lresh and transparent coloring, much fertility, and an
equal amount of boldness — all the resources, in fact,
of a powerful and well-practised pencil ; but with all
these merits, his style is commonplace, wanting in
nobility as much as in simplicity, his composition is
unnatural and forced, containing an absurd mixture
of history and mythology, the abuse of allegories
carried to confusion and puerility. His attitudes are
forced, foreshortening is introduced needlessly, there
336 WONDERS OF ITALIAN ART.
are useless lights, incorrect shadows, inharmonious
tints, and as the consequence of all this, false and
labored effects, which form a fashion in the arts as
short-lived as that in vestments, without having the
excuse of a variety not allowed by unchangeable
nature.
When, after having passed nine years in Spain,
where he had been sent for by the imbecile Charles
II., who had been persuaded that the greatest of
painters should serve the greatest of kings, Luca
Giordano returned to Italy. He was received with
the greatest distinction by the grand-duke of Tusca-
ny, and the pope Clement XL, who allowed him to
enter the Vatican " with his sword, cloak, and spec-
tacles." At JSTaples a similar reception awaited him,
besides so many orders, that Giordano, rich and old,
had no time to enjoy before his death that otiumcum
dignitate, the last happiness of an illustrious man
during his life. It was at this period that one of his
friends, persuading him to paint with reflection and
leisure some great work, for the glory of his name :
" I only desire glory," said Giordano, " in Paradise."
" Where," says Cean Bermudez, " we hope that he
entered on the 4th January, 1705, the day on which
he died, at seventy-three years of age."
Luca Giordano, so to say, flooded Italy with his
works ; he did the same in Spain. We could scarcely
count, much less describe, the enormous ornamental
works which he painted in the Escurial, at Buen
Retiro, in the Cathedral of Toledo, and in the chape]
NEAPOLITAN SCHOOL. 337
of the palace at Madrid. To give an idea of the
prodigious rapidity of his execution, it suffices to say
that the queen having come one day to visit Giordano
in his studio, she asked after his family. The painter
replied with his pencil by immediately tracing his wife
and children on the canvas before him. The delighted
queen threw round his neck her pearl necklace. To
show what such facility may produce when it is sec-
onded by assiduous labor, it suffices to mention mere-
ly the number of pictures which Giordano executed
during his residence in Spain. Besides the great
works ordered for the king, the book of Cean Bermu-
dez gives a list of one hundred and ninety-six pic-
tures in the churches and palaces of Madrid, la
Granja, the Pardo, Seville, Cordova, Grenada,
Xeres, etc. To this must be added the pictures,
impossible to enumerate, bought by private ama-
teurs.
Similar to Lope de Yega in fertility of invention
and wonderful facility of execution, Luca Giordano
painted a picture in a day, as the poet wrote a com-
edy, and each counted his works by hundreds. But
both deserve to be quoted as examples of the abuse
of natural powers, and of the faults this abuse entails.
In both, these powers were, as it were, stifled by thei."
own excess ; in both we feel the absence of consci-
entious work and pure taste, the forgetfulness of that
salutary fear of the public, and that severity of self-
control without which there can be no perfection.
What was in reality the result of such fine quali
22
338 W0NDEK8 OF ITALIAN ART.
ties and such great labor ? Lope de Yega, satisfied
with honors and riches, whose fame was so great that
his name alone was employed to personify excellence
in everything, must have appeared very severe tow-
ards himself, when, at the close of his life, passing in
review more than two thousand dramatic works, he
condemned all except six ; and yet posterity, still
more severe, has not even allowed this exception ;
none of his innumerable works have been considered
worthy to be selected as models. It is the same with
Luca Giordano. He also was rich, honored, and
celebrated ; but posterity has not treated him with
less severity than Lope de Yega, and all the glory he
enjoyed during his life may now be summed up by
the nickname given him in his childhood : to us he is
always Luca, fa presto.
In other respects a radical difference separates the
poSt from the painter. Lope de Yega created or at
least settled the drama in Spain ; he opened a vast
road, in which he was followed and surpassed by
Calderon, Moreto, Rojas, Alarcon, Tirso de Molina,
and his influence extended even to Corneille and
Molicre. Luca Giordano, on the contrary, was the
last of that magnificent generation of painters who
had succeeded each other in Italy since the masters
of Raphael ; in Spain since his disciples. He had a
number of pupils, dazzled by his easy success ; none
were able to follow him in the perilous path he had
chosen ; they all lost their way. And the most cele-
brated among them, Mattci. Simonelli, Rossi, Pacelli
NEAPOLITAN SCHOOL. 339
and even Solimena, were only imitators of an imi-
tator. Luca Giordano had destroyed, as if for his
own pleasure, for the sake of a fatal agility of mind
and hand, all the last remaining protecting rules of
good taste, the last entrenchments of art. lie left
behind him merely a void, and his name will remain
as the most solemn demonstration of the truth that,
besides natural gifts, an arti3t requires two qualities
of head and heart ; reflection and dignity.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF PAINTERS' NAMES.
nam.
