John Henry Middleton

“ These rooms, called after their founder the Appartamenti Borgia, now form part of the Vatican library, and five of them still retain the fine series of frescoes with which they were so skilfully decorated by Pinturicchio. The upper part of the walls and vaults, not only covered with painting, but further enriched with delicate stucco work in relief, are a masterpiece of decorative design applied according to the truest principles of mural ornament-a much better model for imitation in that respect than the more celebrated Stanze of Raphael immediately over the Borgia rooms. ”

“ To one branch of the sculptor's art, practised under Raphael's supervision, belong the elaborate and delicately executed stucco-reliefs of the loggie and elsewhere. Among these occur many panels with figure-subjects, large in scale and important in composition; those executed during his lifetime are free from the too pictorial character which is an obvious fault in the very magnificent reliefs of the Villa Madama. ”

“ Pile carpets are woven in a very different way from ordinary textiles: short tufts of wool or silk are knotted on the warp so that the ends of the threads which form the pattern project, and these are cut down by shears to a uniform surface, thus forming a sort of textile mosaic. Each row is firmly fixed by a shoot of linen weft-thread thrown across the web, and then carefully beaten down with the batten.
Various classes of ornament occur in these magnificent Oriental carpets; one variety has stiff geometrical patterns, the motives of which appear to be taken from mosaics or tiles. ”

“ The east end has one window with round arched head, concentric with the vault. Below it is a band of interlaced pattern, like that at the ends of the vault. Over this window are three roundels, each containing a half-length figure of a nimbed angel with a scroll, and on each side there has been a large arched niche. The northern one has been completely destroyed by a mural monument which was fixed there, but in the other niche is a very perfect figure of a bishop. He is habited in mass vestments, the right hand is raised in benediction and the left holds a pastoral staff. ”

“ A fine bronze screen, with open geometrical tracery, encloses the whole. No work of sculpture in Italy is more magnificent than this wonderful tabernacle, both in general effect and in the delicate beauty of the reliefs and statuettes with which it is so lavishly enriched. It cost the enormous sum of 96,000 gold florins. Unfortunately it is very badly placed and insufficiently lighted, so that a minute examination of its beauties is a work of difficulty.
No mention is made by Vasari of Orcagna's residence in Orvieto, where he occupied for some time the post of "capo maestro" to the duomo. ”

“ The horse is designed with wonderful nobility and spirit, and the easy pose of the great general, combining perfect balance with absolute ease and security in the saddle, is a marvel of sculpturesque ability. Most remarkable skill is shown by the way in which Verrocchio has exaggerated the strongly marked features of the general, so that nothing of its powerful effect is lost by the lofty position of the head. According to Vasari, Verrocchio was one of the first sculptors who made a practical use of casts from living and dead subjects. ”

“ In some respects the use of burnt clay for sculpture has great advantages over that of marble: the soft clay is easily and rapidly moulded into form while the sculptor's thought is fresh in his mind, and thus terra-cottas often possess a spirit and vigour which can hardly be reproduced in the laboriously finished marble. These qualities are specially remarkable in the best works of the Delia Robbia family (see Robbia) . In the 16th century a more realistic style was introduced, and this was heightened by the custom of painting the figures in oil colours. ”

“ The chancel arch, as well as the vault, is much injured and distorted by settlement, and a crack along the crown of the latter has seriously injured the paintings.
The whole wall surface of the chancel, in addition to the soffit of the vault, has been richly decorated with painting, and most of it still remains in a remarkably perfect condition, considering its great age. The comparative freshness of the colouring is owing to the whole surface having been thoroughly covered with repeated coats of whitewash, and thus preserved from the effects of light, and other sources of injury. ”

“ To the Florentine period belong some of his finest portraits, and it is especially in these that da Vinci's influence appears. The portraits of Angelo Doni and his wife Maddalena (Pitti) are vivid and carefully executed paintings, and the unknown lady with hard features (now in the Uflizi) is a masterpiece of noble realism and conscientious finish. The Czartoriski portrait, a graceful effeminate-looking youth with long hair and tapering hands, now moved to Cracow, is probably a work of this period; though worthy to rank with Raphael's finest portraits, its authenticity has been doubted. ”

“ In the 15th century increased technical skill and rapidity of execution allowed much more complete work to be done in fresco, till at last nothing but a few finishing touches were done in tempera. For this, exceptional certainty of touch and speed of execution were required, and some weaker painters never attained to a very complete mastery over the fresco process. The brilliant series of wall paintings by Pinturicchio in the cathedral library at Siena contain a very large proportion of tempera work, in spite of which they are still in a wonderful state of preservation. ”

“ On one of the jambs of the southern perpendicular window there is the figure of an Archbishop, and the wall west of it has a number of course paintings, which are of a still later date. Paintings like these later ones are far from rare in English churches; but I believe we might search in vain for another instance of paintings like those in the chancel and ever the chancel arch, of a date so early as the beginning of the twelfth century, and with their unity of motive and completeness of design. ”

“ A large number of examples of these beautiful fabrics still exist, showing an immense variety of designs, all of which are imagined with the highest decorative skill, perfect master pieces of textile art, combining freedom of invention and grace of drawing with that slight amount of mechanical stiffness which is specially suited to the requirements of the loom. One of the earliest existing specimens, which shows the existence of the fabrique before the time of Roger I., is a piece of silk stuff in which the body of St Cuthbert at Durham was wrapped when his relics were translated in 1104 ”