Giacomo Parolini, pupil to the Cav. Peruzzini in Turin, afterwards to Cignani at Bologna, was present at Maurelio"s decease, and completed a few works left imperfect, out of regard to his friend, and for the relief of his orphan family. He did not possess that true finish peculiar to the followers of Cignani; though he still maintained the reputation of his second school, by the elegance of his design, the propriety and copiousness of his composition, and his very attractive colouring, particularly in the fleshes. Aware of his own power in this difficult part of painting, he is fond of introducing into his pieces the naked figure, more especially of boys, from the proportions of which judges are enabled to recognize their author. His baccha.n.a.ls, his Albanesque country-dances, his capricci, are all of such frequent occurrence at Ferrara, as to render it more easy to enumerate the collections in want of them, than those where they are.
Foreigners also possess specimens; and there are engravings in acqua forte by the designer"s own hand. His picture of the Cintura, representing the Virgin among various saints, nearly all of the order of St. Augustine, a piece engraved by Andrea Bolzoni, is held in much esteem. Nor are the three altar-pieces in the cathedral unworthy of notice; and in particular the entablature of S. Sebastiano at Verona, which greatly raised his reputation, representing the saint in the act of mounting into glory, amidst groups of angels; a beautiful and well executed work. Parolini is the last among the figurists whose life was written at length by Baruffaldi; the last, also, on whose tomb was inscribed the eulogy of a good painter. With him was buried for a season the reputation of Ferrarese painting in Italy.
The author of the "Catalogue," in the fourth volume has collected the names and drawn up the lives of certain other painters, interspersing several episodes. Concerning these figurists, little else is related than mere failures and misfortunes. For instance, Gio. Frances...o...b..accioli, pupil to Crespi, though promising well in some of his works for galleries, subsequently fell into infirmity of mind; one lost his taste for the profession; another cultivated the art with remissness, or only as a dilettante; a third produced some tolerable efforts, but was mostly extravagant; one had genius and died early; another long life without a spark of talent. Meanwhile, this dearth of native artists was for some years supplied by Gio. Batista Cozza, from the Milanese; a painter of a copious, easy, and regulated style. Not that he was invariably correct, though very popular, and when he pleased satisfying even judges of the art; as in that picture representing different SS. Serviti, in the church called di Ca Bianca.
After him appeared the modern artists, who now enjoy deserved reputation in the academy of Ferrara, which, owing to the particular patronage of his eminence Card. Riminaldi, has recently risen into distinguished notice.
With the name of this n.o.ble citizen and of the professors whom he himself selected and promoted, future writers will doubtless commence a fourth epoch of painting. By him the academy was supplied with laws, and took its established form. To his care and munificence several young artists were indebted for their residence at Rome, and all the rest for the benefit of a well regulated inst.i.tution at Ferrara. He also did much for the cause of letters in the university. But this is not the place to give an account of it; and his merits, commended as they are to posterity in numerous books and monuments, and impressed on the hearts of his grateful fellow citizens, are not likely soon to fall into oblivion.
It remains to speak of other kinds of painting, and it will be best to commence with perspective. After this art had a.s.sumed a new aspect at Bologna, and spread through Italy, as already stated, it was introduced by Francesco Ferrari, born near Rovigo, into Ferrara. He had been instructed in figure painting by a Frenchman, and afterwards became professor of architectural and ornamental painting under Gabriel Rossi, the Bolognese, of whose name, to say nothing of his style, I find no traces left at Bologna. To those who had the means of comparing the manners of these two artists, it appeared that Francesco did not equal him in the dignity of his architecture, but surpa.s.sed him in strength and durability of colouring, and in that relief so attractive in these performances. Moreover, he had a considerable advantage over his master, in his knowledge of appropriately painting histories. The Dispute of S. Cirillo is still to be seen, and the Rain granted to the Prayer of Elias, in the church of S. Paolo: pictures, observes Baruffaldi, which rivet the eye. Other proofs of his genius for history pieces are met with at the Carmine and at S. Giorgio, but still they yield to his architectural labours, which may be said to have formed his trade. He worked also for theatres, and in different Italian cities, and in the service of Leopold I. at Vienna. Being constrained to leave Germany on account of his health, he returned to Ferrara, and there opened school.
Among his pupils were Morna.s.si, Gra.s.saleoni, Paggi, Raffanelli, Giacomo Filippi, and one who surpa.s.sed all the rest, Antonfelice Ferrari, his son.
