Taddeo Zuccaro--Federigo Zuccaro--Their pupils--Federigo
Baroccio and his pupils--Claudio Ridolfi--Painters of
Gubbio.
It was just after the fatal sack of Rome had dispersed the goodly
company of painters, who, reared by Raffaele, and linked together
by the recollection of his genius and his winning qualities, gave
promise of long maintaining in the Christian capital that manner
which he had brought to perfection,--that there was born to Ottaviano
Zuccaro, or Zucchero, an indifferent artist of S. Angelo in Vado, a
son destined to revive the pictorial reputation of Urbino. TADDEO
ZUCCARO saw the light in 1529, and, while yet a boy, perceiving
little hope of excellence under such instruction as Umbria could
then afford, or of remedying the poverty of his paternal fireside,
he boldly sought a wider field of improvement and enterprise, and
at fourteen found his way to Rome. The hardships which he there
underwent are touchingly described by Vasari. Aided by no friendly
hand, his education was neglected, and he was driven to menial
labour for the support of a precarious existence. Wandering from one
studio to another, he earned a crust of bread by colour-grinding;
and, unable to afford light for his evening studies, he spent the
moonlight nights in drawing, till sleep surprised him beneath some
portico. Under this hard life his health gave way, whilst his spirit
remained indomitable, and he sought rest and renewed vigour in his
native mountain air. But his thirst for improvement was not stayed
by these sufferings. On his return to Rome with recruited energies,
he was received into the studio of Jacopone Bertucci of Faenza, a
follower of Raffaele, whose few independent works entitle him to more
honourable mention than has been afforded him by Vasari or Lanzi,
and who united the tasteful design of that master with somewhat of
Lombard feeling. Taddeo subsequently aided one Daniello di Por, who
carried to Rome much of the Parmese manner, imitating Correggio and
Parmegianino. At eighteen he executed on his own account, on the
exterior of the Mattei Palace, a series of nine events in the life
of Camillus, which attracted general admiration, and established his
popularity as a historical painter. These, and several other works in
fresco done soon after, have been destroyed.
His rising reputation having reached Urbino, Guidobaldo II. summoned
him there, when about fifteen, to undertake the exterior decorations
of a chapel in the cathedral, which had been painted by Battista
Franco, and soon after carried him on his tour of inspection of the
Venetian terra-firma fortresses. On his return, he was established in
the palace at Pesaro, where he painted the Duke's portrait and some
other cabinet pictures. Two years thus passed away without his being
able to commence the chapel, although the designs for it were well
advanced; and being dissatisfied with this loss of time, he availed
himself of his sovereign's absence at Rome to follow him thither.
Orders now crowded upon him, for no contemporary painter was better
qualified to supply those slight and rapidly executed works then in
fashion for the external and internal decoration of Roman palaces
and villas. Most of these have perished; but somewhat superior in
character were the incidents in the Passion, painted in 1556, in
the Church of Consolation under the Capitol. They are still in good
preservation, but though cleverly conceived and carefully executed,
these merits scarcely compensate for the exaggerated mannerism of
their sprawling attitudes and solid draperies, whilst their violent
emotions are anything but devotional. From this time his brother
Federigo was associated in most of his labours, and the speed with
which their commissions were finished brought them easy gains, and
gave satisfaction in an age when taste had sadly degenerated. An
arrangement, whereby Taddeo agreed to accompany the Duke of Guise to
France, with a salary of 600 scudi, was interrupted by the Duke's
death; but soon after our artist had a more important commission,
from Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, to paint in his palace of
Caprarola, near Viterbo, the heroic actions of his family. This was
precisely the class of subject for which the manner and ideas of the
Zuccari were most adapted, and the results were highly satisfactory.
Accordingly, these paintings, engraved by Prenner in 1748, remain a
standard of that style of palatial decoration. Taddeo's allowance was
200 scudi a year, for which he undertook to prepare all the cartoons,
and to superintend their execution by his brother and other young
artists. Among those whom he was thus enabled to bring forward,
several, including Baroccio, were his seniors, a natural consequence
of the good fortune which brought him early into repute as a clever
head-master of the contract work then in vogue. His mural paintings
in the Sala Regia of the Vatican, and his sacred subjects in the
chapel of S. Marcello there, were also undertakings of considerable
extent, sharing his attention with Caprarola during the latter years
of his life. His last work was the Assumption of the Madonna in the
Trinità del Monte, upon which death surprised him in 1566, and his
dust reposes in the Pantheon, near that of his more illustrious
countryman Raffaele, like whom, he died on the day his thirty-seventh
year was completed.
[Illustration: _Alinari_
THE LAST SUPPER
_After the picture by Baroccio in the Duomo of Urbino_]
His brother FEDERIGO, fourteen years his junior, was brought
to Rome in 1550, and committed to his charge. The advantage of an
associate on whom he could rely was immense to one whose works
were, even from youth, in a great measure, executed by others;
and fraternal affection, cemented by a similarity of tastes and
pursuits, grew up into an identity of character and habits which
extended to their respective works, and enabled the younger Zuccaro
satisfactorily to terminate the commissions which Taddeo left
unfinished. Precocity was a characteristic of both; and the only
interruption to their harmony arose from the latter having retouched
some frescoes done by Federigo, when but eighteen years old, outside
of a house in Rome. The quarrel having become serious, a compromise
was effected by mutual friends, on an understanding that the designs,
but not the finished works of the youth, should be submitted to his
brother's correction. During his residence in Rome, Federigo was,
however, chiefly employed on those mural paintings which we have
already mentioned as undertaken by Taddeo; and when about twenty-two,
he spent a considerable time in Venice, painting, on his own account,
in the Grimani Palace, whilst his contemporaries were still busy with
their preliminary studies. There was even a proposal to assign to him
the façade of the great council hall, but jealousy among the native
artists prevented this taking effect. He was, however, consoled by
the friendship of Palladio, who engaged him to decorate a large
temporary theatre, and whom he subsequently accompanied on a tour
through Friuli and Lombardy. Thence he visited Florence, in time to
take part in the festive decorations which welcomed Joanna of Austria
to her new capital, and, after a visit to his family, arrived at Rome
early in 1566. It was about this time he painted for Duke Guidobaldo
the Liberation of St. Peter from prison, now in the Pitti Gallery, a
picture of no great intrinsic merit, though dexterous in effect; and
now, too, Verdizotti of Venice complimented his early promise in this
elegant sonnet, wherein the "tree of Jove" means the oak, the badge
of Urbino and its dukes.
