his style of colouring from the works of Titian, he subsequently
flourished at Rome, in which school he has been already mentioned. In
this place we must include Lattanzio Gambara, the pupil and companion of
Romanino, as well as his son-in-law, at least if we are to credit
Ridolfi and other writers, in this last point sanctioned by the popular
tradition of Brescia. Vasari alone, who resided in his house only a
short time before he gave some account of him, observes that he was
son-in-law to Bonvicino, a point in which his memory, doubtless,
betrayed him. Lattanzio was not inferior to his master in spirit, and,
at the same time, better instructed in the rules of the art, and more
learned. Having attended the academy of Campi, in Cremona, until his
eighteenth year, and cultivated an acquaintance with the best foreign
masters that he always retained, he added to this knowledge all the
richest and most tasteful colours of the Venetian School. Like
Pordenone, he employed his talents, for the most part, in frescos, which
are still to be seen at Venice, as well as within and without the
confines of the state. His manner, however, was less strong and shaded,
but in other points much resembling him in the beauty and variety of his
forms, variously coloured according to his subjects; in his knowledge of
anatomy, without affectation, spirited attitudes, difficult
foreshortenings; in a relief that deceives the eye, and in novelty and
play of invention. To these we may add even a greater propriety of
ideas, and sweetness of tints, acquired from other schools; Lattanzio
having studied Giulio Romano at Mantua, and Coreggio in Parma. In the
Corso de' Ramai, at Brescia, there yet remain three facades, adorned
with various histories and fables, truly beautiful, executed by his
hand. They are not, however, so imposing as some of his scriptural
pieces, to be seen in still better preservation in the cloister of S.
Euphemia, engravings of which have been promised to the public. The
spectator often recurs to them, and always with fresh pleasure. When for
want of space the figures could not be put in an upright posture, he
foreshortened them with admirable nature and facility, so that no other
attitudes could be imagined so becoming to each figure. Professors have
detected some degree of imperfection in the naked parts, very common,
indeed, to the most celebrated painters of frescos; but it is such as
cannot be perceived at a distance, or if seen, resembles only some false
quantity in a good poet, easily to be pardoned in the number of poetical
beauties with which his verses abound. He painted still more copious
histories for the cathedral at Parma, containing, perhaps, his greatest
and most studied production, and which fails not to please, even in the
presence of those of Coreggio. There are several altarpieces likewise in
oil at San Benedetto, in Mantua, all of which are not equally happy. A
Nativity of our Lord, at SS. Faustino and Giovita, is his only picture
in oil remaining at his native place in public; it is very graceful,
displaying certain traits of the Raffaello manner. His picture of a
Pieta, at San Pietro, in Cremona, is also highly esteemed by professors,
one among whom, who had designed a good deal from the works of
Lattanzio, declared to me that he had never witnessed any other so
exquisite in point of design, nor coloured with so much delicacy,
clearness, and taste and softness of tints. Yet this great artist only
reached his thirty-second year, leaving in Giovita, a Brescian artist,
(likewise called Brescianino) an excellent disciple, particularly of
works in fresco.
Geronimo Savoldo, sprung of a noble family in Brescia, flourished also
about 1540, and is ranked by Paolo Pino among the best artists of his
age. I know not where he acquired the rudiments of his art; but from a
specimen which I saw at Brescia, he must have possessed great accuracy
and delicacy of hand. Upon transferring his residence to Venice, he is
known to have become one of the most formidable of Titian's rivals; not,
indeed, in works of a large scale, but in smaller pieces conducted with
an exquisite degree of care, which may, in a manner, be said to have
been his chief characteristic. With such as these he beguiled his time,
presenting them gratuitously as ornaments for churches. He produced
others for private persons, now extremely rare and valuable, in
different collections.
