Estelle M. Hurll - The Madonna in Art
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Estelle M. Hurll >> The Madonna in Art
[Illustration: _Madonna of Castelfranco_ Photogravure from the
Painting by Giorgione in the Parish Church, Castelfranco]
THE
MADONNA IN ART
BY
ESTELLE M. HURLL
Illustrated
A mother is a mother still--
The holiest thing alive.
--COLERIDGE.
BOSTON
L.C. PAGE AND COMPANY
(_INCORPORATED_)
1898
_Copyright, 1897_
BY L.C. PAGE AND COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
I. THE PORTRAIT MADONNA
II. THE MADONNA ENTHRONED
III. THE MADONNA IN THE SKY
IV. THE PASTORAL MADONNA
V. THE MADONNA IN A HOME ENVIRONMENT
VI. THE MADONNA OF LOVE
VII. THE MADONNA IN ADORATION
VIII. THE MADONNA AS WITNESS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ILLUSTRATIONS.
GIORGIONE Madonna of Castelfranco _Frontispiece_
_Parish Church, Castelfranco._
JACOPO BELLINI Madonna and Child
_Venice Academy._
GABRIEL MAX Madonna and Child
PERUGINO Madonna and Saints (Detail.)
_Vatican Gallery, Rome._
GIOVANNI BELLINI Madonna of San Zaccaria. (Detail.)
_Church of San Zaccaria, Venice._
VERONESE Madonna and Saints
_Venice Academy._
QUENTIN MASSYS Madonna and Child
_Berlin Gallery._
FRA ANGELICO Madonna della Stella
_Monastery of San Marco, Florence._
UMBRIAN SCHOOL Glorification of the Virgin
_National Gallery, London._
MORETTO Madonna in Glory
_Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Verona._
SPANISH SCHOOL Madonna on the Crescent Moon
_Dresden Gallery._
BOUGUEREAU Madonna of the Angels
RAPHAEL Madonna in the Meadow
_Belvedere Gallery, Vienna._
LEONARDO DA VINCI Madonna of the Rocks
_National Gallery, London._
PALMA VECCHIO Santa Conversazione
_Belvedere Gallery, Vienna._
FILIPPINO LIPPI Madonna in a Rose Garden
_Pitti Gallery, Florence._
SCHONGAUER Holy Family
_Belvedere Gallery, Vienna._
RAPHAEL Madonna dell' Impannata
_Pitti Gallery, Florence._
CORREGGIO Madonna della Scala
_Parma Gallery._
TITIAN Madonna and Saints. (Detail.)
_Belvedere Gallery, Vienna._
DUeRER Madonna and Child
_Belvedere Gallery, Vienna._
BODENHAUSEN Madonna and Child
_Private Gallery, Washington, D.C._
ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA Madonna in Adoration
_National Museum, Florence._
LORENZO DI CREDI Nativity
_Uffizi Gallery, Florence._
FILIPPO LIPPI Madonna in Adoration
_Uffizi Gallery, Florence_.
LUIGI VIVARINI Madonna and Child 179
_Church of the Redentore, Venice._
GIOVANNI BELLINI Madonna between St. George and St. Paul.
(Detail.)
_Venice Academy._
LUINI Madonna with St. Barbara and St. Anthony
_Brera Gallery, Milan._
BOTTICELLI Madonna of the Pomegranate
_Uffizi Gallery, Florence._
MURILLO Madonna and Child
_Pitti Gallery, Florence._
RAPHAEL Sistine Madonna
_Dresden Gallery._
PREFACE.
This little book is intended as a companion volume to "Child-Life in
Art," and is a study of Madonna art as a revelation of motherhood.
With the historical and legendary incidents in the life of the Virgin
it has nothing to do. These subjects have been discussed
comprehensively and finally in Mrs. Jameson's splendid work on the
"Legends of the Madonna." Out of the great mass of Madonna subjects
are selected, here, only the idealized and devotional pictures of the
Mother and Babe. The methods of classifying such works are explained
in the Introduction.
Great pains have been taken to choose as illustrations, not only the
pictures which are universal favorites, but others which are less
widely known and not easily accessible.
The cover was designed by Miss Isabelle A. Sinclair, in the various
colors appropriate to the Virgin Mary. The lily is the Virgin's
flower, _la fleur de Marie_, the highest symbol of her purity. The
gold border surrounding the panel is copied from the ornamentation of
the mantle worn by Botticelli's Dresden Madonna.
