the centuries concerning this man and his work.
For example, he made a statue of a sleeping
cupid, which was buried in the groimd for a
time that it might assume the appearance of
age, and pass for an antique. Afterward it
was sold to the Cardinal San Giorgio for two
hundred ducats, though Michael Angelo
received only thirty. Nevertheless, he died a
rich man, after having cared for a numerous
family, while he himself lived like a man
without means. All the tranquillity he ever
knew he enjoyed in his old age.
It was characteristic of his perversity that
he left his name upon nothing that he made,
with one exception. Vasari relates the story
of that exception:
"The love and care which Michael Angelo
had given to this group, ' In Paradise,' were
such that he there left his name — a thing he
never did again for any work — on the cincture
which girdles the robe of Our Lady; for it
happened one day that Michael Angelo, entering
the place where it was erected, found a large
assemblage of strangers from Lombardy there,
who were praising it highly; one of them
asking who had done it, was told, 'our Hunch-
back of .Milan ' ; hearing which Michael Angelo
remained silent, although surprised that his
work should be attributed to another. But
Michael Angela (Buonarroti) 29
one night he repaired to St. Peter's with a light
and his chisels, to engrave his name on the
figure, which seems to breathe a spirit as perfect
as her form and coimtenance."
If his youth had been given to sculpture,
his maturity to the painting of wondrous
frescoes, so his old age was devoted to archi-
tecture, and as architect he rebuilt the
decaying St. Peter's. In this work he felt
that he partly realised his ideal. Sculpture
meant more to him, ''did more for the glory
of God," than any other form of art. When
he had finished his work on St. Peter's, he is said
to have looked upon it and exclaimed: "I
have hung the Pantheon in the air!"
This colossal genius died in Rome, and was
carried by the light of torches from that city
back to his better loved Florence, where he
was buried. His tomb was made in the Santa
Croce, and upon it are three female figures
representing Michael Angelo's three wonderful
arts: Architecture, sculpture and painting.
No artist was greater than he.
His will committed "his soul to God, his
body to the earth, and his property to his
nearest relatives."
PLATE — DANIEL
This wonderful painting is a part of the
decoration of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
The picture of the prophet tells so much in
30 Pictures Every Child Should Know
itself, that a description seems absurd. It is
enough to call attention to the powerful
muscles in the arm, the fall of the hand, and
then to speak of the main characteristics of the
artist's pictures.
It is extraordinary that there is no blade of
grass to be fotmd in any painting by Michael
Angelo. He loved to paint but one thing,
and that was the naked man, the powerful
muscles, or the twisted limbs of those in great
agony. He loved only to work upon vast
spaces of ceiling or wall. Look at this picture
of Daniel and see how like sculpture the
pose and modelling appear to be. First of all,
Michael Angelo was a sculptor, and most of
the painting which fate forced him to do has
the characteristics of sculpture.
One critic has remarked that he loves to
think of this strange man sitting before the
marble quarry of Pietra Santa and thinking
upon all the beings hidden in the cliif — beings
which he should fashion from the marble.
It was said that in Michael Angelo 's hands
the Holy Family became a race of Titans, and
where others would have put plants or foliage,
Angelo placed men and naked limbs to fill the
space. When his subject made some sort of
herbage necessary, he invented a kind of
mediaeval fern in place of grass and familiar
leaves. Everything appears brazen and hard
and mighty, suggestive of Angelo's own
throbbing spirit and maddened soul. Most
Michael Angela (Buonarroti) 31
of his work, when illustrated, must be shown
not as a whole but in sections, but one can
best mention them as entire picture themes.
On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are nine
frescoes describing **The Creation of The
World," *'The Fall of Man" and "The Deluge."
**The Last Judgment" occupies the entire
altar wall in the same chapel of the Vatican.
"The Holy Family" is in the Uffizi Gallery,
Florence.
Ill
ARNOLD BOCKLIN
(Pronounced Bek'-lin)
Modern German School {Diisseldorf) 182 7-1 901
THIS Splendid artist is so lately dead that
it does not seem proper yet to discuss
'^his personal history, but we can speak under-
standingly of his art, for we already know it
to be great art, which will stand the test of
time. His imagination turned toward subjects
of solemn grandeur and his work is very
impressive and beautiful.
