DENNISTOFN'S DUF.ES OF rnar.xo.*

LIE object of these volumes is to combine a general picture of the progress of Italian literature and art under the patronage of the smaller Italian principalities, with a history of the houses of lifontefeltro and Della Rovere, so far as they were connected with , Urbino. For the execution of his purpose Mr. Dennistoun en- I joyed numerous advantages. He has resided in Italy for many years, and is well acquainted with the country whose history as a dukedom he intended to relate : besides the common research in I printed volumes, he has gained access to various Italian libraries, including that of Urbino, and examined their manuscripts ; and he has closely inspected Umbrian art, whether in palatial, military, or ecclesiastical architecture, or in painting. With the appreciation of Italy which such a course of study stimulates and implies, Mr. Dennistoun has good taste, a sound though not always an unbiassed judgment, and a zeal for mediteval subjects, especially art, almost enthusiastic. He has a fervid mind, though hardly rising to genius ; and a powerful style, a little touched by the artificial and empty-sounding manner of the inferior Italian writers among whom his studies have so much led him. From them too he has • Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino; illustrating the Arms, Arts, and Literature of Italy, from 1990 to 1630. By James Dennistoun of Dennistoun. In three volumes. Published by Longman and Co.

borrowed an affected style of speaking of the Ultramontane na- tions.

We are not sure that the subject is a happy one, treated in extenso. The Dukes of Urbino were on the whole a gifted and an amiable line of sovereigns. The real founder of the dukedom, Count Frederigo, was a soldier of courage and skill according to the bloodless soldiership in vogue in Italy before the French invasion. What was rare in those days, he was a man of faith and honour ; what was rarer still, he was able to extend his territory and aggrandize his house, without such violations of right as are practised even now. But it was rather as general of the Pope, or a leader of condottieri for other states, than as Count of Urbino, that he attained distinction. His grand nephew Fran- cesco Maria, the most distinguished of the Della Rovere blood, if not the best known of the Dukes of Urbino, is also less conspi- cuous as Duke of Urbino than as the Papal and Venetian general during the wars of Charles the Fifth and Francis the First in

_Although the patronage of the Dukes of Urbino encouraged ele- gance of manners at their court as well as arts and learning, that patronage neither produced a school in art nor a great name in letters. Castiglione's "Courtier" is about the highest popular literary work that directly emanated from the patronage of Ur- bino's Dukes. Their territory, indeed, can lay claim to the birth of Bramante, and to a greater than Bramante, Raphael Sanzio ; but these men owe little to Urbino beyond the geographical ac- cident of their birth. They were nurtured, so far as such minds are nurtured by the works of their predecessors, in other places than Umbria, and employed by other than her princes. Raphael, however, carried with him from his native place a letter of recom- mendation from the Duchess of -Urbino, which argues a liberal kindness.

1

"To the magnificent and lofty Lord, regarded with final respect, the Lord Gonfaloniere of Justice of the distinguished republic of Florence. "Magnificent and lofty Lord, respected as a father! The bearer hereof will be Rafthele, painter Of Urbino; who, having a fine genius for his pro- fession, has resolved to stay some time at Florence for study. And knowing his father to be very talented, and to possess my particular regard, and the son to be a judicious and amiable youth, I in every way love him greatly, and desire his attainment in good proficiency. I therefore recommend him to your Lordship ; in the strongest manner possible praying you, as you lore me, that you will please to afford him every assistance and favour that he may chalice to require ; and whatever such aids and obligations he may re- ceive from your Lordship, I shall esteem as bestowed on myself, and as meriting my special gratitude. I commend myself to your Lordship.

" From 'Urbino, 1st October 1504.

"JOANNA FELTRIA DE RUVERE, Dueissa Sore et Urbis Prefectissa."

The circumstances we have mentioned lessen the interest of a history of the house of Urbino, for two reasons : the greater events and characters are well known already, and they are only indirectly connected as it were with the principality. Neither are the lesser events of much consequence. The forays—they were little more —between petty feudatories, to take a town or acquire a good-sized estate, by intrigue, or trick, or treachery, more frequently than by open war, are matters of too little consequence to excite the atten- tion of readers who are removed from the scene of action both by place and time. Mediaeval Italian history requires the stimulus of great crimes, romantic circumstances or very strongly marked characters, to render it interesting. Luckily for the -Umbrians, there was not much of Italian crime or romance connected with their rulers ; and the more marked characters were employed on a larger sphere and connected with a history larger than their duke- dom.

