ornamented his own church at Bergamo, and that of Bologna in a still
better style; in which the choir is inlaid with the greatest art. In S.
Pietro, at Perugia, he also wrought the most beautiful histories. The
same artist, as we find recorded in Vasari, succeeded also in refining
the art of colours and of shades, to such a degree as to be held the
very first in this line. He possessed either a rival, or a pupil, in
Gianfrancesco Capodiferro, whose mansions at S. Maria Maggiore, in
Bergamo, are the finest specimens of the kind, though occasionally
betraying some traces of stiffness in their manner. There too he worked
after the designs of Lotto, and instructed in the art his brother Pietro
and his son Zinino, so that the city continued to be supplied with
excellent artificers during a number of years. The largest and most
artificially wrought figures I have seen in this line are in a choir of
the Certosa at Pavia, distributed one by one upon each side. The
artificer is said to have been one Bartolommeo da Pola, whose name I
have not met with elsewhere. In each of the squares is represented a
bust of one of the Apostles, or some other saint, designed in the taste
of the Da Vinci School. A few of the pictures of these artists are to be
found in galleries of art; among which, those from the hand of F.
Damiano are the most esteemed. Finally, this species of workmanship,
embracing materials too much exposed to the moth and to the fire, by
degrees began to grow out of date: and if more lately it appears to have
again revived, it has failed hitherto in producing any works deserving
of commemoration.
[Footnote 6: Rannusio Guerra di Costantinopoli, book iii. p. 94.]
[Footnote 7: Vol. vi. p. 88, anno 1808.]
[Footnote 8: See his _Descrizione delle Pitture_, &c. p. 19. The learned
Morelli also, in his Annotations to the _Notizia_, confirms, by fresh
arguments, the same epoch, p. 146.]
[Footnote 9: Page 101.]
[Footnote 10: This was given to the public by Muratori, with the
following title--_Riccobaldi Ferrariensis, sive anonimi scriptoris
compilatio chronologica usque ad annum 1312._ (Rerum Italicarum
Scriptores, vol. ix. p. 255.)]
[Footnote 11: Sig. Sasso observed one extremely like it in Venice, with
the subscription _Guglielmus pinxit_, 1368; from which he inferred that
he had belonged to the school of Guariento.]
[Footnote 12: This _Sebeto_ of Vasari appeared so new to Maffei, that he
would willingly have substituted Stefano; (_see Ver. Illust._ p. iii.
col. 152,) but Stefano da Verona, or da Zevio, is a name posterior to
these times. The _Notizia_ of the anonymous writer, recently published,
says, that the church of the before mentioned S. George was ornamented
by "Jacopo Davanzo, a Paduan, or a Veronese, if not, as some will have
it, a Bolognese; by Altichiero Veronese, according to Campagnuola, p.
6." It must be observed that Vasari also consulted the latter, or
probably one of his Latin letters to Niccolo Leonico Tomeo, quoting it
several times. (See Morelli, p. 101.) Now in this it was probably
written, _ab Alticherio de Jebeto_; that is, da Zevio, which was at one
time called _Jebetum_, and Vasari believed it to be the name of an
unknown painter. Such is the conjecture communicated to me by Sig.
Brandolese, and it appears extremely probable.]
[Footnote 13: Signor Abbate Morelli, since P. della Valle, has
discovered another painting existing in the Sacristy of the Padri
Conventuali, at Vicenza, with this inscription, 1333, PAULUS DE VENETIIS
PINXIT HOC OPUS, (_Notiz._ p. 222). He adds also, two other Venetian
painters, with whom I have enriched this new edition; the name of one
found in a small picture of the Conventuali, at S. Arcangelo, under an
image of the Virgin, among various saints, dated 1385. _Jachobelus de
Bonomo Venetus pinxit hoc opus._ The other, in the territory of
Verruchio, on a crucifixion, with the symbols of the four Evangelists,
is in the possession of the Agostiniani, and inscribed 1404: _Nicholaus
Paradixi miles de Venetiis pinxit_.]
[Footnote 14: Among these is counted Stefano Pievano, of St. Agnese, an
able artist, who left his name along with the date, 1381, on an
altarpiece of the _Assumption_:--a piece in which the Venetian colouring
is displayed to advantage, while the expression, lively and full of
meaning, compensates for its inaccuracy of design. Another artist
deserving of being known is Jacopo di _Alberegno_, whose family still
remains in Venice, and who has been ascertained to be the author of a
painting without date, representing the Crucifixion of our Saviour,
among various saints. Tommaso da Modena has also been referred to the
Venetian School, who, about the period of 1351, produced two Holy
Virgins at Venice; a St. Catherine, at present in the gallery of N. H.
