riority they are generally considered by critics as forgeries, but in a great many instances this appears to me to be an unfounded criticism. In criticising these drawings we must not overlook the fact that most of them were done at a time when there were but few collectors, and when original drawings were still to be had in large numbers for little expense. I therefore think that most of the apparently old drawings which reproduce original sketches by the great masters, which are still in existence, or which may be lost, ought to be described more properly as works of pupils, and as such they have no doubt also some merits, and deserve to be appreciated. In the studios of these painters it was one of the principal occupations of the pupils to draw from the models of their masters. An evidence of this we find in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci. Among his precepts for the students of painting the following passage occurs: — The youth should first learn perspective, then the proportions of the objects. Then he may copy from a good master, to accustom himself to fine forms; then from nature, to confirm by practice the rules he has learnt; then see for a time the works of various masters; then get the habit of putting his art into practice and work.* Again, he says in another place : The artist ought first to exercise his hand by copying drawings by the hand of a good master. And having acquired this practice under the criticism of his master, he should next practise drawings in relief of a good style, following the rules which will be given to him.* The fitness of a boy for an artistic career was judged by his ability in executing his drawings, as Leonardo puts it very distinctly. Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent, and never finish their drawings with shading.† In a special chapter on the necessity of being very accurate in drawings he says: If you who draw desire to study well and to good purpose, always go slowly to work in your drawing, and discriminate in the lights which have the highest degree of brightness, and to what extent, and likewise in the shadows, which are those that are darker than the others, and in what way they intermingle; then their masses, and the relative proportions of one to the other. And note in their outlines which way they tend, and which part of the lines is curved to one side or the other, and where they are more or less conspicuous and consequently broad or fine; and finally, that your light and shade blend without strokes and borders, but looking like smoke. And when you have thus schooled your hand and your judgment by such diligence you will ac quire rapidity before you are aware. Į It was one of the rules of the old Vero The plan of the young artist's education, as framed here by Leonardo da Vinci, is on a somewhat larger scale than was the practice of the time. We know that Leonardo attached great importance to a scientific study of the proportions of the human figure. Albert Dürer and a few nese painters' guild, as I have shown when others occupied themselves with similar treating of the guilds of the early Italian studies, which they intended to make prof-painters, that during the winter season the itable to their pupils, whereas other great artists, like Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and Correggio, took little or no interest in such mathematical inquiries. pupils had to occupy themselves especially with drawing. A similar sugges tion we find two centuries later in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci, and we Among Leonardo's writings there are a few other precepts which throw a fuller may therefore suppose that this practice was a generally accepted one. In a chaplight on the method of instruction as practer headed "Of the Time for Studying tised in the painter's studio. A short but Selection of Subjects" the great Floreninteresting chapter, with the heading "Of tine painter says:the Order of Learning to Draw," runs thus: First draw from drawings by good masters, done from works of art and from nature, and not from memory; then from plastic work, with the guidance of the drawing done from it (viz., by your master); and then from good natural models; and this you must put into practice.† See the Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, edited by J. P. Richter (London, 1883), vol. i., p. 243, $483. 1 P. 243, § 484. Winter evenings ought to be employed by young students in carrying out the studies made during the summer; that is, all the should be brought together, and so a choice drawings from the nude done in summer made of the best studies of limbs and bodies among them, to apply in practice and commit to memory. After this in the following sum mer, you should select some one who is well grown, and who has not been brought up in the doublets, and so may not be of stiff carriage, and make him go through a number of agile and graceful actions; and if his muscles do not show plainly within the outlines of his limbs, that does not matter at all. It is enough that you can see good attitudes, and you can correct the drawings of the limbs by those you studied in the winter.* We must not suppose that such careful studies in drawing were uncommon with the rest of the old masters. In Vasari's lives of the Renaissance artists we occasionally come across reports which clearly show that similar rules were practised also by other artists. Thus of Francia Bigio it is related that he studied his art so zealously, and with so much delight, that there was no day through the summer months wherein he did not copy some nude figure from the life in his studio, and to this end he kept persons constantly in his pay.