[Footnote 216: In the great saloon he has poetically represented the protection afforded to literature by Lorenzo de" Medici. With some licences peculiar to that age, and usual with him, the composition and the figures are very beautiful; and there is an imitation of ba.s.so-relievo in his painting, that would deceive the most skilful, and tempt them to believe it absolutely raised from the wall. This work, left imperfect by him, was completed by Pagani, by Montelatici, and by Furini, with some semicircular pieces.]
[Footnote 217: This is expressed by the Italians by "il possesso del sotto in su." Tr.]
[Footnote 218: See tom. ii. of Signor Giachi, p. 202.]
[Footnote 219: The Ragged Cloak recovered.]
[Footnote 220: It was published with notes by Dr. Paolo Minucci, and was reprinted with other ill.u.s.trations of Sig. Antonio Biscioni.]
[Footnote 221: Pa.s.seri, a great admirer of his tints, p.r.o.nounces him a master of invention; and, treating of his engravings, says, "such vigour of conception, such novelty, and such variety, were never the gift of any other artist. He is a poet in all his historic pieces, his composition is full of fancy; this, however, is not equally commended by all, who look for the simple action without other accessaries."]
[Footnote 222: The Bully.]
[Footnote 223: Botti is p.r.o.nounced a famous fresco painter by Magalotti, in _Lett. Pitt._ tom. v. p. 229. There are various mechanical works of Lorenzo. He painted the whole ceiling of the church of the Domenicans at Fiesole, which was considered by Conca among the respectable productions of his age.]
[Footnote 224: The Trumpet.]
[Footnote 225: The Swarthy.]
[Footnote 226: Lett. Pitt. tom. i. p. 308.]
[Footnote 227: The Ab. Conca, tom. ii. p. 53, writes of this artist, that with this and similar works he acquired so much reputation in Madrid, that the name of a princ.i.p.al street in which he lived was borrowed from his; from the time of Philip II. it has been called _Jacome Trezzo_.]
[Footnote 228: Tom. viii. p. 156.]
FLORENTINE SCHOOL.
EPOCH V.
_Pietro da Cortona and his followers._
After the middle of the seventeenth century, the Florentine school, and also that of Rome, underwent a remarkable revolution, occasioned by the vast number of the followers of Pietro da Cortona. Sects in painting have the same fate as sects in philosophy: one succeeds another; and the new principles are propagated more or less rapidly, according to the degree of opposition they have to encounter where they happen to be diffused. The manner of Cortona met with considerable opposition in Rome, as we shall find in the proper place. He was invited to Florence by Ferdinand II. about the year 1640, to ornament some of the apartments of the Pitti palace; and this work, in which he spent several years, has appeared to connoisseurs the most beautiful he ever performed. He was directed in this work by Michelangiolo Bonarruoti the younger, a literary man of great judgment; and Cortona appears also to display learning in the execution. In one apartment he painted the four ages of the world, which the poets of all nations have described in imitation of Hesiod; five other chambers were dedicated to five fabulous deities, from whom they were named the chamber of Minerva, of Apollo, of Mars, of Jupiter, and of Mercury. He united the mythology of each with history.
Thus, for instance, in the chamber of Apollo, he represents this patron of the fine arts on the ceiling in the act of receiving the young Hercules, who is introduced by Minerva, that he may be instructed; and on the walls he painted Alexander reading the works of Homer, Augustus listening to Virgil, and other similar stories, which are fully described by Pa.s.seri in his Life of Cortona. The great work was finished by Ciro Ferri; for after Cortona had begun the chamber of Mercury, on some disgust, which is variously related, he secretly withdrew from court, returned to Rome, and always declined when repeatedly invited to revisit Florence. There, however, he had laid the foundations of a new school. Baldinucci remarks on the style of Pietro, that it was no sooner seen at Florence, than praised by the best judges.[229] The predilection of Cosmo III. contributed to bring it into credit; this prince pensioned Ciro Ferri in Rome, that he might instruct the Tuscans who came there to study. At that time there was no artist of that country who did not, more or less, imitate this style. We shall now describe it, and trace it to its origin.
