Footnote 14: There is a doc.u.ment existing in the same archives, where Francesco Mantegna binds himself to ornament the outside of the church. It may thus be conjectured, that the picture of the Ascension, placed over the gateway, is from his hand, while the Madonna, evidently from another, is the work of Coreggio. The master, in executing his commissions, often employed his pupil or his a.s.sistant.
Footnote 15: This excellent judge of art, more particularly in point of engravings, and also extremely skilful in portraits drawn with the pen, departed this life at the beginning of 1802.
Wherefore is it then that in the published catalogues we meet with so very scanty a list of his pictures, nearly all esteemed excellent? It is because whatever does not appear superlatively beautiful has been doubted, denied, and cast aside as unworthy of him, or attributed to some of his school.
Mengs himself, who investigated the relics of this great artist, and was very cautious of admitting any disputed productions, declares that he had only seen one specimen of his early style, that of his S. Antony, in the gallery of Dresden. This, as well as a S. Francis and the Virgin, he painted in 1512, in Carpi, when he was eighteen years of age.[16] From the stiffness apparent in this last, and the contrasted softness of the others, he was led to conjecture that Coreggio must have suddenly altered his manner, and attempted to penetrate into the unknown cause of it. He suspected, therefore, that what de Piles, followed by Resta, and some other writers, first advanced in his Dissertations, against the authority of Vasari, must be correct,[17] namely, that Coreggio visited Rome, and having observed the ancient style, and that of Raffaello and Michelangiolo, along with Melozio"s pictures in the _sotto in su_, or foreshortening, he returned into Lombardy with a different taste acquired during his stay in the capital.
Footnote 16: Thus conjectures Tiraboschi, with arguments that prove the fact rather than shew its probability.
Footnote 17: Ortensio Landi, in his Observations, had put on record that Coreggio died young, without seeing Rome.
Tiraboschi.
Yet this able scholar proposes such a view of the case, with singular deference to the contrary opinion of others, and even presents his reader with arguments against that view, to the following effect:--"If he did not behold the antique," (and the same may be averred of the two distinguished moderns,) "such as it exists in Rome, he may still have seen it as it appears at Modena and Parma; and the mere sight of an object is enough to awaken in fine spirits the idea of what it ought to be." And my readers, indeed, will be at no loss to find examples to confirm such an opinion; t.i.tian and Tintoretto, by the mere use of modelling, having far surpa.s.sed those who designed statues; and Baroccio happening to cast his eye upon a head of Coreggio, soon distinguished himself in the same style. And if we may farther adduce an example of the power of sovereign genius, from the sciences, let us look at Galileo watching the oscillations of a bell in a church at Pisa, from which he drew the doctrine of motion and the principles of the new philosophy. So likewise might this great pictorial genius conceive the idea of a new style, from a few faint attempts of art, and thus won the applauses of the world of art, bestowed upon him from the time of Vasari, as something due less to a _mortal than to a G.o.d_.
Doubtless in the first instance he received no slight impulse from the finer works of Andrea, from the collection of ancient relics in Mantua and Parma, from the studio of the Mantegni, and that of Begarelli, equally rich in models and designs. To these we may add an acquaintance with artists, familiar with Rome, with Munari, with Giulio Romano himself; and finally the general influence of the age, every where dissatisfied with the meanness of the late style, and aiming at a more soft, full, and clear development of the contours. All these united in facilitating the progressive step which Coreggio had to take, though his own genius was destined to achieve the task. This it was that first led him to study nature, with the eye of the ancient Greeks, and that of his great Italian predecessors. The leading geniuses of their age have often pursued the same career, unknown to each other, as Tully has expressed himself, "Et quadam ingenii divinitate, in eadem vestigia incurrerunt." But we must here check ourselves, in regard to this portion of the subject, having to treat of it anew at the distance of not many pages. At present we have only to inquire whether Coreggio really adopted the modern style at once, as has been a.s.serted, or by gradual study.
Upon this point it is much to be regretted, that the Cavalier Mengs did not obtain a sight of some paintings in fresco, executed by Coreggio, as it is said, in his early youth, during the period he was employed by the Marchesa Gambara; but which have now perished. For, doubtless, he would thus have been enabled to throw much light upon the subject; and at least I could have wished that he had met with two pictures produced by Antonio in his native place, though but recently discovered, as in these, perhaps, he might have detected that sort of middle style, which is seen to exist between his St. Antony and his St. George at Dresden. The first of these has been called in question by Tiraboschi, on the ground of there being no authentic doc.u.ment a.s.signing it to Coreggio; though I think it ought to be admitted as his, until stronger arguments, or the authority of experienced professors of the art, compel us to deny it. This picture was formerly placed in the chapel of _La Misericordia_, and very old copies of it are still preserved in many private houses at Coreggio. It represents a beautiful landscape, together with four figures of saints, St. Peter, St.
Margherita, the Magdalen, and another, most likely St. Raimond, yet unborn.[18] The figure of St. Peter bears some resemblance to one of Mantegna, in his Ascension of St. Andrew, just alluded to; while the wood and the ground are extremely like that master"s composition. This fine piece was much damaged by the lights, or, as some suspect, by the varnish, purposely laid on, in order, by decreasing its value, to prevent its being carried away; but, on the contrary, it appears for this very reason to have been removed from the altar, and a copy subst.i.tuted, in which the last of the above figures was exchanged for one of St. Ursula. The original afterwards came into the possession of Signor Antonio Armanno, one of the best connoisseurs at this time known, in respect to the value of engravings, as well as of other productions of our best artists, which he has likewise, in a singular degree, the art of restoring even when much defaced. So in this instance, by the most persevering care, during a whole year, he at length succeeded in removing this ugly veil, which concealed the beauty of the work, now renewed in all its pristine excellence, and attracting crowds of accomplished strangers to gaze upon its merits. It is generally allowed to exhibit a softer expression, in the modern style, than the St. Antony, of Dresden; though yet far distant from the perfection of the St. George and others, produced about the same time.
Footnote 18: Tiraboschi, p. 257, gives a different account of it, and appears to confound the original with the copy, which for a long time has been placed on the altar, also considerably defaced and discoloured. Respecting this picture, likewise, we hope we shall be better informed by the Dottor Antonioli, to whom we here confess our obligations for much information inserted in this chapter, obtained from his own mouth upon the spot.