Zanetti, in his description of his little _Presepio_, (Christ in the
manger), recently retouched, which is to be seen at San Giobbe, observes
that the tint of his pictures is truly beautiful, and the whole
composition conducted with a singular degree of care. In Venice, says
Ridolfi, he is known by the name of Girolamo Bresciano, neither Romanino
nor Muziano having employed themselves there, with whom he might
possibly have been confounded. There he resided for many years, and
terminated his days at the same place. His happiest production, though
unknown to the historian, was placed in the Altar-Maggiore, of the Padri
Predicatori, at Pesaro, a noble piece, which produces a striking
impression upon the eye. Our Lord is seen placed on high, seated upon a
cloud, which appears truly illuminated by the sun, and on the foreground
are represented four saints, drawn with a force of colouring that seems
to bring them as near to the eye, as the soft colour of the perspective
and of the upper part of the picture throws its objects into the
distance. A small, but beautiful piece, in excellent preservation, is
also seen in the Royal Gallery of Florence, exhibiting the
Transfiguration of our Lord, placed there along with specimens of other
Venetian artists, by the Cavalier Puccini, one who has conferred so many
obligations upon that princely collection of art.
Finally, after Savoldo, may be placed, among the Brescian disciples of
Titian, Pietro Rosa, son of Cristoforo, and nephew to Stefano Rosa, both
excellent artists in oil. He was one of those pupils whom Titian,
induced by the friendship he bore his father, instructed with most care,
and the best success. Hence it is, we trace that clear and true force of
colouring, which shines in every one of his pieces. Brescia boasts
several, at the church of San Francesco, in the Dome, and at the Grazie,
where such as have the fewest figures produce the happiest effect. In
his composition he is not so perfect as in other parts, whether it were
that he had not naturally the best talent for it, or, as is more
probable, that it is a branch of the art most difficult to young
practitioners. For he died in the outset of his career, at the same
period as his father, in 1576, whether from the plague or from poison is
not known.
Although Bergamo, at that period, boasted many distinguished imitators
of Giorgione, it yet produced an artist, Girolamo Colleoni, who ought to
be included in the present list. Some frescos from his hand are found at
Bergamo, and an oil painting in the Carrara Gallery. It exhibits the
marriage of S. Catherine, which the best judges, on a first view,
pronounced to be the work of Titian, till the superscription, with the
name of _Hieronymus Colleo, 1555_, vindicated it for his own. This
distinguished artist, conscious of his merit, and not finding himself
appreciated in his own country, foreign and inferior painters being
preferred before him, sought better fortune at the court of Madrid. But
before setting out, he painted upon a facade the figure of a horse, of
which great encomiums, in different works, are all that remain; and to
this he affixed as a motto, _Nemo propheta in patria_. He is known to
have employed, as an assistant, Filippo Zanchi, who, together with a
brother of the name of Francesco, has more recently been brought into
view by Count Tassi, besides some others who might here add to the
number, but not to the eminence, of so rich a school. An artist
celebrated also by Ridolfi, ought not, in this place, to be omitted; the
beauty of his tints, the design of his infant figures, and the nature of
his landscape, all shewing that he aspired to the Titian manner. He
painted in fresco, but possessed an universal genius, as has been
pronounced by Muzio, in his "Teatro di Bergamo;" the truth of which more
clearly appears from his own works. His name was Giovan-Batista Averara,
and he died young about the middle of the most flourishing period of the
art. Another artist deserving commemoration is Francesco Terzi, who long
resided at the Austrian court, and is distinguished in most of the
capitals of Italy for works he has there left. He has been mentioned by
Lomazzo, in whose native place are still seen, at San Sempliciano, two
noble histories, representing our Lord with his Apostles, somewhat dry
in point of design, but bold in colouring.
In Gio. da Monte, Crema boasted a disciple of Titian, as he is described
by Torre, who numbers him among the more distinguished artists who
ornamented Milan. A grado, executed by him in chiaroscuro for an altar
of Santa Maria, at San Celso, where he ought also to have painted the
altarpiece, obtained for him a high reputation; but he was deprived of
the altarpiece, owing to the intrigues of Antonio Campi.[62] The work of
Campi still remains there, and the opinion is that though it was paid
for at a higher rate than the grado itself, it is yet a work of inferior
merit to that of Giovanni, which much resembles Polidoro da Caravaggio,
giving rise to a suspicion that Aurelio Buso, of Cremona, a scholar and
assistant of Polidoro's, in Rome, may have been the only, or at least
the earliest master of Giovanni. We know from Ridolfi that Buso produced
various histories, in his native place, in the manner of his master, and
historians of Genoese art record other works from his hand in their
city. They assert that he departed thence unexpectedly, while Ridolfi
concludes his life, by saying, that notwithstanding his worth, he died
in poverty. From the period in which he flourished, he might possibly
have been the master of Gio. da Monte, no less than Titian.