"Ecco! del glorioso arbor di Giove
Un giovinetto ramo uscir sì altero,
Ch'a speme di bei frutti ogni pensiero
Desta al fiorir de le sue frondi nove.
In lui tai gratie il ciel benigno piove,
Che simili in altrui poch'altre spero;
Gratie, per cui virtù gli apre il sentiero
Ad ogni honor, che meraviglia move.
E già le cime dei più culti allori
L'inchinan' grate, e lieto augurio danno
D'eterno pregio ai suoi giorni migliori.
Alhor l'amate ghiande illustri andranno
Di sì fin or, ch'al par de' suoi splendori
Gli alti raggi del sole ombre saranno."
His brother's premature death made him heir of his fame and fortune:
the latter he speedily increased, but the former he was scarcely
adequate to sustain. Yet the dexterity by which he mastered, and
the rapidity wherewith, by numerous assistants, he completed works
of great extent, not only obtained him the commissions which Taddeo
left imperfect, but secured him a preference for all undertakings
of that description in Rome. It was upon this principle that he was
called to Florence, to terminate the cupola of the cathedral; yet
for the abortive effect of this vast composition, which has more
than once narrowly escaped whitewash, Federigo is scarcely to be
held responsible. The irretrievably hopeless attempt of filling
suitably so immense an expanse with a figure composition, had been
begun by a better artist than himself, and the blame of so gross a
blunder must lie with Vasari. Don Vincenzo Borghini suggested the
theme--Paradise allegorically treated in eight compartments, in seven
of which are set forth the seven mysteries of our Lord's passion,
while the eighth celebrates the triumph of the Romish church. The
chief interest of this colossal performance lies in its monstrous
compass; containing, it is said, three hundred figures, some of them
thirty feet high. Returned to Rome, he was employed by Gregory XIII.
on the roof of the Pauline chapel, whose walls had been decorated
by Michael Angelo. The favours which fortune thus showered upon him
soothed not the petulance of an irritable temper; and the bitter
satire wherewith he caricatured some supposed enemies in a picture of
Calumny, obliged him precipitately to quit the Holy City. This was
a congenial subject, which he often treated. Once it was done for
the Orsini of Bracciano; another of large size is noted in Pelli's
catalogue of the Urbino pictures; and there is a small one in the
gallery of the Uffizi. There are some curious particulars in Gaye's
_Carteggio_ of the annoyance to which this sally subjected him.[218]
In 1581, he was held to bail for 500 scudi, to answer a charge of
slander which it was hoped might be founded upon the testimony of
his three assistants, who were imprisoned until they should supply
a key to the suspected personalities. On this emergency he sought
protection from the influence of his sovereign, and of the Grand Duke
Francesco I. of Florence, by whose mediation he made his peace, and
returned to Rome at Easter 1583. The Duke of Urbino's application was
not disinterested, being anxious to secure Federigo's services for
a chapel he was then building at Loreto, dedicated to the Madonna
dell'Annunziata, regarding his frescoes in which we shall presently
have some observations to offer. It is unnecessary to follow his
several journeys to foreign courts and distant countries, whence
he returned honoured and enriched. In 1574, after his flight from
Rome, he passed through Paris, Flanders, and Holland, to England,
where he probably remained for some time, painting portraits; but
his works there do not seem to have been ascertained, or examined
with much criticism. Several are loosely mentioned by Walpole, and
his annotator Dalloway, one of which, representing Queen Elizabeth's
gigantic porter, is said by Stirling to bear date 1580. His chalk
drawings of her and Leicester, engraved by Rogers, can scarcely be
the same mentioned by Borghini as executed in 1575.
[Footnote 218: Vol. III., p. 444.]
On his return to Rome, Olivarez, ambassador from Philip II., whose
overtures to Paul Veronese had been unsuccessful, proposed that he
should proceed to Madrid. There he arrived in January, 1586, and,
after being received with great splendour, was immediately named
king's painter, with 2000 dollars of pension, and an apartment in the
Escurial. From that palace he, on the 29th of May, wrote a letter
descriptive of his first works, which merits notice as showing his
opinion, and that of the age, on the fitting tone and treatment to
be followed in high religious art. "My apartment contains excellent
rooms, besides saloon and study, where his Majesty frequently deigns
to come and see me work, loading me with favours. I observe you
desire now to hear something as to what I have done or am about.
