inferior branches of the art, whose brightest era may be said to have
been in the reign of Urban VIII. Landscape, indeed, never flourished so
greatly as at that period. A little time before this pontificate, died
in Rome, Adam Elzheimer, or Adam of Frankfort, or Tedesco, who had
already, under the pontificate of Paul V., established a school (in
which David Teniers was instructed); an artist of an admirable fancy,
who in an evening committed to the canvass, with singular fidelity, the
scenery which he had visited in the early part of the day, and he so
refined his style in Rome, that his pictures, which generally
represented night scenes, were there held in the greatest request. Only
a short time too had elapsed since the death of Giovanni Batista Viola
in Rome, one of the first artists who, profiting from the instructions
of Annibal Caracci, reformed the old, dry style of the Flemish, and
introduced a richer mode of touching landscape. Vincenzio Armanno had
also promoted this branch of art, adding to his landscapes a similitude
to nature, which without much selection of ground, or trees, or
accompaniments, charms us by its truth, and a certain stilness of
colour, pleasingly chequered with lights and shades. He is highly to be
commended too in his figures, and is copious in his invention. But the
three celebrated landscape painters, whose works are so much sought
after in the collections of princes, appeared under Urban; Salvator
Rosa, a Neapolitan, and a poet of talent; Claude Gellee, of Lorraine;
and Gaspar Dughet, also called Poussin, the relative of Niccolas, as I
have already mentioned. That kind of fashion, which often aspires to
give a tone to the fine arts, alternately exalted one or other of these
three, and thus also obliged the painters in Rome to copy in succession,
and to follow their various styles.
Rosa was the most celebrated of this class at the commencement of this
century. A scholar of Spagnoletto, and the son, as one may say, of
Caravaggio, as in historical composition he attached himself to the
strong natural style and dark colouring of that master, so in landscape
he seems to have adopted his subject without selection, or rather to
have selected the least pleasing parts. _Le selve selvagge_, to speak
with Dante, savage scenery, Alps, broken rocks and caves, wild thickets,
and desert plains, are the kind of scenery in which he chiefly
delighted; his trees are shattered, torn, and dishevelled; and in the
atmosphere itself he seldom introduced a cheerful hue, except
occasionally a solitary sunbeam. He observed the same manner too in his
sea views. His style was original, and may be said to have been
conducted on a principle of savage beauty, as the palate of some persons
is gratified with austere wines. His pictures too were rendered more
acceptable from the small figures of shepherds, mariners, or banditti,
which he has introduced in almost all his compositions; and he was
reproached by his rivals with having continually repeated the same
ideas, and in a manner copied himself.
Owing to his frequent practice, he had more merit in his small than in
his large figures. He was accustomed to insert them in his landscapes,
and composed his historical pictures in the same style as the Regulus,
so highly praised in the Colonna palace, or fancy subjects, as the
Witchcrafts, which we see in the Campidoglio, and in many private
collections. In these he is never select, nor always correct, but
displays great spirit, freedom of execution, and skill and harmony of
colour. In other respects he has proved, more than once, that his genius
was not confined to small compositions, as there are some altarpieces
well conceived, and of powerful effect, particularly where the subject
demands an expression of terror, as in a Martyrdom of Saints at S. Gio.
de' Fiorentini at Rome; and in the Purgatory, which I saw at S. Giovanni
delle Case Rotte in Milan, and at the church del Suffragio in Matelica.
We have also some profane subjects by him, finely executed on a large
scale; such is the Conspiracy of Catiline, in the possession of the
noble family of Martelli, in Florence, mentioned also by Bottari, as one
of his best works. Rosa left Naples at the age of twenty, and
established himself in Rome, where he died at the age of about sixty.
His remains were placed in the church degli Angeli, with his portrait
and eulogy; and another portrait of him is to be seen in the Chigi
gallery, which does not seem to have been recognised by Pascoli; the
picture represents a savage scene; a poet is represented in a sitting
attitude, (the features those of Salvator,) and before him stands a
satyr, allusive to his satiric style of poetry, but the picture is
described by the biographer as the god Pan appearing to the poet Pindar.
He had a scholar in Bartol. Torregiani, who died young, and who excelled
in landscape, but was not accomplished enough to add the figures.
Giovanni Ghisolfi, of Milan, a master of perspective, adopted in his
figures the style of Salvator.