The best mode of giving interest to such a subject was by pic- turesque and vigorous condensation. The salient features, whether of men or incidents, should have been vigorously presented to the reader, and the results distinctly impressed upon him. Mr. Dennis- toun, as was natural, has been too much led away by his subject, so that he enters minutely into matters. He also falls into an error, very common, we have observed, amongst persons who treat of re- mote history—that of assuming the reader to be as familiar with the subject as themselves, and speaking of persons by names which may serve to establish their identity but do not at once mark who they are. In obscure or remote histories, not only should persons be always called by the same name, but some adjunct should if possible be affixed, to individualize them beyond possibility of doubt.

In sketching the influence of the court of Urbino upon art and letters Mr. Dennistoun is more successful than in his narrative of warlike events. The subject has greater unity and greater in- terest than accounts of petty and very often ignoble contests. The characters of men and the manners of the times can be as distinctly portrayed in the description of a court and a review of the stale of arts and letters as in a narrative of military or political con- tentions. It strikes us, too, that Mr. Dennistoun is more able to grasp the subject of art and letters than of politics and war • or it may be that the mixed and fluctuating state of affairs in war; almost defies the historian's powers. The critic on art and literature has the advantage of drawing from the originals ; the historian has to compile from the relations of others. The following defen- sive account of Raphael's father as an artist will furnish an idea of the author as a critic in art.

The patient labour of the Abbe Pungileone and the critical acumen of Passavant have amply refuted Malvasia's spiteful and Lanai's careless but often-quoted assertions, that the father of Raffaele was an obscure potter, or at best an indifferent artist, from whom his son could learn little. Those only who have traced out his pictures in the remote townships and villages of his native duchy, and who estimate his works by coeval productions, can appreciate his real merits. • • * • Though we know nothing of Banes artistic education, the works which Nelli, Gentile da Fabriano, and Pietro della Francesca left in Urbino, must have influenced his early impressions; and it is singular that nothing is said by him of these, and others who painted in the duchy, beyond the passing notice bestowed with little discrimination on all his contemporaries. The marked exclusion from this list of Justus of Ghent is plausibly conjectured by Passavant to indicate a professional jea- lousy of one who treasured as his secret the so-called oil-painting brought by him from Flanders, and certainly never attained by Giovanni. Sanzi's manner partakes generally: of the Umbrian character —grave, reflective, self-possessed, without aiming at dramatic effect or artificial embellishment, yet not deficient in variety. or graceful expression. More severe than Peru- gine, he approaches the serums figures of Melozzo da Forli, but subdues their naturalism by an infusion of devotional sincerity and simple feeling. He is partial to Blender forms and delicately-drawn feet and hands ; but the con- tours are dark and hard, the flesh-tints dull and heavy, tending to cold gray in the shadows, and generally deficient in middle tints and reflections. His female faces are oval, often of a dusky complexion, and their foreheads singulerly full. In the naked, he was in advance of his age and in landscape he attained great proficiency. Pungileone enumerates aliout twenty of his pictures, many of them still in their original sites, and exhibiting considerable inequality of merit. But his capo-d'opera, and one of the most important monuments of Umbrian art, is the fresco in the Tiranni chapel, at S. Domenico of Cagli. In the recess over the altar ler

is the Ma onua, enthroned between two angels, in one of whom is understood to be portrayed the young Raffaele, then a child of eight or nine years old. At the sides stand Saints Peter, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, and John Baptist. On the lunette above, Christ has just emerged from his tomb in the mountain rook: a glorious Deity, the con- queror of death, he bears in his left hand the banner of salvation, while his right is raised to bless a redeemed world; and scattered around lie six guards asleep, foreshortened in various and difficult attitudes. The vaulted roof displays a choir of angelic children, sounding their instruments and chant- ing songs of glory to the Saviour ; who occupies its centre, holding the book of life ; and on the external angles are small medallions of the Annuncia- tion. There is, perhaps, no contemporary painting superior to this in grandeur of composition and stately pose of the figures ; nor is it less admirable for novelty of composition and variety and ease of movement. The design is at once correct and flowing ; and the expression, though fervid, oversteps not truth and nature. Passavant well observes, that the breadth, vigour, and dexterous treatment of this painting, prove its author to have been well practised in fresco, although but one other such work of his has escaped destruction or whitewash."

The first Duke of -Urbino of the Della Rovere line was com- mander of the allied army that might perhaps have saved Rome from Bourbon's assault, and at all events should have tried ; as his force could without question have destroyed the Emperor's army after its leader's death. This rather remote connexion with his subject induces Mr. Dennistoun to give a full description of the previous campaign, and of the assault and sack. Although it has been often done, his account is about the best we have met. Mr. Dennistoun has had recourse to manuscript authorities, which give particulars not to be found in books - he touches the vices of the Romans as well as those of their assailants ; and he brings out the ribald jocularity of the black bands. This is part of the picture.

