The History Of Painting In Italy Volume V Part 6

We have extolled Mastelletta, and now for a similar taste we must praise Benedetto Possenti, a pupil of Lodovico, and also a spirited painter of figures. His landscapes present us with seaports, embarkations, fairs, festivals, and the like objects. Bartolommeo Loto, or Lotti, was also held in high esteem, first a disciple and next compet.i.tor of Viola, one who invariably adhered to the taste of the Caracci. Paolo Antonio Paderna, a pupil of Guercino, afterwards of Cignani, displayed in his landscape admirable imitation of Guercino's manner. There was likewise Antonio dal Sole, from the circ.u.mstance of painting with his left hand, denominated il Monchino de' Paesi,[44] Francesco Gh.e.l.li, and Filippo Veralli, all sprung from the school of Albani, and all much prized for their rural views in different collections.

Footnote 44: The handless landscape painter.

Annibal formed, as stated in the second volume, a Gio. da Udine of his own, in a distinguished painter of fruits, called il Gobbo di Cortona, or il Gobbo de' Caracci. Similar reputation was acquired by two Bolognese artists, Antonio Mezzadri, whose flowers and fruits are in abundance at Bologna; and Anton Maria Zagnani, who received commissions even from princely foreigners. Both were excelled by Paolo Antonio Barbieri, as famous for his representation of animals, flowers, and fruits, as his brother Gio. Francesco for the human figure. He bestowed, however, little study on the art, being too much occupied with his family affairs.[45]

There was a pupil of Guido, by birth a Milanese, but settled at Bologna, named Pierfrancesco Cittadini, commonly called il Milanese, who surpa.s.sed all his fellow scholars. Some of his altar-pieces shew him to have been capable of greater performances; but following the genius and example of several artists whom he saw at Rome, he restricted himself to painting small pictures on canva.s.s, and small branches of histories and landscapes.

Yet these were excelled by his specimens of fruits and flowers, with birds of every kind, to which he occasionally added portraits and very graceful figures, in the same piece. Bologna abounds with his paintings, as such a line of study proved useful to the quadraturists,[46] who were often desirous to secure Cittadini's a.s.sistance and that of his pupils in their ornamental labours.

Footnote 45: As the head of the domestic establishment, he inserted in a book the pictures on which he and his brother were employed, with the prices which they obtained. On his death this was continued by Benedetto and Cesare Gennari, who recorded the works conducted by their surviving uncle.

Such a registry was very useful to ascertain the dates and prices of the Guercinesque pictures; from the family of Gennari it came into possession of the Prince Ercolani, who made a valuable collection of MSS. and very rare books on the fine arts.

Footnote 46: Ornamental and architectural painters.

For portraits drawn from life, without any other accessaries, Gio.

Francesco Negri, pupil of Fialetti, in Venice, was then in credit at Bologna; where he had for his fellow pupil Boschini, who finally became a designer and engraver in copper. Commendations of Negri are met with in the volumes of Malvasia and of Crespi.

Bologna had to boast little that was great in regard to ornamental architecture up to the time of Dentone (Girolamo Curti), who became its restorer also in other parts of Italy. I say restorer, inasmuch as Gio. and Cherubino Alberti at Rome, and the Sandrini at Brescia, with the Bruni in Venice, had produced some fine specimens. Nor, if we consider the times, were Agostino dalle Prospettive and Tommaso Lauretti, in Bologna itself, dest.i.tute of merit, as we have already stated. But their models being either neglected or corrupted by their successors, produced no solid advantage to the art; so that there were either no quadraturists in any cities of Italy, or they were extremely rare, and esteemed only as the refuse of the figurists. Dentone, with his companions, not only revived, but elevated and enlarged this art. Sprung from a spinning manufactory of the Signori Rizzardi, he commenced under Lionello Spada to attempt the design of figures; and finding this too difficult, he turned to ornamental painting, and acquired from Baglione the use of the rule, and to draw the lines. He proceeded no farther with this master; but, having purchased the works of Vignola and Serlio, he in these studied the different orders of architecture, grounded himself in perspective, formed a solid and well regulated taste, which he farther improved with what he saw at Rome, among the remains of ancient architecture. He attempted much in the form of relief, which is indeed the soul of this profession. His fine illusions of cornices, colonnades, lodges, bal.u.s.trades, arches, and modiglioni, seen with the effect of foreshortening, have led to the supposition of his being a.s.sisted by stuccos, or some materials of strong relief; while the whole is produced by the effect of chiaroscuro, brought to a facility, truth, and grace never before seen. In his colours he preserved those of the stones and marbles; avoiding those tints of gems and precious stones, afterwards introduced at the expense of all verisimilitude. It was an invention of his to lay gold-leaf over his works in fresco. He made use of burnt oil, with turpentine and yellow wax, melted together, and placed, in a dissolved state, with a fine pencil, on the parts where the lights occur, and where the gold leaf is applied. Still he but sparingly availed himself of such discovery, consigning its abuse to his followers. Anxious for durability, he was accustomed to rough sketch, and afterwards to fill up with other layers, then making of the whole one solid impasto, or mingled layers of colours; while in the most exposed spots, not trusting wholly to the plaster, he united very fine portions of white marble, as subtly inserted as we see in the facade of the Grimaldi palace. He thus conferred fresh l.u.s.tre on both palaces and churches; and next proceeding to the theatres, he exhibited novel spectacles in them. The nearmost scenes he painted with the most commanding power of shade, and diminishing its depth by degrees, conducted the eye to the most remote with sensations of harmony and delight. This contrast of depth and sweetness gave the illusion of an immense prospect in small s.p.a.ce; and such was the degree of relief in the edifices there represented, that numbers, on the first appearance, went upon the stage in order to explore the reality more nearly. His excellence in this respect soon obtained him commissions out of Bologna; from the Card. Legate, at Ravenna, from the sovereigns of Parma and Modena, and at Rome from Prince Lodovisi, for whom he painted a hall, which outshone the Sala Clementina, decorated by Gio. Alberti, until then esteemed the most admirable of its kind.

