The History Of Painting In Italy Volume V Part 12

Sebastiano, are of this character. But his best works are at S. Spirito, where he painted six pictures, and amongst them the Baptism of Christ, which is much extolled. He initiated in his own profession two sons, Gio.

Batista and Carlo, who on his death finished some of his pictures in a manner not to be distinguished from his own hand. Carlo surpa.s.sed his brother in small portraits; and with him Gio. Batista Mainero, Gio. Batista Monti, Silvestro Chiesa, all scholars of Borzone, all worthy of commemoration, and all of whom shared the same fate, being carried off by the pestilence of the year 1657.

The first who distinguished himself in the lower branch of the art in the Genoese School was Sinibaldo Scorza, born in Voltaggio, who, guided by a natural genius, and directed by Paggi, proved an excellent painter of landscapes enlivened by figures of men and animals in the style of Berghem.

It would be difficult to name an artist in Italy who so successfully engrafted the Flemish style on his own. I have seen a picture of cattle pa.s.sing a stream, in the collection of the ill.u.s.trious Carlo Cambiaso, where the animals rival those of Berghem, and the human figures appear painted by a superior artist. Other collections possess specimens of him in sacred subjects and cla.s.sical fables; in which he rises far above the Flemish artists. He also painted in miniature, if indeed his oil paintings, from the care bestowed on them, ought not themselves to be called miniatures. His works were celebrated by the poets of the age, particularly by Marini, who introduced him to the court of Savoy. He was engaged, and employed there until hostilities took place between the governments of Piedmont and Genoa, which obliged him to return home. He was then denounced to the government by some malicious rivals as a partizan of Savoy, and pa.s.sed two years in exile between Ma.s.sa and Rome. From thence he returned much improved, whence his latter pictures far exceed the first in invention and copious composition.

Antonio Travi, more commonly called Il Sestri, or Il Sordo di Sestri, from being a grinder of colours in the studio of Strozzi, and a friend of the Flemish artist Waals, soon emulated both the one and the other. He learned from the latter the art of painting landscape, with buildings in perspective, and ruins; and he afterwards copied from nature the beautiful country of the Riviera, with avenues of trees and rich orchards. But as Waals was a feeble painter of figures, Travi availed himself of the instructions of Strozzi to enliven his landscapes with beautiful and spirited figures, not so much painted as sketched with a few strokes by a master's hand, to gratify the eye when viewed at a distance. Thus, although his landscapes are not highly finished, they please us by their agreeable disposition, by their azure skies, the verdure of the trees, and their freedom of touch. The state abounds with his pictures; but a great proportion of those that bear his name are by his sons, who succeeded him in his profession, but not with their father's talents.

Ambrogio Samengo and Frances...o...b..rzone deserve also to be enumerated among the landscape painters. Ambrogio was the scholar of Gio. Andrea Ferrari, a painter of flowers and fruit; and his works are rare in consequence of his early death. Francesco, after a miraculous escape from the plague, applied himself to the composition of marine subjects and landscapes in the style of Claude and Dughet; and his pictures, from their clearness, sweetness, and fine effect, attracted the notice of Louis XIV., who invited him to his court, where he remained many years; and this is the reason of the scarcity of his works in Italy. We might here mention Raffaele Soprani, the biographer of the Genoese artists, and many n.o.ble Genoese with him; but in a work where the names of many painters themselves are omitted, it will not be expected that we should record all the amateurs of the art.

