0 HUMANIST POINTS OF VIEW Sari questa comparatione, ivi la bellezza de” colori pid chiara et pi, leggiadea« U there is this contrast, then the beauty of the colours will be may thiaa and more legiado «.)?* ‘These are moderate examples—and one finds such cases in even other sentence of the treatise—but it still seems like two ming thinking along si Chapter II will try to isolate some characteristic patts of the pattern three generations of humanist Latin discourse came w) impose on painting and sculpture, Anyone used to the mox ered Kn of icon wil id such of the material primi worth remembering, perhaps, that the humanists wee seeatbishing the intttion of at erticism as they weat slay Alberti difered from the other humanists because his purpose i speaking of painting was much more serious; out of the lite of humanist cliché and habit he made something with very long. term consequences for European attitudes to painting. He va: both a good humanist and a practical student of painting, ai Chapter II wll discuss one of the fruits of this freakish conju tion, the notion of ‘compositio ‘De pcrun, Vatican Library, MS. Otto, lat. 1424, fls. 20° and 22°; Dull ptary 1. Malt, Florence, 1950, p. 99 and ror. II The Humanists on Painting 1, PETRARCH: PAINTING AS THE MODEL OF ART Iw his Ttalian sonnets Petrarch praised the paleo 0 of Simone places cedat silee (faces that live). In a Latin favour of the bronze horses about a particular work of art, a twelfth-century polychrome stucco relief of St. Ambrose he saw on a wall of Sant’Ambrogio neat his lodgings in Milan, he expands the related formulas of signa spirantia (statues that breathe) and vox sola dest (only the voiee is lacking): and breathes in the stone, and I often look up at it ‘with reverence. Its no small reward for my coming here. I eannot say how much power there isin its expression, how much grandeur in the brow and serenity in the eyes; only the lack of a voice prevents one seeing the living Ambrose. Giotto’s frescoes at Naples are praised for skill-and-talent (manus of art are constrained; the anthology formulas he used were pet- le less threadbare than they had become a hundred but there is not in practice much profit in trying to "remark, ce A. Rati pib i "XIV, pp. 6-4 and B. H, Wilkins, Pearls Eight Yor inPn THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING licly admired painting: that he was content to ‘on modo itt fase atram rerum elm supeatam’ Fortis paoage se 0 \ Profit, op. pp. 208-3. a —.20 da Fras, 5 Jerome London, nal Gallery “Tempera on pat® ‘THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING 3 that these formulas are at least more consistent with interest in ‘an art directed to imitation of nature than to, say, splendor or iymmetria, and 50 far as it goes this is clearly true. Petrarch is important in humanist art criticism, not for his characterless particular judgements, but because he re-established for humanism a characteristic sort of generalized reference to painting and sculpture. A peculiarity of this sort of discourse is that it turns on and round a few very clear and more or less inter- connected concepts. These appear at their clearest in the chapters ‘on painting and sculpture in De remediis utrinsque fortunae, Pet- rarch’s longest statement about art and indeed the longest dis- cussion of art one has from the humanist Trecento. On account of its great ambivalence De remediis utrinsque fortunae is nowadays one of the most enjoyable of Petrarch’s Latin books to read. It was written between 1354 and 1366, a development of a type offered by Seneca’s De remediis fortuitorum, but Petrarch takes the form further than Seneca, In the section with chapters on paint- jing and sculpture the form is a rather one-sided dialogue between Gaudium and Ratio: Gaudium repeatedly states joy in some material aspect of good fortune—such as the possession of works of art— and Ratio states a series of reasons for inhibiting one’s enjoyment of it. The fact that painting and sculpture are, like health, chess, friendship, books, and many other things, matters of good for- tune is therefore not in question. What the dialogue is concerned with is how to keep a proper moderation and