of Francis I. It was indeed an honour, by which destiny in some degree
atoned to that monarch for his future disaster at Pavia.
[33] Frà. Bartolomeo died at Florence 1517, at the age of 48.
[34] Michael Angelo Buonarroti born at Castel-Caprese in 1474, died at
Rome 1564, aged 90.
[35] Like Silanion—‘Apollodorum fecit, fictorem et ipsum, sed inter
cunctos diligentissimum artis & inimicum sui judicem, crebro perfecta
signa frangentem, dum satiare cupiditatem nequit artis, et ideo insanum
cognominarum. Hoc in eo expressit, nec hominem ex ære fecit sed
Iracundiam.’ Plin. 1. xxxiv. 7.
[36] When M. Angelo pronounced oil-painting to be _Arte da donna e da
huomini agiati e infingardi_, a maxim to which the fierce Venetian
manner has given an air of paradox, he spoke relatively to fresco: it
was a lash on the short-sighted insolence of Sebastian del Piombo,
who wanted to persuade Paul III. to have the last judgment painted in
oil. That he had a sense for the beauties of oil colour, its glow, its
juice, its richness, its pulp, the praises which he lavished on Titiano,
whom he called the only painter, and his patronage of Frà. Sebastian
himself, evidently prove. When young, M. Angelo attempted oil-painting
with success; the picture painted for Angelo Doni is an instance, and
probably the only intire work of the kind that remains. The Lazarus, in
the picture destined for the cathedral at Narbonne, rejects the claim of
every other hand. The Leda, the cartoon of which, formerly in the palace
of the Vecchietti at Florence, is now in the possession of W. Lock, Esq.,
was painted in distemper; (a tempera); all small or large oil pictures
shown as his, are copies from his designs or cartoons, by Marcello
Venusti, Giacopo da Pontormo, Battista Franco, and Sebastian of Venice.
[37] Raphael Sanzio, of Urbino, died at Rome 1520, at the age of 37.
[38] Giorgio Barbarelli, from his size and beauty called Giorgione, was
born at Castel Franco, in the territory of Venice, 1478, and died at
Venice, 1511.
[39] Titiano Vecelli, or as the Venetians call him, Tiziàn, born at Cador
in the Friulese, died at Venice, 1576, aged 99.
[40] The birth and life of Antonio Allegri, or as he called himself
Læti, surnamed Correggio, is more involved in obscurity than the life
of Apelles. Whether he was born in 1490 or 94 is not ascertained; the
time of his death in 1534 is more certain. The best account of him has
undoubtedly been given by A. R. Mengs in his _Memorie concernenti la vita
e le opere di Antonio Allegri denominato il Correggio_. Vol. ii. of his
works, published by the Spaniard D. G. Niccola d’Azara.
[41] Pelegrino Tibaldi died at Milano in 1592, aged 70.
[42] Sebastiano, afterwards called Del Piombo from the office of the
papal signet, died at Rome in 1547, aged 62.
[43] Daniel Ricciarelli, of Volterra, died in 1566, aged 57.
[44] Now the first ornament of the exquisite collection of J. J.
Angerstein, Esq.
[45] Giorgio Vasari, of Arezzo, died in 1584, aged 68.
[46] Julio Pipi, called Romano, died at Mantoua in 1546, aged 54.
[47] Francesco Primaticcio, made Abbé de St. Martin de Troyes, by Francis
I., died in France 1570, aged 80.
[48] Polydoro Caldara da Caravaggio was assassinated at Messina in 1543,
aged 51.
[49] Michael Angelo Amerigi, surnamed Il Caravaggi, knight of Malta, died
1609, aged 40.
[50] Nicolas Poussin, of Andely, died at Rome 1665, aged 71.
[51] Salvator Rosa, surnamed Salvatoriello, died at Rome 1673, aged 59.
[52] Of the portraits which Raphael in fresco scattered over the
compositions of the Vatican, we shall find an opportunity to speak.