About this period, Allegri painted in the church of the Conventuals, at Coreggio, what is termed an ancona, a small altar-piece in wood, consisting of three pictures. It appears certain, that the two altar-pieces already mentioned, opened the way also to this fresh commission; for from the written agreement, he seems to have been in his twentieth year, and the price fixed upon was one hundred gold ducats, or one hundred zecchins, which proves the esteem in which his talents were held. He here represented St. Bartholomew and St. John, each occupying one side;[19] while in the middle department, he drew a Repose of the Holy Family flying into Egypt, to which last was added a figure of St. Francis. So greatly was Francesco I. Duke of Modena, delighted with this picture, that he sent the artist Boulanger with orders to copy it for him; and thus obtaining possession of the original, he dexterously contrived to subst.i.tute his own copy in its place, a deception which he afterwards repaired by presenting the convent with some fresh lands. It is believed that it was afterwards presented to the Medicean family, and by them was given in exchange, to the house of Este, for the Sacrifice of Abraham, from the hand of Andrea del Sarto. It is certain that it was to be seen in the royal gallery at Florence, from the end of the last century, and was there commended by Barri, in his _Viaggio Pittoresco_, as original. In progress of time, it began to be less esteemed, because less perfect, perhaps, than some of the masterpieces of Coreggio, and not long after, a.s.suming another name, it began to be pointed out by some as a Baroccio, and by others as a Vanni. The same Signor Armanno, before mentioned, who was the first to recall to mind the copy remaining at Coreggio, presented us, also, with this hidden treasure. Its originality, however, was disputed from the first, it being objected, in particular, that Allegri had depicted the subject upon board, whereas this Medicean painting was found to be upon canva.s.s. But this doubt was removed on comparing the work with the copy of Boulanger, made upon canva.s.s; for certainly if the genuine production were really painted upon board, the imitator could hardly have succeeded in palming upon the holy brethren one of his copies upon canva.s.s. The probability of its genuineness is still greater when we reflect, that no gallery was ever in possession of a Repose similar to it, so as to have contested with the city of Florence the possession of the original; so frequent an occurrence, both now and in other times, with works of art repeated in different places. Besides, the hand of the master is, in itself, nearly enough to p.r.o.nounce it genuine; we see the remains of a varnish peculiar to the author; a tone of colouring perfectly agreeing with his pictures at Parma; insomuch, that many very experienced judges of art, and among others Gavin Hamilton, whose opinion carries great weight, have united in giving it to Coreggio. At the same time, they admit, that it is a piece partaking of an union of his styles, during the progress of the second; and if we are careful in comparing it with his other representation of the Repose, at S. Sepolcro, in Parma, commonly ent.i.tled the Madonna della Scodella, we shall discover much the same difference as between Raffaello"s paintings in Citta di Castello and those at Rome. Such a distinction was noticed by some very respectable professors, even during the heat of the controversy, who agreed in declaring, that the Medicean picture in part resembled Coreggio in his best manner, and in part differed from it.
Footnote 19: These two saints had already been withdrawn from the altar, (Tiraboschi, p. 253,) nor does a copy of them remain at San Francesco. That made by Boulanger is in the convent, and was evidently produced in haste, and upon a bad ground; hence it is neither very exact, nor in good preservation. It is, nevertheless, valuable as throwing light upon Coreggio"s history, and his different styles; while it also tends to prove, that if the ancona was made of wood, the picture was made portable, and painted on canva.s.s.
There are two other pictures of his, mentioned by the Cavalier Mengs, which may be referred to the same cla.s.s. One of them is the "_Noli me tangere_,"
in the Casa Ercolani, but which subsequently pa.s.sed into the Escurial; the other a picture of the Virgin in the act of adoring the Divine Infant, which adorns the royal gallery in Florence; both of which he declares are in a taste which he failed to discover in the most sublime and celebrated pictures of Coreggio. To these we may add the Marsyas of the Marchesi Litta, at Milan, with a few other works of Coreggio"s, inserted in the catalogue of Tiraboschi, which is the most copious extant. From such evidence it must, in short, be admitted, that this artist was possessed of a sort of middle style, between that which he formed as a scholar and that which he completed as a master. And we have equal reason for believing what has been stated respecting Coreggio"s having attempted a variety of styles, before he made choice of the one by which he so greatly distinguished himself, and thus laid the foundation for his pieces being attributed, as they have been, to different masters. In fact, his conceptions of the beautiful and the perfect were deduced in part from other artists, and in part created by himself; conceptions that could not be matured without much time and labour; on which account he was compelled, as it were, to imitate those natural philosophers who try an infinite number of different experiments to discover some single truth which they have in view.
During a progress thus gradually pursued, and by an artist who in every new production succeeded in surpa.s.sing himself, it is difficult to fix the precise epoch of his new style. I once saw in Rome a very beautiful little picture, representing, in the background, the taking of Christ in the garden; and in the fore part, the youth Joseph, who, in the act of flying, leaves his mantle behind him; the original of which is in England, and a duplicate at Milan, in possession of Count de Keweniller; the picture at Rome bore in ancient character the date of 1505, indisputably false. A more correct one, however, is to be found upon that of the Marriage of St.