Gaspar Dughet, or Poussin, of Rome, or of the Roman School, did not much
resemble Rosa, except in despatch. Both these artists were accustomed to
commence and finish a landscape and decorate it with figures on the same
day. Poussin, contrary to Salvator, selected the most enchanting scenes,
and the most beautiful aspects of nature; the graceful poplar, the
spreading plane trees, limpid fountains, verdant meads, gently
undulating hills, villas delightfully situated, calculated to dispel the
cares of state, and to add to the delights of retirement. All the
enchanting scenery of the Tusculan or Tiburtine territory, and of Rome,
where, as Martial observes, nature has combined the many beauties which
she has scattered singly in other places, was copied by this artist. He
composed also ideal landscapes, in the same way that Torquato Tasso, in
describing the garden of Armida, concentrated in his verses all the
recollections of the beautiful which he had observed in nature.
Notwithstanding this extreme passion for grace and beauty, it is the
opinion of many, that there is not a greater name amongst landscape
painters. His genius had a natural fervour, and as we may say, a
language, that suggests more than it expresses. To give an example, in
some of his larger landscapes, similar to those in the Panfili palace,
we may occasionally observe an artful winding of the road, which in part
discovers itself to the eye, but in other parts, leaves itself to be
followed by the mind. Every thing that Gaspar expresses, is founded in
nature. In his leaves he is as varied as the trees themselves, and is
only accused of not having sufficiently diversified his tints, and of
adhering too much to a green hue. He not only succeeded in representing
the rosy tint of morning, the splendour of noon, evening twilight, or a
sky tempestuous or serene; but the passing breeze that whispers through
the leaves, storms that tear and uproot the trees of the forest,
lowering skies, and clouds surcharged with thunder and rent with
lightning, are represented by him with equal success. Niccolas, who had
taught him to select the beauties of nature, instructed him also in the
figures, and the accessary parts of the composition. Thus in Gaspar
every thing displays elegance and erudition, the edifices have all the
beautiful proportions of the antique; and to these may be added arches
and broken columns, when the scene lay in the plains of Greece or Rome;
or, if in Egypt, pyramids, obelisks, and the idols of the country. The
figures which he introduces are not in general shepherds and their
flocks, as in the Flemish pictures, but are derived from history, or
classic fables, hawking parties, poets crowned with laurel, and other
similar decorations, generally novel, and finished in a style almost as
fine as miniature. His school gave birth to but few followers. By some
Crescenzio di Onofrio is alone considered his true imitator, of whom
little remains in Rome; nor indeed is he much known in Florence,
although he resided there many years in the service of the ducal house.
It is said that he executed many works for the ducal villas; and that he
painted for individuals may be conjectured from some beautiful
landscapes which the Sig. Cancelliere Scrilli possesses, together with
the portrait of Sig. Angelo, his ancestor, on which the artist has
inscribed his name and the year 1712, the date of his work. After him we
may record Gio. Domenico Ferracuti, of Macerata, in which city, and in
others of Piceno, are to be found many landscapes painted by him,
chiefly snow pieces, in which kind of landscape he was singularly
distinguished.
Claude Lorraine is generally esteemed the prince of landscape painters,
and his compositions are indeed, of all others, the richest and the most
studied. A short time suffices to run through a landscape of Poussin or
Rosa from one end to the other, when compared with Claude, though on a
much smaller surface. His landscapes present to the spectator an endless
variety; so many views of land and water, so many interesting objects,
that like an astonished traveller, the eye is obliged to pause to
measure the extent of the prospect, and his distances of mountains or of
sea are so illusive, that the spectator feels, as it were, fatigued by
gazing. The edifices and temples, which so finely round off his
compositions, the lakes peopled with aquatic birds, the foliage
diversified in conformity to the different kinds of trees,[82] all is
nature in him; every object arrests the attention of an amateur, every
thing furnishes instruction to a professor; particularly when he painted
with care, as in the pictures of the Altieri, Colonna, and other palaces
of Rome. There is not an effect of light, or a reflection in the water,
or in the sky itself, which he has not imitated; and the various changes
of the day are no where better represented than in Claude. In a word, he
is truly the painter, who in depicting the three regions of air, earth,
and water, has embraced the whole universe. His atmosphere almost always
bears the impress of the sky of Rome, whose horizon is, from its
situation, rosy, dewy, and warm. He did not possess any peculiar merit
in his figures, which are insipid, and generally too much attenuated;
hence he was accustomed to observe to the purchasers of his pictures,
that he sold them the landscape, and presented them with the figures
gratis. The figures indeed were generally added by another hand,
frequently by Lauri. A painter of the name of Angiolo, who died young,
deserves to be mentioned as the scholar of Claude, as well as
Vandervert. Claude also contributed to the instruction of Gaspar
Poussin.
