Durant W. The Renaissance. A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 A.D

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*05054 This term arose about 1300 as punctum contra punctum - point

counter point, note against note; notes being then indicated by

points.

*05055 E.g., The Fall of Man (c. 1570, Prado)- a frank

apotheosis of the human form; The Annunciation (c. 1545, Scuola di

San Rocco, Venice; still another in San Salvatore, Venice); The Gypsy

Madonna (1510, Vienna); Mater Dolorosa (1554, Prado); The

Presentation (1538, Venice)- a vast panorama (twenty-six by eleven

and a half feet) of mountainous landscape, majestic architecture,

and colorful figures, with Mary pictured as a girl diffidently

ascending the Temple steps, two of Titian's loveliest women at the

base, against the wall an old woman realer than life, selling eggs;

this is one of Titian's finest religious pictures. He painted Mary

again in The Virgin with the Rabbit (c. 1530, Louvre). The

Transfiguration (c. 1560, San Salvatore, Venice), the work of a man

of eighty-three, is a vigorous conception of the astonished

Apostles, with a glowing representation of the illuminated Christ.

In The Last Supper (1564 Escorial) every figure is masterly except

that of Christ- where Leonardo also failed; and in Christ Crowned

with Thorns (1542, Louvre), Jesus, as in Michelangelo, is a gladiator

rather than a saint. The Ecce Homo of the Vienna Gallery (c. 1543)

still leaves Christ a massive and muscular divinity, whom Pilate (a

humorous portrait of Aretino) offers to a crowd not of Jerusalem's

rabble, but of such distinguished personalities as Charles V, Suleiman

the Magnificent, Titian's daughter Lavinia, and Titian himself. A

Crucifixion in Ancona (c. 1560) reduces the suffering Christ to more

credible proportions; and another in the Escorial (c. 1565)

effectively pictures the darkness, at the final hour, enveloping hills

and sky and cross and the watchers at its foot. Twice- in 1529 (in the

Louvre) and thirty years later (in the Prado)- Titian pictured The

Burial of Christ; in the later- perhaps also in the earlier- painting

he portrayed himself as Joseph of Arimathea. At an uncertain date he

represented The Supper at Emmaus (Louvre), exquisite but too

refined; Rembrandt would more successfully convey the awe felt in that

moment of incredulous recognition. For Charles V Titian painted (1554)

a picture variously called The Trinity or The Last Judgment, and

labeled La Gloria in the Prado: a confusing mass of heads and

legs, and, in a cloud, the First and Second Persons of the Trinity,

with the Holy Ghost taking the form of light. It seems a little

absurd, but the Emperor took it with him when he retired to a

convent in 1557, and ordered it placed above the high altar after

his death.

*05056 A selection from Tintoretto's religious paintings,

excluding those at the Scuola di San Rocco (the churches named being

all in Venice):

I. OLD TESTAMENT SCENES: Creation of the Animals (Venice);

Adam

and Eve (Venice)- a uniquely illumined landscape; Cain and Abel

(Venice); Abraham's Sacrifice (Uffizi); Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

(Prado); Finding of Moses (Escorial); Golden Calf (Madonna dell'

Orto); Gathering of the Manna (San Giorgio Maggiore)- a remarkable

mingling of nature, men, women, and animals.

II. MADONNAS: Birth of the Virgin (Mantua)- almost as gracious

as a Correggio; Annunciation (Berlin); Visitation (Bologna);

Madonna and Child (Cleveland); Madonna and Saints (Ferrara)-

splendid, but the saints are Michelangelesque octogenarian gladiators;

Assumption (I Gesuiti)- weak and pale compared with Titian's

masterpiece in the Frari.

III. FROM THE LIFE OF CHRIST: Circumcision (Santa Maria del

Carmine); Baptism (San Silvestro; a variant in the Prado); Jesus in

the House of Martha (Munich)- exceptionally beautiful; Marriage at

Cana (Madonna della Salute); Christ at the Sea of Galilee

(Washington)- an almost impressionistic study in blue and green;

Woman Taken in Adultery (Rome, Galleria Nazionale)- a pretty

sinner in a too theatrical picture; Christ Washing the Apostles'

Feet (Escorial); Raising of Lazarus (Leipzig); Miracle of the

Loaves and Fishes (New York); Christ and the Samaritan Woman

(Uffizi); Last Supper (San Trovaso; another in San Stefano and in

San Giorgio Maggiore, and a magnificent drawing in the Uffizi);

Crucifixion (San Cassiano); Deposition (Venice, Parma, Milan,

Pitti Gallery); Burial of Christ (San Giorgio Maggiore); Descent

into Limbo (San Cassiano); Resurrection (Farrer Collection);

Last Judgment (Madonna dell' Orto)- a vain attempt to exceed the

confusion and absurdities of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel fresco.

IV. THE SAINTS: St. Augustine Healing Victims of the Plague (New

York); Miracle of St. Agnes (Madonna dell' Orto); St. George and

the Dragon (London)- a study in light and shade, as of a night

engagement; Marriage of St. Catherine (Ducal Palace); Martyrdom

of St. Catherine (Venice)- in both cases a lovely lady whom only a

fool would want to kill; Transportation of the Body of St. Mark

(Venice), and Finding of the Body of St. Mark (Milan)- a masterly

perspective of a darkened nave, a kneeling patrician in holy terror, a

charming lass whose knees are clasped by a youth pretending fright,

and a splendid St. Mark standing erect over his own corpse.

*05057 This was one of many pictures taken from Italy by Hermann

Goering during the Second World War, and recovered for Italy by the

victory of the Allies. `052234

*05058 Besides the pictures mentioned in the text the following

are notable:

I. FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT: Creation of Eve (Chicago); Moses

Saved

from the Waters (Prado); Burning of Sodom (Louvre); Queen of Sheba

Before Solomon (Turin); Bathsheba (Lyons); Judith Before

Holofernes (Tours); Susanna and the Elders (Louvre), where, for a

change, the elders are more interesting than Susanna.

II. OF THE VIRGIN: Annunciation (Venice); Adoration of the

Magi (Vienna, Dresden, and London- all magnificent); Holy Family

(Princeton); Holy Family with St. Catherine and St. John (Uffizi)- a

major work; Virgin, Child, and Saints - superb (Venice);

Presentation (Dresden); Assumption and Coronation (Venice).

III. OF THE BAPTIST: Preaching of St. John (Borghese).

IV. OF CHRIST: Baptism (Pitti, Brera, Washington); Christ

Disputing in the Temple (Prado); Jesus and the Centurion (Prado);

Christ Revives the Daughter of Jairus (Vienna); Last Supper

(Brera); Deposition (Verona, Leningrad); Maries at the Tomb

(Pitti).

*05059 Alamanni shared with Trissino and Giovanni Rucellai the

distinction of being among the first writers of blank verse- versi

sciolti - in Italy.

*05060 Shakespeare took the story from Arthur Broke's Tragical

History of Romeus and Juliet (1562); Broke took it from Masuccio or

Bandello. Shakespeare also knew the tale in William Painter's

Palace of Pleasure (1566), which took it from Bandello. `052328

*05061 The Via Balbi was shattered in the Second World War.

*05062 Notably Portrait of an Old Gentleman (Bergamo); Antonio

Navagero (Milan); Bartolommeo Bonga (New York); Old Man and Boy

(Boston); Titian's Schoolmaster (Washington); Lodovico Madrazzo

(Chicago).

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