poise in one’s approach to this good fortune, and part of the game lies in finding better ideas to use against some joys than against others. Pet- sarch’s arguments against the enjoyment of painting are relatively thin or double-edged. Here are the chapters on painting and sculpture from De remediis utriusque fortunae in Thomas Twyne’s translation of 1579,¢ which comes nearer to Petrarch’s Latin than modern English can: Of Pictures and painted Tables. The XL. Dialogue Toy. 1am delighted with pictures, and painted tables. «+ Phich agin Fore el ropa, tar, ented nto Boks. Ween i brackets. There if one [sacred images J (p38) was apparently too Romish for Teyae, who subeatuted "To ‘ke delight also ia the images and watuer of godly and verrwous men, the bebolding of ‘which may str us up to have remembrance of thle manners and lives is reasonable, and ‘may profie us i imitating same’4 THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING Reason. A vaine delight, and no lesse folly then hath raigned som, tyme in great personages, and no deale more tollerable then it hath by in olde tyme. For every evyl example is then worst, when as eyther ti, itie, or of yeeres is ioyned un and with them would esteeme of glory and vertue, with whom stand fondly gazing at Pictures without ende. jinde, which woondre an which] there is nothing not oa , but also of nature, more wonderful at evry thing, saving among all the work: tures, and where the passage is to the highest places, [you look down, and] there ye ende the boundes of your understanding. Igy. Lam specially delyghted with painted tables, and Pictures. Reason, Thou conceivest delight in the pencill and colours, wherein the price, and cunning, and varietie, and curious dispersing, doth please thine eye: even 50 likewyse the lively gestures of lyvelesse pic: tures, and the {motions of unmovable images], and countenaunces comming out of poastes, and lively portraicures ‘of faces, doo bryng thee into woondring, insomuch as thou wilt almost thynke they would speak unto thee: and this is the onely danger in this behalfe, in that ‘many great wittes have been [those most ken by these means. So that, whereas the clowne and unskylfull person will with small woondryng pass them over: the wyser wyll repose hym selfe with sighing and woondring. A cunning ly, howbeit it is not possible from the beginning to unfold the fyrst originall and encrease of this art, and the wonderfulnesse of the woorkes, and the industrie of the ‘workmen, the madnesse of princes, and the unreasonable prices wherewith these have been bought and brought from beyonde the seas, and placed at Rome, eyther in the Temples of the Goddes, or in ‘THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING s the bed chambers of the Emperours, or in the common streetes, or publique porches and galleries. Neyther was this suficient, but that They must also apply their owne right handes,* which of duety ought to have been busied about greater aff the exercise of this art, which the most noble Philosophers of Whereby it came to passe, that among you the art of paintyag was esteemed above all handie craftes, as a thyng more neere to the woorke of nature: And among the Grecians, yf ye wyll beleeve Plinie, faccompted [a first step in] the Liberal Artes. But I let passe these thinges, for that they are in a maner contrary to mine entended brevitie, and present purpose : and may seeme rather to minister infected humours to the sicknesse, whose cure I promised to undertake, and by the excellencie of the thinges, to excuse the madnesse of the woonderers at them, How beit I sayde yer whyle, that the greatnesse of them that dyd the exrour the lesse: but I touched that poynt the rather it myght appeare how great the force of that folly whiche so many and so great wittes have conspired, unto 10 the prince of errour the common multitude, and long con- yuance, whiche is the engenderer of customes, and auctorite, whiche is a great heape of all mi , are ioyned : so that the pleasure and admiration thezeof, is able privily to remoove and withdrawe the minde from contemplation of higher matters. But yf these thynges that are counterfeited and shadowed with vayne colours doo so muche delyght Of Statues and Images. The XLI. Dialogue Toy. But I take great pleasure in Images. Reason. These be sundrie artes, but the madnesse is one, and there is but one beginning of them both, and one ende, but divers matter. Igy. I delight in coly, but these ate felt + bodyes are more durable cause that there remayne to this day in no place any pictures of auncient times, but statues innumerable: Whereby this age in this in many thynge: fyrst inventer of pictures: [or—what is next to its invention—to have * Pliny, N.HL. axcv, 19-20. 