DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61252#0219
INTRODUCTION.
175
Wherever there is genius, there must be individuality,
not merely of conception but of manner; and the works of
the Spanish painters are strongly marked by their personal
character. Murillo seems to have been, like Raphael, dis-
tinguished by his amiable disposition, his serene temper,
his quick sympathies, his generosity, humility, piety—nay,
every virtue under heaven is ascribed to him by his cotem-
poraries and biographers. His favourite subjects were
those of a benign cast; Christ as the Good Shepherd, the
Madonna bending to the intercession of saints, guardian
angels stooping to the assistance of mortals, works of cha-
rity and mercy. The tenderness and brightness of tint,
the soft carnations and lucid effects which he substituted
for the powerful colouring of his precursors in art, are also
characteristic of the man. In the representation of beauty
he has been excelled, never in the expression of counte-
nance. His angels and children equal those of Correggio.
His virgins, hovering in a flood of glory, “ with downcast
eyes beneath the Almighty Dove,” are not mere symbols,
(like the everlasting Madonnas of the Carlo Dolces and
Carlo Marattis,) but visions, heavenly apparitions, almost
palpable to feeling as to sight.* His saints are not abstrac-
tions of certain Christian virtues, but men-,—men of flesh
and blood; men of sorrow and sin; men who have wrestled
with the Evil One and conquered; men who have seen the
doors of Paradise opened—who in blissful visions have
held the Infant Godhead in their arms.f In the represen-
tation of the monkish character, Zurbaran perhaps excelled
all others. His cowled Carthusians, with dark deep-set
eyes and thin lips, haggard with penance and fasting—his
missionary fathers, his inquisitors and j esuits, convey the
strongest idea of physical self-denial and the consciousness of
* His Madonna of the Leuchtenberg Gallery, struck me at the time, and lives
in my memory, as the most beautiful creature I ever beheld; yet it has, like all
his heads, the air of a portrait.
+ This vision of St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua, is a favourite subject
of painting. See No. 22.
175
Wherever there is genius, there must be individuality,
not merely of conception but of manner; and the works of
the Spanish painters are strongly marked by their personal
character. Murillo seems to have been, like Raphael, dis-
tinguished by his amiable disposition, his serene temper,
his quick sympathies, his generosity, humility, piety—nay,
every virtue under heaven is ascribed to him by his cotem-
poraries and biographers. His favourite subjects were
those of a benign cast; Christ as the Good Shepherd, the
Madonna bending to the intercession of saints, guardian
angels stooping to the assistance of mortals, works of cha-
rity and mercy. The tenderness and brightness of tint,
the soft carnations and lucid effects which he substituted
for the powerful colouring of his precursors in art, are also
characteristic of the man. In the representation of beauty
he has been excelled, never in the expression of counte-
nance. His angels and children equal those of Correggio.
His virgins, hovering in a flood of glory, “ with downcast
eyes beneath the Almighty Dove,” are not mere symbols,
(like the everlasting Madonnas of the Carlo Dolces and
Carlo Marattis,) but visions, heavenly apparitions, almost
palpable to feeling as to sight.* His saints are not abstrac-
tions of certain Christian virtues, but men-,—men of flesh
and blood; men of sorrow and sin; men who have wrestled
with the Evil One and conquered; men who have seen the
doors of Paradise opened—who in blissful visions have
held the Infant Godhead in their arms.f In the represen-
tation of the monkish character, Zurbaran perhaps excelled
all others. His cowled Carthusians, with dark deep-set
eyes and thin lips, haggard with penance and fasting—his
missionary fathers, his inquisitors and j esuits, convey the
strongest idea of physical self-denial and the consciousness of
* His Madonna of the Leuchtenberg Gallery, struck me at the time, and lives
in my memory, as the most beautiful creature I ever beheld; yet it has, like all
his heads, the air of a portrait.
+ This vision of St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua, is a favourite subject
of painting. See No. 22.