy or manners. These studies are among the most laborious known to man. They demand the patience and the talents of a specialist, either to make them at first hand or to study them when they have been made. It is partly because buildings, pictures, statues, and decorations last and are visible to every eye, that Italian art holds a place in the history of art which only the specialist is able to concede to Italy in the history of civilization.

But we have still a reason why Renaissance art has been exalted at the expense of the Renaissance civilization which produced it. Italy as a country did not long hold the pre-eminence which belonged to her in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Other nations profited by her advance and took her place. In successive order Spain, France, England, and Germany have filled the place which she once took in science, art, and letters. Italian paintings of the seventeenth century are not superior to those, produced by Spain or Flanders at the same time. English artists in the eighteenth century and French and American artists in the nineteenth century have far outstripped the Italians of these same centuries; and what holds of art holds also of letters and of science when we compare the place taken among nations by the Italy of to-day with the place taken among nations by the Italy of 1500. Of all contrasts, that would be most striking, which

Position of Art in the Italian Reyiaissance. 31 should compare the Netherlands of the seventeenth century vith the Italy of the same time, as related with a similar comparison for two centuries before.

In other words, special nations have controlled the field i

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Fig. 9. — Italian Renaissance Bronze Gates in Venice. Sixteenth Century.

of history in intellectual and moral force at certain times. Civilization radiated from the Netherlands in the seventeenth century to England and America ^^ as it radiated from Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the Netherlands, Spain, France, and Germany.

In our estimate of Renaissance civilization we are bound, theiefcre, to consider the backwardness of other countries at the given time as compared with Italy, but in our ac-

* Douglas Campbell, " The Puritan in Holland, England, and America."

2,2 Re7iaissance and Modern Art.

count of the reasons why ItaHan civiHzation has been ecHpsed by its own triumph over other nations, we are bound to consider that these other nations have become in their turn superior. The payment of a debt of gratitude to the past is easily overlooked when the wheel of history has made another turn.

Probably, therefore, there is no matter of more immediate importance to our subject than to understand the causes which led to the relative decline of Italy after the first quarter of the sixteenth century, which was the zenith of the Renaissance. A natural skepticism of the human mind often asserts itself above the verdict of the critic. The greatness of the ' ' Old Masters ' ' has been often called in doubt, although nev^er overthrown. Two things appear essential to a reasonable philosophy of their greatness, to show not only what produced it, but to show also why it

did not last.