view of the numerous works produced; but none are so distinguished as
the paintings in the Sala Regia, commenced under Paul III., and scarcely
finished, after a lapse of thirty years, in 1573. Of these Vaga had the
direction, as Raffaello had formerly had, of the chambers of the
Vatican. He planned the compartments, ornamented the ceiling, directed
all the stuccos, cornices, devices, and large figures, and all in the
style of a great master. He then applied himself to design the subjects
for his pencil, and was employed on them when he was carried off by
death in 1547. Through the partiality of Michelangiolo, he was succeeded
by Daniel di Volterra, who had already worked in stucco, under his
direction, in the same place. Volterra resolved to represent the
donations of those sovereigns who had extended or consolidated the
temporal dominion of the church, whence the chamber was called Sala dei
Regi, and this idea was, in some degree, though with variations,
continued by succeeding artists. Volterra was naturally slow and
irresolute, and after painting the Deposition from the Cross, which we
have mentioned as being executed with the assistance of Michelangiolo,
he produced no more of these prodigies of art. He had indeed begun some
designs, but on the death of the Pope, in 1549, he was compelled, in
order to accommodate the conclave, to remove the scaffolding, and expose
the work unfinished. It did not meet with public approbation, nor was it
continued under Julius III., and still less under Paul IV., in whose
reign the art was held in so little respect, that the apostles, painted
by Raffaello in one of the chambers of the Vatican, were displaced.
Pius IV., who resumed the work, on the suggestion of Vasari, in 1561,
had intended to charge Salviati with the entire execution of it; but, by
the intercessions of Bonarruoti, was at length prevailed on to assign
one half of the apartment to Salviati, and the other half to
Ricciarelli, though this did not contribute to expedite the work. Pirro
Ligorio, a Neapolitan, was at this time held in high esteem by the Pope.
He was an antiquarian, though not of great celebrity, but a good
architect, and a fresco painter of some merit;[59] an enthusiast too,
and alike jealous of Ricciarelli, for the homage he paid to Bonarruoti,
and of Salviati, for the respect which he did not shew to Ligorio
himself. Remarking that the Pope wished to hasten the completion of the
work, he proposed to select a number of scholars, and to divide the work
amongst them. Vasari adds, that Salviati was disgusted and left Rome;
where, on his return, he died, without finishing his work; and that
Ricciarelli, who was always slow, never touched it again, and died also
after the lapse of some little time. The completion of the work was then
entrusted, as far as possible, to the successors of Raffaello. Livio
Agresti da Forli, Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta, and Marco da Pino,
of Sienna, although they had received their first instructions from
other masters, had been instructed by Perino del Vaga, and had assisted
in his cartoons. Taddeo Zuccaro had accomplished himself under Giacomone
da Faenza, and had made his younger brother Federigo an able artist. To
these the work was assigned, and there were added to them Samacchini and
Fiorini, Bolognese artists; and Giuseppe Porta della Garfagnana, called
Giuseppe Salviati. This latter had been the pupil of Francesco Salviati,
from whom he learnt the principles of design; he was afterwards a
follower of the school of Venice, where he resided. Of these numerous
artists Vasari assigns the palm to Taddeo Zuccaro, but the court was so
much pleased with Porta, that it was in contemplation to destroy the
works of the other artists, in order that the apartment might be
finished by him alone. He represented Alexander III. in the act of
bestowing his benediction on Frederick Barbarossa, in the Piazza of S.
Mark, in Venice; and he here indulged his taste for architectural
ornaments, in the Venetian manner. When however this work is viewed and
compared with that of other artists, we discover a sameness of style,
the character of the time; a deficiency of strength in the colours and
shadows is the common failing. It seems as if the art, through a long
course of years, had become debilitated: it discovers the lineaments of
a better age, but feebly expressed and deprived of their primitive
vigour. That portion of the work which remained unfinished, was, after
the death of Pius IV., completed by Vasari and his school, under his
successor; and some little was supplied under Gregory XIII., who was
elected in 1572.