Catherine, in possession of Count Brull, late prime minister to the king of Poland, which is every way corresponding to the other, remaining at Capo di Monte; it bears the date of 1517. It is probable, that in this year, when the artist was just twenty-three, he had already sufficiently mastered his new style, from the fact of his having about 1518, or 19, produced in Parma the picture which is still in existence at the monastery of St. Paul. This, after various disputes, has recently been acknowledged to be "one of the most grand, spirited, and laboured productions that ever proceeded from that divine hand;" and it has been ill.u.s.trated with its real epoch, from an excellent little work of the celebrated Padre Aff. Such a work, indeed, confers a benefit upon history. He there explains the manner in which Coreggio might have imitated the ancients with such advantages only as he found in Parma; and endeavours to account for the difficulty presented to us in the silence of Mengs, who, having beheld this very picture, omitted to mention it among Antonio"s other works. We are relieved, also, from another difficulty in respect to the manner in which a piece representing the Chase of Diana, abounding with such a variety of loves and cupids, could have been painted for a holy monastery, accompanied by those profane representations distributed throughout the same chamber, in various circular pieces, such as the Graces, the Fates, the Vestals; a naked Juno, suspended from the heavens, in the method described by Homer, in his fifteenth book of the Iliad; with other similar objects, still less becoming the sphere of a cloister. But our wonder will cease when we reflect, that the same place was once the residence of a lady abbess, at a time in which the nuns of S. Paolo lived unguarded by grates; in which every abbess sought to enjoy herself; held jurisdiction over lands and castles, and, independent of the bishop, lived altogether as a secular personage, a license in those days extremely general, as is justly observed by Muratori, in his "Italian Antiquities," tom. iii. p. 332. The above work was a commission given by a Donna Giovanna di Piacenza, who was then the superior of the monastery; and whatever degree of learning we meet with in the painting, and in the devices or conceits, was, most probably, communicated to the artist by Giorgio Anselmi, a celebrated scholar, whose own daughter belonged to the same establishment. But we must not allow ourselves to proceed further in our notice of a dissertation, a.s.suredly one of the most profound and ingenious that we ever recollect to have read. The pictures are about to be engraved by the hand of Signor Rosaspina, after those of S. Giovanni, in which the learned Abate Mazza is at present so laudably engaged, no less to the advantage of the arts than of his own reputation.
The vast undertaking, so finely executed by Coreggio, at S. Paolo, obtained for him so high a name, that the Padri Ca.s.sinensi invited him to engage in the equally extensive one of San Giovanni, entered upon in 1520,[20] and completed in 1524, as we find mentioned in the books. There, also, in addition to several minor works, he decorated the tribune, which being afterwards removed, in order to extend the choir, and rebuilt, was repainted, as we shall notice elsewhere, by Aretusi. On the demolition of the tribune, the picture of the Incoronation of the Virgin, the leading subject in the fresco, was saved, and is now exhibited in the royal library; and various heads of angels, which in like manner escaped the same destruction, are preserved in the Palazzo Rondanini at Rome. There are, now, in the church of San Giovanni, two pictures in oil, placed opposite to one another, in one of the chapels; one, a Christ taken from the Cross; the other, the Martyrdom of St. Placidus, both painted on canva.s.s made for the purpose, like some of the pictures of Mantegna. On the exterior of one of the other chapels is a figure of St. John the Evangelist, executed in the n.o.blest manner. And, finally, there is the grand cupola, where the artist represented the Ascension of Jesus to his Father; the apostles looking on in mingled veneration and surprise; a production in which, whether we regard the proportion, and the shortening of the figures, the naked parts, or the draperies, or gaze upon it as a whole, we must alike confess that it was an unexampled specimen of the art, in its kind; the terrific Judgment of Michelangiolo,[21] not having then a.s.sumed its place in the Vatican.
Footnote 20: Tiraboschi was unable to discover any certain work from the hand of Antonio, between the years 17 and 20, of the same age. This gave rise to the a.s.sertion of Vasari"s annotator, that he remained in Rome in quality of Raffaello"s pupil during this interval, and on his master"s death, in 1520, returned to Lombardy. Such a supposition becomes utterly void, after the above epochs adduced by us.
Footnote 21: It is worth notice, that Ratti, persuaded of Coreggio"s residence at Rome, has availed himself of the argument of certain figures being borrowed by him from the Judgment, _before Michel Angiolo had painted it_. Equally valid is his conjecture, founded upon several figures of Raffaello"s, which he detected in Coreggio, as if these two artists had never studied from the same book of nature. Such an opinion is a.s.serted also by Padre della Valle, cited in our second volume, p. 121. But writers will always be liable to these mistakes, as long as they pretend to make discoveries and throw light upon ancient facts, without adhering to historical dates, and in their conjectures rather consult novelty and their own vanity than truth. But this fault, brought into vogue about the middle of the eighteenth century, has produced no little evil, both in letters and religion, and surely cannot continue to receive encouragement at this enlightened period. Let us rather trust, that the love of truth, never altogether extinguished, will resume its former influence in the investigation of historical points, and that one of its leading objects will be to free both sacred and profane history from those foolish sophisms that so much obscure it.
Astonishing, however, as such a production must be allowed to be, it will still be found to yield the palm to another, which the hand of Coreggio alone could have rendered superior. This is the celebrated a.s.sumption of the Virgin, in the cathedral of Parma, completed in the year 1530. It is indisputably more ample; and in the background the figures of the same apostles are reproduced, as was customary, expressing feelings of surprise and piety, though in a manner altogether different from the former. In the upper part is represented an immense crowd of happy spirits, yet distributed in the finest order, with a number of angels of all dimensions, all full of action; some employed in a.s.sisting the flight of the Virgin, others singing and dancing, and the rest engaged in celebrating the triumph with applause, songs, torches, and the burning of celestial perfumes. In all, the countenances beam with mingled beauty, hilarity, and triumph; a halo of light seems to envelope the whole, so that notwithstanding the piece is much defaced, it is still calculated to awaken such an enchantment of the soul, that the spectator almost dreams he is in elysium. These magnificent works, as it has been observed of the chambers of Raffaello, were calculated to promote the dignity of his manner, and led the way to that height of perfection he attained in the difficult art of working in fresco. To estimate it aright, we ought to approach near, to mark the decision and audacity as it were of every stroke; the parts, that at a distance appear so beautiful, yet effected by few lines; and that colouring, and that harmony which unites so many objects in one, produced, as it were, in sportful play. The renowned artist survived only four years, subsequent to the completion of the cupola; without commencing, during the interval, the painting of the tribune, for which he had pledged himself, and received part of the remuneration, which was afterwards restored to the revenues of the cathedral by his heirs. It has been conjectured, that the conductors of the works must, in some way, have given him offence; since the artist Soiaro, on being invited to paint at the _Steccata_, objects to it in the following terms: "Not wishing to remain at the discretion of so many different heads; for you know," he continues to his friend, "what was said to Coreggio in the dome." Now this, it would appear, must have consisted of some expressions derogatory to his talents; probably some words which one of the artificers is said to have applied to the diminutiveness of his figures: "Ci avete fatto un guazzetto di rane." "You have presented us with a hash of frogs." Words from a workman, for which Coreggio might easily have consoled himself, as they did not express the opinion of the city of Parma.
