The History Of Painting In Italy Volume Iv Part 1

The History of Painting in Italy.

Vol. IV.

by Luigi Antonio Lanzi.

BOOK II.

THE SCHOOLS OF LOMBARDY.

After a consideration of the principles and progress of painting in Lombardy, I came to the conclusion that its history ought to be treated and arranged in a manner altogether different from the rest of the schools.

Indeed those of Florence, of Rome, of Venice, and of Bologna, may be almost considered in the light of so many dramas, in which there occurs an interchange of acts and scenes, for such are the epochs of each school; and there is also a change of actors, for such are the masters of each new period; but the unity of place, which is no other than the capital city, is invariably preserved; while the princ.i.p.al actors, and as it were protagonists of the story, always continue in action, at least in the way of example. Every capital, it is true, is in possession of its own state, and in that ought to be comprehended the various other cities, and the revolutions in each; but these are in general so nearly connected with those of the metropolis as to be easily reducible to the same leading law, either because the state artists have acquired the art in the princ.i.p.al city, or because they have taught it there, as may easily be gathered from the history of the Venetian School; while the few who wander out of the usual routine, cannot be said to infringe greatly upon the unity of the school and the succession of its histories. But it happens differently in the history of Lombardy, which, in the happier periods of the art, being divided into many more districts than it now is, possessed in each state a school distinct from all the others; enumerated also distinct eras; and when the style of one influenced that of another, such a circ.u.mstance occurred neither so universally, nor so near in regard to time, as to admit of the same epoch being applied to many of them. Hence it is, that even from the outset of this book, I renounce the received manner of speaking which would mention the Lombard School, as if in itself const.i.tuting one school, in such a way as to be compared for instance with the Venetian, which in every place acknowledged the sway of its sovereign masters; of the Bellini first, next of t.i.tian and his n.o.blest contemporaries, and then of Palma; and moreover established several characteristics of design, of colouring, of composition, of the use of the pencil, so as easily to distinguish it from every other school. But in that which is called the Lombard the case is otherwise. For its founders, such as Lionardo, Giulio, the Campi, and Coreggio, are too widely opposed to each other to admit of being brought under one standard of taste, and referred to the same epoch.

I am aware that Coreggio, being by birth a Lombard, and the originator of a new style that afforded an example to many artists in that part of Italy, has conferred the name of Lombard School upon the followers of his maxims; and according to these characteristics the contours were to be drawn round and full, the countenance warm and smiling, the union of the colours strong and clear, the foreshortenings frequent, with a particular regard to the chiaroscuro. But the school thus circ.u.mscribed, where shall we find a place for the Mantuans, the Milanese, the Cremonese, and the many others who, having been born, and having flourished in Lombardy, and moreover being the tutors of a long extended line, justly deserve a rank among the Lombards.

From such considerations I have judged it most advisable to treat severally of each school, enlarging upon them more or less, according as the number of the professors and the information respecting them may seem to render it requisite. For the accounts of some of these schools have been already separately compiled; Zaist having treated of the Cremonese painters, and Tiraboschi of the Modenese; thus conferring upon artists the same obligations which he so richly conferred upon the literati in a still greater work; a rare writer, for whose loss we yet indulge a mournful recollection. In the rest of the schools I shall be supplied with ample materials from Vasari, from Lomazzo, and the Guides of the cities, besides some authors to be cited when requisite, together with my own observations and sources of information borrowed from different places; whence it is hoped that the pictoric history of Lombardy, the least known amongst all the schools of Italy, may by my means have at least some additional light thrown upon it.

CHAPTER I.

MANTUAN SCHOOL.

EPOCH I.