He was born in Basel, "one of the most
prosaic towns in Europe." His father was a
Swiss merchant, and not poor; thus the son
had ordinarily good chances to make an artist
of himself. He was born at a time when to be
an artist had long ceased to be a reproach,
and men no longer discouraged their sons
who felt themselves inspired to paint great
pictures.
When Bocklin was nineteen years old he
took himself to Diisseldorf, with his mxcrchant
father's permission, and settled down to learn
his art, but in that city he found mostly
"sentimental and anecdotal" pictures being
painted, which did not suit him at all. Then
32
Danikl — Michelangelo
One of the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel at Rome that illustrate the whole Bible
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Arnold Bocklin 33
he took himself off to Brussels, where again
he was not satisfied, and so went to Paris.
But while in Brussels he had copied many old
masters, and had advanced himself very
much, so that he did not present himself in
Paris raw and untried in art.
At first he studied in the Louvre, then w^ent
to Rome, seeking ever the best, and being
hard to satisfy. He found rest and tranquillity
in Zurich, a city in his native country, but it
was Italv that had most influenced his work.
He loved the Campagna of Rome wdth its
ruins and the sad grandeur of the crumbling
tombs lining its way, and therefore a certain
mysterious, grand, and solemn character made
his pictures unlike those of any other artist.
He loved to paint in vertical (up-and-down)
lines, rather than with the conventional hori-
zontal outlines that we find in most paintings.
This method gives his pictures a different
quality from any others in the world.
He loved best of all to paint landscape,
and it is said of him that "as the Greeks
peopled their streams and woods and waves
with creatures of their imagination, so Bocklin
makes the waterfall take shape as a nymph, or
the mists which rise above the water source
wreathe into forms of merry children; or in
some wild spot hurls centaurs together in
fierce combat, or makes the slippery, moving
wave give birth to Nereids and Tritons."
Muther, art-critic and biographer, calls our
34 Pictures Every Child Should Know
attention to the similarity between Wagner's
music and Bocklin's painting. While Wagner
was "luring the colours of sound from music,"
Bocklin's "symphonies of colour streamed
forth like a crashing orchestra," and he calls
him the greatest colour-poet of the time.
In appearance Bocklin was fine of form,
healthy and wholesome in all his thoughts and
way of living. In 1848 he took part in
revolutionary politics and later this did him
great harm. Only the influence of his friends
kept him from ruin. After the Franco-Prussian
war he was made Minister of Fine Arts. In
this office he rendered great service; but
because he had to witness the wrecking of the
Column Vend6me in order to save the Louvre
and the Luxembourg from the mob, he was
censured; indeed so hea\y a fine w^as imposed
that it took his whole fortune to pay it; and
he was banished into the bargain. From
1892 to 1 90 1 he lived in or near Florence,
and he died at Fiesole, January i6th, 1901.
PLATE — THE ISLE OF THE DEAD
This picture is perhaps the greatest of the
many great Arnold Bocklin paintings, and it is
both fascinating and awe-inspiring.
It best shows his liking for vertical lines in
art. The Isle of the Dead is of a rocky, shaft-
like formation in which we may see hewn-out
tombs ; and there, tall cypress trees are growing.
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Arnold Bbcklin 35
The traces of man's work in the midst of this
sombre, ideal, and mystic scene add to the
impressiveness of the picture. The isle stands
high and lonely in the midst of a sea.
The water seems silently to lap the base
of the rocks and the trees are in black shadow,
massed in the centre. It looks very mysterious
and still. There is a stone gateway touched
with the light of a dying day. It is sunset
and the dead is being brought to its resting
place in a tiny boat, all the smaller for its
relation to the gloomy grandeur of the isle
which it is approaching. One figure is standing
in the boat, facing the island, and the sunlight
falls full upon his back and touches the boat,
making that spot stand out brilliantly from all
the rest of the picture.
Among Bocklin's paintings are ** Naiads at
Play," which hangs in the Museum at Basel,
♦*A Villa by the Sea," "The Sport of the
Waves," ''Regions of Joy," ''Flora," and
"Venus Dispatching Cupid."