With that year a reign commenced but little auspicious to art, and still
less so was the Pontificate of Sixtus V., the successor of Gregory.
These Pontiffs erected or ornamented so many public buildings, that we
can scarcely move a step in Rome, without meeting with the papal arms of
a dragon or a lion. Baglione has accurately described them, and to him
we are indebted for the lives of the artists of this and the following
period. It is natural for men advanced in years to content themselves
with mediocrity in the works which they order, from the apprehension of
not living to see them, if they wait for the riper efforts of talent.
Hence those artists were the most esteemed, and the most employed, who
possessed despatch and facility of execution, particularly by Sixtus, of
whose severity towards dilatory artists we shall shortly adduce a
memorable instance. This inaccuracy of style was continued to the time
of Clement VIII., when a number of works were hastily finished to meet
the opening of the holy year 1600. Under these pontiffs the painters of
Italy, and even the _oltramontani_, inundated Rome with their works, in
the same manner that the poets and philosophers had filled that city
with their writings in the time of Domitian and Marcus Aurelius. Every
one indulged his own taste; and the style of many was deteriorated
through rapidity of execution. Thus the art, particularly in fresco,
became the employment of a mechanic, not founded in the just imitation
of nature, but in the capricious ideas of the artist.[60] Nor was the
colouring better than the design. At no period do we find such an abuse
of the simple tints, in none so feeble a chiaroscuro, or less harmony.
These are the mannerists, who peopled the churches, convents, and
saloons of Rome with their works, but in the collections of the nobility
they have not had the same good fortune.
This era, nevertheless, is not wholly to be condemned, as it contains
several great names, the relics of the preceding illustrious age. We
have enumerated the painters who flourished in Rome in the first reigns
of this century, and we ought to notice a number of others. They were
for the most part foreigners, and ought to be introduced in other
schools. I shall here describe those particularly, who were born within
the limits of the Roman School, and those who, being established in it,
taught and propagated their own peculiar style.
Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta, who adopted Raffaello's style, may be
enumerated among the scholars of that great man, from his felicitous
imitation of their common master. In the Sala de' Regi, in the Vatican,
he painted Pepin, King of France, bestowing Ravenna on the church, after
having made Astolfo, King of the Lombards, his prisoner. But he
approached Raffaello more closely in some of his oil pictures than in
his frescos, as in the martyrdom of S. Lucia, in the church of S. Maria
Maggiore; in the Transfiguration in Ara Coeli, and in the Nativity in
the church della Pace, a subject which he repeated in the most graceful
style in the church of Osimo. His masterpiece is in Ancona on the great
altar in the church of S. Bartolommeo, a vast composition, original and
rich in invention, and commensurate with the grandeur of the subject,
and the multitude of saints that are introduced in it. The throne of the
Virgin is seen above, amidst a brilliant choir of angels, and on either
side a virgin saint in the attitude of adoration. To this height there
is a beautiful ascent on each side, and the picture is thus divided into
a higher and lower part, in the latter of which is the titular saint, a
half naked figure vigorously coloured, together with S. Paul and two
other saints, the whole in a truly Raffaellesque style. This altarpiece
possesses so much harmony, and such a force of colour, that it is
esteemed by some persons the best picture in the city. If any thing be
wanting in it, it is perhaps a more correct observance of the
perspective. Sermoneta did not paint many pictures for collections. He
excelled in portrait painting.
A similar manner, though more laboured, and formed on the styles of
Raffaello and Andrea del Sarto, was adopted by Scipione Pulzone da
Gaeta, who was educated in the studio of Jacopino del Conte. He died
young in his thirty-eighth year, but left behind him a great reputation,
partly in the painting of portraits, of which he executed a great number
for the popes and princes of his day, and with so much success, that by
some he is called the Vandyke of the Roman School. He was a forerunner
of Seybolt in the high finishing of the hair, and in representing in the
pupil of the eye the reflexion of the windows, and other objects as
minute and exact as in real life. He also painted some pictures in the
finest style, as the Crucifixion in the Vallicella, and the Assumption
in S. Silvestro at Monte Cavallo, a composition of chaste design, great
beauty of colouring, and brilliant in effect. In the Borghese collection
is a Holy Family by him, and in the gallery in Florence, a Christ
praying in the garden; and in other places are to be found some of his
cabinet pictures, deservedly held in high esteem.
