Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 3 of 3) by S. Spooner (best ebook reader under 100 TXT) 📖

and to admonish him, his

Holiness presented him with four golden rings, set with precious stones,

at the same time taking care to inform him of the many mysteries implied

in them. His Holiness begged of him (King John)," says Hume, "to

consider seriously the _form_ of the rings, their _number_, their

_matter_, and their _color_. Their _form_, he said, shadowed out

eternity, which had neither beginning nor end; and he ought thence to

learn his duty of aspiring from earthly objects to heavenly, from things

temporal to things eternal. The _number_, from being a square, denoted

steadiness of mind, not to be subverted either by adversity or

prosperity, fixed forever on the firm base of the four cardinal

virtues. _Gold_, which is the matter, being the most precious of the

metals, signified wisdom, which is the most precious of all the

accomplishments, and justly preferred by Solomon to riches, power, and

all exterior attainments. The _blue color_ of the sapphire represented

Faith; the _verdure_ of the emerald, Hope; the _redness_ of the ruby,

Charity; and the _splendor_ of the topaz, good works." Jewelers, who

usually deal so little in sentiment in their works, may learn from this

ingenious allegory the advantage of calling up the wonder-working aid of

fancy, in forming their combinations of precious things.

 

 

 

 

CURIOUS PAINTINGS.

 

 

In the Cathedral at Worms, over the altar, is a very old painting, in

which the Virgin is represented throwing the infant Jesus into the

hopper of a mill; while from the other side he issues, changed into

wafers or little morsels of bread, which the priests are administering

to the people.

 

Mathison, in his letters, thus describes a picture in a church at

Constance, called the Conception of the Holy Virgin. "An old man lies on

a cloud, whence he darts a vast beam, which passes through a dove

hovering just below; at the end of the beam appears a large transparent

egg, in which egg is seen a child in swaddling clothes, with a glory

round it; Mary sits leaning in an arm-chair and opens her mouth to

receive the egg!" Which are the most profane--these pictures, or the

Venus Anadyomene of Apelles, the Venus of Titian, and the Leda of

Correggio?

 

 

 

 

THE OLDEST OIL PAINTING EXTANT.

 

 

"The oldest oil painting now in existence, is believed to be one of the

Madonna and infant Jesus in her arms, with an Eastern style of

countenance. It is marked DCCCLXXXVI. (886). This singular and

valuable painting formed part of the treasures of art in the old palace

of the Florentine Republic, and was purchased by the Director Bencivenni

from a broker in the street, for a few livres."

 

The above is found quoted in many books, in proof that oil painting was

known long before the time of the Van Eycks; but all these old

_supposed_ oil paintings have been proved by chemical analysis to have

been painted in distemper. See vol. ii., p. 141, of this work.

 

 

 

 

CURIOUS REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HARPIES.

 

 

Homer represents the Harpies as the rapacious goddesses of the storms,

residing near the Erinnyes, or the Ocean, before the jaws of hell. If

any person was so long absent from home that it was not known what had

become of him, and he was supposed to be dead, it was commonly said,

"The Harpies have carried him off." Hesiod represents them as young

virgins of great beauty. The later poets and artists vied with each

other in depicting them under the most hideous forms; they commonly

represented them as winged monsters, having the face of a woman and the

body of a vulture, with their feet and fingers armed with sharp claws.

Spanheim, in his work, gives three representations of the harpies, taken

from ancient coins and works of art; they have female heads, with the

bodies and claws of birds of prey; the first has a coarse female face,

the second a beautiful feminine head, and two breasts, and the third a

visage ornamented with wreaths and a head-dress. There are various other

representations of them, one of the most remarkable of which is a

monster with a human head and the body of a vampire bat.

 

 

 

 

ADRIAN BROWER.

 

 

This extraordinary painter was born at Haerlem, in 1608. His parents

were extremely poor, and his mother sold to the peasants bonnets and

handkerchiefs, which the young Adrian painted with flowers and birds.