Callisto Piazza is likewise announced, by Orlandi, as another imitator
of the latter, which is very evident from his picture of the Assumption,
in the collegiate church of Codogno. It contains figures of apostles,
and two portraits of the Marchesi Trivulzi, not unworthy of any of
Titian's disciples. And for such, indeed, was Callisto esteemed, both
elsewhere and in Lodi, possessing, in the church of the Incoronata,
three chapels, each ornamented with four of his very beautiful
histories. One of these contains the mysteries of the Passion, another
the acts of S. John the Baptist, and the third displays histories in the
life of the Virgin. A report is current there, that Titian, in passing
through Lodi, produced several heads, probably only a story originating
in the exceeding beauty that may be observed in some. It appears,
however, certain, that he also imitated Giorgione, in whose style he
conducted his altarpiece, representing the Virgin between various
saints, at San Francesco, in Brescia, esteemed one of the most beautiful
in the whole city. He produced others for Brescia, for Crema, for the
dome of Alessandria, and for Lodi, though in this last he succeeded
better in fresco than in oil. From the circumstance of his residing in
so many different places, I shall not refer him to the school of Milan,
preferring to place him here, no less because of the vicinity of Crema
to Lodi, than from his belonging to the list of the imitators of
Titian.[63] Little justice has been done to the memory of such a man by
Ridolfi, who commends him for nothing besides his colouring in fresco,
and water colours; when, in fact, he boasts very noble design, and forms
tolerably select, more particularly in the Assumption already mentioned.
Moreover, he calls him Callisto da Lodi Bresciano, as if da Lodi were a
family name; although in signing his own name, he gave it _Callixtus de
Platea_, at the Incoronata, and elsewhere desirous of marking his
country, _Callixtus Laudensis_. Ridolfi, too, says little or nothing of
the period in which he flourished. Padre Orlandi found, affixed to one
of his pictures, at Brescia, the date of 1524. I may add, that in Lodi
he gave the years 1527 and 1530; and that, in the Nuptials of Cana, in
the refectory of the Padri Cisterciensi, at Milan, he marked 1545. It is
truly a surprising production, no less for its boldness of hand than for
the number of its figures, although the whole of them are not equally
well studied, and a few, among others that seem to breathe and live, are
really careless and incorrect.[64] He painted in the same city, within a
courtyard, the choir of the muses, including the portraits of the
president Sacco, the master of the house, and of his wife; respecting
which, writes Lomazzo, I may, without fear of temerity, observe, that it
is impossible to produce any thing more perfectly graceful and pleasing,
more beautiful in point of colouring, among works in fresco. (_Trat._ p.
598.)
We next arrive at the name of Jacopo Robusti, the son of a Venetian
dyer, and for this reason surnamed Tintoret. He was pupil to Titian,
who, jealous of his talents, soon banished him from his studio. He did
not aspire, like the preceding artists, to the name of Titian's
follower; for he burned with ambition to become the head of a new school
which should carry his manner to perfection, adding to it all that was
yet wanting; a vast idea, the offspring of a grand and fervid genius,
and as bold as it was great, not even banishment from his master's
school being able to damp his ardour. Constrained by circumstances to
confine himself to an incommodious apartment, he ennobled it with
specimens of his early studies. Over the door of it he wrote,
"Michelangiolo's design, and the colouring of Titian;" and as he was an
indefatigable imitator of the latter, so he was equally studious, both
night and day, in copying the models, taken from the statues in
Florence, belonging to the former. To these he added many more of
bassi relievi, and of ancient statues. In a catalogue of ancient pieces
of sculpture, cited by Morelli, and belonging to the year 1695, is
recorded a head of Vitellius, upon which "_Tintoretto was always
employed in designing and learning_," (note, p. 152). He was frequently
in the habit of designing his models by lamplight, the better to obtain
strong shades, and thus acquire skill in the use of a bold chiaroscuro.
With the same view he wrought models in wax and chalk, and having
clothed them carefully, he adapted them to little houses, composed of
pasteboard, and slips of wood, supplying them through the windows with
small lights, by which he might thus regulate his own lights and shades.