ESTELLE M. HURLL.
_New Bedford, Mass., May, 1897._
INTRODUCTION.
It is now about fifteen centuries since the Madonna with her Babe was
first introduced into art, and it is safe to say that, throughout all
this time, the subject has been unrivalled in popularity. It requires
no very profound philosophy to discover the reason for this. The
Madonna is the universal type of motherhood, a subject which, in its
very nature, appeals to all classes and conditions of people. No one
is too ignorant to understand it, and none too wise to be superior to
its charm. The little child appreciates it as readily as the old man,
and both, alike, are drawn to it by an irresistible attraction. Thus,
century after century, the artist has poured out his soul in this
all-prevailing theme of mother love until we have an accumulation of
Madonna pictures so great that no one would dare to estimate their
number. It would seem that every conceivable type was long since
exhausted; but the end is not yet. So long as we have mothers, art
will continue to produce Madonnas.
With so much available material, the student of Madonna art would be
discouraged at the outset were it not possible to approach the subject
systematically. Even the vast number of Madonna pictures becomes
manageable when studied by some method of classification. Several
plans are possible. The historical student is naturally guided in his
grouping by the periods in which the pictures were produced; the
critic, by the technical schools which they represent. Besides these
more scholarly methods, are others, founded on simpler and more
obvious dividing lines. Such are the two proposed in the following
pages, forming, respectively, Part I. and Part II. of our little
volume.
The first is based on the style of composition in which the picture is
painted; the second, on the subject which it treats. The first
examines the mechanical arrangement of the figures; the second asks,
what is the real relation between them? The first deals with external
characteristics; the second, with the inner significance.
Proceeding by the first, we ask, what are the general styles of
treatment in which Madonna pictures have been rendered? The answer
names the following five classes:
1. The Portrait Madonna, the figures in half-length against an
indefinite background.
2. The Madonna Enthroned, where the setting is some sort of a throne
or dais.
3. The Madonna in the Sky or the "Madonna in Gloria," where the
figures are set in the heavens, as represented by a glory of light, by
clouds, by a company of cherubs, or by simple elevation above the
earth's surface.
4. The Pastoral Madonna, with a landscape background.
5. The Madonna in a Home Environment, where the setting is an
interior.
The foregoing subjects are arranged in the order of historical
development, so far as is possible. The first and last of the classes
enumerated are so small, compared with the others, that they are
somewhat insignificant in the whole number of Madonna pictures. Yet,
in all probability, it is along these lines that future art is most
likely to develop the subject, choosing the portrait Madonna because
of its universal adaptability, and representing the Madonna in her
home, in an effort to realize, historically, the New Testament scenes.
Of the remaining three, the enthroned Madonna is, doubtless, the
largest class, historically considered, because of the long period
through which it has been represented. The pastoral and enskied
Madonnas were in high favor in the first period of their perfection.
Our next question is concerned with the aspects of motherhood
displayed in Madonna pictures: in what relation to her child has the
Madonna been represented? The answer includes the following three
subjects:
1. The Madonna of Love (The Mater Amabilis), in which the relation is
purely maternal. The emphasis is upon a mother's natural affection as
displayed towards her child.
2. The Madonna in Adoration (The Madre Pia), in which the mother's
attitude is one of humility, contemplating her child with awe.
3. The Madonna as Witness, in which the Mother is preeminently the
Christ-bearer, wearing the honors of her proud position as witness to
her son's great destiny.
These subjects are mentioned in the order of philosophical climax, and
as we go from the first to the second, and from the second to the
third, we advance farther and farther into the experience of
motherhood. At the same time there is an increase in the dignity of
the Madonna and in her importance as an individual. In the Mater
Amabilis she is subordinate to her child, absorbed in him, so to
speak; his infantine charms often overmatch her own beauty. When she
rises to the responsibilities of her high calling, she is, for the
time being, of equal interest and importance. AEsthetically, she is
now even more attractive than her child, whose seriousness, in such
pictures, takes something from his childlikeness. Chronologically, our
list reads backwards, as the religious aspect of Mary's motherhood was
the first treated in art, while the naturalistic conception came last.
Regarded as expressive of national characteristics, the Mater Amabilis
is the Madonna best beloved in northern countries, while the other two
subjects belong specially to the art of the south.
