Lorenzo Lippi, like his friend Salvator Rosa, divided his hours between

poetry and painting. His Malmantile Racquistato,[219] which is a model

of Tuscan purity of language,[220] is a work less read perhaps, but more

elegant than the satires of Salvator; and is sprinkled with those

graceful Florentine idioms that are regarded as the Attic salt of Italy.

In looking for a prototype among the artists of his own school, guided

by similarity of genius, he made choice of Santi di Tito. A delineator

of the passions sufficiently accorded with the genius of the poet, and a

painter of the choicest design was highly congenial to so elegant a

writer. He, however, added to his style a greater force of colouring;

and in drapery he followed the practice of some Lombard masters and of

Baroccio, in modelling the folds in paper, a practice of which their

works retain some traces. The delicacy of pencil, the clearness,

harmony, and to sum up all, the good taste, pervading his pictures,

demonstrate that he had a feeling of natural beauty superior to most of

his contemporaries. His master admired him, and said, with a liberality

not always to be found among history painters, "Lorenzo, thou art more

knowing than I." His pictures are not very rare at Florence, although he

resided far from it for many years, for he was painter to the court of

Inspruck. A Crucifixion, among his best performances, is in the ducal

gallery. The noble family of Arrighi possesses a S. Saverio recovering

from the claws of a crab, the Crucifix which he had dropped into the

sea. Baldinucci and the author of _The Series of the most Illustrious

Painters_ have spoken very highly of his Triumph of David, painted for

the hall of Angiol Gaddi, who wished him to represent his eldest son as

the son of Jesse, and his other sixteen children as the youths and

virgins, that with songs and timbrels greet the victor, and hail the

deliverance of Israel. In this celebrated piece, the artist was enabled

to give full scope to his talent for portrait painting, and to the style

approaching to nature, which he loved, without troubling himself about

studied and artful embellishments. It was his maxim to write poetry as

he spoke, and to paint what he observed.

Mario Balassi perfected himself under Passignano, and after the choicest

examples of the Roman and other schools. He was an excellent copyist of

the old masters, and a painter of invention above mediocrity. Some of

his small historical pictures, and a few pieces representing eatables,

are to be met with in private houses; and, above all, there are many of

his half-length figures finely coloured and relieved. In his old age he

changed his manner, and retouched as many of the works of his youth as

he could lay his hands on; but in striving to improve, he only injured

them.

Francesco Boschi, the nephew and scholar of Rosselli, was an excellent

portrait painter. In the cloister of All Saints, where his uncle

Fabrizio also painted, there are some of his portraits that seem

absolutely alive, and are executed in fresco so admirably, that they

clearly shew the school from which he proceeded. He finished some pieces

in oil, that were left imperfect by the death of Rosselli, and painted

others entirely his own, the subjects of which were chiefly religious,

where the countenances are strikingly expressive of probity and

sanctity. As he grew older he assumed the ecclesiastical habit, and

sustained its dignity by his exemplary conduct, the account of which

Baldinucci has extended at some length. During twenty-four years in

which he lived a priest, he did not resign his pencil; but he employed

it less frequently, and generally less successfully, than in his youth.

His elder brother Alfonso promised much, and even attained a great deal,

though cut off in early life.

The style of Jacopo Vignali has some resemblance to that of Guercino,

but less in the forms than in the dark shadows and the grounds. He is

amongst those scholars of Rosselli who are seldom mentioned, although he

painted more than any of the rest for the prince and the state. He often

is weak, especially in attitude; often, however, he appears

praiseworthy, as in the two pictures at S. Simone, and in the S.

Liborio, which is possessed by the Missionaries. He is most conspicuous

in fresco painting, with which he ornamented the chapel of the

Bonarruoti. He painted good historical pictures in the palaces of many

of the nobility, and he even boasts noble pupils, none of whom did so

much honour to his memory as Carlo Dolci.

Dolci holds the same rank in the Florentine, that Sassoferrato holds in

the Roman school. Both, though destitute of great powers of invention,

obtained great reputation for Madonnas and similar small subjects, which

have now become extremely valuable; for the wealthy, desirous of

possessing pictures, at once estimable and religious, to hang up in

their oratories, have brought those two masters into great request,

notwithstanding that they operated on very different principles. Carlo

is not so celebrated for beauty, (for he was like his master, a mere

_naturalist_,) as for the exquisite pains with which he finished every

thing, and the genuine expression of certain affecting emotions; such as

the patient suffering of Christ, or of the Virgin Mary; the penitential

compunction of a Saint, or the holy confidence of a Martyr devoting

himself as a victim for the living God. The colouring and general tone

of his pictures accord with the idea of the passion; nothing is turgid

or bold; all is modesty, repose, and placid harmony. In him we may

retrace the manner of Rosselli brought to perfection, as we sometimes

can view the features of the grandsire in his descendants. A few of his

larger works still remain, such as the S. Antonio, in the royal museum;

the Conception of our Lady, in the possession of the Marquis Rinuccini;

also a very few of his subjects from profane story, a few of his

portraits, and the celebrated figure of Poetry in the palace of Prince

Corsini. His small pictures, for each of which he usually received 100

crowns, are very numerous; and were frequently repeated by himself or by

his pupils, Alessandro Lomi and Bartolommeo Mancini; and often by Agnese

Dolci, his daughter, a good artist and follower of the style of her

father; but not his equal. His two Madonnas in the cabinet of the Grand

Duke, and his martyrdom of S. Andrew, in the possession of the Marquis

Gerini, have been often copied.

Of Onorio Marinari, the cousin and scholar of Carlo, but few pictures

remain at Florence, either in private or in public. After imitating his

master, (which usually is the first exercise of students in the art, and

often, from dissimilarity of genius, is their great bane,) he formed

another style, by yielding to the bent of his natural powers; which was

more grand, had more of the ideal, and deeper shadows; and of this

several specimens remain in the churches of S. Maria Maggiore, and S.

Simone. This artist died young, very unfortunately for the school to

which he belonged.

About the period we have been describing, some foreign artists resided

at Florence for a considerable time, to the no small advantage of the

native painters, as we have already observed. Paggi came there in the

reign of the Grand Duke Francis I., remained there twenty years, and

left some works behind him. About the same time Salvator Rosa, Albani,

Borgognone, Colonna, Mitelli, and many more, either invited by the

princes from abroad, or coming there of their own accord, were retained

by them for the decoration of the palace and the city. We shall consider

them particularly under the schools of the countries where they were

born, or in which they taught; but here we shall give a place to Jacopo

Ligozzi, whom the Florentine school may claim on account of his

residence, his employment, and his scholars. He had studied at Verona

under Paolo Veronese, according to Baldinucci; but under Gio. Francesco

Carrotto, according to the emendation of Maffei, without reflecting that

this artist died when Jacopo was scarcely three years old. Some foreign

writers make him the son of Gio. Ermanno, the painter; a circumstance

unknown to Cav. del Pozzo, the townsman and historian of them both.

Ferdinand II. appointed him painter to the court, and superintendant of

the gallery. This was very honourable, when conferred by such a prince

on him, in preference to many eminent Florentines. Ligozzi executed some

works at Rome, and introduced at Florence a freedom of pencil, an art in

composition, a taste for the ornamental, and a grace and gaiety, till

then rare in that city. His design was sufficiently correct, and

uniformly improved while he remained in Tuscany. As to his colouring,

although it was not that of Paolo, it was not deficient in truth and

vigour.

His seventeen semicircular pictures in the cloisters of All Saints, are

valued at Florence; especially the interview between S. Francis and S.

Domenick, the founders of the order. On this picture he wrote, _To the

confusion of our friends_, meaning the envious and malignant. This is

his masterpiece in fresco. He painted more frequently in oil colours in

several churches. The S. Raymond in the act of reanimating a child, in

S. Maria Novella, is a picture full of art; and there is another in the

same style at the Scalzi of Imola, representing the four Crowned Saints.

The martyrdom of S. Dorothea, I do not hesitate to call a wonderful

picture; in which we recognize a follower of Paolo, and which is in

possession of the Conventual Friars of Pescia. The scaffold, the

executioner, the Prefect on horseback who is ordering him to strike, the

great crowd of spectators variously affected, and all the apparatus of a

public punishment, strike and astonish equally the connoisseur and the

unskilled in painting; the holy martyr especially interests us, who, on

her knees, with a placid composure, willingly resigns her life, and is

about to receive from angels the eternal crown purchased with her blood.

In other performances he shews more simplicity, as in the S. Diego at

All Saints, or in the Angels at the P. P. Scolopi; but he is an artist

who always pleases, and who shews that he felt what he painted. Ligozzi

painted much for private individuals. In his very small pictures, a

style in which he was expert, he finished as highly as if they were

miniatures. Several of his works were published by Agostino Caracci, and

other engravers.

None of his Florentine pupils is esteemed equal to Donato Mascagni, for

such was his real name, which may be seen subscribed to two Scriptural

pieces, in possession of Sig. Ab. Giachi, at Volterra. Having entered

the order of Servi, he assumed the name of Fra Arsenio; and several of

his works painted after that period are to be seen in Florence, executed

in a manner not very full and soft, but diligent; of which there are

several other specimens in his Miracles of the Nunziata, which are

engraved and illustrated in the little work of Padre Lottini. What does

him greatest honour is the picture preserved in the library of the

monastery of Vallombrosa. It represents the donation of the State of

Ferrara to the Holy Seat, by the Countess Matilda, as is believed by

some, or rather the distribution of some privileges by her to the order

of Vallombrosa, and is a picture full of subject, and the chief glory of

this master.

In casting our eyes over other cities of Tuscany, we find some painters

very capable of decorating houses and altars. Francesco Morosini,

surnamed Montepulciano, may be recognized in the church of S. Stephen,

of Florence, where he painted a Conversion of S. Paul, in the manner of

his master Fidani. Arezzo produced the two Santini. Of one of them,

there named the Elder, several pictures were pointed out to me by the

accomplished Cav. Giudici; among which was a S. Catherine, in possession

of the Conventual Friars: it savours of the Florentine manner during

this epoch; except that the use of changing tints is more frequent.

Bartolommeo and Teofilo Torre, of Arezzo, are noticed as fresco painters

by Orlandi, who mentions halls, and even whole houses, being ornamented

by the latter with historical pieces; which, if deficient in design, he

praises for their colouring. Francesco Brini left a good picture of the

Immaculate Conception, at Volterra: of his country and school I am

ignorant. I do not know the master of Pompeo Caccia; it is certain that

he called himself a native of Rome, perhaps because it is easy to

substitute the capital, so well known, for places in the state of less

notoriety. In Rome, however, I do not find any traces of him. I find,

indeed, that he left several pictures at Pistoja; among which is

the Presentation (at the Selesiane) of Jesus in the Temple, to which is

affixed the date 1615. Alessandro Bardelli was a native of Pescia; in

his style we find traces of his preceptor Curradi and of Guercino. He

was a good painter, and executed the ornamental border for the portrait

of S. Francis, painted by Margaritone, for his church in Pescia: he

represented around it the virtues of the Saint, and a choir of Angels

above. I am doubtful whether we should include Alessio Gimignani, one of

a family of artists in Pistoia, to be recorded in the fifth epoch, among

the pupils of Ligozzi, but he was undoubtedly his follower.