_Of Mantegna and his Successors._

I shall first commence with Mantua, from which there emanated two sister schools, those of Modena and of Parma. Were any one desirous of investigating the most ancient remains that the art of colouring in that state can boast, he might record the celebrated anthem book, still preserved at S. Benedetto at Mantua, a gift of the Countess Matilda to that monastery, which being founded by her long preserved her remains, transferred during the late century into the Vatican. In this book, shewn me by the learned and courteous Abbate Mari, are exhibited several little histories of the life and death of the Virgin, which, notwithstanding the barbarous period in which they were produced, display some taste, insomuch that I do not remember having seen any work of the same age at all equal to it. Upon this subject it may not be useless to observe, that in ages less uncivilized, and nearer our own, the art of miniature was practised in Mantua by a great number of professors, among whom is Gio. de Russi, who, about the year 1455, ill.u.s.trated for the Duke Borso of Modena, the Bible of Este, in large folio, one of the rarest specimens of that distinguished collection. But in regard to pictures, I have been able to discover no artist who flourished in that place previous to Mantegna; and it is only some anonymous productions belonging to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, that can be mentioned as remaining to this day. Of the former age, I saw in the cloister of S. Francesco, a sepulchre, erected in 1303, with a Madonna among various angels, all rude and disproportioned figures, though coloured with such strong and animated tints as to appear truly surprising. I doubt not but that the revival of painting in Lombardy, through the genius of its natives, might be fairly proved from the existence of this monument, as its age is anterior to that of the followers of Giotto, scattered throughout Italy; besides the style is different. Of the fifteenth, I have seen another Madonna upon an altar likewise of S.

Francesco; and whoever may have been the author, he has shewn that the art, even in those days, had already emerged from its infancy, without arriving at that rank to which the great Andrea Mantegna conducted it, of whom we have twice already had occasion to speak shortly in the course of this work; a subject which we now resume, and shall enlarge upon more fully.

Although the honour of having given birth to Mantegna can no longer, as formerly, be denied to Padua, his school was, nevertheless, established in Mantua, where, under the auspices of Marchese Lodovico Gonzaga, he settled with his family, without, however, ceasing to exert his talents elsewhere, and more particularly in Rome. The chapel which he painted at the desire of Innocent VIII. in the Vatican still exists, though injured by time; and it is clear that in the imitation of the antique constantly pursued by him he greatly improved, through the number of examples to be found throughout the city. He never varied his manner, which I described when I treated of him as a pupil of Squarcione in Padua; but he still continued to perfect it.

Several works produced during his latter years are yet extant at Mantua; and far surpa.s.sing the rest is his picture of Victory, painted upon canva.s.s. Another is the Virgin, amidst various saints, among whom S.

Michele the Archangel, and S. Maurizio, are seen holding her mantle, which is stretched over Francesco Gonzaga; he is in a kneeling posture, while the Virgin extends her hand over him in sign of protection: more in the background appear the two patrons of the city, S. Andrea and S. Longino, and the infant St. John before the throne, with S. Anna, as is supposed at least by Vasari and Ridolfi, little exact in their description of this picture, inasmuch as the rosary held in her hand distinguishes her for the princess, consort of the Marchese, kneeling at her husband's side. Mantua, perhaps, boasts no other specimen equally sought after and admired by strangers; and though produced in 1495, it is still free, in a conspicuous degree, from the effects of three ages, which it has already survived. It is truly wonderful to behold carnations so delicate, coats of armour so glittering, draperies so finely varied, with ornamental fruits still so fresh and dewy to the eye. Each separate head might serve as a school, from its fine character and vivacity, and not a few from imitation of the antique; while the design, as well in its naked as in its clothed parts, expresses a softness which sufficiently repels the too general opinion, that the stiff style and that of Mantegna are much the same thing. There is also an union of colours, a delicacy of hand, and a peculiar grace, that to me appears almost the last stage of the art towards that perfection which it acquired from Lionardo. His works upon canva.s.s remind us of that exquisite taste to which he had been habituated by Squarcione, who supplied him with pictures of the same kind from various places, and indeed the whole of the above specimen discovers him to have been an artist who spared neither his colours nor his time, to produce works that might satisfy his own ideas, as well as the eye of the spectator.