This artist did not attempt figures, but confined himself to architecture, in which he added to the somewhat minute style of his father, a magnificence well adapted to attract the public eye. He was employed with success in the Calcagnini palace, in that of the Sacrati, Fieschi, and in other private and public places in Ferrara, as well as at Venice, Ravenna, and elsewhere. Suffering much however in health by painting in fresco, and on this account being reduced to live with less comfort, he conceived such aversion for the art, that on making his will he enjoined that his son was to forfeit his inheritance if he ever became a fresco painter. Some of his pupils therefore succeeded him, among whom Giuseppe Facchinetti most distinguished himself. He painted at S. Caterina da Siena and other places, at once in a delicate and sound style, and is almost reputed the Mitelli of his school. Maurelio Goti of Ferrara nearly approached his style, not without marks of plagiarism. From the same country and school was Girolamo Mengozzi Colonna, who became a long resident at Venice. He accompanied the figures of Zompini with ornamental work at the church of the Tolentini, and those of Tiepolo at the Scalzi; and conducted the architecture in the ducal palace and elsewhere. Zanetti, in his Guide, mentions his name as above; but, in his "Pittura Veneziana," (thirty-eight years afterwards) he calls him Colonna Mengozzi, and a native of Tivoli. Guarienti extols him as the first architectural and ornamental painter of his time.
The art of landscape painting, which, after the age of the Dossi, had almost fallen into disuse at Ferrara, was revived there by some foreigners.
Giulio Avellino, called, from his native place, the Messinese, resided some time in this city, and died there at the beginning of the century. He had been pupil to Salvator Rosa, whose style he somewhat softened, and richly ornamented with views of ruins and architecture, as well as with some small and well composed figures. The Signori Cremona and Donati possess select specimens; and there is scarcely a collection in Ferrara or Romagna which does not value itself on possessing them. After him appeared Giuseppe Zola, born, according to Crespi, at Brescia, a landscape painter, of a taste devoted to no single master, but formed upon many. He was exceedingly rich in conception and in expedients; his buildings are of a rustic kind; his ruins partake of the modern, and are picturesquely covered with creeping plants and ivy; the backgrounds of an azure hue, and great variety of objects and figures, in which he was less happy than in his landscape. His earlier works are held in most esteem; when he obtained greater commissions, he performed them with a more mechanical hand, and, with the exception of his colouring, which he always studied, he bestowed little care on the rest. Those pictures are in general most complete, in which he introduced the smallest figures; and such may be seen even out of private houses, in the Monte della Pieta, and in the sacristy of S. Leonardo. He formed several pupils, the best of whom was Girolamo Gregori. Instructed as a figurist by Parolini, and afterwards by Gioseffo dal Sole, he failed for want of perseverance, except very rarely, in greater works. Yet he produced many, and his landscapes have been highly extolled. The same may be observed of Avanzi, mentioned by us shortly before; who, in addition to his very pleasing landscapes on canva.s.s and on copper, surpa.s.sed all his fellow citizens in the drawing of flowers and fruits.
An invention, finally deserving of mention, and extremely useful to painting, was made known during this last epoch by a Ferrarese, and afterwards brought to perfection by others. Antonio Contri, son of a Ferrarese lawyer, who, for domestic reasons, had long settled at Rome, and next at Paris, feeling a natural bias for design, practised it in both those cities; but first displayed greater excellence in embroidery than painting. Returning into Italy, and establishing himself at Cremona, he was instructed in landscape by Ba.s.si, in which he was accustomed also to introduce flowers, the branch of painting in which he most distinguished himself. He also succeeded well in perspectives and in animals. His pictures, and those of his son Francesco, who pursued his style, remain at Cremona, Ferrara, and their vicinity; but it was his new discovery, just alluded to, which obtained a more wide circulation and repute. This is the method of removing from walls to canva.s.s any picture without the least injury to its design or colouring. Various trials of it, during the s.p.a.ce of a year, instructed him how to compose a sort of glue, or bitumen, which he spread over a canva.s.s of equal size with the picture he wished to transfer to it. Having applied this to the painting, and beaten it firm with a mallet, he cut the plaister round it, and applied to the canva.s.s a wooden frame well propped, in order that the work might take hold, and come off equal throughout. In a few days he cautiously removed the canva.s.s from the wall, which brought with it the painting; and, having extended it on a smooth table, he applied to the back of it another canva.s.s, varnished with a composition more adhesive than the former. He then placed over the work a quant.i.ty of sand, which should equally compress it in all its parts; and, after a week"s s.p.a.ce, he examined the two pieces of canva.s.s, detached the first by means of warm water, and there then remained on the second the whole painting taken from the wall. He applied this method in different houses of Cremona, for Baruffaldi in Ferrara, and in Mantua for Prince d"Harmstadt, governor of the city; so as to enable him to send some heads, or other works of Giulio Romano, thus removed from the ducal palace, to the emperor. The secret composition of his glue Contri always concealed, but similar attempts were made about the same period in foreign countries. In the journal of Trevoux it is stated that Louis XV. caused the celebrated painting of St. Michael, by Raffaello, to be removed from its original canva.s.s to a new one, a process which succeeded admirably, for on this last the c.h.i.n.ks and creases disappeared which had greatly injured the former.[60] From this account I have been led to doubt whether Contri were really the inventor of this art, as a.s.serted by Ferrarese writers. I say only doubted, since I am unable to judge the question with precision, for want of ascertaining the exact year in which he first applied the method with success. What is indisputable however is, that he was the first who was induced to make such trial of it upon painted walls, and that the plan which he adopted was only of his own invention. But whether he discovered the art, or only the method of applying it, at this period his secret, or something equivalent to it, is pretty well known in Italy. On pa.s.sing through Imola, I saw, in a private house, two histories of the Life of the Virgin, which had been painted by Cesi in the cathedral of that city, removed thence, and replaced on large new canva.s.s. Had this invention been elicited a few years previously, several of those ancient works might have been preserved, mention of which is now only to be met with in books, to the regret of every lover of the fine arts.