There are four large pictures, for two altars of the relics, opening
and closing like organ-doors, to be painted on both sides. They are
dedicated to the Annunciation and to St. Jerome; and I have treated
them thus:--On opening the former is seen our Lady, somewhat startled
and confused by the angel's entrance, while on the outer side I
have made her assenting to the salutation in the words, 'Behold
the handmaid of the Lord.' The exterior of St. Jerome is penitent;
not as he is usually made, simply repenting, but having that faith
and hope in God without which neither abstinence nor remorse can
avail, together with the love, charity, and filial awe, that ought
ever to connect us with God and our neighbour. And these I fancy as
grouped together in idea before the saint; so I have set in front
of him a cross, with Christ in the last agony, in order to inspire
him with increased contrition, and at the foot thereof the three
theological virtues among clouds. On the interior of the two doors,
I have depicted St. Jerome, as a doctor of the church, writing:
and as companion to the idealised penitence without, I thought fit
to introduce the means and aims of study, so that the saint, though
writing, is in a contemplative ecstasy, attended by three angels.
Two of them, typifying perseverance and love of study (without
which no science can be learned, no fruit obtained), hold his book
and ink-horn; the third stands at his ear, suggesting thoughts and
sentences, and pointing out, on the other door, the entire subject he
is writing about: I intended this one for the guardian angel, or for
that intelligence and thought, whereby all is contrived and composed;
and I endeavoured to represent him as incorporeal, transparent and
spiritual, a style little used on account of its difficulty. On that
other door, I embodied the whole theme which St. Jerome, the most
holy divine and doctor, is inditing, as to the Saviour's passion
and man's redemption, dwelling specially on the considerations that
induced the Father Almighty to send his only begotten Son into the
world, to redeem mankind by his great sufferings. I imagine Charity
as appearing in his vision, and saying 'It was I who moved God,
and made Christ descend on earth'; to express which symbolically,
a saint-like matron presses one hand on her breast, and indicates
with the other a dead Christ borne by angels through the air. But
what most pleases his Majesty and all beholders, being of peculiar
mystic meaning and charming effect, is the three little Cupids who,
at the feet of Charity, disport themselves with St. Jerome's lion,
which comes forward most opportunely, his ferocity so tamed by these
children, that he lets them pat, handle, and ride upon him, licking
and fondling them the while, a clear proof that our God is not a
God of anger and vengeance, but of love, peace, charity, and grace.
During this winter I made all the designs and cartoons for these
subjects, and have already coloured and entirely completed the first
Annunciation, and the St. Jerome writing; at present I have in hand
the Charity; and all, thank God, is to his Majesty's taste. This
done, his Majesty wishes me to commence the _retavola_ of the high
altar [for the Escurial], where there will be eight great pictures in
oil, those others being on panel."[219]
[Footnote 219: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 816, f. 64-72.]
In this second commission our painter was less fortunate. The eight
pieces represented St. Laurence's Martyrdom, five events in the
life of Christ, the Descent of Tongues, and the Assumption. As
they rapidly advanced, aided by several youths who had accompanied
Federigo from Italy, he observed with anxiety the courtiers' cold or
contemptuous silence; and, desiring to test his patron's feelings,
he presented the Nativity to Philip with the arrogant exclamation,
"Here, Sire, is all that painting can accomplish, a picture that
may be viewed closely or from a distance." After long gazing on
the canvas, his Majesty asked if those things in the basket were
meant for eggs. So paltry a criticism says little for the monarch's
connoisseurship, and the mortified artist was consoled by seeing his
work placed on its destined altar. Mr. Stirling informs us that,
upon this failure, he was set to paint six frescoes in the Escurial
cloister, which gave as little satisfaction. In order to test his
complaints of his assistants, he was then desired to execute the
Conception without their aid, but with no better result. After
his departure, several portions of his _retavola_ were dismissed
from the high altar, and most of his frescoes were defaced; but
notwithstanding these repeated disgusts, and the moderate success
of two other altar-pieces mentioned by Conca, Zuccaro remained for
nearly three years in Spain, and was finally dismissed with gifts
and pensions exceeding the remuneration stipulated for his services.
The solution of his disappointment is simple. The artistic genius
of Italy was greatly exhausted: that of Spain was a virgin soil
promising many golden harvests.[220]
[Footnote 220: In referring to the _Annals of the Artists of Spain_,
it is a sincere pleasure to bear my feeble testimony to the merits
of that excellent work. It is replete with information new to the
English reader, and is enriched by apt and copious illustrations
selected from a wide range of literature and æsthetics.]
Some letters of Federigo Zuccaro in the Oliveriana Library further
illustrate the turn of thought which influenced religious art in
the end of the sixteenth century. He had been employed in 1583 by
Francesco Maria II. to decorate a chapel in the church of Loreto;
it was dedicated to the Madonna, and the theme prescribed for his
frescoes was her life. The altar-picture by Baroccio represented the
Annunciation; and the scenes selected for mural paintings were her
marriage, visitation, death, assumption, and coronation. Of these
the first three belonged to a class of dramatic compositions adapted
to the prevailing taste, while the others partook of the Umbrian
influence which still lingered around that shrine. The subsidiary
ornaments being of course under the direction of Zuccaro, he felt
puzzled how to fill up certain spaces offered by the architectural
arrangement, and wrote to the Duke. After consulting the chief
theological authorities among the hierarchy of Loreto what would best
develop the "humble and mystic" sentiment which it was his object
to sustain, the artist suggested that figures emblematic of glory
and perpetuity should support the Coronation of the Madonna, as
expressing the inherent attributes of that subject. In like manner
he proposed to accompany her Death with Faith, Hope, and the Fear
of God, the best supports of a death-bed; whilst the Assumption
was to have Charity on one hand, Perseverance on the other, and
above Joy, the fruit of these virtues and the foretaste of glory.