About this period two schools arose, highly deserving of notice, those

of Pisa and of Lucca. The Pisan school recognizes as its founder,

Aurelio Lomi, first a scholar of Bronzino, and afterwards of Cigoli. His

very correct performances, in the cathedral of Pisa, are executed after

both masters; but when compared to Cigoli he is more minute, and has

much less softness. His aim appears to be to surprise the multitude by

an agreeable colouring, and a magnificence of draperies and ornaments.

This style pleased at Florence, in Rome, and more especially at Genoa,

where he was preferred to Sorri, many years established and in good

repute. His works in that city are very full of subject; as his S.

Anthony, belonging to the Franciscans, and his Last Judgment, in S.

Maria of Carignano; pictures which surprise by an air of novelty: the

first is graceful, rich, but modest in the tints; the second terrible,

and the colours more vivid than those he employed on any other occasion.

A S. Jerome, in the Campo Santo, is less glowing, but it is esteemed by

the Pisans his capital work; at the bottom of this piece he put his

initials and the date 1595.

He most probably taught the principles of the art to his brother, Orazio

Lomi; who was called Gentileschi, from the surname of an uncle.

Gentileschi formed his style, however, on the finest examples in Rome,

assisted by his friend Agostino Tassi. Tassi was an eminent ornamental

landscape painter, and Gentileschi executed appropriate figures to his

inventions in the Loggia Rospigliosi, in the saloon of the Quirinal

palace, and in other places. He also painted some smaller pictures in

Rome, particularly at the Pace, from which we cannot ascertain his

merit, either because they were performances of his unripe years, or

because they have become black from age. He had not then attained the

beautiful colouring, nor the Lombard-like manner of managing the

shadows, which we observe in many of his cabinet pictures. A fine

specimen, representing S. Cecilia with S. Valerian, is in the Borghesi

palace. The choicest adorn the royal palace of Turin, and some houses in

Genoa. In the collection of his Excellency Cardinal Cambiasi, there is a

David standing over the dead Goliath; so relieved, and with tints so

vivid and so well contrasted, that it gives the idea of a style entirely

new. He was esteemed by Vandyck, and inserted by him in his series of

portraits of one hundred illustrious men. When already old he went to

the English court, where he died at the age of eighty-four.

Artemisia, his daughter and disciple, followed her father into that

island; but she passed her best years in Italy. She was respected for

her talents, and celebrated for the elegance of her manners and

appearance. She is noticed both by Italian and foreign writers, and by

Walpole among the latter, in his _Anecdotes of Painting in England_. She

lived long at Naples, married there a Pier Antonio Schiattesi; and was

there assisted and improved in the art by Guido Reni, studied the works

of Domenichino, and was not unskilled in other approved styles. She

shews variety of style in her few remaining historical pictures. Some of

them are at Naples and Pozzuolo, and there are two in Florence inscribed

with her name; one in the ducal gallery, and the other in possession of

my noble and learned friend Sig. Averardo de' Medici; the former

representing Judith slaying Holofernes, is a picture of a strong

colouring, of a tone and perspicuity that inspires awe; the latter, a

Susanna and the Elders, is a painting that pleases by the scene, the

elegance of the principal figure, and the drapery of the others.

Artemisia, however, was more celebrated for her portraits, which are of

singular merit; they spread her fame over all Europe, and in them she

surpassed her father.

Orazio Riminaldi was a scholar of the elder Lomi in Pisa, and of the

younger in Rome, but imitated neither of them; from the beginning he

gave himself up to the guidance of Manfredi, in the manner of

Caravaggio, and afterwards became a follower of Domenico Zampieri, to

rival whom he seems intended by nature. From the time that the art of

painting revived in Pisa, that city had not perhaps so eminent a

painter, nor have many better been born on the banks of the Arno, a soil

so propitious to the arts. Grand in contour and in drapery, after the

manner of the Caracci, pleasing and agreeable in his carnations, full,

free, and delicate in the management of his pencil, he would have been

faultless, had not the wretched style of engraving raised prejudices

against him. Excessive fatigue, or, as others will have it, the plague

of 1630, snatched him in early life from his country; for the fame of

which alone he seems to have lived to maturity. He there ornamented many

altars with fine pictures, one of which representing the martyrdom of S.

Cecilia, was afterwards placed in the Pitti palace. In the choir of the

cathedral there are two of his scriptural pieces, that form a perfect

study for any one who wishes to become acquainted with this epoch. The

judgment of the master of the works was conspicuous in engaging

Riminaldi to paint the cupola, even before he had finished the above

pictures, and in making choice of him in preference to any other artist.

The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which he painted in oil, is one of

the best conceived and most perfect works that Tuscany had ever beheld,

and it was the last labour of Orazio. His brother Girolamo completed it

feebly, by introducing some figures that were wanting, and the family

received 5,000 crowns as its price. Girolamo is rarely to be met with in

Pisan collections, and still more rarely in other places. He was,

however, well known in his day, having been invited to Naples to

ornament the chapel of S. Gennaro, and to the court of Paris by the

queen.

From among many Pisan artists of this period recorded by Sig. da

Morrona, or Sig. Tempesti, we shall select some of the most

considerable. Ercole Bezzicaluva is worthy of notice, both for his

engravings and his picture representing various saints in the choir of

St. Stephen's at Pisa. So likewise is Gio. del Sordo, otherwise called

Mone da Pisa; but his colouring seems superior to his invention.

Zaccaria Rondinosi, I believe, of the Florentine school, was more

skilled in ornamental than in any other branch of painting. He repaired

the pictures in the Campo Santo, and on that account was honoured by the

citizens with a tomb there, and near it an inscription on the marble. I

know not whether any picture of Arcangela Paladini, an excellent

embroiderer, except her own portrait, has reached our times. It was hung

in the ducal gallery among the portraits of illustrious painters: to be

deposited in such a place, and to remain there from 1621, is an

unequivocal proof of its merit; since it is the custom of the place not

lightly to refuse the portraits of tolerably good painters, but to keep

them there as if only lodgers, and then send them to some villa of the

prince, when new guests arrive, to take a place in the cabinets which

are named _de' Pittori_. Gio. Stefano Marucelli, both an engineer and a

painter, was not born in Pisa, but he may be reckoned a Pisan from his

long residence and attachment to the place. Having come from Umbria into

Tuscany, according to the tradition of the Pisans, he became a pupil of

Boscoli, and remaining at Pisa, he contended with the celebrated artists

whom we have noticed as employed from time to time in ornamenting the

tribune of the cathedral. The Abraham entertaining the three angels is a

work of his, commended for felicity of invention, and beauty of

colouring. In the church of S. Nicolas at Pisa, there remains a memorial

of Domenico Bongi of Pietrasanta, who was a follower of Perino del Vaga.

He flourished in 1582.

The series of the principal artists of Lucca commences with Paol

Biancucci, the best scholar of Guido Reni, whose grace and full power of

colour he has imitated in many of his works. He sometimes so strongly

resembles Sassoferrato as to be mistaken for him. The Purgatory which he

painted at Suffragio, the picture representing various saints which he

left at the church of S. Francis, two in possession of the noble family

of Boccella, and many others scattered over the city, are of such merit,

that Malvasia should have noticed him among the pupils of Guido, which

he has not done. He has also omitted Pietro Ricchi of Lucca, who went to

Bologna from the school of Passignano. It is true that the preceptorship

of Guido is in this instance doubtful, though Baldinucci and Orlandi

both assert it: for Boschini, who was his intimate friend, says not a

word upon the matter, merely observing that Ricchi regretted he had not

studied in Venice. It is certain he frequently imitated the forms of

Guido; but in colouring and design adhered to the manner of Passignano;

he also imbibed the principles of the Venetian school, as we shall

relate in the proper place. Two of his pictures are preserved at the

church of S. Francis in Lucca, and some others remain in private hands;

small remains of a genius very fertile in invention, and of a hand most

rapid and almost indefatigable in execution. He painted in several

cities of France, in the Milanese, and still more in the Venetian

states, where he died at Udine, in the MS. guide to which place he is

often named.

Pietro Paolini long lived and taught at Lucca; he was a pupil of the

Roman school, as history informs us; but to judge from his works one

would pronounce him of the Venetian. In Rome he frequented the study of

Angelo Caroselli, who was by education a follower of Caravaggio, but

exceedingly expert in copying and imitating every style. Under him

Paolini acquired a manner that shews good drawing, broad shadows, and

firm touches, compared by some to the style of Titian, and by others to

that of Pordenone: one also remarks in his works undoubted imitations of

Veronese. The martyrdom of S. Andrew, that exists at S. Michele, and the

grand picture, sixteen cubits long, preserved in the library of S.

Frediano, would be sufficient to immortalize a painter. In this he

represented the pontiff S. Gregory, entertaining some pilgrims; it is a

magnificent picture, ornamented in the style of Veronese, with plate and

architectural perspective, full of figures, and possessing a variety,

harmony, and beauty, that have induced many poets to extol it as a

wonderful production. His cabinet pictures of conversations and rural

festivals, which are not rare at Lucca, are exquisite. Two, of the

Massacre of Valdestain, belonging to the Orsetti family, were especially

commended by Baldinucci. The historian remarks that he had a particular

talent for such tragic themes, and in general for the energetic; he

admires him less in the delicate, and even accuses him of marking the

action of his female figures too strongly. That he could however be very

pleasing when he inclined, we are led to believe from his large work in

the church of the Trinity; which he is said to have conducted in this

graceful style, to demonstrate that he was not inferior to his rival

Biancucci.

It is uncertain whether Pietro Testa, called at Rome Il Lucchesino, was

his disciple; but it appears highly probable, when his age is compared

with that of Paolini, that he learnt from the latter the principles of

the art, which he had undoubtedly acquired in Lucca before he came to

Rome. He there had several masters, and was chiefly under Pietro da

Cortona, from whose school he was expelled, because he treated the

maxims of the master with contempt. He then put himself under

Domenichino, on whose principles, says Passeri, he gloried to rely; but

his style, in his own despite, at times approaches nearly to that of

Cortona. He has also some resemblance to his friend Poussin, both in his

figures (which at one time he made too slender), in his landscapes, and

in his study of the antique, of which he was deeply enamoured; having

applied himself to designing the finest specimens in architecture and in

sculpture that Rome afforded. In this branch he is excellent. The death

of B. Angelo, placed in S. Martino a' Monti, a picture of great force,

is the only piece before the public. Testa is more frequently recognized

in galleries: there is a Joseph sold to the Ishmaelites by him in the

capitol; a Murder of the Innocents, in the Spada palace; but there are

not many of his pictures elsewhere; for he engraved more than he

painted.[221] He left some oil paintings at Lucca, one in a feeble style

at S. Romano, several at S. Paolino, in the Buonvisi gallery, and in

other places, in his best manner. Two of his works in fresco remain

there; viz. the allegorical picture of Liberty in the senate house, and

the small very elegant cupola of the oratory in the Lippi palace. He

settled at Rome, where he lived unhappily, and either from despair, or

some affront, drowned himself in the Tiber. His fate may teach young

artists of genius not to overrate their own talents, nor to despise

those of others. By these failings, Testa alienated the minds of his

contemporaries, so that neither in reputation nor in employment was he

so successful as many others; and his perpetual complaints occasioned

doubts even of his sanity.