† Of the Florentine Baccio Bandinelli the same writer relates that, when he was a youth, he used to go to Pinzirimonte, a villa purchased by his father. There he would stand long before the laborers, who were working, and who, on account of the great heat in summer, were half naked, and would draw the figures of these men with great zeal and delight, proceeding in like manner with the cattle on the farm, which he would copy with equal care.‡ About the same time [so Vasari continues in his account of Baccio's life, whom he had known personally] it was the young artist's frequent habit to repair in the early morning to Prato, which was at no great distance from this villa, and where he would remain the whole day, drawing, in the Chapel of La Pieve, or cathedral, from the fresco paintings of Fra Filippo Lippi. Nor did he cease until he had copied the whole, more particularly imitating the draperies of that master, who was most excellent in respect of drapery stood in about the same estimation as nowadays the fresco paintings by Raphael and Michelangelo in the Vatican, or the finest antique sculptures. They were, indeed, considered to be the best models for the students to draw from. Ample proof of this we find in Vasari's writings. To quote only one passage: Masaccio's works [so he says] certainly merit all the praise they have received, the opened to the excellent manner prevalent in more so as it was by him that the path was our times, to the truth of which we have testimony in the fact that all the most celebrated sculptors and painters since Masaccio have become excellent and illustrious by studying their art in making copies of the figures in the Brancacci Chapel.* Then he goes on to enumerate the artists of whom he knew that they had copied from Masaccio's paintings, and among them he names Fra Filippo and Filippino Lippi, Sandro Botticelli and Domenico del Ghirlandajo, Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolommeo and Albertinelli, Michelangelo, Andrea del Sarto and Raphael, all artists who aimed at the very highest standard in the drawing of the figure; and to these names he adds a few others, such as Lorenzo di Credi, Francia Bigio, and Pontormo, who were of less repute, but who, as students, had been under the rule of very good mas. ters, who doubtless directed them to copy from Masaccio. Of all writers on art Leonardo da Vinci was perhaps the first who duly acknowledged the exceptional merits of that early Florentine master who had died in 1428 at the age of twenty-seven years.† Leonardo thought it very important that the artist should draw from a variety of models. He was even of the opinion that the painter, when investigating the beautiful in nature, should rather rely on the generally accepted views of the public than satisfy himself with his own conceptions.‡ No doubt there must have been some great danger in the one-sided and uniform instruction which the masters of the Renaissance imparted to their pupils within their studios. A painter [so Leonardo says] who has clumsy hands will paint similar hands in his works; and the same will occur with any limb, unless long study has taught him to avoid it. Therefore, O painter, look carefully what part is most ill-favored in your own person, and take particular pains to correct it in your studio; for, if you are coarse, your figures will seem the same, and devoid of charm. And it is the same with any part that may be good or poor in yourself; it will be shown to some degree in your figures.* Not less curious is what he observes in some other writing on the same subject. The passage, which requires some explanation, runs thus: It seems to me to be no small charm in a painter when he gives his figures a pleasing air; and this grace, if he have it by nature, he may acquire by incidental study in this way. Look about you, and take the best parts of many beautiful faces, of which the beauty is confirmed rather by public fame than by your own judgment; for you might be mistaken, and choose faces which have some resemblance to your own. For it would seem that such resemblances often please us, and if you should be ugly you would select faces that were not beautiful, and you would then make ugly faces, as many painters do. For often a master's work resembles himself. So select beauties, as I tell you, and fix them in your mind.† Now if we examine the pictures painted during Leonardo's lifetime, and before that date, from the point of view indicated in this remarkable sentence, we feel bound to say that there is really a great truth in the statement that every artist of those days had a quite peculiar manner of his own of drawing faces, hands, and other limbs nay, even draperies and landscape backgrounds - so much so, indeed, that such peculiarities become a special means for the identification of the works of the several masters. Nor do I believe that the art-critic is going too far when he says that an old master may reveal his own style and manner in his works, not only by drawing hands, or limbs, with a clumsiness peculiar to him, as Leonardo expresses himself, but also, when representing the human body, by some special delicacy and refinement. In short, every master, whatever may have been his standard of beauty, has his own individual manner of realizing it. And we may also say that the scrutinizing eye of the critic is sure to detect in the works of the greatest masters some particular habits in the drawing of certain details, which reveal their individual style. Neither Michelangelo, nor Leonardo, nor Titian, is an exception to this rule. some other Thus, to quote a few instances, Michelangelo, in drawing the outlines of the legs, is wont to represent the lower part • Vol. i., p. 293, § 586. of the leg, where it is connected with the foot, with a pronounced narrowness, which surpasses the common standard of nature. Again, Titian, in drawing the hands, is wont to give to the palm of the thumb an unusually prominent shape. Raphael, again, in drawing the ear, represents that part of the human face in a peculiar way, quite different from that of any of his pupils or imitators, and