It was Dentone's custom to retain the services of a figurist, in order to model his statues, prepare his chiaroscuri, figures of boys, and sometimes even animals and flowers, with all which he ornamented, not always with discreetness, his architectural views. The most erudite among the young artists here vied in offers of their services, desirous of profiting by the same art, and acquiring reputation. In the hall of the Conti Malvasia, at Trebbio, he was a.s.sisted by Brizio, Francesco and Antonio Caracci, and Valesio; also by Ma.s.sari, in the grand chapel of S. Domenico, who attended him as well in the library of the fathers of S. Martino, where he painted the celebrated Dispute of S. Cirillo. In the Tanara palace he even engaged Guercino, who there exhibited his grand Hercules; while elsewhere he was a.s.sisted by Campana, Galanino, and Spada, and a few cartoons were afforded him by Guido himself. But his most useful colleague was Angiol Michele Colonna, who arriving at an early age from Como, and having studied some time under Ferrantini, finally united himself with Dentone, and became celebrated throughout Europe. This artist, according to Crespi, enjoyed the reputation of the greatest fresco painter of whom Bologna could boast; such was his spirited drawing both of men and animals, such his eminence in perspective, and every species of ornamental work, that he was himself alone equal to any grand undertaking, and painted alone an entire chamber at the Florentine court, and a chapel at S. Alessandro, in Parma. The perspectives in the tribune of that church were by his hand; the figures by Tiarini; and in several other places the perspectives were by Dentone, the figures by Colonna. It formed his peculiar talent, with whatever painter he might engage, so to adapt himself to the style and spirit of his colleague, that the entire work seemed the idea of the same mind, the product of a single hand. Nor did he require any delay; for whilst his companion proceeded with his own portion, he, with wonderful velocity, consistency, and admirable harmony, despatched the work; a gift for which he was very generally sought after, and more particularly by Dentone, who retained him after his return from Rome, until the period of his decease.

Whilst these two celebrated men thus promoted their profession, there was rising into notice one Agostino Mitelli, a youth of very prolific genius, not unacquainted with the figure, which Pa.s.seri supposes he acquired from the Caracci, and well-grounded in perspective and architecture, under Falcetta. When the two friends were engaged in decorating the archiepiscopal palace at Ravenna, and at the courts of Parma and Modena, Mitelli alternately a.s.sisted the figurist and the quadraturist. This last, however, was the art he most affected, and to which, on separating from his masters, he finally devoted himself. His first labours proved very attractive to the public; not that they equalled the force, solidity, and reality of Dentone, but on account of their peculiar grace and beauty, such as almost to obtain for him the fame of the Guido of the quadraturists.

Employing his own taste, he softened down the harder features of the art, made the elevations more delicate, the tints more mild, and added a style of foliage, scrolls, and arabesques, decorated with gold, such as seemed to breathe of grace. The play of the ornaments varied with the nature of the edifices; some ideas were adapted to halls, some to churches, and others to theatres. Each ornament filled its appropriate place, at just intervals; the entire work finally according with a delightful symmetry and harmony, so as to take by surprise people not yet familiar with similar illusions, and to remind them, as it were, of the enchanted palaces of the romancers.

Mitelli's first a.s.sistants were two of his fellow pupils in this art, Andrea Sighizzi and Gio. Paderna, with occasionally the figurist Ambrogi; names not unworthy of a place in the history of the arts, though unequal to compete with such a colleague.

Colonna alone seemed born to a.s.sociate with him, as he did after the death of his favourite Curti. An intimacy ensued, which was like the second act of Angiol Michele's life; an intimacy which, strengthened by mutual esteem and interest, and cherished by habit and kind offices, continued during twenty-four years, until terminated by the death of Mitelli. These two friends added greatly to the excellent models of the art at Bologna; and among their most celebrated labours are the chapel of Rosario, and the hall of the Conti Caprara. Elsewhere, as in the Bentivogli and Pepoli palaces, Agostino produced only specimens of architecture; and in others we see his pictures of perspective conducted _a guazzo_, with figures by Gioseffo, his son, a disciple of Torre, who engraved even better than he painted. In their commissions beyond Bologna, Mitelli and Colonna were always invited together; as to Parma, to Modena, to Florence, by their respective rulers; by the Marchesi Balbi to Genoa, and by Cardinal Spada to Rome, whose ample hall they enlarged, as it were, and dignified by means of feigned colonnades, artful recesses, and magnificent steps, where numbers of figures, arrayed in varied and novel drapery, were seen ascending and descending. Called subsequently to the court of Philip IV., they decorated three chambers and a magnificent hall in Madrid, where Colonna, too, produced his so highly extolled Fable of Pandora. They here sojourned for the s.p.a.ce of two years, the last of Mitelli's life, who died much regretted by the whole court, and by the Spanish artists, at whose head stood Diego Velasquez.