I may place in this cla.s.s of artists Gio. Benedetto Castiglione; not that he wanted talents for larger works, as many altar-pieces in Genoa, and particularly the very beautiful Nativity in St. Luke, one of the most celebrated pictures in the city, sufficiently prove, but because the great reputation which he has acquired in Europe has been derived from his cabinet pictures, where he has represented in a wonderful manner animals, either alone or as accessories to the subject. In this department of the art he is, after Ba.s.sano, the first in Italy; and between these two the same difference exists as between Theocritus and Virgil; the first of whom is more true to nature and more simple, the second more learned and more finished. Castiglione, the scholar of those accomplished artists Paggi and Vand.y.k.e, enn.o.bles the fields and woods by the fertility and novelty of his invention, by his cla.s.sical allusions, and his correct and natural expression of the pa.s.sions. He displays a freedom of design, a facility, grace, and generally a fulness of colour; but in some pictures a greater richness is desired by Maratta. The general tone is cheerful, and often reddish. We find by him in collections large pictures of animals with figures, as in that belonging to his Excellency the Doge Agostino Lomellino; at other times sacred subjects, among which the most celebrated are those from Genesis, the creation of animals, and their entry into the ark; and the return of Jacob with a numerous body of servants and cattle, a stupendous performance in the Palazzo Brignole Sale. Sometimes we find fabulous compositions, as the Transformations of Circe, in the collection of the Grand Duke of Tuscany; at other times hunting pieces, as that of the Bull in the collection of the Marchesi Riccardi at Florence; often markets and shews of cattle in the Flemish manner, and always more finished and more gay when painted on a smaller scale. Such is a Tobias in the act of recovering his sight, a most elegant picture, which I saw in possession of the Gregori family at Foligno. It would require a volume, as Soprani observes, to describe all his pictures in Genoa; but there is an abundance of them, not to mention those abroad, in every part of Italy, as he studied both at Rome and Venice, and a longer time at Mantua, where he died in the service of the court. He there, for the correctness and beauty of his colouring, obtained the name of Grechetto; and, for his peculiar style of etching, he was also called a second Rembrandt. In that city are to be found some pictures in his manner by his son Francesco and his brother Salvatore, in which they often make near approaches to him. Francesco repaired afterwards to Genoa, where he employed himself in painting animals, which less experienced connoisseurs sometimes ascribe to Gio.

Benedetto. No Genoese, except Francesco, rivalled him in this branch; for Gio. Lorenzo Bertolotti, who studied under him for some time, dedicated himself to the painting of altar-pieces; and in that of the church of the Visitation he highly distinguished himself. Anton Maria Va.s.sallo was a reputable painter of landscape, flowers, fruits, and animals. His chief merit is in his colouring, which he learned from Mal, the scholar of Rubens. He excelled also in figures; but his short life did not allow him to obtain a more extended celebrity.

GENOESE SCHOOL.

EPOCH IV.

_The Roman and Parmesan succeed to the Native Style.

Establishment of an Academy._

Many masters of this school being cut off by the plague in the year 1657, others deceased in the course of nature, not a few incapacitated from age, and some also turned to mannerism, the Genoese School fell into such a state of decline, that most of the young artists had recourse to other cities for instruction, and in most instances repaired to Rome. In consequence, from the beginning of this century to our own days, the Roman style has predominated among these painters, varying, according to the schools from which it descended, and according to the scholars that practised it. Few of them have preserved the style unmixed; and some have formed from the Roman and the Genoese a third manner, deserving of commendation. On this account my readers should be cautioned not to judge of these artists from works which some of them left when studying in Rome, as I have known to be sometimes the case. Artists ought to be estimated by their mature works, which, in this art, are like the corrected editions of a work in letters, by which every author wishes to be judged.

I noticed, in a former volume, Gio. Batista Gaulli. This artist, after many years practice under Luciano Borzone, unwilling to remain in a city depopulated by the plague, went to Rome; and there, by studying the best masters and by the direction of Bernino, made himself master of a new style, grand, vigorous, full of fire, his children gracefully drawn, and altogether enchanting. He contributed some pupils to the Roman School, and two of them he educated for their native school; Gio. Maria delle Piane, called, from his father's profession, II Molinaretto, and Gio. Enrico Vaymer. Their pictures were composed in a good style, and there are some of their works in the churches of Genoa; particularly of the first, by whom there is at Sestri di Ponente a Decollation of St. John the Baptist, highly celebrated. But they owed both their fame and their fortune to portrait painting. The accomplishments of their master in that respect, above all other artists, insured them a reputation, whence they abounded in commissions, both in Genoa, which on that account is full of portraits painted by them, and also in foreign countries. Vaymer was three times called to Turin to paint the king and royal family; and was invited by very considerable offers to remain there, which he, however, always rejected.

Molinaretto, after several visits to Parma and Piacenza, where he furnished the court with portraits, and left some pictures in the churches, was invited by King Charles of Bourbon to Naples, where he died, in a good old age, painter to the court.

Pietro da Cortona also contributed some good scholars to Genoa. A doubtful celebrity remains to Frances...o...b..uno of Porto Maurizio, who left in his native country some altar-pieces in the style of Pietro, and a copy of one of the pictures of that master. He is an unequal painter, if, indeed, we may not conclude, with Sig. Ratti, that some inferior works are improperly ascribed to him by common report. With still less foundation Francesco Rosa of Genoa is conjectured to have sprung from this school, who studied about the same time in Rome. The frescos and oil pictures which he left in that city, at S. Carlo al Corso, and particularly at the churches of S.