Ascanio Molin, together with the two preceding, and other rare Venetian
pictures of the same epoch; and a S. Barbara, belonging to the Abbate
Mauro Boni, so fraught with expression, grace, and power of colouring,
as to lead me to conjecture he had flourished at a much later period,
were it not for the inscribed date. His beginning to be known at Venice
is some reason why he should be referred to this school, if the name of
his native place, _de Mutina_, did not restrain us from so doing without
some further doubt. The Ab. Boni, who has given us an account of these
pictures in an article put forth by the Italian academy, was the first
to discover them.]
[Footnote 15: Before their time, however, Bergamo could boast a school
of painting, as witness what Count Tassi adduces in a parchment of the
year 1296, naming a certain Guglielmo, _pittore_. It does not appear in
what style he drew. One of his successors, who painted the tree of St.
Bonaventura, abounding in sacred figures, shews himself an artist more
rude, indeed, but more original than either of the brothers de Nova. Of
his name we are, however, ignorant, as he only attached the date of
1347.]
[Footnote 16: In the work intitled _Narrazione dell'Isola di Murano_, by
_G. A. Moschini_, the supposition I have above stated has been combated
by its excellent author. A picture in the gallery of the N. H. Molin, at
Venice, subscribed _Johannes Vivarinus_, seems to have persuaded him of
my mistake. In a work embracing an account of some thousand painters, I
cannot pretend to boast of its being free from some human errors, and
was about to express my gratitude to the above mentioned author for
having pointed one of them out. But I am now convinced that the picture
is from the hand of another artist, and that the signature in question
is a forgery, the author of which has confounded the character of what
is called Gothic and Roman, in place of imitating the true character of
those times, which he might very easily have done, inasmuch as he had
before his eyes a small chart, with a most devout oration, _Deus meus
charitas_, &c. in the most complete Gothic, or rather German character
that can be conceived. The impostor therefore must have been extremely
ignorant of his art. The examination was made by the cavalier Gio. da
Lazara, Abate Mauro Boni, Bartolommeo Gamba, names sufficiently known to
the public to justify our adoption of their opinion. The very able
Brandolese has likewise pronounced the inscription false, and published
thereon a little work, entitled "_Doubts respecting the existence of
such a painter as Giovanni Vivarino da Murano, newly confirmed; and a
refutation of some recently asserted authority, to confirm them_." And
in this he displays much sound criticism, and many arguments, all
tending to strengthen my own conjecture.]
[Footnote 17: This artist ought not to be confounded with Jacometto da
Venezia, a miniature painter, and artist of the same age, but who
flourished somewhat later. He also was celebrated in his day, and is
frequently recorded in the _Notizia Morelli_, for his small pictures,
adapted for private rooms, his portraits, and his miniatures. It was
sometimes doubted whether a certain work was from the hand of John of
Bruges, of Antonello da Messina, or of Jacometto da Venezia. (_See
Notizia Morelli_, p. 74.)]
[Footnote 18: The picture referred to by the P. Moschini, in his
_Narrazione dell'Isola di Murano_, is not to be admitted as genuine, the
inscription upon it being forged by the same author, who counterfeited
that of Giovanni Vivarini, before alluded to in the note to page 22.]
[Footnote 19: See _Morelli Notizia_, p. 157.]
[Footnote 20: I had supposed, in my first edition of this work, misled
by the opposite names, that Sebeto was a different personage from this
Stefano da Zevio. I was afterwards undeceived by the appearance of the
work of the learned Brandolese, pronouncing them one and the same
artist; and I willingly here retract what I had before advanced,
expressing, at the same time, my acknowledgements for the emendation.]
[Footnote 21: _Drawn in the most perfect manner_, are the words of
Vasari, while he adds, that the whole of his works were imitated and
copied by Pietro di Perugia, an experienced artist in _fresco_, and more
especially in miniature, with which "he ornamented the whole of the
books in the library of Pope Pius," in the dome at Siena. He is not
known, however, in Perugia, nor mentioned at Siena among those employed
at the cathedral, as is noticed by Father della Valle; yet the present
work abounds with examples of artists, unknown in their own cities, on
account of having resided elsewhere; and the before mentioned annotator
of Vasari was unable to discover the name of Liberal da Verona, an
undoubted illustrator of the books, in such registers. I think we ought
not to refuse to give credit, therefore, to Vasari, as Father Guglielmo
insists; but to admit a new Pietro di Perugia, anterior to Vanucci, who
might design the frescos of Stefano in Verona and Mantua, so extolled in
the early part of 1400, and who copied them in those very beautiful and
graceful miniatures at Siena; an art which he probably acquired at
Verona, where it was then in such high repute.]