His great masterpiece, nevertheless, according to the judgment of Vasari, is the Triumph of Caesar, represented in different pictures, which, becoming the prey of the Germans in the sackage of the city, were finally sent into England. They belonged to a great hall in the palace of S. Sebastiano, "which was completed," says Equicola, an historian of his native place, "by Lorenzo Costa, an excellent artist, who added to it all that pomp which used to attend upon a triumph, besides the spectators before wanting." But these pictures having perished, there yet remain other considerable relics from the works of Andrea, in a saloon of the castle, ent.i.tled by Ridolfi the _Camera degli Sposi_. We there behold copious productions executed in fresco, and among them several portraits of the Gonzaga family, still in good preservation; and some Genii drawn over a door-way, so joyous, animated, and airy, that nothing can be supposed to surpa.s.s them. Among collections of art we more rarely meet with specimens of him than is really believed, his genuine hand being recognized, not only by its lightness, by its rectilinear folds, or by its yellowish landscape, spread with certain minute and broken little stones; but by the skill of its design and the delicacy of its pencil. It does not appear that he produced many pictures for private exhibition, engaged as he was in works of greater magnitude, and upon many engravings. More than fifty of these last have been enumerated, for the chief part abounding with figures; labours which must have occupied a large portion of his best time. But there are some persons, as I have observed, (vol. i. p. 136,) who would considerably reduce this number, whether correctly or not posterity will, perhaps, ascertain.

The style of Andrea greatly influenced that of his age, and imitations of it are to be seen even beyond his school, which was extremely flourishing in Mantua. We enumerate among his most distinguished disciples Francesco, and one of his other sons. There is a paper yet extant, in which they undertake to complete the chamber of the castle just alluded to, of which their father Andrea had only painted the walls. To these they added the beautiful vaulted recess. Whoever examines it must confess that the science of foreshortening, originally attributed to Melozio, was here improved and nearly brought to perfection by Mantegna and his sons. In the same work appear several exquisitely drawn infantine figures, under different points of view, and admirably shortened, so as to lose nothing in comparison with those of Melozio, though his painting of Paradise, drawn for the church of SS. Apostoli, was afterwards cut down and placed in the grand Palazzo Quirinale. The same sons of Mantegna likewise added lateral pictures to an altar-piece of their father, in a family chapel they had, attached to the church of S. Andrea; and in the same place they raised a beautiful monument to his memory in 1517, which has been falsely supposed by some to be the year of his death, whereas it appears, from many authentic works, that he closed his days in 1505.

After the death of Mantegna, Lorenzo Costa held the first rank, an artist of whom we shall treat more at length in the Bolognese School. He adorned the palace with various histories, and the churches with many of his pictures, continuing under Francesco to reside in the same place, and afterwards under Federigo, until beyond the year 1525, in which time he produced also his picture for his family chapel. There too, like Mantegna, he wished to have his remains deposited. Following his example, he established his family in Mantua, where some of his descendants will again appear at a more modern epoch. But the young Mantegni must be referred to this more ancient period, and along with them ought to be mentioned Carlo del Mantegna, who having studied some length of time under Andrea, and cultivated a complete acquaintance with his style, afterwards introduced it, as we shall shew, into Genoa. Carlo is supposed to have a.s.sisted in the labours of the palace and the chapel above mentioned, as well as in many others ascribed to the disciples of Mantegna, among which are two histories of the ark preserved in the monastery of S. Benedetto at Mantua, where Andrea's manner appears somewhat more amplified, though boasting less beautiful forms. But few certain productions of his followers can be fixed upon, their labours being confounded by connoisseurs, from their resemblance of their style and name to those of their master. And it has thus happened in an extremely interesting historical point; for Coreggio having studied, it appears, under Francesco Mantegna, was believed a scholar of Andrea, already deceased before Allegri had attained his twelfth year.