Vincenzio and Anastasio, evince him a follower of a different style. He there approaches Tommaso Luini and the dark mannerists of that period. He painted in a much better style, at Frari in Venice, a Miracle wrought by S.

Antonio; a large composition, in which besides a most beautiful architecture he displays much knowledge of the naked figure, good effect of chiaroscuro, great vivacity in the heads; in the latter, however, little select, and in the general effect partaking more of Caracci than Cortona.

There is no doubt that Gio. Maria Bottalla was instructed by Cortona. The Cardinal Sacchetti, his patron, from his happy imitation of Raffaello surnamed him Raffaellino; an appellation which I am not sure was confirmed to him in Rome, and it certainly was refused to him in Genoa. In both those cities he left very considerable works, in which he did not go so far in his imitation of Pietro, as to neglect the style of Annibal Caracci. A large composition of Jacob, by his hand, is to be seen in the collection of the Campidoglio, formerly in the Sacchetti; and there exists in the Casa Negroni in Genoa, a picture in fres...o...b.. him. Both are very considerable works for a painter who had not pa.s.sed his thirty-first year. Another undoubted scholar of Pietro was Gio. Batista Langetti, although in his colouring he adhered more to the elder Ca.s.sana, his second master. Langetti is one of the foreign painters who, after 1650, flourished in Venice, and excited the poetic genius of Boschini. He extols him as an artist eminent in design and execution;[69] and this commendation is confirmed by Zanetti; with an understanding, however, that this extends only to his more studied pictures; as, for instance, his Crucifixion in the church delle Terese. As to the rest he generally painted for profit; painting heads of old men, philosophers, and anch.o.r.ets, for which he is very remarkable in Venetian and Lombard collections. It is said that he was accustomed to paint one a day; his portraits were always drawn with truth, without adding that ideal grandeur which we so much admire in the Greek sculptures in similar subjects. He animated these countenances, however, with a strength of colour and with a vigour of pencil that caused them to be highly sought after; often receiving for them not less than fifty ducats a-piece. His name is not found in the Abbeccedario, which is not to be wondered at, for in so vast a work it is impossible to notice every individual artist.

Footnote 69: L'opera con bon arte, e colpi franchi, L'osserva el natural con bon giudizio, In l'atizar l'atende al bon ofizio, Che i movimenti sia vivi e n stanchi.

_Carta del Navegar Pittoresco_, p. 538.

But the greater number of scholars that Genoa sent to Rome attached themselves to Maratta. Gio. Stefano Robatto of Savona repaired twice to his school, and remained in it several years. He matured his genius, by visiting other schools of Italy, and went also into Germany, and at a mature age settled in his own country. He there executed some works that confer honour on her; as the St. Francis receiving the Stigmata, painted in fresco in the cloister of the Cappuchins. Others of these, his first works, have obtained unqualified praise, especially for their colouring, which excited even the admiration of the professors of Genoa, accustomed to study the first works of art. But he afterwards gave himself up to gaming, and, losing all desire of distinction, he degraded both his pencil and his name, producing, like a mechanic, works of mediocrity at a trifling price. Hence it may be said, that Savona had not a better nor a worse painter than Robatto.

Gio. Raffaello Badaracco, the son of Giuseppe, who is mentioned in a former epoch, pa.s.sed from the school of his father to that of Maratta; and afterwards, aspiring to a freer style, he became in a great measure Cortonesque, very soft in execution, of a good impasto, with an abundance of the finest ultramarine, which has conferred on his pictures both durability and celebrity. His historical subjects are very numerous in collections; the Certosa of Polcevera possesses two of the largest, from the history of the patron saint. A Rolando March.e.l.li was a fine scholar of Maratta; but, attaching himself to merchandise, he left few works.

