art in milan

“cosa bella mortal passa e non d’arte.”—leonardo da vinci.

the milanese as a people do not take a great place in the story of italian art. they show at no time the spontaneous artistic character which was the blessed birthright of the florentines, sienese, umbrians, venetians. they granted, however, splendid hospitality to the art of others. talent of every kind was attracted to this wealthy and luxurious city, and the concourse of foreign artists roused and developed considerable industry in the natives from early times.

lombardy, and in particular milan, its principal city, were exposed to influences which did not reach further south. the strain of northern blood in the people, derived from their gallic origin, readily received the impress of the ultramontanes who flowed down throughout the centuries into the fertile plains of po and ticino, and the thoughts and ideas which they brought, assimilating with the natural instincts of the soil, and with the ancient traditions of the latins, resulted in an artistic character which is quite italian, though very different from the more southern populations. it lacks their spontaneity and daring, their lofty imagination and idealism, has little of their sense of beauty, falls short in sheer ability. but it is distinguished by sincerity, a love of realism, a humble and zealous industry, and also by certain marked and inveterate mannerisms. and though the milanese, or rather the 209lombards who peopled the wide duchy of the visconti and sforza, remained always very receptive, looking for a lead, and owing their strongest artistic impulses to some genius from abroad, their work keeps always its strong native character.

milan’s greatest moment was one in her art, and in her public life. the same spirit of freedom which stood up to barbarossa and frederick ii., raised her incomparable brick buildings of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. in this development of architecture on the large and reasonable lines of the old roman building, modified by the mystic ideas and melancholy sentiment of the north, and by the capabilities of the rich and plastic material yielded by the alluvial soil, lombardy shows the highest result of the mingled elements of her artistic life. when no longer inspired by freedom, architecture was still fostered in milan by ostentatious tyranny, and continued to be the most genial art of the people. in the fourteenth century, the visconti raised beautiful churches and palaces, but the builders inclined more and more to abandon the national traditions for gothic lightness and grace. in the crowning work of the cathedral, the false gothic ideal finally triumphed. the classical revival, which followed under the sforza and filled the city anew with churches and palaces, was communicated to milan by tuscan architects. it was cherished by the eclectic spirit of princes and nobles, and owed nothing to popular impulse. but in adapting her peculiar material, brick, to the new style, lombardy gave it a local and special character, and only when the vulgar exaggeration of the classic fashion overwhelmed italy in a general flood of baroque extravagance, did lombardy lose architectural individuality.

sculpture, as the handmaid of architecture, was also actively practised in milan from the twelfth century 210onwards. the same masters from the shores of como, from the valley of antelamo, close to maggiore, from campione near lugano, who carried the lombard or romanesque style all over north italy and into tuscany in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, built her churches and carved upon the fa?ades mystical figures and devices. the romanesque sculpture remaining in milan is very rude, and the names of its authors are in few cases remembered. in the fourteenth century the family or guild of masters from campione is prominent in the records of milanese architecture and sculpture, and individuals are distinguished by name. under the guidance of the pisan sculptor giovanni di balduccio, one of the ablest of nicola pisano’s followers, who worked long in milan, these campionese produced numberless sepulchral monuments, a few of which survive still in the churches and museums. the pisan traditions appear in them, modified by the native character. the classic nobility and severity, the ideal grace of nicola and giovanni pisano degrade into heaviness and coarseness in these ruder and more realistic hands, and the forms learnt from them are remoulded according to certain inveterate predilections which persist always in lombard sculpture.

at the end of this century, artistic industry received an extraordinary impulse throughout the visconte states from the splendid patronage of gian galeazzo. his vast new foundations, the duomo of milan, the certosa of pavia, his mighty engineering enterprises, gave endless employment to workers in stone. in this fervour of activity lombard sculpture began to evolve clearly its special character, and agreeably to the gorgeous tastes of the prince, which became a tradition for his successors, a love of excessive and exaggerated ornamentation appears, and marks it henceforth.

after gian galeazzo a lull came in art with the 211civic confusion of gian maria’s few years, and the continuous wars of filippo maria’s thirty-five. this period represents the pause between the medi?val era and the renaissance in milan. the building and decoration of the cathedral was continued slowly by men whom the old principles no longer inspired, and the new had not yet reached. no great names occur in the host of craftsmen engaged in the work. the campione fraternity was still represented, and continued to exist for a long time, though its traditions were dying out, and jacopino da tradate, who worked in the earlier half of the century, was a sculptor of some power.