Footnote 60: See Il Sig. Ab. Requeno, in his "Essays for the Re-establishment of the ancient Art of the Greek and Roman Painters." Ed. Ven. p. 108.
Here too we must give some account of an exceedingly interesting art, as regards that of painting; an art which, after the lapse of centuries, in some degree re-appeared in Italy, owing chiefly to the exertions of an ingenious Spaniard. He resided many years at Ferrara, and was a.s.sisted by the artists there in his experiments and undertakings. Some years before, attempts had been made at Paris to recover the method of painting in caustic, or that which the Greeks and Romans succeeded in by the medium of fire.[61] A few words in Vitruvius and Pliny, and these very obscure in our days, and to which various meanings are given by critics, formed the only chart and compa.s.s to direct the inquirer. It was known that wax was employed in ancient painting, much the same as oil in the modern; but how to prepare it, to combine it with the colours, to use it in a liquid state, and how to apply fire to the process until the completion of the work--was the secret to be discovered. Count Caylus, who pursued antiquarian researches less for the sake of history than of the arts, was perhaps the princ.i.p.al promoter of so useful an inquiry. The royal Academy of Inscriptions joined him, and offered a public premium for the discovery of a method of painting in caustic, such as should be found worthy of its approbation. Many experiments were at this period made; and philology, chemistry, painting, all united in throwing light upon the subject. Among various methods proposed by three academicians, Caylus, Cochin, and Bachiliere, two of them received premiums, though in some measure the same, and both proposed by the last of the three mentioned names. The whole account may be read in the Encyclopedia, under the head of _Encaustique_.
Thenceforward native artists did not fail to make new trials, and practise themselves in pictures _all"encausto_. One of these, who arrived at Florence in 1780, exhibited to me a head, and some portion of the figure, thus painted by himself. I likewise saw him so employed. He had near him a brazier, on which were placed small pans filled with colours, all of a different body, and mixed with wax, but with what third ingredient I know not; whether salt of tartar, as recommended in the dissertation remunerated at Paris, or some other composition. A second brazier was fixed behind the cartoon or panel on which he painted, in order to preserve it always warm.
The work being finished, he went over the whole with a small hair brush, and gave it a clear and vivid glow.
Footnote 61: See the Encyclopedia, at the Art. _Encaustique_.
Some there were at that time in Italy who much admired this art. The numerous reliques of ancient painting, preserved free from the effects of time at Naples and at Rome, may be said to exhibit a manifest triumph over modern productions, which so much sooner become aged and fade away. This it was that induced the Ab. Vincenzo Requeno to publish the book shortly before cited, at Venice, first in 1784. In him were united all the requisite qualities for promoting the new discovery--the learning of a man of letters, experience of an artist, philosophical reasoning, and persevering experiment. His work is in every one"s hands, so as to enable them to form an opinion, for this is not the place to enter into a discussion of its various merits. It has been done by the Cav. de Rossi in three extracts from that work, published in the first volume of the "Memorie delle Belle Arti," one of the most brief and at the same time admired journals in Italy. My sole object is to do justice to his singular penetration and industry. He gave a solution of the difficulty mentioned in the Encyclopedia, and discovered a new process. He shewed that salt of tartar was not made use of by the Greeks to dissolve wax, and adapt it to the brush, because they were unacquainted with such a substance; while his own experience convinced him it was useless for the purpose. He knew that the application of fire to the back of the painting was not the method adopted by the Greeks, inasmuch as it was inapplicable to their paintings upon large walls. He tried many experiments, and he at length found that the resinous gum, called mastic, would produce the effect which he had vainly sought from salt of tartar. With the gum and wax he made crayons, and found various ways of combining the colours, so as best to adapt them for the use of painting. When the work was finished, he was accustomed sometimes to give it a slight covering of wax, in place of varnish, and sometimes to leave it without; but in every process which he observed, he perfected the work by the application of fire, or as he himself observes, by burning it. This he effected by holding a brazier near the front of the picture, and lastly going over the work with a small linen cloth, which clears and enlivens the tints.