The most remarkable in this band are the sons of three celebrated masters; Andrea Carlone, Paolgirolamo Piola, and Domenico Parodi. The first was son of Giambatista, from whose style and that of Rome, and afterwards from that of Venice, he formed a mixed manner, which, if I mistake not, is more pleasing in oil than in fresco. He painted much in Perugia and the neighbouring cities; far from the finish and grace of his father, and less happy in composition; but displaying a Venetian style of freedom, vigour, and spirit; particularly in some histories of S. Feliciano, painted at Foligno, in the church of that saint. Returning to Rome, he improved his manner; and his works after that period are much his best. Such are some pa.s.sages from the life of S. Xavier, at the Gesu in Rome; and many poetical subjects at Genoa, in the palaces Brignole, Saluzzo, and Durazzo. This painter affords an excellent admonition to writers on art, not to form their judgment too hastily on the merit of artists, without having first seen their best productions. Whoever judged of Carlone from the picture he painted at the Gesu in Perugia, would not persuade himself that he could, in Genoa, have left so many fine works as to be ranked, according to Ratti, among the painters of Genoa most worthy of commemoration. Niccol, his brother, may be also added as his scholar. He is the least celebrated of the family; not that he wanted talent, but it was not of a transcendant kind.

Piola, the son of Domenico, as I have noticed in a former place, is one of the most cultivated and finished painters of this school; a true disciple of Maratta, as regards his method of carefully studying and deliberately executing his works, but otherwise not his close imitator. In this respect it should seem he attached himself more to the Caracci, whom he very much copied in Rome; and traces of this style may be seen in his beautiful picture of S. Domenico and Ign.a.z.io, in the church of Carignano, and in every place where he painted. It is known that he was rebuked by his father for slowness; but by this he was not moved; intent on a more exalted walk than his father, and exhibiting more selection, grandeur, tenderness, and truth. He had singular merit in works in fresco; and being a man of letters, he designed extremely well fables and historical subjects, in decorating many n.o.blemen's houses. His Parna.s.sus, painted for Sig. Gio.

Filippo Durazzo, has been much praised; and it is added, that that n.o.bleman said, that he was glad he had not sent for Solimene from Naples, whilst Genoa possessed such an artist. Had he painted less on walls and more on canva.s.s, his merit would have become known also to foreigners.

Domenico Parodi was, like his father, a sculptor, and moreover an architect; but he owed his reputation to painting. Less equal to himself than Piola, he enjoyed a greater fame; as he had a more enlarged genius, a more extended knowledge of letters and the arts, a more decided imitation of the Greek design, and a pencil more pliable to every style. He first studied in Venice under Bombelli, and there remain, in a casa Durazzo, some excellent copies of Venetian pictures made at that period; nor did he forsake this style during the many succeeding years that he studied in Rome. He painted, in a good Marattesque style, the n.o.ble picture of S.

Francesco di Sales at the Filippini, and several other pictures; but of him, as well as of the Caracci, we find works partaking in an extraordinary manner of the style of Tintoretto or Paolo, and which are described in his life. His most celebrated work is the Sala of the palace Negroni. Some professors have expressed their opinion, that there is not so fine a performance in all Genoa; and it is a fact, that Mengs's attention was there arrested for several hours by a painter that he had never before heard of. A correct design, a vigour and harmony of colour, a mode of decorating the walls peculiarly his own, attempted by many, but not understood by any, render this a most remarkable production; nor is it a little aided by the poetical invention and the beautiful distribution and grouping of the figures. The whole is devoted to the glory of this n.o.ble family, whose escutcheon is crowned by Prudence, Continence, and other virtues, expressed by their several symbols; and there are also fables of Hercules slaying the Lion, and Achilles instructed by Chiron, which indicate the honours acquired by this family in letters and in arms.

Portraits are added to these decorations, and every part is so well connected, and so well varied, and so enriched by vestures, drapery, and other ornaments, that, though many n.o.ble families may boast of being more highly celebrated by the muse, few have obtained such distinguished honours from the sister art. Other n.o.ble houses were also ornamented by him in fresco; and the gallery of the Sig. Marcello Durazzo, decorated with stories, and fables, and chiariscuri, which might be taken for ba.s.si-relievi, is a work much resembling the one just described. In some pictures, as in the S. Camillo de' Lellis, he does not seem the same; and probably some of his scholars had the greater share in them. His most celebrated scholar was the priest Angiolo Rossi, one of the best imitators, in humorous subjects, of Piovan Arlotto; and in painting a good follower of Maratta, though he left but few works. Batista Parodi was the brother of Domenico, but not the scholar; he partook of the Venetian School; expeditious, free, fertile in invention, and brilliant in colouring, but not sufficiently select, nor equal to the better artists. He lived for some time in Milan and Bergamo. Pellegro, the son of Domenico, resided in Lisbon, and was a celebrated portrait painter in his day.