These attempts were noticed by Francis Hals, a distinguished painter of

Haerlem, who offered to take the young artist into his school--which

proposal was gladly accepted. Hals, on discovering his superior genius,

separated him from all his companions, and locked him up in a garret,

that he might profit by his talents. The pictures of Brower sold

readily at high prices, but the avaricious Hals treated him with

increased severity, lest he should become acquainted with the value of

his talents, and leave him. This cruelty excited the pity of Adrian van

Ostade, then a pupil of Hals; and he found an opportunity of advising

Brower to make his escape, which the latter effected, and fled to

Amsterdam. Soon after arriving in that city, he painted a picture of

Boors Fighting, which he gave to the landlord of the inn where he

lodged, and requested him to sell it. The host soon returned with one

hundred ducats, which he had received for the work. The artist was

amazed at such a result of his labors, but instead of exerting his

wonderful talents, he plunged into a course of dissipation. This natural

propensity to alternate work and indulgence marked his whole life, and

involved him in many extraordinary adventures.

 

 

 

 

BROWER, THE DUKE D'AREMBERG, AND RUBENS.

 

 

When the States-General were at war with Spain, Brower started on a

visit to Antwerp, whither his reputation had already proceeded him.

Omitting to provide himself with a passport, he was arrested as a spy,

and confined in the citadel, where the Duke d'Aremberg was imprisoned.

That nobleman lived in friendship with Rubens, who often visited him in

his confinement; and the Duke, having observed the genius of Brower,

desired Rubens to bring a palette and pencils, which he gave to Brower,

and the latter soon produced a representation of Soldiers playing at

Cards, which he designed from a group he had seen from his prison

window. The Duke showed the picture to Rubens, who immediately exclaimed

that it was by the celebrated Brower, whose pictures he often admired;

and he offered the Duke six hundred guilders for the work, but the

latter refused to part with it, and presented the artist with a much

larger sum. Rubens lost no time in procuring his liberty, which he did

by becoming his surety, took him into his own house, and treated him

with the greatest kindness.

 

 

 

 

DEATH OF BROWER.

 

 

Brower did not continue long in the hospitable mansion of Rubens, whose

refined and elegant manners, love of literature, and domestic happiness

were less congenial to this erratic genius than the revels of his

pot-companions. Brower soon became weary of his situation, and returned

to his vicious habits, to which he soon fell a victim in 1640, at the

early age of 32 years. He died in the public hospital at Antwerp, and

was buried in an obscure manner; but when Rubens knew it, he had the

body reinterred, with funeral pomp, in the church of the Carmelites; and

he intended also to have erected a superb monument to his memory, had he

lived to see it executed; though Sandrart says there was a magnificent

one over his tomb, with an epitaph to perpetuate his honor.

 

 

 

 

BROWER'S WORKS.

 

 

The subjects of Brower were of the lowest order, representing the

frolics of his pot companions; but his expression is so lively and

characteristic, his coloring so transparent and brilliant, and the

passions and movements of his figures are so admirably expressed, that

his works have justly elicited the applause of the world. They are

highly valued, and in consequence of his irregular life, are exceedingly

scarce. Brower also etched a few plates in a very spirited style.

 

 

 

 

ROSA DA TIVOLI.

 

 

The name of this artist was Philip Roos, and he was born at Frankfort in

He early showed a passion for painting, and exhibited such

extraordinary talents that the Landgrave of Hesse took him under his

protection, and sent him to Italy with a pension sufficient for his

support. To facilitate his studies, he established himself at Tivoli

(whence his name), where he kept a kind of menagerie, and on account of

the number and variety of the animals, his house was called _Noah's

Ark_.

 

 

 

 

ROSA DA TIVOLI'S WORKS.