Omitting some scholars of Paolini less addicted to his manner, we shall

notice the three brothers, Cassiano, Francesco, and Simone del Tintore.

I find nothing recorded of the first that exalts him above mediocrity;

and when one meets with an indifferent picture of the school of Paolini,

it is ascribed to Cassiano, or some such pupil; or sometimes to the

dotage of Paolini, when he produced sketches rather than paintings.

Francesco is recognized as an able artist in the Visitation, in the

apartments of his excellency the Gonfaloniere; and in some pieces in the

Motroni collection. Simone was expert in depicting birds, fruit, and

other objects in the inferior walks of the art, to which, as I usually

do at the end of each epoch, I shall here devote a few pages.

And to pursue this pleasing branch of painting, I may observe that

Angiol Gori and Bartolommeo Bimbi of Florence, distinguished themselves

in fruit, and more especially in flowers: the second was the scholar of

the first in this line, and of Lippi in figures. Lippi himself induced

Andrea Scacciati to abandon figures for fruit and flowers, and animals,

in which department he succeeded well, and sent many pictures into

foreign countries. Bimbi was the Mario of his school. He instructed

Fortini, whom we shall notice by and by along with Moro, a painter of

flowers and animals. All these gave place to Lopez of Naples, who

visited Florence in his journeys through Italy, and shall be afterwards

mentioned.

The art of painting landscapes, and their introduction into collections,

began during this epoch: the first style that became fashionable at

Florence was that of Adriano Fiammingo: but Cristofano Allori excelled

all by the neat and firm touch of his pencil, and by the exquisite

figures which he introduced into his landscapes. Guasparre Falgani

surpassed him in the number of such subjects: he was initiated in the

art by Valerio Marucelli, and imitated by Giovanni Rosi, and Benedetto

Boschi, the brother and fellow student of Francesco. The landscapes of

this age have often their greens changed into black; and are reckoned of

the old school by Baldinucci. The new style was introduced into Florence

by Filippo d'Angeli, or Philip the Neapolitan, who was long retained at

the court of Cosmo II; but chiefly by Salvator Rosa. This artist was

brought to Florence by Cardinal Gio. Carlo, and remained there for seven

years; where in the capacity of painter, poet, and author of comedies,

he was constantly applauded for his fine genius, and his society courted

by men of learning; with whom, in every department of letters, the

country then abounded. He formed no pupils at that place, but many young

men there became his copyists and imitators; as Taddeo Baldini, Lorenzo

Martelli, and many others. Antonio Giusti, a pupil of Cesare Dandini,

was particularly skilled in this art; but he likewise practised every

other branch of painting; and Orlandi has described him as an universal

painter. Signor da Morrona notices the Poli, two brothers, who executed

many pleasing landscapes, which are known in the collections of Florence

and of Pisa.

Passing from landscape to sea-views, I do not find any Tuscan who in

this respect equalled Pietro Ciafferi, otherwise called Lo

Smargiasso,[222] and recorded among the Pisan artists. It is said that

he resided long at Leghorn, a place well suited to his genius. He there

decorated facades of houses with disembarkations and naval enterprizes;

and of such subjects, ports, sea-coasts, and ships, he composed oil

paintings, that are usually highly finished, and ornamented with small

figures, well designed and fancifully draped. He likewise succeeded

greatly in architectural views. Leghorn and Pisa are rich in his easel

pictures; and one in possession of Sig. Decano Zucchetti of this place

bears the name of the artist and the date 1651.

Perspective was much cultivated at Florence about this period; and the

Bolognese had carried it to a degree of excellence, that will claim

attention in the proper place. Lessons in it were given by Giulio

Parigi, an excellent architect; and afterwards by Baccio del Bianco, who

became engineer to his Catholic Majesty Philip IV. Their theoretic views

were seconded by the example of Colonna, who came to Florence in 1638,

along with Mitelli, a native of that place, and remained six years in

the service of the court. After this period Florence produced many

painters of cabinet pieces, and in the ornamental line, or rather a new

school of painting was founded by Jacomo Chiavistelli, a painter of

sound and more chaste taste than was common in that age. One may form an

idea of him in several churches, and in many saloons in the city; as for

instance, in that of the Cerretani palace, which is among his most

elegant works. He likewise painted for cabinets, where his perspective

pieces are frequently to be met with. Orlandi notices his most

considerable pupils, Rinaldo Botti, and his cousin Lorenzo del

Moro,[223] Benedetto Fortini, and Giuseppe Tonelli, who also studied at

Bologna. To these may be added, Angiol Gori, Giuseppe Masini, and others

who assisted him about 1658, in painting the corridore of the ducal

gallery, which is not their best performance. I find in the anecdotes of

Mondina and Alboresi, edited by Malvasia, that Antonio Ruggieri

contended with them in Florence: he was, I believe, a scholar of

Vannini, and a S. Andrew by him exists in the church of S. Michele, in

Berteldi, now commonly called S. Gaetano. Nor were these the only

artists capable of introducing figures into their perspective pieces;

but a great many of the painters in fresco were, if we may say so,

ambidexter, for each could paint perspectives and figures at the same

time.

Portrait painting, the school of the best artists who aspire to fidelity

of representation, was greatly promoted by Passignano, who instructed

Filippo Furini, surnamed Sciameroni, the father of the celebrated

Francesco. He also taught the art to Domenico and Valore Casini, two

brothers celebrated by Baldinucci: Valore was remarkable for a free

pencil, and was a faithful copyist of every lineament. The capital is

filled with his portraits. Cristofano Allori painted portraits, both on

commission and for exercising his hand in the delineation of the most

beautiful forms. His portraits on canvass are reckoned valuable, even

when the subjects are not known: this is the case with that in

possession of the senator Orlandini; and some on small pieces of copper,

in the grand Medicean collection. Cerrini, among his disciples, followed

his steps; he is, I think, also admitted into that museum. Giovanni

Batista Stefaneschi, a monk of Monte Senario, a scholar of Comodi, and

an excellent miniature painter, was conspicuous among the painters of

portraits and copyists.

Justus Subtermans, a native of Antwerp, who was educated by William de

Vos, was also greatly admired. Having fixed his residence at Florence,

in the time of Cosmo II., he was retained by the court to the end of the

reign of Cosmo III.; and went to other princes in Germany and Italy, who

were ambitious of having a specimen of a portrait painter, esteemed

little inferior to Vandyck. He was much esteemed by the latter, who

requested his portrait, prefacing his request by sending him his own.

Peter Paul Rubens likewise honoured him, and presented him with one of

his own historical pictures, regarding him as an honour to their

country. Subtermans painted all the living members of the Medicean

family, in a variety of attitudes; and when Ferdinand II. ascended the

throne, while still a young man, Subtermans executed a stupendous

picture, wholly composed of portraits. He represented in it the ceremony

of swearing allegiance to the new sovereign; and pourtrayed him not only

with his mother and grandmother, but the senators and nobility who were

present. This picture was very large: it has been engraved on copper and

still remains in the gallery. The artist had a neatness and elegance of

pencil that appeared extraordinary even in the school to which he

belonged; and possessed moreover a peculiar talent of ennobling every

countenance without injuring the likeness. It was his practice to study

the peculiar and characteristic air of the person, and to impart it to

his work; so that when he would sometimes conceal the face of a

portrait, the bystanders could with certainty tell whom it represented,

from the disposition of the hands and the figure.

Jacopo Borgognone remained long in Florence, and was highly respected by

Prince Matthias; whose military achievements in Germany and in Italy,

and the places where they happened, he represented to the life, as an

historian would have described them. This artist's battle-pieces are not

rare in Florence; but I do not know that he had any pupils in that

place. The person who promoted most the imitation of Jacopo, and whose

works are everywhere, was Pandolfo Reschi, of Danzig, who was one of his

best scholars; eminent in landscape in the style of Salvator Rosa, and

in architectural subjects. In the hands of Dr. Viligiardi, I saw a

picture by him, with a view of the Pitti palace, and the additions to it

then wanting; but which were afterwards supplied by the Austrian

princes, to the great ornament of the royal residence. Those additions

were from a design of Giacinta Marmi; but the whole picture was the work

of Pandolfo. He enlivened it with figures, and excites surprise by the

whole, excepting the distribution of the light and shadow, in which he

is not so happy. One Santi Rinaldi, surnamed Il Tromba,[224] a painter

of battle-pieces and of landscapes, formed himself under Furini: he was

contemporary with Pandolfo; but is less known in Florence.

Baccio del Bianco, having become a good designer and tolerable painter

in the school of Bilivert, went into Germany with Pieroni, the imperial

architect and engineer, from whom he learnt perspective. He afterwards

taught it with applause in Florence, as we have said; and did not omit

to exercise his pencil, especially in fresco. Naturally facetious, he

became distinguished by his burlesques, which, for the most part, were

only designed with the pen. He coloured some small oil pictures of much

force, which were portraits in the style of the Caracci, and sometimes

painted freaks of scaramouches, and similar abortions of nature.

Gio. Batista Brazze, called Il Bigio,[225] a scholar of Empoli, employed

his genius in another branch of the capricious style: it consisted of

what appeared human figures when seen at a distance, but a nearer

approach shewed them to be composed of different sorts of fruit, or

machines, artfully arranged. Baldinucci reckons him the inventor of this

art; but to me it appears, that prior examples may be found in the

Milanese school, in which I treat of them fully at the end of the second

epoch.