It will be seen that any number of Madonna pictures, having been
arranged in the five groups designated in Part I., may be gathered up
and redistributed in the three classes of Part II. To make this clear,
the pictures mentioned in the first method of classification are
frequently referred to a second time, viewed from an entirely
different standpoint. Since the lines of cleavage are so widely
dissimilar in the two cases, both methods of study are necessary to a
complete understanding of a picture. By the first, we learn a
convenient term of description by which we may casually designate a
Madonna; by the second, we find its highest meaning as a work of art,
and are admitted to some new secret of a mother's love.
PART I.
MADONNAS CLASSED BY THE STYLE OF COMPOSITION.
THE MADONNA IN ART.
CHAPTER I.
THE PORTRAIT MADONNA.
The first Madonna pictures known to us are of the portrait style, and
are of Byzantine or Greek origin. They were brought to Rome and the
western empire from Constantinople (the ancient Byzantium), the
capital of the eastern empire, where a new school of Christian art had
developed out of that of ancient Greece. Justinian's conquest of Italy
sowed the new art-seed in a fertile field, where it soon took root and
multiplied rapidly. There was, however, little or no improvement in
the type for a long period; it remained practically unchanged till
the thirteenth century. Thus, while a Byzantine Madonna is to be found
in nearly every old church in Italy, to see one is to see all. They
are half-length figures against a background of gold leaf, at first
laid on solidly, or, at a somewhat later date, studded with cherubs.
The Virgin has a meagre, ascetic countenance, large, ill-shaped eyes,
and an almost peevish expression; her head is draped in a heavy, dark
blue veil, falling in stiff folds.
Unattractive as such pictures are to us from an artistic standpoint,
they inspire us with respect if not with reverence. Once objects of
mingled devotion and admiration, they are still regarded with awe by
many who can no longer admire. Their real origin being lost in
obscurity, innumerable legends have arisen, attributing them to
miraculous agencies, and also endowing them with power to work
miracles. There is an early and widespread tradition, imported with
the Madonna from the East, which makes St. Luke a painter. It is said
that he painted many portraits of the Virgin, and, naturally, all the
churches possessing old Byzantine pictures claim that they are genuine
works from the hand of the evangelist. There is one in the Ara Coeli
at Rome, and another in S. Maria in Cosmedino, of which marvellous
tales are told, besides others of great sanctity in St. Mark's,
Venice, and in Padua.
It would not be interesting to dwell, in any detail, upon these
curious old pictures. We would do better to take our first example
from the art which, though founded on Byzantine types, had begun to
learn of nature. Such a picture we find in the Venice Academy, by
Jacopo Bellini, painted at the beginning of the fifteenth century,
somewhat later than any corresponding picture could have been found
elsewhere in Italy, as Venice was chronologically behind the other art
schools. The background is a glory of cherub heads touched with gold
hatching. Both mother and child wear heavy nimbi, ornamented with
gold. These points recall Byzantine work; but the gentler face of the
Virgin, and the graceful fall of her drapery, show that we are in a
different world of art. The child is dressed in a little tunic, in the
primitive method.
With the dawn of the Italian Renaissance, the old style of portrait
Madonna passed out of vogue. More elaborate backgrounds were
introduced from the growing resources of technique. In the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, pictures of the portrait style were
comparatively rare. Raphael, however, was not above adopting this
method, as every lover of the Granduca Madonna will remember. His
friend Bartolommeo also selected this style of composition for some of
the loveliest of his works.
[Illustration: JACOPO BELLINI.--MADONNA AND CHILD.]
The story of the friendship between these two men is full of interest.
At the time of Raphael's first appearance in Florence (1504),
Bartolommeo had been four years a monk, and had laid aside, apparently
forever, the brush he had previously wielded with such promise. The
young stranger sought the Frate in his cell at San Marco, and soon
found the way to his heart. Stimulated by this new friendship,
Bartolommeo roused himself from lethargy and resumed the practice of
art with increasing success. It is pleasant to trace the influence
which the two artists exerted upon each other. The older man had
experience and learning; the younger had enthusiasm and genius. Now it
happened that, by nature, Bartolommeo was specially gifted in the
arrangement of large compositions, with many figures and stately
architectural backgrounds. It is by these that he is chiefly known
to-day. So it is the more interesting that, when Raphael's sweet
simplicity first touched him, he turned aside, for the time, from
these elaborate plans and gave himself to the portrayal of the Madonna
in that simplest possible way, the half-length portrait picture.