the triumph of francesco sforza in 1450 began a new era of prosperity for milanese art. a long peace, a succession of sovereigns in whom a policy of splendour was assisted by stupendous wealth and a genuine love of beauty and culture, the concourse of strangers of genius to their court, bringing the inspiration of the great classic revival from tuscany and central italy, roused the lombards to an enthusiasm and activity which carried them to their highest pitch of achievement at the end of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. brunelleschi, employed by filippo maria to build a fortress, antonio averulino, known as filarete, whom francesco sforza summoned to design the ospedale maggiore and to assist on the castle, michelozzo, builder of the beautiful portinari chapel, and finally the great bramante, twelve years resident in the city in the moro’s days, and leonardo da vinci himself, master of all the arts and sciences, were their guides in the new or rediscovered mysteries of architecture. giuniforte solari, and pietro his son, architects of the duomo, certosa, and many of the churches and convents raised everywhere by francesco and bianca maria in the ardour of their piety and the 212joy of their newly-won glory, show the transition from gothic to the renaissance style, slowly accomplished however, for the lombards were tenacious of their local traditions and not ready to accept new ideas. even in the next generation of builders, amadeo, dolcebuono, cristoforo solari, briosco, and the rest, all nursed in the precepts imparted by the tuscans, and fully inspired by the renaissance spirit, there was still a lingering adhesion to certain gothic predilections. the lombard character, especially noticeable in a love of ornamentation, still expressed itself in the forms learnt from foreign example. in all that peculiarly graceful building in milan of the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, which is called indiscriminately bramantesque, and attributed to the influence of the urbino master—cloisters and cortiles with elegant pillared porticos and sculptured capitals of rich and fanciful design, and archivolts and cornices decorated with terra-cotta mouldings, grand arched portals often decorated with classic heads—a lombard character may almost always be detected.

in sculpture the mantegazza are the first of the milanese artists to show signs of the renaissance. these two brothers, cristoforo and antonio, natives of milan, were working from about 1443 until late in the century. they represent the old campionese traditions revivified by contact with the new ideas, as expressed by the paduans and florentines. their work is marked by that excessive zeal in the search for realism common to north italian art at this time, leading to the representation of exaggerated action and emotion. with the mantegazza violence is not always accompanied by strength, and their conception is not lofty enough to save their naturalistic tendency from vulgarising the sacred subjects which they set forth. the northern element in them, encouraged by the german 213and flemish artists at the liberal sforza court, appears in their extreme sincerity and pains, their lack of grace and idealism, their attention to minuti? rather than to broad effect. their figures are usually long and ill-proportioned, with small heads, the contours angular and sharp, the faces rude, with projecting cheek-bones and cavernous eyes; and the lombard peculiarity of numberless arbitrary folds, flattened to the form beneath as if the draperies had been wetted, gives to the whole compositions of these sculptors the appearance of crumpled paper. the mantegazza are closely followed by an artist of much more sweetness and geniality, giovanni antonio amadeo (1447-1522), the most productive and typical of the new generation of sculptors. the joyous vitality of the renaissance overflows in amadeo and carries all his native characteristics to unrestrained excess. the lombard love of pomp and gorgeous decoration runs to a riot of ornamentation in his reliefs, which are crowded and overloaded with rich and fertile fancies. builder as well as sculptor, he sacrifices architectural effect without scruple for the sake of decorative detail, as the extraordinarily ornate fa?ade of the colleoni chapel at bergamo, one of his most famous works, testifies. this is a fault common to the lombard architects. the fa?ade of the certosa, that museum of renaissance art in lombardy, the characteristic production of the busy school of the mantegazza, amadeo, benedetto briosco, and their assistants and followers, is an enduring monument of architects spoiled by being decorative sculptors, the building being treated chiefly as a space to load with decoration. the production of amadeo’s prolific talent, during a long and prosperous career, was very large, and continued till shortly before his death. amadeo shares the naturalistic tendency of the mantegazza and their native mannerisms, especially that of the crumpled paper folds. a 214love of story-telling, amounting to loquacity, appears in his subject reliefs, with their multitudinous figures and redundant action. the florid, extravagant fancy of his decorative work is not restrained by his sense of proportion, and in his indiscriminating use of classical motives borrowed from other schools—heads of emperors, allegorical conceits, etc.—a want of culture and scholarship is evident. the vulgarity of lombard art in comparison with the tuscan is exemplified in amadeo, but is redeemed by the sympathetic qualities of gaiety, spontaneity and artlessness, which give his work often much charm and sweetness.