[Footnote 22: See on this head, the _Descrizione delle Bellezze di
Vicenza_, P. 1. p. 7.]
[Footnote 23: In the cathedral of Pordenone, under one of his
altarpieces, we read--
"Andreas Zeusis nostraeque aetatis Apelles
Hoc Bellunellus nobile pinxit opus." (_Altan._)]
[Footnote 24: Ruggieri indeed had acquired a great reputation in Italy
as early as 1449, when Ciriaco Anconitano, being in Ferrara, saw a
picture of Christ taken from the cross, belonging to the Duke. He thus
writes respecting the artist: _Rugerus Brugiensis pictorum decus_
AGATHEI TUCHEI.--_Rugierius in Brussella post praeclarum illum Brugiensem
picturae decus Joannem, insignis N. T. Pictor habetur_, &c. See Colucci
A. P. vol. xxiii. p. 143. He is also commended in high terms by
Bartolommeo Facio in his little work _De viris illustribus_. See
Morelli, _Notizia_, p. 239.]
[Footnote 25: He arrived there, and was at Rome in the _anno Santo_. See
Facius, lib. cit. p. 45.]
[Footnote 26: This is one of the usual mistakes found in Vasari.
Baldinucci (tom. iv. p. 17) calls him Ans or Hans. This is his Flemish
appellation, which in our tongue, signifies Giovanni; and in the
_Notizia_ Morelli he is termed Gianes da Brugia; somewhat nearer our own
tongue. With Sansovino he is Gio. di Bruggia, John of Bruges. See
Morelli, p. 117; and by him he is distinguished from _Gio. Van Eych_.]
[Footnote 27: In a similar taste was the perspective introduced by
Giovanni Bellino in his celebrated altarpiece at San Zaccaria, in
Venice. Another was placed in the great altar of the dome at Capo
d'Istria, by Carpaccio the elder, still more striking. In the background
of the picture, the virgin appears seated on a magnificent throne, with
the divine infant, in an upright posture, upon her knees, surrounded by
six of the most venerable patrons of the place, disposed around her, in
three ranks, displaying a fine diversity of drapery as well as of
action. To these are added some cherubs, engaged in playing upon musical
instruments, and apparently beholding the spectator with an air of
puerile simplicity, as if inviting him to caress them. A long and lofty
colonnade, in excellent perspective, leads the way to the throne, at one
time united to a fine stone colonnade, which extended from the
altarpiece through the chapel, producing a fine illusion, amounting to a
sort of enchantment of perspective. It was removed along with the stone
columns, in order to enlarge the tribune. The oldest citizens, who
witnessed this beautiful spectacle, speak of it to strangers with
delight, and I am glad to put it on record, before the recollection of
it be entirely obliterated.]
[Footnote 28: _Notizia_, p. 63.]
[Footnote 29: Albert Durer, arriving the same year at Venice, bestowed
on Giovanni one of the most favourable testimonies to his talents that
now remains. After rebuking the envy of the other painters, who spoke of
him with contempt, he says of him:--"Every one assures me that he is
_Gran Galantuomo_, for which reason I wish him well. He is already very
old, but, notwithstanding, the best painter we have." V. _Morel. Not._
p. 224.]
[Footnote 30: The country is impressed with this persuasion in spite of
his own signatures, attached even to the pictures in Istria. In that,
cited at page 48, it is written _Victor Charpatius Venetus pinxit,
1516_; in another, at San Francesco di Pirano, _Victoris Charpatii
Veneti opus, 1519_. Benedetto Carpaccio, probably a son or nephew of the
preceding, was also a Venetian, of whom there remains a picture of the
Coronation of the Virgin, at Capo d'Istria, in the Rotunda, subscribed,
_Benetto Carpathio Veneto pingeva, 1537_. At the Osservanti, is the
picture of the _Nome di Gesu_, with the same words, but dated 1541. He
is not mentioned in Venetian history, though highly deserving a place in
it; for whatever traces he retains of the ancient stiffness of manner,
in the extremity of his figures, yet he yields not to many in softness
of tints; in the taste of his colours; expression of features, and the
effect of his chiaroscuro. I am led to think, that from residing out of
the capital, this artist was supposed to be a native of Istria, but he
was indisputably of a Venetian family, most probably tracing its origin
from Murano.]