Colonna returned into Italy, and as a third act of his life, we may record the twenty-seven years which he afterwards lived; during the earlier portion, availing himself, for his architectures, of the services of Giacomo Alboresi, Mitelli's great pupil; and in the latter, of Giovacchino Pizzoli, his own scholar, known also among painters of landscape. Crespi adds the name of Gio. Gherardini, and Antonio Roli, or Rolli according to the Cav. t.i.ti, whose specimens in this branch, at the Certosa of Pisa, he extols as perfect miracles of the art (p. 301). In this trio are included all belonging to Colonna's school. It is observed by Malvasia, that from Mitelli's society, Angiol Michele himself derived utility, as regarded architecture; not that he ever equalled his deceased friend, but from adopting thenceforward a more elegant manner. This progress is apparent in the cupola of S. Biagio; as well as in the ceiling and in a chapel of S.

Bartolommeo, decorated by him after his return from Spain. Other specimens he produced at this period, at Ponzacco, a villa of the Marchese Nicolini, of Florence; in the Morisini palace, at Padua, and at Paris, for M. Lionne, state secretary to the French king. Colonna attained the age of eighty-six, and left, at his death, numerous professors of an art, which he and his two colleagues may almost be said to have invented, and given to the public.

I have enumerated different young artists of these schools; and they, too, united together, traversing Italy in the service of princes and n.o.bles, and forming pupils in every place; so that no art ever spread more rapidly.

Gio. Paderna, pupil to Dentone, and next an accomplished imitator of Mitelli, became the colleague of Balda.s.sare Bianchi; and the latter, at the death of Paderna, having become Mitelli's son-in-law, was placed companion, by the father-in-law, with Gio. Giacomo Monti. This partnership also met with success in Italy, in particular at Mantua, where they both received regular salaries. Their figure-painter was Gio. Batista Caccioli, of Budrio, pupil to Canuti, and a good disciple of Cignani, who left frescos, altar-pieces, and private pictures; in particular, his heads of old men, in high request. Another son-in-law of Mitelli, Giacomo Alboresi, was much employed at the court of Parma, in that of Florence, and in the villa Capponi, of Colonnata. He was a.s.sisted in his figures by Fulgenzio Mondini, and on his death, by Giulio Cesare Milani, who was esteemed the best pupil of Torre. Domenico Santi, named Mengazzino, was also one of the ablest among Mitelli's pupils, and left, at the Servi, in S. Colombano, and in the Ratta palace, some fine works in perspective, with figures by Giuseppe Mitelli, by Burrini, and most of all by Canuti, never having left his native place. His perspectives, on canva.s.s, are highly esteemed in cabinets, and are sometimes hardly to be distinguished from those of Agostino. Andrea Sighizzi, the father and master of three artists, was employed also at Turin, Mantua, and Parma, where he received a salary from the court, and had Pasinelli for his best companion. It would carry us too far, to recount all the quadraturists sprung from these schools; nor would all, perhaps, deserve commemoration. Though no art was more rapidly extended, none sooner degenerated; caprice usurped the place of sound rules of architecture, and was carried to a pitch of extravagance and impertinence, when the Borrominesque taste began to extend through Italy.

Architecture itself, which forms the basis of this profession, began, in course of time, to be regarded as an accessary; a greater share of study was employed in the vases of flowers, in festoons, in fruits, and foliages, and certain novelties of grotesque, against which both Algarotti and Crespi have so justly and successfully inveighed.

We cannot close this account without the name of Giovannino da Capugnano, an artist very fully treated of by Malvasia and Orlandi, and highly extolled in the studies of the painters, even in our own days. Misled by a pleasing self-delusion, he believed himself born to become a painter; like that ancient personage, mentioned by Horace, who imagined himself the owner of all the vessels that arrived in the Athenian port. His chief talent lay in making crucifixes, to fill up the angles, and in giving a varnish to the bal.u.s.trades. Next, he attempted landscape in water-colours, in which were exhibited the most strange proportions, of houses less than the men; these last smaller than his sheep; and the sheep again than his birds. Extolled, however, in his own district, he determined to leave his native mountains, and figure on a wider theatre at Bologna; there he opened his house, and requested the Caracci, the only artists he believed to be more learned than himself, to furnish him with a pupil, whom he intended to polish in his studio. Lionello Spada, an admirable wit, accepted this invitation; he went and copied designs, affecting the utmost obsequiousness towards his master.