Still more celebrated than the preceding were the names of Gianfrancesco Carotto and Francesco Monsignori, of Verona. Such was the progress made by the former, that Andrea was in the habit of sending forth his labours as the work of his own hand. He was celebrated for his portraits; and for his composition, equally excellent in large as in small pieces; and he was employed by the Visconti, at Milan, as well as in the court of Monferrato, and to a still greater extent in his native place. Although an artist who flourished at so early a period, in a few of his pictures he might be p.r.o.nounced more great and harmonious than Andrea himself; as we may gather from his fine altar-piece of S. Fermo, at Verona, and from that of his _Angioli_, at Santa Eufemia, whose side pictures represent two virgins, very manifestly imitated from Raffaello. He is not to be confounded with Giovanni Carotto, his brother and his pupil, and very greatly inferior to him. Francesco Monsignori ought not to be referred to Verona, but to Mantua, where he established himself, honoured by the Marchese Francesco with his confidence, and remunerated in the most liberal manner. If this artist, also, does not exhibit the beautiful forms, and the purity of design so remarkable in the works of his master, he approaches nearer to the modern taste; his contours more full, his drapery less trite, and his softness more finely studied. In his drawings of animals, he was also considered the Zeuxis of his age; insomuch that he succeeded in imposing upon a real dog with a copy of the animal. In perspective he was a master; and in the refectory of the Franciscans, there is a picture of our Lord amidst the apostles, exhibiting an architecture, which, however much retouched, does not fail to produce great effect. In the pulpit of the same church is also a S. Bernardino, with a S. Lodovico, one of his most beautiful pieces; and elsewhere altar-grades, with figures which appear like miniature. He had a brother of the name of Girolamo, of the order of S. Domenico, also an excellent artist. The Last Supper, to be seen in the grand library of S. Benedetto, copied from that of Leonardo, in Milan, is from his hand. By many it is esteemed the best copy of that miracle of art, which now remains to us. I have before treated of several of Andrea's scholars, natives of Vicenza; and another of Cremona, I shall have to mention in due time. Yet the entire series of this school will not be completed with these names, as there are specimens of many unknown artists executed in fresco, interspersed throughout different places in Mantua.

They are for the most part to be met with on the facades of buildings, and in the churches; while in several of the galleries we may observe pictures in oil, which appear to exhibit more of the defects than of the excellences of a Mantegna.

MANTUAN SCHOOL.

EPOCH II.

_Giulio Romano and his School._

The school of the Mantegni becoming extinct in Mantua, another of a more beautiful and distinguished character arose, sufficient to excite the envy even of Rome. Duke Federigo had succeeded to Francesco, a prince of much enlargement of mind, and so much devoted to the fine arts, that no artist of common genius would have been equal to execute his ideas. Through the interest of Balda.s.sar Castiglione, then extremely intimate with Raffaello, Giulio Romano was prevailed upon to visit Mantua, where he became at once engineer and painter to Duke Frederic. The duties, however, of the first, occupied him more than those of the second. For the city having been damaged by the waters of the Mincio, the buildings being insecure or badly planned, and the architecture inferior to the dignity of a capital, he was thus furnished with sufficient materials on which to employ his talents, and to render him as it were a new founder of Mantua; insomuch, that its ruler, in a transport of grat.i.tude, was heard to exclaim, that Giulio was in truth more the master of the city than he himself. The whole of these works are extensively recorded in different books of architecture. The duty here required of me is to point out to the reader the originality of this artist's character; a solitary instance perhaps in history, of one who, having erected the most n.o.ble and beautiful palaces, villas, and temples, painted and ornamented a considerable portion of them with his own hand; while at the same time a regular school of his pupils and a.s.sistants was formed in Mantua, which continued for a length of years to do equal honour to the country and to the city of Lombardy.

