STIRLING'S ANNALS OF THE ARTISTS OF SPAIN.

THE historian of mankind, and to some exteht of nature, has this disad- vantage, that he cannot draw his knowledge from the things themselves which he is engaged upon, but must receive Ilia ideas from the represent- ations of others,, and very often at second-hand. The historian of lite- rature and art, on the contrary, can mostly derive his impressions from the actual. Even an original historian, such as Cresar himself, cannot see everything he has to narrate, but must depend a good deal upon re- ports. But nobody needs to give a second-hand account of an extant book or an existing picture. The trouble of long journies may, no doubt, be pleaded as an excuse for relying upon the descriptions and cri- ticisms of others; but this trouble is part of the proper business. An author might as well refuse ro undergo the labour of learning the lan- guage in which some of his necessary books were written, or the trouble of reading those which he disliked. In fact, this sort of trouble is part of the training for the task. No man can become a critic-or an historian per saltum, or by merely eta-

dying didactic writings. In their exercise criticism and history are both practical arts ; and the practitioner, as in other pursuits, teaches him- self by his preparations for teaching others. Books may often be read or galleries examined with little apparent profit towards the matter in hand ; but it is that wide survey and long preparation which constitute the critical historian's food and exercise.

We think that Mr. Stirling's Annals of the Artists of Spain is somewhat deficient in these two points. Ile has relied too much upon

others, when he might have examined for himself; and he strikes us as deficient in that grasp and fulness of knowledge of all the schools of art which is requisite in order to pass an authoritative judgment upon one

of them. We do not mean that he is ignorant of the great schools of Flemish and Italian art, but that he wants maturity of knowledge, and the firmness which arises from an independent and original view ; both of which may fairly be required from an author who undertakes the his- tory of a nation's art. • Having thus mentioned the two leading deficiencies of the book, we may say that the Annals of the Artists ofSpain is a fresh, agreeable, and in-

forming work. Although Mr. Stirling might perhaps have extended his researches, he has travelled in Spain, and visited some of its richest collec- tions. With the Louvre he is of course familiar, as well as with smaller galleries public and private. Ile has given considerable attention to the

literature of his subject ; has consulted (with the assistance of friends, especially of Mr. Ford, the author of the Handbook) the various Spanish

authorities on the biographies of their artists and the condition of art; and perused a variety of works relating to the social or political history of Spain. Mr. Stirling's plan is a very good one ; imparting more unity, largeness, and breadth, than are generally found in biographies of paint- ers. Although the career and character—the life of the man, the conduct of the artist, his most remarkable works, and the critical judgment upon

them—form the first object of the work, it is not a mere biographical dic- tionary. Arranging the subject into epochs, Mr. Stirling describes the artistical characteristics of the age, and the great edifices, &c. that were

erected. He paints the character of the monarch for the time being, chiefly as a Patron, but not altogether overlooking the sovereign; while his family, his ministers, and his nobles, if eminent as lovers of art, are

grouped around their king. This coup d'eeil of the age introduces its

painters ; whose biographies are exhibited in chronological order. In the treatment, regard is had to their artistieal merit in the scale of-their lives and the elaboration of the criticism; but sometimes the fulness or scanti- ness or the materials seems to operate as well as the artist's merit. Oc- casional digressions introduce collateral subjects,—such as the character of Spanish art ; the manner in which it was influenced by national cir- cumstances; and the conventional rules it had to obey, grounded on the religious views of the clergy and the power of the Inquisition.

'A great deal of learning and research," says Mr. Stirling," was devoted to the investigation of rules for representing sacred subjects and personages. The ques-

tion was handled in every treatise of art. That considerable portion of Pacheco's book which relates to the subject is said to have been furnished by his friends of the Jesuits' College at Seville. But the most complete code of Sacropictorial law is, perhaps, that of Fray Juan Interian de Ayala; which was not, however, promulgated till the race of painters for whose guidance it was designed was nearly extinct. Fray Juan was a doctor and professor of Salamanca, and one of the compilers of the Dictionary of the Spanish Academy; his book, which was in Latin, was entitled Pieter Christianus Eraditus, sive de erroribus qui passim adrnittuntur circa pingendas atque effingendaa Sacras Imagines2—Matriti in fol. 1730. A translation into Castilian, by Dr. Louis de Duran, appeared at Madrid in 2 vols. 4to. in 1782. The work is, as might be expected, a fine specimen of pompous and prosy trifling. For example, several pages are devoted to the castigation of those unorthodox painters who draw the cross of Calvary like a T instead of in the ordinary Latin form; the question, whether in pictures of the Marks at the sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection, two angels or only one should be seated on the stone which was rolled away, is anxiously debated, and the artist is finally directed to make his works square with all the Gospels, by adopting both accounts alternately; and the right of the Devil to his horns