At length, conceiving it time to put an end to the jest, he left behind him a most exquisite painting of Lucretia, and over the entrance of the chamber some fine satirical octaves, in apparent praise, and real ridicule of Capugnano. His worthy master only accused Lionello of ingrat.i.tude, for having acquired from him in so short a s.p.a.ce the art of painting so beautifully from his designs; but the Caracci at last acquainted him with the joke, which acted as a complete antidote to his folly. In some Bolognese galleries his pictures are preserved as specimens, in some degree connected with pictorial history;[47] and which, though composed with all becoming gravity, are as diverting as any caricature of Miel or of Cerquozzi. Were we to desire a second example of such imbecility in the art, it would be found in Crespi,[48] who gives some account of one Pietro Galletti. Equally persuaded of having been born a painter, Pietro became a laughing-stock to the students, who solemnly invested him with a doctorial degree in the art, a.s.sembling for that purpose in the cellar of a monastery.

Footnote 47: See Lettere Pittoriche, vol. ii. p. 53.

Footnote 48: Crespi, p. 141.

BOLOGNESE SCHOOL.

EPOCH IV.

_Pasinelli, and in particular Cignani, cause a Change in the Style of Bolognese Painting. The Clementine Academy and its Members._

The commencement of the final epoch of the Bolognese School may be dated some years previous to 1700; when Lorenzo Pasinelli and Carlo Cignani had already produced a striking alteration in painting. The disciples of the Caracci, who had imitated Lodovico, and those who had produced new manners, had all disappeared; while the pupils who still continued attached to their taste were very few; consisting of Guercino's Gennari, of Gio. Viani, formerly pupil to Torre, and some other less distinguished names. Pasinelli himself ceased to exist, on the opening of the new century, leaving the entire credit of the preceptorship in the hands of Cignani. This, too, was shortly increased by the formation of a public academy of the fine arts in the city, to which he was appointed president during life. These details are to be met with in the excellent "History of the Clementine Academy"

composed by Giampietro Zanotti. Here we are made acquainted with the principles and progress of that celebrated society, which, in the year 1708, received from Pope Clement XI. its sanction and its name, from the Senate its rooms, and its organization from Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsili; besides effectual support both from him and other n.o.bles; and here also we are presented with the lives of the academicians up to the year 1739. To Zanotti's History, as well as to others of an older date, much useful supplement was added by the Canon Crespi; and upon these two recent works, with a due degree of caution, I propose to rest the authority of my succeeding narrative.

In tracing the origin of the new taste, it will be requisite to go back to 1670, or near that period; when Pasinelli and Cignani, after their return from Rome, commenced teaching and operating, each in their respective method. Lorenzo pursued the design of Raffaello, combined with the fascination of Paul Veronese; while Carlo delighted in the grace of Coreggio, united to Annibal's learning; and both had executed at Rome studies agreeable to their genius. It is reported, that one day they happened to enter upon a long discussion of the relative merits of Raffaello and Coreggio. Would that they had been joined by some new Borghini, as a third party, who might have put the discourse into the form of a dialogue, and have preserved it for posterity! In course of time, Cignani came into higher repute than Pasinelli, though this excited no kind of jealousy; they had both of them wisdom enough to be satisfied each with his own share of genius, and to commend his compet.i.tor; thus abstaining from that indulgence of rivalry which gives, even to the most celebrated artists and writers, an air of meanness. Thus, when the Clementine academy was inst.i.tuted, the pupils of both masters readily united in serving that new a.s.sembly; voluntarily submitting to the direction of Cignani, placed by the pontifical diploma at their head. Thenceforward the style of Cignani came into vogue; though others sprung from it, composed of two or more manners, which may yet be called national. Each has in it something of the Caraccesque, owing to the young artists having commenced their career by designing from the works of the three brothers. A few of these painters exhibit even too much of their manner, and that of the best among other artists; we find figures taken partially from different ancient masters, and worked up into one composition; as we see sometimes done in poetry, with the lines of one or more writers. About this period the study of the beau-ideal received some accession, by means of the casts with which the academy was supplied. The style of coloring is far from careless; though in the principles then adopted, there was a certain method pursued by different artists, from which their shadows have grown deeper, and a.s.sumed a rusty colour; and towards the middle of the same epoch, false and capricious colours came into use, and long continued to find patrons. Nor was this error confined solely to the Bolognese School. Balestra, in one of his letters, dated 1733, inserted in the Pictoric Collection, (vol. ii.) laments the decline of "all the Italian schools," from their having fallen into mistaken methods. Possessing himself in Verona three scholars, capable of great performances, namely, Pecchio, who became a fine landscape painter, Rotari, and Cignaroli, he seems to have had his fears even for them. In particular, speaking of the last, he says, "I fear lest he, too, should suffer himself to be borne away by the prevailing stream, and become enamoured of certain ideal manners, and of a rapid touch; consequently careless of good practice and of rules." Respecting these alterations, however, it is not yet time to treat.

