objects of rural nature upon a small scale, a different one sprung up in
Verona, which surpassed all others by copying, upon the most ample
grounds, every thing most beautiful in art; such as architecture,
costume, ornaments, the splendour of trains of servants, and luxury
worthy of kings. This then remained still to be completed, and it was
reserved for the genius of Paul Caliari to accomplish. The son of
Gabriele, a sculptor at Verona, he was destined by his father for the
same art. Instructed in a knowledge of design, and modelling in clay, he
nevertheless evinced so strong a genius for painting, as to induce his
father to give him as a pupil to Badile, under whom, in a short time, he
made an astonishing progress. He had, however, appeared in an age that
made it incumbent on him to exert himself greatly, such were the
splendid talents that distinguished the Veronese School. It is
deserving, indeed, of separate mention, inasmuch as it might of itself
form a school apart, were it not that its principal masters had acquired
a knowledge of their art, either from Mantegna of Padua, or from the
Venetian Bellini; from Giorgione, or as we shall have occasion to see,
from Titian. It was thus derived rather from the artists of the state,
than from its own or from foreign sources; though it flourished by its
own industry, and produced as many various styles as any other place in
the terra firma. I have already alluded to the remark of Vasari, that
"Verona having constantly devoted itself, after the death of F.
Giocondo, to the study of design, produced at all times excellent
artists, &c." such praise as he bestowed on no other city of the
Venetian state. I noticed also its superiority in force of expression,
and its very general taste, in animating and giving an air of liveliness
to its heads, so general indeed as to be almost characteristic of the
nation. To these it added a beauty peculiar to itself; more light and
elegant, and less full than in the Venetian paintings, though not so
fresh and rubicund in the fleshy parts. It is also equally happy with
any other in its inventions, availing itself of mythology and history to
form fanciful compositions, and for the ornament of palaces and villas.
The national genius so well adapted for poetry, aided the artists in the
conception of such compositions; while the advice of able men, always
abounding in the city, helped to perfect them. The climate too was
favourable for the production, as well as for the preservation of
paintings; for while at Venice the saltness of the air destroyed many
beautiful pieces in fresco, in Verona and its adjacent towns a great
number remained entire.
We have already alluded to its leading masters of the preceding epoch,
observing that many were entitled from their works to rank in this
brighter period. To these I add Paolo Cavazzola, pupil to Moroni, and in
the opinion of Vasari, much superior to him. He died at the age of
thirty-one, leaving many fine specimens of a mature judgment in
different churches. The two Falconetti were also worthy of some notice.
Gio. Antonio, an excellent draughtsman of fruits and animals; and Gio.
Maria, a scholar of Melozzo (_Notizia_, p. 10,) and a celebrated
architect and painter, though not one of the most copious, more
especially in fresco. These two brothers were descendants of old Stefano
da Verona, or da Sevio, whichever he is to be called. Nor less worthy in
the opinion of Vasari was one Tullio, or India il Vecchio, an able
artist in fresco, a portrait painter, and a celebrated copyist. His son
Bernardino appears to advantage, no less in a bold than a delicate
style; in which last, if I mistake not, he is superior, as we perceive
from specimens in the churches, and other collections in Verona. Many of
his pictures betray a style approaching that of Giulio Romano. He is
recorded by Vasari, together with Eliodoro Forbicini, famous for his
grotesques, and assistant in many of his labours to India, as well as to
various other artists of no mean fame.