I have seen the first trials, as made by the Ab. Requeno himself, or by artists directed by him, in possession of his Excellency Pignatelli at Bologna, who added to the discovery no small share of information and patronage. But it was not to be expected that a new kind of painting could be perfected by means of a single studio. Aware of this, the author of the work thus expresses himself: "At the moment when a resinous gum shall be found better, that is, more white and hard, and equally soluble with wax and water as those employed by me, the pictures and caustics will become more beautiful, consistent, and durable. I am not a painter by profession, nor do I merit any particular commendation among dilettanti. My pictures have been conducted solely for the purpose of shewing a method of painting with ease and consistency in wax, without oil, without glue, and by means of gums only, with wax and water." On this account he thenceforward invited professors to join in promoting his discovery, and lived to witness its effects.
Omitting to speak of the chemists who aided in throwing light upon the progress of this art,[62] the pictoric school at Rome undertook in a manner to promote and bring it to its last degree of perfection. At that period lived counsellor Renfesthein, the friend of Mengs and of Winckelmann, a man of exquisite taste in the arts of design, and ever surrounded by numbers of artists, who either received from him the benefit of his advice, or commissions from foreigners, private persons, and sovereigns. To these he proposed sometimes one, sometimes another method of the caustic art; and in a short time he beheld his cabinet filled with pictures on canva.s.s, on wood, and on different kinds of stones, which he had already submitted to every proof, by putting them under ground, in water, and exposing them to every variety of weather without injury. From this time the new discovery spread to different studii, and was communicated successively to the Italian cities, and to foreign nations. Entire chambers have thus been painted by caustic, a specimen of which is seen in that which the Archduke Ferdinand, governor of Milan, caused to be thus decorated in his villa of Monza. And in ornamental paintings and landscape this art may hitherto boast still more attractions than in figures. All however must be aware that it has not yet attained that degree of softness and finish possessed by the ancients in their paintings in wax, and in oil and varnish by the moderns. But where many unite to perfect it, it may be hoped that some Van Eyck may rise up, who will succeed in discovering, or more properly in perfecting that which "all artists had long looked for and ardently desired."[63]
Footnote 62: See the _Discorso della Cera Punica_, by the Cav. Lorgna, Verona, 1785. Also _Osservazioni intorno alla Cera Punica_, by Count Luigi Torri, Verona, 1785. In the work of Federici is an account of another little production by Gio. Maria Astorri of Treviso, edited in Venice, 1786; in which Spanish honey is much praised for the purpose of preparing and whitening the wax; and being a painter he relates several experiments he made with this and other methods, which succeeded well. Gio. Fabroni, keeper of the royal cabinet at Florence, likewise wrote concerning it. See the Roman Anthology for the year 1797.
Footnote 63: Vasari.
BOOK V.
GENOESE SCHOOL.
EPOCH I.
_The Ancients._
Last among the ancient schools of Italy is to be enumerated the Genoese, in regard to the period in which it flourished, not to its merit, which I consider as being equal to that of many others. In Liguria the first revival of painting appeared tardy; not so its progress, which was rapid and distinguished. In Genoa and Savona, as well as in other cities situated on the sea-sh.o.r.e, there remain some ancient paintings by unknown hands, one of which, over the gate of Savona, is distinguished by the date of 1101.
The first artist known by any extant production, is one _Franciscus de Oberto_, as he signs himself on the edge of a painting of the Virgin between two angels, which is in the church of S. Domenico, at Genoa, displaying nothing of the Giottesque, and executed in 1368. It cannot be ascertained that he was altogether a native artist, as may be confidently a.s.serted of the Monk of Ieres, and of Niccolo da Voltri, names known to history though not by any surviving works. The Monk of the Isole d"Oro, or of Ieres, or Stecadi, where he long resided, was not pointed out to us by name by any ancient writer. His surname was Cybo, and historians place him in the genealogical tree of Innocent VIII. Besides being a good Provencal poet, and historian, it is said that he became an excellent miniaturist, and on this account, a favourite with the King and Queen of Aragon, to whom he presented several of his illuminated books. He also delighted in representing in his paintings birds, fish, quadrupeds, trees with fruits, ships of various forms, perspectives of cities and edifices, objects, in short, which he beheld in the islands around him. It is conjectured by Baldinucci that Giotto"s models, in an age thronged with miniaturists, and not wanting in painters, had influenced the efforts of this isolated artist. How this a.s.sertion can be confirmed I know not, the more so as history describes him as having devoted himself late in life to design, and in the island of Lerino, where it is not known there were any followers of Giotto. Voltri was also a figure painter; some of his altar-pieces survived to the time of Soprani, who extols them, without, however, pointing out with precision the peculiarities of his taste or school.