Pietro Berrettini, a native of Cortona, the scholar of Comodi in Tuscany, and of Ciarpi at Rome, is mentioned also among the writers on the art.[230] He acquired his knowledge of design by copying antique ba.s.so-relievos, and the chiaroscuros of Polidoro, a man who appears inspired by the soul of an ancient. Pietro chose Trajan"s column as his favourite study; and from it he may have drawn his heavy proportions, and the appearance of strength and robustness, that characterize even his female forms and his children: in their eyes, noses, and lips, he surpa.s.ses the medium standard; and their hands and feet are certainly not remarkable for their light elegance. But in contrast, or the art of opposing group to group, figure to figure, and part to part, in which he was distinguished, he appears to have followed Lanfranco, and partly to have formed it from the Baccha.n.a.lian vases, which are particularly mentioned in his life by Pa.s.seri. His taste may probably have been drawn, in some measure, from the Venetian school; since having gone to study there, and then returned to Rome, he destroyed what he had previously done, and executed his works anew in the Barberini palace, according to the account of Boschini, his great admirer. Generally speaking, he finishes nothing highly but what was intended to be most conspicuous; he avoids strong shadows, is fond of middle tints, prefers the less brilliant grounds, colours without affectation, and is reckoned the inventor and chief artist of a style, which, in the opinion of Mengs, combines facility with taste. He employed it in pictures of all sizes with applause; but in painting of furniture, and still more on ceilings, in cupolas, and recesses, he carried it to a pitch of beauty which will never fail to procure him panegyrists and imitators. The judicious division of his historical compositions, which derives aid from the architecture, that skilful gradation by which he represents the immensity of aerial s.p.a.ce beyond the clouds, his knowledge in the art of foreshortening what is seen from below, that play of light seemingly celestial, that symmetrical disposition of his figures, are circ.u.mstances which enchant the eye and fascinate the soul.
It is true that this manner does not always satisfy the mind; for intent on gratifying the eye, it introduces useless figures, in order that the composition may not be deficient in the usual fulness; and for the sake of contrast, figures in the performance of the gentlest actions, are painted as if the artist was representing them in a tournament or a battle. Gifted by nature with facility of genius, and no less judgment, Berrettini either avoided this extravagance, as in his stupendous Conversion of S. Paul, or did not carry it to that absurdity, which in our times has marked his followers, from the usual tendency of all schools to overcharge the characteristic of their master. Hence the facility of this style has degenerated into negligence and its taste into affectation; until its chief adherents begin as at present to abandon it, and to adopt a superior manner.
But not to wander from the Florentine school, we must confess that this epoch has been the least productive of eminent painters. Pietro had some pupils at that place, who did him equal honour with the Romanelli and the Ferri at Rome. I shall first mention a foreigner, who having established himself at Florence, may be reckoned of that school. Livio Mehus, a native of Flanders, came into Tuscany from Milan, where he had received some instruction in the art from another Fleming, named Charles, was taken under the protection of Prince Matthias, and recommended to Berrettini, who gave him lessons for a little time both in Florence and at Rome. By copying the antique he became a good designer, and he studied colouring at Venice and in Lombardy. He retained little of the manner of Cortona besides the composition. He imitated the Venetians less in colouring, than in the light and firm touches of his pencil. His tints are modest, his att.i.tudes lively, his shadows most beautiful, and his inventions ingenious. He painted few altar pieces, but many cabinet pictures, for he was pensioned by the prince, and employed by n.o.ble families, in whose houses his works are often to be met with. The historical picture of the Repose of Bacchus and Ariadne, which he painted for Marquis Gerini, in emulation of Ciro Ferri, is very highly praised. Ferri conceived some jealousy of him, when he painted the cupola of the Pace at Florence; where he appears to approach the Lombard school, and even to surpa.s.s Cortona.[231] He was imitated by a Lorenzo Rossi, previously a scholar of Pier Dandini, who, according to P. Orlandi, executed some elegant small pictures.
Vincenzio Dandini went from the school of his brother Cesare into that of Cortona, or rather into the Roman school, where he copied, as well as he could, with unwearied a.s.siduity, the finest specimens in painting, sculpture, and architecture. On this foundation, aided by practice in anatomy, at the academy for the naked figure, which still flourished at Florence, he became superior to his brother in design and in softness of colouring: he also finished more highly than Cesare, was more studious in his drapery, and in the other branches of the art. In All Saints there is a Conception of the Virgin, and three other pictures by his hand. He was employed in the ducal villas: in that of Poggio Imperiale he painted a beautifully foreshortened figure of Aurora, attended by the Hours, in a recess he had erected; and at Petraia painted in oil the Sacrifice of Niobe. In him the pupil of Cortona is very manifest. A similar style, but degenerated both in execution and in manner, is discoverable in Pietro, his son and scholar. This artist was superior to all the other Dandini; and by more extensive travels he obtained a greater knowledge of foreign painters: it would have been well if he had not attempted to surpa.s.s them also in his emoluments. From avarice he undertook too many works, and contented himself with a certain mediocrity in study; for which he, in some measure compensated by a freedom of pencil that is always admirable. Where well paid, he demonstrated his abilities; as in the cupola of S. Mary Magdalen; in several frescos in the ducal palace at Florence, in the royal villas, and in the copious historical picture of the taking of Jerusalem, which he painted in the public palace at Pisa. He also painted some altar-pieces worthy of himself; as the S. Francis in S. Maria Maggiore or the Beato Piccolomini in the att.i.tude of saying ma.s.s, in possession of the Servi; a beautiful picture, full of spirited att.i.tudes. His son, Ottaviano, appears his follower in some semicircular pictures in the cloister of S. Spirito, in a piece representing various saints in the church of S. Lorenzo; and wherever he was employed. One of his grandest works may be seen in S. Mary Magdalen at Pescia, the ceiling of which he painted in fresco.