As accompaniments for the Annunciation, he submitted that there
should be two prophets or sibyls, the instruments through whom the
incarnation of the Word was predicted. Giotto or Fra Angelico
would have chosen the prophets of the Old Testament; Michael Angelo
would have preferred pagan sibyls; Perugino or Raffaele might have
invoked them both; Zuccaro, painting at Loreto, thought either
equally appropriate appendages to his allegorical creations.[221]
Yet Federigo was not altogether blinded to the barbarous tendency of
the taste around him. In writing of Milan, he says that the painters
there had in his day "wofully diverged from the beautiful simplicity
and arrangement of those living early in the century; and that the
Proccaccini, especially Giulio Cesare, introduced a set of scoffing
heads, and certain angels so debauched looking, and devoid of all
reverence in the presence of God and the Madonna, that I know not how
they are tolerated, unless it be that they are excused for the sake
of many other commendable parts."[222]
[Footnote 221: In reference to appropriate lights, Baroccio entirely
condemns the use of stained glass, as darkening the interior, and
injuring, by coloured rays, the effect of paintings. Zuccaro,
however, recommends the introduction of a tinted armorial bearing,
surrounded by a wreath of fruits and flowers, as likely to mellow
without obscuring the chapel.]
[Footnote 222: _Lettere Pittoriche_, vii., p. 513.]
Of the large number of important works he executed in Venice,
Milan, Pavia, Turin, and other towns of Upper Italy, we shall not
attempt a catalogue, nor of his many frescoes in the Roman palaces
and churches. We cannot, however, pass by an altar-picture still in
the Church of Sta. Caterina in his native town, which was carried
to Paris by the French plunderers. It represents Peter, Francis,
and other saints, presenting to the Madonna the Zuccaro family,
consisting of two men, a woman, and seven children--probably Taddeo,
himself, his wife and offspring; and it is inscribed "Federigo
Zuccaro dedicates this monument of his affection to the intercessors
of his family and birthplace, 1603." Besides the interest attaching
to the portraits, it is a satisfactory specimen of his usual manner.
A work of his brother, connected with the history of the duchy, has
been described in a previous volume.[223]
[Footnote 223: Vol. II.]
Academical instruction is considered as favourable only to mediocrity
by many who maintain that genius must be cramped by the fetters of
uncongenial routine, or by the prescribed duties of a conventional
curriculum. The Academy of St. Luke was, however, founded under
Gregory XIII., and Federigo Zuccaro was, in 1593, elected its first
president, an honour appreciated far beyond the favour of princes or
the decoration of knighthood. After inauguration, he was conducted
by a crowd of artists to the palace he had built for himself on the
Pincian Hill, at that corner otherwise consecrated by the residences
of Claude, Salvator Rosa, and Nicolò Poussin. Here he afterwards held
meetings of the Academy, where he read his discourses; and by will
he left to it that house, failing of his natural heirs. His death
occurred in 1608, at Ancona, at the age of sixty-six; but the clause
of remainder in favour of the Academy has never become effectual, the
palace in the Via Sistina being still possessed by his descendants.
It is well known as the Casa Bertoldy, and may be regarded as the
cradle of the modern German school of painting. The frescoes on which
Overbeck, Cornelius, Schnorr, and Veit first essayed that elevated
and pure style which has regenerated European taste, there attract
many an admirer, little aware that the basement rooms, abandoned
to menial uses, contain some of the latest efforts of cinque-cento
decoration that have fair pretensions to merit. The richest of them
has its vaulted roof studded with allegorical delineations of the
arts, sciences, and virtues, painting being justly pre-eminent in a
painter's house. The lunettes of another are crowded by portraits
of the Zuccari, extending over four generations, and numbering
twenty-one heads, true to nature. The third, which was Federigo's
nuptial chamber, exhibits the ceremony of his marriage, around
which are figures of Chastity, Continence, Concord, and Felicity, in
the fashion of an age when genius had been replaced by ingenuity,
grandeur by dexterous execution.
The infirmity of Federigo's temper, to which we have already alluded,
may account for his unworthy treatment of Vasari. In the marginal
notes upon his copy of the Vite de' Pittori, now in the Royal
Library at Paris, as well as in an original work which we are about
to mention, he takes every opportunity of sneering ungenerously at
one whose biography of his brother, and whose allusions to himself
are conceived in kind and flattering terms. Although his _Idea de'
Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti_, printed in the year of his death,
is supposed to be but a compend of his lectures at St. Luke's, he
is believed to have intended it as a triumph over Vasari's justly
popular writings. In this, however, he signally failed; it has the
mysticism of philosophy without its spirit, while its pedantic
subtleties are puerile rather than profound. This, and his _Lamento
della Pittura_, are books of great rarity, but in no way merit a
reprint. A mannerist with pen and pencil, the conceits of the former
equal the allegories of the latter; nature and feeling are alien to
both.