But in oil the real style of portrait began at Venice with Giorgione,
flourished in Sebastian del Piombo, and was carried to perfection by
Titiano, who filled the masses of the first without entangling himself
in the minute details of the second. Tintoretto, Bassan, and Paolo of
Verona, followed the principle of Titiano. After these, it migrated
from Italy to reside with the Spaniard Diego Velasquez; from whom
Rubens and Vandyck attempted to transplant it to Flanders, France and
England, with unequal success. France seized less on the delicacy than
on the affectation of Vandyck, and soon turned the art of representing
men and women into a mere remembrancer of fashions and airs. England
had possessed Holbein, but it was reserved for the German Lely, and
his successor Kneller, to lay the foundation of a manner, which, by
pretending to unite portrait with history, gave a retrograde direction
for near a century, to both. A mob of shepherds and shepherdesses in
flowing wigs and dressed curls, ruffled Endymion’s, humble Juno’s,
withered Hebe’s, surly Allegroes, and smirking Pensierosa’s, usurped the
place of truth, propriety and character. Even the lamented powers of the
greatest painter, whom this country and perhaps our age produced, long
vainly struggled, and scarcely in the eve of life succeeded to emancipate
us from this dastard taste.
[53] Francesco Mazzuoli, called il Parmegiano, died at Casal Maggiore
in 1540, at the age of 36. The magnificent picture of the St. John, we
speak of, was begun by order of the Lady Maria Bufalina, and destined for
the church of St. Salvadore del Lauro at Città di Castello. It probably
never received the last hand of the master, who fled from Rome, where he
painted it, at the sacking of that city, under Charles Bourbon, in 1527;
it remained in the refectory of the convent della Pace for several years,
was carried to Città di Castello by Messer Giulio Bufalini, and is now in
England. The Moses, a figure in fresco at Parma, together with Raphael’s
figure of God in the vision of Ezekiel, is said, by Mr. Mason, to have
furnished Gray with the head and action of his bard: if that was the
case, he would have done well, to acquaint us with the poet’s method, of
making ‘Placidis coire immitia.’
[54] Lodovico Carracci died at Bologna 1619, aged 64.
Agostino Carracci died at Parma in 1602, at the age of 44. His is the St.
Girolamo in the Certosa, near Bologna; his, the Thetis with the nereids,
cupids, and tritons, in the gallery of the palace Farnese. Why, as an
engraver, he should have wasted his powers on the large plate from the
crucifixion, painted by Tintoretto, in the hospitio of the school of St.
Rocco, a picture, of which he could not express the tone, its greatest
merit, is not easily unriddled. Annibale Carracci died at Rome in 1609,
at the age of 49.
[55] _SONNET OF AGOSTINO CARRACCI._
Chi farsi un buon Pittor cerca, e desia,
Il disegno di Roma habbia alla mano,
La mossa coll’ ombrar Veneziano,
E il degno colorir di Lombardia.
Di Michel’ Angiol la terribil via
Il vero natural di Tiziano,
Del Correggio lo stil puro, e sovrano,
E di un Rafel la giusta simetria.
Del Tibaldi il decoro, e il fondamento,
Del dotto Primaticcio l’inventare,
E un po di gratia del Parmigianino.
Ma senza tanti studi, e tanto stento,
Si ponga l’opre solo ad imitare,
Che qui lasciocci il nostro Niccolino.
Malvasia, author of the _Felsina Pittrice_, has made this sonnet the text
to his drowsy rhapsody on the frescoes of Lodovico Carracci and some
of his scholars, in the cloisters of St. Michele in Bosco, by Bologna.
He circumscribes the ‘_Mossa Veneziana_,’ of the sonnet, by ‘_Quel
strepitoso motivo & quel divincolamento_’ peculiar to Tintoretto.
[56] Guido Reni died in 1642, aged 68. Giov. Lanfranco died at Naples in
1647 aged 66. Franc. Albani died in 1660, aged 82. Domenico Zampieri,
called il Domenichino, died in 1641, aged 60. Franc. Barbieri of Cento,
called il Guercino, from a cast in his eye, died in 1667, aged 76.
[57] Pietro Berretini, of Cortona, the painter of the cieling in the
Barberini hall, and of the gallery in the lesser Pamphili palace; the
vernal suavity of whose fresco-tints no pencil ever equalled, died at
Rome in 1669, aged 73. Luca Giordano, nick-named Fa-presto, or Dispatch,
from the rapidity of his execution, the greatest machinist of his time,
died in 1705, aged 76.