The Dandini family had many scholars, who, with their descendants, have kept alive the school of Cortona, even to our own days. This school was not eminent; it requires but little examination, or prolixity of description. It has produced some good artists; but few of them are above mediocrity; a fault less to be attributed to their genius, than the times. The more modern style was esteemed the best: the last master seemed to discover new maxims in painting, and abolished the old: and thus artists of little celebrity gave birth to others more minute and mannered, resembling their prototype in maxims, but inferior in reputation. About this time it became fashionable to paint with a certain degree of careless ease, or _Sprezzatura_, as it is styled by some; and Giordano and some Venetians are applauded for this manner.
Several Florentine artists tried to imitate them, and have produced works that resemble sketches: this species of mannerism is not uncommon in other schools. It is unnecessary to be particular, but only to observe generally that such artists are as rare in choice collections of pictures, as Andrea del Sarto or Cigoli: the latter are there scarce, because they painted with great care; the former cla.s.s because they painted with very little. In the work ent.i.tled _Series of the most celebrated painters_, we find Antonio Riccianti, Michele Noferi, and some others whose names are merely mentioned as scholars of Vincenzio; and Gabbiani is the only one particularly praised. In like manner, among the pupils of Pietro Dandini we find the names of Gio. Cinqui, whose portrait is in the ducal gallery, Antonio Puglieschi, of Florence, who studied under Ciro, and Valerio Balda.s.sari of Pescia; but there is a particular eulogy bestowed on Fratinelli, whom we shall notice hereafter. I find also that P. Alberigo Carlini, a Minorite monk of Pescia, was the pupil of Ottaviano, and attended Conca at Rome. He painted some good pictures, chiefly in the church of his order at Pietrasanta. To his we may also add the name of Santarelli, a patrician of the same country, and who died at Rome.
The most celebrated pupil of the Dandini was Anton Domenico Gabbiani, not long ago mentioned; before he was the pupil of Vincenzio, he had lessons from Subtermans, and finished his education at Rome under Ciro Ferri, and at Venice by studying the best masters. We must not give credit to Pascoli, who has represented him as a mean artist.[232]
Gabbiani ranks amongst the best designers of his age; a collection of his drawings is in the possession of Sig. Pacini, which was often inspected and commended by Mengs for the facility and elegance he there discovered. Many of his designs were engraved and published in his life by Ignatius Hugford. His colouring sometimes borders on the languid, but is generally good: he is correct and natural, especially in fleshy tints; juicy, and tempered by a pleasing harmony. The greatest fault in the style of this artist is in his draperies, which, though correct, and studied with his usual diligence, always exhibit a degree of heaviness in the execution, are too confined, and sometimes are not quite true in the colouring. His merit is very great in light subjects: in the Pitti, and other palaces of some of the n.o.bility of Florence, his dances of genii and groups of boys are to be met with, and yield little to those of Baciccio. One of the finest is in the house of the Orlandini family; and the Marquis of Riccardi has specimens among the mirrors placed in his collection. His largest and most celebrated work in fresco is the vast cupola of Cestello, which he did not wholly finish. His oil pictures are esteemed precious even in the ducal gallery. Several of his works of unequal merit are preserved in churches; but his S. Philip, in possession of the fathers Dell" Oratorio, justifies the a.s.sertion of Redi, that, except Maratta, there was then no painter in Rome that could eclipse him.[233] The catalogue of his scholars is extensive; but some of them, as happens to every master, may be also claimed by other preceptors. Benedetto Luti was an honour to Gabbiani and to Florence.
