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Painting

Painting (panting) is the art of rep

resenting the external facts of and objects in nature by means of color. A study of the art requires a knowledge of form, animate and inanimate; of perspective; and of light and shade. Considered in relation to the subjects treated, painting may be divided into decorative, historical, portrait, genre (scenes of common or domestic life), landscape (with seascape), architectural, and still life. According to the methods employed in the practice of the art it is termed oil, water-color, fresco, tempera or distemper, and enamel painting, and in mosaics, on glass, porcelain, terra cotta, and ivory (this last being called miniature-painting). Decorative works, usually in fresco or tempera, but sometimes in oil, are generally executed upon the parts of a building. For the basis of easel pictures, wood-panels prepared with a coating of size and white were used solely up to the 14th century for both oil and tempera, and are still sparingly employed; but canvas covered with a priming of size and white lead, and tightly nailed over a wooden frame called a 'stretcher,' is now almost universally adopted for oil-painting. For water-colors paper alone is employed. The tools used by an artist are charcoal, colored crayons, and lead pencils for outline purposes; colors, a palette for holding the same, a palette knife for mixing them; brushes for laying them on; and an easel with adjustable heights for holding the canvas. A wooden manikin, with movable joints, and termed a lay-figure,' is sometimes used on which to arrange costumes and draperies.

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The term oil-colors' is employed to denominate colors ground with oil, and water-colors those wherein gum and glycerine have been employed. Both are ground solid, an oil medium being used in the first case and water in the second to thin out the colors when on the palette. Fresco-painting is executed on wet plaster. Mosaic work is formed by small cubes of colored glass, called tesseræ, fixed in cement; in tempera the colors are mixed with white; in encaustic, wax is the medium employed; and in enamel the colors are fired. Egyptian, Greek, and early Roman paintings were executed in tempera; Byzantine art found its chief expression in mosaics, though tempera panels were executed; and early Christian art, up to and partly including the 14th century, adopted this last method. The vehicle employed in mixing the colors was a mixture of gum and white of egg, or the expressed juice of fig-tree shoots. The introduction of oil-painting was

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long attributed to the Van Eycks of

Bruges (circa 1380-1441), but painting in oil is known to have been practiced at a much earlier period, and it is now gen erally held that the invention of the Van Eycks was the discovery of a drying vehicle with which to mix or thin their colors, in place of the slow-drying oil previously in use. This new vehicle was composed of a thickened linseed-oil mixed with a resinous varnish, and it was its introduction that effected so great a revo lution in the art of painting. For an account of special methods of painting see articles Fresco-painting, Mosaic, Tempera, Encaustic, Enameling, etc.

History-Egypt and Greece. The practice of painting extends back to remote ages. It comes first into notice among the Egyptians in the 19th century B.C., the most flourishing period being between 1400 B.C. and 525 B.C. With them the art was the offspring of religion, and was with sculpture, from which it cannot be separated, subordinate to architecture. The productions are found chiefly on the walls of tombs and temples, but also on mummy-cases and rolls of papyrus. They consist chiefly of the representation of public events, sacrificial observances, and the affairs of everyday life. The work is purely conventional in character, and was executed according to a strict canon of rules under the supervision of the priesthood. Both outline and color were arbitrarily fixed, the figures and objects being rendered in profile and painted in perfectly pure flat tints, with no light or shade. The colors used are very simple, but the effect is often very harmonious, and with a strong sense of decorative composition. Although art is the natural product of man's mind, and cannot be assigned any particular commencement, it is neverthe less doubtless that Egyptian art slightly influenced that of Asia Minor, and strongly so that of Greece, in which country the arts attained to the highest excellence. This is proved by the testimony of historians, for no specimens of true Greek paintings save those on vases have come down to us. In Greece, as in Egypt, painting and sculpture were the handmaids of architecture, the friezes, pediments, and statues of the temples be ing originally colored. The more celebrated of the Greek schools of painting were at gina, Sicyon, Corinth, and Athens; the chief masters being Cimon, Polygnotus, and Pancenus, who lived about the fifth century B.C. Apollodorus, same century, systematized a knowledge of light and shade, while Zeuxis and Par rhasius directed their efforts to the per

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fecting of an ideal human form. Timanthes, a tragic painter, lived in the next generation; and at the time of Alexander the Great appeared Apelles (350 B.C.), the greatest of all Greek portrait painters, and Protogenes, an animal painter. With the death of these two painters decline set in, and Greek art gave itself up to the pursuit of trifling and unworthy subjects. Greek painting seems to have been, in truth of effect and in light and shade, in no way inferior to work of the present day, although perspective as a science does not seem to have been practiced.