The Abate Lorenzo, the son of Gregorio Ferrari, though educated in Genoa, had much of the Roman style. He was one of the most elegant painters of this school, and an imitator of the foreshortenings and the graces of Coreggio, as was his father, but more correct than he, and a good master of design. In refining on delicacy he sometimes falls into languor; except when he painted in the vicinity of the Carloni, (as in the palace Doria, at S. Matteo), or some other lively colourist. He then invigorated his tints, so that they possess all the brilliancy of oil, and yield the palm to few.

He excelled in fresco, like most of this school, and is almost unrivalled in his chiaroscuro ornaments. The churches and palaces abound with them; and in the palace of the n.o.ble family of Carega is a gallery, his last work, decorated with subjects from the aeneid, and ornamented with arabesques, stuccos, and intaglios, by artists under his direction. He also painted historical subjects. In his first public works he painted from his father's designs; afterwards, as in the picture of various saints of the Augustine order, at the church of the Visitation, he trusted to his own genius, and enriched his school with the best examples. He too was a painter whose reputation was not equal to his merits.

In Bartolommeo Guidobono, or Prete di Savona, we find the delicate pencil of Ferrari, and an imitation of Coreggio, but with less freedom of style.

This artist, who was in the habit of painting earthenware with his father, at that time in the employ of the royal court of Savoy, established the first rudiments of the art in Piedmont; and I have seen, in Turin, some pictures by him partaking of the Neapolitan style of colour, which was at one time in favour there. He afterwards went to Parma and Venice, and by copying and practising became a very able painter, and had an abundance of commissions in Genoa and the state. He is not so much praised for correctness of design in his figures, as for his skill in the ornamental parts, as flowers, fruits, and animals; and this excellence is particularly seen in some fabulous subjects in the Palazzo Centurioni. He had diligently studied the style of Castiglione, and made many copies of him, which are with difficulty distinguished from the originals. He is not, however, a figurist to be despised; and it is his peculiar praise to unite a great sweetness of pencil with a fine effect of chiaroscuro; as in the Inebriation of Lot, and in three other subjects in oil, in the palace Brignole Sale. In Piedmont too there remain many works by him, and by his brother Domenico, also a delicate and graceful painter, by whom there is in the Duomo of Turin a glory of angels, which might belong to the school of Guido. He would have been preferred to Prete if he had always painted in this style; but this he did not do, and in Genoa there remain of his, amongst a few good, many very indifferent pictures.

Before I quit the followers of the school of Parma, I shall return to the Cav. Gio. Batista Draghi, to whom I alluded in the third book. He was a scholar of Domenico Piola, from whom he acquired his despatch; and was the inventor of a new style, which I know not where he formed, but which he practised very much in Parma, and more in Piacenza, where he long lived and where he died. We may trace in it the schools of Bologna and Parma; but in the character of the heads and in the disposition of the colours there is a novelty which distinguishes and characterizes him. Though he painted with extraordinary celerity, yet we cannot accuse him of negligence. To a vivacity and fancy that delight us, he added an attention to his contours and colouring, and a powerful relief, particularly in his oil pictures.

There are many pictures by him in Piacenza, and amongst them the Death of St. James in the church of the Franciscans, in the Duomo his St. Agnes, in S. Lorenzo his picture of the t.i.tular saint, and the great picture of the Religious Orders receiving their regulations from S. Augustin; a subject painted already in the neighbouring town of Cremona by Ma.s.sarotti, and well executed, but inferior to Draghi. The Sig. Proposto Carasi particularly praises the picture he painted at Busseto, in the palace Pallavicino. In Genoa he painted, I believe, only some pictures for private collections.

Orlandi, who does not even notice this excellent painter, places among the first artists of Europe Gioseffo Palmieri, who, together with the preceding artist, flourished in the early part of the eighteenth century. This praise seems exaggerated, and he probably refers only to the merit which Palmieri exhibited in his pictures of animals, which he was employed to paint even for the court of Portugal. Still in the human figure he is a painter of spirit, and of a magic and beautiful style of colour; very harmonious and pleasing in those pictures where the shades do not predominate. He is, however, reprehended for his incorrect drawing, although he studied under a Florentine painter, who seems to have initiated him well; for in the Resurrection at the church of St. Dominic, and in other pictures more carefully painted, judges of the art find little to reprove.