and tail undergoes a strict examination, of which the result is that the first are fairly fixed on his head on the authority of a vision of Santa Teresa, and the second is allowed as being a probable if not exactly proven appendage of the fallen angeL

"All the writers on this curious subject strongly reprobate any unnecessary display of the nude figure. Ayala censures those artists who expose the feet

of their Madonnas—which Spanish women are always so chary of displaying—

almost as severely as he does the indecent limner whom he records to have painted for a certain church a holy Virgin suffering martyrdom on a St. Andrew's cross, in the state in which the good Lady Gofflva rode through Coventry. Pacheco

illustrates his argument against immodest altar-pieces by a singular anecdote of their distressing effects. He had it, he says, from a grave and pions bishop, him-

self the hero of his tale. The picture was a 'Last Judgment,' by Martin de

Vos, once in the church of the Augustines, now in the Museum at Seville; and is, like other works of the master, a composition of considerable power and merit, but disfigured by ill-placed episodes of broad caricature. The grouping is ef-

fective; and many of the principal figures are nobly drawn, and fall of varioua interest and character. But beyond them in the distance the eye is offended by a

grotesque Devil, who quells certain of the: damned that attempt to break their prescribed bounds, by means of vigorous blows of his trident, and administers to one of the more refractory a hearty kick with his cloven hoof, aimed in the moot vulgarly insulting direction. Amongst a group of naked women in the fore- ground, one magnificent specimen of the Lais order, conspicuous for her fair flowing locks and full voluptuous form, is being dragged off by a hideous demon, terminating in a fish, and grinning with horrid glee. It waudoubtless on thie fi- gure—'a woman remarkable; says Pacheco, 'for the beauty and disorder of her

person'—that the eye of the Bishop chanced to rest when he was me day saying

mass, as a simple friar, before the painting. His quick Southern imagination being thus suddenly and strongly excited, the poor man fell into a state of mental discom- posure such as he had never before known. 'Rather than undergo the same spiritual conflict a second time,' said the good prelate, who had made the voyage to America,' I would face a hurricane in the Gulf of Bermuda. Even at the dis- tance of many years, I cannot think of that picture without dread:"

The narrative and criticism are varied by tales of miraculous or miracu- lously-inspired pictures, and by legends connected with art.

"Don Josef de Valdivielso, one of the chaplains of the gay Cardinal Infant Fer- dinand of Austria, cites a yet more remarkable instance of celestial interference on behalf of an artist in trouble. A certain young friar, he says, was famous amongst his order for his skill as a painter; and took peculiar delight in drawing the bles- sed Virgin and the Devil. To heighten the divine beauty of the one, and to de- 'file new and extravagant forms of ugliness for the other, were the chief re- creations of his leisure. Vexed at last by the variety and vigour of his sketches, Beelzebub, to be revenged, assumed the form of a lovely maiden, and so disguised, crossed the path of the religions; who, being of an amorous complexion, fell at once into the trap. The seeming damsel smiled on her shaven wooer; bat, though willing to be won, would not surrender her charms at a less price than certain rich reliquaries and jewels in the convent-treasury—a price which the friar, in evil boor, consented to pay. Ile admitted her at midnight within the convent walls, and leading her to the sacristy, took from its antique cabinets the precious things for which she had asked. Then came the moment of vengeance. Passing in their return through the moonlit cloister, as the sinful friar stole along, embracing the booty with one arm and his false Duessa with the other, the demon-lady—' more like a woman than a demon,' as the chaplain slyly remarks—suddenly cried out, Thieves 1' with diabolical energy. The snoring monks rushed disordered, each from his cell, and detected their unlucky brother in the act of making off with their plate. Excuse being impossible, they tied the culprit to a column, and leaving him till matins, when his punishment was to be determined, went back to their pillows or their prayers. fhe Devil, unseen during the confusion, re- appeared when all was quiet, but this time in his most hideous shape. Half dead with cold and terror, the discomfited caricaturist stood shivering at his pil- lar, while his tormentor made unmercifully merry with him; twitting him with his amorous overtures, mocking his stammered prayers, and irreverently suggest- ing an appeal for aid to the beauty he so loved to delineate. The penitent wretch at last took the advice thus jeeringly given; when lo! the Mother of Mercy, ra- diant in heavenly loveliness, descended, loosed his cords, and bade him bind the Evil One to the column in his place; an order which, through her strength, he obeyed with not less alacrity than astonishment. She farther ordered him to ap- pear amongst the other monks at matins, and charged herself with the task of re- storing the stolen plate to its place. The tables were thus suddenly turned. The friar presented himself amongst his brethren to their no small surprise, and 'voted with much contrition for his own condemnation; a sentence which was, however, reversed, on the sacristy being examined, and its contents miraculously found correct. As for the Devil, who remained fast bound to the pillar, he was soundly flogged; and so fell into the pit he had digged for another."