Rome never had in ancient times an art that was indigenous, or produced a painter worthy of note. The conquest of Greece by the Romans brought an influx of Greek artists into Italy, and it was with their hands that the principal works of Roman art were produced. A number of specimens of ancient paintings have been discovered in the tombs and baths of Rome, at Pompeii, and at other places in Italy, chiefly in fresco and mosaic. Judging from these remains, which are known to have been produced when art was in a state of decadence, the ancients would seem to have possessed a great knowledge of the human figure, of animals, and of inanimate nature, and of their uses in art. Their skill as decorators has scarcely been surpassed. Their colors were used pure, with a just treatment of light and shade, and the knowledge of perspective shown is true, but limited in extent. During the first three centuries after Christ painting under the new influence of Christianity was practiced secretly in the catacombs under and around Rome. But with the establishment of Christianity by Constantine as the religion of the state, pagan art received its deathblow. Christian art was permitted to emerge, and was allowed to adorn its own churches in its own way. Mosaics, missal paintings, and a few panels are all that are left to us of this period. Notwithstanding the efforts made by several of the popes to encourage its growth by withdrawing certain limitations, especially as regards the use of the human figure, art sank lower and lower, until with the flood of barbarism which in the 7th century buried Italian civilization, the art of Christian Rome was practically extinguished.

Byzantium. Meanwhile, with the foundation of Byzantium by Constantine in 330 A.D., a Byzantine school of art had been steadily growing up. As to style, it manifested the old Greek ideals modified by Christianity, and had reached its highest point about the time

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that Roman art was at its lowest. Byzantium, art had become Christian sooner and more entirely than at Rome. Like the art of ancient Egypt, however, it had grown, under the strict influence of the priesthood, mechanical and conventional, but was yet strong enough to send artists and teachers through Southern Europe. Their works are still to be seen at Ravenna, in Rome, in Palermo, and more especially in the church of St. Mark at Venice (tenth century A.D.). All the Byzantine decorations are in mosaic, and are noteworthy for the splendor of their gilded backgrounds and for their grandeur of conception, though the figure drawing is weak, with no attempt at pure beauty. The Byzantine school was thus the immediate parent of the great schools of Italy, and of the Rhenish or old Cologne school in Germany. Italy, Early Period.- The Italian painters could not, however, at once free themselves from the Byzantine tradition which compelled one painter to follow in the steps of his predecessor without referring to nature; and so this style was carried on in Italy by Byzantine artists and their Italian imitators up to the middle of the 13th century. The breaking through of this tradition and the great progress made by the arts in the 13th century form part of a movement which has been termed the Renaissance or Revival, the arts being no longer rep resentative merely, as heretofore, but becoming imitative.

Three cities of Italy, namely, Siena, Pisa, and Florence, share the honors of this revival, each boasting a school and each possessing two or three great names and their consequent followers. The first regenerators were Guido of Siena, Giunta of Pisa, and Margaritone of Arezzo, whose works, though ugly and almost barbarous, yet show a departure from the stiffness of Byzantine tradition. Giovanni Cimabue, born at Florence in 1240, may, however, be said to be the father of modern painting, and was the first fairly to free himself from tradi tional models; his works and those of his predecessors just named forming the transition from the Byzantine to the modern manner. His appearance marks an era in history, and after him come two painters, the one at Siena and the other at Florence, in each of whom appears the power of deriving an impression direct from nature. These were Duccio di Buoninsegna (1260-1320), whose masterpiece is still at Siena, and Giotto (1266-1337), a pupil and protégé of Cimabue, and of whose works examples are still to be seen in Florence, at Assisi,

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and at Padua. Of these two, Giotto is by far the greater, and his immediate pupils and their successors constituted a school which exercised an influence throughout Italy. The rival school of Siena produced Simone Memmi (12841344), but died out owing to its exclusiveness. The works of all the artists of these two schools were executed either in fresco or in tempera, and although lacking in chiaroscuro and deficient in perspective, compensated largely for these defects by an earnestness, a devotion, and a spiritual significance which will for ever make the 14th century memorable in the history of art. No other schools worthy of note existed elsewhere in Italy during this century; neither could the Flemish or the German school be said to have had any distinct existence as such.