Having formed himself in this school, he went to Rome, in hopes of receiving the instructions of Ciro Ferri; but the death of that master intervening, he was guided by his own genius, and the monuments of art existing in that city. The style he there formed may be considered a compound of various imitations, select in the forms, pleasing and bright in colouring, shewing art in the distribution of light and shade, and as harmonious to the eye as is the orator to the ear, who enchants an audience by his well turned periods; the delightful fascination is felt, but the source of it cannot be a.s.signed. In that metropolis we shall find him master of the new style; but in Tuscany we cannot point out many of his pictures besides those in the ducal palace: private collections are rich only in his crayon pieces, which are likewise well known out of Italy. There is one of his large pictures on canva.s.s at Pisa, the subject of which is the Vestment of S. Ranieri; and it is the most admired among the larger paintings of the cathedral. Luti sent it to Gabbiani for his correction before it was exposed to the public; a circ.u.mstance highly honourable to the modesty of the scholar and the abilities of the master.[234] His portrait is in the ducal gallery; and the more rigid critics, on looking at it, have been known to say, "Behold the last painter of his school."
Tommaso Redi was a pupil of the same master; and is noticed in the _Lettere Pittoriche_, as a good composer of historical pictures, and is also praised for design, colouring, and spirit. From the school of Gabbiani he went under the tuition of Maratta and Balestra, both artists respectable for their style, and declared enemies to the innovations which have occupied and debased our schools for so long a period. Redi also visited the most celebrated schools, but for the sole purpose of studying the old masters, and of making copies of their works, some of which, with a few pieces of his own invention, remain in his family. In the eulogy of Anton Domenico we find honourable mention made of his nephew, Gaetano Gabbiani; of Francesco Salvetti, his intimate friend; of Gio. Antonio Pucci, a painter and a poet; of Giuseppe Baldini, whose promising career was cut short by death, and of Ranieri del Pace, a native of Pisa, who afterwards yielding to the torrent of fashion, became a complete mannerist. Ignatius Hugford, born in Florence, but whose father was a native of England,[235] was admirably skilled in recognizing the hands of different masters, and likewise painted in a good manner a picture of S. Raphael at S. Felicita, and some other pieces, which were mostly small, and have been admitted into the royal museum. The feeble paintings in possession of the Vallombrosani at Forli, and some of the same stamp at Florence, are likewise by this artist.
Alessandro Gherardini, a rival of Gabbiani, and in the opinion of many, his superior in genius as a painter, had wonderful facility in counterfeiting different styles. He would have equalled any of his contemporaries, had he always painted in the style of his Crucifixion of our Lord in Candeli, in which he calls to mind a happy imitation of different schools. It is a work studied in every part, especially in the general tone, which artfully expresses the darkness of that hour. A history piece of Alexander the Great, in Casa Orlandini, with figures of half-length, and executed with great industry, is also held in high esteem; but he aimed at painting pictures of every degree of merit. One of his pupils, no less fertile in talent, and named Sebastiano Galeotti, is rather remembered than known at Florence. He left his native place when young, travelled about a long time without any fixed residence, and has left specimens behind him in many parts of Upper Italy. He at length settled at Genoa, where we shall again notice him. The ducal gallery contains portraits both of the master and of the scholar, by the side of those of Gabbiani and Redi. Other considerable painters of this epoch have obtained a similar honour; among whom we may mention Agostino Veracini, a scholar of Sebastian Ricci, Francesco Conti, a disciple of Maratta, and Lapi, a follower of Giordano; each of these has successfully imitated his guide.[236] The S. Apollonia of the first, painted for the church of that name; various Madonnas of the second, in the hands of private gentlemen; and the Transfiguration of the last, in the ducal gallery, are calculated to do them honour, and even to shed a l.u.s.tre on some of their less refined productions. Some others now dead have been equally honoured by a portrait, of whom I have not discovered any other work. Of this number are Vincenzio Bacherelli, Gio. Frances...o...b..gnoli, Anton Sebastiano Bettini, Gio. Casini, Niccolo Nannetti, and others, who are mentioned in the _Museo Fiorentino_.
Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani, a scholar of Giusti, was esteemed at Florence, even during the lifetime of Gabbiani and Gherardini. To study different masters, he visited the best schools of Italy, and for some time attended the school of Cav. Cignani, whose manner he copied rather than emulated. One of his Holy Families is in the Madonna de" Ricci, the beauty of which has more of an ideal cast, and the colouring is more florid, than is usual with his contemporaries of this school. One of the first judges in Florence a.s.sured me that this painting was the work of Sagrestani, although others ascribe it to his scholar, Matteo Bonechi.
Bonechi had excellent parts, but not an equal knowledge of the art, in which he is reported to have been instructed by a species of dictation; for he practised under the eye, and was directed by the voice of his master. He thus became one of those practical artists who make up for the poverty of their design by their spirit and their colouring. There are some of his pictures that in any collection would be particularly calculated to attract the eye. Among his works in fresco, the picture at Cestello, where he finished what was begun by Gabbiani, is worthy of record; and also that in the Capponi palace near the Nunziata, where he continued the work of Marinari.
