Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/397

 ing ua of the tM^vdiF -ytXifsffa of Bomer. In presenoe of such & canvaa it is tmpoaaible Dot to de- plore the frivolity of a maater who sacrificed hia lofty- plastic facultiea and gift of moral expression to the painting of ao many trivicil lealities and insignificant emotioDB.

Though still more gifted than his brother, Ambro^o ftlso wasted bis talents, but owing to a different error, via., a creae for the allegoric and didactic. He wsa however one of the most delicately poetic minds of hia generation, and no one at Florence could rival the aerious and dreamy beauty of bis female faces, as in the "St. Dorothy'' of the Academy of Siena (1326), in whidi seems to be revived the soul of the adorable saints of Simone di Uartino. There is not in the art of the fourteenth century a more impressive canvaa than that of the Academy of Florence in which St. Nieiiolaa of Ban, on the snore of a cliff-bordered sea, contemplates the sunset (1332). He excelled in lyric " "Niects but he attempted painting in a grand pmio-

sophical

the Palazzo delta Bignoria of Siena, the allegory of "Good and Evil Govermnent"{133$ -40). The taste of the Middle Ages for these "morJitiea" and psychomacbiea is well-luto wn . There is hardly a French cathedral in which ve do not find sculp- tured representa- tions of the contest between vice and virtue, allegories of the virtues, the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, the figures of the Church and the
 * . Already

I painted ftt Assisi the allegor- ies of the Franciscan ^itues, and Petrarch

His most important work la that at his contradictory talents

one, which i> more int«llf|^ble, sufllon to eonvey u idea of the painter's method. The length of the paint' iog is divided into two halves, one of which shows the dty and the other the country. And in each of these parts is a host of episodes, a great oolleetion of Uttle pictures of maimers, which anuyse in a thousand ways the condition of a happjy society. The general idea is resolved into a multitude of aneodotea. We see dances, banquets, children at school, weddings, some peasants leading tneir asses to market while others ore tilling the ground; in the distance is a port whence veesels are sailing away. All these various scenes are most entertaining and furnish much information about Sieoeae life and customs in the Middle Agee. But one is lost in the complexity of this chronicle and the eon- fusion of this journal. The result is an extremely curious work, though one almost devoid of artistic

To sum up, Ambrogio remains one of the moet in- teresting minds of his time by the very variety ol id tl

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his "Triumphs of Love, Glory, Time, and Eternity.

For the past sixty years the Republic of Siena had been at the summit of its fortunes. It was desirous of immortalizing the memory of its greatness. From this point of view the frescoes of Ambrogio are of great interest; this is perhaps the first example of lay painting and of art used to represent ideas and life, without any religious conception. It was a course in Aristotelean philosophy and at the same time a hymn to the city. The composition is developed on tnree walls, forming a sort ol triptych. The middle fresco displays under a dogmatic form the ideal of democ- racy. The Virtues which direct the State are seated on a platform ; this is the tribunal or the legislative as- sembly. The most famous of these figures is that of Peace, which, reclining on her throne in magnificent drapery and resting on her arms, is certainh imitated from an antique medal or statue (such imitations are not rare in the thirteenth century cf the sculptures of Capua, the work of Giovanm Pisano and some ■tatues at Reims). But the other figures are little more than abstractions and can Ik. identified only with the adventitious aid ofamultituJe of mscrip- tions, devices, and phylacteries.

On the other two walla are siimlarlj de^ eloped the effects of good or evil social hygiene Uter the theory follows the application. The left wall (Evil Govern- ment) is unfortunately almost ruined Buttheopponto

the turn of mind at once idealistic and realistic which be displayed, without, unfortunately, suc- ceeding in bringing them into unity. As a whole the work of the Lorenietti (starting from very diflerent pmnta of view) consists in an attempt to reconcile art with observation and familiar reaUty. Pietro's aim is to move, Ambrc^o's rather to instruct. The former is a dram- atist, the latter a moralist. Both tend equally to genre painting. Unfortu- nately fresco, espe- cially in their day, was the mode of ex- pression least suited to this. They re- quired the minia> ture, or German engraving, or the small familiar picture of the Flemish or the Dutch. Their talent remained isolated and their premature attempt was doomed to failure. In spite of everything they remain the most lifelike painters of their generation; and some fifteenth- century painters, such as Sassctta or Sano di Pictro, owe them much in this respect. Besides, AmbroKio, was the first who attempted in Italy philoBopiuc painting and the pictureaijue expression of general ' ideas. His " Sermons " in pictures have not been loaL tated a tradition to which we owe two ol the

nost important works of the fourteenth centuiy, be anonymous frescoes of the "Anchorites " and of the Triumph of Death " at the Campo Santo of Pisa and

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Militant and the Teaching Chur the Spanish chapel. In fact it is from tbeee that the finest conceptions of the Renaissance are derived, and the honour of hav mg indirectly inspired R^hael with the "Camera della Segnatura' cannot be disputed with Ambrogio Lorenietti It is a ^ory greatest artiits mav well env\ him.

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