"Now began the horrors of the sack. The brutal soldiery, absolved from discipline, scoured the city at will, penetrating unchallenged into the most secret and most sacred places. Churches and convents, palaces and houses, were invaded and rifled ; resistance was punished with fire and sword ; rape and murder were the fate of the inhabitants. Passing over details too re- volting for the imagination to supply, but too repulsive for a place in these pages, we may cite the feeling exclamations of one who seems to have wit- nessed them. 'Alas, how many courtiers, gentlemen, and prelates, how many devout nuns, Matrons, and maidens, became a prey to these savages! what chalices, images, crucifixes, vessels of silver and gold, were torn from the altars by these sacrilegious hands! what holy relics were dashed to the ground with derisive blasphemy by these brutal Lutherans ! The heads of Saints Peter, Paul, Andrew, and of many others, the wood of the sacred cross, the blessed oil, and the sacramental wafers, were ruthlessly trodden upon. The streets exhibited heaps of rich furniture, vestments, and plate, all the wealth and splendour of the Roman court, pillaged by the basest ruffians.'

"After these miserable scenes had endured for three days, rumours of the Duke of Urbino's approach recalled the Imperialist leaders to the necessity of defence. The command having devolved upon the Prince of Orange, a vellow-haired barbarian, further plunder was prohibited, under severe penal- ties; and the army, reduced to comparative order, betook themselves to en- joy their booty. But now a new drama of atrocities opened. The Germans had especially distinguished themselves by a thirst for blood ; but the wily Spaniards taught them a means more effectual than murder of enriching themselves and punishing their victims. The prisoners had in most cases concealed Whatever of greatest value they possessed, and recourse was had to every variety of torment in order to extract from them supposed treasures, and a ransom for their lives ; so that those who had been spared in seeming mercy found themselves but reserved for a worse fate. .After stripes and blows had been exhausted, when hunger and thirst had failed to force com- pliance_, tortures the most brutal succeeded. Some were suspended naked from their own windows by a sensitive limb, or swung head downwards, and momentarily, threatened to be let drop into the street : others had their teeth drawn slowly and singly, or were compelled to swallow their own mutilated and roasted members ;others others were forced to perform the most odious and menial services; and the greatest extremities were always used towards those who were suspected of being the most wealthy and noble. Even after the desired amount of geld had been thus extorted from them, their sufferings were sometimes resumed at the instance of new tormentors. When such cruelties palled, their inflictors had recourse to a novel amusement, by forcing from the victims a confession of their sins ; and we are assured by the nar- rator of these enormities, himself a Roman, that the iniquities thus brought to light as habitual in that dissolute capital, were such as to confound even the licentious soldiery of Bourbon. Over the outrages committed upon the women we draw ii'veil: when lust was satiated, they were prolonged in diabolical punishment ; the husbands and fathers being compulsory witnesses to such unspeakable atrocities. "But the delight of these sacrilegious villains, especially of the German Lutherans, was to outrage everything holy. The churches and chapels, in- cluding the now bloodstained St. Peter's, were desecrated into stables, ta- verns or brothels' and the choirs, whence no sounds had breathed but the elevating chant of prayer and praise, rang with base ribaldry and blasphe- mous imprecations. The grand creations of religious art were wantonly in- sulted or damaged; the reliquaries and miraculous images were pillaged or defaced. Nay, a poor priest was inhumanly murdered for his firm refusal to administer. the blessed sacrament to an ass. Nor was any respect paid to persons or party feelings. The subjects of the Emperor who happened to be ni Lime, the adherents of the Colonna and other Ghibelline leaders, were all involved in the general fate. Four Cardinals attached to that faction had declined entering S. Angelo, calculating that they would not only

' Guide the whirlwind and direct the storm,'

but, peradventure, promote their own interests in the m6h1e. They were, however, miserably mistaken, for they too were held to ransom ; and one of them (Araceli), after being often led through the streets tied on a donkey behind a common soldier, was carried to church with mock funereal rites, when the office of the dead was read over his living body, and an oration pronounced, wherein, for eulogy, were loathsomely related all the real or al- leged immoralities of his past life. Another outrage in especial repute with the Germans was a ribald procession, in which some low buffoon in sacred vestments was borne shoulder-high, scattering mock benedictions among the mob, amid shouts of Long live Luther!' "