6 Pliny, NIH. mexv. 77: tecpeterar in primum gradum Uber’.— eEr———™ HE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING sHE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING ” 6 boldly and impudent} . “ojued heat and dare boldly and impadently sg gle an pesous one Yet wht yg di wb pee ot ot oye cree | eno going wrnon es made of wu a1 eo at ones of seales and statues: seeing in ee a J almost aloo, coneeatand: serif they be divers, they sprang both from one fountayne, tox, sander ce delyght in noble states and image. a Or of drawing, and doubtlesss 9° of one antiquity and flourishes ne ey che meanyng, of covetousnese: it the pie at ea oe or why, Apel and Pye Lseippas, Ive a te Reason. 1 Know ve art that pleasth thee. Tam sate thou dest ia Serta el 1 e078 A Oe image of olde of meane woorkemanihyp, shove may by this meanes be PFOOve: ‘hese three together above the res, pane ccs aed male and spel oe “iscander of Macedonie, chose ec ye one should paint him, the omer Oe him, many asic iy, as the prevent valuation of thinges nowe Wide eave him? henyghely forbiddyng all other, uppon w geafe, and 05 “Ey jg as muche as to say, 28 t0 love ‘he gold, cunnyng of assuraunce ‘Of skyll presumyng, to meddle swith expressyag adaye® Tod ee, whiche as it may Te made noble of a vile matter, 30 the kynges face any maner of way? ‘and yet was not this madnesse leie and nF the sie rude of pure golde. How ‘much wouldest thou esteeme then the residue. But everry disease is so much the more daungerous, may it be mat nether it were the IKinges of Argria, whiche was made of then the pe more stable and fxed the matter is whereof it ‘proceedeth of ap pecescore ubite Tong, which it wat deh not 0 adore," 8 at this day that would adore it to have it of eee acta Sow there Be AN Ae made of great Tope of four chs Reson, Thynke not that thou errest alone, ox that thou hast no their OWE, ‘ou readest that the Queene of Epptsimage was made Of which thou rea images Ferm sat the common people: For in tymes past howe great te ong, T cuppose thou woul sooo es th bech of statues and images, and howe fervent the stl reatange think t0 DE SPO ‘free mateitis td desire of men was reposed in Sache pleasures, the most diligent cpt fer Mite of “urs and Varpaian® and other Emperours, and Kyngey of i : Sf avhom it were impertinent and too long to ntreste, and also of ote Ty. Tmages and staves cunningly wrought, delight mine 7% noble personages of the second degree, and industrious keepyng of “Reason, Images and statues: somtime were the tok Tee Shen they had founde them, and theyr sundrie dedicatyng and arity be the enticementes of the CF ‘The bestowing them, may sufficiently declare. Hereunto also may be added, now sor and emembraunce of suche had the great fame Of the woorkemen, not rashly spread abroade by the honov seaily yeelded them selves uP Wo common people, or reported upon dumbe workes, but celebrated ia or etemgache as were decreed 0 be Set OP honour the soundyng of learned and approved writers: whiche beyng so great, Yours that were slayne by the king of the [Fidenates) a be able to spryng from a smal roote. A grt dour fin the honour of Seipio Arians, name cometh of nothing must be retin deede, or seme tobe cree yaliant courage, and woorthy me $0, whereof great men do seul inet, But all hese thinges Ihave pis uhiche after his death he coulde 9 refose” anvwered before, and tende to this purpose, that thou mayest nd bue whiche aise and learned men, the 1 veande, 1 force so auncient and stout an errour must DE the ono OF tori * and now aca Tp. T onaeyre plearar Merchantes, wrought of outlandish Mate 5 ia a ad statues and images. Toy, Statues