We have already considered Giulio, in treating of the Roman School, in the character of scholar, as well as heir and continuator of the works of Raffaello; but here he is to appear in that of a master, pursuing the method of the head of this school, both in teaching and composition. When he came to Mantua he found abundance of ancient marbles, to which he continued to add specimens, out of which the statues, the busts, and the ba.s.si-relievi, still preserved in the academy, are mere relics. To such materials, collected by the Gonzaghi, he united some of his own. He was abundantly furnished with designs, as well copied from the antique in Rome, as executed by the hand of Raffaello. Nor were his own immediate studies less valuable, no designer having better succeeded in uniting freedom of invention with selection, rapidity with correctness, a knowledge of fable and of history with a certain popular manner, and facility in treating them. Upon the death of his master he began to give a freer scope to his natural genius, which inclined rather to the bold than to the beautiful, and induced him more to adopt the experience acquired by many years of application, than his own knowledge of nature and of truth. He considered it, therefore, mere amus.e.m.e.nt to adorn the palace of Mantua, and the great suburban of the Te, (to say nothing of his numerous other works,) in the style that Vasari relates, and which is, in part, to be seen at the present day. So many chambers with gilded entablatures; such a variety of beautiful stucco work, the figures of which have been removed for the instruction of youth; so many stories and _capricci_ finely conceived and connected with one another, besides such a diversity of labours adapted to different places and subjects, altogether form a collection of wonders, the honour of which Giulio divided with no other artist. For he himself conceived, composed, and completed these vast undertakings.

He was accustomed himself to prepare the cartoons, and afterwards having exacted from his pupils their completion, he went over the entire work with his pencil, removed its defects, impressing at the same time upon the whole the stamp of his own superior character. This method he acquired from Raffaello; and he is commended by Vasari as the best artist known for his production of distinguished pupils. It was the misfortune of Giulio to have the touches of his own hand in his labours at the Te, modernized by other pencils, owing to which the beautiful fable of Psyche, the moral representations of human life, and his terrible war of the giants with Jove, where he appeared to compete with Michelangiolo himself in the hardihood of his design, still retain, indeed, the design and composition, but no longer the colours of Giulio. In these last his hand will more truly appear in his War of Troy, preserved at the royal court; in his history of Lucretia; and in those little cabinets ornamented by him with grotesques and other ingenious fancies. There we might sometimes p.r.o.nounce him a Homer, treating of arms, or sometimes an Anacreon, celebrating the delights of wine and love. Nor did he employ his powers less n.o.bly in sacred subjects, more particularly for the dome, which, by commission of the Cardinal Gonzaga, brother to Federigo, and guardian of his young nephew, he not only built, but in part ornamented, though his death occurred before he was enabled to complete his celebrated work. The paintings produced for other churches by his own hand are not very numerous; such, consisting more particularly of his Three Histories of the Pa.s.sion, coloured in fresco, at S. Marco; of his Santo Cristoforo, in the large altar of that church, in which he is represented with an uncommon degree of strength, yet groaning under the burden of the Lord of the Universe, who in the figure of an infant is borne upon his shoulders; an incident originating in the name itself of _Cristoforo_. But let us come to the school of Giulio, in Mantua.

It will not occupy many pages; since it did not mix the style of this artist, as in other places has happened, with foreign styles, being peculiarly true to its prototype, so that in each countenance we may trace, as it were, his own exact features, although copied unequally.

In his Mantuan School there appeared several foreigners, among whom Primaticcio proved the most celebrated; an artist whom Giulio employed to work in stucco, and whom, on being invited into the service of the king of France, he sent to that country in his stead. But we shall take no further notice of him here, having to treat of him more fully in our account of the Bolognese. The Veronese, who are in possession of a beautiful fresco, in the Piazza delle Erbe, with the name of _Alberto Cavalli Savonese_, have supposed this painter a scholar of Giulio, but without any other foundation beyond a strong resemblance to the style of Pippi, in the naked parts. It is strange that no other specimen of such a distinguished hand should be known in Italy, nor any memorial of him, notwithstanding the great researches that have been made; nor is it very improbable that he also may have changed his country, and died in foreign parts. Benedetto Pagni from Pescia had already tried his abilities in Rome, together with Bartolommeo da Castiglioni, with Paparello da Cortona, and with Gio. da Leone; artists of whom I know not if there exist any thing beyond the name; while Pagni, who accompanied Giulio into Mantua, has been as highly esteemed by Vasari as any other name. From his hand, besides what remains in his native place, we possess a S. Lorenzo, painted in S. Andrea, at Mantua, which does credit to such a school. Companion to him in the numerous works of the Te, we find Rinaldo Mantovano, considered by Vasari the most celebrated painter of the city, while he laments the untimely termination of his days. His altar-piece of S. Agostino, at the Trinita, proves him to have been great even in his youth, so much is the design beyond the expectation of such an age; and it has by some been p.r.o.nounced the work of his master. Fermo Guisoni had a longer career; he painted in the cathedral the Vocation of S.