During the fifteenth century, and part of the following, the capital city, and those depending on it, were supplied, for the most part, with foreign painters, almost all unknown to their native schools on account of their having, as it appears, resided in Liguria. Some account remains of a German called Giusto di Alemagna, in a cloister of S. Maria di Castello, at Genoa.
He there painted in fresco an Annunciation in 1451, a precious picture of its sort, finished in the manner of miniaturists, and which seems to promise for Germany the style of an Albert Durer. At the same period Jacopo Marone, of Alessandria, painted an altar-piece at S. Jacopo in Savona, in distemper, consisting of various compartments, and in the midst of it a Nativity with a landscape, a work conducted with exquisite care in every part. At S. Brigida, in Genoa, too, are seen, by the same hand, two altar-pieces, one with the date of 1481, the other of 1484. The author was one Galeotto Nebea, of Castellaccio, a place not far from Alexandria. The three princ.i.p.al Archangels in the first, and S. Pantaleone with other martyrs in the second, are represented on a gold ground, very tolerably executed, both in forms and draperies, which are extremely rich, with stiff and regular foldings, not borrowed from any other school. It exhibits also the grado or step, with minute histories, a work somewhat crude, but displaying diligence.
Turning from the head city to Savona, a third native of Alexandria, called Gio. Ma.s.sone, painted about the year 1490, in the church erected by Sixtus IV. for the sepulture of his family. Although not mentioned in history, he must have been distinguished in his time, to have been selected for such a work, and remunerated with one hundred and ninety-two ducats for his labour. It is comprised in a small altar-piece, where, seen at the feet of the Virgin, are the portraits of the pope, and the cardinal Giuliano, his nephew, afterwards Julius II. The same city, preserving so many ancient memorials, has also s.n.a.t.c.hed from oblivion the names of one Tuccio di Andria, an artist employed at S. Jacopo in 1487, and of two natives of Pavia, who somewhat later perhaps painted on canva.s.s, and signed themselves, the one _Laurentius Papiensis_, the other _Donatus Comes Bardus Papiensis_. Another foreigner, by birth a Brescian, and a Carmelite by profession, presents us with a signature, to be found at S. Giovanni, below an altar-piece of the Nativity of our Saviour. It has written on it, "_Opus F. Hieronymi de Brixia Carmelitae, 1519_." By the same hand, in the cloister of the Carmelitani at Florence, is a Pieta with this inscription, _F.
Hieronymus de Brixia_. This artist is well deserving of notice, if only on account of his knowledge in perspective, an art so much cultivated after Foppa in Brescia, and throughout Lombardy. Doubtless he was a pupil of that monastery, in which the art of painting was then cultivated; as it is stated by Averoldi, who extols one F. Gio. Maria da Brescia, and the cloister of the Carmine, decorated by him with a number of histories of Elias and of Eliseas. This Girolamo I believe to have been his companion or disciple, a name that has in some way escaped Orlandi, who belonged to the same order.
No one of the foreign painters is known to have opened school in Liguria, except a native of Nizza, who, through his succession, is almost regarded as the progenitor of the ancient Genoese School. He is called Lodovico Brea, and his works are by no means rare at Genoa and throughout the state, with notices of him between the years 1485 and 1513. In point of taste he is not equal to the best among his contemporaries in other schools, employing gilding, and more strongly adhering to the old dryness of design.
His style, nevertheless, yields to that of few in the beauty of its heads, and in the vividness of its colouring, which still remains almost unimpaired. His folding is also good, his composition tolerable, he selects difficult perspectives, and his att.i.tudes are bold. From his whole painting he might be rather p.r.o.nounced the head of a new, than the follower of any other school. He never attempted grand proportions; in smaller, as we see in the Slaughter of the Innocents, at S. Agostino, he is excellent. His S.
Giovanni, in the chapel of the Madonna di Savona, executed by commission for the Card. della Rovere, in compet.i.tion with other artists, is highly praised.