artificially eee ; imitate inal ‘Reason, very kinde of stuffe alm pene te, Cen como a oa ee eceyve how this thy delights ful though among a pagste of Paris, and a ue perefble mater. Howbelt I ot not pet freendly and come nesrest to verte oe Re coin Shoulde be any pleasure in the golde, He and thritinesse, whiche two vertacs doo cx lesse Phidias, ox what worthinesse these shoul statues of Goddes and men to be ee we of images and ih :. made of earth, and suche lyke matte rte pera) 7 Play, N. se * Plins, NHL xxx. 27-8 4 Livy, mtv. $6.8 THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING y* earth, although it be yelow, but by meanes of the Andvil, ham tongues, coules, invention, handy labour. What thing may be 0 be wished of a man, or hath in deede any magnificence i : Izy. Tean not chose but take great pleasure in images, Reason. To take pleasure in the wittie devises of men, 20 it modestly done, is tollerable, and specially of such a unlesse malice be an hinderaunce, every man doeth will that in another, which he loveth in him selfe. To take [sacred images, which may remind the beholder of the grace of heave, is often a devout thing and useful in arousing our minds.] Prophiae images also, although sometime they move the minde, and styre it upt vvertue, whilst lukewarme mindes doo waxe hot with the remembraine reason and duetie, lest they become eyther ministers of our religion, and that mos Keepe your selves from Images. But truly, if thou beholde him in thy coo ‘tempiation, who created the fixed earth, the moveable sea, and turnyeg heaven, who also hath replenished the earth, not i it commaundement of the Aposte, T suppose that thou wy! otegenes and Apelles. (1) , for instance, (1) between then (namely classical antiquity) and now; (2) between the informed beholder and the uninformed; (3) between sensuous delight and a more dir criminating useful pleasure; (4) between matter and form or, it another aspect, (5) between matter and skill; and (6) betweea God and man, None of these concepts or distinctions was ne¥, they would have been familiar to schoolmen, but it was Petrarch ‘who more than anyone established them as the basis for humanist discussion of painting and sculpture. As so often, what di tinguishes the humanist from the medieval is a new sort of emphasis rather than a new set of ideas, John s:an, tion alto them in any dscusion of tec culue tnd te ng act of reference back inevitably became comparative and in some ing. But the humaniss’ knowledge of dasa and probably Vitruvi who knew no classical pai true of the division into informed and un- informed publics. St. Augustine had notoriously prefered tobe condemned by the grammars the than ot tobeundesnd by the vulgar. The humanists conscio they were committed to 2 neo-classical tivity must necessarily pass over most relationship wi about painting or sculpture. Besi Pliny’s about Apelles and the been made: Movent profecto animum& THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING It was a thoroughly classical point of view. By the eadly 1, Boccaccio had used the motif for Giotto: E peri, avendo egli quella arte ritornata in luce, che moltisecol sy glierror d’alcuni, che pit a dilettar gli occhi deg? ignoranti chet con. piacere allo ‘ntelleto de’ savi dipigneano, era stata sepulta . In 1570, in his will, Petrarch drew on the dis mend to Francesco da Carrara the panel by ment offered by a painting or statue. Petrarch a are naturally more explicit about the crude q revel in than the subtler qualities worth a tion: roughly speaking the latter seem to be connected, recognition of the craftsman’s skill and, second, moral advantage gained from the contemplation of edifying sub- 1 think Caccilius Balbus’ feelings about the Romans’ religious images were no diferent from what we in the full rectitude of ou faith fee ‘memorials of ous Saints and Martyrs. For sand as Gods but rather as images of God cd be that the ignorant vulgar think more cough the medium an image of Fortune with of sensible things, if pagan peop! 4 commucopia and’a rudder—as distributing wealth and controlling ‘human affirs—they did not deviate very much from the truth. So too, ‘920 eg, ut ips virgo bees sib a propia apd Slim