Lastly, mosaic work in hard stone owes its rise in Florence to this

epoch; and after gradually improving during two centuries, is now

everywhere known as a work of this capital, and almost exclusively its

own. In a letter of Teofilo Gallaccini,[226] we read that this species

of mosaic "had been invented in Florence, in the time of Ferdinand I.;"

an assertion which is not true. Before that period it flourished in

Lombardy. The Carthusian Monastery of Pavia had in its pay a family of

the name of Sacchi; which has existed there to our own times, and has

filled the great church with this kind of mosaic. There are specimens of

it in Milan of very ancient date. In that place Giacomo da Trezzo, who

executed the tabernacle for the church of the Escurial, which is

esteemed the most beautiful and magnificent in Christendom,[227]

received his instruction. About the time of Cosmo I., Florence herself

witnessed the rudiments of this art in a "small picture composed of

gems" which she possessed, as is recorded by Vasari.[228] A similar one

was executed for Francis I., from a design of Vasari, by Bernardino di

Porfirio of Leccio, (a district of the Florentine state) "composed of

oriental alabaster, and large slabs of jasper, heliotrope, cornelian,

lapis lazzuli, agate, and other stones and gems, which they estimate at

20,000 crowns." But pictures so wrought in large pieces, were not of

that perfect kind of mosaic that contained a vast variety of colours and

middle tints. Such are executed in every shade of colour, from the

natural stains of the stone itself; and the tints are lowered,

heightened, and managed, so as almost to rival painting. For this

purpose, every species of hard stone is collected and sawed; innumerable

colours are thence selected, graduating from the deepest to the lightest

shade, which are kept ready for use. This art was in request at Milan;

where, on account of the vicinity of Alpine countries abounding in every

species of hard stone, it arrived at great perfection. Francesco I.

meditating the erection of the magnificent chapel for the sepulture of

the royal family, in the church of S. Lorenzo, and the ornamenting it

with urns and altars wrought in hard stone, invited Giovanni Bianchi

from that city to his court, in the year 1580, and committed the works

in mosaic to his direction. Soon after Ferdinando ascended the throne,

and the new art gained ground under him; it was promoted by Constantino

de' Servi, and afterwards by other artists, who progressively improved

it. The tables, cabinets, and coffers, small landscapes, and

architectural pieces which were there executed, and sent as presents to

princes, are dispersed over Europe. In one cabinet of the ducal gallery

there is an exquisite octagonal table, the round central piece of which

was designed by Poccetti, and the ornamental border by Ligozzi. Jacopo

Autelli executed the work, on which, with numerous assistants, he was

employed for sixteen years, and finished it in 1649. In the cabinet of

cameos and engraved gems, there are figures in mezzo-relievo, and entire

little statues in hard stone, fabricated by the same company of artists;

not to mention what is in the Pitti palace and the church of S. Lorenzo.

A similar company still exists, under the direction of the Signori

Siries, and abounding in subordinate artists, which is supported with

royal magnificence by the prince, for whom it is constantly employed.

[Footnote 212: The new style began in the reign of Francesco I., who was

greatly skilled in design, which he had learnt of Buontalenti. He was

succeeded by Ferdinando I., Cosmo II., Ferdinando II., all of them

celebrated for their magnificent works in ornamenting the city and the

palace: Cardinals Gio. Carlo and Leopoldo de' Medici also flourished

there, both of them patrons of the arts; and the latter is recorded in

history for his knowledge of them, and the splendid collection which he

formed. We may add to these Prince Mattia, and others of that family.]

[Footnote 213: He was born in 1624, and died in 1692, leaving materials

for the completion of the work, which were afterwards arranged by

Saverio, his son, a gentleman of the law, who put the finishing hand to

the whole. Piacenza. Ristretto della Vita di Filippo Baldinucci, p.

xvi.]

[Footnote 214: In this branch of the art, indeed, he was not so greatly

skilled; and the Cav. Titi, after commending his Assumption, which is

exhibited in the entablature of the cathedral at Leghorn, adds, that not

having been conducted according to the rules of foreshortening, some

exceptions may be made to it.]

[Footnote 215: There is a Visitation by this artist, and inscribed with

his name, in the church of S. Anthony of Pisa, which he executed in a

weak style in 1606.]

[Footnote 216: In the great saloon he has poetically represented the

protection afforded to literature by Lorenzo de' Medici. With some

licences peculiar to that age, and usual with him, the composition and

the figures are very beautiful; and there is an imitation of

basso-relievo in his painting, that would deceive the most skilful, and

tempt them to believe it absolutely raised from the wall. This work,

left imperfect by him, was completed by Pagani, by Montelatici, and by

Furini, with some semicircular pieces.]

[Footnote 217: This is expressed by the Italians by "il possesso del

sotto in su." Tr.]

[Footnote 218: See tom. ii. of Signor Giachi, p. 202.]

[Footnote 219: The Ragged Cloak recovered.]

[Footnote 220: It was published with notes by Dr. Paolo Minucci, and was

reprinted with other illustrations of Sig. Antonio Biscioni.]

[Footnote 221: Passeri, a great admirer of his tints, pronounces him a

master of invention; and, treating of his engravings, says, "such vigour

of conception, such novelty, and such variety, were never the gift of

any other artist. He is a poet in all his historic pieces, his

composition is full of fancy; this, however, is not equally commended by

all, who look for the simple action without other accessaries."]

[Footnote 222: The Bully.]

[Footnote 223: Botti is pronounced a famous fresco painter by Magalotti,

in _Lett. Pitt._ tom. v. p. 229. There are various mechanical works of

Lorenzo. He painted the whole ceiling of the church of the Domenicans at

Fiesole, which was considered by Conca among the respectable productions

of his age.]

[Footnote 224: The Trumpet.]

[Footnote 225: The Swarthy.]

[Footnote 226: Lett. Pitt. tom. i. p. 308.]

[Footnote 227: The Ab. Conca, tom. ii. p. 53, writes of this artist,

that with this and similar works he acquired so much reputation in

Madrid, that the name of a principal street in which he lived was

borrowed from his; from the time of Philip II. it has been called

_Jacome Trezzo_.]

[Footnote 228: Tom. viii. p. 156.]

FLORENTINE SCHOOL.

EPOCH V.

_Pietro da Cortona and his followers._

After the middle of the seventeenth century, the Florentine school, and

also that of Rome, underwent a remarkable revolution, occasioned by the

vast number of the followers of Pietro da Cortona. Sects in painting

have the same fate as sects in philosophy: one succeeds another; and the

new principles are propagated more or less rapidly, according to the

degree of opposition they have to encounter where they happen to be

diffused. The manner of Cortona met with considerable opposition in

Rome, as we shall find in the proper place. He was invited to Florence

by Ferdinand II. about the year 1640, to ornament some of the apartments

of the Pitti palace; and this work, in which he spent several years, has

appeared to connoisseurs the most beautiful he ever performed. He was

directed in this work by Michelangiolo Bonarruoti the younger, a

literary man of great judgment; and Cortona appears also to display

learning in the execution. In one apartment he painted the four ages of

the world, which the poets of all nations have described in imitation of

Hesiod; five other chambers were dedicated to five fabulous deities,

from whom they were named the chamber of Minerva, of Apollo, of Mars, of

Jupiter, and of Mercury. He united the mythology of each with history.

Thus, for instance, in the chamber of Apollo, he represents this patron

of the fine arts on the ceiling in the act of receiving the young

Hercules, who is introduced by Minerva, that he may be instructed; and

on the walls he painted Alexander reading the works of Homer, Augustus

listening to Virgil, and other similar stories, which are fully

described by Passeri in his Life of Cortona. The great work was finished

by Ciro Ferri; for after Cortona had begun the chamber of Mercury, on

some disgust, which is variously related, he secretly withdrew from

court, returned to Rome, and always declined when repeatedly invited to

revisit Florence. There, however, he had laid the foundations of a new

school. Baldinucci remarks on the style of Pietro, that it was no sooner

seen at Florence, than praised by the best judges.[229] The predilection

of Cosmo III. contributed to bring it into credit; this prince pensioned

Ciro Ferri in Rome, that he might instruct the Tuscans who came there to

study. At that time there was no artist of that country who did not,

more or less, imitate this style. We shall now describe it, and trace it

to its origin.

Pietro Berrettini, a native of Cortona, the scholar of Comodi in

Tuscany, and of Ciarpi at Rome, is mentioned also among the writers on

the art.[230] He acquired his knowledge of design by copying antique

basso-relievos, and the chiaroscuros of Polidoro, a man who appears

inspired by the soul of an ancient. Pietro chose Trajan's column as his

favourite study; and from it he may have drawn his heavy proportions,

and the appearance of strength and robustness, that characterize even

his female forms and his children: in their eyes, noses, and lips, he

surpasses the medium standard; and their hands and feet are certainly

not remarkable for their light elegance. But in contrast, or the art of

opposing group to group, figure to figure, and part to part, in which he

was distinguished, he appears to have followed Lanfranco, and partly to

have formed it from the Bacchanalian vases, which are particularly

mentioned in his life by Passeri. His taste may probably have been

drawn, in some measure, from the Venetian school; since having gone to

study there, and then returned to Rome, he destroyed what he had

previously done, and executed his works anew in the Barberini palace,

according to the account of Boschini, his great admirer. Generally

speaking, he finishes nothing highly but what was intended to be most

conspicuous; he avoids strong shadows, is fond of middle tints, prefers

the less brilliant grounds, colours without affectation, and is reckoned

the inventor and chief artist of a style, which, in the opinion of

Mengs, combines facility with taste. He employed it in pictures of all

sizes with applause; but in painting of furniture, and still more on

ceilings, in cupolas, and recesses, he carried it to a pitch of beauty

which will never fail to procure him panegyrists and imitators. The

judicious division of his historical compositions, which derives aid

from the architecture, that skilful gradation by which he represents the

immensity of aerial space beyond the clouds, his knowledge in the art of

foreshortening what is seen from below, that play of light seemingly

celestial, that symmetrical disposition of his figures, are

circumstances which enchant the eye and fascinate the soul.

It is true that this manner does not always satisfy the mind; for intent

on gratifying the eye, it introduces useless figures, in order that the

composition may not be deficient in the usual fulness; and for the sake

of contrast, figures in the performance of the gentlest actions, are

painted as if the artist was representing them in a tournament or a

battle. Gifted by nature with facility of genius, and no less judgment,

Berrettini either avoided this extravagance, as in his stupendous

Conversion of S. Paul, or did not carry it to that absurdity, which in

our times has marked his followers, from the usual tendency of all

schools to overcharge the characteristic of their master. Hence the

facility of this style has degenerated into negligence and its taste

into affectation; until its chief adherents begin as at present to

abandon it, and to adopt a superior manner.

But not to wander from the Florentine school, we must confess that this

epoch has been the least productive of eminent painters. Pietro had some

pupils at that place, who did him equal honour with the Romanelli and

the Ferri at Rome. I shall first mention a foreigner, who having

established himself at Florence, may be reckoned of that school. Livio

Mehus, a native of Flanders, came into Tuscany from Milan, where he had

received some instruction in the art from another Fleming, named

Charles, was taken under the protection of Prince Matthias, and

recommended to Berrettini, who gave him lessons for a little time both

in Florence and at Rome. By copying the antique he became a good

designer, and he studied colouring at Venice and in Lombardy. He

retained little of the manner of Cortona besides the composition. He

imitated the Venetians less in colouring, than in the light and firm

touches of his pencil. His tints are modest, his attitudes lively, his

shadows most beautiful, and his inventions ingenious. He painted few

altar pieces, but many cabinet pictures, for he was pensioned by the

prince, and employed by noble families, in whose houses his works are

often to be met with. The historical picture of the Repose of Bacchus

and Ariadne, which he painted for Marquis Gerini, in emulation of Ciro

Ferri, is very highly praised. Ferri conceived some jealousy of him,

when he painted the cupola of the Pace at Florence; where he appears to

approach the Lombard school, and even to surpass Cortona.[231] He was

imitated by a Lorenzo Rossi, previously a scholar of Pier Dandini, who,

according to P. Orlandi, executed some elegant small pictures.