Dionisio Battaglia distinguished himself by an altarpiece of Santa
Barbara, mentioned by Pozzo as being at Santa Eufemia; no less than did
Scalabrino by his two scriptural histories placed at San Zeno. Two other
artists of the same period are very deserving of mention, both on
account of their productions and their pupils; Niccolo Giolfino (in
Vasari called Ursino) the master of Farinato; and Antonio Badile, the
tutor and the uncle of Caliari. Giolfino, or Golfino, according to
Ridolfi, partakes something of the dryness of the Quattrocentisti, less
select and animated than the best of his contemporaries, his colours not
very vivid, but pleasing and harmonious. Most probably educated by some
one of these miniaturists, he succeeded better in pictures upon a small
than upon a large scale, such as in his Resurrection of Lazarus, to be
seen in the church of Nazareth. Born in 1480, Badile flourished during
another eighty years, and was the first, perhaps, of any in Verona, to
exhibit painting altogether free from traces of antiquity, while he
excelled no less in external forms than in depicting the inward
affections and passions of the mind. He was moreover the author, at the
same time, of a peculiar softness, yet freedom of hand; though it is not
known from whom he acquired it. He affixed to his works only the first
syllable of his name, formed in a cypher. His picture of the raising of
Lazarus, painted for San Bernardino, and another with some holy bishops
at San Nazaro, both so much commended by Ridolfi, serve to shew from
what source his two pupils, Paolo and Zelotti, derived that elegant
manner, which they mutually improved by assisting one another. A similar
style was for some years displayed by Orlando Fiacco, or Flacco, from
which he is supposed to have been a scholar of Badile, though Vasari,
who extols him particularly in portrait, gives him to another school.
However this may be, it is certain he inclined to a boldness of style,
approaching that of Caravaggio. He flourished but a short period, during
which he acquired more merit than fortune.
This resulted from the too great abundance of good artists in Verona, a
circumstance that induced many to seek better fortune in foreign parts.
Orlandi, on the authority of Vasari, has inserted in the Abecedario a
professor of the name of Zeno, or Donato, a native of Verona, who in the
church of San Marino at Rimino, painted the titular saint with singular
care. I saw it, and it displayed great simplicity of composition, good
design, and still better colouring, more particularly in the dress of
the bishop, which he laboriously ornamented with little figures of
saints. He seems to have belonged to the golden period of art; and it is
known that he left other works at the same place, and most probably
never changed his residence, or at least did not return, so far as we
know, to Verona. Two other artists, named Batista Fontana, much engaged
at the imperial court of Vienna; and Jacopo Ligozzi, who long flourished
at the court of Tuscany, as I have observed in its place, also adopted
the resolution of quitting their native city. Of the former scarcely any
thing remains there; though there are a few pieces by the hand of the
second, among which at S. Luca a Saint Helena, who, surrounded by her
court ladies, assists in the discovery of the Holy Cross, a picture
displaying the best Venetian taste in its tints, and in the richness of
its draperies; but certainly all the worst, in regard to transferring
our own customs to more ancient times. Giovanni Ermanno had either a
brother or other relation who approached him very nearly in point of
merit, as may clearly be seen at the Santi Apostoli in Verona.
But those who had there obtained the ascendancy, when Paul Veronese
first began to make himself known, were three fellow citizens, who still
maintain a high character in their native place, inferior only to that
of Paul himself. Their names are Batista d'Angelo, surnamed del Moro, as
the son-in-law and pupil of Torbido; Domenico Ricci, called il
Brusasorci, from his father's custom of burning rats; and Paul Farinato,
likewise called degli Uberti. All three were invited by the Cardinal
Ercole Gonzaga to Mantua, in order that each might exhibit in the
cathedral an altarpiece; while together with these appeared Paul, the
youngest of the whole; but who according to Vasari and Ridolfi,
surpassed them in the competition. But it is not yet time to enter upon
his merits, having first to treat of his rivals, before we venture upon
him and his followers, so as not to have occasion for interrupting the
remainder of this history, until we arrive at a new epoch.
Giambatista was the least celebrated of the three, though each of his
works obtained so much credit, that when Santa Eufemia had one of its
walls demolished to make way for a new edifice, his picture of St. Paul
before Ananias, that adorned it, was carefully preserved at considerable
expense, and replaced over the door of the church; yet this was one of
his earliest productions. He produced a great many others, both in oil
and in fresco, not unfrequently in competition with Paul. He follows
Torbido in point of diligence, and in his strong and unctuous colouring.
He has more softness, however, of design; and, if I mistake not, more
grace; of which he gave a distinguished specimen in an Angiolo at San
Stefano, in the act of distributing the palms to the SS. Innocenti. He
was employed, also, in Venice, where the most studied and animated
production, going by his name, is not positively pronounced his by
Ridolfi, but only _esteemed to be his_, while it is ascribed by Boschini
to Francesco Alberti, a Venetian, known merely by this single
production. It is an altarpiece in Santa Maria Maggiore, representing
the Virgin between St. John and St. Mark, and several lords in ducal
robes, with their sons, in the act of adoring her; very lively portraits
of the Marcello family, for whom the altar was painted. Vasari gives a
brief account both of him and his son Marco, his pupil and assistant,
though he did not mention Giulio, brother to Batista, who distinguished
himself alike in all the arts, and is called by Zanetti _dotto pittore_.