saum Tesum Christus. ‘THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING « when our own artists represent Fortune asa queen turning with her Jands a revolving wheel very fas, so long a we apprehend tht picture ‘Something made by a man’s hand, not something itself divine but 2 ‘Mnilitude of divine providence, direction, and order—and representing Jndeed nor its essential character bu rather the winding and tuning of ‘mundane affairs—who can reasonably complain?! If Petrarch himself in ascetic contexts stated doubts about the value of sacred images, these doubts too related to the pos- sibility of abuse by uninformed and undiscriminating beholder, ‘The distinction between matter and skill overlapped in the humanist mind with the distinction between matter and form. ‘ pigments—is the medium of the rarch, as later for Alberti, the common art of desig u work of both painter and sculptor: ‘they be almost all one at, or if they be divers, they sprang both from one fount ing...” On the other hand, from: 1 paestanes fast Myo, Popa, Lspas go laa, arog vl edie. Ut ‘ata itiogue picture, dssmlimique amen ine ve aut, Aghopina, Apel ‘equ eorum qusgua es eu qucqua in are sun dese ride’ (Dora)tHE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING as ¢. It is here that the humanists consistently ta} Prete question of what SO of pleasure is propels works of art? ‘resisting the chacms of matter, one is to ‘key ‘item and skill bestowed on it, and the cain this is in tur naracteristic of the informed, as opto Simed, beholder. Even in the most casual referen?® ing and sculpture the Petrarchan humanists comet ‘egnctions in harness. For example, Gig mt thumanist point about true nobility rays of virtue, not with wealth and ancy portraits, When a painting is ‘exhibited, the knowledgeable beh Pipresses approval not sO much of the purity and exquisite quali Prieta as about the arrangement 2 the proportion of its pay, ann who is ateracted simply by the colour Narway ... But if someone admires the pops vhings, they are still bound to be worthy of colour is added to this proportion family property being added to fii Nobility dazzles us wit ddged in of parts in fine pa more admiration when beaut The same is true of nobility, virtue... “The remark turns neatly on our distinctio holder and the uninformed, immediate sensuo' vRcrimination, matter and form, matter and art. they may seem, implicit acceptance of these inctions WS the underpinaing for most humanist reference to painting 2 | sculpture. | was response ant Unexciting # | Te was Pet neo-Ciceronian inductiv writing and painting, Jean nimi wines, ke many of the manuscripts from ’ mittently annotated by ie ie in sow, thebooks on ar ate one of the sections beating One relatively heavily annotated page (Plate ¥) Sad imi pc ot Ragu, Ves, blows QuetatSuedie Mone, erin Samal MST as: the informed be | ‘THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING 6 3 ts Petearch’s| pare of the manucript sn show the kind of ‘notes implys it is from Pliny’s account of Ay ort ie page is a gloss on Plinys Ciccone prae om gualiy special to Apelles, Petuch wat often intrigued by G chek terms: a few pages earlier he had marked symmeiria: ‘Sim- smetria latinum non est "nomen.’26 Next, against Apelles’ criticism Of protogenes for not knowing ‘when to stop work on a piece— of Protein de tabula site toller’—Petarch put one Ms se panies, small hands drawn with a pointing finges, characteris charges himself: ‘(At f. dom [schist (Watch out for this, andncesco, when you ate writing) Petrarch now notes 0 Batons with the marginal comment proverbinm ste sts Apelles saiomnever to let a day pass without Tayioe drawn atleast one line ‘second is Apelles’ eto for practices the critical cobbler, Pliny’s accou! verse on €4¥ that he should ‘stick to his I ‘charm of manner a0¢ | Baie et Symoni nostro soive textual emen dying people fee hac he him Fs pores am habemus preclasssi artifiis.” Various i ‘iption. . . : ee f the deerests seem to lie behind annotations I oa of I pats Pere ‘and the acquis" of ie me pictorial segue poe6 THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING the phrase sums up most of Petrarch’s approach to Pliny aa his