He died, however, about four years afterwards, at his native place, before he had completed his undertaking; and without leaving any portrait of himself which can be considered genuine. Vasari"s editor, at Rome, produces one of a bald old man, little agreeable to our ideas of Coreggio, who died at the age of forty. It is taken from a collection of designs by the Padre Resta, which he ent.i.tled, the "Portable Gallery," and which both the Cavalier Tiraboschi and the Padre della Valle mentioned as having been lost. Nevertheless it exists in the Ambrosian collection, and contains, among other designs, one which Resta, in the notes added thereto, declares to be the family of Coreggio, consisting of the portrait of himself, his wife, and his sons; altogether forming one female and three male heads, poor, and wretchedly attired. But it betrays evident marks of its want of genuineness, and not the least in the description of the family; inasmuch as Antonio is known to have had one son and three daughters, two of whom appear to have died at an early age. The portrait remaining at Turin, in the Vigna della Regina, engraved by the very able Valperga, bears an inscription, in part obliterated by the cornice. Still I contrived to decypher the words, _Antonius Corrigius, f_--(that is, _fecit_), one of the first arguments for not admitting it, as some have done, to be a head of Coreggio. A further one may be derived from the inscription itself being written in large letters, and in a s.p.a.ce occupying the whole length of the canva.s.s, a method occasionally adopted to explain the subject of the piece, but never the name of the artist. There was another portrait sent from Genoa into England, with an inscription upon the back, indicating it to be that of Antonio da Coreggio, drawn by Dosso Dossi, which is to be found in the memoirs of Ratti. I have no sort of ground for a.s.serting such a signature to have been introduced several years subsequent; a plan which was, and still is frequently adopted, by an accurate imitation of the ancient characters; I would merely observe, that there was also a distinguished painter in miniature, of the name of M. Antonio da Coreggio, who traversed Italy about the time of Dosso, and whose merits I shall treat of hereafter. Of the portrait taken of Coreggio, by Gambara, in the cathedral of Parma, it would here be improper to speak, otherwise than as an idle popular rumour. In conclusion, therefore, I am inclined to admit the seeming truth of what is advanced by Vasari, that this n.o.ble artist entertained no idea of transmitting his likeness to posterity, not justly estimating his own excellence, but adding to his numerous other accomplishments that of a remarkable modesty, conferring real honour upon our history.
The latest and most perfect style of Coreggio has been minutely a.n.a.lysed by the Cavalier Mengs, in the same manner as he examined that of Raffaello and of t.i.tian. And in this famous triumvirate he accorded to him the second rank, after Raffaello, observing, that this last depicted more exquisitely the affections of the soul, though inferior to him in the expression of external forms. In this, indeed, Coreggio was a true master, having succeeded by his colouring, and yet more by his chiaroscuro, in introducing into his pictures an ideal beauty, surpa.s.sing that of nature, and at the same time attracting the admiration of the most learned, by an union of art and nature in its rarest forms, such as they never before beheld. And such admiration, and such applauses, were in particular bestowed upon his St.
Jerome, preserved in the academy at Parma. Algarotti declares, that he was inclined to prefer it to any other of his productions; and to exclaim in his heart: "Tu solo mi piaci!" "Thou alone pleasest me!" Annibal Caracci himself, upon first beholding this picture, as well as a few others from the same hand, declares, in the letter already cited to his brother Lodovico, that he would not even exchange them with the St. Cecilia of Raffaello, which is still to be seen in the city of Bologna. And it may be truly said, that the same art that had been carried to such a pitch of sublimity by Michelangiolo; to such an exquisite degree of natural grace and expression by Raffaello; and from t.i.tian received such inimitable perfection in its tones of colouring; displayed in Coreggio such an union of excellences, as in the opinion of Mengs, carried the whole of these to their highest point of perfection, adding to all their dignity and truth his own peculiar elegance, and a taste as captivating to the eye as to the heart of the spectator.
In design he exhausted not all that depth of knowledge, so conspicuous in Bonarruoti; but it was at once so great and so select, that the Caracci themselves adopted it for their model. I am aware, that Algarotti considered him to be somewhat incorrect in the expression of his contours; while Mengs, on the other hand, defends him very warmly from such a charge.
Truly, there does not appear the same variety in his lines as is to be found in Raffaello and the ancients, inasmuch as he purposely avoided angles and rectilinear lines, preserving, as much as lay in his power, an undulating sweep of outline, sometimes convex and sometimes concave; while it is maintained, that his grace results, in a great measure, from this practice: so that Mengs in uncertainty appears at one time to commend, and at another to excuse him for it. He is lavish of his praises on the design of his draperies, on whose ma.s.ses Coreggio bestowed more attention than on the particular folds; he being the first who succeeded in making drapery a part of the composition, as well by force of contrast as by its direction; thus opening a new path which might render it conspicuous in large works.
In particular, his youthful and infantile heads are greatly celebrated; the faces beaming with so much nature and simplicity, as to enchant, and to compel us, as it were, to smile as they smile.[22] Each separate figure may be p.r.o.nounced original, from the infinite variety of foreshortenings he has introduced; there is scarcely a single head that is not seen from a point of view either above or below; not a hand, not a whole figure, whose att.i.tude is not full of an ease and grace of motion, beyond example. By his practice of foreshortening figures upon ceilings, which was avoided by Raffaello, he overcame many difficulties still remaining to be vanquished after the time of Mantegna, and in this branch of perspective is justly ent.i.tled to the merit of having rendered it complete.
Footnote 22: This is an expression of Annibal Caracci.
Elsewhere he observes: "This kind of delicacy and purity, which is rather truth itself than verisimilitude, pleases me greatly. It is neither artificial nor forced, but quite natural."