Both, like Batista, exercised their talents in Venice, and whoever
compares the four _Coronati_ of Giulio, placed at San Apollinare, with
the _Paradiso_ of Marco at San Bartolommeo, will discover an elegance, a
precision, and an arrangement of style, sufficient to mark them for
disciples of the same school.
Brusasorci may be termed the Titian of this school. It is not known that
he received the instructions of any other master besides Giolfino, but
it is certain that he studied the works of Giorgione and of Titian, in
Venice. He has exhibited the style of the latter in a few of his
pictures with great accuracy, as we see in his _San Rocco_, in the
church of the Padri Agostiniani at Verona, and in several other pictures
for private persons, among which he has drawn nymphs and Venuses. An eye
accustomed to the originals of the best Venetians, detects a diversity
of tints which in the artist of Verona are less glowing. His genius
could not confine itself to the imitation of a single model, like some
of the Venetians; he became fond of Giorgione, and to judge from one of
his pieces remaining at Mantua, also of Parmigianino. There in the ducal
palace we meet with the Fable of Phaeton exhibited in different pieces,
which, however much defaced by time, are still admired for the fancy and
vivacity they display, no less than for their abundance of figures, and
the difficult foreshortenings he has inserted. But his chief merit was
shewn in his frescos, with which he decorated villas and palaces with
the erudition of a fine poet and the execution of a fine painter. He
produced, likewise, his histories; and the masterpiece of all I have
seen is the procession of Clement VIII. and of Charles V. through
Bologna, a picture exhibited in a hall of the noble casa Ridolfi, and
which has been engraved. A nobler spectacle cannot well be imagined; and
although other specimens, both of this and similar subjects are met with
very generally at Rome, in Venice, and in Florence, none produce equal
effect; combining in one piece, a large concourse, fine distribution of
figures, vivacity of countenances, noble attitudes in the men and
horses; variety of costume, pomp, and splendour and dignity, all bearing
an expression of pleasure adapted to such a day. This piece may compete
with another in the palazzo Murari at Ponte Nuovo, also in fresco,
though this last is preferred in the estimation of many before that of
the casa Ridolfi, as I have been informed by the learned Signor dalla
Rosa.
Felice Riccio, otherwise Brusasorci the younger, and the son of
Domenico, became an orphan before he had completed his studies with his
father, which he continued under the care of Ligozzi, at Florence. On
returning thence to Verona, he introduced a style very different to the
manner of his father. It is extremely elegant and refined, as displayed
in his Madonnas, with boys and beautiful cherubs, adorning various
collections; and with features something resembling those of Paul
Veronese, if not a little more spare. Nor is he deficient in strength
where his subject requires it, as I remarked in a picture belonging to
the Conti Gazzola, representing the forge of Vulcan, with Cyclops,
designed in good Florentine taste, and powerfully coloured. Many of
Felice's works are interspersed through the churches of Verona, among
which his Santa Elena, belonging to the church of that name, is
extremely beautiful. He did not exercise his talents, like his father,
in fresco, nor had he equal genius; though he produced pieces on a large
scale, the extreme of which was the Fall of Manna, painted for the
church of S. Giorgio, a picture both vast and well conceived, and which
received its last touches from Ottini and Orbetto, two of his best
disciples, whose names I reserve to another epoch. Several little
pictures, likewise, both on sacred and other subjects, executed on stone
or marble, which he coloured with great skill, availing himself for his
shades of the marble itself, are attributed to his hand. Even his
portraits are in high esteem; though nearly equalled by those of his
sister Cecilia, who acquired skill in the art from her father. Gio.
Batista Brusasorci, brother of the preceding artists, and a scholar of
Paul Veronese, presented Verona with several highly esteemed pictures;
but passing into Germany he became painter to the emperor, in whose
service he died.