so on. Again, has a peculiar manner of drawing the Pinturicchio, the companion of Perugino, outlines of the hands and of the ear, which is quite different from that which we al ways meet with in the works of Perugino. In paying attention to such details we become enabled to distinguish also between works which, for instance, Pintu ricchio painted at an early age, when under the more direct influence of his master, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, and those of his riper age, because in the former his mode of drawing the ear has an unmistak able affinity with that of the earlier Umbrian master, whose works he then used to take as his models. In his later works, however, this peculiarity disappears. Fra Bartolommeo and Albertinelli were two artists who worked much in common, the latter executing sometimes works for which the former had done the design. But when we compare their drawings we detect that each of them had a special habit of shading his figures, by which they may be distinguished, notwithstanding the great similarity of their general appearance. From what is known to us about the organization of the guilds it becomes evident that the narrow sphere of the education of these artists sufficiently accounts for such peculiarities of style, and in not a few cases these can be traced back to some special feature in the works of the masters under whose guidance they had studied the profession. When Leonardo da Vinci settled down at Milan, a large number of pupils gathered around him, many of whom have, in later years, become famous artists of inThe school thus dependent position. founded by Leonardo da Vinci appears to have been based on a wider plan, and on more scientific principles, than had been the case before with any other teaching master. There are, unfortunately, no Contemporary records of the organization of that school. Besides the statements of writings, we have no information whatever its existence, in Vasari's and in Lomazzo's about it. But the style and character of the comparatively numerous drawings and pictures, still in existence, which have the unmistakable impress of Leonardo's influence, testify to the thorough training of the various pupils who worked under his guidance. prototype of Leonardo's academy, we find some detailed information in Vasari's life of the sculptor Torrigiano, the well-known rival of Michelangelo, who, in later years, came to England, where he executed several excellent works. In the life of this artist the biographer relates that: and which had been decorated profusely with figures from the antique and with examples of the best sculptors. În the loggie, the walks, and in all the buildings there were the noblest statues in marble, admirable works of the of art by the most prominent masters of Italy ancients, with pictures and other productions and other countries. All the treasures, in addition to being a noble ornament to the garden, were also a school or academy Vasari uses here this very word for the young painters and sculptors, as well as for all others devoted to the art of design, but more particularly for the young nobles, seeing that Lorenzo il Magnifico held the firm conviction that those who are born of noble race About the lives of most of them we know next to nothing. Their names have been preserved to us, and, in the case of some of them, also a few dates. Nor do Lorenzo il Magnifico allowed him to visit his Leonardo's own writings supply the want-garden, which was on the Piazza di San Marco, ing information. They abound in expositions of scientific matter, but are scant in their references to the occurrences of daily life and to the persons who constantly surrounded him. Art historians of a later date have ventured upon speculations about the school of Leonardo da Vinci, to which the great artist had given the name of an "accademia," evidently with the object of marking it out as a school of a higher order than the ordinary teaching of the painters of the day. But this very name "accademia " is not to be met with among his writings, which cover about five thousand closely written pages, and we have no other authentic information at hand to confirm the statement that his school really bore this name than the fact that the inscription "Leonardi Vincii Accademia" is to be found inside six shields of twisted ornaments, executed in woodcut, of which the original blocks have been preserved to us in the department of prints in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. Impressions of these knots of varying design may be supposed to have served for the covers of the portfolios in the painter's school. At the time of Lorenzo il Magnifico there had been founded, at Florence, an accademia by several literary men, who thus intended to revive antique institutions of the time of Plato. Another accademia of similar tendencies had been founded in Rome at about the same time, but Leonardo da Vinci, was, it appears, the first who gave to a school of painters this classical name, which, at a much later date, has been accepted by all prominent similar institutions and associations of artists. It is quite possible that Leonardo, in choosing the name of academy for his own school, intended to characterize it as an institution in which scientific principles were to be the guiding rules of study. Lorenzo il Magnifico, in whose house at Florence the Platonic academy of literary men held its meetings, had also founded in his garden a museum with which an art school was connected. About this, which appears to me to have been a are in all things capable of attaining perfecmen of lower extraction, in whom we do not tion more easily than, for the most part, are commonly find that quickness of perfection, nor that elevation of genius, which is so often perceptible in those of noble blood.