[103] Dominici.
[104] "Le opere superstiti ne deon decidere; e secondo queste Marco da
Siena, ch'è il padre della Storia pittorica Napolitana, giudicò _che in
grandezza di fare_ Cimabue prevalepe."--Lanzi, ii. I. 580.
[105] Tommaso had a brother Pietro de' Stefani, who professed painting,
but practised sculpture: of his works the monuments of Pope Innocenzio
IV., who died at Naples 1254, of Charles the First and Second, are the
most eminent. The two sitting statues of these two kings are still seen
over the small gates of the Episcopal palace.
[106] Signorelli Vicende della Coltura delle due Sicilie,--t. iii. 116.
[107] The Vatican alone is sufficient to prove that gold-grounds were
still recurred to in the best years of the sixteenth century.
[108] In the life of Giuliano da Majano. They are the first painters of
the Neapolitan schools mentioned by him, though with an ambiguity which
might induce us to believe that he meant to give them for Tuscany.
[109] In the forty-first sonnet, addressed to King Federigo: "Vedi
invitto Signor come risplende," &c.
[110] Some call him Giacomo, some Andria, most, and with greater
probability, Bernardo.
[111] See the remarks relative to Antoniello, in the history of Venetian
art; but it is in place here to observe on the assertions of the
Neapolitan writers, that, if the tradition of a Greek picture in oil at
the Duomo of Messina be not fabulous, Antoniello could not have remained
ignorant of it. If Colantonio was in possession of oil painting, how is
the astonishment to be accounted for, which the method of John ab Eyk
excited at Naples? How came the name of an obscure Fleming to fill in a
short period all Europe, every prince to solicit his pencil, every
painter to submit to his dictates or those of his scholars? Who, on the
contrary, who out of Naples or its state, knew then Colantonio? who
courted Solario? a man so apt, the son-in-law and scholar of the former,
and before of Lippo Dalmasio--how forgot he to learn, or why did he
neglect a method they are said to have practised so well, for the vulgar
one of distemper? Either they knew nothing of the mystery at all, or in
a degree too insignificant to affect the authority of Vasari, and the
claims of John ab Eyk and Antoniello.
[112] A. Sabbatini from 1480 to 1545.
[113] 1508 to 1542.
[114] Vasari.
[115] Said to be in 1587.
[116] These two laid the foundation of a History of Neapolitan Art. The
transient manner in which Vasari had mentioned Marco in the new edition
of his Lives, his silence on many Sienese, and omission of most
Neapolitan painters, were probably the causes that provoked the literary
opposition of Marco. His pupil, the Notary, furnished him with
materials, from the archives and domestic tradition, for the Discourse
which he composed in 1569, the year after the edition of Vasari; though
it remained in MS. till 1742, when, jointly with the Memoirs of
Criscuolo, in the Neapolitan dialect, &c., the greater part of it was,
published by Dominici.
[117] B. Corenzio, 1558 to 1643.
[118] In an inscription on one of his pictures, mentioned by
Palomino, he styles himself "Jusepe de Ribera Español de la Ciutad de
Xativa, e reyno de Valencia, Academico Romano, año 1630;" but the
Neapolitans, who maintained that he was born of Spanish parents in the
neighbourhood of Lecce, ascribe this and similar subscriptions on his
works rather to his ambition of ingratiating himself with the
government, which was Spanish, than to a genuine desire of acquainting
posterity with his native country.
Lo Spagnoletto 1588, vivo in 1649.
[119] Caracciolo di Batistiello, died 1641.
[120] Dominici.
[121] As it is evident that the deputies broke a formal contract with
Correnzio and Batistiello, it is not easily discovered on what principle
Lanzi has praised their conduct.
[122] It is contradicted only by the unsupported assertion of Bermudez,
who tells that Ribera died rich and honoured 1656 at Naples.
[123] M. Stanzioni, 1585 to 1656.
[124] Vaccaro, 1598 to 1671.
[125] M. Preti, 1613 to 1699.
[126] A. Falcone, 1600 to 1665.
[127] Born 1632, died 1705.
[128] The assent of Carlo Celano (Giornata IV.) seems to authenticate
this tradition.
[129] Luca, fa Presto!
[130] He used to tell, that then he had drawn twelve times the Stanze
and the Loggia of Rafaello, and nearly twenty the Battle of Constantine,
without mentioning his copies from the Sistina, Polidoro, A. Caracci,
&c.; hence, some one has called him by a bold but pertinent allusion
"The Thunderbolt of Art," as others its Proteus, from the singular
talent of mimicking the manner and touch of every master. Many are the
pictures painted by him, which passed for works of Albert Durer,
Bassano, Tiziano, and Rubens, not only with connoisseurs, a task less
difficult, but with his rivals, whose eyes malignity as well as
discernment might have sharpened: these deceptions fetched at sales
doubly and trebly the price of an ordinary Giordano. Specimens are still
to be found in the churches of Naples; for instance, the two
altar-pieces in that of S. Teresa, which have all the air of Guido,
especially that which represents the Nativity of the Saviour.
[131] Born 1657; died 1748.
[132] Il Calabrese ringentilito.
[133] Mengs.