[58] We are informed by the Editor of the Latin translation of Albert
Durer’s book, on the symmetry of the parts of the human frame, (Parisiis,
in officina Caroli Perier in vico Bellovaco, sub Bellerophonte, 1557,
fol.) that, during Albert’s stay at Venice, where he resided for a
short time, to procure redress from the Signoria, for the forgery of
Marc Antonio, he became familiar with Giovanni Bellini: and that Andrea
Mantegna, who had heard of his arrival in Italy, and had conceived
an high opinion of his execution and fertility, sent him a message
of invitation to Mantoua, for the express purpose of giving him an
idea of that form of which he himself had obtained a glimpse from the
contemplation of the antique. Andrea was then ill, and expired before
Albert, who immediately prepared to set out for Mantoua, could profit
by his instructions. This disappointment, says my author, Albert never
ceased to lament during his life. How fit the Mantouan was to instruct
the German, is not the question here; but Albert’s regret seems to prove
that he felt a want which his model could not supply; and that he had
too just an idea of the importance of the art to be proud of dexterity
of finger or facility of execution, when employed on objects essentially
defective or comparatively trifling. The following personal account of
Albert deserves to be given in the Latin Editor’s own words: ‘E Pannonia
oriundum accepimus—Erat caput argutum, oculi micantes, nasus honestus
& quern Greci Τετράγωνον vocant; proceriusculum collum, pectus amplum,
castigatus venter, femora nervosa, crura stabilia: sed digitis nihil
dixisses vidisse elegantius.’
Albert Durer was the scholar of Martin Schön and Michael Wolgemuth, and
died at Nuremberg in 1528, aged 57.
[59] Lucas Jacob, called Lucas of Leyden, and by the Italians, Luca
d’Ollanda, died at Leyden in 1533.
[60] Peter Paul Rubens, of Cologne, the disciple of Adam Van Ort and Otho
Venius, died at or near Antwerp in 1641, aged 63.
See the admirable character given of him by Sir Joshua Reynolds, annexed
to his journey to Flanders, vol. ii. of his works.
[61] Anthony Vandyck died in London, 1641, at the age of 42.—The poetic
conception of Abraham Diepenbeck may be estimated from the Temple des
Muses of Mr. de Marolles; re-edited but not improved by Bernard Picart.
[62] Rembrandt died, at Amsterdam? in 1674, aged 68.
[63] Hans Holbein, of Basle, died in London, 1544, at the age of 46.
Peter Francis Mola, the scholar of Giuseppe d’Arpino and Franc. Albani,
was born at the village of Coldre, of the diocese of Balerna, in the
bailliage of Mendrisio, in 1621, and died at Rome in 1666.
[64] Eustache le Sueur, bred under Simon Voüet, died at Paris in 1655, at
the age of 38. His fellow scholar and overbearing rival Charles le Brun,
died in 1690, aged 71.
[65] For the best account of Spanish art, see Lettera di A. R. Mengs a
Don Antonio Ponz. Opere di Mengs, vol. ii. Mengs was born at Ausig, in
Bohemia, in 1728, and died at Rome in 1779.
[66]
Ὑλῃ και τροποις μιμησεως διαφερουςι.
Πλουταρχ. Π. Αθ. κατα Π. ἠ καθ’ ἐ. ἐνδ.
See Lessings Laokoon. Berlin 1766. 8vo.
[67] All minute detail tends to destroy terrour, as all minute
ornament, grandeur. The catalogue of the cauldron’s ingredients in
Macbeth, destroys the terrour attendant on the mysterious darkness of
preternatural agency; and the seraglio trappings of Rubens, annihilate
his heroes.
[68]
Ἐγω δε πλεον ἐλπομαι
Λογον Ὀδυσσεος, ἠ παθεν,
Δια τον ἁδυεπη γενεσθ Ὁμηρον
Ἐπει ψευδεεσσιν ὁι ποτανᾳ γε μαχανᾳ
Σεμνον ἐπεστι τι. σοφια δε
Κλεπτει παραγοισα μυθοις.