Several of these he painted upon the walls of his own convent,
glorifying that dim place of prayer and fasting with visions of
radiant and happy motherhood. One of these may still be seen in the
cell sometimes called the Capella Giovanato. It instantly recalls the
Tempi Madonna of Raphael, both in the pose of the figure and in the
genuineness of feeling exhibited. Damp and decay have warred in vain
against it, and the modern visitor lingers before the Mother and Babe
with hushed admiration.
Two other similar frescoes have been removed to the Academy. They show
the same motherly tenderness, the same innocent and beautiful
babyhood. The mother holds her child close in her arms, pressing her
forehead to his, or bending her cheek to receive his kiss. He throws
his little arm about her neck, clinging to her veil or caressing her
face.
Besides this group of pictures by Bartolommeo, there are other
scattered instances of portrait Madonnas during the Italian
Renaissance, by men too great to be tied to the fashions of their day.
Mantegna was such a painter, and Luini another. All told, however,
their pictures of this sort make up a class too rare to deserve longer
description.
A century later, the Spanish school occasionally reverted to the same
style of treatment. A pair of notable pictures are the Madonna of
Bethlehem, by Alonzo Cano, and the Madonna of the Napkin, by Murillo.
Both are in Seville, the latter in the museum, the former still
hanging in its original place in the cathedral.
Of Cano's work, a great authority[1] on Spanish art has written, that,
"in serene, celestial beauty, it is excelled by no image of the
blessed Mary ever devised in Spain." Murillo's picture is better
known, and has a curious interest from its history. The cook in the
Capuchin monastery, where the artist had been painting, begged a
picture as a parting gift. No canvas being at hand, a napkin was
offered instead, on which the master painted a Madonna, unexcelled
among his works in brilliancy of color.
[Footnote 1: Stirling-Maxwell, in "Annals of the Artists of Spain."]
[Illustration: GABRIEL MAX.--MADONNA AND CHILD.]
As the portrait picture was the first style of Madonna known to art,
so, also, it is the last. By a leap of nearly a thousand years, we
have returned, in our own day, to the method of the tenth century. It
is strange that what was once a matter of necessity should at last
become an object of choice. In the beginning of Madonna art, the
limited resources of technique precluded any attempts to make a more
elaborate setting. Such difficulties no longer stand in the way, and
where we now see a portrait Madonna, the artist has deliberately
discarded all accessories in order better to idealize his theme.
Take, for instance, the portrait Madonnas by Gabriel Max. Here are no
details to divert the attention from motherhood, pure and simple. We
do not ask of the subject whether she is of high or of low estate, a
queen or a peasant. We have only to look into the earnest, loving face
to read that here is a mother. There are two pictures of this sort,
evidently studied from the same Bohemian models. In one, the mother
looks down at her babe; in the other, directly at the spectator, with
a singularly visionary expression. When weary with the senseless
repetition of the set compositions of past ages, we turn with relief
to a simple portrait mother like this, at once the most primitive and
the most advanced form of Madonna art. It is only another case where
the simplest is the best.
CHAPTER II.
THE MADONNA ENTHRONED.
In every true home the mother is queen, enthroned in the hearts of her
loving children. There is, therefore, a beautiful double significance,
which we should always have in mind, in looking at the Madonna
enthroned. According to the theological conception of the period in
which it was first produced, the picture stands for the Virgin Mother
as Queen of Heaven. Understood typically, it represents the exaltation
of motherhood.
In the history of art development, the enthroned Madonna begins where
the portrait Madonna ends. We may date it from the thirteenth century,
when Cimabue, of Florence, and Guido, of Siena, produced their famous
pictures. Similar types had previously appeared in the mosaic
decorations of churches, but now, for the first time, they were
worthily set forth in panel pictures.
The story of Cimabue's Madonna is one of the oft-told tales we like to
hear repeated. How on a certain day, about 1270, Charles of Anjou was
passing through Florence; how he honored the studio of Cimabue by a
visit; how the Madonna was then first uncovered; how the people
shouted so joyously that the street was thereafter named the Borgo dei
Allegri; and how the great picture was finally borne in triumphal
procession to the church of Santa Maria Novella,--all these are the
scenes in the pretty drama. The late Sir Frederick Leighton has
preserved for future centuries this story, already six hundred years
old, in a charming pageant picture: "Cimabue's Madonna carried
through the streets of Florence." This was the first work ever
exhibited by the English artist, and was an important step in the
career which ended in the presidency of the Royal Academy.