With the 15th century came the introduction of oil-painting, and with it an all-round improvement both in knowledge of technics and power of expression. To the earlier half of this century belong the great masters of religious art, the most noteworthy being Fra Angelico (1387-1455), who worked chiefly in Florence, and whose productions are full of the peculiar religious fervor character istic of the painter. A knowledge of the exact sciences as applied to art gave an added impulse, and Paolo Uccelli (13961475) and Piero della Francesca (141592) divide the honor belonging to the perfecting of a system of perspective. The works of Masolino da Panicale (died 1420) show the greatest advance yet made in the direction of chiaroscuro. Masaccio (1401-28), by his knowledge of the figure and by his treatment of groups with their proper force of light and shade and relief in appropriate surroundings, became the founder of the modern style. Andrea Verrochio (143288), the master of Leonardo da Vinci, promoted a knowledge of anatomy, and Ghirlandajo (1449-98), the master of Michael Angelo, may also be mentioned, both as a goldsmith and as a painter. These painters all belong to the Florentine school; but other schools were coexistent, notably that of Padua founded by Squarcione (1394-1474), whose pupil was Andrea Mategna (1431-1506), an artist who takes rank among the greatest masters of painting. The Venetian school also arose under the influence of the Bellini, Giovanni (1427-1516) and his brother Gentile (1429-1507), whose works, though somewhat hard and somewhat dry in texture, yet in color anticipate the great works of their pupils. The Umbrian school produced Pietro Pe

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rugino (1446-1524), a painter of the first rank and the master of Raphael. The Neapolitan school also began to be heard of. The Italian art work of the 15th century by its unconsciousness and spiritual meaning excelled much of that which was to follow. The latter, though carried to the highest pitch of perfection, lost much of the freshness and spontaneity possessed by the art of the earlier century.

Netherlands, Early Period. Before speaking of the 16th century it were well to look elsewhere in Europe, and especially at the Netherlands, from whence had come the invention of oil painting, which so completely revolutionized technical methods. This discovery was made by the brothers Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, of Bruges, about the commencement of the 15th century, and carried to Italy by Antonello da Messina (1445– 93). The greatest follower of this school was Hans Memling (1450-99), a comparison of whose works with those of his Italian contemporaries shows an excellence of technic and a power of expression not always in favor of the southern artists. Quentin Matsys, of Antwerp, (1460-1529) should also be mentioned as belonging to this school, a school which further exercised an influence upon that of Germany, with a result apparent in the next century, and was also the means of founding a school in Holland.

The

Italy, Germany, 16th Century. work of the 16th century is centered as much upon particular men as upon schools. Though many of the painters hereafter named were born in the latter half of the 15th century, their work separates itself so distinctly from that of their predecessors that it is the custom to consider it as belonging to the latter period. The four great schools were at Florence, Rome, Parma, and Venice, and each furnished from its scholars a painter who was in himself the particular glory of his school. Heading the Florentine comes Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), who established himself at Milan, and was celebrated as a painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer, his chief pupil being Bernardino Luini (1470-1530). Then following no man's style, but coming as a creator, we have Michael Angelo (1475-1564), combining in himself the highest powers in architecture, sculpture, and painting. He was followed in Florence by Fra Bartolommeo (1475-1517) and Andrea del Sarto (1488-1531). The Roman school, not indigenous but a continuation of the Umbrian school before mentioned, centers itself round the third great name, that of Raphael Sanzio

