carried to perfection in the Gothic period: the finest painted windows of France and Germany-such, for example, as those of the cathedrals of Bourges, Chartres, Rheims, and the Sainte Chapelle of Paris, in France, and those of the cathedrals of Strasburg, Cologne, and Ratisbon, in Germany, are all the work of the best Gothic period, and essentially integral parts of the buildings to which they belong. The miniature painting of the Gothic period in the north of Europe consisted principally of illustrations of the ballads of the troubadours; and the first evidence of what can be strictly called a school of German Painting is in the "Parcival" of Wolfram von Eschen bach, a poet of the thirteenth century, who speaks of the painters of Co logne and Maes tricht in highly commendatory terms. The earliest school of art in Germany is that of Bohemia, which, under the patronage of the Emperor Charles IV., flourished for a short time only at Karlstein, near Prague, BURIAL OF ST. BENEDICT. in the fourteenth century. Its principal artists. were Theodorich of Prague, Nicolaus Wurmser, and Kunz, who were employed to decorate the walls of the castle and church of Karlstein. The Italian Tommaso da Modena also worked at Karlstein for Charles IV. The school of Nuremberg also attained to a high position in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In the Berlin museum are four wings of an altarpiece of the Virgin and Saints, which are said to have been painted for the Deichsler family at Nuremberg in 1400. Wilhelm of Herle, commonly called Meister Wilhelm (fl. ab. 1358-1378) of Cologne, is, however, the earliest German painter whose name has come down to us. To him are ascribed several fine pictures in the Pinakothek of Munich; a large altarpiece, his principal work, representing the Life of Christ, in the Johannis Kapelle in Cologne cathedral; and several easel pictures, the single figures in which are full of life and character, in the various galleries of Germany. The National Gallery contains a S. Veronica by Wilhelm of Cologne. Stephan Lochner (died 1451), or Meister Stephan, as he is called, said, but perhaps erroneously, to have been the pupil of Wilhelm, was another and greater master of the same school; by him is the famous altarpiece in the cathedral of Cologne, formerly ascribed to Meister Wilhelm; it represents the Adoration of the Magi, with S. Gereon and his Knights and S. Ursula and her Virgins on the wings, and the Annunciation on the exterior. Israel von Meckenen, who flourished at the end of the centuryif all that is said of him be true -must have excelled all his predecessors, some of the best pic BY SPINELLO ARETINO. tures of this time in the Munich Gallery being attributed to him. The master of the Lyversberg Passion (fl. ab. 1463-1480), is represented in the National Gallery of England by a Presentation in the Temple: this painter has been confused with Israel von Meckenen. The works of the early German schools are mostly painted on panel, with gold grounds, and are distinguished for depth of coloring and careful execution of details. Their chief fault is want of accuracy in design; but this is to some extent atoned for by the nobility of expression of many of the heads. We may add that in technical dexterity in the use of tempera or water colors they excelled all their contemporaries and predecessors, their works having as fine an effect as oil-paintings. ONSIDERABLE difference is found to exist between the history of Painting and that of Sculpture and Architecture at the Renaissance period. Of the two latter arts the Romans had left so many remains that, when the revival of letters altered the current of men's thoughts, it was natural to revert to the actual models existing abundantly in Italy; and, as we well know, this was done. In Painting the case was different; the art was in a constant state of development, which was influenced but not interrupted by the classical revival. We may, if we please, consider the fifteenth century as a transition period, and the sixteenth as the Renaissance period; but the terms must not be understood to characterize a revival of classical modes at all so complete as that which occurred in the sister arts. By many writers it is considered that the Renaissance of Painting in Italy began early in the fifteenth century, or even with Giotto at the commencement of the fourteenth century. PAINTING IN ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. imitation in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; but oil-painting was still unpracticed, portraiture was little cultivated, linear perspective was very imperfectly understood, and landscape painting, as an independent branch of art, was not even attempted. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, however, the introduction of oil colors, the scientific study of perspective, form, and color, and the constant demand for frescoes on an extensive scale, led to a progressive movement in Italy which culminated in the sixteenth century; and during this development schools arose on every side, characterized by excellence in one or another element of art. Until about 1450 we find Florence still taking the lead; but from that date the Neapolitan, Umbrian, Bolognese, Venetian, and Paduan schools rose into almost equal importance. The fifteenth century was a time of exceptional intellectual activity, and the progress made in scientific discovery was of great importance to the arts of Painting and Sculpture. As we have seen, a considerable advance had been made in expression and THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. The artist who contributed most to the pre-eminence of Florence in the early part of the fifteenth century was, without doubt, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, in whose school the leading painters of the day were formed. He perfected the imitation of nature which Giotto had introduced, applying the sciences of anatomy, mathematics, and geometry to the art of design. Of his pupils we can only name the principal: Paolo Uccelli (1397-1475), who directed his attention almost exclusively to the study of perspective, the great value of which he illustrated in his frescoes in the monastery of S. Maria Novella at Florence of which the Drunkenness of Noah is especially remarkable-and in several easel pictures, one of which, the Battle of S. Egidio, is in the National Gallery; two others are in the Uffizi and the Louvre. Piero de' Franceschi, commonly called Piero della Francesca (ab. 1415-1492), did much to systematize the study of perspective; Masolino da Panicale (1382-1447), who excelled in coloring, but who rather sacrificed composition to detail of form, executed several fine works in the church and bap in the Brancacci Chapel in the Church of the Carmine, Florence.