Vincenzio Dandini went from the school of his brother Cesare into that

of Cortona, or rather into the Roman school, where he copied, as well as

he could, with unwearied assiduity, the finest specimens in painting,

sculpture, and architecture. On this foundation, aided by practice in

anatomy, at the academy for the naked figure, which still flourished at

Florence, he became superior to his brother in design and in softness of

colouring: he also finished more highly than Cesare, was more studious

in his drapery, and in the other branches of the art. In All Saints

there is a Conception of the Virgin, and three other pictures by his

hand. He was employed in the ducal villas: in that of Poggio Imperiale

he painted a beautifully foreshortened figure of Aurora, attended by the

Hours, in a recess he had erected; and at Petraia painted in oil the

Sacrifice of Niobe. In him the pupil of Cortona is very manifest. A

similar style, but degenerated both in execution and in manner, is

discoverable in Pietro, his son and scholar. This artist was superior to

all the other Dandini; and by more extensive travels he obtained a

greater knowledge of foreign painters: it would have been well if he had

not attempted to surpass them also in his emoluments. From avarice he

undertook too many works, and contented himself with a certain

mediocrity in study; for which he, in some measure compensated by a

freedom of pencil that is always admirable. Where well paid, he

demonstrated his abilities; as in the cupola of S. Mary Magdalen; in

several frescos in the ducal palace at Florence, in the royal villas,

and in the copious historical picture of the taking of Jerusalem, which

he painted in the public palace at Pisa. He also painted some

altar-pieces worthy of himself; as the S. Francis in S. Maria Maggiore or

the Beato Piccolomini in the attitude of saying mass, in possession of

the Servi; a beautiful picture, full of spirited attitudes. His son,

Ottaviano, appears his follower in some semicircular pictures in the

cloister of S. Spirito, in a piece representing various saints in the

church of S. Lorenzo; and wherever he was employed. One of his grandest

works may be seen in S. Mary Magdalen at Pescia, the ceiling of which he

painted in fresco.

The Dandini family had many scholars, who, with their descendants, have

kept alive the school of Cortona, even to our own days. This school was

not eminent; it requires but little examination, or prolixity of

description. It has produced some good artists; but few of them are

above mediocrity; a fault less to be attributed to their genius, than

the times. The more modern style was esteemed the best: the last master

seemed to discover new maxims in painting, and abolished the old: and

thus artists of little celebrity gave birth to others more minute and

mannered, resembling their prototype in maxims, but inferior in

reputation. About this time it became fashionable to paint with a

certain degree of careless ease, or _Sprezzatura_, as it is styled by

some; and Giordano and some Venetians are applauded for this manner.

Several Florentine artists tried to imitate them, and have produced

works that resemble sketches: this species of mannerism is not uncommon

in other schools. It is unnecessary to be particular, but only to

observe generally that such artists are as rare in choice collections of

pictures, as Andrea del Sarto or Cigoli: the latter are there scarce,

because they painted with great care; the former class because they

painted with very little. In the work entitled _Series of the most

celebrated painters_, we find Antonio Riccianti, Michele Noferi, and

some others whose names are merely mentioned as scholars of Vincenzio;

and Gabbiani is the only one particularly praised. In like manner, among

the pupils of Pietro Dandini we find the names of Gio. Cinqui, whose

portrait is in the ducal gallery, Antonio Puglieschi, of Florence, who

studied under Ciro, and Valerio Baldassari of Pescia; but there is a

particular eulogy bestowed on Fratinelli, whom we shall notice

hereafter. I find also that P. Alberigo Carlini, a Minorite monk of

Pescia, was the pupil of Ottaviano, and attended Conca at Rome. He

painted some good pictures, chiefly in the church of his order at

Pietrasanta. To his we may also add the name of Santarelli, a patrician

of the same country, and who died at Rome.

The most celebrated pupil of the Dandini was Anton Domenico Gabbiani,

not long ago mentioned; before he was the pupil of Vincenzio, he had

lessons from Subtermans, and finished his education at Rome under Ciro

Ferri, and at Venice by studying the best masters. We must not give

credit to Pascoli, who has represented him as a mean artist.[232]

Gabbiani ranks amongst the best designers of his age; a collection of

his drawings is in the possession of Sig. Pacini, which was often

inspected and commended by Mengs for the facility and elegance he there

discovered. Many of his designs were engraved and published in his life

by Ignatius Hugford. His colouring sometimes borders on the languid, but

is generally good: he is correct and natural, especially in fleshy

tints; juicy, and tempered by a pleasing harmony. The greatest fault in

the style of this artist is in his draperies, which, though correct, and

studied with his usual diligence, always exhibit a degree of heaviness

in the execution, are too confined, and sometimes are not quite true in

the colouring. His merit is very great in light subjects: in the Pitti,

and other palaces of some of the nobility of Florence, his dances of

genii and groups of boys are to be met with, and yield little to those

of Baciccio. One of the finest is in the house of the Orlandini family;

and the Marquis of Riccardi has specimens among the mirrors placed in

his collection. His largest and most celebrated work in fresco is the

vast cupola of Cestello, which he did not wholly finish. His oil

pictures are esteemed precious even in the ducal gallery. Several of his

works of unequal merit are preserved in churches; but his S. Philip, in

possession of the fathers Dell' Oratorio, justifies the assertion of

Redi, that, except Maratta, there was then no painter in Rome that could

eclipse him.[233] The catalogue of his scholars is extensive; but some

of them, as happens to every master, may be also claimed by other

preceptors. Benedetto Luti was an honour to Gabbiani and to Florence.

Having formed himself in this school, he went to Rome, in hopes of

receiving the instructions of Ciro Ferri; but the death of that master

intervening, he was guided by his own genius, and the monuments of art

existing in that city. The style he there formed may be considered a

compound of various imitations, select in the forms, pleasing and bright

in colouring, shewing art in the distribution of light and shade, and as

harmonious to the eye as is the orator to the ear, who enchants an

audience by his well turned periods; the delightful fascination is felt,

but the source of it cannot be assigned. In that metropolis we shall

find him master of the new style; but in Tuscany we cannot point out

many of his pictures besides those in the ducal palace: private

collections are rich only in his crayon pieces, which are likewise well

known out of Italy. There is one of his large pictures on canvass at

Pisa, the subject of which is the Vestment of S. Ranieri; and it is the

most admired among the larger paintings of the cathedral. Luti sent it

to Gabbiani for his correction before it was exposed to the public; a

circumstance highly honourable to the modesty of the scholar and the

abilities of the master.[234] His portrait is in the ducal gallery; and

the more rigid critics, on looking at it, have been known to say,

"Behold the last painter of his school."

Tommaso Redi was a pupil of the same master; and is noticed in the

_Lettere Pittoriche_, as a good composer of historical pictures, and is

also praised for design, colouring, and spirit. From the school of

Gabbiani he went under the tuition of Maratta and Balestra, both artists

respectable for their style, and declared enemies to the innovations

which have occupied and debased our schools for so long a period. Redi

also visited the most celebrated schools, but for the sole purpose of

studying the old masters, and of making copies of their works, some of

which, with a few pieces of his own invention, remain in his family. In

the eulogy of Anton Domenico we find honourable mention made of his

nephew, Gaetano Gabbiani; of Francesco Salvetti, his intimate friend; of

Gio. Antonio Pucci, a painter and a poet; of Giuseppe Baldini, whose

promising career was cut short by death, and of Ranieri del Pace, a

native of Pisa, who afterwards yielding to the torrent of fashion,

became a complete mannerist. Ignatius Hugford, born in Florence, but

whose father was a native of England,[235] was admirably skilled in

recognizing the hands of different masters, and likewise painted in a

good manner a picture of S. Raphael at S. Felicita, and some other

pieces, which were mostly small, and have been admitted into the royal

museum. The feeble paintings in possession of the Vallombrosani at

Forli, and some of the same stamp at Florence, are likewise by this

artist.

Alessandro Gherardini, a rival of Gabbiani, and in the opinion of many,

his superior in genius as a painter, had wonderful facility in

counterfeiting different styles. He would have equalled any of his

contemporaries, had he always painted in the style of his Crucifixion of

our Lord in Candeli, in which he calls to mind a happy imitation of

different schools. It is a work studied in every part, especially in the

general tone, which artfully expresses the darkness of that hour. A

history piece of Alexander the Great, in Casa Orlandini, with figures of

half-length, and executed with great industry, is also held in high

esteem; but he aimed at painting pictures of every degree of merit. One

of his pupils, no less fertile in talent, and named Sebastiano Galeotti,

is rather remembered than known at Florence. He left his native place

when young, travelled about a long time without any fixed residence, and

has left specimens behind him in many parts of Upper Italy. He at length

settled at Genoa, where we shall again notice him. The ducal gallery

contains portraits both of the master and of the scholar, by the side of

those of Gabbiani and Redi. Other considerable painters of this epoch

have obtained a similar honour; among whom we may mention Agostino

Veracini, a scholar of Sebastian Ricci, Francesco Conti, a disciple of

Maratta, and Lapi, a follower of Giordano; each of these has

successfully imitated his guide.[236] The S. Apollonia of the first,

painted for the church of that name; various Madonnas of the second, in

the hands of private gentlemen; and the Transfiguration of the last, in

the ducal gallery, are calculated to do them honour, and even to shed a

lustre on some of their less refined productions. Some others now dead

have been equally honoured by a portrait, of whom I have not discovered

any other work. Of this number are Vincenzio Bacherelli, Gio. Francesco

Bagnoli, Anton Sebastiano Bettini, Gio. Casini, Niccolo Nannetti, and

others, who are mentioned in the _Museo Fiorentino_.

Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani, a scholar of Giusti, was esteemed at

Florence, even during the lifetime of Gabbiani and Gherardini. To study

different masters, he visited the best schools of Italy, and for some

time attended the school of Cav. Cignani, whose manner he copied rather

than emulated. One of his Holy Families is in the Madonna de' Ricci, the

beauty of which has more of an ideal cast, and the colouring is more

florid, than is usual with his contemporaries of this school. One of the

first judges in Florence assured me that this painting was the work of

Sagrestani, although others ascribe it to his scholar, Matteo Bonechi.

Bonechi had excellent parts, but not an equal knowledge of the art, in

which he is reported to have been instructed by a species of dictation;

for he practised under the eye, and was directed by the voice of his

master. He thus became one of those practical artists who make up for

the poverty of their design by their spirit and their colouring. There

are some of his pictures that in any collection would be particularly

calculated to attract the eye. Among his works in fresco, the picture at

Cestello, where he finished what was begun by Gabbiani, is worthy of

record; and also that in the Capponi palace near the Nunziata, where he

continued the work of Marinari.