IV
MARIE-ROSA BONHEUR
(Pronounced Rosa Bon-er)
French School 1822-1899
Pupil of Raymond B. Bonheur
ROSA BONHEUR, Landseer, and Murillo
may be called ''Children's Painters" in this
book because they painted things that children,
as well as grown-ups, certainly can enjoy.
To be sure, Murillo was a very different sort
of artist from Rosa Bonheur or Landseer,
but if the two latter painted the most beautiful
animals — dogs, sheep, and horses — Murillo
painted the loveliest little children.
Rosa was the best pupil of her father;
Raymond B. Bonheur. In Bordeaux they
lived together the peaceful life of artists,
the father being already a well known painter
when his daughter was born. She became,
as Mr. Hamerton, who knew her, said, " the
most accomplished female painter who ever
lived ." . . a pure, generous woman as
well and can hardly be too much admired . . .
as a woman or an artist. She is simple in her
tastes and habits of life and many stories are
told of her generosity to others."
After a time the Bonheurs moved to Paris
36
Marie- Rosa Bonheur 37
where young Rosa could have better oppor-
tunities; and there she put on man's clothing,
which she wore all her life thereafter. She
wore a workingman's blouse and trousers,
and tramped about looking more like a man
than a woman with her short hair. This
made everybody stare at her and think her
very queer, but people no longer believe that
she dressed herself thus in order to advertise
herself and attract attention; but because it
was the most convenient costume for her to
get about in. She went to all sorts of places;
the stockyards, slaughter houses, all about the
streets of Paris, to learn of things and people,
especially of animals, which she wished most
to paint. She could hardly have gone about
thus if she had worn women's clothing.
Rosa Bonheur exhibited her first painting
at the Salon in 1841, and this was twelve years
before her beloved father died ; thus he had the
happiness of knowing that the daughter whom
he had taught so lovingly was on the road
to success and fortune. He knew that when
fortune should come to her she would use it
well. The year that she exhibited her work
in the Salon she painted only two little pic-
tures — one of rabbits, the other of sheep and
goats — but they were so splendidly done
that all the critics knew a great woman artist
had arrived.
It was then that her enemies, those who
were becoming jealous of her work, said that
38 Pictures Every Child Should Know
she was wearing men's clothing in order to
attract attention to herself.
Soon her work began to be bought by the
French Government, which was a sure sign of
her power. She was already much beloved
by the people. In the meantime we in America
and others in England had heard of Mademoi-
selle Bonheur, but we heard far less about her
painting than we did about her masculine
garb. We thought of her mostly as an eccen-
tric woman; but one day came "The Horse
Fair," and all the world heard of that, so the
artist was to be no longer judged by the
clothes she wore but by her art. Finally, she
received the cross of the Legion of Honour,
and also was made a member of the Institute
of Antwerp.
She lived near Fontainebleau ; her studio
a peaceful retired home, till the Franco-Prussian
war came about. Then she and others began
to fear that her studio and pictures would be
destroyed, so the artist was forced to stop her
work and prepared to go elsewhere. But
the Crown Prince of Prussia himself ordered
that Mademoiselle Bonheur should not even
be disturbed. Her work had made her belong
to all the world and all the world was to
protect her if need be.
Rosa Bonheur had a brother who, some
critics said, was the better artist, but if that
were true it is likely that his popularity would
in some degree have approached that of his
Marie-Rosa Bonhcur 39
sister. Rosa Bonhcur did not paint many
large canvases, but mostly small ones, or
only moderately large; but when she painted
sheep it seems that one might shear the wool,
it stands so fleecy and full; while her horses
rampage and curvet, showing themselves off
as if they were alive.
PLATE THE HORSE FAIR
This picture was exhibited all over the world
very nearly. It was carried to England and
to America, and won admiration wherever it
was seen. Finally it was sold in America.
It was first exhibited in 1853, the year in
which the artist's father died. Mr. Ernest
Gambart was the first who bought the picture,
and he wrote of it to his friend, Mr. S. P.