* After some more observations on this subject Vasari continues: Men of genius were always protected by Lorenzo il Magnifico, and more especially did he favor such of the nobles as he perceived to have an inclination for the study of art. It is, therefore, no matter for astonishment that masters should have proceeded from this school some of whom have awakened the surprise as well as admiration of the world. And not only did Lorenzo provide the means of instruction, but also the means of support studies without such aid. for all who were too poor to pursue their Nay, he further supplied them with proper clothing, and even bestowed considerable presents on any one among them who had distinguished himself from his fellows by some well-executed design. All which so encouraged the young students of our arts that, striving to emulate one another, many of them became excellent masters. The guardian and head of these young men was, at that time, the Florentine sculptor Berhad been a disciple of Donatello. From him toldo, an old and experienced master, who the students received instruction, while he also had charge of all the treasures contained in the garden, with the numerous designs, drawings, cartoons, and models collected there by the hand of Donatello, Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Fra Giovanni Angelico, Fra Filippo, and other masters, native and foreign. Vol. iv., p. 256ƒ. And, indeed, these arts can only be acquired by means of long-continued study in drawing, with frequent and careful imitation or copying of works by good masters. He who is not supplied with these facilities to progress, however powerfully aided by natural dispositions, can never attain perfection till a large portion of his life is spent.* Neither the school in the garden of the Medici nor the accademia of Leonardo da Vinci survived their founders. They had, it appears, little in common with the old guilds, the spirit of which was scarcely in harmony with these new institutions. As long as these schools existed they depended on the strong will and on the personal influence of the men who had started them. They were well organized, and in every respect they must have had great chances of becoming permanent institutions, but evidently they were not in keeping with the spirit of the guilds, and this was sufficient to bring about their downfall. J. PAUL RICHTER. • P. 258. From The Cornhill Magazine. THE RUSSIANS AT HOME. THE love of travel is an instinct probably more strongly developed in Englishmen than in any other nation, and it seems, therefore, the more strange how comparatively few have cared to visit Russia, and even these few for the most part within recent years. At a time when the rigor of a more than ordinary severe famine is throwing a lurid light upon the darker side of the national life, it seems opportune to try to lift the veil with a somewhat kinder hand, and to show what there is that is pleasing or promising in the Russian people. One of the now, happily, annually increasing band of officers, military and civil, who have recently availed themselves of the facilities offered by government to learn the language, I have often been asked to write a short sketch of the nine or ten months which I passed — everywhere most pleasantly in widely distant parts of the dominions of the Great White Czar. I went to Russia knowing nothing of the people or the country, and with just sufficient knowledge of the language to enable me to ask my way about and to make ordinary necessary inquiries and purchases, with much gesticulation and frequent reference to a pocket dictionary. I had all the usual current home ideas or prejudices about the people and country, such as that the Russian character is essentially sad and silent, rendered so owing to long years of oppression;" that their own language is so difficult that they find all other languages comparatively easy, and so can speak them fluently;" and, finally, that they were a partially civilized, semi-Asiatic people, much behind the ordinary West-country European. To take just these three points, I may say that a residence in the country has at least modified such ideas. I found them chatty, companionable, and cheerful, always ready to amuse and to be amused, and singularly hospitable. It is quite the exception to meet with a fluent linguist (I do not speak now of the highest class, nor of the Poles, who are often singularly gifted in this way); many knew a little French or German, and were often ready to assume a much deeper knowledge than they possessed; they spoke it, indeed, much as would the average middle-class Englishman, i.e., badly. One rarely meets a Russian who knows English, and still more rarely one who can speak it, except in St. Petersburg or Moscow. As to the last point, that they are semi-barbarous, one should remember that there are so many varieties of type in this huge empire that it is not fair to judge the whole nation by what one may find to be the case in one part of the country. Certain peculiarities of manner, habit, or dress, to which I will refer hereafter, do incline one at times, perhaps unfairly, to take this view. I think the Russian middle and the rising generation of the peasant class are fairly educated, if allowance be made for the living under an autocratic government rigidly prohib iting all freedom of discussion and all liberty of the press. There has lately appeared in a magazine a powerful article on the "Demoralization of Russia." It is the most stupendous indictment of a whole nation, its govern. ment, and its institutions that I have ever read. Its bitterness is perhaps partially explained by the fact that the writer is, I am told, a member of that great, unique, and persecuted race, with all their wonderful history and marvellous fidelity to their traditions and faith, stretching back to a past beside which the history of ancient Greece shrinks into insignificance; and there can be no doubt that the "chosen people"- with whom I am much in sym |