A Pietro Paolo Raggi obtained also celebrity in invention and colouring. I know not to what school to a.s.sign him, but he was certainly a follower of the Caracci in a S. Bonaventura contemplating a Crucifix; a large picture in the Guastato. There are Baccha.n.a.l subjects by him in some collections, which partake of the style of Castiglione, as Ratti has observed, and also of that of Carpioni, as we read in one of the _Lettere Pittoriche_, inserted in the fifth volume. We there find him highly extolled. Nor is he any where better known than in Bergamo; where, amongst other works which he executed for the church of St. Martha, a Magdalen borne to Heaven by Angels is particularly esteemed. He is described as a man of a restless disposition, irascible, and dissatisfied with every place he inhabited.

This truant disposition carried him to Turin, then to Savona, then afresh to Genoa, now to Lavagna, now to Lombardy, and last to Bergamo, where death put an end to his wanderings. About this time died in Finale, his native place, Pier Lorenzo Spoleti, formerly a scholar of Domenico Piola. His favourite occupation was to copy in Madrid the pictures of Morillo and t.i.tian. By this practice he was prevented from distinguishing himself by any works of invention; but he became a very accomplished portrait painter, and was employed in that branch of the art at the courts of Spain and Portugal. He had also the habit of copying the compositions of others, and of transferring them with remarkable ability from the engraving to the canva.s.s, enlarging the proportions and expressing them with a colouring worthy of his great originals. A copyist like this painter has a better claim to our regard than many masters, whose original designs serve only to remind us of our ill fortune in meeting with them.

Among these native artists I may be allowed to commemorate two foreigners, who came to Genoa and established themselves there, and succeeded to the chief artists of this epoch, or were their compet.i.tors. The one was Jacopo Boni of Bologna, who was carried to Genoa by his master Franceschini as an a.s.sistant, when he painted the great hall of the Palazzo Publico. Boni from that time was esteemed and employed there, and established himself there in 1726. There are some fine works by him, especially in fresco, in the Palazzo Mari and in many others; and the most remarkable which he executed in the state is in the oratory of the Costa, at S. Remo: but we have spoken sufficiently of him in the third Book.

The other, who repaired thither three years afterwards, was Sebastiano Galeotti, a Florentine, and in his native city a scholar of Ghilardini, in Bologna of Giangioseffo dal Sole, a man of an eccentric and facile genius; a good designer when he pleased, a bold colourist, beautiful in the air of his heads, and fitted for large compositions in fresco, in which he was sometimes a.s.sisted in the ornamental parts by Natali of Cremona. He decorated the church of the Magdalen in Genoa; and those frescos, which first made him known in the city, are among his most finished productions; but he was obliged, after painting the first history, to soften his tones in some degree. He worked little in his native city, and that only in his early years; whence he does not there enjoy so high a reputation as in Upper Italy. He traversed it almost all in the same manner as the Zuccheri, Peruzzini, Ricchi, and other adventurers of the art, whose lives were spent in travelling from place to place, and who repeated themselves in every city, giving the same figures, without any fresh design, and often the same subject entire. Hence we still find the works of this painter, not only in many cities of Tuscany, but also in Piacenza and Parma, where he executed many works for the court; and also in Codogno, Lodi, Cremona, Milan, Vicenza, Bergamo, and Turin, in which latter city he was appointed director of the academy. In this office he ended his days in 1746. Genoa was however his home, where he was succeeded by two sons, Giuseppe and Gio. Batista, who were living in 1769, and are mentioned with commendation by Ratti as excellent painters.

From the middle of the century to our own days, what from the evils of war in which Genoa was involved, and the general decline of the art in Italy, but few artists present themselves to our notice. Domenico Bocciardo of Finale, a scholar and follower of Morandi, possessed considerable merit in historical cabinet pictures; a painter of not much genius, but correct, and a beautiful colourist. At S. Paolo in Genoa there is by him a S. Giovanni baptizing the Mult.i.tude; and although there are many better pictures by him in the state, still this is sufficient to render him respectable. Francesco Campora, a native of Polcevera, also possessed some reputation. He had studied in Naples under Solimene, from whose school came also Gio. Stefano Maia, an excellent portrait painter. A Batista Chiappe of Novi, who had spent much time in Rome in drawing, and had become a good colourist in Milan, gave great promise of excellence. In the church of S. Ign.a.z.io of Alessandria there is a large picture of the patron saint, one of his best performances, well conceived and well composed; a n.o.ble ground, a beautiful choir of angels, a fine character in the princ.i.p.al figure, except that the head does not present a true portrait. We should have seen still better works, but the author was arrested in his career by death; and he is described by Ratti as the last person of merit of the Genoese School.