The models themselves he suspended from the ceiling by cords, placing
them in a variety of positions, and designing them from different points
of view, the better to acquire a mastery of the _sotto in su_, or
foreshortening on the ceiling, a science not so familiar to his school
as to that of Lombardy. Nor did he neglect the study of anatomy, to
obtain a thorough knowledge of the muscles, and the structure of the
human frame. He designed also the naked parts, as much as possible, in
various shortenings and attitudes, in order to render his compositions
as diversified as nature herself. By such studies he prepared himself to
introduce the true method to be pursued by his followers, beginning with
designing from the best models, and having obtained the idea of a
correct style, proceeding to copy the naked parts, and to correct their
defects.[65] To such aids he united a genius which extorted the
admiration of Vasari, one of his severest critics, who pronounced it the
most terrible of which the art could boast--an imagination fertile in
new ideas, and a pictorial fire which inspired him with vigour to
conceive well the boldest character of the passions, and continued to
support him until he had given full expression to them on his canvass.
Yet to what did it amount?--what is the noblest genius, and all the
rarest qualities meeting in a single artist, without diligence, a virtue
which of itself, says Cicero, seems to include all the rest. Tintoretto
possessed it for a period, and produced works in which the most captious
of critics could not find a shade of defect. Of such kind is that
Miracle of the Slave, adorning the college of St. Mark, a piece he
executed in his thirty-sixth year, and which is held up as one of the
wonders of Venetian art. The colours are Titian's; the chiaroscuro
extremely strong; the composition correct and sober; select forms;
studied draperies; while equally varied, appropriate, and animated
beyond conception, are the attitudes of the men assisting at the
spectacle, in particular of the saint who flies to succour, giving an
idea of the swiftness of an aerial being. There, too, he painted other
beautiful pieces, whose merit extorted from the lips of Pietro da
Cortona these words: "Did I reside in Venice, not a festival should pass
without still resorting to this spot, in order to feast my eyes with
such objects, and above all, with the design!" His picture of the
Crucifixion at the college of San Rocco, is also esteemed a work of
singular merit; displaying as it does, so much novelty upon so hackneyed
a subject. Nor are other examples of his sovereign power wanting in the
same place, filled with pictures as various as new; but, for brevity's
sake, I shall merely record, in the third place, his Supper of our Lord,
now at the Salute, having been removed from the refectory of the
Crociferi, for which it was drawn. Those who have beheld it in its
place, write of it as a miracle in the art, inasmuch as the construction
of the place was so well repeated in the picture, and imitated with so
much knowledge of perspective, as to make the apartment appear double
its real size. Nor are these three works to which he affixed his name,
as his favourite productions, the only ones worthy of his genius,
Zanetti having enumerated many more, conducted with the most finished
care; the whole exhibited to the Venetian public, without including
those dispersed throughout the different cities of Europe.
But diligence is rarely found long united to a rage for achieving much;
the true source in this instance, as in numerous others, of false, or at
least of inferior composition. Hence, Annibale Caracci observed, that in
many pieces Tintoretto was inferior to Tintoretto; while Paul Veronese,
so ardent an admirer of his talents, was in the habit of reproaching him
with doing injustice to the professors of the art, by painting in every
manner, a plan that went far to destroy the reputation of the profession
(_Ridolfi_). Similar exceptions will be found to apply to such of his
works as, conceived at a heat, executed by habit, and in great part left
imperfect, betray certain errors both in point of judgment and design.
Sometimes there appears a crowd of superfluous or badly grouped figures,
and most generally all in the most energetic actions, without any
spectators regarding them in quiet, as was practised by Titian and all
the best composers. Neither in these figures are we to look for that
senatorial dignity, which Reynolds discovers in Titian.