[Footnote 31: We find traces of his paintings from the year 1507. See
Tassi, in his _Lives of the Painters, &c._ p. 56, where he corrects a
mistake of Zanetti, who, instead of one painter, had divided him into
two. One of his pictures, in the parish church of Endine, will remove
every doubt. There he signed himself, _Franciscus Rizus Bergomensis
habitator Venetiis, 1529_. In another piece, in the parochial church of
Serina, he wrote _Francesco Rizo da Santa Croxe depense, 1518_. His last
work, of which I find any account, is also in the parochial church of
Chirignano, in the Mestrina, dated 1541. Father Federici, who describes
it, makes Francesco the son of Girolamo da S. Croce, or S. Croce, whose
name we find subscribed in both ways, but not ever Rizo. I cannot agree
with him, first, because Ridolfi says only, (p. 62,) that they were of
_the same family_; second, because the pictures of Girolamo, according
to Tassi, commence later, and are traced also later than those of
Francesco, that is in 1549; and thirdly, because the style of Girolamo
is incomparably more modernized, as we shall presently shew.]
[Footnote 32: Morelli _Notizia_, p. 212.]
[Footnote 33: In the _Statuti de' Pittori_, it is written Mireti; and
the same work contains memoirs of him in 1423 and 1441; years, however,
which do not accord with his dependence on the Bellini. This Girolamo
might possibly have been the brother, or other relation, of that Gio.
Miretto, for whom see p. 13. These two names will do away with the
_Moreto_ of Vasari, and we must substitute Mireto or Miretto.]
[Footnote 34: I repeat the epigram, which is subscribed in ancient
characters, on the strength of which we may believe that the work was
esteemed one of the most valuable the art had produced up to that
period, transcribed by the very frequently commended Sig. Co. Cav.
Lazara; it is thus:
Non hic Parrhasio, non hic tribuendus Apelli,
Hos licet Auctores dignus habere labor.
Euganeus, vixdum impleto ter mense, Jacobus
Ex Montagnana nobile pinxit opus.]
[Footnote 35: He is thus named in the "Statuti de' Pittori," of Padua,
and in the _MS. Zen._ whence we may correct Ridolfi, who calls him
Girolamo.]
[Footnote 36: In vol. iii. ed. Rom. p. 427, it is written by mistake
Mantegna, where it says that he, Speranza, and Veruzio, studied design
under Mantegna.]
[Footnote 37: Padre Faccioli, in his third volume of the _Inscrizioni
della Citta e territorio di Vicenza_, records the following epigraph,
_Jo. Sperantiae de Vangeribus me pinxit_, in which Vangeribus may,
perhaps, apply to some small village in the territory of Vicenza. He is
wholly silent respecting Veruzio, thus confirming the suspicion that his
name is a mere mistake of Vasari, whom it is hoped our posterity will
still continue to correct, and yet leave sufficient employment for their
children. The following is my conjecture. P. Faccioli gives an account
of a picture that remains in S. Francesco di Schio; it is composed in
the manner usually adopted in the composition of the marriage of S.
Catherine; and there are also other saints well executed in the Mantegna
style, as is observed by the Cav. Gio. de Lazara, whose authority I
esteem excellent. It bears the inscription, "Franciscus Verlus de
Vicentia pinxit xx. Junii. M. D. XII.;" and to this is added by Faccioli
another old painting by the same hand, remaining at Sercedo. Now I
contend that the name of this painter, being reported to Vasari, with
its diminutive termination, like many others, borrowed either from the
stature or the age, (in the Venetian dialect it was Verlucio or Verluzo)
it was afterwards given by him in his history as Veruzio. The critics of
the Greek writers will know how to do me justice in this, for this mode
of discovering and correcting names I have derived from them.]
[Footnote 38: To judge from some pictures at Bergamo, we might suppose
him educated in the style of the fourteenth century; but he afterwards
approached nearer to the modern, as we perceive at Padua, where he
resembles Palma Vecchio; and this is sufficiently conspicuous also in
Friuli, where we make mention of him at a more cultivated era.]
[Footnote 39: In this character is the larger picture at S. Niccolo, a
church of the Dominicans in Treviso, in which the cupola, the columns,
and the perspective, with the throne of the virgin seated with the
infant Jesus, and surrounded by saints standing, the steps ornamented by
a harping seraph, all discover Bellini's composition; but I had not seen
the work, until after the former edition of my history at Bassano. It
was painted in 1520, by P. Marco Pensaben, assisted by P. Marco
Maraveia, both Dominican priests, engaged for the purpose from Venice.