About this time Cignani died in Bologna, and Gio. Gioseffo del Sole,

denominated the modern Guido, enjoyed the highest reputation. Florence

employed three of his eminent pupils; one of the two Soderini, Meucci,

and Ferretti, who although called da Imola, was born and lived in

Florence. Mauro Soderini enjoyed the reputation of a good designer, and

aimed at beauty and effect in his pictures. The Death of S. Joseph in

the cathedral is said to be by his hand, though it is in fact by

Ferretti; the Child revived by S. Zanobi, in the church of S. Stephen,

is really his. Vincenzio Meucci was chiefly employed in works of

perspective, which he executed in many parts of Tuscany, and even in the

cupola of the royal chapel in S. Lorenzo. If there was any one who could

dispute with him pre-eminence in fresco painting, it was his fellow

disciple, Giovanni Domenico Ferretti, whose works may be seen in

Florence, in several other parts of Tuscany, and at Bologna; from which

he appears to have surpassed Meucci in fancy and in spirit, and

especially at the Philippini at Pistoia, where his performance in the

cupola is highly praised. In fresco works they were both excellent; but

in oil paintings they often were too hasty, an error into which all

fresco painters, not excepting the most esteemed, have fallen. Hence

Ferretti, although he painted the Martyrdom of S. Bartolommeo, for the

church dedicated to that saint at Pisa, in an excellent style, did not

give equal satisfaction by his History of S. Guido, in the

archiepiscopal church. Several of the works of Meucci are dispersed

through the various churches in Florence; and in a chapel of the

Nunziata, where he painted the recess, he coloured a Madonna, which is

allowed to be one of his most diligent and best finished pictures. He

was there rivalled by Giuseppe Grisoni, a scholar of Redi; and it is

reported that vexation at this circumstance shortened his days. Grisoni

had travelled more than he in visiting the schools of Italy, had even

gone to England, and had acquired great skill in figures, and still more

in landscape. He therefore was induced to add landscape not only to

historical, but also to portrait painting; as in the instance of a

portrait of himself that is one of the most respectable in the second

chamber of painters. He added it also to the S. Barbara, painted in

competition with Meucci; and it is a picture which does honour to the

school in form, relief, and taste of colouring. He likewise painted

other pieces on the same plan, in which, however, he did not succeed so

well.

Meucci and Grisoni cannot be reckoned Italian artists of the same rank

with Luti; but if all are to be estimated by the times in which they

flourished, each was eminent in his day. I had noticed them briefly in

my first edition, and some painters have informed me, that with them I

ought to have mentioned Giuseppe Zocchi, who was a painter of note, and

should not have been omitted even in a compendium of the history of the

art. I now correct my error, and produce what information the noble

family of Gerini, under whose protection he was received when a boy, and

who, after his elementary studies at Florence, sent him to Rome, to

Bologna, and other parts of Lombardy, for his instruction in the

different schools, have supplied me. I may be allowed to add, that the

Florentine nobility have always been most liberal in this way; and there

are not a few living artists who owe their education in the fine arts to

the bounty of some noble family: such clients are an ornament to a

nobleman, and are not to be numbered among his servants. Zocchi had a

genius fertile in invention, pliant in imitation, and judicious in

selection; and hence at the conclusion of such a course of study, he was

able to compose large works with skill, and to colour beautifully. He

painted four pretty large frescos in the villa Serristori, beyond the

gate of S. Nicholas, some apartments in the Rinuccini palace, and one in

the Gerini gallery; and these are believed to be his best works of this

sort. In smaller pieces he was still greater; as in his oil picture of

the festivities at Siena, on the arrival of the Emperor Francis I., a

work very true in the perspective, and graceful in the multitude of

figures which he there inserted. It is deposited in the splendid

Sansedonii collection of pictures at Siena, where the entertainment

given to the Grand Duke Peter Leopold may also be seen: with this object

in view the painter went to Siena, where he caught the epidemic disorder

that raged there in 1767, and soon after died at Florence.

On turning to the other parts of Tuscany, we find them from the

beginning of the eighteenth century full of the followers of Cortona;

San Sepolcro boasted one Zei, of whom I find no further account than

that of his painting an altar-piece representing the souls in purgatory,

for the cathedral of that place, a work extremely well coloured, and

conducted in the maxims of the school, though the countenances are of a

common cast; and if we except the liberating angel, of poor expression.

Among this sect we cannot include Gio. Batista Mercati, one of the

latest painters of that city, not unknown at Rome, and much noted in his

native place, where he painted either at a more mature time of life, or

with greater pains. Two of his historical frescos, representing our

Lady, are in S. Chiara; and at S. Lorenzo there is a picture of the

titular with other saints; in both there is an air apparently drawn from

the school of the Caracci, especially in the breadth of the drapery,

which is well cast, and skilfully varied. In the Guides to Venice and to

Rome, several of his works are mentioned, and in that of Leghorn, the

only picture in the cathedral esteemed worthy of notice is that of the

Five Saints, painted by Mercati with great care. Orlandi notices Tommaso

Lancisi, a scholar of Scaminossi, and two of his brothers, and adds,

that painting was an hereditary honour in this family.

One only of the countrymen of Berrettini is known to me as his follower;

his name is Adriano Palladino; he is mentioned by Orlandi, which is the

only trace of him that I have discovered; I never saw any of his works,

nor heard them mentioned by any one.

Arezzo abounds with pictures in the manner of Cortona. Salvi

Castellucci, the scholar of Pietro, either at Florence or at Rome, was a

great imitator of his style, and painted with expedition, according to

the practice of the school. He executed many good pieces in the

cathedral, and other churches, besides numerous cabinet pictures that

are in private houses, which are estimable for the facility and good

taste of their colouring. One of his frescos, representing our Lady

surrounded by the patron saints of the city, is in the public palace;

but he is greater in oil painting. He had a son, on whom he bestowed the

name of Pietro, probably in honour of his master. He also was a follower

of Cortona, but never equalled his father.

Pistoia, however, had two Gimignani, the father Giacinto, and Lodovico,

his son, of whom it is still disputed which was the most eminent. From

the school of Poussin, Giacinto entered that of Berrettini; and as he

approached nearer his first master in design and composition, so in

colouring and in taste for architecture he came nearest to the second.

He moreover took the lead in works of fresco. Here he rivalled Camassei

and Maratta, at the baptistery of S. Gio. Laterano, where he painted the

histories of Constantine, besides leaving other specimens in different

parts of Rome, in the Niccolini palace at Florence, and other places. In

some pictures he also emulated Guercino, as for instance in the Leander

in the ducal gallery, which was long considered as a Guercino. Though

Lodovico was the scholar of Giacinto, he is not so correct in design,

but was superior to his father in all the faculties that excite pleasing

emotions; his ideas are more beautiful, his tints more lovely, his

attitudes more spirited, and his harmony more agreeable. It would appear

either that the style of his maternal uncle Orbetto, had attracted his

attention, or that Bernini, the director of his studies, had led him

into this path. He obtained great applause for his works in fresco, and

those he executed at Rome in the church of the Virgins are studied by

artists for the attitudes, the clouds, and the grace of the wings with

which his angels were furnished. He chiefly resided at Rome, which

possesses several of his paintings for churches, and a far greater

number for halls and private rooms; being moreover much employed in

these for foreign countries. Two histories of S. John by the hand of

Giacinto, are in the church dedicated to that saint at Pistoia; and

there was also a S. Rocco in the cathedral, which was esteemed

excellent. Lodovico executed a beautiful picture for the church of the

Capuchins, now converted into a parish church.

After the death of both, Lazzaro Baldi still remained, another great

ornament of the school of Cortona, and of Pistoia, his native place. He

may be there recognised in two pictures, the Annunciation in the church

of S. Francis, and the Repose in Egypt in that of the Madonna della

Umilta. This latter place is a most majestic octagonal temple, executed

by Ventura Vitoni of Pistoia, the great pupil of Bramante, and

surmounted by a cupola, which is reckoned among the noblest in Italy.

Baldi finally established his abode in Rome; where he was much employed,

as well as in other parts of the states of the Church. One of the most

studied pictures he ever painted is at S. Camerino, and represents S.

Peter receiving the pontifical power. A still more recent artist is Gio.

Domenico Piastrini, a scholar of Luti, who in the porch of Madonna della

Umilta, filled two large spaces with pictures, illustrative of the

history of this church, and who rivalled the best followers of Maratta,

in S. Maria in Via Lata, at Rome. It is not foreign to this period to

notice Gio. Batista Cipriani, who was born in Florence, but descended

from a family of Pistoia;[237] especially as he left specimens of his

pencil in the neighbourhood of the places we have just mentioned. Two of

his altar-pieces were in the abbey of S. Michael-on-the-Sea; one of S.

Thesaurus, the other of S. Gregory VII. which are valuable, as Cipriani

painted but little. His excellence lay in design, which he acquired from

the collection of the studies of Gabbiani, before mentioned. Having

afterwards gone to London, he was much employed by the celebrated

Bartolozzi, who has immortalized the painter by engraving his

inventions. We might augment our catalogue with the two Giusti and

Michele Paoli, a Pistoian of the school of Crespi; but they did not

attain maturity, if we depend on the information afforded by the

continuator of _Felsina Pittrice_.[238]

Of those within the Florentine territory, the Pisans, and of those

beyond it, the artists of Lucca, yet remain to be considered. Camillo

Gabrieli, a scholar of Ciro, was the first who transplanted the style of

Cortona into Pisa; and in this manner executed a good oil painting at

the convent of the Carmelites, and also several for private individuals;

in this kind of painting he was more happy than in fresco. In this line,

however, his memory is honoured in his native place, both for his works

in the grand saloon of the Alliata palace, and in the apartments of

other noblemen's houses; and likewise on account of his pupils, the two

Melani, who have contributed much to his reputation. We shall notice

Francesco among the professors of architectural design: Giuseppe his

brother, and a knight of the golden spur, became no common artist in

figures, and was worthy of painting in the cathedral a large oil picture

of the death of S. Ranieri. Although this piece ranks in the scale of

mediocrity in this sanctuary of the arts, it does honour to its author;

the invention is good, the perspective is regular, and exhibits no marks

of carelessness, as is so often the case. But his place is among the

painters in fresco; in which department he ornamented with figures the

architectural works of his brother; and has shewn himself tenacious of

the manner of Cortona, both in what is commendable in it, as the

perspective, colouring, and harmony; and also where it is less

praiseworthy, as in the heaviness and imperfect finish of the figures.