 

 

Rosa da Tivoli's pictures usually represent pastoral subjects, with

herdsmen and cattle, or shepherds with sheep and goats, which he

frequently painted as large as life. He designed everything from nature,

not only his animals, but the sites of his landscapes, ruins, buildings,

rocks, precipices, rivers, etc. His groups are composed with great

judgment and taste, and his landscapes, backgrounds, skies, and

distances are treated in a masterly style. His cattle and animals, in

particular, are designed with wonderful truth and spirit; his coloring

is full of force, his lights and shadows are distributed with judgment

and his touch is remarkably firm and spirited.

 

 

 

 

ROSA DA TIVOLI'S FACILITY OF EXECUTION.

 

 

Rosa da Tivoli acquired a wonderful facility in design and execution,

for which reason he was named _Mercurius_ by the Bentvogel Society. A

remarkable instance of his powers is recorded by C. le Blond, then a

student at Rome. "It happened one day," says he, "that several young

artists and myself were occupied in designing from the bassi-relievi of

the Arch of Titus, when Roos passing by, was particularly struck with

some picturesque object which caught his attention, and he requested one

of the students to accommodate him with a crayon and paper. What was

our surprise, when in half an hour he produced an admirable drawing,

finished with accuracy and spirit."

 

It is also related that the Imperial Ambassador, Count Martinez, laid a

wager with a Swedish general that Roos would paint a picture of

three-quarters' size, while they were playing a game at cards; and in

less than half an hour the picture was well finished, though it

consisted of a landscape, a shepherd, and several sheep and goats.

 

 

 

 

ROSA DA TIVOLI'S HABITS.

 

 

Rosa da Tivoli unfortunately fell into extravagant and dissipated

habits, which frequently caused him great inconvenience. From his

facility, he multiplied his pictures to such an extent as greatly to

depreciate their value. It is related that he would sit down, when

pressed for money, dispatch a large picture in a few hours, and send it

directly to be sold at any price. His servant, possessing more

discretion than his master, usually paid him the highest price offered

by the dealers, and kept the pictures himself, till he could dispose of

them to more advantage.

 

 

 

 

LUCA CAMBIASO'S FACILITY IN PAINTING.

 

 

The most remarkable quality of this distinguished Genoese painter was

his rapidity of operation. He began to paint when ten years old, under

the eye of his father, Giovanni Cambiaso, who evinced good taste in

setting him to copy some works by the correct and noble Mantegna. His

progress was so rapid that at the age of seventeen he was entrusted to

decorate some façades and chambers of the Doria palace at Genoa, where

he displayed his rash facility of hand by painting the story of Niobe on

a space of wall fifty palms long and of proportionate height, without

cartoons or any drawing larger than his first hasty sketch on a single

sheet of paper! While he was engaged on this work, there came one

morning some Florentine artists to look at it. Seeing a lad enter soon

after, and commence painting with prodigious fury, they called out to

him to desist; but his mode of handling the brushes and colors, which

they had imagined it was his business merely to clean or pound, soon

convinced them that this daring youngster was no other than Luca

himself; whereupon they crossed themselves, and declared he would one

day eclipse Michael Angelo.

 

 

 

 

CAMBIASO'S WORKS IN SPAIN.

 

 

After attaining a high reputation in Italy, Cambiaso was invited to

Madrid by Philip II. of Spain. He executed there a great number of

works, among which the most important was the vault of the choir of the

Escurial church, where he painted in fresco the "Glory of the Blessed in

Heaven." Instead of allowing the artist to paint from his own

conceptions, the king listened to the counsels of the monks, who

"recommended that the heavenly host should be drawn up in due

theological order." A design "more pious than picturesque" being at last

agreed upon, the painter fell to work with his wonted fury, and so

speedily covered vast spaces with a multitude of figures, that the king,

according to the expressive Italian phrase, "remained stupid," not being

able to believe that the master, with only one assistant, could have

accomplished so much. Philip often visited Cambiaso while at work, and

one day remarking that the head of St. Anne among the