Πινδαρ. Νεμ. Ζ.
[69] M. F. Quintilianus, l. xii. 10.—Concipiendis visionibus (quas
ΦΑΝΤΑΣΙΑΣ vocant) Theon Samius—est præstantissimus.
At quomodo fiet ut afficiamur? neque enim sunt motus in nostra
potestate. Tentabo etiam de hoc dicere. Quas Φαντασιας græci
vocant, nos sanè visiones appellamus; per quas imagines rerum
absentium ita repræsentantur animo, ut eas cernere oculis
ac præsentes habere videamur: has quisquis bene conceperit,
is erit in affectibus potentissimus. Hunc quidam dicunt
ἐυφαντασιωτον, qui sibi res, voces, actus, secundum verum
optume finget: quod quidem nobis volentibus facile continget.
Nam ut inter otia animorum et spes inanes, et velut somnia
quædam vigilantium, ita nos hæ de quibus loquimur, imagines
persequuntur, ut peregrinari, navigare, præliari, populos
alloqui, divitiarum quas non habemus, usum videamur disponere;
nec cogitare, sed facere: hoc animi vitium ad utilitatem non
transferemus? ut hominem occisum querar, non omnia quæ in
re præsenti accidisse credibile est, in oculis habebo? non
percussor ille subitus erumpet? non expavescet circumventus?
exclamabit, vel rogabit, vel fugiet? non ferientem, non
concidentem videbo? non animo sanguis, et pallor et gemitus,
extremus denique expirantis hiatus insidebit?
Idem, l. vi. c. 11.
Theon numbered with the ‘Proceres’ by Quintilian, by Pliny with less
discrimination is placed among the ‘Primis Proximos;’ and in some passage
of Plutarch, unaccountably censured for impropriety of subject, ατοπια,
in representing the madness of Orestes.
[70] Αιλιανου ποικ. ιστορ. l. ii. c. 44. Θεωνος του Ζωγραφου πολλα μεν
και ἀλλα ὁμολογει την χειρουργιαν ἀγαθην οὐσαν, ἀ ταρ οὐν και τοδε το
γραμμα.——Και ἐιπες ἀν ἀυτον ἐνθουσιᾶν, ὡσπερ εξ Ἀρεος μανεντα.——Και
σφαττειν βλεπων, και ἀπειλῶν δι ὁλου του σχηματος, ὁτι μηδενος φεισεται.
[71] The name of Agasias, the scholar or son of Dositheos, the Ephesian,
occurs not in ancient record; and whether he be the Egesias of Quintilian
and Pliny, or these the same, cannot be ascertained; though the style
of sculpture, and the form of the letters in the inscription are not
much at variance with the character which the former gives to the age
and style of Calon and Egesias; ‘Signa—duriora et Tuscanicis proxima.’
The impropriety of calling this figure a gladiator has been shewn by
Winkelmann, and on his remark, that it probably exhibits the attitude
of a soldier, who signalized himself in some moment of danger, Lessing
has founded a conjecture, that it is the figure of Chabrias, from
the following passage of Corn. Nepos: ‘Elucet maxime inventum ejus
in proelio, quod apud Thebas fecit, cum Boetiis subsidio venisset.
Namque in eo victoriæ fidente summo duce Agesilao, fugatis jam ab eo
conductitiis catervis, reliquam phalangem loco vetuit cedere; obnixoque
genu scuto, projectâque hastâ, impetum excipere hostium docuit. Id novum
Agesilaus intuens, progredi non est ausus, suosque jam incurrentes tubâ
revocavit. Hoc usque eo in Græcia famâ celebratum est, ut illo statu
Chabrias sibi statuam fieri voluerit, quæ publicè ei ab Atheniensibus in
foro constituta est. Ex quo factum est, ut postea athletæ, _cæterique
artifices_ his statibus in statuis ponendis uterentur, in quibus
victoriam essent adepti?’