To the preceding may be added those artists who particularly
distinguished themselves by sea views and shipping. Enrico Cornelio
Vroom is called Enrico di Spagna, as he came to Rome immediately from
Seville, although born in Haerlem in Holland. He was a pupil of the
Brills, and seems rather to have aimed at imitating the national art of
shipbuilding, than the varying appearances of the sea and sky. No one is
more diligent, or more minute in fitting up the vessels with every
requisite for sailing; and some persons have purchased his pictures, for
the sole purpose of instructing themselves in the knowledge of ships,
and the mode of arming them. Sandrart relates that he returned to Spain,
and there painted landscapes, views of cities, fishing boats, and
seafights. He places his birth in 1566, whence he must have flourished
about the year 1600. Guarienti makes a separate article of Enrico Vron
of Haerlem, as if he had been a different artist. Another article is
occupied upon _Enrico delle Marine_, and on the authority of Palomino,
he says, that that artist was born in Cadiz, and coming to Rome, there
acquired that name; and that, without wishing ever to return to Spain,
he employed himself in painting in that city shipping and sea views
until his death, at the age of sixty in 1680. I have named three
writers, whose contradictions I have frequently adverted to in this
work, and whose discordant notices require much examination to reconcile
or refute. What I have advanced respecting Enrico was the result of my
observations on several pictures in the Colonna gallery, six in number,
and which, as far as I could judge, all partake of a hard and early
style, and generally of a peculiar reddish tone, often observed in the
landscapes of Brill. Any other Enrico di Spagna, a marine painter, or of
a style corresponding with that of him who died in 1680, I have not met
with in any collection, nor is any such artist to be found in the works
of Sig. Conca, as any one may ascertain by referring to the index of his
work. Hence, at present, I can recognize the Dutch artist alone, and
shall be ready to admit the claims of the Cadiz painter whenever I am
furnished with proofs of his having really existed.
Agostino Tassi, of Perugia, whose real name was Buonamici, a man of
infamous character, but an excellent painter, was the scholar of Paul
Brill, though he was ambitious of being thought a pupil of the Caracci.
He had already distinguished himself as a landscape painter, when he was
condemned to the galleys at Leghorn, where through interest the
laborious part of his sentence was remitted, and in this situation he
prosecuted his art with such ardour, that he soon obtained the first
rank as a painter of sea views, representing ships, storms, fishing
parties, and the dresses of mariners of various countries with great
spirit and propriety. He excelled too in perspective, and in the papal
palace of the Quirinal and in the palace de' Lancellotti displayed an
excellent style of decoration, which his followers very much
overcharged. He painted many pictures in Genoa, in conjunction with
Salimbeni and Gentileschi, and was assisted by a scholar of his born in
Rome, and domiciled in Genoa, where he died. This scholar is called by
Raffaello Soprani, Gio. Batista Primi, and he eulogizes him as an
esteemed painter of sea views.
Equal to Tassi in talent, and still more infamous in his life, was
Pietro Mulier, or Pietro de Mulieribus, of Holland, who, from his
surprising pictures of storms, was called Il Tempesta. His compositions
inspire a real terror, presenting to our eyes death, devoted ships
overtaken by tempests and darkness, fired by lightning, or driving
helpless before the demons of the storm; now rising on the mountain
waves, and again submerged in the abyss of ocean. His works are more
frequently met with than those of Tassi, as he almost always painted in
oil. He was assisted in Rome by a young man, who in consequence obtained
the name of Tempestino, though he often exercised his genius in
landscape in the style of Poussin. He afterwards married a sister of
this young artist, and subsequently procured her assassination, for
which he was sentenced to death in Genoa, but his sentence was commuted
for five years imprisonment. His pictures of storms, which he painted in
his dungeon, seem to have acquired an additional gloom from the horrors
of his prison, his merited punishment, and his guilty conscience. These
works were very numerous, and were considered his best performances. He
excelled also in the painting of animals, for which purpose he kept a
great variety of them in his house. Lastly, he acquired celebrity from
his landscapes, in some of which he has shewn himself not an unworthy
follower of Claude in invention, enriching them with a great variety of
scenery, hills, lakes, and beautiful edifices, but he is still far
behind that master in regard to tone of colour and finishing. He was
however superior to Claude in his figures, to which he gave a mixed
Italian and Flemish character, with lively, varied, and expressive
countenances. There are more specimens of his talents in Milan than in
any other place, as he passed his latter years in that and the
neighbouring cities, as in Bergamo, and particularly in Piacenza. His
epitaph is given in the Guida di Milano, page 129.