The style of Mr. Stirling is easy and flowing; his manner animated, and jocose on appropriate occasions ; but his composition would bear both condensation and pruning. He sometimes interrupts his narrative by digression, and encumbers it by needless circumstances or obscure allusions. With the advantages of rhetoric he combines some of its de- facts; occasionally sacrificing accurate sense to well-turned phrases and artificial vivacity. The number of inferior artists rather crowd the pages and disturb the narrative. It is necessary to have them in a biogra- phical work ; but they would have been better placed in a division at the end of each epoch, without regard to exact chronological order' the regular narrative being confined to the greater artists. The main fault of the work, however, has been already intimated—a deficient mastery of art in its extent and the particular division treated of: Mr. Stirling does not seem to penetrate to the essence of his subject, or to fix the place and merit of each artist as a matter of ascertained and independent

. From the nature of the subject, the book abounds in anecdotes and information, like the following samples.

FACILITY OF LUCA GIORDANO.

On his way to Florence, he had paid his respects to the Marquis of Heliche, the Spanish ambassador at Rome, and was graciously received; but he somewhat offended that nobleman, by declining an invitation to his palace, given for the pur- pose of seeing him paint. Heliche was afterwards recalled from the hated Papal court, and promoted to the dignity of Viceroy of Naples. It happened in 1685, that Giordano, who had established himself in Ribera e fine house, opposite the Jesuit church of San Francisco Xavier, was employed by the fathers to paint a large picture for one of their principal altars. As the viceregal palace adjoined this church, the Marquis took an interest in its embellishment, and signified to the painter a wish that the work should be completed by the approaching festival of the patron saint. Giordano, however, was busied about other things, and put off the execution of the altar-piece so long, that the Jesuits began to be cla- morous, and the Viceroy to feel offended for the second time. Determining to see for himself how matters really stood, the great man paid an unexpected visit to the studio. The artist had barely time to escape by a back-door; and Heliche, finding the vast canvass as yet guiltless of the brash, retired muttering complaints and menaces. Luca's dashing pencil now stood him in good stead. On his re- turn home, he immediately sketched the outlines of his composition, for which the frst drawing was hardly finished ; and setting his disciples to prepare his palettes, he painted all that day and night with so much diligence, that by the following afternoon he was able to announce to the impatient fathers the completion of the picture. The subject was the patron saint of the church, the great Jesuit mis- sionary St. Francis Xavier, baptizing the people of Japan; a ceremony which he performed standing on a lofty flight of steps: behind him, in the distance, was a party of zealous converts pulling down the images of their gods; and beneath, in the foreground, knelt St. Francis Borgia in the attitude of prayer. It was imme- diately carried to the church, and placed over the destined altar; and the Viceroy, whose anger was hardly cooled, was invited to visit it. Charmed with the beauty -of the work, and amazed by the celerity of its execution, he exclaimed on seeing it, The painter of this picture is either an angel or a demon." Giordano received his compliments and made his own excuses with so much address, that the Mar- anis, forgetting all past offences, engaged him to paint in the palace, and passed -much of his time by his side, observing his progress, and enjoying his lively con- versation.

