Читать книгу Old Picture Books, With Other Essays on Bookish Subjects - Alfred W. Pollard - Страница 4

FROM THE 'CONTRASTO DI CARNEVALE E QUARESIMA,' S.A.

FROM ANGELO POLITIANO'S 'GIOSTRA DI GIULIANO DE' MEDICI,' S.A.

Again we find the same methods of illustration applied to the 'Giostre' of Giuliano and Lorenzo de'Medici, the story of Orpheus, by Angelo Politiano, which forms part of the former, being adorned with no fewer than ten admirable woodcuts, of which the picture here reproduced, of Orpheus frightened by a fury from attempting a second time to visit Hell in quest of his lost Eurydice, is quite one of the finest. The same methods of illustration were also used in the 'novelle,' including the 'Storia di due amanti' of Pope Pius II., from which we take our last illustration, and other secular chapbooks, which have nothing either religious or dramatic about them. It is clear, however, that the religious use was the earlier of the two, and that while the writers of the 'Laude' anticipated the practice of later revivalists in turning profane songs and tunes into hymns of devotion, it was the secular literature which was the borrower in the matter of illustrations.

FROM ENEA SILVIO PICCOLOMINI'S 'STORIA DI DUE AMANTI,' S.A.

As to the authors of these charming woodcuts we know absolutely nothing. Dr. Paul Kristeller has lately attempted to trace out three or four distinctive schools of style in them, but no name of any artist can be connected with them; and we can only conjecture that there were one or two special workshops in Florence where they were designed and executed, and that printers and publishers applied to these workshops when they were in need of cuts.