Il Montagna, another artist from Holland, was also a painter of sea
views, which may almost indeed be called the landscapes of the Dutch. He
left many works in Italy, more particularly in Florence and in Rome,
where he is sometimes mistaken for Tempesta in the galleries and in
picture sales; but Montagna, as far as I can judge, is more serene in
his skies, and darker in his waves and the appearance of the sea. A
large picture of the Deluge, which is at S. Maria Maggiore in Bergamo,
placed there in 1668, in which the figures are by the Cav. Liberi, is
supposed to be by Montagna, from the tone of the water. This however is
an error, for the Montagna of whom we speak, called by Felibien (tom.
iii. p. 339,) Montagna di Venezia, certainly died in Padua; and in a MS.
by a contemporary author, where he is mentioned as a distinguished sea
painter, he is said to have died in 1644. I apprehend this is the same
artist whom Malvasia (tom. ii. p. 78,) calls Mons. Rinaldo della
Montagna, and states that he was held in esteem by Guido for his
excellence in sea views. I also find a Niccolo de Plate Montagna,
favourably mentioned by Felibien, also a marine painter, who died about
1665; and I formerly imagined that this might be the artist who painted
so much in Italy, but I now retract that opinion.
Tempesti was the first to introduce the custom of decorating landscapes
with battles and skirmishes. A Flemish artist of the name of Jacopo
succeeded to him in this branch, but his fame was eclipsed by his own
scholar Cerquozzi, a Roman, who from his singular talent in this
respect, was called Michelangiolo delle Battaglie. He was superior to
Tempesti in colouring, but inferior to him in designing horses. In the
human figure, too, he is less correct, and more daring in the style of
his master Cesari. It must however be remembered, that when Cerquozzi
painted battles he was not in his prime, and that his chief merit lay in
subjects on which I shall presently make some remarks.
Padre Jacopo Cortese, a Jesuit, called from his native country Il
Borgognone, carried this branch of the art to a height unknown before or
since. M. A. Cerquozzi discovered his genius for this department, and
persuaded him to abandon the other branches of painting which he
cultivated, and to confine himself to this alone. The Battle of
Constantine, by Giulio Romano in the Vatican, was the model on which he
founded his style. His youth had been dedicated to arms, and his
military spirit was not to be extinguished by the luxury of Rome, or the
indolence of the cloister. He imparted a wonderful air of reality to his
compositions. His combatants appear before us courageously contending
for honour or for life, and we seem to hear the cries of the wounded,
the blast of the trumpet, and the neighing of the horses. He was indeed
an inimitable artist in his line, and his scholars were accustomed to
say that their own figures seemed to fight only in jest, while those of
Borgognone were the real occupants of the field of battle. He painted
with great despatch, and his battle pieces are in consequence very
frequent in collections; his touch was rapid, in strokes, and his pencil
flowing, so that the effect is heightened by distance; and this style
was probably the result of his study of Paolo at Venice, and of Guido in
Bologna. From whatever cause it may be, his colouring is very different
from that of Guglielmo Baur, who is considered his master, and of whom
there are some works in the Colonna gallery. There also may be seen
several specimens of his scholars, Bruni, Graziano, and Giannizero, who
adopted from Borgognone their colouring, and the selection of a distant
point of view for their subject. Others of his scholars occur in various
schools.