Pietro and S. Andrea, copied from one of the most beautiful and studied cartoons of Giulio. Other pieces of his are extant, in part designed by Bertani, and in part from his own hand. Such is a picture of the Crucifixion at S. Andrea, which both in point of design and force of colouring is indeed admirable.

In this series Vasari has omitted to mention several others whom the Mantuans have enumerated as belonging to the school of Giulio, and as natives of their country. Among these is a Teodoro Ghigi, a Mantuan, as he subscribes himself, an excellent designer, and so familiar with the manner of the leader of his school, that on the decease of the latter, he was employed in the service of the prince, to complete his labours in the city, and in the country. Ippolito Andreasi also painted a good deal upon the cartoons of Giulio, and produced pictures of merit in S. Barbara as well as elsewhere. There are moreover two frescos in the dome, at the chapel of S.

Lorenzo, attributed to one Francesco Perla; an altar-piece at S. Cristoforo by Gio. Batista Giacarolo, neither of them greatly celebrated in this cla.s.s. Raffaello Pippi was a son of the head of the school; and there only remains of him the honourable recollection of the very promising efforts of his youthful genius, cut off in its happiest spring.

Following Giulio, his pupil, the cavalier Gio. Batista Bertani continued to labour, and to instruct the school. He had accompanied his master to Rome; he was a great architect, and an excellent writer on the subject, as well as a painter of no ordinary talent. a.s.sisted by his brother of the name of Domenico, he ornamented several chambers in the castle of the court; and he committed various altar-pieces to different painters, in the dome erected by Giulio, in Sta. Barbara, which is the work of Bertani himself, and in other churches of the place. To some of these artists he gave his designs.

He was esteemed almost as another Giulio by Duke Vincenzio, though very inferior to his predecessor. For what Vasari observes of him, that his knowledge did not equal that of his master, is no less true, than that the chief part of his own a.s.sistants surpa.s.sed him. His a.s.sistants were Gio.

Batista del Moro, Geronimo Mazzuola, Paol Farinato, Domenico Brusasorci, Giulio Campi, Paol Veronese; whose works, displayed in that cathedral, do no less honour to the sanctuary than to the city. Yet let this be said without the least reflection upon his merit, which, particularly in design, was undoubtedly very great. This, indeed, we gather from his picture of the Martyrdom of Sta. Agata, which, executed from the design of Bertani by Ippolito Casta, approaches much nearer to the composition of Giulio than other works of Ippolito, drawn from his own invention.

There is reason to believe that Ippolito was of the family of Lorenzo Costa, together with Luigi, and another Lorenzo, both named Costa, and both Mantuans. Orlandi states Ippolito to have been a pupil of Carpi. Baldinucci includes him in the school of Giulio, either from his having frequented his academy, or in other ways having availed himself of his instructions and his models; and, indeed, his style betrays no slight traces of them. Lamo, who wrote an account of the artists of Cremona, describes him to us as a master, who about 1538 instructed Bernardino Campi; and moreover gives us reason to suppose that his brother Luigi was likewise initiated by him in the art. But he proved an inferior artist, and drew his chief celebrity from his surname. Among the a.s.sistants of Taddeo Zuccari, about 1560, Vasari mentions Lorenzo Costa, a Mantuan; and it seems likely that he sprung either from Luigi or from Ippolito; and had such name conferred upon him, as was usual, in memory of Lorenzo Costa, his grandfather, or from some other relationship to him. We frequently read in the Guide of Mantua, written by Cadioli, that such a painting is from the hand of Costa, without giving his proper name; and it appears probable, that pursuing their labours in the same studio, they may have contracted a sort of family style, not indeed very correct or learned, but of a practical kind. There is a pleasing air about the heads, and some care in the colours; for the rest it is minute; not exact, nor sufficiently shaded; and in fine, modelled upon the composition of one who aimed at imitating the grace, not of rivalling the power of Giulio. The Costa are esteemed in Mantua among the last disciples of the great school; nor do I know of their having produced any pupil besides Facchetti, who devoted himself altogether to portraits.

