LECTURE III.

FRA ANGELICO.

Opinion of Fra Angelico as saint rather than artist not justified by a review of his work. He begins as miniaturist and illuminator under influences which were Byzantinesque. But chronological study of his work shows him to be a thoroughly progressive artist, in some points a pioneer and in few points inferior to the best technique of his age.

The common view is due to Vasari, who wrote a century later and under the influence of Piagnone sentiment and information.

The truth about Fra Angelico is obvious from a sequential study of his work.

Youth and early career. Becomes a Dominican monk at Fiesole. Works for God, for his order, and for his art. Essentially saintly character of Fra Angelico and of his work. He is quite untouched by the secularizing tendencies of the age.

The Fiesole Dominican banished from Fiesole 1409. Residence for many years in Umbria, Cortona, Foligno. He is withdrawn for a time from the humanizing tendencies of the Florentine School.

The Cortona Madonna.

Angelico.

Influence of landscape on Fra

The order returns to Fiesole, 1418. Madonnas of this period. The angels by which Angelico is best known merely the framework to some of his more famous Madonnas-e. g., Madonna del Lanaiuoli, Madonna della Stella.

But within touch of Florence he sees the movement around him: influence of Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and Michelozzi.

Cosimo dei Medici restores and endows S. Marco. Instals the Fiesole Dominicans there.

Fra Angelico begins the S. Marco frescoes.

1436-1445. At work in S. Marco. Numerous illustrations to show quality of his work there. Its strength in technique, its sympathy with contemporary life, its classic adornments, its Medicean and Dominican inspiration, its study from models, and from the nude. Great advance in anatomy.

With all this, no diminution in saintliness and spirituality. The silver press of the Annunziata, unequal quality of the work done therein. His pupils.

The emotion he portrays is usually pietistic, but he could express violent emotion-e. g., Massacre of the Innocents; S. Peter and Malchus.

He is influenced by the Council of Florence and the consequent influx of Greeks into the city-e. g., Adoration of the Magi.

Eugenius IV in Florence and at S. Marco. Invites Fra Angelico to Rome. His frescoes in the Chapel of the Sacrament (not extant). Employed by Nicolas V. Frescoes illustrating Lives of S. Stephen and S. Laurence.

These show his powers all round at their height. Illustrations of these frescoes.

LECTURE IV.

SANDRO BOTTICELLI.

'The prophecy of Mr. Ruskin, the tendencies of our best contemporary art in Mr. Burne-Jones's painting, the specific note of our recent fashionable poetry, and, more than all, our delight in the delicately poised psychological problems of the Middle Renaissance, have evoked a kind of hero-worship for this excellent artist and true poet.'-J. A. SYMONDS.

Botticelli (Alessandro Filipepe), 1447-1510.

Apprenticed to the goldsmith's art, Botticelli becomes a pupil of Fra Lippo Lippi. Patronage of the Medici; he becomes 'painter-in-ordinary' to the family. His habit of portraiture in his religious pictures. Continual recurrence of the Medici. [Cf. Cosmo dei Medici in Botticelli's 'Adoration of the Virgin.']

Botticelli in Rome. He decorates the Sistine Chapel; but Botticelli is essentially Florentine, and illustrates the religious, humanistic and classical tendencies of the Florence of his day.

Character of Botticelli's religious art. Its humanism-powers of poetic imagination it displays, brilliance and harmony of its execution. His 'Nativity' and 'Assumption of the Virgin' in the National Gallery. His sense of movement and powers of expressing it. His command over emotions-not limited, as with Fra Angelico, to emotions of one kind.

Botticelli as interpreter of the Classical Renaissance. He renders the Classical idea through a Renaissance medium. Failure to grasp the Greek conception—thus he is the more valuable as representing his own epoch and its varied and many-sided qualities. The interminglement of antique and modern fancy at a moment of transition.'

His allegorical and mythological masterpieces. His 'Spring,' Birth of Aphrodite,' and 'Mars and Venus' (the latter in the National Gallery).

Poetical qualities of Botticelli's work. His feeling for flowers and subtle folds of drapery. Refinement and grace of his technique.

LECTURE V.

MICHELANGELO, SCULPTOR, 1475-1563.

Contrast and comparison between Fra Angelico and Michelangelo. Their common ideal. Their diverse execution. Michelangelo's consummate powers as artist tend to render him less appealing than Angelico as painter of religious subjects. His Artistic Genealogy.

Luca Signorelli-his training under Piero di Francesca. Qualities of Signorelli's art. His treatment of the human form as a decorative principle. Signorelli's work at Orvieto. Analogies with the Sistine ceiling.

Michelangelo's early work.

Patronage of

A pupil of Domenico Ghirlandajo. His superiority over his master. Influence of Santa Maria Novella. Studies in the Medici gardens. Influence of the antique. Lorenzo the Magnificent. Intellectual discipline derived from the Medici circle. Fall of the Medici. Michelangelo's fears and flight.

His character in relation to his art.

Rugged and ascetic nature, uninfluenced by feminine beauty or attractions of nature other than human. His sense of beauty -what constituted beauty to him. His mysticism-influence of Savonarola. His 'terribilitá.' Simplicity of his affections and domestic life-his aloofness. 'Voyaging in strange seas of thought, alone.'

"The Faun'-Poliziano and the 'Battle of the Centaurs' [cf. "The Archers,' executed 1525]. Depth and intensity of his technical studies. At Bologna. Visit to Rome. The 'Bacchus' and 'Cupid.' Divergence from the classical spirit. The 'Piétá' in St. Peter's. Return to Florence. Commission for the 'David.' Criticism of the 'David.'

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo commissioned to execute cartoons for the Florentine Signoria. Cartoon of 'the Bathing Soldiers.' 'The School of the World.' Untoward fate of the Signoria cartoons. How far characteristic of Michelangelo's qualities.

'The Tragedy of the Mausoleum.'

Commission to Michelangelo to execute the tomb of Julius II, 1505-not completed till 1545. Original scheme for the composition. Devious history of the enterprise. The 'Moses.' Quarrels with Julius. Reconciliation. Work on the tomb suspended. Renewed. Views of succeeding Popes. Reduced scheme of the tomb completed.

Return to Florence.

The Medici tombs in San Lorenzo. Execution of the figures of Lorenzo and Giuliano. Analogy between the Lorenzo (Contemplation) and figures on the Sistine roof. Examination of the recumbent figures of Day, Night, Twilight, Dawn.

Commission to complete the Sistine Chapel by a ‘Last Judgement.' Relation of this work to earlier renderings. Its illustration of Michelangelo's mannerisms. Its effect on the decadence of Italian Art.

Michelangelo appointed architect of St. Peter's, Rome. Brief sketch of previous history of St. Peter's. Michelangelo's Dome. General view of Michelangelo in the threefold relation of Architect, Sculptor, Painter. He forms the culmination of Renaissance Art. Renaissance motives worked out and exhausted. Consequent decadence.

Michelangelo as poet. His sonnets. Mysticism and obscurity of his nature. His associations with Vittoria Colonna and Tomaso Cavalieri. His old age and death.

Brief survey of his general character.

N. B. This lecture confines itself to Michelangelo's work as Sculptor. He is exhibited as Painter in the next by his work in the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo as Architect, and his personal character may have to be omitted.