To come down, at present, to the two heads of the school; Pasinelli, who first ceased to live, will first come under our consideration. He received his education in the art from Cantarini; subsequently from Torre, whose school he too early left, owing to which, most probably, he never attained to perfect correctness of design. In this, nevertheless, he surpa.s.sed Paul Veronese, who formed his great prototype. He did not imitate him, according to the sectarists; he borrowed from him that effective and majestic composition; but the ideas of the faces, and the distribution of the colours he acquired elsewhere. He was naturally too inclined to create surprise by the display of copious, rich, and spirited compositions; such as his two pictures at the Certosa, of Christ's Entrance into Jerusalem, and his Return into Limbo; and such too is his History of Coriola.n.u.s, in the Casa Ranuzzi, a piece found repeated in many collections. No one can behold these paintings without granting to Pasinelli a true painter's fire, great novelty of idea, and a certain elevated character, never the boast of middling artists. With these gifts, however, he is sometimes too extravagant in his att.i.tudes, and in his Paolesque imitation of spectacles, and strange novel draperies, which he is thought to have carried to an extreme, as in his Preaching of John the Baptist, in which his rival, Taruffi, found, instead of the desert of Judea, the piazza of St. Mark, in Venice. He knew, withal, to restrain his fire according to the genius of his themes, as we may see in that Holy Family in possession of the Scalzi; a work partaking of Albani. He painted more for private persons than for the public; uniform in the spirit, varied in the colours of his pictures.

Some of these private pictures boast, at once, a softness of hand, and a peculiarly vivid and gay light, that might be taken for those of the Venetians or Lombards; in particular, a few of his Venuses, which are supposed to be portraits of one of his three wives. In a few of his other specimens he displays very little relief, whole colours, a tint almost like that of the Bolognese artists preceding the Caracci; and these I should either attribute to his early youth, or his closing days.

One of the four leading artists of his age was the Cav. Carlo Cignani, as elsewhere stated, a genius more profound than prompt; a hand eager to engage in labours, but most difficult, and ever dissatisfied in their completion. His picture of Joseph's Flight into Egypt, belonging to the Counts Bighini, of Imola, cost him six months' labour; and many similar instances are recorded. Nevertheless, he always appears complete, never hard or laborious; and his facility is esteemed one of his rarest gifts.

Cignani's inventions are often referable to Albani, who was his master. He produced, for a monastery of Piacenza, a picture of the Conception of the Virgin, who, robed in a white garment, is seen bruising the serpent's head; and arrayed in a garment of rich purple, her infant son at her feet, who, with an air at once of dignity and grace, places his foot upon that of his mother;--what a language does this speak, how truly sublime! There is much, too, of a novel and poetic cast, in his Birth of the Virgin, at the cathedral of Urbino; a picture that at Rome was censured even for its novelty. Cignani was likewise a good composer, and so disposed his figures, by the example of the Caracci, as to give his pictures an air of larger dimensions than they really have. His four Scriptural Histories, in four ovals, each sustained by two cherubs, among the most perfectly beautiful in Bologna, are truly attractive ornaments of S. Michele in Bosco; nor are two others less so, of the public hall, where he represented Francis I., in the act of healing the lepers; and Paul III. seen entering into Bologna. Less majestic, perhaps, but more beautiful, is one of his paintings, in the palace of the ducal garden at Parma. Agostino Caracci had there decorated the ceiling of a chamber; there Cignani exhibited, on the walls, various fables, ill.u.s.trative of the power of Love; in which, if he surpa.s.sed not that great master, he, in the opinion of many, at least equalled him. In design he invariably emulated Coreggio; but, in his outlines, in his beauteous and n.o.ble countenances, and in his grand, ample folds, he preserved something original, and distinct from the Lombards; while he is less studious than they respecting the use of foreshortening. He aimed at a strong layer of colours, which were clear and animated like Coreggio's, to which he added, also, a sweetness derived from Guido. He was especially careful in his chiaroscuro, and gave a great degree of roundness to all his objects; which, though in certain subjects it may appear overwrought, and more ample than in nature, is nevertheless pleasing.

His historical pieces are rare; but not so a number of others, containing one or two half-length figures, and still less his Madonnas. One of the most beautiful is in the Albani palace, painted for Clement XI., with the Holy Child; and another, representing her grief, belongs to the Princes Corsini, extremely graceful, as is also the Angel seen consoling her. It would be difficult to decide whether he excelled most in oils or in fresco, which last is the kind of painting in which great artists have ever distinguished themselves. He spent the closing years of a long life at Forli, where he established his family, and left the proudest monument of his genius in that grand cupola, perhaps the most remarkable of all the pictoric productions belonging to the eighteenth century. The subject is the a.s.sumption of our Lady, the same as in the cathedral at Parma; and here, too, as there, it exhibits such a real paradise, that the more we contemplate it, the more it delights us. Near twenty years were devoted to its production, from time to time; the artist, occasionally, during that period, visiting Ravenna, to consult the cupola by Guido, from whom he took his fine figure of St. Michael, and some other ideas. It is reported that the scaffolds were, against his wish, removed, as he appeared to be never satisfied with retouching and bringing the work to his usual degree of finish.

From these two masters I now proceed to their disciples, and shall annex, also, a few others, who sprung from other schools. Pasinelli had the good fortune to inherit, from Canuti, an excellent master, a number of fine scholars, on the latter quitting Bologna. One of these was Gio. Antonio Burrini, who, while he retained his first master's manner, became attached, also, to the composition of Paolo, so much to the taste of Pasinelli.