About this time Cignani died in Bologna, and Gio. Gioseffo del Sole, denominated the modern Guido, enjoyed the highest reputation. Florence employed three of his eminent pupils; one of the two Soderini, Meucci, and Ferretti, who although called da Imola, was born and lived in Florence. Mauro Soderini enjoyed the reputation of a good designer, and aimed at beauty and effect in his pictures. The Death of S. Joseph in the cathedral is said to be by his hand, though it is in fact by Ferretti; the Child revived by S. Zan.o.bi, in the church of S. Stephen, is really his. Vincenzio Meucci was chiefly employed in works of perspective, which he executed in many parts of Tuscany, and even in the cupola of the royal chapel in S. Lorenzo. If there was any one who could dispute with him pre-eminence in fresco painting, it was his fellow disciple, Giovanni Domenico Ferretti, whose works may be seen in Florence, in several other parts of Tuscany, and at Bologna; from which he appears to have surpa.s.sed Meucci in fancy and in spirit, and especially at the Philippini at Pistoia, where his performance in the cupola is highly praised. In fresco works they were both excellent; but in oil paintings they often were too hasty, an error into which all fresco painters, not excepting the most esteemed, have fallen. Hence Ferretti, although he painted the Martyrdom of S. Bartolommeo, for the church dedicated to that saint at Pisa, in an excellent style, did not give equal satisfaction by his History of S. Guido, in the archiepiscopal church. Several of the works of Meucci are dispersed through the various churches in Florence; and in a chapel of the Nunziata, where he painted the recess, he coloured a Madonna, which is allowed to be one of his most diligent and best finished pictures. He was there rivalled by Giuseppe Grisoni, a scholar of Redi; and it is reported that vexation at this circ.u.mstance shortened his days. Grisoni had travelled more than he in visiting the schools of Italy, had even gone to England, and had acquired great skill in figures, and still more in landscape. He therefore was induced to add landscape not only to historical, but also to portrait painting; as in the instance of a portrait of himself that is one of the most respectable in the second chamber of painters. He added it also to the S. Barbara, painted in compet.i.tion with Meucci; and it is a picture which does honour to the school in form, relief, and taste of colouring. He likewise painted other pieces on the same plan, in which, however, he did not succeed so well.
Meucci and Grisoni cannot be reckoned Italian artists of the same rank with Luti; but if all are to be estimated by the times in which they flourished, each was eminent in his day. I had noticed them briefly in my first edition, and some painters have informed me, that with them I ought to have mentioned Giuseppe Zocchi, who was a painter of note, and should not have been omitted even in a compendium of the history of the art. I now correct my error, and produce what information the n.o.ble family of Gerini, under whose protection he was received when a boy, and who, after his elementary studies at Florence, sent him to Rome, to Bologna, and other parts of Lombardy, for his instruction in the different schools, have supplied me. I may be allowed to add, that the Florentine n.o.bility have always been most liberal in this way; and there are not a few living artists who owe their education in the fine arts to the bounty of some n.o.ble family: such clients are an ornament to a n.o.bleman, and are not to be numbered among his servants. Zocchi had a genius fertile in invention, pliant in imitation, and judicious in selection; and hence at the conclusion of such a course of study, he was able to compose large works with skill, and to colour beautifully. He painted four pretty large frescos in the villa Serristori, beyond the gate of S. Nicholas, some apartments in the Rinuccini palace, and one in the Gerini gallery; and these are believed to be his best works of this sort. In smaller pieces he was still greater; as in his oil picture of the festivities at Siena, on the arrival of the Emperor Francis I., a work very true in the perspective, and graceful in the mult.i.tude of figures which he there inserted. It is deposited in the splendid Sansedonii collection of pictures at Siena, where the entertainment given to the Grand Duke Peter Leopold may also be seen: with this object in view the painter went to Siena, where he caught the epidemic disorder that raged there in 1767, and soon after died at Florence.
On turning to the other parts of Tuscany, we find them from the beginning of the eighteenth century full of the followers of Cortona; San Sepolcro boasted one Zei, of whom I find no further account than that of his painting an altar-piece representing the souls in purgatory, for the cathedral of that place, a work extremely well coloured, and conducted in the maxims of the school, though the countenances are of a common cast; and if we except the liberating angel, of poor expression.
