envy; and the rather, as for some time he would permit none to see him work, nor would he impart his secret to any. Having become old, however, Giovanni at length confided his method to his disciple Ruggieri da Bruggia,[1] by whom it was transmitted to Ausse,[2] disciple of Ruggieri, and to others of whom we have made mention when speaking of oil-painting in general. But with all this, and notwithstanding that the merchants made purchases of these works, which they sent to princes and other great personages throughout the world, to their own great profit; yet the knowledge of the method did not extend beyond Flanders: and although these pictures retained the pungent odours imparted to them by the mixture of colours and oils, more particularly when they were new, so that it might have been possible, as one would suppose, to discover the ingredients and detect the mode of proceeding, yet the latter was not discovered until after the lapse of many years. But it then happened that certain Florentine merchants, who traded in Flanders and Naples, sent a picture painted in oil by Giovanni, and containing many figures, to the king of Naples, Alfonso I., by whom the work was greatly prized, as well for the beauty of the figures as for the new invention of the colouring, and every painter in the kingdom hastened to see it, when it was very highly extolled by all.[3]
- ↑ Few notices of Ruggieri, or Roger of Bruges, exist. According to Facius, De Viris Illustribus, Roger of Bruges was in Rome during the jubilee of 1450; and Filarete, in his Trattato, written between the years 1460 and 1464, speaks of him as still living.
- ↑ This name is generally believed to be a mistake or misprint; it should without doubt be written Anse, that is, Hans, and Hans Hemling is most probably the artist referred to. Barnewyck, Historie van Belgis, p. 493, declares the city of Bruges to be filled with the works of this master. Waagen and Passavant, who follow Van Mander, call this master Memling, as do many of the Italian writers; others adhere to the name Hemling, with some of the German critics. For various notices of this painter, and his works, see Boisseree, in Kunstblatt, No. 11 (1821), and No. 43 (1825). The latest edition of Bryan’s Dictionary of Painters gives an excellent compendium of the notices of this artist, furnished by different writers.
- ↑ In the church of Santa Barbara in Naples, there is a picture of the Magi behind the high altar, which is said to be that here mentioned by Vasari; but the Guida di Napoli, written for the men of learning and science who assembled in that city in 1845, throws doubt on the subject, the portraits of Alfonso I. and Ferdinand being in the picture, which was