Surviving the whole of these, and almost all the Caliari family, we meet
with the name of Paolo Farinato, as grand an artist perhaps as his
namesake was beautiful. After leaving the school of Giolfino, he is
supposed to have studied the works of Titian and Giorgione, at Venice;
and if we may judge also from his style, he must have received the
instructions of Giulio Romano in design; though he made use of the
Venetian tints, out of which he formed a system of his own. He survived
till his eighty-first year, still preserving his natural good humour;
and as is customary with men of so advanced an age, he prided himself
upon it, affixing his name to a picture he produced at San Giorgio,
placed opposite to one by Felice, stating he had painted it in his
seventy-ninth year. It is a representation of the multiplication of
loaves in the desert, abounding with very numerous figures, in part
portraits of his own family, and in part ideal heads. He is one of the
few painters whose merit did not deteriorate in advanced age, for though
in some early pieces he betrays a certain dryness of manner, in this
last he left nothing imperfect, neither in fulness of contours, in the
fancy of his draperies and embellishments, nor in the study of his
figures and landscape. His design has been much commended, which was the
case with few others of his school; and even in the time of Ridolfi his
sketches, the cartoons of his first studies, and his models of figures
in wax, were all eagerly sought after for ornamental cabinets. A San
Onofrio is pointed out at the church of San Tommaso, in a sitting
posture, taken from the celebrated torso di Belvedere; which, as well as
many other of his attitudes, and subjects where he introduced naked
figures, discovers an acquaintance with the ancient style not common
among the Venetians. To his fleshes he gives a bronze colour, which
produces a pleasing effect, and harmonizes well with his tints, for the
most part sober and even flat in his grounds; giving a repose to the eye
which attracts without dazzling it. He is generally esteemed, however, a
weak colourist, and better in his frescos than in oil. I know not
whether it may be owing to partiality, or to the merit of this great
man, but certain it is, that on my quitting Bologna he was the only
artist, the whole of whose works I regretted not having seen; so much of
all that is rare and beautiful did I meet with in those I saw. More
likewise I beheld in Mantua, in San Sisto at Piacenza, in the Ducal
Gallery at Modena, in Padua, and other places. I have sometimes observed
a kind of snail that Paolo is said to have chosen for his device,
remarking that he likewise bore his house upon his head.
His son Orazio practised the art only for a few years. His best praise
is, that during that short period he made approaches towards the style
and merit of his father. There is one of his pieces at San Stefano,
representing the Faithful receiving the Holy Spirit from the
Apostles;[68] and, if we except only Paul Veronese, it makes a
distinguished figure, placed near some of the best artists of Verona.
Resuming here the thread of our former discourse, we must observe that
Paul Caliari found the public prepossessed in favour of the three
foregoing artists, and obtained little consideration in his own district
while young. The world, ever disinclined to admit the claims of rising
reputation, either knew not, or believed not, that in his competition
with the Mantuan artists he had surpassed them all; insomuch that this
youthful genius was compelled by penury to quit Verona, leaving behind
him, upon an altar at San Fermo, a Madonna between two Saints, with a
few other proofs of his early powers. He first went to Vicenza, and
thence passed on to Venice. His genius was naturally noble, and even
magnificent and vast, as well as pleasing; and no provincial city was
capable of supplying him with ideas proportionate to his genius, like
Venice. There he aimed at improving his style of colouring, upon the
models of Titian and Tintoretto, as well as to surpass them, as it would
appear, in elegance and variety of ornament. Hence his pupils were
accustomed to say, that at that time he devoted himself to the study of
casts taken from ancient statues, to the engravings of Parmigiano, and
to those of Albert Durer. The first works that he produced for the
sacristy of S. Sebastiano in Venice, present us only with the elements
of that style he subsequently acquired, in the air of the heads, and in
the variety of drapery and of attitudes. For the rest his pencil was
still timid, inclined rather to unite his tints with care, than to a
bold and free manner of handling. But it was not long before he
displayed more freedom, and more attraction, in painting the ceilings of
the same church, where he represented the history of Esther, a work
whose novelty conciliated public admiration and became a stepping stone
to very honourable commissions from the senate.