account of the ancient painters and sculptors. From critic ” criticism of Protogenes the humanist coulj 1s for his own verbal art. Thus again, when Pliny te, Pasiteles, who always made sketches before ty unquam fecit antequam fini? the margin 1078 ‘There were advantages even beyond being Ciceronian in using the standard accounts of ancient art as a reservoir of analogies, Paintings and sculptures were concrete and visualizable thing, and these were virtues of comparison recommended by evey handbook on th hen Petrarch claimed that faults weress ing even—‘non minus enim the sperto habet’29—he was implicitly admitiag istory of ancient art is a personalized and affair, with many more edged anecdotes than the history in particular offered a sort of mythology could always draw on, stortion. Pliny prefaces a disclaimer of completeness: - should like to be accepted on the same basis as those founder of the arts of painting and sculprure who, as you will find in my book inscribed their completed works, even those we never tite of admiring, with a sort of provisional signature—Apelles facitbat, for instance, Poblivar faba: “Apeles has been at work on this'—as if art vu something always in progress and incomplete; so that inthe face of criticisms the arise could stl fall back on our forbearance as haviog intended to improve anything a work might leave to be desired, i oa) he had not been interrupted, Theze is a wealth of difidence in thet inscebing all their works asf these were just at their latest stage, and! if fate had torn them away from work on each one. Not more than tte works of art, I believe, ate recorded as being inscribed as actully Finished: frit>® In Petrarch’s memory this ironic and poised passage became # exemplum of axtistic low cunning: T think a very similar kind of shrewdness, though in a very differe! medium, was shown by a certain artist who never admitted that he bi MS ct, fay, MS. ct fol ays, NH, Pra 36 ‘THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING 6 to any of his marvell Sway he left himsel smake additions or alterations at any lind since the beholders’ judgement was suspended, both the artist and. the work were presented to their minds as the mote magnificent and perfect" given the final tou Perhaps the distortion is an index of vitality. ‘What was to Petrarch at least sometimes 2 means of illumina- tion about his art became in many of his followers just one more trope. Gasparino Barzizza, discussing how a boy should be taught to write a good style, advises against excessive cramming: “The course you describe—and which in the case of our Giovanis progress you have pursued rather more rapidly than may be appro- priate for him, oF indeed than T myself would consider propes—shoud fot be taken to the point where his suds are sucha great discomfort fT would have done what good punters pace ae learing from them; when the apprentices ate 1cted by their masters before having achieved a thorough grasp of the method of painting, the painters fllow the practice of Biving them a number of fine drawings and pictues as mo Dlaria) of the art, and through these they can be brought progress even by themselves. So to in out ova at T would have given Giovanai some famoss eters as Antonio da Rho, a distinguished Milanese humanist, speaks of the importance of good teaching for eloquence: Neither by nature nor through art will we at once atin what we are seeking. Without some brilliant and excellent man whos fots yw in our diction, we be able tobe impressive powerfully equipped by nature and at, and may stive 1¢ forms and images of al chings lke an Apelque HUMANISTS ON PAINTING va vita solitaria by providing a m, He werton A wee ot a paca tO Present glove, of dese pas under e ‘impression that the impersonal ye “duet took a dative of person ‘He wrote of Giotto: “fuit etiam y eeuit prudentissimus fame potius quam lucri cupidus’ (hy 1 Piyas proper co a mal, Very prudent of his repay. tion, sather than anxious for monetary gain’). When he hag tion 2, Filippo passed 2 copy of his book to Salutati, the arbiter fevrumanist performance in late Tfecento Florence, who wen qrors in its Latin. Salutati, of course, say “He pat disapproving dots under