Although the Zuccari were little identified by their works with their
native state, and obtained less of the ducal patronage than their
contemporary Baroccio, their names have reflected much lustre upon
Urbino. Yet the space which they occupied in the public view was
owing to the smiles of propitious fortune,--to a happy facility of
executing without exertion whatever commissions were offered,--to a
certain magnificence and liberality in their manner of life,--and,
in the case of Federigo, to an overweening vanity, rather than to
any positive artistic excellence. Their reputation has accordingly
waned, as the remembrance of such incidental qualities waxed faint,
and as a distant posterity applied to them that only sure test, the
merit of their works. Nor were these the only advantages of their
position. An analogy has been deduced between Taddeo and the immortal
Raffaele, not from any supposed resemblance of their pencils or
genius, but because both were natives of the same state, both painted
extensively in fresco at Rome, both died when "exactly thirty-seven,"
and both were buried in the same corner of the Pantheon. Federigo, on
the other hand, was, like Titian, invited to courts, decorated and
enriched by monarchs; like Raffaele and Michael Angelo, he was an
architect and a sculptor as well as a painter; like Vasari, he aimed
at a literary reputation. The works of the brothers display a marked
similarity, a natural result of their long painting together; yet
deterioration became perceptible as their distance from the golden
age increased, and the younger may be distinguished by a pervading
inferiority of taste and design, but especially by a growing
mannerism and laxity in his conceptions, and by the overcrowding
of his subjects. To balance these deficiencies, his person was
attractive, his general attainments were far more comprehensive, and
a longer life was granted for the enjoyment of his fortune and the
extension of his fame, than fell to the lot of Taddeo. The failing
mainly attributable to both was absence of style. Their inventions
were often flimsy, and their compositions, deficient in unity and
dignity, are often little more than figure groups.
* * * * *
A necessary consequence of the low style of art which the Zuccari
adopted was that, notwithstanding the number of assistants whom they
constantly employed, their school neither attained to considerable
repute among their contemporaries, nor put forth many pupils of
note; offering in this respect a marked contrast to that of their
countryman Baroccio, whose pleasing manner attracted a host of
admirers and imitators. Two natives of Pesaro, however, possess a
certain reputation in the semi-mechanical church decorations then
largely produced. They were Nicolò Trometta, generally called NICOLÒ
DA PESARO, and GIAN GIACOMO PANDOLFI, the latter of whom was the
earliest instructor of Simon Cantarini da Pesaro. The various works
which these and other Zuccaristi have left in the duchy are quite
unworthy of special description, and we may dismiss them with the
mention of CAVALIERE DOMENICO CRESTI DA PASSIGNANO, whose chief title
to fame is reflected from that of his pupils TIARINI and LUDOVICO
CARACCI. Among the painters less known to fame were BIAGIO and
GIROLAMO D'URBINO, both of whom were employed in the Escurial; the
former left Spain along with Federigo Zuccaro, in 1588; the latter
wrought under Pelegrino Tibaldi. Ottovevenius, after spending seven
years with Federigo, carried his influence beyond the Alps, and
eventually numbered Rubens among his scholars.
Among the artists who repaired to Urbino at the summons of Duke
Federigo, for the construction of his palace, was Ambrogio Barocci,
or Baroccio, a Milanese sculptor, who established himself there, and,
after long labouring on its plastic decorations, founded a family
singularly distinguished in the higher branches of mechanical and
pictorial art. His two daughters were married to Girolamo and Nicolò
della Genga, and his great-grandson Federigo, upon whose biography
we must dwell at some length, had an elder brother Simone, who after
studying the exact sciences under Federigo Comandino, became the
best mathematical instrument maker that had hitherto been seen. His
cousins, the Cavaliere Giovanni Battista and Giovanni Maria, were
not less famous in watchmaking, an art successfully patronised by
the Dukes delle Rovere, which we shall mention in our fifty-fifth
chapter. FEDERIGO BAROCCIO was born in 1528, and initiated
into the rudiments of design by his father, who practised engraving
and modelling. His early efforts having been approved by his
grand-uncle Girolamo Genga, he was placed under the tuition of
Battista Franco of Venice, an indifferent painter, much employed
in the majolica shops at Urbino, whose taste for designing from
antique sculpture directed his pupil's attention to those effects of
chiaroscuro which distinguished his matured style. After assiduous
labours in this way, he repaired to Pesaro, then his sovereigns'
residence, where were placed their accumulated treasures of art.
There he observed the works of Raffaele and Titian, under the
guidance of Genga, who carefully advanced his artistic education,
especially in perspective. At twenty he went to Rome, anxious to
see the triumphs of his great countryman, which he forthwith set
himself to study. Several anecdotes are told of his modesty, which
kept him in the background until chance obtained for his drawings a
passing compliment from Michael Angelo, and the warm sympathy and
encouragement of Giovanni da Udine, delighted to find in the youth a
countryman as well as an admirer of his former master. After imbibing
inspiration from these healthful fountains, he returned home, and
executed some church paintings. But the casual arrival of one who
brought some cartoons and crayon drawings from Parma gave a new turn
to his ideas. Forgetting the grandeur of Buonarroti and the pure
beauty of Raffaele, he aimed at those meretricious graces which have
borrowed from the dexterity of Parmegianino, and the luscious pencil
of Correggio, a fascination unsupported by their intrinsic merits,
and pregnant with mischief to art. To him, however, belongs the
credit of introducing into Lower Italy a harmonious application of
light and shade, to which his early lamp studies from sculpture may
have conduced.
Returning to Rome in 1560, he found Federigo Zuccaro in the
ascendant, and from him received a hint as to the tendency of this
manner, which it would have been well that he had adopted. Having,
at the request of Federigo, painted two children on a frieze, with
a fusion of colour very rarely effected in fresco, the latter,
considering this to be overdone, retraced the outlines with a brush,
imparting to them that force which was wanting to the work. Baroccio
took the reproof in good part, but profited not by it. During his
first visit he had become known to Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, by
whose influence, probably, he procured employment at the Vatican and
Belvidere, in company with Zuccaro. With the decline of their art,
the good feeling of the painters' fraternity waned, and the kindly
sympathies of that glorious band, whom Raffaele had imbued with a
portion of his amiable nature, no longer animated their successors.