With a similar instance we shall commence the series of artists of

Lucca: the two brothers, Ippolito and Giovanni Marracci, obtained equal

applause in very different branches of the art; the former was a painter

of architecture, the latter of figures; and of him only we shall here

speak. Although little known beyond Lucca, he is reckoned among the

eminent scholars and most successful imitators of Pietro da Cortona; and

merits this name, either when he painted in fresco, as in the cupola of

S. Ignatius, at S. Giovanni; or when he wrought in oil, as he did in

several pictures in the possession of the brotherhood of S. Lorenzo, in

the collegiate church of S. Michael, and in other places. With equal

success two other artists, natives of Lucca, who had been educated in

his school, became imitators, for a period, of Pier Cortona. These were

Giovanni Coli and Filippo Gherardi, who were trained in the school of

their native place, and resembled each other no less in style than in

disposition; so that though they usually painted in the same piece, all

their joint labours appear the work of a single artist. They afterwards

adopted a manner that participates of the Venetian and Lombard schools;

and in this style they painted the vast ceiling of the library of S.

Giorgio Maggiore at Venice. Rome possesses some of their stupendous

works in the church of the Lucchesi, and in the magnificent Colonna

gallery. The most celebrated picture with which they ornamented their

native place was the fresco of the tribune of the church of S. Martin,

and next to it that in S. Matthew's, which they decorated with three oil

pictures. After the death of Coli, his companion resided and continued

to paint in Lucca: the whole cloister of the Carmelite monastery was

painted by him alone.

The manner of Cortona was likewise adhered to by Gio. Batista Brugieri,

a scholar of Baldi and of Maratta, who was in his day highly applauded

for his works in the chapel of the Sacrament, at the Servi, and his

other productions in public. P. Stefano Cassiani, from the fraternity to

which he belonged, surnamed Il Certosino, or the Carthusian, painted in

fresco the cupola of his church, and two large histories of our Lady,

besides other reputable works in the style of Cortona, at the Certosa of

Pisa, of Siena, and elsewhere. Girolamo Scaglia, a disciple of Paulini

and of Gio. Marracci, is surnamed Parmegianino. In architecture he

imitated Berrettini, as is remarked by Sig. da Morrona;[239] in his

shadows he followed Paulini, and sometimes approached Ricchi: as a

painter his effect was superior to his design; or as it was observed by

the Cav. Titi, (p. 146) on beholding his picture of the Presentation,

painted at Pisa, it exhibits extreme industry and very little taste.

Gio. Domenico Campiglia was reckoned among the best designers in Rome;

and of him the engravers of antiquities particularly availed themselves.

He was not without merit as a painter; and in Florence, where he

executed some pictures, his portrait has a place among those of eminent

artists. A picture painted by Pietro Sigismondi, of Lucca, for the great

altar of S. Nicholas in Arcione at Rome, is honourably mentioned by

Titi: I know not whether any of his works remain in his native place;

and the same is the case with Massei and with Pini, who will be

considered in another school.

I shall close this series with two other artists; and had the age

produced many like them, Italian painting would not have declined so

much as it has done during the eighteenth century. Giovanni Domenico

Lombardi lived not, like his pupil, Cav. Batoni, within the enlightening

precincts of Rome, but in merit he was at least equal to Batoni. He

formed his style on the works of Paulini, and improved it by studying

the finest colourists at Venice, and also by paying attention to the

school of Bologna. The genius of this artist, his taste, his grand and

resolute tone, appear in several of his pictures, executed in his best

time, and with real pains. Such are his two pieces on the sides of the

choir of the Olivetani, which represent their founder, S. Bernard,

administering relief to the citizens infected with the plague. There are

two others in a chapel of S. Romano, which are painted with a magic

force approaching to the best manner of Guercino; and one of them, in

the opinion of the most rigid critics, seems the work of that artist

himself. He should always have painted thus; and never have prostituted

his pencil to manufacture pieces at all prices. Batoni, who will be

noticed in our third book among the Roman masters, supported better his

own dignity and that of the art. He adhered in a great measure to the

maxims of this school, a circumstance which did not altogether please

his first master, who on examining some of his early performances,

remarked, that they required a greater covering of dirt, for they appear

to him too trimly neat. One who has not an opportunity of examining his

capital works, may satisfy himself in Lucca, either in the church of the

Olivetine fathers, where he painted the Martyrdom of S. Bartolommeo; or

in that of S. Catharine of Siena, where she is represented receiving the

mystic wounds of the crucifixion.

I shall not here mention many artists in the inferior walks of the art.

The example of Cortona influenced none in this class, except a few

ornamental painters, and some artists who accompanied their figures by

landscapes. The painters of landscapes, flowers, and the like, continued

to follow their original models. Chiavistelli, for instance, has been

followed by various artists in fresco of this age, who besides executing

figures, have exercised, as before remarked, other branches of painting.

Pure architectural and ornamental painting in a good taste are, however,

distinct arts; and to attain excellence in them requires all the

faculties of man. Angiol Rossi, of Florence, applied himself to it, as I

believe, in Bologna; and assiduously practised it at Venice, as we are

informed by Guarienti. Two artists of Lucca, Pietro Scorzini and

Bartolommeo Santi, received their education at Bologna, and were the

favourite decorators of many theatres. Francesco Melani, of Pisa,

adhered strongly to Cortona. As learned in perspective as his brother

was in figures, his style was so similar, that no architectural painter

was so well suited to accompany the figures of the other. This will be

allowed by all who view the ceiling in the church of S. Matthew at Pisa,

which is their finest work, or their paintings in Siena, and at other

places, where they were employed together. They educated a pupil worthy

of them, in Tommaso Tommasi, of Pietra Santa, a man of vast conception,

who succeeded in Pisa to the commissions bestowed upon his masters, and

produced very pleasing specimens of his powers in the nave of the church

of S. Giovanni. Ippolito Marracci, of Lucca, the scholar of Metelli,

appears a successful rival of his master, either when he painted by

himself, as in the Rotonda, at Lucca, or when associated with his

brother, as was generally the case. Domenico Schianteschi, a disciple of

Bibieni, lived in San Sepolcro; his perspectives in that city are to be

seen in the houses of many of the nobility, and are much esteemed.

Florence has boasted professed portrait painters, even to the present

time; among whom Gaetano Piattoli is particularly extolled. He was pupil

to a French artist, Francesco Riviera, who had resided and died at

Leghorn, and was very much prized in collections for the excellence of

his Conversazioni and Turkish ballets. He is well known too, in other

countries; for he was employed to take portraits of the foreign nobility

who visited Florence. The portrait of himself, which he painted for the

ducal gallery, indicates the style of the rest. An illustrious female

artist emanated from the school of Gabbiani, although assisted in her

studies by other masters, and this was Giovanna Fratellini, who was not

without invention, and was most expert in portrait painting. She

executed in oil, in crayons, in miniature, and in enamel, various

portraits of the family of Cosmo III. and of other princes, to paint

whom she was sent by her sovereign to several cities of Italy. That

which she painted of herself, is in the ducal gallery: in it she has

blended the employment of the artist with the affection of a mother. She

is represented in the act of taking a likeness of Lorenzo, her only son

and pupil, who died in the flower of his age. It is painted in crayons,

an art in which she may be called the Rosalba of her time. Domenico

Tempesti, or Tempestino, is rather included among engravers than

painters; though he was instructed by Volterrano in Florence, in the

latter art, and exercised it with credit both in landscape and portrait.

He is mentioned by Vianelli in the catalogue of his pictures. It would

appear that he was the same Domenico de Marchis, called Tempestino, whom

Orlandi casually notices in the article of Girolamo Odam, whom Domenico

had initiated in the elements of landscape painting. Orlandi gives also

a separate article, under the head of Domenico Tempesti, in which his

voyages through Europe, and his long residence at Rome, are dwelt upon.

Many landscapes, chiefly rural views, painted by Paolo Anesi, are

dispersed through Florence, and there are also many of them in Rome.

Francesco Zuccherelli, a native of Pitigliano, born in the year 1702,

was his scholar. On going to Rome, he resided there a long time, and

first entered the school of Morandi, and afterwards of Pietro Nelli. His

first intention was to study figures, but by one of those circumstances

which discover the natural predilection, he applied himself to painting

landscape; and pursued it in a manner that united strength and

sweetness; and has been highly extolled not only in Italy, but over all

Europe. His figures also were elegant, and these he was sometimes

employed to introduce in the landscapes and architectural pieces of

other artists. His principal field in Italy was Venice, where he was

settled, until the celebrated Smith made him known in England, and

invited him to that island, in which he remained many years, exercising

his pencil for the court, and for the most considerable collections of

pictures. He enjoyed the particular esteem of Count Algarotti; in the

possession of whose heirs are two landscapes by Tesi, with figures by

Zuccherelli: of the first artist I shall again speak in the school of

Bologna. Algarotti was commissioned by the court of Dresden to procure

the works of the best modern painters, and suggested to Zuccherelli

subjects for two pictures, in which he succeeded admirably, and was

employed to repeat them for the king of Prussia. In his old age he

returned to Rome, and was employed there, at Venice and in Florence,

where he died in 1788. These anecdotes of Zuccherelli I obtained along

with many others from the Sig. Avvocato Lessi, a gentleman deeply versed

in the fine arts.

The name of this artist brings to a fair conclusion the series of

Florentine painters, which has been continued for little less than six

centuries, in an uninterrupted succession of native artists, without the

intervention of one foreign master in this school, at least one so

eminent as to mark an era. With the exception of the last years, in

which art was on the decline throughout Italy, the Florentine school,

with all its merit, and that is undoubtedly very great, owes its

progress to native genius. It was not unacquainted with foreign artists,

but from them it disdained to borrow; and its masters never adopted any

other style on which they did not engraft a peculiarity and originality

of manner.

I might write much in praise of masters now living,[240] but I propose

not to enter on their merits, and shall leave them wholly to the

judgment of posterity. In other arts I indulge a greater latitude, but

not frequently. I may add with truth, that during the course of six

centuries, the artists of Florence have been fortunate in a government

most auspicious to the fine arts. The last princes however of the

Medicean family had shewn more inclination than activity in patronizing

them; and the reign of the Emperor Francis I., though generally

distinguished for enterprize,[241] was nevertheless that of an absent

sovereign. The accession of the Grand Duke Peter Leopold to supreme

power in Tuscany, in 1765, marked a new era in the history of the arts.