His colouring is allowed to correspond beautifully with the grace and selection of his design, Giulio Romano having been heard to a.s.sert that it was altogether the best he had ever seen; nor was he averse to the Duke of Mantua giving the preference to Coreggio above himself, when about to make a presentation of pictures to the emperor Charles V. Equal commendation is bestowed upon him by Lomazzo, when he p.r.o.nounces that, among the colourists, he is to be considered rather as unique than as rare in point of merit. No artist before him ever bestowed so much attention upon his canva.s.s, which, after a slight covering of chalk, received his colours, both in point of quant.i.ty and quality, as we have before stated, from a lavish hand.[23] In the _impasto_, or laying on his colours, he approaches the manner of Giorgione, in their tone he resembles t.i.tian, though in their various gradations, in the opinion of Mengs, he is even more expert. There prevails likewise in his colouring a clearness of light, a brilliancy rarely to be met with in the works of others; the objects appear as if viewed through a gla.s.s, and towards evening, when the clearness of other paintings begins to fade with the decay of light, his are to be seen as it were in greater vividness, and like phosphoric beams shining through the darkness of the air. Of the kind of varnish for which Apelles has been so commended by Pliny, we appear to have no idea since the revival of the art, or if, indeed, we at all possess it, we must confess our obligations to Coreggio. Some there have been who could have liked more delicacy in his flesh tints; but every one must allow, that according to the age and the subjects he had to deal with, he has succeeded in varying them admirably, impressing them at the same time with something so soft, so juicy, and so full of life, as to appear like the truth itself.
Footnote 23: One of the professors being employed in restoring a piece of Coreggio, a.n.a.lyzed the mode of colouring. Upon the chalk, he said, the artist appeared to have laid a surface of prepared oil, which then received a thick mixture of colours, in which the ingredients were two thirds of oil and one of varnish; that the colours seemed to have been very choice, and particularly purified from all kind of salts, which in progress of time eat and destroy the picture; and that the before-mentioned use of prepared oil must have greatly contributed to this purification by absorbing the saline particles. It was, moreover, his opinion, that Coreggio adopted the method of heating his pictures, either in the sun, or at the fire, in order that the colours might become as it were interfused, and equalized in such a way as to produce the effect of having been poured, rather than laid on. Of that lucid appearance which, though so beautiful, does not reflect objects, and of the solidity of the surface, equal to the Greek pictures, he remarks, that it must have been obtained by some strong varnish unknown to the Flemish painters themselves, who prepared it of equal clearness and liveliness but not of equal strength. See vol. i. p. 49.
But his grand and mastering quality, his crowning triumph and distinction above all other artists known to us, is his thorough knowledge of lights and shades. Like nature herself he does not present objects to us with the same force of light, but varied according to the surfaces, oppositions, and distances; it flows in a gradation insensibly increasing and diminishing, a distinction essential in aerial perspective, in which he is so great, and contributing finely to the general harmony. He observed the same principle in his shades, representing the reflection of colour upon each, in so delicate a degree, that though using them so abundantly, his shadows are always varied like nature"s, never monotonous. This quality is eminently conspicuous in his night-piece in the Dresden gallery;[24] and in his Magdalen, there seen reposing in a cave; a small picture it is true, but estimated in the purchase at twenty-seven thousand crowns. By the use of his chiaroscuro he not only gave superior softness and rotundity to his forms, but displayed a taste in the whole composition, such as had never been witnessed before. He disposed the ma.s.ses of his lights and shades with an art, purely natural in its foundation, but in the selection and effect altogether ideal. And he arrived at this degree of perfection by the very same path pursued by Michelangiolo, availing himself of models in clay and wax, the remains of some of which are said to have been found in the cupola at Parma not many years ago. It is also currently reported, that while employed in that city, he engaged the a.s.sistance of the famous modeller Begarelli, whom he conducted thither at his own expense.
Footnote 24: It is more accurately ent.i.tled by others the Opening of Day.
Though excellent in all, in other portions of his art he cannot be p.r.o.nounced equally excellent. His conceptions were good, but occasionally they betrayed a want of unity, representing as he did one and the same story in different parts. Thus in the fable of Marsyas, in the Palazzo Litta at Milan, his contest with Apollo, Minerva consigning him over to punishment, and the punishment itself, are distributed into separate groups. The same kind of repet.i.tion will, I think, be found in the story of Leda, executed for Charles V. in which the swan is twice brought into view, proceeding by degrees to familiarize himself with her charms, until in the third group he wholly possesses her. In fact his inventions, for the most part, are like the strains of Anacreon, in which the young loves, and in sacred themes the angels, are introduced under the most agreeable forms and actions. Thus in the picture of S. George, they are seen sporting about the sword and helmet of the saint; and in S. Jerome an angel is engaged in shewing our Lord the book of that great doctor of our holy church, while another is holding under his nose the uncovered vase of ointment belonging to the Magdalen. Of his powers of composition we have a proof in the execution of the cupola, already so highly commended, in which it appears as if the architecture had been formed for the effect of the painting, so admirably is this last adapted, and not the production for the place. He was fond of contrasts, no less in whole figures than their parts; but he never arbitrarily affected them, or carried them to the extravagant degree we have since beheld, in violation of all decorum and truth. In force of expression, more particularly upon tenderer subjects, he stands, perhaps, without a rival or an example; such is his Magdalen just alluded to, as she is seen bending to kiss the feet of the Holy Child, with a countenance and action expressive of all the different beauties, scattered over the works of many other artists, a sentiment more fully expressed by Mengs: of this picture we may truly say with Catullus, "Omnibus una omnes surripuit Veneres." Grief was a pa.s.sion likewise depicted by him with singular power; admirably varied according to circ.u.mstances in his Dead Christ at Parma, most heartfelt in that of the Magdalen, profound in the Virgin, and in a middling degree in the other female face. And though we do not meet with many examples of a loftier cast, still he could depict the fiercer pa.s.sions with sufficient power, as witness the Martyrdom of S. Placidus, in which piece an executioner is so n.o.bly drawn, that Domenichino avowedly imitated it in his celebrated picture of S. Agnes.
Finally the costume of his sacred history-pieces is deficient in nothing we could desire; though in his fables, indeed, he might have improved it, by adhering, like Raffaello and the moderns, more closely to the ancients.