Thus, until the year 1513, painting in Genoa was in the hands of strangers, and if the natives at all practised it they were few only, as we shall shortly show, while both one and the other were far behind the best methods of their age. Ottaviano Fregoso, elected doge in the above year, at length shed new l.u.s.tre on the arts. He invited to Genoa Gio. Giacomo Lombardo, a sculptor, and Carlo del Mantegna, a painter, who succeeded, as we have stated, both to the works and reputation of his master. Carlo not only painted in Genoa but taught, and with a success that would seem quite incredible, were it not that the works of his imitators are still in existence. Thus the Genoese School first took its rise from Brea, and was promoted by Carlo, as we find it described by two painters in two volumes; a school of a long, uninterrupted, and ill.u.s.trious succession. The first volume is by Raffael Soprani, a patrician of the city, who wrote lives of the Genoese professors of design up to 1667; and added also notices of foreign ones who had been employed in that splendid capital. The second is by the Cav. Carlo Ratti, secretary to the Ligustic academy, who, after having republished the Lives of Soprani, accompanied by useful notes, continued the same work in another volume and on the same plan, down to the present day. He has moreover published, in two small volumes, a Guide, intended to give an account of the best specimens of art, both in private and public, which Genoa and every district of the state can boast; an extremely useful undertaking, and, if I mistake not, without example either in or beyond Italy. Thus, owing to the exertions of this deserving citizen, the pictoric history of Liguria has become one of the most complete among those of all Italy as respects the number of its artists, and the most certain in enabling us to form a correct opinion of their merits. Directed by these, and by other additional information received on the spot from Sig. Ratti himself, as well as from others, I proceed to resume the thread of my narrative.
About the period that Carlo arrived at Genoa, the same city was also so fortunate as to become the residence of Pier Francesco Sacchi, commended by Lomazzo, who calls him Pierfrancesco Pavese, an artist well skilled in the style then prevailing at Milan. He was a good perspective painter, delightful in landscape, and a diligent, correct designer. The public is still in possession of his altar-piece of the Four Holy Doctors in the oratory of S. Ugo. The style of Sacchi nearly resembles that of Carlo del Mantegna, from what we gather from his works in Mantua, there remaining no vestiges of them in Genoa. Two youths of very fine genius for the art were at this period educating in the school of Lodovico Brea. One was named Antonio Semini, the other Teramo Piaggia, or Teramo di Zoagli, the place of his birth. There is no account of their being indebted either to the advice or examples of the new masters, when they began to be employed for the public, but their altar-pieces display the fact. They painted conjointly, and affixed both their names to their productions. In that of the Martyrdom of St. Andrew, which they conducted for the church of that name, they likewise added their own portraits. None can have witnessed this very beautiful altar-piece, without seeing traces of Brea"s style already enlarged and changed into one more modern. The figures are not of those dimensions which we subsequently see in a better age, nor is the design sufficiently soft and full, but there is a clearness in the countenances that rivets attention, an union of colouring that attracts; the folding is easy, the composition somewhat thronged, though not by any means despicable. Few originators of the style which is now termed modern antique, can be fairly preferred before these two artists and friends.
Teramo in his individual specimens at Chiavari and at Genoa itself, retains somewhat more of the antique, particularly as regards composition, but is always animated in his countenances, studied and graceful. Antonio appears to me almost like the Pietro Perugino of his school. In his Deposition from the Cross he approaches nearer the better age, a painting in possession of the Dominicans at Genoa, as well as in some other pieces highly commended for the figures, and the accessories of perspective and landscape, though his great merit does not appear most conspicuous here. For this we should consult his Nativity, painted for S. Domenico in Savona, and we shall be convinced that he also emulated Perino and Raffaello himself.
Before proceeding to an improved epoch, we ought here to insert the names of a few other native artists to whom we already alluded. It is doubtful whether Aurelio Robertelli ranks in this list, by whom, at Savona, is a figure of the Virgin painted on a column of the old cathedral, dated 1499, and transferred to the new one, where it excites the particular veneration of the people. A little subsequent appeared a painting by Niccolo Corso, at Genoa, bearing the date of 1503. It represents a history of S. Benedict, painted in fresco for the villa of Quarto belonging to the Padri Olivetani, in whose refectory, cloister, and church near the Corso, he was much employed. Soprani enumerates other histories, of which he extols the richness of invention, the pa.s.sionate expression, and especially the vividness and durability of the colouring. He adds, that were he less hard, he might rank among the very first of his profession. The same writer commends Andrea Morinello for an altar-piece formerly seen at S. Martino di Albaro, dated 1516; an artist very graceful in his countenances, excellent in portrait, soft and clear in his outlines, and one of the first in those parts who opened the way for the modern manner. He likewise praises F.
Lorenzo Moreno, a Carmelite, skilled in fresco, who painted the Annunciation in a cloister of the Carmine, now cut out of the exterior wall of the building in order to preserve it. Finally he extols an ecclesiastic of the Franciscan order, by name F. Simon da Carnuli, who, in his church at Voltri, painted two histories in one large altar-piece in 1519. One of these represents the Inst.i.tution of the Eucharist, the other the preaching of St. Antony. Still it is not free from the hardness peculiar to the age as regards the figures; but in the architecture of the edifices, and in the gradual receding of the perspective, it is so perfect that the celebrated Andrea Doria was eager at any price to purchase it, in order to present it as a gift to the Escurial. But the people of Voltri refused every offer, and still keep possession of it. A few others, who enjoyed a degree of reputation from their sons, will be mentioned along with them in the epoch of which we shall next proceed to treat.