It was also during the pontificate of Urban, about the year 1626, that
the burlesque style was first brought into notice in Rome. It had been
practised by Ludius in the time of Augustus, and was not wholly unknown
to our early artists; but I am not aware that any one had exercised this
branch as a profession, or on so small a scale as was practised by
Pietro Laar, who was called Bamboccio, from his deformity, as well as
from the subjects of his pencil; and the appellation of _bambocciate_ is
generally applied to these small pictures, which represent the
festivities of the vintage, dances, fights, and carnival masquerades.
His figures are usually of a span in size, and the accompanying
landscape and the animals are so vividly coloured, that we seem, says
Passeri, to see the very objects themselves from an open window, rather
than the representation on canvass. The great painters frequently
purchased the pictures of Pietro, in order to study his natural style of
colour, though at the same time they lamented that so much talent should
be misapplied to such low subjects.[83] He resided many years in Rome,
and then retired to Holland, where he died at an advanced age, and not a
young man, as Passeri has imagined.
His place and his employ in Rome were soon filled up by Cerquozzi, who
had for some time past exchanged the name of M. A. delle Battaglie, for
that of M. A. delle Bambocciate. Although the subjects which he
represents are humourous, like those of Laar, the incidents and the
characters are for the most part different. The first adopted the
Flemish boors, the other the peasantry of Italy. They had both great
force of colour, but Bamboccio excels Cerquozzi in landscape, while the
latter discovers more spirit in his figures. One of Cerquozzi's largest
compositions is in the Spada palace at Rome, in which he represented a
band of insurgent Lazzaroni applauding Maso Aniello.
Laar had another excellent imitator in Gio. Miel, of Antwerp, who having
imbibed a good style of colouring from Vandyke, came to Rome and
frequented the school of Sacchi. From thence, however, he was soon
dismissed, as his master wished him to attempt serious subjects, but he
was led both by interest and genius to the burlesque. His pictures
pleased from their spirited representations and their excellent
management of light and shade, and brought high prices from collectors.
He afterwards painted on a larger scale, and besides some altarpieces in
Rome, he left some considerable works in Piedmont, where we shall notice
him again. Theodore Hembreker, of Haerlem, also employed himself on
humourous subjects, and scenes of common life, although there are some
religious pieces attributed to him in the church della Pace in Rome, and
a number of landscapes in private collections. He passed many years in
Italy, and visited most of the great cities, so that his works are
frequently found not only in Rome, where he had established himself, but
in Florence, Naples, Venice, and elsewhere. His style is a pleasing
union of the Flemish and Italian.
Many artists of this period attached themselves to the painting of
animals. Castiglione distinguished himself in this line, but he resided
for the most part of his time in another country. M. Gio. Rosa, of
Flanders, is the most known in Rome and the State, for the great number
of his paintings of animals, in which he possessed a rare talent. It is
told of him, that dogs were deceived by the hares he painted, thus
reviving the wonderful story of Zeuxis, so much boasted of by Pliny. Two
of his largest and finest pictures are in the Bolognetti collection, and
there is attached to them a portrait, but whether of the painter
himself, or some other person, is not known. We must not confound this
artist with Rosa da Tivoli, who was also an excellent animal painter,
but not so celebrated in Italy, and flourished at a later period, and
whose real name was Philip Peter Roos. He was son-in-law of Brandi, and
his scholar in Rome, and rivalled his hasty method in many pictures
which I have seen in Rome and the states of the church; but we ought not
to rest our decision of his merits on these works, but should view the
animals painted by him at his leisure, particularly for the galleries of
princes. These are to be found in Vienna, Dresden, Monaco, and other
capital cities of Germany; and London possesses not a few of the first
value in their way.[84]
After Caravaggio had given the best examples of flowers in his pictures,
the Cav. Tommaso Salini, of Rome, an excellent artist, as may be seen in
a S. Niccola at S. Agostino, was the first that composed vases of
flowers, accompanying them with beautiful groups of corresponding
foliage, and other elegant designs. Others too pursued this branch, and
the most celebrated of all, was Mario Nuzzi della Penna, better known by
the name of Mario da' Fiori; whose productions during his life were
emulously sought after, and purchased at great prices; but after the
lapse of some years, not retaining their original freshness, and
acquiring, from a vicious mode of colouring, a black and squalid
appearance, they became much depreciated in value. The same thing
happened to the flower pieces of Laura Bernasconi, who was his best
imitator, and whose works are still to be seen in many collections.