CHARACTER OF PHILIP THE FOURTH.

Philip IV. is one of those potentates who was more fortunate in his painters than his biographers, and whose face is therefore better known than his history. His pale Flemish complexion, fair hair, heavy lip, and sleepy grey eyes his long '

-curled mustachios, dark dress and collar of the Golden Fleece, have eyes, made familiar to all the world by the pencils of Rubens and Velasquez. Charles L, with his melancholy brow, pointed beard, and jewelled star, as painted by Van- dyck, is not better known to the frequenters of galleries; nor the pompons benign countenance of Lords XIV., shining forth from a wilderness of wig amongst the silken braveries which delighted Mignard or Rigaud, or on his prancing pied Charger, like a holyday soldier as he was, in the foreground of some pageant battle by Vandermeulen. Fond as were these sovereigns of perpetuating them- selves on canvass, they have not been so frequently or so variously portrayed as their Spanish contemporary. Armed and mounted on his sprightly Andalusian, glittering in crimson and gold gala, clan in black velvet for the council, or in rus- set and buff for the boar-hunt, under all these different aspects did Philip submit himself to the quick eye and cunning hand of Velasquez. And not content with multiplications of his own likeness in these ordinary attitudes and employments, he caused the same great artist to paint him at prayers, "To take him In the purging of his soul," as he knelt amongst the embroidered cushions of his orato7. In all these various portraits we find the same cold phlegmatic expression; which gives his face the appearance of a mask, and agrees so well with the pen and ink sketches of con- temporary writers, who celebrate his talents for dead silence and marble immo- bility ; talents hereditary indeed in his house, but in his case so highly improved that he could sit out a comedy without stirring hand or foot, and conduct an audience without movement of a muscle except those in his lips and tongue- He handled his fowling-piece, quaffed his sober cups of cinnamon-water, and per- formed his devotions, with the same undisturbed gravity of mien, and reined his steed with a solemnity that would have become him in pronouncing or receiving sentence of death. To maintain a grave and majestic demeanour in public, was, in his opinion one of the most sacred duties of a sovereign; he was never known to smile but three times in his life; and it was doubtless his desire to go down to posterity as a model of regal deportment. Yet this stately Austrian, whose out- ward man seems the very personification of etiquette, possessed a rich vein of humour, which on fitting occasions he indulged with Cervantes' serious air: "he was full of merry discourse, when and where his lined robe of Spanish and royal gravity was laid aside"; he trode the primrose paths of dalliance, acted in pri- vate theatricals, and bandied pleasantries with Calderon himself.

EARLY STUDIES OF YELASQUEZ.

He discovered also that Nature herself is the artist's best teacher, and indus- try his surest guide to perfection. He very early resolved neither to sketch nor to colour any object without having the thing itself before him. That he might have a model of the human countenance ever at hand, "lie kept," says Pacheco, "a peasant lad as an apprentice, who served him for a study in different actions and postures, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing, till he had grappled with every difficulty of expression; and from him he executed an infinite variety of heads in charcoal and chalk, on blue paper, by which he arrived at certainty in taking likenesses." He thus laid the foundation of the inimitable ease and per- fection with which he afterwards painted heads; in which his excellence was ad- mitted even by his detractors, in a precious piece of criticism often in their mouths, that he could paint a head, and nothing else. To this, when it was once repeated to him by Philip IV., he replied, with the noble humility of a great mas- ter and the good humour which most effectually turns the edge of sarcasm, that they flattered him, for he knew nobody of whom it could be said that he painted a head thoroughly welL To acquire facility and brilliancy in colouring, he devoted himself for a while to the study of animals and still-life; painting all sorts of objects rich in tones and tints, and simple in configuration, such as pieces of plate, metal and earthen pots and pans, and other domestic utensils, and the birds, fish, and fruits, which the woods and waters around Seville so lavishly supply to its markets.

These handsome volumes are enriched with engravings and wood-cuts, after specimens of the Spanish masters, or occasionally of some memo- rial relating to them. The specimens are portraits, and examples from the compositions of the masters but, though numerous, they are rather enrichments to the volumes than illustrations of the subject, being in this sense deficient in systematic choice and largeness.