RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Painting
the younger (b. at Augsburg, 1497; d. at London, 1543). An intense realist and devoid of ethics, he excelled as a portrait painter, as of Erasmus,
Amerbach, Archbishop Warham, and
4. Germany; Georg Gisze, yet he was unrivaled
Sixteenth among his compatriots as a colorist,
Century and as is shown by his Madonna of Burgo-
After. master Meyer. In his passion pictures
he lacked sympathy with his theme and is repellantly naturalistic, as in the Basel Christ in the Tomb, but in his ninety-four pictures to the Old Testament he reproduces the epic tone with admirable simplicity. As an ardent Protestant he furthered the cause of his doctrines not only by his Indulgence- Vender and Christ the True Light, but also by his satirical passion pictures in which monks and priests figure as judges and executioners of Christ, and here too belong, in a sense, his Dance of Death (forty-five plates executed about 1525). He broke entirely with tradition, but though surpassing Diirer in color and modeling, he is inferior in depth and nationality. Lucas Cranach the elder (d. 1553) formed a link between the art of Upper Germany and Saxony. Firmly Protestant, he painted portraits of Reformers and princes of his own type of mind, and also aided the Protestant cause by such paintings as the Crucifixion (at Weimar), Law and Gospel (at Schneeberg), and Passionale of Christ and Antichrist. His earlier works are rich in color and often sympathetic, but in his latter years he plied his art as a mere trade, an example in which he was followed by his son, Lucas Cranach the younger (d. 1586). Economic conditions in Germany were reflected in a decline ia painting from the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth century. The best work even of Daniel Chodowiecki (1726-1801) was in the minor genre of middle-class life. The classicism of the second half of the eighteenth century persisted in art until late in the nineteenth century, achieving its best results in landscape, as exemplified by Joseph Koch (d. 1839), Karl Rottmann (d. 1850), and Friedrich Preller (d. 1878), but it met a deadly opponent in the romantic school, which drew from medieval and Preraphaelite material. These "Nazarenes" (Friedrich Overbeck [d. 1869], Philipp Veit [d. 1878], Joseph Fuhrich [d. 1876], and Eduard Steinle [d. 1886]) also influenced the Protestants Karl Gottfried Pfannschmidt (d. 1887), Bernhard Plockhorst (b. 1825), and Heinrich Hofmann (b. 1824), and in less degree Peter Cornelius (d. 1867) and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (d. 1872). While their work is deeply religious, their grasp is often weak, sentimental, and untrue. A sound principle, though often carried to extremes, is represented, on the other hand, by Eduard von Gebhardt and especially by Fritz von Uhde.
Unlike Germany, Italy maintained a degree of art in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the idealism of Guido Reni (d. 1642; Aurora in the Palazzo Rospigliosi in Rome and Ecce Homo in Dresden) and of Carlo Dolci (d. 1686; St. Cecilia in Dresden) went parallel to or in union with the realism of Caravaggio (d. 1609) and Spagnoletto (d. 1656). In Spain painting first attained its full classical development in the seventeenth century, VIIL— 20
characterized by amazing technic and extraordinary sense of coloring. Side by side with the great realist Velasquez (d. 1660), preeminent as a portraitpainter, stands his younger contem- 5. Other porary, Murillo, whose visions, concep- Countries. tions, saints, and Madonnas reveal the true Spanish Roman Catholic warmth of religious feeling. France likewise found its first great painter in the seventeenth century in Nicholas Poussin (d. 1665), who drew from classic models and inspired the landscape school which reached its zenith in Claude Lorrain (d. 1682), while Antoine Watteau adopted the rococo style both in form and theme. In this same century the Netherlands not only surpassed their own past, but attained a high place in art as a whole. The Flemish school, with its foundation of mingled Teutonic and Romance elements blended with the display of Spanish Jesuitism, is represented in the magnificent coloring and the keen sense of beauty of form, composition, and dramatic power of Peter Paul Rubens (b. probably at Siegen in Westphalia June 29, 1577; d. at Antwerp May 30, 1640). He is not, however, without a strain of the sensual, and his numerous religious canvases, the best known of which is the Descent from the Cross in the cathedral at Antwerp, are essentially secular in type. His best pupil was Antonius van Dyck (d. at London 1641), who excels in portraits but is weak in his religious paintings. The naturalism of Dutch painting adapted it particularly for portraiture, landscapes, and genre work. Religious themes were modernized and lost their loftiness, though these defects were veiled by the perfection of the Dutch development of chiaroscuro. Practically the sole religious painter of Protestant Holland was Rembrandt Harmensz van Reijn (b. at Leyden 1606; d. at Amsterdam 1669), in which Dutch art reached its zenith. His numerous Biblical pictures are simple in their naturalism and are the more intelligible by the modernization of their figures and setting, even though the result sometimes involves the commonplace. Generally, however, as may be seen from his Christ at Emmaus (at Paris) and his Return of the Prodigal Son (at St. Petersburg), he remained true to the loftiness of his theme and achieved admirable artistic effects. Rembrandt was equally admirable in portrait-painting and etching, and the passing of years served only to increase the perfection of his art. His influence, powerful in the eighteenth century, was followed, early in the last century, by French classicism, which has recently been superseded in Holland, as elsewhere, by the historical school. In England it was not until toward the end of the eighteenth century that the first real attempts at native painting were begun by William Hogarth (d. 1764) and Joshua Reynolds (d. 1851). A school closely akin to the "Nazarenes" was founded by the Preraphaelites Rosetti, Millais, and Burne-Jones, who surpassed their German counterparts in depth, truth, and simplicity.
The intercommunication of modern times has tended to efface national peculiarities and sharply defined schools in painting, replacing them with eclecticism. The present condition is one of inchoateness, being restless and drawn hither and thither
Fainting1 Paleario