Indeed, he himself appeared naturally inclined to it, by the richness of his imagination, and his surprising eagerness and industry in his works. He devoted much time to Paolo Veronese, at Venice, often imitating him in those pictures which are referred to his first style. Distinguished among these is an Epiphany, painted for the n.o.ble Ratta family, which yields to very few pieces in their collection. He subsequently executed a martyrdom of S. Vittoria for the cathedral of Mirandola, in compet.i.tion with Gio.

Gioseffo dal Sole; who on beholding it so greatly superior to his own picture, was bitterly mortified. He was rea.s.sured, however, by Pasinelli, their common master, who predicted he would become a better artist than Burrini, whose own facility of genius would at length betray him into a mere practical line. And this prediction was very exactly fulfilled, though he continued upwards of fifteen years to paint with tolerable care, both for the Prince of Carignano at Turin, and at Novellara. He in particular appeared to advantage as a fresco painter at Bologna, being by some termed the Pier da Cortona, or the Giordano of his school. His fresco histories in the Casa Albergati are well deserving notice, as are those in the Alamandini and the Bigami families, with others produced in early youth.

Impelled at length by the cares of an increasing family to look for greater profits, he gave way by degrees to his facility of hand, and formed a second style, which, owing to the indolence of human nature, obtained more disciples than his first.

Gio. Gioseffo dal Sole, on the contrary, burned to become each day more perfect, and raised himself to one of the first posts among the artists of his age. He had constant commissions from n.o.blemen, both native and foreign, and received invitations also from the courts of Poland and of England. For some time he preserved a style conforming to Pasinelli's; and in order to improve it from the same sources he frequently returned to Venice, though he never attained to that degree of beauty, in his more elegant subjects, that formed the boast of his master. In many particulars, however, he displays exquisite grace; as in the hair and plumes of the angels, and equally in the accessaries, such as the veils, bracelets, crowns, and armour. He seems to have been inclined also more than Pasinelli to treat powerful themes; more observant of costume, more methodical in composition, and more informed in point of architecture and landscape. In these indeed he is almost unique; and the most beautiful specimens, perhaps, are to be seen at the Casa Zappi in Imola, representing Evening, Night, and Morning, all very pleasingly distributed, and with sober tints, such as the subject required. His other works display, in most instances, the most lovely play of vivid fluctuating light, more especially in his holy pieces and celestial visions, as we see in the St. Peter of Alcantara, at S. Angiolo in Milan. Moreover, he was more exact and polished than Pasinelli; not that he was by any means deficient in celerity in conducting his works, but esteemed it unworthy of an upright character to confer upon them less perfection than he was capable of bestowing. Being employed at Verona for the n.o.ble family of Giusti, where he left several mythological pieces and scriptural histories, truly beautiful, he completed one of Bacchus and Ariadne, which artists p.r.o.nounced excellent, within a week. Yet he cancelled almost the whole, to remodel it according to his own wish, declaring that it was enough to have shewn his rapidity of hand to satisfy others, but that it became his duty, by additional accuracy, to satisfy also himself. Hence his fresco at S. Biagio in Bologna, which is his greatest work, cost him an infinite deal of labour in its completion; and in conducting his altar-pieces, few and valuable, as well as in his private pictures, which are very numerous, he called for high remuneration, persevering in his determination to paint only with care. In this artist, as many others, two manners are observable, of which the second partakes of Guido Reni's. It is on record, that he became attached to it late in life, and was less successful in it. It appears to me that a large portion of his pictures nearly approach the taste of Guido, and that the surname of the modern Guido, conferred upon him by so many, has not been granted as matter of favour, nor at the expense of little time.

No artist of these times could boast more disciples than Giangioseffo dal Sole, if we except Solimene, who was held by him in high esteem. In order to study his paintings, executed for the Counts Bonaccorsi, Dal Sole went to Macerata, where he conducted a few works for the church of the Vergini, and for the house of the said n.o.bles. I am uncertain if he derived from this visit that style of colouring, more attractive than natural, such as we find it in some of his smaller pictures, and in some Bolognese artists who succeeded him. From his school sprung Felice Torelli of Verona, and Lucia Casalini, his wife, of a Bolognese family. Torelli came to it already instructed in the art, acquired in his native place from Sante Prunato, whose taste he, in a great measure, preserved. He became a painter of strong character, fine chiaroscuro, and of no common merit in canva.s.s paintings for altars. These are found at Rome, Turin, Milan, and other cities of Italy. That of S. Vincenzio is most conspicuous, in the act of freeing a female possessed, at the Domenicans of Faenza; a picture finely varied in the heads, in the draperies, and the att.i.tudes. Lucia likewise painted for some churches, as nearly as she could in her consort's style; but her chief merit lay in portrait, such as to obtain for her admission of her own in the royal gallery at Florence. Another artist of her s.e.x, initiated in the art of design by Sirani, and in colouring by Taruffi and Pasinelli, received her last instructions from Gioseffo dal Sole. Her name was Teresa Muratori Scannabecchi, who was in the habit of painting a good deal by herself, and with great credit. a.s.sisted by her master, she executed a picture of St. Benedict in the act of preserving the life of a child; a very graceful production and of good effect, exhibited in a chapel of S. Stefano.