This school was for some time scanty in good perspective painters. Although Padre Pozzi was in Genoa, he did not form any scholars there. Bologna, more than any other place, supplied him with them. From thence came Colonna and Mitelli, at that time so much esteemed; thither also repaired Aldovrandini and the two brothers Haffner, Henry and Antony. The latter joined the monks of the order of St. Philip in Genoa, and decorated the church of that saint and other places, and initiated in the profession Gio. Batista Revello, called Il Mustacchi. His works were also studied by Francesco Costa, who was an ornamental painter from the school of Gregorio de' Ferrari. These two young men, from the similarity of their profession, one which combines in itself the greatest rivalry and the greatest friendship, became in process of time inseparable. They both conjointly served, for nearly the s.p.a.ce of twenty years, the various historical painters mentioned in this epoch, preparing for them the perspectives and ornaments, and whatever else the art required. They are both alike commended for their knowledge of perspective, their grace, brilliancy, and harmony of tints; but Revello, in the embellishment of flowers, is preferred to his companion. Their best performance is considered to be at Pegli, in the Palazzo Grillo, where they ornamented a saloon and some chambers. There are also many works which they conducted separately, being considered as the Colonna and Mitelli of their country.

The most justly celebrated landscape painter of this epoch is Carlo Antonio Tavella, the scholar of Tempesta in Milan, and of Gruenbrech, a German, who, from the fires he introduced into his landscapes, was called Solfarolo. He at first emulated this artist; he then softened his style, from studying the works of Castiglione and Poussin, and the best Flemish painters. Amongst the Genoese landscape painters he ranks the next after Sestri. His works are easily distinguished in the collections of Genoa, particularly in the palace Franchi, which had more than three hundred pictures by him, and acquired for him the reputation of one of the first artists of the age. We are there presented with warm skies, beautiful distances in the landscape, pleasing effects of light; the trees, flowers, and animals are gracefully touched, and with wonderful truth of nature. In his figures he was a.s.sisted by the two Pioli, father and son; and oftener by Magnasco, with whom he was a.s.sociated in work. He sometimes inserted them in his pictures himself, copying them indeed from the originals designed by his comrades, but identifying them by a style peculiarly his own. Tavella had a daughter of the name of Angiola, of a feeble invention, but a good copyist of her father's designs. He had also many other imitators; amongst whom one Niccol Micone, or as he is commonly called by his fellow-citizens Lo Zoppo, most nearly resembles him.

Alessandro Magnasco, called Lissandrino, was the son of one Stefano, who was instructed by Valerio Castello, afterwards resided many years in Rome, and died young, leaving behind him few pictures, but extreme regret for the death of an artist of so much promise. His son was instructed by Abbiati in Milan; and that bold and simple stroke of the pencil, which his master used in his larger pictures, he transferred to his subjects of humour, shows and popular meetings, in which he may be called the Cerquozzi of his school.

His figures are scarcely more than a span large. Ceremonies of the church, schools of maids and youths, chapters of friars, military exercises, artists' shops, Jewish synagogues, are the subjects he painted with humour and delight. These eccentric pieces are not rare in Milan, and there are some in the Palazzo Pitti at Florence, where Magnasco resided some years, a great favourite with the Grand Duke Gio. Gastone and all his court. When he accompanied other painters in their works, as often happened to him, he added very apposite subjects; this he did, not only in the landscapes of Tavella and others, but also in the ruins of Clemente Spera in Milan, and in other pictures of architecture. This artist was more esteemed by foreigners than by his own countrymen. His bold touch, though joined to a n.o.ble conception and to correct drawing, did not attract in Genoa, because it is far removed from the finish and union of tints which these masters followed; hence Magnasco worked little in his native country, and left no scholar there. In the school of Venice he educated a celebrated scholar, Sebastian Ricci, of whom mention has been made more than once.

Not many years since died Gio. Agostino Ratti of Savona, a painter of delightful genius. He ornamented the theatres with beautiful scenes, and the cabinets with lively caricatures, which he also engraved. He was clever in church paintings, as may be seen in the church of S. Giovanni at Savona, where, besides other subjects of the Baptist, there is a much praised Decollation. He painted also in the church of S. Teresa in Genoa; and was always a follower of Luti, whose school he had frequented when in Rome. He was also a good fresco painter; and I have seen his works in the choir of the Conventual church in Casale di Monferrato, where he added figures to the perspective of Natali of Cremona. But subjects of humour were his forte. In these he had an exhaustless fancy, fertile and ever creative.