amadeo’s activity was at its height at the time when leonardo was working in milan upon the equestrian statue of francesco sforza. duke galeazzo maria’s failure to find a native to do the work shows the limitations of the lombard sculptors. all shunned the problem of casting a bronze figure on so large a scale. but lodovico il moro, taking up the interrupted project after his brother’s death, found in the tuscan leonardo one who feared no difficulties. the completion of the model of the horse, after years of preliminary study, was the greatest sculptural event that ever happened in milan. but it remains outside the story of the lombard sculptors. unlike the painters, they seemed to have been little disturbed in their course by the tremendous personality of the florentine. if traces of his influence appear in their work, it is in types borrowed from his paintings.

a host of well-known sculptors accompany and follow amadeo. gio. dolcebuono, cristoforo solari, known as il gobbo (the hunchback), benedetto briosco, the cazzaniga brothers, agostino busti, called il bambaia—all show the local characteristics. but an inclination to softness and sensuousness and a lack of the old virile energy begins to vitiate their work 215as time goes on, and signals the coming of the decadence, though the technical skill of the school increases. il gobbo, scion of the old artistic stock of the solari, was one of the most highly-reputed of the sculptors, though he has left little of high worth behind him. he was much favoured by the moro, who chose him to execute the monument for beatrice’s tomb. the interesting sepulchral figures of this ill-fated pair, completed many years later, and now in the certosa, are his work. in agostino busti the school reaches its highest technical proficiency. but the old freshness and inspiration is gone. il bambaia, who is at times great—as in the beautiful recumbent figure of gaston de foix—degenerates often into coldness and conventionality, and his decorative taste was as ill-regulated as that of his less accomplished predecessors and contemporaries. a number of other artists—gian giacomo della porta, andrea fusina, cristoforo de’ lombardi, angelo siciliano, and, later on, gabrio busca, vincenzo seregni, etc.—were engaged on architectural and decorative work in milan in the sixteenth century, chiefly on the never-ending subject of the duomo, the exterior of which is a vast object-lesson in the artistic decadence of the milanese. the pious zeal of s. carlo and the cultured tastes of his nephew and successor in the archbishopric, cardinal federigo borromeo, gave a new impetus to art; but it was ill-directed by the false taste of the age, and lombard sculpture, like the architecture, ends in the empty pomposity and extravagance of the baroque style.

the other branches of medi?val and renaissance art found a busy centre also in milan. the decorative crafts of the goldsmith, wood-carver, of the intarsia worker and embroiderer, flourished here early. in the fourteenth century the fame of the milanese armourers was shared by the hands which engraved the swords 216and shields and cuirasses forged in the clanging quarter of the spadari. the unparalleled wealth and luxury of the visconti and of their nobles called for the finest skill of the embroiderer and goldsmith to adorn their apparel and harness, and lavished ornamentation on their palaces, their pageants, their feasts, which shone with gold and glowed with costly and beautiful colour. in the following century all these crafts were still more encouraged by the sforza. matteo da civate was a goldsmith of repute, and the mantegazza and others of the sculptors pursued this delicate craft also with great success. the fame of the milanese goldsmiths was finally crowned by ambrogio foppa, known as caradosso, whose figures chiselled in gold were of such admirable workmanship that cellini himself praised and envied him as one of the greatest masters in this art that he had ever known. the native workers were, however, but a few of those employed at the sforza court, which in the days of lodovico and beatrice was a very museum of artistic work of every kind, contributed by the finest talent of italy, germany, flanders and spain.

nor was the art of painting less cherished in milan. the visconti, for the adornment of their great palace at pavia, the sforza for the splendid halls of the castle of milan, and of their hundred villas and palaces of pleasure, engaged an army of painters. but until the later half of the fifteenth century not one name occurs there of any significance in the history of painting. giovanni da milano, mentioned by vasari as a pupil of taddeo gaddi, and an excellent painter, shows in his surviving works the conventional style of the later giottesque school, varied by something of that heaviness and darkness of colour which we see afterwards in the milanese quattrocentists. from giovanni onwards the few artists that we hear of, and the many that 217certainly worked in milan, have left little trace behind them, and that little does not differ from the rude and homely style common in north italy before the development of the paduan school. early in the fifteenth century the influence of pisanello, who worked in the visconti court, and of the artistic ideals which he represents, made itself felt in milan, and painters like michelino da besozzo and the zavatarii peopled the walls of the ducal and aristocratic palaces of the milanese state with such decorative, but strangely proportioned figures as are still to be seen in a chamber of the palazzo borromeo. other and stronger influences, however, must have been working in the milanese at this time, and under the spur of florentine and paduan example, and that of the german artists who thronged the court of filippo maria and francesco sforza, they were doubtless evolving obscurely the more or less distinctive character which emerges first into notice with vincenzo foppa. were the works of the earlier contemporaries of foppa, bonifacio bembo, pietro dei marchesi, stefano de’ fedeli, constantino da vaprio, bernardino de’ rossi, etc., still existing, we should probably find that they were already moving in the direction which his greater talent was able to pursue definitely and to point out to his successors.