* In his frescoes Masaccio gave proof of remarkable powers, and the influence of Ghiberti is very distinctly traceable. Their chief excellencies are the admirable treatment of the nude human figure-the judicious foreshortening of the extremities, the happy rendering of the flesh-tints, the animation and varied character of the heads, and the skillful grouping and composition of the whole. The National Gallery possesses a socalled portrait of this great master from his own hand, but some writers doubt its authenticity. Two of Masaccio's greatest cotemporaries (both monks) were Guido di Pietro, of Fiesole, commonly called Fra Angelico (1387-5145) and Filippo Lippi (ab. 1412-1469), who may be taken as the representatives of the two great classes into which the painters of the Renaissance became divided, and to which the name of the Mystics or Idealists, and Naturalists, have been given-names still retained by their followers and imitators: the former being those who cultivated beauty as a means to an end, and studied nature only for the sake of furthering that end-the expression of all that is highest and best in the material and spiritual world; and the latter, those who aimed at the exact imitation of beauty for its own sake, and earnestly studied everything connected. with the theory and practice of their art. It has commonly been said that Masaccio finished these frescoes after Masolino's death; but inasmuch as the latter survived the former by nineteen years, this is impossible. It may be serviceable to give here a list of the frescoes as they have been assigned to their various authors by the latest authorities. THE EXPULSION FROM PARADISE. BY MASACCIO. tistery of Castiglione di Olona, and in the Brancacci Chapel in the church of the Carmine at Florence. Chief among these painters was Tommaso Guidi, commonly called Masaccio; he was the pupil of Masolino, and might, with better justice than Cimabue, be styled the father of modern Italian Painting; he excelled all his predecessors in knowledge of form, perspective, and chiaro-oscuro. Masaccio (1401-1428) was born at Castel S. Giovanni, in the Val d'Arno, and when quite a boy worked under Masolino at the frescoes Fra Angelico da Fiesole, called from the holiness of his life Il Beato (the Blessed), entered the order of the Predicants at Fiesole at the age of twenty, taking the name of Giovanni, and devoted a long and peaceful life to the cultivation of religious art, never painting any but sacred subjects, and never accepting payment for anything he did. His principal works are frescoes in the convent of S. Marco, and the church of S. Maria Novella at Florence, and in the chapel of Nicholas V. in the Vatican; an easel picture, the Coronation of the Virgin, now in the Louvre; the Adoration of the Magi, and Christ in Glory surrounded by Angels (which once formed the predella of an altar-piece in S. Domenico at Fiesole), both in the National Gallery. Many good works by him are in the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts. They are all alike remarkable for their elevated religious sentiment, the grandeur and ideal beauty of the figures, and the loving finish of every detail. Fra Angelico's works were the outpourings of his own devout spirit, when Masaccio was at work on his frescoes, and, if he did not actually receive lessons from that master, he certainly followed his style. According to a popular tradition, which recently discovered documents have shown to be erroneous, Lippi's life was one long romance. Becoming weary of convent life, it is said, he ran away to Ancona, was taken captive by African pirates, and sold as a slave in Barbary. After eighteen months' captivity he won THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. BY FRA ANGELICO. IN THE CONVENT SAN MARCO, FLORENCE. the expression of his passionate love of spiritual beauty; and, although not characterized by the powerful drawing and exact imitation of nature of cotemporary masters, they have a charm and pathos of their own, and combine in the highest degree the two great requisites of ideal art-expression and pictorial power. Fra Filippo Lippi presents both in his life and works a striking contrast to Fra Angelico. He was received into the convent of the Carmelites as a boy his master's favor by drawing his portrait with a piece of charcoal, and, as a reward, received his liberty. His life was divided between the pursuit of pleasure and of art. He was one of the first Italian masters to paint in oils, and to cultivate the sensuous side of art. His principal merits were his mastery of chiaro-oscuro, the breadth and grandeur of his figures, and his easy grace in grouping. He was also amongst the first to introduce the genuine landscape backgrounds, and he often displayed considerable knowledge of nature; but many of his works were spoiled by a certain want of calmness and dignity in his sacred personages. The academy of Florence contains many of his finest easel pictures, painted for the churches and convents of that city; and in the National Gallery there are five sacred subjects ascribed to him the Vision of S. Bernard; a Madonna and Child; the Virgin seated, with an Angel presenting to her the Holy Child; an Annunciation; and a group of S. John the Baptist and six Saints. Crowe and Cavalcaselle doubt the authenticity of the second and third of these; but, on the other hand, give to Filippo Lippi the Adoration of the Magi, which is in the catalogue ascribed to Filippino Lippi. Of Lippi's numerous frescoes, those in the cathedral of Prato, representing scenes from the lives of S. John the Baptist and S. Stephen, are considered the best; the Lamentation over the death of S. Stephen is especially fine; those in the cathedral of Spoleto are also much admired. Filippo Lippi was the greatest colorist of his age; he was also a great reformer in art, or rather a degenerator, for it was he who, by giving an undue prominence to drapery which it had never before received, and similar alterations, started the decline in sacred historic painting. Antonello da Messina (ab. 1414-ab. 1496)—although he belongs, strictly speaking, to the Venetian school-must be mentioned here on account of his introduction of the improved method of mixing oil colors, which he learnt in Flanders. The National Gallery possesses a work by him, a Salvator Mundi; and three important pictures are preserved in the Berlin Museum: of these the Head of S. Sebastian and a Madonna and Child are considered the best. As great Florentine painters of the fifteenth century we must also nameLippi's adopted son, Filippino Lippi, who was born at Florence in 1460. On the death of his father, Filippino became the pupil of Sandro Botticelli. His first important work was the completion of the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, which Massaccio had left unfinished. He copied his father's style and excelled him in his peculiar merits. He also painted important works in the Strozzi Chapel in S. Maria Novella, Florence, and in Rome and Prato. To his excellence as an artist Filippino united irreproachable morals, and the most courteous and amicable manners, |