Francesco Monti, another pupil of the same school, was endowed by nature with an enthusiasm for ample and copious subjects, to which he applied himself without much previous culture, either from imitation or from art.

He executed for the Counts Ranuzzi, who patronised him, a picture of the Rape of the Sabines; and for the court of Turin the Triumph of Mardocheo; works abounding with figures, and highly extolled; besides many other oil paintings for different collections and churches. But his surpa.s.sing merit is to be sought for in his frescos, and more particularly at Brescia, in which city he fixed his residence. He also conducted many pieces for the adjacent places, applauded for his fertile genius and his masterly style of colouring. A number of churches and n.o.ble houses, such as the Martinengo, the Avogadro, the Barussi, were also decorated by him on a very extended scale of painting. Some portraits, too, executed by his daughter Eleonora, who received constant commissions from the same n.o.bility, are held in high esteem.

Gio. Batista Grati and Cesare Mazzoni remained at Bologna, and as belonging to the Clementine Academicians who then flourished, we meet with their lives in Zanotti. Subsequent to their decease, Crespi was enabled to treat their memory with more fairness. He praises the accuracy of the former, and regrets his want of talent; the second he p.r.o.nounces a commendable artist, observing that he was long employed at Faenza, Turin, and Rome, as well as at Bologna itself; though not with good fortune. Antonio Lunghi also flourished for the most part in foreign states; at Venice, in Rome, and the kingdom of Naples. He returned, at an advanced age, to his native place, where there is his picture of S. Rita at S. Bartolommeo, and others in different churches, which merited for their author some favourable consideration of Crespi. Yet he has omitted him, for the purpose, as I suppose, of reserving him for the fourth volume of the "Felsina Pittrice."

It would be too much to attempt a complete sketch of Gio. Gioseffo's disciples who flourished in other schools, such as Francesco Pavona of Udine, a good painter in oil, and better in crayons; superior in his large altar-pieces, and still more in his portraits. He afterwards studied at Milan, and thence proceeded to Genoa; next into Spain, Portugal, and Germany, being well received in all these courts; after which he married and had a family at Dresden. Subsequently he returned to Bologna, which he left in the course of a few years for Venice, where he shortly afterwards died. Francesco Comi also left Bologna, called il Fornaretto,[49] and the Mute of Verona, being deprived both of speech and hearing. Nevertheless he was distinguished in the art, and is commemorated by Pozzo among the artists of his country, and also by Orlandi. There are others, of whom we make mention in almost every school.

Footnote 49: Literally, the little baker.

Donato Creti, a cavalier of the gold spurs, ranks as one of the most eminent of Pasinelli's pupils, and as the most attached to his manner; though he was inclined to modify it with that of Cantarini, and of both composed a third, sufficiently n.o.ble and graceful. He would have made it still more free and original, had he applied himself diligently in early youth; which he omitted to do, and carried his regrets for such omission down with him to the tomb. His merit is impaired by his colouring, which has in it something hard and crude; entertaining a maxim, that tints, such as they are in nature, ought to be employed, and left to time for sobering and harmonizing--a maxim by some attributed to Paul Veronese. If there were ever a painter who knew not when to remove his hand from the canva.s.s, it was Creti. In painting his S. Vincenzio, intended to be placed opposite the S. Raimond of Lodovico, he completed it with every attention to the art; yet was dissatisfied with the work, insomuch that the person who gave the commission was compelled to take it by force out of his studio, in order to place it in the grand church of the Padri Predicatori. This is, perhaps, his best altar-piece. His Alexander's Feast also boasts some merit, executed for the n.o.ble Fava family; by some even it is supposed to be his masterpiece. Creti had a pupil, named Ercole Graziani, who added greater power of execution to his master's style, a more enlarged character, greater freedom of hand, with other qualities which display his superiority. He approached Franceschini and others who succeeded to the school of Cignani. He has been accused by one of his rivals of too much effeminacy in his painting, and study of minutiae in his ornaments. Others seek for a more just equality in his colours; others more spirit; though all must give him credit for genius and industry equal to compete with the eminent artists of his day, and to surpa.s.s many, had he enjoyed the good fortune to have met with an experienced master. He painted for S. Pietro, that Apostle in the act of ordaining S. Apollinare; a history both copious and full of dignity; commissioned by the Cardinal Lambertini, who, on becoming pope, caused him to make a duplicate for the church of S.

Apollinare at Rome. Also his pictures of S. Pellegrino, in Sinigaglia, the princes of the Apostles, who take leave, with the most beautiful expression, to meet their martyrdom, placed at S. Pietro in Piacenza, with others belonging to his happier hours, are equally excellent. To Creti and Graziani we have to add Count Pietro Fava, in whose house both were, during some time, brought up, at once a.s.sistants and companions in the studies of this n.o.ble artist. He is ranked among Pasinelli's pupils and the Clementine academicians; and we have an account of his studying the works of the Caracci, to whose manner, equally with any other artist, he became attached. Although the cavalier is described as a dilettante in the art, yet on beholding his altar-pieces of the Epiphany and of the Resurrection of Christ, which he presented to the cathedral of Ancona, with a few other productions at Bologna, he appears more worthy of enrolment among its n.o.ble professors.

