Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/400

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370 Painting Agony in the Garden, catalogued as of the Umbrian School. Greater than either of these, however, and equal, if not superior, to Perugino, was Francesco Raibolini, of Bologna (1450 — 1517) — known as Francia, the sobriquet of his first master, a goldsmith — whose chief characteristic was his fervent piety. Originally a goldsmith, Francia did not turn his attention to painting until late in life. His earliest pictures are in oils, but he also executed many frescoes. His style is distinguished for richness of colouring and earnestness of expression. His works, principally painted for the churches of Lombardy, are now scattered throughout Europe. Our own National Gallery possesses three, two of which are a beautiful altar- piece representing the Virgin and S. Anne, with other Saints, with a lunette, containing a Pieta, in which the grief and despair of the mourners are admirably expressed. Our space forbids us to attempt an enumeration of Francia's various works, but we may add that the frescoes in S. Cecilia, at Bologna, are considered the best. The Sienese school of this period produced, by means of such artists as Matteo da Siena (1435 — ab. 1500), numerous works which are best studied in Siena ; they show grace and feeling, but a lack of any forward movement. In the fifteenth century the school of Naples rose into considerable importance. Its distinctive peculiarity was the blending of Flemish and Umbrian features, — the details, accessories, and landscape backgrounds reminding us of the works of the Van Eycks, and the figures of those by Umbrian masters. The chief painters of this school — to which we may perhaps apply the term " Eclectic " — were Antonio Solario (ab. 1382 — 1455), surnamed Lo