They remained there until July, 1521, when the first of them secretly
fled from the convent, and the altarpiece of Treviso was completed in a
month by one Gian-Girolamo, a painter invited from Venice; supposed to
be Girolamo Trevisano, the younger. This artist is not, however,
mentioned, as I am aware, either, by the citizens, or by foreigners, by
any other name than Girolamo, and calculating from the chronology of
Ridolfi, he must then have been thirteen years of age. Until this
subject be more clearly investigated, I must confess my ignorance of
such a Gian-Girolamo. But I am better acquainted with the name of
Pensaben, who was afterwards found, and in 1524 was, as before, a
Dominican friar at Venice; but a few years after, in 1530, is mentioned
in authentic books belonging to the order, being registered among those
who had either left the order or were dead. P. Federici believes him to
have been the same as F. Bastiano del Piombo, an untenable supposition,
as I have elsewhere shown. I believe Pensaben to have been an excellent
artist in the Bellini manner, though not commemorated in history, nor by
his order. In an order so prolific with genius, and in an age abounding
with great names, he is by no means a solitary instance of this: the
present work being found to contain many other examples.]
[Footnote 40: As early as the eleventh century, or thereabouts, it would
appear that some similar kind of art was in repute in Germany. The monk
Theophilus, in the works before mentioned, "De omni scientia artis
pingendi," alluding, at the commencement, to the most esteemed
productions of every country, observes: "quidquid in fenestrarum
varietate preciosa diligit Francia; quidquid in auri, argenti, cupri,
ferri, lignorum, lapidumque subtilitate sollers laudat Germania."
_Codice Viennese._]
VENETIAN SCHOOL.
SECOND EPOCH.
_Giorgione, Titian, Tintoret, Jacopo da Bassano, Paolo
Veronese._
Behold us at length arrived at the golden period of the Venetian School,
which like the others of Italy, produced its most distinguished
ornaments about the year 1500; artists who at once eclipsed the fame of
their predecessors, and the hopes of attaining to equal excellence on
the part of their successors. In reaching this degree of eminence, it is
true they pursued different paths, though they all aimed at acquiring
the same perfection of colouring; the most natural, the most lively, and
the most applauded of any single school of the age; a distinction they
likewise conferred upon their posterity, forming the distinguishing
characteristic of the Venetian painters. The merit of this has been
attributed to the climate by some, who assert, that in Venice, and the
adjacent places, nature herself has bestowed a warmer and deeper colour
upon objects than elsewhere; a frivolous supposition, and undeserving of
much of our attention, inasmuch as the artists of Holland and Flanders,
in climates so extremely opposite, have obtained the same meed of
praise. Neither is it to be attributed to the quality of the colours;
both Giorgione and Titian having been known to make use of few, and
these, so far from being selected or procured elsewhere, exposed to sale
in all the public shops in Venice. If it should again be objected, that
in those days the colours were sold purer and less adulterated, I admit
there may be some degree of truth in this, inasmuch as Passeri, in his
life of Orbetto, complained at that time of the early decay of many
pictures, "owing to the quality of the colours fraudulently sold by the
retailers." But I would merely inquire, if it were possible, that
materials thus pure and uncontaminated should so often fall into the
hands of the Venetians and their Flemish imitators, yet be so seldom met
with in the rest of the schools. The cause of their superiority is to be
sought, therefore, in their mechanism and art of colouring; in regard to
which the best Venetian painters conformed, in some points, to the most
celebrated artists of Italy. In other points, however, they differed
from them. It was a common practice at that period, to prepare with a
chalk surface the altarpieces and pictures which were intended to be
executed; and that white ground, favourable to every variety of tint the
painter could lay upon it, equally favoured the production of a certain
polish, floridity, and surprising transparency; a custom which, being
laid aside out of indolence and avarice, I am happy to perceive seems
about to be renewed. But in addition to this the Venetians were in
possession of an art that may be considered peculiar to themselves. For
it may be observed, that the chief part of them during these three
centuries, produced the effect of their paintings, not so much by a
strong layer of colours, as by separate strokes of the pencil; and each
colour being thus adapted to its place, without much repeating or
refining it, they still continued augmenting the work, by which the
tints were preserved clear and virgin; a result which requires no less
promptness of hand than of intellect, besides education, and a taste
cultivated from the earliest period. Hence the artist Vecchia was
accustomed to say, that by dint of copying pictures executed with
diligence, a painter will acquire the same quality; but to succeed in
copies from a Titian or a Paolo, and to imitate their stroke, is a task
surmounted only by the Venetians, whether natives or educated in their
school. (_Boschini_, p. 274.)