foppa’s is the first figure that stands out for real artistic excellence in the history of milanese painting, and he is always called the founder of the school. born at brescia sometime in the first half of the fifteenth century, foppa is generally supposed to have studied in the school of squarcione. his earliest known work is the crucifixion, at bergamo, dated 1456. he worked chiefly in milan and the neighbourhood, and died in 1492. he was a very serious painter, and though he had not the inspiration of genius, with sound artistic sense he grasped the material facts of nature 218and gave force and reality to his creations. his treatment of forms is simple and direct, and his sincerity and singleness of purpose redeem the homeliness of his types, and render his figures noble and impressive. the squarcionesque tradition is to be seen in the classical backgrounds and inlaid marble thrones, etc., of his pictures, but the general character of his work shows a distinct departure from the paduan style. the heavy forms and dark grey flesh tones are native qualities, and are very persistent throughout the milanese school of painting.

zenale, born at treviglio in 1436, died in 1526, is little more than a name to us, for in spite of his long life scarcely any of his work has survived. the altarpiece at treviglio, in which buttinone was associated with him, is the only work extant that can with certainty be called his. buttinone was his contemporary and co-worker in the frescoes in s. pietro gessate in milan, as well as in the treviglio altarpiece. zenale’s share in these frescoes is quite unrecognisable, and there is nothing else in milan that can be identified as his work.

buttinone’s paintings are rare, but some survive in milan and the neighbourhood. he has a good deal in common with foppa, and probably derived his training from the same source; but there is a decided individuality in his work, an almost painful struggle after realism which results in a strange ugliness. his faces have great protruding foreheads and enormous ears, the flesh tones are dark and grey with streaks of high light, the children have large heads and disproportionately small limbs. there is something pathetic in his painstaking efforts and their poor results.

ambrogio da fossano, called borgognone, is a much better artist. his name first appears in 1481 as a painter of the university of milan. his early work is characterised by a simplicity and refinement and a 219sense of beauty which is much developed later on. he has at first the same tendency to grey flesh tones as foppa and buttinone, only with him they are modified to pleasant cool colour harmonizing with the silvery hues of background and draperies. later he develops a freer expression, which we see at its best in the beautiful frescoes of s. satiro (now in the brera) and the certosa. he may have felt the influence of leonardo, but he never lost his individuality. all through his life he kept the religious feeling which is his marked characteristic, and which makes the deepest appeal of his work. his drawing, however, is often bad; his flying angels are wrongly foreshortened, and there is no movement in his figures. he did an immense amount of painting and there is a sameness in his pictures, graceful though they are.

about 1483 leonardo da vinci came from florence and settled in milan. his art must have been a revelation to the lombard painters. not only was his technique infinitely superior to theirs, but his scope was so great, his imagination so profound, he created new forms, new types, a new world of light and shadow and perspective. his enterprises were gigantic, not in painting only, but in sculpture, architecture and engineering. the milanese, who had little originality of their own and were always susceptible to outside influence, gathered round him, and a school of painting was formed in which we see his types imitated to such a degree that much of his pupils’ work has been attributed to the master himself, until modern criticism, headed by morelli, has given it back to the true authors. the painters we shall now mention must all have felt more or less leonardo’s influence.

ambrogio de predis was court painter to lodovico il moro in 1482, and therefore was a painter of repute when leonardo arrived in milan; 220but that he became a close follower of the master is shown by the fact of his being associated with him in the altarpiece of the virgin of the rocks, of which de predis painted the two side panels, the angels in the national gallery, and many critics think he also executed the london version of the central part under the direction of leonardo. of the portraits attributed to him, some are very good, a profile of a girl in the ambrosiana being the best. so much better is it than the coarsely-painted clumsy angels of the national gallery, that it is difficult to recognise the connection between them; we can only suppose, however, that portrait painting was more congenial to him.

bartolomeo suardi, called bramantino, painted at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. he is said to have been a pupil of foppa and of bramante, working architecturally with the latter. his work is free and broad in manner, though often empty and wanting in drawing; the forms are full and the faces wide, with very regular features, particularly noticeable in the profiles. the blonde colouring of his flesh tones is unlike the usual low tones of the milanese. there is little evidence in his work of leonardo’s influence.