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(1483-1520), aptly called the prince of painters, who with his pupils and assistants, the chief among them being Giulio Romano, constitute the Roman school. Parma contains the work of Correggio (1494-1534), generally known as the head of the Lombard school, an artist unrivaled for grace, and harmony of chiaroscuro. Finally, Venice produced a school supreme in respect of color, and owing such power as it possesses entirely to the influence of the Bellini. The first name in this period is Giorgione (14761511); then comes Titian (1477-1576), who takes rank with the great masters of the Florentine and Roman schools; followed by Tintoretto (1512-94) and Paolo Veronese (1532-88), who with Titian stand for all that is greatest in this school. However, it further produced Jacopo Bassano (1510-92), noted as the first to introduce pure landscape into his backgrounds; and Paris Bordone (150071), noted for his power in coloring and brilliancy of effect. In the north the Flemish school had become rapidly Italianized, with a result best seen in the following century. In Germany the influence of the Flemish school had made itself felt, and had produced in Albert Dürer, of Nuremberg, (1471-1528) the most celebrated master of his time north of the Alps. With him are associated Lucas Cranach (1472-1553), Burgkmair (1474-1559), and Albrecht Altdorfer (1486-1538).

Italy, Holland, etc., 17th Century. The 16th century consummates the great age of modern art, an age that might justly be said to equal any period of Greek art. With the 17th century came the decline, brought about chiefly by the slavish imitation of the great painters of the preceding period, and art was only saved from extinction by a reaction headed by the Caracci. Their school, known as the Eclectic, was founded at Bologna by Ludovico (1555-1619), Agostino (1557-1607), and Annibale (15601609). Their principle was to unite a direct study of nature with a study of the excellencies of the great masters. To a certain extent the object was attained, and Guido Reni (1574-1642), Albani (1578-1660), and Domenichino (1581-1641) best illustrate in their works the results arrived at. Side by side with this school grew up that of the Naturalists at Naples, founded by Caravaggio (1569-1609), and having as his pupil Spagnoletto (1588-1656), who in turn taught Salvator Rosa (161573). Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669), the last of the Roman school, was the opment of the Eclectic style. With the

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later Venetian school, which count Canaletto (1697-1768) and Tiepolo (16931770) among its disciples, the art of Italy may be said to have ended. Its seed spread itself and took root in France, and especially in Flanders, where Rubens (1577-1640) had become its greatest exponent, and whose pupils Jordaens (15941678) and Vandyck (1599-1641) were the most noteworthy artists of this school. In Holland, however, art had acquired a distinct individuality, first in Franz Hals (1584-1642) and above all in its typical painter Rembrandt (160769), both portrait painters distinguished for their portrait groups; also by its landscape and genre painters, of which two classes of subjects this school is the great exponent. Among its landscape painters are Van de Velde, Ruysdael, Hobbema, and Cuyp; and among its genre painters are Gerard Dow, Breughel, Teniers, and Van Ostade. Spanish school, which stands alone in the prevailing religious ascetic character of its productions, and which in the preceding centuries had been influenced by Flemish and Italian painters, reached its greatest epoch in this century with Velasquez (1599-1660), one of the greatest of portrait painters, Murillo (1613-80); and with these may be mentioned Zurbaran (1598-1662), and Cano (1601-67).

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France, 16th-19th Century. The effect of Italian art in France remains to be noted. The school of France, influenced at first both by Flemish and by Italian art, finally inclined to the latter, and in the reign of Francis I (1515-47) a school was established at Fontainebleau and called by that name. Leonardo da Vinci worked in France, and Primaticcio carried on the unfinished work of Rosso (died 1541). Jean Cousin (1501-89) may be called the founder of the French school as opposed to the Italianized version which began with Simon Vouet (1590-1649). The native school was, however, finally overcome by the Italian method. Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665), figure and landscape painter, one of the greatest painters France can claim; Claude Lorraine (1600-82) and Gasper Dughet or Poussin (1613-75), landscapists, are painters who, though born in France, yet worked in Italy, and stand apart from the followers of the then national style; as does also Eustache Lesueur (1617-55), sometimes called the French Raphael. This national style was coeval with the court of Louis XIV and representative of it, the chief exponents being Le Brun (1619-30), Mignard (1610-96), Du Fresnoy (161165), and Jouvenet (1644-111). To