Among this sect we cannot include Gio. Batista Mercati, one of the latest painters of that city, not unknown at Rome, and much noted in his native place, where he painted either at a more mature time of life, or with greater pains. Two of his historical frescos, representing our Lady, are in S. Chiara; and at S. Lorenzo there is a picture of the t.i.tular with other saints; in both there is an air apparently drawn from the school of the Caracci, especially in the breadth of the drapery, which is well cast, and skilfully varied. In the Guides to Venice and to Rome, several of his works are mentioned, and in that of Leghorn, the only picture in the cathedral esteemed worthy of notice is that of the Five Saints, painted by Mercati with great care. Orlandi notices Tommaso Lancisi, a scholar of Scaminossi, and two of his brothers, and adds, that painting was an hereditary honour in this family.
One only of the countrymen of Berrettini is known to me as his follower; his name is Adriano Palladino; he is mentioned by Orlandi, which is the only trace of him that I have discovered; I never saw any of his works, nor heard them mentioned by any one.
Arezzo abounds with pictures in the manner of Cortona. Salvi Castellucci, the scholar of Pietro, either at Florence or at Rome, was a great imitator of his style, and painted with expedition, according to the practice of the school. He executed many good pieces in the cathedral, and other churches, besides numerous cabinet pictures that are in private houses, which are estimable for the facility and good taste of their colouring. One of his frescos, representing our Lady surrounded by the patron saints of the city, is in the public palace; but he is greater in oil painting. He had a son, on whom he bestowed the name of Pietro, probably in honour of his master. He also was a follower of Cortona, but never equalled his father.
Pistoia, however, had two Gimignani, the father Giacinto, and Lodovico, his son, of whom it is still disputed which was the most eminent. From the school of Poussin, Giacinto entered that of Berrettini; and as he approached nearer his first master in design and composition, so in colouring and in taste for architecture he came nearest to the second.
He moreover took the lead in works of fresco. Here he rivalled Cama.s.sei and Maratta, at the baptistery of S. Gio. Laterano, where he painted the histories of Constantine, besides leaving other specimens in different parts of Rome, in the Niccolini palace at Florence, and other places. In some pictures he also emulated Guercino, as for instance in the Leander in the ducal gallery, which was long considered as a Guercino. Though Lodovico was the scholar of Giacinto, he is not so correct in design, but was superior to his father in all the faculties that excite pleasing emotions; his ideas are more beautiful, his tints more lovely, his att.i.tudes more spirited, and his harmony more agreeable. It would appear either that the style of his maternal uncle Orbetto, had attracted his attention, or that Bernini, the director of his studies, had led him into this path. He obtained great applause for his works in fresco, and those he executed at Rome in the church of the Virgins are studied by artists for the att.i.tudes, the clouds, and the grace of the wings with which his angels were furnished. He chiefly resided at Rome, which possesses several of his paintings for churches, and a far greater number for halls and private rooms; being moreover much employed in these for foreign countries. Two histories of S. John by the hand of Giacinto, are in the church dedicated to that saint at Pistoia; and there was also a S. Rocco in the cathedral, which was esteemed excellent. Lodovico executed a beautiful picture for the church of the Capuchins, now converted into a parish church.
After the death of both, Lazzaro Baldi still remained, another great ornament of the school of Cortona, and of Pistoia, his native place. He may be there recognised in two pictures, the Annunciation in the church of S. Francis, and the Repose in Egypt in that of the Madonna della Umilta. This latter place is a most majestic octagonal temple, executed by Ventura Vitoni of Pistoia, the great pupil of Bramante, and surmounted by a cupola, which is reckoned among the n.o.blest in Italy.
Baldi finally established his abode in Rome; where he was much employed, as well as in other parts of the states of the Church. One of the most studied pictures he ever painted is at S. Camerino, and represents S.
Peter receiving the pontifical power. A still more recent artist is Gio.
Domenico Piastrini, a scholar of Luti, who in the porch of Madonna della Umilta, filled two large s.p.a.ces with pictures, ill.u.s.trative of the history of this church, and who rivalled the best followers of Maratta, in S. Maria in Via Lata, at Rome. It is not foreign to this period to notice Gio. Batista Cipriani, who was born in Florence, but descended from a family of Pistoia;[237] especially as he left specimens of his pencil in the neighbourhood of the places we have just mentioned. Two of his altar-pieces were in the abbey of S. Michael-on-the-Sea; one of S.