On this passage, simple and unperplexed, if we except the words,
‘cæterique ‘artifices,’ where something is evidently dropped or changed,
there can, I trust, be but one opinion—that the manœuvre of Chabrias was
defensive, and consisted in giving the phalanx a stationary, and at the
same time—impenetrable posture, to check the progress of the enemy; a
repulse, not a victory was obtained; the Thebans were content to maintain
their ground, and not a word is said by the historian, of a pursuit, when
Agesilaus, startled at the contrivance, called off his troops: but the
warriour of Agasias rushes forward in an assailing attitude, whilst with
his head and shield turned upwards he seems to guard himself from some
attack above him. Lessing, aware of this, to make the passage square with
his conjecture, is reduced to a change of punctuation, and accordingly
transposes the decisive comma after ‘scuto,’ to ‘genu,’ and reads ‘obnixo
genu,’ scuto projectâque hastâ,—docuit.’ This alone might warrant us to
dismiss his conjecture as less solid than daring and acute.
The statue erected to Chabrias in the Athenian forum was probably of
brass, for ‘statua’ and ‘statuarius,’ in Pliny at least, will I believe
always be found relative to figures and artists in metal; such were
those which at an early period the Athenians dedicated to Harmodios
and Aristogiton: from them the custom spread in every direction, and
iconic figures in metal, began, says Pliny, to be the ornaments of every
municipal forum.
From another passage in Nepos, I was once willing to find in our figure
an Alcibiades in Phrygia, rushing from the flames of the cottage fired to
destroy him, and guarding himself against the javelins and arrows which
the gang of Sysamithres and Bagoas showered on him at a distance. ‘Ille,’
says the historian, ‘sonitu flammæ? excitatus, quod gladius ei erat
subductus, familiaris sui subalare telum eripuit—et—flammæ vim transit.
Quem, ut Barbari incendium effugisse viderunt, telis eminus missis,
interfecerunt. Sic Alcibiades annos circiter quadraginta natus, diem
obiit supremum.’
Such is the age of our figure, and it is to be noticed that the right arm
and hand, now armed with a lance, are modern; if it be objected, that
the figure is iconic, and that the head of Alcibiades, cut off after his
death, was carried to Pharnabazus, and his body burned by his mistress;
it might be observed in reply, that busts and figures of Alcibiades must
have been frequent in Greece, and that the expression found its source in
the mind of Agasias. On this conjecture however I shall not insist: let
us only observe that the character, forms and attitude, might be turned
to better use than what Poussin made of it. It might form an admirable
Ulysses bestriding the deck of his ship to defend his companions from
the descending fangs of Scylla, or rather, with indignation and anguish,
seeing them already snatched up and writhing in the mysterious gripe:
Ἀυταρ ἐγω καταδυς κλυτα τευχεα, και δυο δυoρε
Μακρ’ ἐν χερσιν ἑλων, ἐις ἰκρια νηος ἐβαινον
Πρωρης——ἐκαμον δε μοι ὀσσε
Παντη παπταινοντι προς ἦεροειδεα πετρην
Σκεψαμενος δε——
Ἠδη των ἐνοησα ποδας και χειρας ὑπερθεν
Ὑψος’ ἀειρομενων——
Odyss. M. 328. seq.
[72] Sebbene il divino Michel Agnolo fece la gran Cappella di Papa
Julio, dappoi non arrivò a questo segno mai alla metà, la sun virtù non
aggiunse mai alla forza di quei primi studi. Vita di Benvenuto Cellini,
p. 13.—Vasari, as appears from his own account, never himself saw the
cartoon: he talks of an ‘infinity of combatants on horseback,’ of which
there neither remains nor ever can have existed a trace, if the picture
at Holkham be the work of Bastiano da St. Gallo. This he saw, for it
was painted, at his own desire, by that master, from his small cartoon
in 1542, and by means of Monsignor Jovio transmitted to Francis I. who
highly esteemed it; from his collection it however disappeared, and no
mention is made of it by the French writers for near two centuries. It
was probably discovered at Paris, bought and carried to England by the
late Lord Leicester. That Vasari, on inspecting the copy, should not have
corrected the confused account he gives of the cartoon from hearsay, can
be wondered at, only by those, who are unacquainted with his character as
a writer. One solitary horse and a drummer on the imaginary back-ground
of the groups engraved by Agostino Venetiano, are all the cavalry
remaining of Vasari’s squadrons, and can as little belong to Michel
Agnolo as the spot on which they are placed.