Cimabue's Madonna still hangs in Santa Maria Novella, over the altar
of the Ruccellai chapel, and thither many a pilgrim takes his way to
honor the memory of the father of modern painting. The throne is a
sort of carved armchair, very simple in form, but richly overlaid with
gold; the surrounding background is filled with adoring angels. Here
sits the Madonna, in stiff solemnity, holding her child on her lap. If
we find it hard to admire her beauty, we must note the superiority of
the picture to its predecessors.
For the enthroned Madonna in a really attractive and beautiful form,
we must pass at once to the period of full art development. In the
interval, many variations upon the theme have been invented. The
throne may be of any size, shape, or material; the composition may
consist of any number of figures. The Madonna, seated or standing, is
now the centre of an assembly of personages symmetrically grouped
about her. There is little or no unity of action among them; each one
is an independent figure. The guard of honor may be composed of
saints, as in Montagna's Madonna, of the Brera, Milan; or again it is
a company of angels, as in the Berlin Madonna, attributed to
Botticelli, similar to which is the picture by Ghirlandajo in the
Uffizi Gallery. Where saints are represented, each one is marked by
some special emblem, the identification of which makes, in itself, an
interesting study. St. Peter's key, St. Paul's sword, St. Catherine's
wheel, and St. Barbara's tower soon become familiar symbols to those
fond of this kind of lore.
Among the idealized presences about the Virgin's throne may sometimes
be seen the prosaic figure of the donor, whose munificence has made
the picture possible. This is well illustrated in the famous Madonna
of Victory in the Louvre, painted in commemoration of the Battle of
Fornovo, where Mantegna represents Francesco Gonzaga, commander of the
Venetian forces, kneeling at the Virgin's feet.
A charming feature in many enthroned Madonnas is the group of cherubs
below,--one, two, or the mystic three. They are not the exclusive
possession of any single school of art; Bartolommeo and Andrea del
Sarto of the Florentines, Francia of the Bolognese, and Bellini and
Cima of the Venetians were particularly partial to them. The
treatment in Northern Italy gives them a more definite purpose in the
composition than does that of Florence, for here they are always
musicians, playing on all sorts of instruments,--the violin, the
mandolin, or the pipe.
Bartolommeo was specially successful in the subject of the enthroned
Madonna, having fine gifts of composition united with profound
religious earnestness. The great picture in the Pitti gallery at
Florence may serve as a typical example. Andrea del Sarto's
_chef-d'oeuvre_--the Madonna di San Francesco (Uffizi)--may also be
assigned to this class, although the arrangement is entirely novel.
The Virgin, holding the babe in her arms, stands on a sort of
pedestal, carved at the corners with a design of harpies, from which
the picture is often known as the Madonna of the Harpies. The
pedestal throne is also seen in two of Correggio's Dresden
pictures, but here the Virgin is seated, with the child on her lap. An
exceedingly simple throne Madonna is that of Luini, in the Brera at
Milan, where the Virgin sits on a plain coping not at all high.
[Illustration: PERUGINO.--MADONNA AND SAINTS.
(DETAIL.)]
A beautiful Madonna enthroned is by Perugino, in the Vatican Gallery
at Rome; one of the artist's best works in power and vivacity of
color. The throne is an architectural structure of elegant simplicity
of design, apparently of carved and inlaid marble. The Virgin sits in
quiet dignity, her face bent towards the bishops at her right, St.
Costantius and St. Herculanus. On the other side stand the youthful
St. Laurence and St. Louis of Toulouse. Although Perugino was an
exceedingly prolific artist, he did not often choose this particular
subject. On this account the picture is especially interesting, and
also because it is the original model of well known works by two of
the Umbrian painter's most illustrious pupils.
Many, indeed, were the apprentices trained in the famous _bottega_ at
Perugia, but, among them all, Raphael and Pinturicchio took the lead.
These were the two who honored their master by repeating, with
modifications of their own, the beautiful composition of the Vatican.
Pinturicchio's picture is in the Church of St. Andrea, at Perugia. A
charming feature, which he introduced, is a little St. John, standing
at the foot of the throne. Raphael's picture is the so-called Ansidei
Madonna, of the National Gallery, London, purchased by the English
government, in 1885, for the fabulous price of L72,000. The
composition is here reduced to its simplest possible form, with only
one saint on each side,--St. Nicholas on the right, St. John the
Baptist on the left. The Virgin and child give no attention to these
personages, but are absorbed in a book which is open on the Mother's
knee.