Thesaurus, the other of S. Gregory VII. which are valuable, as Cipriani painted but little. His excellence lay in design, which he acquired from the collection of the studies of Gabbiani, before mentioned. Having afterwards gone to London, he was much employed by the celebrated Bartolozzi, who has immortalized the painter by engraving his inventions. We might augment our catalogue with the two Giusti and Michele Paoli, a Pistoian of the school of Crespi; but they did not attain maturity, if we depend on the information afforded by the continuator of _Felsina Pittrice_.[238]
Of those within the Florentine territory, the Pisans, and of those beyond it, the artists of Lucca, yet remain to be considered. Camillo Gabrieli, a scholar of Ciro, was the first who transplanted the style of Cortona into Pisa; and in this manner executed a good oil painting at the convent of the Carmelites, and also several for private individuals; in this kind of painting he was more happy than in fresco. In this line, however, his memory is honoured in his native place, both for his works in the grand saloon of the Alliata palace, and in the apartments of other n.o.blemen"s houses; and likewise on account of his pupils, the two Melani, who have contributed much to his reputation. We shall notice Francesco among the professors of architectural design: Giuseppe his brother, and a knight of the golden spur, became no common artist in figures, and was worthy of painting in the cathedral a large oil picture of the death of S. Ranieri. Although this piece ranks in the scale of mediocrity in this sanctuary of the arts, it does honour to its author; the invention is good, the perspective is regular, and exhibits no marks of carelessness, as is so often the case. But his place is among the painters in fresco; in which department he ornamented with figures the architectural works of his brother; and has shewn himself tenacious of the manner of Cortona, both in what is commendable in it, as the perspective, colouring, and harmony; and also where it is less praiseworthy, as in the heaviness and imperfect finish of the figures.
With a similar instance we shall commence the series of artists of Lucca: the two brothers, Ippolito and Giovanni Marracci, obtained equal applause in very different branches of the art; the former was a painter of architecture, the latter of figures; and of him only we shall here speak. Although little known beyond Lucca, he is reckoned among the eminent scholars and most successful imitators of Pietro da Cortona; and merits this name, either when he painted in fresco, as in the cupola of S. Ignatius, at S. Giovanni; or when he wrought in oil, as he did in several pictures in the possession of the brotherhood of S. Lorenzo, in the collegiate church of S. Michael, and in other places. With equal success two other artists, natives of Lucca, who had been educated in his school, became imitators, for a period, of Pier Cortona. These were Giovanni Coli and Filippo Gherardi, who were trained in the school of their native place, and resembled each other no less in style than in disposition; so that though they usually painted in the same piece, all their joint labours appear the work of a single artist. They afterwards adopted a manner that partic.i.p.ates of the Venetian and Lombard schools; and in this style they painted the vast ceiling of the library of S.
Giorgio Maggiore at Venice. Rome possesses some of their stupendous works in the church of the Lucchesi, and in the magnificent Colonna gallery. The most celebrated picture with which they ornamented their native place was the fresco of the tribune of the church of S. Martin, and next to it that in S. Matthew"s, which they decorated with three oil pictures. After the death of Coli, his companion resided and continued to paint in Lucca: the whole cloister of the Carmelite monastery was painted by him alone.
The manner of Cortona was likewise adhered to by Gio. Batista Brugieri, a scholar of Baldi and of Maratta, who was in his day highly applauded for his works in the chapel of the Sacrament, at the Servi, and his other productions in public. P. Stefano Ca.s.siani, from the fraternity to which he belonged, surnamed Il Certosino, or the Carthusian, painted in fresco the cupola of his church, and two large histories of our Lady, besides other reputable works in the style of Cortona, at the Certosa of Pisa, of Siena, and elsewhere. Girolamo Scaglia, a disciple of Paulini and of Gio. Marracci, is surnamed Parmegianino. In architecture he imitated Berrettini, as is remarked by Sig. da Morrona;[239] in his shadows he followed Paulini, and sometimes approached Ricchi: as a painter his effect was superior to his design; or as it was observed by the Cav. t.i.ti, (p. 146) on beholding his picture of the Presentation, painted at Pisa, it exhibits extreme industry and very little taste.
Gio. Domenico Campiglia was reckoned among the best designers in Rome; and of him the engravers of antiquities particularly availed themselves.
He was not without merit as a painter; and in Florence, where he executed some pictures, his portrait has a place among those of eminent artists. A picture painted by Pietro Sigismondi, of Lucca, for the great altar of S. Nicholas in Arcione at Rome, is honourably mentioned by t.i.ti: I know not whether any of his works remain in his native place; and the same is the case with Ma.s.sei and with Pini, who will be considered in another school.