Thus in his Leda he has represented Juno in the guise of an elderly lady, full of spite and jealousy, secretly beholding the stolen embraces of her lord. She approaches in nothing to the antique, either in her countenance or in her symbols, and hence in the usual interpretations she is considered as a mere cypher. In the fable of Marsyas, he bears no resemblance to the Faun; Minerva has no aegis, nor any other of her usual attributes; while Apollo is endued neither with the limbs nor aspect which are awarded him at this day; and so far from boasting of his lyre, he plays upon a violin.
Here again we might adduce a fresh argument for Coreggio having never visited Rome, where even artists of mediocrity, instructed in a knowledge of the antique, knew how to avoid similar errors. In him, however, they are scarcely blemishes, and rather flattering to the name of Coreggio, inasmuch as they serve more fully to convince us that he partakes not the glory of his sovereign style with many masters or many a.s.sistants, standing great and alone. Regarded in this view he appears indeed something more than mortal; and in his presence, as Annibal Caracci truly wrote, Parmigianino and others of his rank seem to shrink into nothing.[25] But the productions of this great master are daily becoming more rare in Italy, such are the prices offered, such is the eagerness of strangers to obtain them, and the esteem in which he is held. We are still consoled for their loss by several ancient copies, more especially of his smaller pictures, such as the Marriage of S. Catherine, the Reposing Magdalen, the Young Man"s Escape, pieces already mentioned; but to which we may add his Christ praying in the Garden, placed in the Escurial, and his Zingherina, the Gipsey Girl, in the gallery at Dresden. The most estimable among the old copies are by Schidone, Lelio da Novellara, Girolamo da Carpi, and by the Caracci, who, by dint of copying Coreggio"s pieces, approached very nearly the style of the originals; though more in point of design than in skill and delicacy of colouring.
Footnote 25: His words are, "It is my unalterable opinion that Parmigianino in no way approaches Coreggio, whose thoughts and fine inventions are all clearly drawn from himself, always original. All other artists look out for some support, some foundations for their efforts taken from other sources; one to models, one to statues, another to cartoons: all their productions are represented such as they might have been, Coreggio"s such as they really are." (_See second Letter to Lodovico, Malvasia_, vol. i. p. 367.)
Hitherto I have treated of the manner of Antonio, and in so doing have described the manner of his school; not, indeed, that any single artist at all equalled or approached him, but that all held very nearly the same maxims, mixed, in some instances, with different styles. The prevailing character of the school of Parma, by way of distinction likewise called the Lombard school, is the excellence of its shortenings, like the delineation of the nerves and muscles in that of Florence. Nor is it any reproach that its artists, in some instances, have become extravagant and affected in their foreshortening, as the Florentines in their representations of the naked limbs: to imitate well is in all places a difficult art. Its character may further be said to consist in a fine study of the chiaroscuro and of draperies, rather than of the human figure, in which few artists of the school can boast much excellence. Their contours are broad, their countenances selected rather from among the people, than of an ideal cast, being well rounded, high coloured, and exhibiting those features and that joyousness esteemed so original in Coreggio, as it has been well remarked by a professor long resident in Parma. There we have reason to believe that our artist instructed more pupils than have been recorded by Vasari, to whose observations and opinions much additional matter has been supplied by writers of the present age, though doubts continue to prevail respecting some of his reputed scholars. I shall treat this great master as others have done in regard to Raffaello, comprehending, within the limits of his school, all those a.s.sistants and others who, educated in different academies, subsequently attached themselves to his, availing themselves of his instructions and examples.
First upon the list, therefore, I place his own son, Pomponio Allegri. He had hardly time to benefit by his father"s instructions, or to receive his earliest rudiments, having lost him at the age of twelve. His grandfather then took him under his care, until the period of his death, occurring five years after, when he left a pretty handsome provision for the orphan, who boasted likewise no common degree of talent. With whom he pursued his education, however, is not known, whether with Rondani, a faithful disciple of his father, or with some other of the same school. It is certain he was a youth of fair abilities, and that with the aid of his father"s studies he acquired some reputation, and established himself at Parma. In the cathedral there appears, wrought upon a large earthen bason, the story of the Israelites awaiting the arrival of Moses, to whom the Lord has just consigned the tablets of the law. Though not very successful as a whole, the work displays great merit in particular parts; many of the heads are beautiful, many of the motions spirited, and there are tones of colouring extremely clear and natural. It was believed that Pomponio had early abandoned the use of his pencil, disposing of his property in Coreggio, and afterwards dying in great poverty at an early age. These false or uncertain reports, however, have been rendered nugatory by authentic doc.u.ments brought forward by Father Aff, stating him to have enjoyed, in Parma, high reputation and honourable public commissions, and confirmed by a public decree recording him, while the best disciples of the school of Parma were yet alive, as being _ottimo pittore_.
We now proceed to other artists belonging to the city and state of Modena.
Among these we find the name of Francesco Cappelli, a native of Sa.s.suolo, who established himself in Bologna, without, however, leaving there any public specimen of his labours. Most probably he was employed by private persons, or, as Vedriani is led to conjecture, also by princes; though in respect to their names he is certainly mistaken. There is an altar-piece in S. Sebastiano at Sa.s.suolo, commonly attributed to his hand, representing a figure of the Virgin, with some saints, among which last appears the t.i.tular, the most n.o.ble and conspicuous of the whole, in such fine impasto and relief, as to be attributed to the pencil of his master.
Another of the school is Giovanni Giarola da Reggio, whose productions there in fresco are to be seen in the Palazzo Donelli and other places, though they have perished in Parma. He cannot, however, be p.r.o.nounced exempt from the usual negligence of fresco painters in their contours; still he was much esteemed, while he flourished, for the spirit and delicacy of his manner. Although epitaphs are by no means the most desirable sort of testimony to the worth of the deceased, it will be, nevertheless, worth while to recall that of Giarola, from which, if we deduct even nine parts of the commendation, the tenth will confer upon him no slight honour;--"Io. Gerolli, qui adeo excellentem pingendi artem edoctus fuerat, ut alter Apelles vocaretur;" who had arrived at such a masterly degree of excellence in this n.o.ble art that he was ent.i.tled to the name of another Apelles. To him we have to add a fellow citizen and namesake of Coreggio, called Antonio Bernieri, sprung from a n.o.ble stock, and who having lost his master at the age of eighteen years, inherited, in a manner, the appellation of Antonio da Coreggio, thus giving rise to several historical doubts and inaccuracies. He is enumerated by Landi, and by Pietro Aretino, among the most distinguished of the miniature painters; and also mentioned by D. Veronica Gambara, Marchioness of Coreggio. There is no genuine painting by him, however, in oil, though I have no reason for refusing him the degree of reputation so general among the miniaturists; and the portrait at Turin, described in the present volume (p. 101), ought certainly I think to be attributed to him rather than to Antonio Allegri.