andrea solario, born about 1460, was an accomplished painter. of his early training we know nothing; but his elder brother cristoforo was a sculptor, and may have helped andrea to arrive at the excellence of drawing which we see in his portraits. some of his work shows the influence of leonardo, but he was also affected by the venetians, and especially by antonello da messina; his portraits also show affinity with the flemish school, in their clear outlines and high finish. the landscape backgrounds to his subjects are fine in colour and effect. he was fond of painting half-length pictures of the 221madonna and child, and treated the subject with a tender realism that is very charming. technically he reached a higher excellence than any of his fellow-milanese painters. with the exception of the large altarpiece at the certosa, his pictures are mostly small and unambitious in subject. he was, however, employed by charles d’amboise, in 1507, to decorate with frescoes the chapel in his castle of gaillon in normandy. these have perished.

boltraffio, cesare da sesto, gianpietrino, bernardino dei conti, marco d’oggionno, melzi and salai were all close followers of leonardo. their work is not strong or original, nor is the drawing very good, but it has a charm nevertheless, that of earnest and conscientious effort, striving after the ideal of beauty their great master set before them, which degenerates in their hands, however, into a fatal prettiness. their fault was an almost morbid exaggeration of the gradation of tones in the modelling of contours, by which they lost all freshness and vigour. boltraffio, born 1467, was of noble family, and was a favourite pupil of leonardo’s. his painting is highly finished and has distinction; his madonnas, clad always in rich garments, are stately and beautiful, with oval faces and regular features. the painting is very smooth, which gives a cold and unnatural effect to the flesh. the fresco in st. onofrio in rome, formerly ascribed to leonardo, is now given to him, and some critics consider him the author of the much-disputed belle ferronière of the louvre.

cesare da sesto’s work was very leonardesque to begin with; later on he was influenced by raphael. his manner is lighter and more graceful than most of the lombards. in gianpietrino’s painting the lombard greyness of flesh tones is carried to an almost gloomy extreme. his madonnas and magdalens often 222have charm, but in the former he imitated leonardo too closely, and the execution is timid.

bernardino dei conti painted madonnas in the leonardesque manner, but the colour is peculiarly hot and the contours lumpy. his drawings, which are better than his paintings, have a great resemblance to those of ambrogio de predis, by whom, morelli says, he was much influenced. marco d’oggionno’s pictures are lifeless imitations of the master, in which all the subtlety is lost, the chiaroscuro is too strong and the colours too intense. in his large canvases, such as the archangels of the brera, he fails signally. of the work of melzi and salai we know little. salai is mentioned by vasari as a youth of singular grace and beauty with waving curly hair. he may have served as model for some of those leonardesque drawings of youths with curling hair with which we are familiar.

painters deriving still from leonardo but who have achieved a great celebrity of their own are bernardino luini and gaudenzio ferrari. luini is the most popular painter of the lombard school, probably because his paintings are so numerous and therefore widely known. there is always a sweetness and charm in his work, though rather superficial and sentimental, and in the best examples he attains beauty and dignity; but his forms have the lombard heaviness and his drawing is not good. there is want of imagination and a tameness in his pictures that make them very monotonous. the dates of his birth and death are unknown, nor is anything known of his early training. he certainly imitated leonardo, but his best work has a character and individuality of its own. the frescoes of the monastero maggiore in milan, of saronno and lugano are considered very fine.

gaudenzio ferrari was born about 1481 at valduggia. little is known of his early life; he must have felt the 223influence of bramantino and luini; his work is sometimes confused with that of the latter painter. he had much more inventive and dramatic power than luini, as his frescoes show. he was a most prolific painter, and had too much energy and too little self-restraint. his colour is fiery and his compositions overcrowded. in spite of his ability he fell into bad taste and careless workmanship, showing unmistakable signs of that decadence which gradually overtook italian art.

the most talented of all the lombard painters was giovanni antonio bazzi, called il sodoma, for though tuscany and rome were the scenes of his activity and possess his greatest works, yet he derives his artistic descent from lombardy. he was born at vercelli in piedmont in 1477, and studied painting for two or three years at milan before going to siena, where we hear of him in 1501. his painting shows plainly his origin, and some of his works have great affinity to leonardo, though he is not known to have been actually his pupil.

the leonardesque tradition was carried on by the brothers martino and albertino piazza of lodi, whose work is suave and pleasing, but weak. the family of campi, two generations, worked through three-quarters of the sixteenth century. their work is able, but without distinction; they show a venetian influence.

bernardino lanino was a pupil and imitator of gaudenzio ferrari; he was active through the middle of the sixteenth century. the school dies away with lomazzo, more famous for his writings on art than for his paintings, and with daniele crespi, in whom we see all the exaggerated realism of the decadence of art.