Tintoretto aimed rather at liveliness than at grace, and from the
studied observation of the people of his native state, perhaps the most
spirited in Italy, he drew models for his heads, as well as his
attitudes, sometimes applying them to the most important subjects. In a
few specimens of his Suppers, the Apostles might occasionally be taken
for gondoliers, just when their arm is raised, ready to strike the oar,
and with an air of native fierceness they raise the head either to look
out, to ridicule, or to dispute. He likewise varied Titian's method of
colouring, making use of primary grounds no longer white, and composed
of chalk, but shaded; owing to which his Venetian pictures have felt the
effects of time more than the rest. Neither were the choice, nor the
general tone of his colouring the same as Titian's; the blue, or the ash
coloured, being that which predominates; one which assists the effect of
the chiaroscuro, as much as it diminishes the amenity of the whole. In
his fleshes there appears a certain vinous colour, and more particularly
in his portraits. The proportions of his bodies are also different; he
does not affect the fulness of Titian; he aims more at lively action
than the latter, and sometimes attenuates his figures too much. The
least correct portion of his pictures is the drapery; few of them being
free from those long and straight folds, or flying abroad, or in some
other way too common and obvious. It would be useless to insist upon his
want of judgment, or rather his pictorial extravagances, Vasari having
already said too much of them, upon the subject of his Universal
Judgment, at Santa Maria dell'Orto.
He ought to have tempered the severity of his criticism, however, by
admitting, that if the author of that great picture had bestowed as much
pains upon the several parts as upon the whole, it would have been a
magnificent production. Even in those pictures, in which he wished to
display the talent as it were of an _improvvisatore_, he still
vindicated his title to the name of a great master, in the command and
rapidity of his pencil, in his manifestations of original powers, where
he seems to triumph in his play of light, in the most difficult
shortenings, in fanciful inventions, in his relief, in harmony, and, in
the best supported of his pieces, even in the beauty of his tints. But
his sovereign merit consisted in the animation of his figures, it being
an universal opinion, that has almost acquired the force of a proverb,
that the power of action ought to be studied in Tintoretto. Upon this
point Pietro da Cortona used to observe, that if we carefully examine
the whole of those pictures which have been engraved, no artist will be
found equal to him in the pictorial fire he infused into his forms
(_Boschini_, p. 285). He flourished for a long period, exerting his
talents until we could with difficulty make a catalogue of his works,
still giving the rein to his divine ardour in many pieces of great size,
or at least abounding with a great variety of actors. Among these last,
his picture of the Paradiso, in the hall of the great council, was
greatly esteemed, even by the Caracci; and though the production of
advanced age, the figures are almost innumerable. Had they only been
better grouped and distributed, the artist would not have given occasion
for Algarotti to criticize such a painting as he did, adducing it as an
example of badly conceived composition. Tintoretto's genuine productions
are not often met with in the different collections of Italy. In Venice,
however, they are not rare, and there we may learn, what appears so very
improbable in Ridolfi, that Tintoretto wrought with a degree of finish
equal to that of a miniature painter. The noble Casa Barbarigo, at S.
Polo, possesses a _Susanna_ of this character, where, in small space, is
included a park, with birds and rabbits disporting, together with every
thing desirable in a pleasure garden; the whole as studiously finished
as his figures.
There is little to add relating to his school on which none conferred
greater credit than his son, Domenico Tintoretto. He trod in the steps
of his father; but, like Ascanius following AEneas, "non passibus aequis."
Still he may boast much resemblance in his countenances, in his
colouring, and in harmony, but there is a wide distinction in point of
genius, though some of his most spirited pieces have been ascribed to
his father, or at least suspected of having been chiefly indebted to his
hand. Many works, however, upon a large scale, are attributed to the
son; those which he has filled with portraits being far the most
commended; his merit in this branch having been thought equal by Zanetti
to that of his father. One of these is seen at the college of St. Mark,
where, as in the rest of his compositions, the figures are disposed with
more sobriety than those of Jacopo, as well as finished with more care,
and with more enduring colours. As he grew older his style fell somewhat
into that of a mannerist, which at that period, as we shall see, much
prevailed. By these distinctions his productions may be frequently known
from his father's, and we may be enabled to refute the assertions of
dealers, who, to obtain a higher price, attribute them indiscriminately
to Jacopo. Yet Domenico produced many pieces, more especially portraits
for different collections, besides several mythological and scriptural
histories, to which he sometimes added his name, as in his picture
boasting such exquisite tints which adorns the Campidoglio; the subject
of which is a penitent Magdalen. Contemporary with Domenico, we ought
not to omit the name of his sister Marietta, so exquisite a painter of
portraits, as to receive invitations from the Emperor Maximilian, and
from Philip II. of Spain, to visit their respective courts. But her
father would never consent to such a measure, in order to enjoy her
society at home, though he was deprived of her not long afterwards, cut
off in the flower of her genius and her age.