It will here be proper to state that Giulio in imitation of Raffaello gave rise, by the influence of his taste, to a great number of artificers, who ornamented other professions. He was possessed of those general ideas of beauty and proportion, from which he drew his rules for the particular direction of every work; an enviable distinction of that age, in which the leading men were at once painters, modellers, and architects, extending their influence even from the n.o.blest works of art down to vases and plates of earthenware, and cornices of wood. I am not certain whether Giulio, like Raffaello, formed the taste of another Gio. da Udine, in drawing fruits and trees, &c.: but I know that Camillo, a Mantuan, declared by Vasari to be most excellent in point of landscape,[1] flourished about this period. Some specimens in fresco still continue to adorn his native place; but he chiefly produced his works in Venice, in Urbino, and at the ducal palace in Pesaro, where, in a chamber, since changed into an armour-room, he painted a grove, executed with so much taste and truth, that it would not be difficult to number every separate leaf upon the trees. It is certain that Giulio educated a pupil as his Perino, for his stuccos; and this was, besides Primaticcio, a Gio. Batista Briziano, commonly called Mantovano, who likewise became his Marc Antonio, engraving on copper many of the pictures of his master, as well as of other distinguished artists of his day. To him ought to be added Giorgio Ghisi, or Ghigi, who flourished at the same period; and to these succeeded Diana, daughter of Gio. Batista,[2]

celebrated for her fine engravings; and this branch of art, introduced into Mantua by that eminent artist, continued to prosper there for a long course of years.

Footnote 1: In the _Life of Genga_.

Footnote 2: She is also called _Civis Volaterrana_, from her connexion with that city; an instance that ought to be present to our recollection, when we find that different writers ascribe different countries to the same painter.

Another branch of the fine arts, that of miniature, seemed to attain its perfection under one of Giulio's scholars. His name was D. Giulio Clovio, of Croazia, a regular Scopetine Canon, afterwards becoming a layman by a dispensation from the Pope. He had first turned his attention to the higher branches of the art, but Giulio, who saw he possessed a peculiar talent for diminutive figures, prevailed upon him to apply himself to these; and taught him the first of any in Rome, the method of applying tints and colours in gum and water colours, while in miniature he obtained instructions from Girolamo da' Libri of Verona. He is esteemed at the head of his profession in this line. In his design he displays a good deal of study of Michelangiolo, and of the Roman School, though approaching nearer to the practice of a good naturalist, exquisitely graceful in his colours, and admirable in his exactness of drawing the minutest objects. Great part of his labours were undertaken for sovereigns and princes, in whose libraries may be found books ornamented by him in miniature with such a degree of truth and spirit, that we appear to view these diminutive objects rather through some camera-optica, than in a picture. It is related by Vasari, that in an Office of the Virgin, made for the Cardinal Farnese, there were figures which did not exceed the size of a small ant; and that each part was nevertheless distinctly drawn. It is worth while, indeed, to read the whole description given by that historian of the miniatures there inserted, in which he likewise selected subjects adapted for a mult.i.tude of figures, such as the procession of the _Corpus Domini_ at Rome, and the feast of the Monte Testaceo: a labour of nine years, which was distributed into twenty-six little histories. He produced numerous small portraits painted for private people; (an art in which he is said by Vasari to have equalled t.i.tian) besides a few little pictures. These are rarely to be met with in collections. There is one of the _Deposizione_, in the library of the Padri Cisterciensi, at Milan, a piece quite original in its composition, but which breathes altogether the taste of the golden period.