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continue the history into the 18th cen- best seen in Munich. Schadow (1789tury, with France we find a steady de- 1862) was a pupil of Cornelius. Schnorr terioration both in technic and morality; von Carolsfeld (1794-1872) chose for his the latter phase commenced by Watteau subjects the medieval history and myths and Lancret, two painters truly French, of Germany, and also produced an exand consummated by Boucher (1704–70). tensive series of illustrations of the Greuze (1725-1805) and Vien (1716- Bible of great merit. Kaulbach (18051809) were the first to protest against the 74), a great historical painter and pucorrupt influence of Boucher, and were pil of Cornelius, shows in his work some the precursors of the reform, of which of the worst faults of the modern GerDavid (1748-1825) was the great insti- man school. Lessing (1808-80) is fagator, a man whose influence made itself mous both for his historical and landfelt throughout Europe. He insisted scape pictures, and among modern paintupon a return to the study of the antique, ers worthy of note are Gabriel Max and and his followers number a few distin- Menzel, in historical; Knaus Vautier, guished men, notably Gros and Guerin. Metzler, and Bochmann, in genre; and Géricault (1774-1829), a pupil of Guerin, Achenbach in landscape. In Dutch art was the first to break with the extreme of the present day the same taste but not classicism of the school of David, and the same power of execution prevails as Ingres (1780-1867), Delacroix (1798- in earlier times. Sea-pieces, landscapes, 1863), Scheffer (1795-1858), and Dela- scenes of common life are still the chief roche, noted for the reality of his his- subjects selected. Schotel and Scholftorical subjects and the tenderness and hart have distinguished themselves as pathos of his sacred pictures, (1797- landscape-painters, Van Os, Van Stry, 1856) are the most distinguished names and Ommeganck as cattle and figure of the more direct and romantic style painters, whilst Josef Israels, a painter initiated by him. Modern French land- of domestic scenes, with M. Maris and scape art, founded upon an impulse re- Mesdag, are living artists. The influceived from England, has had Decamps ence of the French school is at present (1803-66), Rousseau (1812-67), Corot paramount in Belgium, as was the classi(1796-1875), and Millet (1815-75) as cism introduced by David up to 1830. At its chief exponents. The work of Re- that time a reaction was begun by Leys gnault (1843-71) remarkably illustrates (1815-69), and followed up by Wapthe tendencies of modern French paint- pers (1803-74), painters who selected ing. Bastien Lepage (1848-84), with historical subjects of national interest. his literal renderings of nature, strongly The work of reformation continued to influences the younger British school; and be carried on notably by Gallait and De Meissonier (1815-91), Gérôme (1824 Keyser; whilst the strong current of the 1904), Bouguereau (1825-1905), Con- present French influence may be seen stans, and Cabanel, and Puvis de Cha- in the works of the living artists Alfred vannes as a decorative artist, are some Stevens and Verlat. In Italy after a of the chief members of a school which long period of artificialness and mediis at the present time influencing the art ocrity there are signs of revival in paintof the world. ing. Pio Joris and Cammarano have gained distinction as painters of history, and Alberto dall' Oro and Pallizzi as painters of landscape. Morbelli and Segantini show in their works some signs of a return to nature. Spain, too, with the exception of the works of Fortuny. remains unindividualistic; but a strong influence is now being exercised upon her by French art. Russian art, which had remained at a standstill since the Byzantine time, has since 1850 made great advances. It has produced Swedomsky, historical painter, Verestchagin, a traveler artist, and Kramskoë, a religious painter. Scandinavian art inclined for some time to the two schools of Düsseldorf and Paris, but has finally elected to follow the latter, several of her younger artists residing permanently there. Their choice is usually landscape, and among the chief names may he men

Germany, Holland, etc., 19th Century. -Germany during the 18th century remained stationary in matters of art, but with the revival in France came a similar but slightly later movement in Germany, the precursors of which were Holzer (1709-40), a Tyrolese fresco painter, and Carstens (1754-98). The chief of the revivalists, however, was Overbeck (17891869), who, with a band of followers, founded a school at Rome in 1810, the principle animating whose work was that modern artists should only study the painters of the time preceding Raphael. Overbeck painted religious subjects, and worked both in fresco and oil. His works, while possessing fine feeling, are poor in color and weak in chiaroscuro. Chief among his pupils is Cornelius $1783-1867), one of the greatest of modern German painters, and whose work is

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