Avery: "I will give you the real history of
'The Horse Fair,' now in New York. It
was painted in 1852, by Rosa Bonheur, then
in her thirtieth year, and exhibited in the next
Salon. Though much admired it did not find
a purchaser. It was soon after exhibited in
Ghent, meeting again with much appreciation,
but was not sold, as art did not flourish at the
time. In 1855 the picture was sent by Rosa
Bonheur to her native town of Bordeaux and
exhibited there. She offered to sell it to
the town at the very low price 12,000
francs ($2,400). While there, I asked her if
she would sell it to me, and allow me to take
40 Pictures Every Child Should Know
it to England and have it engraved. She said :
*I wish to have my picture remain in France.
I will once more impress on my countrymen
my wish to sell it to them for 12,000 francs.
If they refuse, you can have it, but if you take
it abroad, you must pay me 40,000 francs.'
The town failing to make the purchase, I at
once accepted these terms, and Rosa Bonheur
then placed the picture at my disposal. I
tendered her the 40,000 francs and she said:
'I am much gratified at your giving me such
a noble price, but I do not like to feel that I
have taken advantage of your liberality; let
us see how we can combine in the matter. You
will not be able to have an engraving made
from so large a canvas. Suppose I paint you
a small one from the same subject, of which I
will make you a present.' Of course I accepted
the gift, and thus it happened that the large
w^ork went travelling over the kingdom on
exhibition, while Thomas Landseer was making
an engraving from the quarter-size replica.
"After some time (in 1857 I think), I sold
the original picture to Mr. William P. Wright,
New York (whose picture gallery and residence
were at Weehawken, N. J.), for the sum
of 30,000 francs, but later I understood
that Mr. Stewart paid a much larger price
for it on the breaking up of Mr. Wright's
gallery. The quarter size replica, from which
the engraving was made, I finally sold to Mr.
Jacob Bell, who gave it in 1859 to the nation,
Marie- Rosa Bonhcur 41
and it is now in the National Gallery, London.
A second, still smaller replica, was painted a
few years later, and was resold some time ago
in London for ;£4,ooo ($20,000). There
is also a smaller water-colour drawing w^hich
was sold to Mr. Bolckow for 2,500 guineas
($12,000), and is now an heirloom belonging
to the town of Middlesbrough. That is the
whole history of this grand work. The Stewart
canvas is the real and true original, and only
large size 'Horse-Fair.'
"Once in Mr. Stewart's collection, it never
left his gallery until the auction sale of his
collection, March 25th, 1887, when it was pur-
chased by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt for the
sum of $55,000, and presented to the Metro-
politan Museum of Art."
And thus we have the whole story of the
"Horse-Fair." The picture is 93^ inches high,
and 197 inches wide, and it contains a great
number of horses, some of which are ridden,
while others are led, and all are crowding with
wild gaiety toward the fair where it is quite
plain they know they are about to be admired
and their beauty shown to the best advantage.
Other well-known Rosa Bonheurs are "Plough-
ing," "Shepherd Guarding Sheep," ''Highland
Sheep," "Scotch Deer," "American Mustangs,"
and "The Study of a Lioness."
ALESSANDRO BOTTICELLI
(Pronounced Ah-lays-sahn'dro Bo't-te-chel'lee)
Florentine School 1447-1510 (Vasari's dates)
Pupil of F Hippo Lippi and Verrocchio
BOTTICELLI took his name from his first
master, as was the fashion in those days.
The relation of master and apprentice was very
close, not at all like the relation of pupil and
teacher to-day.
Botticelli's father was a Florentine citizen,
Mariano Filipepi, and he wished his son to
become a goldsmith; hence the lad was soon
apprenticed to Botticelli, the goldsmith. As a
scholar, the little goldsmith had not distin-
guished himself. Indeed it is said that as a
boy he would not " take to any sort of schooling
in reading, writing, or arithmetic." It cannot
be said that this failure distinguished him as a
genius, or the world would be full of genius-
boys; but the result was that he early began
to learn his trade.
Fortunately for him and us, Botticelli, the
smith, was a man of some wisdom and when he
saw that the lad originated beautiful designs
and had creative genius he did not treat the
matter with scorn, as the master of Andrea del
42
Alcssandro Botticelli 43
Sarto had done, but sent him instead to Fra
Fihppo (Lippo Lippi) to be taught the art
of painting. So kind a deed might well
establish a feeling of devotion on little Ales-
sandro's part and make him wish to take his
master's name.