Taddeo and Federigo Zuccaro have been called the Vasaris of this school;
for as Vasari trod in the steps of Michelangiolo, so these artists
professed to follow Raffaello. They were the sons of an indifferent
painter of S. Angiolo in Vado, called Ottaviano Zuccaro, and came to
Rome one after the other, and in the Roman state executed a vast number
of works, some good, some indifferent, and others, when they allowed
their pupils to take a share in them, absolutely bad. A salesman, who
dealt in the pictures of these artists, was accustomed, like a retailer
of merchandize, to ask his purchasers whether they wished for a Zuccaro
of Holland, of France, or of Portugal; intimating by this that he
possessed them of all qualities. Taddeo, who was the elder of the two,
studied first under Pompeo da Fano, and afterwards with Giacomone da
Faenza. From the latter and other good Italian artists, whom he
assiduously studied, he acquired sufficient talent to distinguish
himself. He adopted a style which, though not very correct, was
unconstrained and engaging, and very attractive to such as do not look
for grandeur of design. He may be compared to that class of orators who
keep the attention of their hearers awake, not from the nature of their
subject, but from the clearness of their language, and from their
finding, or thinking they find, truth and nature in every word. His
pictures may be called compositions of portraits; the heads are
beautiful, the hands and feet not negligently painted, nor yet laboured,
as in the Florentine manner; the dress and ornaments, and form of the
beard, are agreeable to the times; the disposition is simple, and he
often imitates the old painters in shewing on the canvass only half
figures in the foreground, as if they were on a lower plain. He often
repeated the same countenance, and his own portrait. In his hands, feet,
and the folds of his drapery, he is still less varied, and not
unfrequently errs in his proportions.
In Rome are vast works of Taddeo, in fresco, and amongst the best may be
ranked the history of the Evangelists, in the church of the
Consolazione. He left few pictures in oil. There is a Pentecost by him
in the church of the Spirito Santo in Urbino, which city also possesses
some other of his works, though not in his best style. He is most
pleasing in his small cabinet pictures, which are finished in the first
style of excellence. One of the best of these, formerly possessed by the
Duke of Urbino, is now in the collection of the noble family of
Leopardi, in Osimo. It is a Nativity of our Lord, in Taddeo's best
manner, but none of his productions have added so much to his celebrity
as the pictures in the Farnese Palace of Caprarola, which were engraved
by Preninner in 1748. They represent the civil and military history of
the illustrious family of the Farnesi. There occur also other subjects,
sacred and profane, of which the most remarkable is the Stanza del
Sonno, the subject of which was executed in a highly poetical manner,
from the suggestions of Caro in a delightful letter, which was
circulated among his friends, and is reprinted in the Lettere
Pittoriche, (tom. iii. l. 99). Strangers who visit Caprarola, often
return with a higher opinion of this artist than they carried with them.
It is true that a number of young artists, fully his equal, or perhaps
superior to him, were employed there, both in conjunction with him and
after his death, whose works ought not to be confounded with his, though
it is not always easy to distinguish them. Like Raffaello, he died at
the age of thirty-seven, and his monument is to be seen at the side of
that illustrious master in the Rotunda.
Federigo, his brother and scholar, resembled him in style, but was not
equal to him in design, having more mannerism than Taddeo, being more
addicted to ornament, and more crowded in his composition. He was
engaged to finish in the Vatican, in the Farnese Palace, in the church
of La Trinita de' Monti, and other places, the various works which his
brother had left incomplete at his death; and he thus succeeded, as it
were, to the inheritance of his own house. He had the reputation of
possessing a noble style, and was invited by the Grand Duke Francis I.