GENOESE SCHOOL.
EPOCH II.
_Perino and his Followers._
Whilst the art was advancing in Genoa and her territories, there occurred the celebrated siege of Rome, and the calamities which accompanied and followed it, in consequence of which the scholars of Raffaello were dispersed, and established themselves some in one city and some in another.
We have seen in the course of this work Polidoro and Salerno in Naples, Giulio in Mantua, Pellegrino in Modena, and Gaudenzio in Milan, distinguish themselves as the masters of eminent schools; and we find one school founded by Perino del Vaga in Genoa, which has maintained the splendour of its origin in a way inferior to none. Perino arrived in Genoa in a state of distress in 1528, after the sacking of Rome. He was there liberally welcomed by Prince Doria, who employed him for several years in the decoration of his magnificent palace without the gate of S. Tommaso. He superintended as well the external decorations of the sculptures, as the internal ornaments of the stuccos, the gilding, the arabesques, the paintings in fresco and in oil. This place, in consequence, breathes all the taste of the halls and loggie of the Vatican; the celebrated works of which, at that time, attracted universal admiration, and in the execution of part of which Perino had a considerable share. This artist has indeed no where displayed his talents to such advantage as in the Doria palace; and it is doubtful whether Perino in Genoa, or Giulio in Mantua, have best sustained the style of Raffaello. We find in the palace some small histories of celebrated Romans, of Cocles, for example, and Scaevola, which might pa.s.s for compositions of Raffaello; a group of Boys at Play, likewise, has all the air of that master; and on a ceiling, in the War of the Giants against the G.o.ds, we seem to behold in conflict the same persons whom Raffaello had represented as banqueting in the Casa Chigi. If the expression be not so n.o.ble, the grace so rare, it is because that grand specimen of art may be emulated by many, but equalled by none. It may be added, that Perino"s style is less finished than his master"s, and that, in his drawing of the naked figure, he, like Giulio, partakes of the style of Michelangiolo. Four chambers, Vasari informs us, were painted in the palace from the cartoons of Vaga, by Luzio Romano, and some Lombards, his a.s.sistants; one of whom, of the name of Guglielmo Milanese, followed him to Rome, and held in that court the office of Frate del Piombo. The others have left no name behind them, and must have been individuals of inferior talents and poorly paid, as we occasionally find rude and heavy figures.
Such defects are not uncommon in the works which Perino undertook, for when he had made his cartoons or designs he gave them to his pupils to execute, with material advantage to his pecuniary interests, but with detriment to his reputation. This is observed by Vasari, nor do I know how he could have the courage to mention in connexion with this circ.u.mstance the works which were executed with the a.s.sistance of their scholars by Raffaello and Giulio Romano, ill.u.s.trious masters, irreproachable in the selection of their a.s.sistants, indefatigable in their application, and contemning that avidity of gain which drew down on Perino merited reprehension. There is still, in the palace Doria, a frieze of boys, commenced by him in one of the loggie, continued by Pordenone, and finished by Beccafumo; and the remains of what was there painted by Girolamo da Trevigi, who, through jealous rivalry towards Perino, forsook both the city and the state. Perino painted some pictures for the churches in Genoa; where too we find some by eminent foreign hands, amongst which is the St. Stephen, painted by Giulio Romano for the church of that saint; an altar-piece perhaps the most copious in composition, and the most striking that issued from the studio of that master. It was at this time too that many n.o.ble individuals applied themselves to collect foreign specimens of every school, and they have since been emulated by their posterity, who in this pursuit perhaps surpa.s.s all the private collectors in Italy, except those of Rome.
By these means the country became enriched with beautiful works, and began to turn itself to a more perfect style, which it attained with a celerity unknown to any other school. The transition from the style of Brea, which was that of the thirteenth century, to that of Raffaello, occupied but a few years; and even the scholars of Nizzardo, as we have observed, very soon became worthy imitators of the first of modern masters. These principles were sure to make the most prosperous advances amongst a people rich in genius and industry; and amidst a n.o.bility that abounded in wealth, and who in no way lavished it more freely than in raising splendid sanctuaries to religion, and sumptuous habitations for themselves, which in grandeur, decorations, tapestries, and in other kinds of luxuries, scarcely yielded to royalty. From munificence like this, the School of Genoa derived aid and encouragement, though not much known abroad, as her artists were sufficiently occupied at home. Its characteristic excellence, in the opinion of Mengs, consisted in the number of its excellent fresco painters; so that a church or palace of any antiquity is scarcely to be named which does not possess the most beautiful works, or at least the memory of them.