Those who saw in Baroccio one who would have raised the standard of
taste from the abandonment which immediately succeeded the dispersion
of that noble school, instead of seconding his efforts poisoned him
at a banquet. He survived the potion, but four years of pain and
feeble health elapsed ere he could return to his labours. When his
system had in some degree resumed its vigour among his mountain
breezes, he was called to Perugia to paint for its cathedral the
Deposition from the Cross, a work which, far from exhibiting any
prostration of power, greatly surpassed his previous efforts. No
scriptural theme offers greater technical difficulties, or demands a
larger share of those grand and energetic qualities in which Baroccio
was usually deficient. It is, therefore, one of his most remarkable
efforts, as regards its own qualities, and the circumstances under
which it was produced. It occupied him during three years, and was
followed by the Absolution of St. Francis, for the Franciscans of
Urbino, on which he laboured in their convent for above twice that
period. In consideration of their poverty, he charged but a hundred
golden scudi for the work, to which they gratefully added as many
florins.
It is not our intention to give a catalogue of even his more
important productions, although a large proportion of them were
executed for the decoration of his native state, which his patriotism
induced him to prefer to the splendid offers made him by foreign
monarchs. Among those commissioned by his sovereign was the Calling
of St. Andrew, finished in 1584, and presented to Philip II., that
saint being patron of the Spanish order of the Golden Fleece. It
was about the same time that Duke Francesco Maria dedicated to the
Madonna del Annunziata, a chapel in the church of Loreto, which we
have already mentioned as decorated in fresco by Federigo Zuccaro.
Its altar-picture was committed to Baroccio, the subject naturally
being the Annunciation. This was in all respects a labour of love,
the theme being in perfect unison with his dulcet manner, and it was
accordingly considered by himself his chef-d'oeuvre, a merit which,
in the opinion of many, is shared by his Deposition, and, in that
of Simon da Pesaro, by his Santa Michelina. Modern connoisseurs may
decide between the first and last of those three great works, as they
hang side by side in the Vatican Gallery, the former of them, and
the Deposition, having been returned from Paris. The Annunciation is
certainly a very favourable and pleasing specimen of the Baroccesque
manner, but an eye versed in the criticism of sacred art must
demur to the judgment of Bellori, who found maiden humility in the
Virgin, a celestial air in the angel, and spiritual character in the
tinting. The principal figure is the portrait of a young lady of the
Compagnoni of Macerata, whose features are equally devoid of purity
and of noble expression; the colouring, though delicately beautiful
in itself, is meretricious in effect, transmuting flesh into roses;
and the whole sentiment of the picture is anything but devotional. On
the other hand, it is distinguished above a majority of his important
works by unity of composition, although, like most productions of
his age, the action is exaggerated and the details mannered. A
copy in mosaic was sent to replace this favourite effort, which was
often reproduced by the master and his pupils. A repetition of it
was presented by Francesco Maria to the court of Spain, and another,
left unfinished, remains at Gubbio. The Santa Michelina, protectress
of Pesaro, was painted for the church of S. Francesco there, and
exhibits a striking deviation from this artist's wonted style. A
single figure kneeling on Mount Calvary in ecstatic contemplation,
amid the war of convulsed elements, admitted of no paltry prettiness,
and could scarcely fail to attain grandeur. There is, accordingly, in
the breadth of composition, and in the prevalent low neutral tone,
an approach to severe art, inducing us to overlook the fluttering
draperies and girlish forms that belong to the master.
[Illustration: _Anderson_
NOLI ME TANGERE
_After the picture by Baroccio, once in the Ducal Collection at
Urbino, now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence_]
Rome possesses by a better title three other pictures deserving the
notice of those who desire to appreciate Baroccio. The Presentation
of the Madonna (1594), and the Visitation, adorn the Chiesa Nuova,
where the latter is said to have often inspired S. Filippo Neri's
devotions; the Institution of the Sacrament according to the Romish
rite, in the church of the Minerva, was a present from the Duke of
Urbino to Clement VIII., who conferred upon the painter a gold chain.
It is related that, in the original sketch, Satan was introduced,
whispering treason into the ear of Judas, but was afterwards omitted,
in deference to his Holiness's opinion, that the Devil ought not
to be represented as "so much at ease in the Saviour's presence."
On occasion of the same Pontiff's visit to Urbino, in 1598, he
received from his host a golden vase for holy water, beautifully
chased, with a painting by Baroccio at the bottom, wherein the infant
Christ, seated on the clouds, gives the benediction with one hand,
and supports the globe with the other. This charming miniature so
delighted the Pope, that he had it removed from the benitier, and
affixed to his daily office book.
The Cathedral of Urbino contains the latest of his great church
pictures, representing the Last Supper, as well as the St. Sebastian,
one of his early works, and it is interesting to contrast their
respective styles. The St. Sebastian was commissioned for 100 florins
in 1557, whilst the inspirations of Rome still hovered over his
palette, and imparted vigour to his already Correggesque manner. This
hackneyed and generally harrowing subject is treated with pleasing
novelty, the group consisting of the saint, a graceful figure bound
to a fig-tree, an imperious judge who has condemned him, and a brawny
archer who carries the sentence into effect, whilst the Madonna
and Child appear on high to support the martyr's faith and hope.