to paint the great dome of the metropolitan church at Florence, which
was commenced by Vasari, and left unfinished at his death. Federigo in
that task designed more than three hundred figures, fifty feet in
height, without mentioning that of Lucifer, so gigantic that the rest
appeared like children, for so he informs us, adding, that they were the
largest figures that the world had ever seen.[61] But there is little to
admire in this work except the vastness of the conception,[62] and in
the time of Pier da Cortona, there was an intention of engaging that
artist to substitute for it a composition of his own, had not the
apprehension that his life might not be long enough to finish it,
frustrated the design. After the painting of this dome, every work on a
large scale in Rome was assigned to Federigo, and the Pope engaged him
to paint the vault of the Paolina, and thus give the last touch to a
work commenced by Michelangiolo. About this period, in order to revenge
himself on some of the principal officers of the Pope who had treated
him with indignity, he painted, and exposed to public view, an
allegorical picture of Calumny,[63] in which he introduced the portraits
of all those persons who had given him offence, representing them with
asses' ears. His enemies, on this, made such complaints, that he was
compelled to quit the dominions of the Pope. He therefore left Rome and
visited Flanders, Holland, and England, and was afterwards invited to
Venice to paint the submission of the Emperor Federigo Barbarossa to
Pope Alexander III., in the Palazzo Pubblico, and he was there highly
esteemed and constantly employed. The Pontiff being by this time
appeased, Federigo returned to finish the work he had left imperfect,
and which is perhaps the best of all he executed in Rome, without the
assistance of his brother. The larger picture also of S. Lorenzo in
Damaso, and that of the Angels in the Gesu, and other of his works in
various churches, are not deficient in merit. Federigo built for himself
a house in the Monte Pincio, and decorated it with pictures in fresco,
portraits of his own family, conversazioni, and many novel and strange
subjects, which he painted with the assistance of his scholars, and at
little expense; but on this occasion more than on any other, he appears
an indifferent artist, and may be called the champion of mediocrity.
Federigo was afterwards invited to Madrid by Philip II.; but that
monarch not being satisfied with his works, they were effaced, and their
places supplied by Tibaldi, and he himself, with an adequate pension,
was sent back to Italy. He undertook another journey late in life,
visiting the principal cities of Italy, and leaving specimens of his art
in every place where he was called to exercise his talents. One of the
best of these is an Assumption of the Virgin, in an Oratory of Rimino,
on which he inscribed his name, and the Death of the Virgin, at S. Maria
_in Acumine_, with some figures of the Apostles, more finished than
usual with him. A simple and graceful style is observable in his
Presepio, in the cathedral of Foligno, and in two pictures from the life
of the Virgin, in a chapel of Loreto, painted for the Duke of Urbino.
The Cistercian monks, at Milan, possess two large pictures in their
library on the Miracle della Neve, with a numerous assemblage of
figures, the countenances in his usual lively manner, the colouring
varied and well preserved. In the Borromei college, in Pavia, is a
saloon painted in fresco, with subjects from the life of S. Carlo. The
most admired of these is the saint at prayer in his retirement; the
other pieces, the Consistory in which was his chapel, and the Plague of
Milan, would be much better, if the figures were fewer. He returned to
Venice, where his great picture remained, and which had not been so much
injured by time, as by a sarcasm of Boschini on certain sugar
[_Zucchero_] of very poor quality lately imported into Venice, in
consequence of which he retouched his work, and wrote on it, by way of a
memorial, _Federicus Zuccarus f. an. sal. 1582, perfecit an. 1603_. It
is one of his best works, copious, and, agreeably to Zanetti, beautiful
and well sustained. He then went to Turin, where he painted a S. Paul,
for the Jesuits, and began to ornament a gallery for Charles Emanuel,
Duke of Savoy; and it was in that city that he first published _La idea
de' Pittori, Scultori, e Architetti_, which he dedicated to the Duke. He
afterwards returned into Lombardy, where he composed two other works,
the one intitled _La Dimora di Parma del Sig. Cav. Federigo Zuccaro_:
the other, _Il Passaggio per Italia colla dimora di Parma del Sig. Cav.
