The Venetian School of Painting Part 20

Ridolfi, the princ.i.p.al contemporary authority on Venetian artists, who published his _Maraviglie dell' arte_ nine years after Domenico Tintoretto's death, is only to be read in Italian, though the anecdotes with which his work abounds are made use of by every writer.

Crowe and Cavalcaselle's _Painting in North Italy_ (Murray) is a storehouse of painstaking, minute, and, on the whole, marvellously correct information and sound opinion. It supplies a foundation, fills gaps, and supplements individual biographies as no other book does. For the early painters, down to the time of the Bellini, _I Origini dei pittori veneziani_, by Professor Leonello Venturi, Venice, 1907, is a large book, written with mastery and insight, and well ill.u.s.trated; _La Storia della pittura veneziana_ is another careful work, which deals very minutely with the early school of mosaics.

In studying the Bellini, the late Mr. S. A. Strong has _The Brothers Bellini_ (Bell's Great Masters), and the reader should not fail to read Mr. Roger Fry's _Bellini_ (Artist's Library), a scholarly monograph, short but reliable, and full of suggestion and appreciation, though written in a cool, critical spirit. Dr. Hills has dealt ably with _Pisanello_ (Duckworth).

Molmenti and Ludwig in their monumental work _Vittore Carpaccio_, translated by Mr. R. H. Cust (Murray, 1907), and Paul Kristeller in the equally important _Mantegna_, translated by Mr. S. A. Strong (Longmans, 1901), seem to have exhausted all that there is to be said for the moment concerning these two painters.

It is almost superfluous to mention Mr. Berenson's two well-known volumes, _The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance_, and the _North Italian Painters of the Renaissance_ (Putnam). They are brilliant essays which supplement every other work, overflowing with suggestive and critical matter, supplying original thoughts, and summing up in a few pregnant words the main features and the tendencies of the succeeding stages.

In studying Giorgione, we cannot dispense with Pater's essay, included in _The Renaissance_. The author is not always well informed as to facts--he wrote in the early days of criticism--but he is rich in idea and feeling. Mr. Herbert Cook's _Life of Giorgione_ (Bell's Great Masters) is full and interesting. Some authorities question his attributions as being too numerous, but whether we regard them as authentic works of the master or as belonging to his school, the ill.u.s.trations he gives add materially to our knowledge of the Giorgionesque.

When we come to t.i.tian we are well off. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's _Life of t.i.tian_ (Murray, out of print), in two large volumes, is well written and full of good material, from which subsequent writers have borrowed.

An excellent Life, full of penetrating criticism, by Mr. C. Ricketts, was lately brought out by Methuen (Cla.s.sics of Art), complete with ill.u.s.trations, and including a minute a.n.a.lysis of t.i.tian's technique.

Sir Claude Phillips's Monograph on t.i.tian will appeal to every thoughtful lover of the painter's genius, and Dr. Gronau has written a good and scholarly Life (Duckworth).

Mr. Berenson's _Lorenzo Lotto_ must be read for its interest and learning, given with all the author's charm and lucidity. It includes an essay on Alvise Vivarini.

My own _Tintoretto_ (Methuen, Cla.s.sics of Art) gives a full account of the man and his work, and especially deals exhaustively with the scheme and details of the Scuola di San Rocco. Professor Thode has written a detailed and profusely ill.u.s.trated Life of Tintoretto in the Knackfuss Series, and the Paradiso has been treated at length and ill.u.s.trated in great detail in a very scholarly _edition de luxe_ by Mr. F. O.

Osmaston. It is the fas.h.i.+on to discard Ruskin, but though we may allow that his judgments are exaggerated, that he reads more into a picture than the artist intended, and that he is too fond of preaching sermons, there are few critics who have so many ideas to give us, or who are so informed with a deep love of art, and both _Modern Painters_ and the _Stones of Venice_ should be read.

M. Charles Yriarte has written a Life of Paolo Veronese, which is full of charm and knowledge. It is interesting to take a copy of Boschini's _Della pittura veneziana_, 1797, when visiting the galleries, the palaces, and the churches of Venice. His lists of the pictures, as they were known in his day, often open our eyes to doubtful attributions.

Second-hand copies of Boschini are not difficult to pick up. When the later-century artists are reached, a good sketch of the Venice of their period is supplied by Philippe Monnier's delightful _Venice in the Eighteenth Century_ (Chatto and Windus), which also has a good chapter on the lesser Venetian masters. The best Life of Tiepolo is in Italian, by Professor Pompeo Molmenti. The smaller masters have to be hunted for in many scattered essays; a knowledge of Goldoni adds point to Longhi's pictures. Ca.n.a.letto and his nephew, Belotto, have been treated by M.

Uzanne, _Les Deux Ca.n.a.letto_; and Mr. Simonson has written an important and charming volume on Francesco Guardi (Methuen, 1904), with beautiful reproductions of his works. Among other books which give special information are Morelli's two volumes, _Italian Painters in Borghese and Doria Pamphili_, and _In Dresden and Munich Galleries_, translated by Miss Jocelyn ffoulkes (Murray); and Dr. J. P. Richter's magnificent catalogue of the Mond Collection--which, though published at fifteen guineas, can be seen in the great art libraries--has some valuable chapters on the Venetian masters.