In the Cenacolo, the fair promise of that able production is sadly
abandoned: all those great qualities of his predecessors, which he
began by happily imitating, are there replaced by extravagance,
and even harmony is absent from his multifarious tints. Of his
innumerable minor works we cannot pause to take note, and he scarcely
ever painted in fresco. It is remarkable that, although his manner
was, even in its defects, well suited to the voluptuous character
of mythological fable, and to many a scene of mundane grandeur, he
limited himself to sacred representations, almost the only exception
being portraits. Of the latter, his most successful is Duke Francesco
Maria, in rich armour, as he returned from the fight of Lepanto; it
has been deservedly honoured with a place in the Tribune at Florence,
and an equally beautiful repetition adorns the Camuccini collection
at Rome.
The amount of his labours is inconceivable, considering the constant
sufferings which he is represented to have undergone, from an
almost total destruction of digestion, and habitual sleeplessness,
consequent upon having been poisoned at thirty-two years of age.
The large pictures we have mentioned are but few of those which he
produced, yet no artist was more painstaking. Bellori assures us
that he always prepared two cartoons and two coloured sketches,
drawing exclusively from the life, and made many studies of drapery,
separately perfecting his chiaroscuros from figures repeatedly
modelled by his own hands, ere he transferred them to his paper.
Such conscientious diligence could scarcely have been looked for in
an artist whose works owe little to their outline, and may appear
unnecessary to those who imitate his fusion only as a trick to mask
defective design. This peculiar quality of his colouring was likewise
matter of unwearied application, and he endeavoured to facilitate its
results by an artificial scale, corresponding to notes in music, as a
test for the gradation of his "tuneful" tints.
The merits of Baroccio consist in much variety and novelty of
conception, in skilful management of his lights, and in the dexterous
blending of strongly contrasted tints into a harmonious whole. The
Correggesque tone of his pictures admirably conformed to the soft
and gentle turn of his character; but whilst his design is more
exact, and his foreshortenings are more true, he wants the breadth
of Correggio; though his lights are more silvery and superficially
lucent, his chiaroscuro neither attains to the force nor the depth
of his prototype. The peculiar beauty at which he constantly aimed
degenerates into a deformity; the almost cloying sweetness of his
faces produces in the spectator a surfeit, inducing a desire for
simpler fare. His figures are often deficient in self-possession,
his colouring in verity, his compositions in solidity and repose. In
a word, Baroccio shared the usual fate of eclectic painters, who,
distrusting their own resources, seek to make up a manner from the
combined excellences of their predecessors. Striving to engraft the
grace of the Parmese upon the design of the Roman school, he fell
into a flimsy mannerism, which, in straining after meretricious
charms, departs from dignity and devotional feeling.
The days were nearly over when genius loved to master several
branches of art; and it would have been better had our painter
limited his labours to the palette, and to spirited etchings from
his own compositions. At the command, however, of his sovereign,
he, in 1603, undertook to supply designs for a long-contemplated
statue of Duke Federigo; and Gaye gives us several of his letters
regarding the difficulties of this commission, which baffled him for
six months. His great aim was to retain the peculiar character of the
head, without rendering prominent the unseemly defect in the eye and
nose,--an object hitherto effected by portraying the old warrior only
in profile. He worked chiefly from the bas-relief over the library
door in the palace, and that at the church of S. Giovanni.[224] The
execution of his design was committed to Girolamo Campagna at Venice,
a sculptor of note, who cannot justly be held accountable for this
poor and awkward performance. It was placed, in 1606, on the palace
stairs at Urbino, where it remains.
[Footnote 224: Carteggio, III., pp. 529-35. This medallion is now
removed from the library door to the first landing-place of the
great stair. It may have been by the medallist, Clemente of Urbino,
mentioned in vol. II.]
But for the misfortune of his broken health, Baroccio would have been
as happy as his estimable character deserved. He was fortunate in
his temper, in his extended reputation, in his easy circumstances,
in his multiplied orders, and in his many scholars. His infirmities
prevented him from accepting flattering invitations to the courts of
Austria, Spain, and Tuscany, but the friendship of his own sovereign
never failed him. Having fitted up in his house at Urbino a sort of
exhibition room for his works, it was repeatedly visited by Francesco
Maria, whose Diary not only mentions this, but notes his death and
that of his brother Simone, "an excellent maker of compasses." On the
1st of October, 1612, is this entry: "Federigo Baroccio of Urbino
died, aged seventy-seven, an excellent painter, whose eye and hand
served him as well as in his youth." His real age seems to have
been eighty-four, and there can be no doubt that he retained his
faculties, painting without spectacles, until struck at the last
by apoplexy, a remarkable triumph of mind over protracted bodily
infirmities. Yet the deterioration of his later works, which may
still be seen at Urbino and Pesaro, sadly belies the Duke's tribute
to his green old age. A list of many of those which he executed for
that kind patron will be found in the last number of our Appendix. At
his funeral in S. Francesco, a church standard, painted by himself,
with a Crucifixion, was placed at the foot of his bier: the tablet
inscribed to his memory has been excluded in rebuilding the nave, but
remains in the adjoining corridor.