Indeed, I am inclined to be of opinion that Giulio promoted this very study in Mantua; having myself seen there some exquisite miniatures, though by unknown hands. It is also worthy of notice, as Vasari remarks, that by means of Giulio, the art advanced towards perfection, not only in Mantua, but throughout all Lombardy, (a state which, in the native acceptation of the term, includes also a portion of the modern Venetian territories). This we have already in part seen; and in part shall continue to see more clearly in the course of this history.

MANTUAN SCHOOL

EPOCH III.

_Decline of the School, and Foundation of an Academy in order to restore it._

Subsequent to the period in which Giulio flourished, the school of Mantua produced no new names which at all approached the reputation of the first.

The disposition of its sovereigns was always inclined rather to invite painters of celebrity from elsewhere, with a sure prospect of being speedily and well served, than to promote the education of their young subjects in the study of an art, slow in producing fruits, and subject to rapid decay. We have already recounted a tolerable number a.s.sembled by Duke Vincenzio for the object of ornamenting his churches; of several of whom he also availed himself for the decoration of the palaces. Antonmaria Viani, called _il Vianino_, a native of Cremona and a scholar of the Campi, thus filled the double capacity of an artist and an architect. The frieze surrounding the gallery of the court presents a specimen of their style, where, in a ground of gold, are seen a group of most beautiful boys, painted in chiaroscuro, and playing amidst luxuriant festoons of flowers.

In the same taste of the Campi he produced several sacred pieces; such as the picture of S. Michele at Sta. Agnese; the Paradiso at the Orsoline; and subsequent to Duke Vincenzio, he was employed by his three successors, and died in Mantua, after having established his family in that city.

Not very long afterwards, Domenico Feti from Rome was declared painter of the same court, an artist of whose education, received under Cigoli, I have treated elsewhere. Cardinal Ferdinando, succeeding to the dukedom of Mantua, had brought him from Rome to his own court, where he had opportunities of improving himself, by studying the finest Lombard models, along with several of the Venetians. He produced many pictures in oil, for various temples and galleries; one of which, representing the Multiplication of Loaves, exists in the Mantuan academy, abounding with figures rather truly n.o.ble than large; but varied, shortened, and coloured in a very masterly style. A still more copious work was that in the choir of the cathedral, though his pieces in fresco, like those of Cigoli, have less merit than those painted in oil. With all the excellence of his compositions, he has certainly the fault of being too symmetrical in his groups, which consequently seem to correspond in an exact order, calculated in architecture to please both the eye and the mind, but by no means so in painting. His own youthful excesses deprived Venice of this fine genius, and distinguished ornament of his art, in the very flower of his age. The names of other artists likewise engaged in the service of the same court, where a relish for the fine arts seems to have been almost indigenous, were t.i.tian, Coreggio, Genga, Tintoretto, Albani, Rubens, Gessi, Gerola, Vermiglio, Castiglione, Lodovico Bertucci, with others of eminent abilities; some of whom were invited for particular commissions, and others permanently engaged for a length of time. Thus the city of Mantua became one of the most richly ornamented in all Italy; insomuch that after suffering the sackage of 1630, in which the ducal palace was despoiled of the n.o.ble collection, now dispersed abroad, it still can boast, both in private and public exhibitions, sufficient to engage the curiosity of cultivated strangers for a period of many days.

The city in the meanwhile was not deficient in native artists of superior genius, such as Venusti, Manfredi, and Facchetti; all of whom, on account of their residence in Rome, we have treated of in that school; while in that of Parma we shall have occasion to insert the name of Giorgio del Grano, supposed to be of Mantua, and of Andrea Scutellari in that of Cremona, in which he became fixed. Frances...o...b..rgani is one of those who resided in his native place, and who adopted a good style from the paintings of Parmigianino, in which he composed several pictures in S.

Pietro, in S. Simone, in S. Croce, as well as in other places, by which he deserves to be better known than he now is. This artist flourished until the latter half of the past century.