He long flourished in Venice, visited Rome, and died at his native place.
The next I have to add to this list is a name unknown, as far as I can learn, to history, and one which I only discovered from a beautiful design I happened to meet with in a collection by Father Fontana Barnabita, a collection mentioned by me with commendation in my first volume (p. 75).
His name is Antonio Bruno, a native of Modena, and an artist who ably emulated the genius of Coreggio in his grace, his nature, his foreshortenings, and his broad lights, though with far less correct a pencil.
Further, among the scholars of Parma, there remain several who acquired less fame. A Daniello de Por is mentioned by Vasari in his life of Taddeo Zuccaro, who, according to his account, received some a.s.sistance from Daniello, more in the way of instructions than example. Yet he records no other of his productions besides a piece in fresco, to be seen at Vito, near Sora, where he invited Zuccaro to join him as an a.s.sistant; nor does it appear that he commends him for any thing beyond having acquired from Coreggio and Parmigianino a tolerable degree of softness of manner. In fact he must have rather occupied the place of a journeyman than of an a.s.sistant of Coreggio, and I suspect he is the same from whom Vasari obtained some information respecting this artist, in particular, such as related to his avarice, which the historian had a.s.suredly no reason either for disbelieving or inventing. But a superior pupil of the same school will be found in M. Torelli, called a native of Milan in the MS. of Resta, where he is mentioned as the companion of Rondani, in executing the Frieze at San Giovanni in Parma, painted in chiaroscuro. It was taken from the design of Coreggio, who received likewise the proceeds from the work. It is added by Ratti, that the first cloister of the same monastery was also adorned with singular felicity by the same hand.
The names of the following artists all enjoy more or less celebrity in Italy at the present day; but it is not therefore certain that they were all the pupils of Coreggio, nor that they all observed the same manner.
Like young swimmers, some of them seem cautious of leaving the side of their master, while others appear fearful only of being seen to approach him too nearly, as if proud of the skill they had already acquired. To the first cla.s.s belongs Rondani, who was employed along with Coreggio at the church of S. Giovanni, and to him is chiefly attributed a grotesque contained in the monastery, a.s.signed to the school of Antonio, though we may detect some figures of cherubs which appear from the master"s hand. Yet Rondani was accustomed to imitate his master pretty accurately in his individual figures; and on the exterior of the church of S. Maria Maddalena, he drew a Madonna, that in want of historical evidence, might have been attributed to Coreggio. There is also an altar-piece at the Eremitani, representing saints Agostino and Geronimo, so much in the Coreggio manner as to be esteemed one of the best pictures in Parma. But Rondani was unable to reach the grandeur of the head of the school; he is accused on the other hand of having been too careful and minute in the accessaries of his art, which we gather, indeed, from one of his frescos in a chapel of the cathedral, and in general from his other works. They are rarely to be met with in collections, though I have seen one of his Madonnas, with a Child, in possession of the Marchesi Scarani at Bologna, the figure bearing a swallow in her hand, in allusion to the painter"s name; besides the portrait of a man, draped and designed in the Giorgione taste, at the house of the Sig. Bettinelli in Mantua.
I have already alluded to Michelangiolo Anselmi, in the school of Siena, and I again prepare to treat of him more fully, from doc.u.ments since published, or which I have since read. Upon the authority of these it is very certain that he traced his family several generations back to the city of Parma; though he is denominated _da Lucca_, from the circ.u.mstance of his having been born at that place, according to Ratti, in 1591; and he has been also called _da Siena_, because, as I am inclined to conjecture, he may have resided and pursued his studies there while young. Resta, in the MS. I have so frequently cited, contends that he acquired his art from Sodoma; Azzolini, from Riccio, son-in-law to Sodoma, both of whom are known to have remained a considerable time at Lucca. There he may have been instructed in the first rudiments, and afterwards have completed his studies at Siena, where he produced the altar-piece of Fontegiusta, which bears no traces of the Lombard style. When practised in the art he returned to Parma, he was older than Coreggio, and then only capable of improving his style by availing himself of his advice and example, in the same way as Garofolo and many others, by the example of Raffaello.
When in the year 1522 Coreggio was engaged to paint the cupola of the cathedral and the great tribune, Anselmi, together with Rondani, and Parmigianino, were fixed upon to adorn the contiguous chapels. The undertaking was never executed; but such a selection shews that he was esteemed capable of accompanying the style of Coreggio, and his works sufficiently attest that he became a devoted follower of it. He is full in his outlines, extremely studied in the heads, glowing in his tints, and very partial to the use of red, which he contrives to vary and to break as it were into different colours in the same picture. Perhaps his least merit consists in his composition, which he sometimes overloads with figures. He painted in various churches at Parma; and one of the most pleasing of his productions, approaching nearest to his great model, is at S. Stefano, in which S. John the Baptist, along with the t.i.tular saint, is seen kneeling at the feet of the Virgin. His largest work, however, is to be met with at the Steccata, where, upon the testimony of Vasari, he executed the cartoons of Giulio Romano. But this is disproved by the contract, which a.s.signs to Anselmi himself a chamber in which to compose his cartoons; nor did Giulio do more than send a rough sketch of the work to Parma. In collections his specimens are rare and valuable, although he flourished, to say the least, as late as the year 1554, in which he added a codicil to his will.
Bernardino Gatti, named from his father"s profession Soiaro, of whom I shall again make mention in the Cremonese School, is an artist, who, in different countries, left various specimens of his art. Parma, Piacenza, and Cremona abound with them. He ranks among the least doubtful disciples of Coreggio, and was strongly attached to his maxims, more especially in regard to the subjects treated by the hand of his master. His picture of a Pieta, at the Magdalen, in Parma, that of his Repose in Egypt, at S.