iro and ipradentcsinus and indicated in the ‘margin that the phrase should Pad irum decuit pradentisinvn 7 Yo, doing this Salutati was going titer beyond simple correction of the dative to an accusative; panet, ako attaching the adjective pradentirsinus to the noun i. ‘The sentence now read: ‘he was also, as was proper fo a most prudent man, anxious for fame rather than gain.” The incident foes some way towards defining a relationship between Filippo Filan’ and literary humanism. First, Filippo’s latinity was in secure; he did not really know how to use decet in a Ciceronian way. Second, in some circumstances this insecurity involved an independence from patterns that were ‘verbal conventions, cet tainly, but also conventions of thought. The effect of Salutati’s distaste for a cdumsy chiasmus (pradentissinus fame . « . lui eupidus) was to generalize the purchase of the word prudens. 10 this sort of context it rang a particular bell for Salutati his, st character, the vi was also, pee i reputation’, as a decent man is ion makes him more expansively and diffusely ‘desirous of Fam: pice should be. Giotto had been comxed into 8 humans Allast i a eel point to notice about this trivial matter is that Filipp? Accsred Salutat’s emendation; he wanted to be classical. He hey one ofthe group of Florentines led by Salutati who bege® te hand and the pelle ee Petrarchan humanism on the of ‘atti tear intellectual tradition of Florence 08 “Sarr noe ie Vilas Co aspen, i History of Fh THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING 38 Filippo and his book De origine belong to Filippemment. ‘The book wat witen very shot tee ie had completed fil sucessful period ef ive cara or of the Republic of Perugia, His background wes 6 others? in this Chancel 1 Ho Florentine chroniclers and politicians com aa miss of the mercantile middle cas fale th ygetie about is father and cle ects they had writen theit ‘chronicles in Italian: pcos, Mattes Pate ont st gue emo can Joanne ae memorata digna valgus livers aon pesrene fnon conte imam: id fecere, ut reor, ne gesta pertent iis qui on velo! mira portenderent, ew sebend pot mtn praepararent.?? But in many influence of Sal drawn life, but again as with Salutati, may have been a literary P enchantment after some unpleasant ways he was of their kind. He may, under the futati’s De seculo et religione, speak airily of the with- the personal context of this kind of rematk is, active engagement in affairs. How far it jose, and how far it was real dis- ness about his conduct of to know. But itis always carr t ature leceurer on Dante atthe university of Florence perhaps fair to use an un-Ciceronian prefix he self was fon Prand describe Filippo, with no intention at a semi-humanist. legends of the second with tinguished citizens. The classes of citizoO® are Posts, Theo- scans urate, Physicians, Onatos, Semipocts, 1 logers, Mesictang, Painters, Buffoons, and Captains, andthe sept Musicians, Paints scinuoll, Grand Senesthal Of NP on Giovanni and Matteo ocala that on musicians :*° ; the first deals w: lani, The chaptet 0” P De orn, ed ets P42: ach THE ten ed hee i nor ihe ese anus 8p inf. 25, both from the Biblio comary Ashura cn LaurentCO THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING “The ancients, who wrote admirable records of ev books the best painters and sculptors of i other famous men. The ancient pocts t00, THE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING ” rules as they find in their art only from a profound natural talent and sMienacious memory.s+ Yet Giotto was a man of great understanding ayen apart from the ast of painting, and one who had experience in fnany things. Besides having a full knowledge of history, he showed far judges consider he painted 2 most prudent man, anxious for fame rather than gain. Thus, with the Gcsire of making his name widely known, he painted something in ith the other distinguished men in their annals they py raxiteles, Myron, Apelles of Cos. . #* and oti, Fir among whom John, whose sumame was Cimabue, san ‘himself and his eoeval the poet Dante Alighieri on a wall of the moned back with skill and talent the decayed art of painting, wanteay Ehusel of the Palazzo del