Federigo Zuccaro_, both printed in Bologna, in 1608. In the following
year, on his return to his native place, he fell sick in Ancona, where
he died. Baglione admired the versatility of talent in this artist,
which extended to sculpture and architecture; but more than all he
admired his good fortune, in which he exceeded all his contemporaries.
This distinction he owed in a great measure to his personal qualities,
to his noble presence, his encouragement of letters, his quality of
attaching persons to him, and his liberality, which led him to expend in
a generous manner the large sums he derived from his works.
He appears to have written with the intention of rivalling and excelling
Vasari. Whatever was the cause, Vasari was disliked by him, as may be
gathered from the notes to his Lives, occasionally cited by the
annotator of the Roman edition; and is charged by him with spleen and
malignity, particularly in the life of Taddeo Zuccaro. In order to excel
Vasari, it seems he chose an abstruse mode of writing, in opposition to
the plain style of that author. The whole work, printed in Turin, is
involved in its design, and instead of precepts, contains speculative
metaphysical opinions, which tend more to raise disputes than to convey
information. The language is incongruous and affected, and even the very
titles to the chapters are interwoven with many absurdities, as that of
the 12th, _Che la filosofia e il filosofare e disegno Metaforico
similitudinario_. This style may perhaps impose on the ignorant, but
cannot deceive the learned.[64] The latter do not esteem a writer for
pedantic expressions adopted from the Greek and Latin authors; but for a
correct mode of definition, for an accuracy of analysis, for a sagacity
in tracing effects to their true causes, and for a manner strictly
adapted to the subject. These qualities are not to be found in the works
of Federigo, where we find philosophical expressions mingled with
puerile reflections, as in the etymology of the word _disegno_, which
after much circumlocution, he informs us, owes its derivation to _Segno
di Dio_; and instead of affording any instructive maxims to youth, he
presents them with a mass of sterile and ill directed speculations.
Hence we may be said to derive more information from a single page of
Vasari, than from this author's whole work. Both Mariette and Bottari
have shewn the little esteem in which they held this work, by their
correspondence, inserted in the 6th volume of the Lettere Pittoriche.
Nor are his other two works of greater utility, one of which contains
some arguments in the same style, which are proposed as a theme for
disputation in the Academy of the Innominati, in Parma.
It is generally thought that this treatise of Zuccaro was composed in
Rome, where he presided in the Academy of S. Luke. That academy was
instituted in the pontificate of Gregory XIII., who signed the brief for
its foundation at the instance of Muziano, as Baglione relates in the
life of that artist. He further states, that when the ancient church of
S. Luke, on the Esquiline, was demolished, the seat I believe of the
society of painters, the church of S. Martina was allotted to them, at
the foot of the Campidoglio. But this brief does not seem to have been
used until the return of Zuccaro from Spain, as according to the same
writer, it was he who put it in execution. And this must have occurred
in 1595, if the year which was celebrated by the painters of S. Luke in
1695, was the true centenary of the Academy. But the origin of the
institution may be dated, agreeably to some persons, from the month of
November, 1593, as mentioned by the Sig. Barone Vernazza, who, among the
first promoters, or members, includes the Piedmontese Arbasia, on the
relation of Romano Alberti. Baglione says that Federigo was declared
president by common consent; and that that day was a sort of triumph to
him, as he was accompanied on his return home by a company of artists
and literary persons; and in a little time afterwards he assigned a
saloon in his own house for the use of the academy. He wrote both in
poetry and in prose in the Academy of S. Luke, which is referred to more
than once in his greater work. He evinced an extraordinary affection for
this institution, and according to the example of Muziano, he named it
the heir of his estate, in the event of the extinction of his family. He
was succeeded in the presidency by Laureti, and a series of eminent
artists down to our own time. The sittings of the academy have now for a
long time past been fixed in a house contiguous to the church of S.
Martina, which is decorated with the portraits and works of its members.
The picture of S. Luke, by Raffaello, is there religiously preserved,
together with his own portrait; and there too is to be seen the skull of
Raffaello, in a casket, the richest spoil ever won by death from the
empire of art. Of this academy we shall speak further towards the
conclusion of this third book. We will now return to Federigo.