The palace and royal villas were repaired and embellished; and amid the

succession of undertakings that attracted the best artists, painting was

continually promoted. The improvement of the ducal gallery was most

opportune for it; and afforded new commissions to painters, and new

specimens of the art: for the Prince ordered all the inferior pieces to

be removed from the collection, and their place to be supplied by vast

numbers of choice pictures. Fine specimens of antique marbles were

likewise added: to him Florence owes the Niobe of Praxiteles,[242] the

Apollo, and other statues; the basso-relievos, and busts of the Caesars,

which complete the grand series in the corridore: the cabinets of the

gallery were then only twelve in number, and they contained a confused

assemblage of paintings, statues, bronzes, and drawings, antiquities and

modern productions. He reduced this chaos to order; he separated the

different kinds, assigned separate apartments to each, made new

purchases of what was before wanting, and increased the number of

cabinets to twenty-one. This great work, one branch of which he was

pleased to commit to my charge,[243] was worthy of record. I laid it

before the public, in 1782, in a memoir, which was inserted also in the

forty-seventh volume of the Journal of Pisa. Whoever compares this book

with the Description of the Gallery, published in 1759, by Bianchi, will

clearly perceive that Leopold was rather a second founder than a

restorer of that emporium of the fine arts: so different is the

arrangement, so remarkable are the additions to the building, to its

ornaments, and to the articles it contains.[244] I have been diffuse in

my description of the antiquities which appeared to me deserving of more

particular elucidation; of the pictures I merely indicated the artist

and the subject. Since that period, other descriptions of the gallery,

by very able writers, have been given to the public, in which my

nomenclature and expositions of the antiquities have been adopted; but a

fuller and better catalogue of the paintings is given on the plan of

that of the imperial cabinet of Vienna, and similar works.

Ferdinand III. who now for five years has promoted the welfare of

Tuscany, succeeded no less to the throne of his august father, than to

the protection of the fine arts. The new buildings already completed, as

the right wing of the Pitti palace, or now begun, as the vestibule of

the Laurentian library, which is to be finished upon a design of

Michelangiolo, are matters foreign to my subject. Not so, however, are

the additions made by the prince to the gallery and the academy of

design. To the first he has added a vast number of prints and pictures

of those schools in which it was formerly deficient; and the gallery is

increased by a collection of Venetian and another of French masters,

which are separately arranged in two cabinets.[245] The academy, since

1785, had been as it were created anew by his father; had obtained a new

and magnificent edifice, new masters, and new regulations, circumstances

already well known over Europe, and here unnecessary to be repeated.

This institution, which required improvement in some particulars, has

been at length completed, and its apartments and its splendour augmented

by the son; seconded by the superintendence of those accomplished

connoisseurs, the Marchese Gerini, the Prior Rucellai, and the Senator

Alessandri. To the artists in every branch of the fine arts which were

before in Florence, he has recently added the engraver Sig. Morghen, an

ornament to the city and the state. The obligations of the fine arts to

Ferdinand III., are eloquently stated by Sig. Cav. Puccini, a nobleman

of Pistoia, and superintendant of the ducal gallery, in an oration on

the arts, pronounced not long ago in this academy, of which he is the

respected secretary, and since published, accompanied by

engravings.[246]

[Footnote 229: Life of Matteo Rosselli, in tom. x. p. 72.]

[Footnote 230: Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett. Ital. (tom. viii. p. 258.)

ed. Ven. "Pietro Berrettini, in addition to the letters pointed out by

Mazzucchelli (Scritt. Ital. tom. ii. p. 925,) wrote also along with P.

Giandomenico Ottonelli da Fanano, a Jesuit, a 'Treatise upon painting

and sculpture, their use and abuse; composed by a painter and a

theologian.'" This work is become very rare.]

[Footnote 231: Lett. Pitt. tom. i. p. 44.]

[Footnote 232: In the Life of Luti. See Lett. Pitt. tom. i. p. 69.]

[Footnote 233: Lett. Pitt. tom. ii. p. 69.]

[Footnote 234: See Lett. Pitt. tom. ii. lett. 35.]

[Footnote 235: He was brother to Henry Hugford, a monk of Vallombrosa,

to whom we owe, in a great measure, the progress of working in

_Scagliola_, which was afterwards successfully practised in Florence by

Lamberti Gori, his pupil; and at this day by the Signor Pietro

Stoppioni, who receives numerous commissions. Although the portraits,

and in general the figures, of a variety of colours, are very pleasing,

yet the _dicromi_, or yellow figures upon a black ground, attract most

notice, copied from ancient vases formerly called Etruscan, and these

copies either form separate pictures, or are inserted for ornament in

tablets. The tragic poet Alfieri caused his epitaph to be inscribed on

one of these small tables covered with scagliola work. Being found after

his death, it quickly spread abroad, but was not inscribed on his tomb.

Upon another of these he had written the epitaph of a great personage,

whom he wished to be interred near him; and the two little tablets

united together folded one upon another in the way of a _dittico_ or

small altar, or of a book, on the side of which was written _Alfieri

liber novissimus_. In this way others write, on tablets of scagliola,

fine precepts from scripture, a philosophy that comes from and leads to

heaven, intended to be placed in private sanctuaries, to aid meditation

in sight of the crucifix. The silver tablets I have seen for the same

purpose are more valuable, but less artificial.]

[Footnote 236: In his larger works (such as the altar-pieces at the

Missionari and at the Monastero Nuovo,) it would appear that Conti aimed

at approaching the style of Trevisani.]

[Footnote 237: See _Saggio Istorico della R. Galleria de Firenze_, tom.

ii. p. 72. This work, valuable for its learning and authenticity, is

written by Sig. Giuseppe Bencivenni (formerly Pelli) a gentleman of

Florence, and formerly director of the ducal gallery, who is also known

by his other literary labours, on the lives of the most eminent

painters, by the life of Dante, and by the learned dissertation on

coins, appended to the lives of the followers of Cortona. He arranged

the collection of modern coins, that of engravings and of drawings, and

the paintings of the ducal gallery; of these, and also of the gems and

medals, he has there left manuscript catalogues.]

[Footnote 238: See that work at p. 232.]

[Footnote 239: Tom iii. p. 113.]

[Footnote 240: It was necessary to confine myself thus in the preceding

edition. In the present we may give free scope to our commendation of

Tommaso Gherardini, a Florentine, and pupil to Meucci; and who, having

completed his studies in the schools of Venice and Bologna, succeeded

admirably in basso-relievo and chiaroscuro. He decorated a large hall in

the Medicean gallery in fresco, and painted likewise much in oil for the

imperial gallery of Vienna, for German and English gentlemen, and

various countries that have ornamented their collections. He shewed, at

least for his age, no less skill in fresco histories, which are seen in

many Florentine palaces and villas. The best of these are such as he

executed in mature age, or at his own suggestion; like his _Parnaso in

Toscana_, placed in the Casa Martelli, one of his patrons from his early

years; besides others in the noble houses of Ricciardi and Ambra. He

died in 1797; the senator Martelli, on the decease of the Archbishop his

uncle, and that of his father, continued his patronage to the artist,

and considers him as one who has reflected the greatest degree of credit

on his house. The clients of that family, from the time of Donatello,

have been numerous, a taste for the fine arts being hereditary in the

family. The master of the academy, Pietro Pedroni, ought not to be here

omitted; an oil painter of merit, whose four pictures, executed

subsequent to his studies at Parma and Rome, are an ornament to his

native place. Owing to ill health, he produced little during his

residence at Florence, which, added to other disappointments, induced

him, always the best resource, to travel. If not a rare painter, he was

at least an able master: profound in theory, and eloquent in conveying

his knowledge to his pupils, of whom history will treat in the ensuing

age. Their success, their affection and esteem for Pedroni, is the best

eulogy on him which I can transmit to posterity.]

[Footnote 241: See _Il Saggio Istorico_ of Sig. Pelli, towards the

conclusion.]

[Footnote 242: See _Le Notizie su la Scoltura degli antichi e i vari

suoi stili_, p. 39. This short tract, illustrative of many marbles in

the ducal gallery, is inserted in the third volume of _Saggio di Lingua

Etrusca_. It was intended as a preface to a full Description of the

Museum, which was then in the press, but it was suspended in consequence

of the numerous changes and additions made in that place.]

[Footnote 243: It was the cabinet of antiquities, not then arranged. In

each class I have noticed the additions of Leopold. To the busts of the

Caesars I was able to add about forty, some of which had been purchased,

and others removed from the royal palaces and villas. See the

Description above quoted, p. 34. The collection of heads of philosophers

and illustrious men was almost all new. I give an account of it in p.

85. The series of busts of the Medicean family was completed at the same

time, and Latin inscriptions were added, which are to be found in

various descriptions of the gallery, with some errors, that are not to

be attributed to me, but to the printers; and this remark applies to

other royal epitaphs, as published in many books. The cabinet of antique

bronzes is described in p. 55. For the collection of antique

earthenware, see p. 157; of Greek and Latin inscriptions on stones, see

p. 81. For the Hetruscan and carved cinerary urns, see p. 46. This

cabinet I also endeavoured to illustrate in _Saggio di Lingua Etrusca_,

&c. published at Rome, in 1789. For the cabinet of antique medals,

arranged by the celebrated Sig. Ab. Eckell, see p. 101; the others,

arranged by Sig. Pelli, are mentioned a little before.]

[Footnote 244: After the departure of the prince, his bust in marble was

erected, and beneath it the following inscription, of which he was

pleased to approve:

PETRVS. LEOPOLDVS. FRANCISCI. AVG. F. AVSTRIACVS. M. D. E.

AD. VRBIS. SVAE. DECVS. ET. AD. INCREMENTVM. ARTIVM. OPTIMARVM

MVSEVM. MEDICEVM

OPERIBVS. AMPLIATIS. COPISQVE. AVCTIS

ORDINANDVM. ET. SPLENDIDIORE. CVLTV. EXORNANDVM. CVRAVIT

ANNO. M.DCC.LXXXIX.

]

[Footnote 245: He employed in this work the highly esteemed Sig. Cav.

Puccini, from whom I understand, that almost a third of the pictures now

in the gallery were placed there by the munificence of Ferdinand. Sig.

Puccini has arranged them in a manner so symmetrical and instructive as

to form a model for all other collections.]

[Footnote 246: In 1801 Lodovico I. began his reign in Tuscany. Dying

shortly after, he was succeeded by the infant Carlo I., under the

regency of the Queen-mother Maria Louisa. From this period the arts have

experienced new patronage and encouragement. The very copious and select

Salvetti library has been appropriated for the use of the academy; a

noble example to all parts of Italy, possessing similar institutions. A

new improvement also here made, is the reunion in one place of masters

in scagliola, and mosaic work, gems, and the restoring of pictures, an

occupation recently introduced; and in place of a master, who formerly

presided, a director, with greater authority and emolument, has been

appointed. Sig. Pietro Benvenuti, whom I dare not venture to commend as

he deserves, for he is still living, was selected for this charge. The

addition of casts also by our new rulers is of great utility, in

particular those from the works of the celebrated Canova, who has been

requested to produce a new statue of Venus, on the model of the

Medicean, lost to us by the chance of war. The honour conferred by the

queen regent upon the arts, deserves likewise a place in history; who,

in the meeting of the academy, held in 1803, Sig. Alessandri being

president, distributed rewards to the young students, and encouraged

them to do well. It was upon this occasion that the same Cavaliere

Puccini, secretary to the institution, delivered another excellent

discourse, intended to prove that the pursuit of the fine arts forms one

of the most expeditious and least perilous paths to human glory;--a

discourse that, equally for the credit of the writer and of the fine

arts, was given to the world at Florence, in the year 1804.