Podesti." Ss ‘As from a most copious and pure spring glitering brooklets of painting flowed from this admiral and brought about an art of painting that was once more a zealous imitator of nature, splendid and Pleasing. Among whom Maso, the most delightful of ll, painted with wonderful and unbelievable beaut to new things now lying open, ature so effectively that in human bodies represented by him the is great fame to be compared ‘with the anceat arteries, veins, sin himself sai, his .s and place such skill as to seem a second Dynocrates oF wvius (@ man who wrote a treatise of architecture). And to countque HUMANISTS ON PAINTING Totowing dese, made the Art TENOWned ow raw the subject Out 00 lenge men wh0s “pi natter concerning these men, she countless an I av cent Be coe painters is followed BY that on bafoni. ws fier omaments Ate quite reply ing new opinions about pain? vevemark that, say, Gioto is tof nce oe paueers, oF even is Z6Etence 0 Biey ag justification for a section x» inters’ respectal . ferPetove directly against the evidence, Ths, merit because both these FemArKS Hae the form of notorios snot jos aces, but because the measure OF Sernaris of this on SPprovided within the rest of Filippo’s book. S Fippo says Gioto isto be preferred to the an vm that this represents a considerd cannot however really because ‘better than the ancients’ was a humasis Pt ancient pai modern painters, opinion, n deans of prise, but because 2 few pages earliex Filippo has sid thar Pagolo de’ Dagomari surpassed all ancient and modes Seronomers.® Again, itis true that Filippo mentions the antign antecedents of the modern artists as a reason for including then inhis book. Bue we cannot very well take this as a new convicie he pune’ nella respectability, because in an exacty imilar way es Roscius i nite way Flip ces Roscis a8 the antecedent and justice ingen rovebiam pen decarerintpaucanarravero, Sed Ros da dite Renae danas oculator, sine quo magnus Pompeius iucu ‘los plage «fee mon cee excusationem faciat, de 40 [aftuas Pleique serptoresimpracmeditatum nunquam dixisse al sleep pian tanta ate sos Sai teenie cogeret pro sus adiaventionibus admirationi, librumt® Ba ferunt de arte histrionica contecisse. . ippo's soc ecisse.s* had he worked a formulas was limited, but those painters, +28 Roscius stood to buffoons, Zeuxis did * De io scien, se ER. Catan, op Seer A Cia, 3 somone of comemporries oi HE HUMANISTS ON PAINTING * Filippo was explicit about the point of his book: extending into other fields of Florentine activi ‘cf cultural revival modelled on Dante. He He eer riting about Dante only; it then occurred to him to ‘lasses of people in the same way: * ried arguing this out with myself a deste fr a larger under fe ed ari pel dg se Poet had done, many most earned and famous fellow oe ame into my mind, the very recollection of whom could is cracitcs ofthe living to emulate tei excellence. For, as you know, & mind of good innate quality, reminded of illustrious men You Ano spread fa and wide the name oftheir nave som incited wh hays a wih a desi of esualing rch men so ee oy ofthe city. Indeed such pitch of criminality and wickedness has short of pen reached that itis necessary. to Senew sin oo nowadays excellence of out forefathers amidst the ignomin) of this meme age - In commemorating these Po and others, I have not Pre them in onder of time, but shal oun Together those whom the eps (hte and disciplines made colleagues; <0 that ‘splendour added to endows, its rays multiplied and ‘enlarged, shall shine the more spitngly and wonderfully inthe eyes of the ‘beholder.5* Te followed that the sort of attention here given 19 Bret Floren- tines of the fourteenth century very lange extent pre- * Teas to focus on glories revived by the Florentine, i was to be Dante. To speak of hing. Exactly the same fe himself—‘revocavit pace ccio had already used of Giotto—‘avendo ‘itornata in luce’? The parallel was ‘ihemanist discourse, and Filippo’s .d a particulasization. beget treat other whil image as Filippo pocsin in lucem’—! egli quella arte di pittura built into the circuits of chapter is an expansion an and this athe ipresion rade on Tain humans by befor hi, bt strength. on le taus eras