Page Fifteen

Lectures On Italian Art By Laurencia A. Herchmer

| Pan in February a course of six lectures was given at the University
of British Columbia by Mr. Stewart Dick, lecturer on art of the
National Gallery, London, England.

The lectures, which were illustrated by slides, were open to the public,
and a number of the students of the School of Decorative and Applied
Art availed themselves of the opportunity of hearing this well known
artist and critic.

“Beginnings of Italian Art” was the subject of his first lecture. He
stated that Italian Art was undoubtedly based upon that of ancient
Greece and Rome, early Christian paintings, as found in the catacombs,
being similar to Roman. After the 10th Century the influence of Byzan-
tine Art, noted for its richness of coloring, is seen.

The coming of St. Francis of Assissi put a new spirit into art. The
Church of St. Francis of Assissi is called the cradle of Italian Art, as dur-
ing the next hundred years the greatest artists in Italy were brought to
paint the frescoes on the walls of this edifice. Examples of the art of
Pietro Vavallinni, Cimabue of Florence—who was one of the first painters
to introduce real life into his pictures, and by mixing yolk of egg with
his paints, a greater range of colours than is usual in fresco paintings—
Duccio of Siena, and Giotto of Florence (the genius of this age) may
all be seen on the walls of this church.

The speaker traced the development of painting and sculpture from
the beginning of the 15th Century, to the middle of the Renaissance, in
his second lecture.

Giberti introduced the use of landscape as a background, and Dona-
tello was the first to model statues which stand alone and show animation.

In the fifteenth century a great effort was made by Masaccio, Andre
del Costagno—whose “Crucifixion” marks the advent of the small pic-
ture—and Paolo Uccello—the first to paint historical scenes—to give
painting something of the roundness of sculpture. The frescoes and
miniatures of Fra Angelico, who rose far above his predecessors, are
especially beautiful.

The work of Fra Lippo Lippi shows a keen appreciation of human
beauty, as does that of Bernardo Gozzoli—whose Helen of Troy marks
the rise of interest in mythological subjects.

The third lecture dealt with the period of growth at the end of the