Aureliano Milani acquired the principles of painting from Cesare Gennari and Pasinelli; but, struck with the Caracci's style, he devoted his whole time to copying their compositions entire, as well as separate, repeating his designs of the heads, the feet, the hands, and the outlines. He caught their spirit, without borrowing their forms. It is remarked by Crespi, that no Bolognese shewed more of the Caraccesque in the naked figure, and in the whole symmetry and character of his painting. After Cignani, too, I have heard it noticed, that no one better maintained the design and the credit of the school. In colouring he was not so excellent; sometimes a follower of Gennari, as in his St. Jerome, at the church of the Vita in Bologna, and in some degree in his St. John beheaded, at the church of the Bergamaschi in Rome. Here he took up his residence, being ill able to support a family of ten children at Bologna. Here, too, he abounded with commissions, and promoted with Muratori, another pupil of Pasinelli, established there from early youth, the honour of his native place. Of the last one, however, we have treated under that school.

Aureliano taught during many years at Bologna, and among other pupils of his was the celebrated Giuseppe Marchesi, called il Sansone. He first studied under Franceschini, whose taste he nearly approaches in the vaulted ceiling of the Madonna di Galiera. It is even the opinion of some, that, in his skill of foreshortening, and in the tone of his colours, no artist succeeded in imitating him so well. He took his design from Milani; though at times his naked portion is rather too much loaded, which I would not venture to say of his master. Among his best pictures is the Martyrdom of S. Prisca, in the Rimini cathedral; an altar-piece of many and fine figures, and good tints, for which the S. Agnese of Domenichino supplied him with some ideas. He painted much for galleries, and among other pieces, one of his pictures representing the four seasons, (where it now is I cannot say,) is reputed, by a first rate judge, among the first works of the modern Bolognese school.

Antonio Gionima was some time also a pupil of Milani. He was a Paduan of obscure birth, whose father and grandfather had been artists; educated first by Simone his father (p. 171), afterwards by Milani, and for a longer period by Crespi. He died young, leaving works highly prized at Bologna for their inventive spirit and for the high tone and clearness of their colouring. His picture of St. Florian and accompanying martyrs was engraved by Mattioli; and a grand canva.s.s history of Haman is shewn in the Ranuzzi apartment, conspicuous among numbers in the same place, where no common artists gained admittance.

Leaving aside certain other pupils of Pasinelli, of less account, as Odoardo Orlandi, or Girolamo Negri, who had a place, however, in the Dictionary of Painters, we shall close this catalogue with two others, who, becoming friends in the school of Lorenzo, continued their intimacy to extreme old age; Giuseppe Gambarini and Gian Pietro Cavazzoni Zanotti.

Gambarini attended the studio of Cesare Gennari, whose rapidity of touch and power of natural effect, he afterwards retained. He added no dignity of forms; owing to which his few altar-pieces and other serious subjects obtained him no reputation. Applying himself subsequently to Flemish composition, he represented women intent on domestic affairs, boys'

schools, mendicants begging alms, with similar popular objects, copied faithfully from life; in all which he abounded with commissions. At Bologna such familiar pieces by him and his able pupil Gherardini are very common, and please by their spirit and their exactness. Sometimes he represented also serious subjects, as in that picture in Casa Ranuzzi, exhibiting the coronation of Charles V. during the government of a Gonfalonier of the family.

Zanotti is well known among the writers on pictoric subjects; and few have been more successful in wielding with equal excellence both pencil and pen.

His "Directions for the Progress of young Artists" contain some learned maxims, which were meant to stem the corruption of the art, by rescuing it from a low mechanical manner, and replacing it upon its true principles.

Upon the same maxims he composed his "History of the Clementine Academy,"

although he was not enabled to adopt corresponding freedom of style; having there written the lives of the academicians, then lately deceased, or still alive. This work, printed by Lelio dalla Volpe, in 1739, with a splendor nearly unknown, up to that period, in Italy, excited some degree of indignation in good artists, who found, next their own, many names of mere mediocrity distinguished by portraits and lives, on a footing with themselves. The complaints raised by Spagnuolo, are recorded by the Canon Crespi in his Felsina, (p. 227, &c.). Other accusations were doubtless advanced against him by inferior parties, who, though commended beyond their merits, secretly, perhaps, believed themselves deserving of still higher praise. Zanotti, too, inserted notices relating to himself, who held in that a.s.sembly the offices of president and of secretary, for a much longer period. But domestic and literary matters combined, withdrew his attention from painting in his maturer years; whence we may date his more feeble performances, which convey no great idea of him. Before, however, he had conducted works which exempted him from the pictoric crowd; in which list we may include his grand picture of an Emba.s.sy from the People of Romagna to the Bolognese, which ornaments the public palace. In private houses, too, are other compositions, either historical or mythological, composed in excellent taste, one of which is in possession of the Signore Biancani Tazzi, a piece greatly admired by Algarotti, as a perfect model of refined taste. A similar graceful little picture of a Cupid and nymphs, which I saw at Signor Volpi's, displays much poetical imagination, this artist delighting in poetical composition, very different from Lomazzo's and Boschini's, to an extreme old age.[50]

Footnote 50: See Lett. Pittor. tom. iv. p. 136.