I shall close this series with two other artists; and had the age produced many like them, Italian painting would not have declined so much as it has done during the eighteenth century. Giovanni Domenico Lombardi lived not, like his pupil, Cav. Batoni, within the enlightening precincts of Rome, but in merit he was at least equal to Batoni. He formed his style on the works of Paulini, and improved it by studying the finest colourists at Venice, and also by paying attention to the school of Bologna. The genius of this artist, his taste, his grand and resolute tone, appear in several of his pictures, executed in his best time, and with real pains. Such are his two pieces on the sides of the choir of the Olivetani, which represent their founder, S. Bernard, administering relief to the citizens infected with the plague. There are two others in a chapel of S. Romano, which are painted with a magic force approaching to the best manner of Guercino; and one of them, in the opinion of the most rigid critics, seems the work of that artist himself. He should always have painted thus; and never have prost.i.tuted his pencil to manufacture pieces at all prices. Batoni, who will be noticed in our third book among the Roman masters, supported better his own dignity and that of the art. He adhered in a great measure to the maxims of this school, a circ.u.mstance which did not altogether please his first master, who on examining some of his early performances, remarked, that they required a greater covering of dirt, for they appear to him too trimly neat. One who has not an opportunity of examining his capital works, may satisfy himself in Lucca, either in the church of the Olivetine fathers, where he painted the Martyrdom of S. Bartolommeo; or in that of S. Catharine of Siena, where she is represented receiving the mystic wounds of the crucifixion.
I shall not here mention many artists in the inferior walks of the art.
The example of Cortona influenced none in this cla.s.s, except a few ornamental painters, and some artists who accompanied their figures by landscapes. The painters of landscapes, flowers, and the like, continued to follow their original models. Chiavistelli, for instance, has been followed by various artists in fresco of this age, who besides executing figures, have exercised, as before remarked, other branches of painting.
Pure architectural and ornamental painting in a good taste are, however, distinct arts; and to attain excellence in them requires all the faculties of man. Angiol Rossi, of Florence, applied himself to it, as I believe, in Bologna; and a.s.siduously practised it at Venice, as we are informed by Guarienti. Two artists of Lucca, Pietro Scorzini and Bartolommeo Santi, received their education at Bologna, and were the favourite decorators of many theatres. Francesco Melani, of Pisa, adhered strongly to Cortona. As learned in perspective as his brother was in figures, his style was so similar, that no architectural painter was so well suited to accompany the figures of the other. This will be allowed by all who view the ceiling in the church of S. Matthew at Pisa, which is their finest work, or their paintings in Siena, and at other places, where they were employed together. They educated a pupil worthy of them, in Tommaso Tommasi, of Pietra Santa, a man of vast conception, who succeeded in Pisa to the commissions bestowed upon his masters, and produced very pleasing specimens of his powers in the nave of the church of S. Giovanni. Ippolito Marracci, of Lucca, the scholar of Metelli, appears a successful rival of his master, either when he painted by himself, as in the Rotonda, at Lucca, or when a.s.sociated with his brother, as was generally the case. Domenico Schianteschi, a disciple of Bibieni, lived in San Sepolcro; his perspectives in that city are to be seen in the houses of many of the n.o.bility, and are much esteemed.
Florence has boasted professed portrait painters, even to the present time; among whom Gaetano Piattoli is particularly extolled. He was pupil to a French artist, Francesco Riviera, who had resided and died at Leghorn, and was very much prized in collections for the excellence of his Conversazioni and Turkish ballets. He is well known too, in other countries; for he was employed to take portraits of the foreign n.o.bility who visited Florence. The portrait of himself, which he painted for the ducal gallery, indicates the style of the rest. An ill.u.s.trious female artist emanated from the school of Gabbiani, although a.s.sisted in her studies by other masters, and this was Giovanna Fratellini, who was not without invention, and was most expert in portrait painting. She executed in oil, in crayons, in miniature, and in enamel, various portraits of the family of Cosmo III. and of other princes, to paint whom she was sent by her sovereign to several cities of Italy. That which she painted of herself, is in the ducal gallery: in it she has blended the employment of the artist with the affection of a mother. She is represented in the act of taking a likeness of Lorenzo, her only son and pupil, who died in the flower of his age. It is painted in crayons, an art in which she may be called the Rosalba of her time. Domenico Tempesti, or Tempestino, is rather included among engravers than painters; though he was instructed by Volterrano in Florence, in the latter art, and exercised it with credit both in landscape and portrait.
He is mentioned by Vianelli in the catalogue of his pictures. It would appear that he was the same Domenico de Marchis, called Tempestino, whom Orlandi casually notices in the article of Girolamo Odam, whom Domenico had initiated in the elements of landscape painting. Orlandi gives also a separate article, under the head of Domenico Tempesti, in which his voyages through Europe, and his long residence at Rome, are dwelt upon.