The following are his own words: ‘Si vedeva dalle divine mani di
Michelagnolo chi affrettare lo armarsi per dare ajuto a’compagni, altri
affibbiarsi la corazza, e molti metter altre armi indosso, ed infiniti
combattendo a cavallo cominciare la zuffa.’
Vasari, Vita di M. A. B. p. 183. ed. Bottari.
[73]
Ὁ δε, πως μεγεθυνει τα Δαιμονια;——Την
Ὁρμην ἀντων κοσμικῳ διαστηματι καταμετρει.
Longinus; § 9.
[74] Much has been said of the loss we have suffered in the marginal
drawings which Michael Angelo drew in his Dante. Invention may have
suffered in being deprived of them; they can, however, have been little
more than hints of a size too minute to admit of much discrimination.
The true terrours of Dante depend as much upon the medium in which he
shews, or gives us a glimpse of his figures, as on their form. The
characteristic outlines of his fiends, Michael Angelo personified in the
dæmons of the last judgment, and invigourated the undisguised appetite,
ferocity or craft of the brute, by traits of human malignity, cruelty,
or lust. The Minos of Dante, in Messer Biagio da Cesena, and his Charon,
have been recognized by all; but less the shivering wretch held over the
barge by a hook, and evidently taken from the following passage in the
xxiid of the Inferno:
Et Graffiacan, che gli era più di contra
Gli arroncigliò l’impegolate chiome;
E trasse ’l sù, che mi parve una lontra.
None has noticed as imitations of Dante in the xxivth book, the
astonishing groups in the Lunetta of the brazen serpent; none the various
hints from the Inferno and Purgatorio scattered over the attitudes and
expressions of the figures rising from their graves. In the Lunetta of
Haman, we owe the sublime conception of his figure to the subsequent
passage in the xviith c. of Purgatory:
Poi piobbe dentro al’ alta phantasia
Un Crucifisso, dispettoso e fiero
Nella sua vista, e lo qual si moria.
The bassorelievo on the border of the second rock, in Purgatory,
furnished the idea of the Annunziata, painted by Marcello Venusti from
his design, in the sacristy of St. Giov. Lateran, by order of Tommaso de’
Cavalieri, the select friend and favourite of Michael Angelo.
We are told that Michael Angelo represented the Ugolino of Dante,
inclosed in the tower of Pisa; if he did, his own work is lost: but if,
as some suppose, the bassorelievo of that subject by Pierino da Vinci,
be taken from his idea, notwithstanding the greater latitude, which the
sculptor might claim, in divesting the figures of drapery and costume; he
appears to me, to have erred in the means employed to rouse our sympathy.
A sullen but muscular character, with groups of muscular bodies and
forms of strength, about him, with the allegoric figure of the Arno at
their feet, and that of Famine hovering over their heads, are not the
fierce Gothic chief, deprived of revenge, brooding over despair in the
stony cage; are not the exhausted agonies of a father, petrified by the
helpless groans of an expiring family, offering their own bodies for his
food, to prolong his life.
[75]
Dixeris egregiè, notum si callida verbum
Reddiderit junctura novum.——
Q. Horat. Flacci de A. P. v. 47.
[76] Matt. 17. 5. 6. See Fiorillo, geschichte, &c. 104. seq.
[77] The vision on Tabor, as represented here, is the most characteristic
produced by modern art. Whether we consider the action of the apostles
overpowered by the divine effulgence and divided between adoration and
astonishment; or the forms of the prophets ascending like flame, and
attracted by the lucid centre, or the majesty of Jesus himself, whose
countenance, is the only one we know, expressive of his superhuman
nature. That the unison of such powers, should not, for once, have
disarmed the burlesque of the French critic, rouses equal surprise and
indignation.
[78] The group in the Ludovisi, ever since its discovery, absurdly
misnamed Pætus and Arria, notwithstanding some dissonance of taste and
execution, may with more plausibility claim the title of Hæmon and
Antigone.