Agostino of Siena. 41
Agnolo of Siena 41
Albani, Francesco 326
Allori, Alessandro 122
Cristoforo 122
Andrea del Sarto 113
Angelico, Fra 87
Bacchiata, II 95
Baldovinotto, Alesso 59
Barile, Giovanni 113
Bartolomeo of Florence 43
Bartolomeo, Fra, della Gatta.. 48
Bartolommeo, Fra, della Porta. Ill
Basaiti, Marco 81
Bassano, Francesco 294
Giam Battista 294
Girolamo 294
Jacopo 294
Leandro 294
Beccafumi, Domenico 58
Bellini, Gentile 243
Giovanni 246
Belotto Bernardo 297
Berabi, Bonifazio 290
Berlinghieri, Bonaventura. . .. 43
Bordoue, Paris 290
FAGB.
Boticelli, Sandro 128
Bronzino (Angiolo Allori). ... 121
Buffalmacco 81
Buonarotti, Michael Angelo. .. 125
Cagliari, Carletto 289
Canaletto 296
Capanna, Puccio 81
Caravaggio 239
Carpaccio, Vittore 244
Carracci, Agostino 305
Aunibal 304
Ludovico 305
Castagno, Andrea del 84
Cavallini, Pietro 81
Cesari, Giuseppe 332
Cesto, Cesare da 211
Cimabue 76
Conegliano, Giam Ciraa da. . .. 245
Correggio 218
Cortano, Pietro di 213
Credi, Lorenzo da 95
Crivelli, Carlo 81
Doloi, Carlo 123
Domenichino 311
Donat«llo V
342
ALPHABETICAL LNDEX.
PAGE.
Donzclli, Ippolito 331
Duccio of Siena 58
Ferrari, Gaudenzio 214
Fiore, Col ' Antonio del 331
Fiorentino, Stefano 78
Fra Bartolommeo Ill
Fra Giovanni da Fiesole 87
Francesca, Pietro della 81
Francia, Francesco 298
Gaddi, Gaddo 58
Taddeo 78
Garofalo 217
Ghiberti 41
Ghirlandajo, Domenico 95
Giotto 77
Giordano, Luca 334
Giorgione 249
Giulio Romano 204
Giunta of Pisa 74
Gozzoli, Beuozzo 88
Guardi, Francesco 297
Guercino 321
Guido of Siena 75
Guido Reni 317
Laurati, Pietro. 81
Leonardo da Vinci 98
Lippi, Filippo 95
Lippo, Andrea di 45
Lo Spagna 95
Lotto, Lorenzo 290
Luigi, Andrea. 95
Luinj, Bernardino 213
Vlaiano, Benedetto of 59
PASS.
Maiano, Giuliano of 69
Mantegna, Andrea 214
Maratti, Carlo 213
Margaritone of Arezzo 43
Masaccio 92
Mefozzo of Forli 81
Melzi, Francesco 214
Memmi, Simone 78
Messina, Antonello da 84
Michael Angelo 125
Mino ( Fra ) dc Turrita 58
Morone 290
Orcagna 81
Palma Vecchio 290
il Giovine 290
Pauicale, Masolino da 48
Parmegiano 237
Paul Veronese 282
Penni, Gian Francesco 176
Perugino 95
Pinturicchio 95
Pioinbo, Sebastian del 290
Pisano, Andrea 41
Giovanni 41
Nicola 41
Pistoja, Gerino da 95
Pollajuolo, Antonio 95
Pontormo 115
Pordenone 290
Porta, Fra Bartolommeo della 111
Raphael 146
Razzi 115
Reni, Guido ?17
Ribera, Giuseppe 8 M
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
343
Rico, Andrea of Candia 44
Robusti, Domenico 289
Romano, Giulio 204
Rosa, Salvator 332
Salerno, Andrea da 331
Salvator Rosa 332
Sanzio, Giovanni 95
Sarto, Andrea del 113
Sebastian del Piombo 290
Suhiavone, Andrea Medola. . .. is90
Siena, Agostino of 41
Agnolo of 41
Solario, Antonio (Zingaro). . . . 331
Andrea 214
Spadara, Micco 332
Spagna, Lo 96
Spagnoletto (Ribera) 330
Squareione 73
Stamina, Gherardo 81
Stefano of Verona 46
Tan, Andrea.
Tintoretto. . .
Titian
Uccello, Paolo.
Ugolino
Ursone
Vasari, Giorgio
Vecellio, Orazio
Veneziano, Domenico. .
Ventura of Bologna. . .
j Verocchio, Andrea del.
Veronese, Paul
Vicentino ,
Vinci, Leonardo da. . .
Vivarini, Hartoloinmeo.
Lui<n
Zingaro (Salario). .
Zuccati, Francesco.
Valeric . .
PAOB.
. 68
278
. 253
. 81
. 81
. 43
, 123
. 289
. 84
. 43
. 95
. 282
290
98
243
24!
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