Nothing can be more amusing than his masks, representing quarrels, dances, and such scenes as form the subjects of comedy. Luti, who was his master in Rome, extolled him as one of the first artists in this line, and even equalled him to Ghezzi. This information respecting Gio. Agostino was communicated to me by his son, the Cavaliere often mentioned in the course of this work,[70] and who died in 1795.

Footnote 70: He had prepared for the press some further information respecting this school, both with regard to ancient and modern times. The MS. with which he favoured me to perfect this edition of my work, I have unfortunately, and to the great detriment of my own work, mislaid. He was not a great painter, but certainly not deserving of the contempt with which he has been treated. Grat.i.tude, friendship, truth, and humanity itself call on me to say all the good I can of him; every thing that malevolence could dictate has been already recorded against him. We may therefore refer the reader to the perusal of the Defence of him before mentioned by us, and noticed afterwards with its true t.i.tle, in our second index, under the head _Ratti_.

There (whoever may be the author of it,) many works are enumerated which, in our opinion, would confirm to him the t.i.tle of a praiseworthy artist. But he derives peculiar honour from the opinion of him expressed by Mengs, who proposed him as director to the academy of Milan; and some historical and national subjects being required in the royal palace in Genoa, Ratti was recommended to this honourable commission both by Mengs and Batoni, and he executed them to the entire satisfaction of the public. The more experienced judges pretend to detect in these works something more than an imitation of the great masters; and it is acknowledged, indeed, that he willingly availed himself of the designs of others, either painted or engraved; but how few are there of whom the same may not be said? Afterwards in Rome, where he lived four years in the house of Mengs, he executed under his eye some excellent works; as a Nativity, for which Mengs made the sketch; which, when painted on a larger scale by Ratti, was placed in a church in Barcelona. Being called on to paint a St. Catherine of Genoa, afterwards placed there in the church of that saint, Mengs designed for him the face of the saint, of an enchanting expression, and afterwards retouched the picture, rendering it a delightful performance. On this it may be observed, that great masters were not accustomed to shew such favours to their scholars and friends, except when they discovered in them considerable talent. As a copyist Ratti excelled in the opinion of Mengs; the latter purchasing, at a considerable sum, a copy of the S. Jerome of Coreggio, which Ratti had made in Parma. Another proof of the esteem in which he held him was his instigating him to write on art; for which they must have ama.s.sed great materials during the four years they lived together. In the before-mentioned _Difesa_ we read of the academies that elected him, the poets and men of letters that extolled him, the cross of a cavalier that he obtained from Pius VI., the direction of the academy of Genoa, conferred on him for life if he had chosen to retain it; finally, the numerous commissions for pictures he received from various places; all these things have their weight, but the favourable opinion of Mengs is the strongest protection that this Defence affords to shield him from his enemies.

When the materials were prepared for the new edition, the _Elogio_ of the Cav. Azara was published, where it is said that the MSS. of Mengs were given in a confused ma.s.s into the hands of Milizia, who took the liberty of modifying at his pleasure the opinions of Mengs respecting the great masters. This information, which comes from a very creditable quarter, I have wished to insert here for many reasons. It takes away from Mengs the odium of some inconsiderate criticism, or at least lessens it. It confirms what the _Difesa_ of Ratti says respecting the true author of the Life of Coreggio, who was in fact Ratti; but, with some retouching, it was published as the work of Mengs, without reflecting that the author was there placed in contradiction with himself. It also shews us that Mengs, for his great name, was indebted not only to his acknowledged merit, but also to his good fortune, which gave him greater patrons and friends than were perhaps ever enjoyed before by any painter in the world.

The artists of this school, of our own day, will doubtless also receive their meed of praise from posterity. They are now industriously occupied in establishing their own fame, and conferring honour on their country. The rising generation, who are entering upon the art, may look for increased support from the Genoese academy, recently founded for the promotion of the three sister arts. Within these few years the members of this academy have been furnished with a splendid domicile, with an abundant collection of select casts and rare designs. With such masters and so many gratuitous sources of a.s.sistance to study, this inst.i.tution may be already numbered amongst the most useful and ornamental of the city. This establishment owes its existence to the genius and liberality of a number of n.o.blemen, who united together in its splendid foundation, and who continue to support it by their patronage.

BOOK VI.

THE HISTORY OF PAINTING IN PIEDMONT AND THE ADJACENT TERRITORY.

EPOCH I.