* * * * *
The popularity of Baroccio, both personally and as a painter,
recruited to his studio many young artists, eager to enter the path
which he had successfully trodden. But the faults of his style were
of a sort which imitation was sure to exaggerate, and the absence of
solid qualities in the master prevented the felicitous development
of such talent as nature had granted to his pupils. We accordingly
search in vain among his many scholars for a single name of eminence;
and we might pass over the _Baroccisti_ without further notice,
but that a considerable proportion of them claim a passing word
as natives of the duchy. ANTONIO VIVIANI, son of a baker
at Urbino, was a favourite of his master, though probably not his
nephew, as supposed by Lanzi. In early life, his productions imitated
those of Baroccio with great success, as may be seen at Fano and
in various parts of the duchy, but on proceeding to Rome his style
rapidly deteriorated. Emulating the flimsy and faulty manner of the
Cavaliere d'Arpino, by which high art was then fatally degraded,
he painted against time in the Vatican and Lateran palaces, as
well as on many altar commissions. These, when compared with other
contemporary trash, obtained a degree of applause which sounder
criticism is compelled to withhold from il Sordo, the nickname by
which their author was generally known. But he sacrificed his art
without improving his fortune; and an old age, passed in poverty, was
closed in disappointment and want. His brother Ludovico, "wicked,
graceless, and disobedient, unworthy the name of son," had from his
father's will five farthings in lieu of his patrimony, and his career
maintained the prestige of this sad outset, both in his character and
works.
ALESSANDRO VITALE, born at Urbino in 1580, so completely caught the
amenity of his instructor's manner, as to be employed during his
advanced years to copy many of his works, which, with a few finishing
touches, passed as originals. ANTONIO CIMATORIO, _alias il Visacci_
or the Ugly, was chiefly employed on festive and scenic decorations,
aided by GIULIO CESARE BEGNI of Pesaro: the latter went afterwards to
Venice, and, devoting himself to better things, left not a few good
pictures in the March of Treviso. GIORGIO PINCHI of Castel Durante,
and ANDREA LILLIO of Ancona, both approached the Baroccesque manner
with considerable success, and shared the labours of il Sordo on
the pontifical frescoes in Rome. Among those who carried the same
style to a distance, may be named ANTONIO ANTONIANO of Urbino, who,
after aiding Baroccio with his great picture of the Crucifixion,
was sent by him with it to Genoa, and there settled. GIOVANNI and
FRANCESCO, two brothers of Urbino, and probably offsets of this
school, emigrated to Spain, and painted in the Escurial, under the
patronage of Philip II. FILIPPO BELLINI, a native of the same city,
though a pupil of Baroccio, adopted a more vigorous manner, but his
works are scarcely met with out of Umbria. To this catalogue it is
enough to add the names of Francesco Baldelli, Lorenzo Vagnarelli,
Ventura Marza, Cesare Maggieri, Bertuzzi, and Porino, all born in
the duchy; and those of Bandiera and the Pellegrini of Perugia, the
Malpiedi of La Marca, and the Cavaliere Francesco Vanni of Siena,
the latter of whom, though not among his scholars, so thoroughly
adopted the peculiarities of Baroccio, as to be perhaps the happiest
of his imitators. TERENZIO TERENZI of Urbino, known by the soubriquet
of Rondinello, earned a dishonourable reputation by his successful
imitations of the older masters, which he passed off as originals;
and having fallen into merited disgrace with his kind patron, the
Cardinal of Montalto, in consequence of pawning upon him one of his
forgeries as a Raffaele, he died of vexation in the first years of
the seventeenth century, aged thirty-five.
* * * * *
CLAUDIO RIDOLFI, though born in Verona in 1560, may be
considered a subject of Urbino. His family was noble, but not rich,
so adopting painting as a profession, he studied its principles under
Paul Veronese, at Venice. But the temptations to idleness which
beset him at home so interfered with success that he resolved to
escape from them. On his way to Rome he stayed some time at Urbino
with Baroccio, in whose glittering style he lost somewhat of the
better manner of his early master. But his journey to the "mother
of arts and arms" was interrupted by more powerful fascinations;
for he married a noble lady of Urbino, and settled at Corinaldo,
some miles above Sinigaglia, attracted by the beauty of its site,
and fain to enjoy, in provincial retirement, exemption from the
jealousies and struggles which often beset artists in a city life,
where tact or fortune are apt to confer a success denied to merit.
Though he returned for a time to his native city, and painted many
excellent works in it, and in the principal towns of the Venetian
state, the charms of Corinaldo and his wife's influence induced him
to spend there the greater part of a long life. He died in 1644,
aged, according to his namesake Carlo Ridolfi, eighty-four, or to
Ticozzi, seventy years. To the glowing tints of the Lombard school he
eventually added the merit of more accurate design; but his principal
excellences were a chastened composition, and a close attention to
the proprieties of costume, as contributing to a proper intelligence
of the subject. A vast number of his productions are scattered over
Umbria and La Marca, and there issued from his studio not a few
pupils of provincial eminence, most of whom tended considerably
towards the Baroccesque manner. Of those belonging to Urbino the most
conspicuous was BENEDETTO MARINI, who, though scarcely known
at home, produced many important works in Lombardy, and excelled in
the management of crowded compositions, such as his immense Miracle
of the Loaves and Fishes, painted at Piacenza in 1625. Patanazzi
and Urbinelli belong to a less distinguished category, and though
Girolamo Cialderi is ranked with them by Lanzi, he seems referable to
a subsequent period.
* * * * *
Gubbio continued in the sixteenth century to maintain a school which,
though acquiring little more than a provincial reputation, was not
without merit. BENEDETTO NUCCI was born there about 1520,
and, imbibing from Raffaelino del Colle certain inspirations of the
golden age, left in his native town many respectable church pictures.
He died in 1587, having seen his son Virgilio escape from his studio
to place himself under Daniel di Volterra at Rome. Among his pupils,
but of ever progressive mediocrity, were FELICE DAMIANO
and CESARE DI GIUSEPPE ANDREOLI, the latter an offset of a
family whose eminence in the art of majolica will be mentioned in our
fifty-fifth chapter.