Fra Filippo was a Carmelite monk, merry
and kindly; simple, good, and gifted, but his
temperament did not seem to influence his
young pupil. Of all unhappy, morbid men,
BotticelU seems to have been the most so. unless
we are to except Michael Angelo.
After studying with the monk, Botticelli
was summoned by Pope Sixtus IV. to Rome
to decorate a new chapel in the Vatican.
Before that time his whole life had been greatly
influenced by the teachings of Savonarola
who had preached both passionately and
learnedly in Florence, advocating liberty.
From the time he fell under Savonarola's
wonderful power, the artist grew more and
more mystic and morbid. In Rome it was the
custom to have the portraits of conspirators,
or persons of high degree who were revolu-
tionary or otherwise objectionable to the state,
hung outside the Public Palace, and in Botti-
celli's time there was a famous disturbance
among the aristocrats of the state. In 1478
the powerful Pazzi family conspired against
the Medici family, which then actually had
control. It was Botticelli who was engaged
to paint the portraits of the Pazzi family,
44 Pictures Every Child Should Know
which to their shame and humiUation were
to be displayed upon the palace walls.
One peculiarity of this artist's pictures was
that he used actual goldleaf to make the high
lights upon hair, leaves, and draperies. The
effect of the use of this gold was very beautiful,
if imusual, and it may have been that his
apprenticeship as a goldsmith suggested to
him such a device.
Also it was he who created certain character-
istics of painting that have since been thought
original with Burne- Jones. This was the use
of long stiff lily-stalks or other upright details
in his compositions. Examples of this idea,
which produced so weird an effect, will be found
in his allegory of ''Spring," where stiff tree-
trunks form a part of the background. In
the "Madonna of the Palms" upright lily-
stalks are held in pale and trembling hands.
Like Michael Angelo, who came years afterward,
Botticelli was a guest of the great Lorenzo
the "Magnificent," in Florence. It was by
Botticelli's hand that the greater painter sent
a letter to Lorenzo from a duchess friend
who was also his patron. This was in Angelo 's
youth; in Botticelli's old age.
All his life was a drama of morbid seeking
after the unattainable, and finally he became
so poor and helpless that in his old age he
would have starved had Lorenzo de' Medici
not taken care of him. Lorenzo and other
friends who in spite of his gloominess admired
Alcssandro Botticelli 45
his real piety, gathered about him and kept
him from starvation.
On his "Nativity," Botticelli wrote: ''This
picture I, Alessandro, painted at the end of
the year 1500 in the troubles of Italy, in the
halftime after the time, during the fulfilment
of the eleventh of John, in the second woe
of the Apocalypse, in the loosing the devil
for three and a half years. Afterward he
shall be chained according to the twelfth of
John, and see him trodden down as in this
picture." All of this is interesting because
Botticelli himself wrote it, but it is not
very easily understood by any child, nor by
many grown people.
Botticelli did some very extraordinary things,
but whether they are beautiful or not one
must decide for himself. They are paintings
so characteristic that one must think them
very beautiful or else not at all so.
PLATE LA PRIMAVERA
{Spring)
In this picture we have the foreiiinner of a
modern painter, because we see in it certain
qualities that we find in Bocklin. Look at
the effect of vertical lines; the tree trunks,
and the poses of the slender women. Over
all hovers a cupid who is sending love-shafts
into the hearts of all in springtime.
Notice the lacy effect of the flowers that
46 Pictures Every Child Should Know
bestar the wind-blown gown of* * La Prima vera,"
the fern-Hke leaves that fleck the background;
the draperies that do not conceal the forms
of the nymphs of the lovely springtime.
The very spirit of spring is seen in all the
half-floating, half -dancing, gliding, diaphanous
figures of the forest. The flowers of "La
Prima vera's" crown are blue and white corn-
flowers and primroses. She scatters over the
earth tulips, anemones, and narcissus. The
painting is allegorical and unique. Never were
such fluttering odds and ends of draperies
painted before, nor such fascinating effects had
from canvas, paint, or brush. The picture
hangs in Florence in the Uifizi Gallery. A
German critic tells us that the " Realm of
Venus," is a better title for this picture, and
that it was painted after a poem of that name.