And it is a remarkable fact, when we consider how exposed the city is to the sea air, that so many works in fresco, executed by early artists, should have remained in so perfect a state. Nor did the school of Genoa want celebrity in oil paintings, particularly in the qualities of truth and force of colouring, which excellences, derived first from Perino and afterwards from the Flemish, it always retained; not yielding in this respect to any school of Italy, except the Venetian. It has produced also n.o.ble designers; although some, like other mannerists, have debased the pencil by hasty and negligent performances. Not having in public many examples of ideal excellence, it has supplied the deficiency by the study of the natural; and in the figure it has rather adopted the healthy, and the robust, and the energetic, than the delicate and the elegant. The study of portraits, in which this school had excellent masters and most lucrative practice, had a great influence on the figures of its first epoch; those of its last, if they have more beauty, have less spirit. There existed a talent for extensive composition, but in middle size rather than in great.
In these they had not epic masters, like Paolo and other Venetians; they did not, however, so often violate decorum and costume. This was, perhaps, the result of the attachment to literature entertained by many of the Genoese painters, amongst whom are enumerated a greater number of men of letters, and especially gentlemen, than in any other school. This latter circ.u.mstance was, in a great measure, owing to Paggi, who, in a treatise of considerable length, defended the n.o.bility of the art,[64] and obtained a public decree,[65] declaring the art honourable, and worthy of cultivation by men of the n.o.blest birth; an event from which the art derived the greatest dignity. We now return to particulars.
Footnote 64: It is inserted in the 7th vol. of the Lettere Pittoriche, p. 148.
Footnote 65: The decree is given by the Cavalier Ratti in the notes to Soprani. The names of the n.o.ble painters, amateurs of the art, may be found in those two authors.
The first who attached themselves to Perino for instruction, were Lazzaro and Pantaleo Calvi, the sons and scholars of an Agostino Calvi, a good painter in the old style, and one of the first in Genoa who forsook the gold ground for one of colour. Lazzaro was at that time twenty-five years of age, his brother somewhat more; nor did the latter rise in reputation, except in lending to the works of Lazzaro his aid and his name. These works abounded in Genoa and her territories, at Monaco and at Naples, in every variety of composition, arabesques, and stuccos with which are decorated palaces and churches. Some of these are excellent, as the facades of the palace Doria, (now Spinola,) with prisoners in various att.i.tudes, considered as a school of design; and several historical compositions in colours and chiaroscuro, in the best taste.[66] In the palace Pallavicini, at Zerbino, is a composition of theirs commonly called the Continence of Scipio; a remark which I owe to Sig. Ratti, who not having included it in his edition of 1768, obligingly communicated it to me for this work. To this they also added naked figures, with so happy an imitation of Perino that, in the opinion of Mengs, they might be adjudged to that master.
Moreover, we know that Perino was liberal to them in designs and cartoons; whence, in these better works, we may always presume on the aid of the master"s hand. However it might be, Lazzaro indulged in a self-conceit of his own powers, and left behind some specimens of an extravagance which no painter has since followed, except Corenzio. He was particularly jealous of any young artist, who he thought might interfere with his fame or interests, and to gratify his envy had recourse to the blackest arts. One of these rivals, Giacomo Bargone, he took off by poison; and to depress the others he drew around himself a crowd of adherents and hirelings, who influenced the opinion of the vulgar, by praising the works of Lazzaro to the skies, and depreciating those of his compet.i.tors. These cabals were more strongly instanced in the chapel Centurioni, where he painted the Birth of St. John, in compet.i.tion with Andrea Semini and Luca Cambiaso, who there also painted other pictures from the history of that saint. This work was one of his happiest efforts, and the most approaching to the style of his master; but he could not crush the genius of Cambiaso, which after this occasion appeared more brilliant than his own; whence the Prince Doria selected that artist to execute a very considerable work in fresco for the church of S. Matteo. This so enraged Calvi, that he gave himself up to a sea life, and abandoned the pencil for twenty years. He ultimately resumed it, and continued, though with a hardness of style, to paint till his eighty-fifth year. One of his last works is to be seen on the walls and in the cupola of S. Catherine; but it is cold, meagre, and bears all the marks of senility. Indeed after his return to the art, and particularly after the death of Pantaleo, who had a.s.siduously a.s.sisted him in every work, Lazzaro was only memorable for the extreme protraction of his life, which extended to 105 years.
Footnote 66: This work is extolled by Lomazzo as one of the best of Lazzaro; it is cla.s.sed with the Triumphs of Giulio Romano, Polidoro, and other eminent artists, in the _Trattato della Pittura_, p. 398.