Sigismond, in Cremona, with his Christ in the Manger, at S. Peter"s, in the same city, afford ample evidence of his power of imitating Coreggio without becoming a servile copyist. No one has emulated him better in the delicacy of his countenances. His young girls and his boys appear animated with the spirit of innocence, grace, and beauty. He is fond of whitish and clear grounds, and infuses a sweetness into his whole colouring which forms one of his characteristics. Nor does he want relief in his figures, from which, like the head of the school, he seems never to have removed his hand until he had rendered them in every way perfect and complete. He possessed singular talent for copying, as well as for imitating those masters whom he had engaged to a.s.sist. He succeeded to the place of Pordenone, in Piacenza, where he painted the remainder of the tribune at S. M. di Campagna, of which Vasari observes, that the whole appeared the work of the same hand.
His picture of S. George, at the same church, is deserving of mention, placed opposite that of S. Augustine by Pordenone, a figure displaying powerful relief and action, which he executed from the design of Giulio Romano, at the request, it is supposed, of the person who gave the commission. We may form an estimate of his una.s.sisted powers by what he has left in the churches of Parma, and more particularly in the cupola of the Steccata. It is an excellent production in every part, and in its princ.i.p.al figure of the Virgin truly surprising. Another of his pieces representing the Multiplication of Loaves, is highly deserving of mention. It was executed for the Refectory of the Padri Lateranensi at Cremona, and to this his name, with the date of 1552, is affixed. It may be accounted one of the most copious paintings to be met with in any religious refectory, full of figures larger than the life, and varied equal to any in point of features, drapery, and att.i.tudes, besides a rich display of novelty and fancy; the whole conducted upon a grand scale, with a happy union and taste of colouring, which serves to excuse a degree of incorrectness in regard to his aerial perspective. There remain few of his pieces in private collections, a great number having been transferred into foreign countries, particularly into Spain.
Giorgio Gandini, likewise surnamed del Grano, from the maternal branch of his family, was an artist formerly referred to Mantua, but who has since been claimed by Padre Aff, who traced his genealogy for the city of Parma.
According to the account of Orlandi he was not only a pupil of Coreggio, but one whose pieces were frequently retouched by the hand of his master.
P. Zapata, who ill.u.s.trated in a latin work the churches of Parma, ascribes to him the princ.i.p.al painting in S. Michele, the same which, in the Guide of Ruta, was attributed by mistake to Lelio di Novellara. It is one calculated to reflect honour upon that school, from its power of colouring, its relief, and its ease and sweetness of hand, though it occasionally displays a somewhat too capricious fancy. How highly he was esteemed by his fellow citizens may be inferred from the commission which they allotted him to paint the tribune of the cathedral, as a subst.i.tute for Coreggio, who died before he commenced the task which he had accepted. The same happened to Gandini, and the commission was bestowed upon a third artist, Girolamo Mazzuola, whose genius was not then sufficiently matured to cope with such vast undertakings.
The names of Lelio Orsi and Girolamo da Carpi, I a.s.sign to another place, both of whom are enumerated by other writers in the school of Parma. For this alteration I shall give a sufficient reason when I mention them. The last belonging to the present cla.s.s, are the two Mazzuoli; and I commence with Francesco, called Parmigianino, whose life, by Father Aff, has been already written. This writer does not rank him in the list of Coreggio"s scholars, but in that of his two uncles, in whose studio he is supposed to have painted his Baptism of Christ, which is now in possession of the Conti Sanvitali, and as the production of a boy of fourteen years of age, it is indeed a wonderful effort of genius. It is remarked by the same historian of his life, that having seen the works of Coreggio, Frances...o...b..gan to imitate him; and there are some pictures ascribed to him at that period, which are evidently formed upon that great model. Of such kind, is a Holy Family, belonging to the President Bertioli, and a S. Bernardino, at the Padri Osservanti, in Parma. Independently of these, the fact of Francesco"s having been chosen, together with Rondani and Anselmi, to decorate a chapel near the Cupola of Coreggio, shews, that he must have acquired great similarity of style, and possessed docility, equal to the other two, in following the directions of such a master. He had too much confidence, however, in his own powers, to be second in the manner of another artist, when he was capable of forming one of his own. And this he subsequently achieved; for owing to the delays experienced in the above undertaking, he had time to make the tour of Italy, and meeting with Giulio, in Mantua, and Raffaello, at Rome, he proceeded to form a style that has been p.r.o.nounced original. It is at once great, n.o.ble, and dignified; not abounding in figures, but rendering a few capable of filling a large canva.s.s, as we may observe in his S. Rocco, at San Petronio, in Bologna; or in his Moses, at the Steccata of Parma, so celebrated a specimen of chiaroscuro.
The prevailing character, however, in which this artist so greatly shone, was grace of manner; a grace which won for him at Rome that most flattering of all eulogies, that the spirit of Raffaello had pa.s.sed into Parmigianino.
Among his designs are to be seen repeated specimens of the same figure, drawn for the purpose of reaching the highest degree of grace, in the person, in the att.i.tudes, and in the lightness of his drapery, in which he is admirable. It is the opinion of Algarotti, that he sometimes carried his heads to an extreme, so as to border upon effeminacy; a judgment a.n.a.logous to the previous observation of Agostino Caracci, that he could wish a painter to have a little of Parmigianino"s grace; not all, because he conceived that he had too much. In the opinion of others, his excessive study of what was graceful led him sometimes to select proportions somewhat too long, no less in respect to stature than in the fingers and the neck, as we may observe in his celebrated Madonna, at the Pitti Palace, which, from this defect, obtained the appellation of _collo lungo_, or long neck;[26] but it boasted likewise of its advocates. His colouring, also, evidently aims at grace, and for the most part is preserved moderate, discreet, and well tempered, as if the artist feared, by too much brilliancy, to offend the eye; which, both in drawings and paintings, is apt to diminish grace. If we admit Albano as a good judge, Parmigianino was not very studious of expression, in which he has left few examples; if, indeed, we are not to consider the grace that animates his cherubs and other delicate figures, as meriting the name of expression, or if that term apply only to the pa.s.sions, as very abundantly supplying its place. It is, in truth, on account of this rare exhibition of grace, that every thing is pardoned, and that in him defects themselves appear meritorious.