DOI Kapitel:
20. Edward Norgate
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.65784#0134
20. Edward Norgate
Miniatura or The Art of Umning (1650)
It is more then time to proceede to the second, which is Lanscape, or Landscape, (an
Art soe new in England, and soe lately come a shore, as all the Language within our
fower Seas cannot find it a Name, but a borrowed one, and thatfrom a people that
are noe great Lenders but upon good Securitie, the Dutch). Perhaps they will name
their owne Child. For to say truth the Art is theirs, and the best in that kind that ever
1 saw speake Dutch, viz. Paulo Brill, a very rare Master in that Art, Liveing in Trinita
del Monte in Rome, and his Contemporary, Adam Elshamer, termed by the Italians
‘Diavolo per gli cose piccole ’, Momper, Bruegel, Coningsto, and last but not least Sr
Peter Rubens, a Gentleman of great parts and abilities (over and above his Pencill)
and knighted by the best of Kings orMen.
Now Landscape, or shape ofLand, is but the same with the Latine ‘Rus, Regiones,
Regioncula’, theFrench ‘Paisage’, orltalian ‘Paese’, andisnothingbutapictureof
‘Glebelle Vedute’, orbeautifullprospectofFeilds, Cities, Rivers, Castles, Mountaines,
Trees or what soever delightfull view the Eye takes pleasure in, nothing more in Art
or Nature affording soe great variety and beautie as beholding the farre distant
Mountaines and stränge scituation ofancient Castles mounted on almost inaccessible
Rocks, whereofin Savoy and Piedmont öfter you have pastLa Tour-du-Pin many are
to bee seene, and in all probability built by the ancient Romans, and in some places
withprecipices desperatelyfalling into the Lezere, and other Torrents about the Alpes
that with a roaring noise make hast to breake their necksfrom those feaifull Rocks
into the Sea. Ofthese many stränge yet very beautifull viewes are to be seene from
and about Mont Senis, Launebourg, Novalaise, and about Mont Godardo in Germany
and many otherplaces about Provence, most ofwhich have been very well designed
öfter the Life by Peter Brugell of Antwerp, and remaine in ‘stampe’ of his great
Comendation. [...]
Soe I meane foryour sake, and my owne, a little to retard your expectation with some
circumstantiall observacons concerning the originall of Lanscape and by what
occasion it hath got soe much credit, and is in soe much request as now it is. For it
doth not appeare that the antients made any other Accompt or use of it but as a
servant to their other peeces, to illustrate or seit of their Historicall painting by
filling up the empty Corners, or voidplaces ofFigures and story, with somefragment
of Lanscape in referrence to their Histories they made [...].
But to reduce this pari of painting to an absolute and intire Art, and to confine a
man’s industryfor the tearme ofLife to this onely, is as 1 conceave an Invencon of
these later times, and though a Noveltie, yet a good one, that to the Inventars and
Professors hath brought both honour and profitt. The first occasion, as I have been
toldabroad, was thus. A Gentleman ofAntwerpe being a great ‘Liefhebber’(Virtuoso
132
Miniatura or The Art of Umning (1650)
It is more then time to proceede to the second, which is Lanscape, or Landscape, (an
Art soe new in England, and soe lately come a shore, as all the Language within our
fower Seas cannot find it a Name, but a borrowed one, and thatfrom a people that
are noe great Lenders but upon good Securitie, the Dutch). Perhaps they will name
their owne Child. For to say truth the Art is theirs, and the best in that kind that ever
1 saw speake Dutch, viz. Paulo Brill, a very rare Master in that Art, Liveing in Trinita
del Monte in Rome, and his Contemporary, Adam Elshamer, termed by the Italians
‘Diavolo per gli cose piccole ’, Momper, Bruegel, Coningsto, and last but not least Sr
Peter Rubens, a Gentleman of great parts and abilities (over and above his Pencill)
and knighted by the best of Kings orMen.
Now Landscape, or shape ofLand, is but the same with the Latine ‘Rus, Regiones,
Regioncula’, theFrench ‘Paisage’, orltalian ‘Paese’, andisnothingbutapictureof
‘Glebelle Vedute’, orbeautifullprospectofFeilds, Cities, Rivers, Castles, Mountaines,
Trees or what soever delightfull view the Eye takes pleasure in, nothing more in Art
or Nature affording soe great variety and beautie as beholding the farre distant
Mountaines and stränge scituation ofancient Castles mounted on almost inaccessible
Rocks, whereofin Savoy and Piedmont öfter you have pastLa Tour-du-Pin many are
to bee seene, and in all probability built by the ancient Romans, and in some places
withprecipices desperatelyfalling into the Lezere, and other Torrents about the Alpes
that with a roaring noise make hast to breake their necksfrom those feaifull Rocks
into the Sea. Ofthese many stränge yet very beautifull viewes are to be seene from
and about Mont Senis, Launebourg, Novalaise, and about Mont Godardo in Germany
and many otherplaces about Provence, most ofwhich have been very well designed
öfter the Life by Peter Brugell of Antwerp, and remaine in ‘stampe’ of his great
Comendation. [...]
Soe I meane foryour sake, and my owne, a little to retard your expectation with some
circumstantiall observacons concerning the originall of Lanscape and by what
occasion it hath got soe much credit, and is in soe much request as now it is. For it
doth not appeare that the antients made any other Accompt or use of it but as a
servant to their other peeces, to illustrate or seit of their Historicall painting by
filling up the empty Corners, or voidplaces ofFigures and story, with somefragment
of Lanscape in referrence to their Histories they made [...].
But to reduce this pari of painting to an absolute and intire Art, and to confine a
man’s industryfor the tearme ofLife to this onely, is as 1 conceave an Invencon of
these later times, and though a Noveltie, yet a good one, that to the Inventars and
Professors hath brought both honour and profitt. The first occasion, as I have been
toldabroad, was thus. A Gentleman ofAntwerpe being a great ‘Liefhebber’(Virtuoso
132