with the ambassador Grimani, where, surrounded by its grand ancient and
modern productions, "_al volo suo senti crescer le penne_," he felt his
wings enlarging as he rose, of which he soon gave proofs in the Palazzo
Pubblico, at Venice. Here his imagination seems to revel in every piece
coloured by his hand; but particularly in that which may be called the
apotheosis of Venice, in regal costume, seated on high, crowned by
Glory, celebrated by Fame, attended by Honour, Liberty, and Peace. Juno
and Ceres are seen assisting at the spectacle, as symbols of grandeur
and felicity. The summit is decorated with specimens of magnificent
architecture, and with columns; while lower down appears a great
concourse of ladies with their lords and sons, in various splendid
habits, all represented in a gallery; and on the ground are represented
warriors upon their chargers, arms, ensigns, prisoners, and trophies of
war. This oval picture presents us with an union of those powers, with
which Paul so much fascinates the eye, producing a general effect
altogether enchanting, and includes numerous parts all equally
beautiful; bright aerial spaces, sumptuous edifices, which seem to
invite the foot of the spectator; lively features, dignified, selected
for the most part from nature, and embellished by art. Add to these,
very graceful motions, fine contrasts and expressions; noble vestments,
both for their shape and materials; with crowns and sceptres,
magnificence worthy of so august a scene; perspective that gives
distance to objects, without displeasing us when near;[69] the most
lively colours,[70] whether similar or contrasted, and harmonized with a
peculiar degree of art, such as is not to be taught. Not inferior to
these was the handling of his pencil, which to the utmost rapidity
unites the greatest judgment, that effects, decides, and achieves
something in every stroke; gifts which he had at that age rendered
familiar to him, and which form the character of his genius. Whoever has
resolution enough to read Boschini (for it is not every one in Italy
that can boast as much) will find at p. 643 and further, in addition to
the description of this picture, the commendations he bestowed on it,
along with Strozza, Mignard, and other able artists, as one of the
rarest specimens in the world. Yet this did not obtain for him so high a
reputation as his "Suppers." Whoever undertakes to describe his style,
ought by no means to pass over a representation, perhaps the most
familiar to him of all, having repeated it so many times, until by force
of exercising his powers and varying it in different ways, the first
sovereigns in the world became desirous of obtaining copies. Several I
have seen upon a small scale, but always beautiful; one, the Supper of
the Eucharist, at Santa Sofia, in Venice; another, upon the same
subject, and of exquisite workmanship, at the Casa Borghese, in Rome;
and the feast given by San Gregorio to the poor, belonging to the
Serviti, in Vicenza; besides others in different collections. In Venice
he painted four Suppers for the same number of refectories in religious
houses, both large and rich in point of invention. The first
representing the Marriage of Cana, is still preserved at San Giorgio
Maggiore, thirty palms in length, copies of which every where abound,
and which is highly estimable on account of the great number of the
figures, amounting to one hundred and thirty, as well as for its
portraits of princes and illustrious men, who flourished at the period.
It was nevertheless executed for the price of only ninety ducats. The
second is in better preservation, placed at San Giovanni and San Paolo,
representing the supper prepared by Matthew for our Lord; and is very
highly extolled for its heads, all of which Ricci, at a mature age,
copied for his studio. The third is at San Sebastiano, consisting of the
Feast of Simon. The fourth, along with the same Feast, formerly placed
at the Refectory of the Servi, was presented to Louis XIV. of France,
and deposited at Versailles; and this was preferred by Venetian
professors to all the rest. For this reason numerous copies were
presented by them to the world; although the artist himself took one for
the refectory of the monks of SS. Nazario and Celso, along with the same
Supper, now in the fine Doria collection at Genoa; and which, however
inferior in size to the rest, is considered equal to any of the
preceding, and has been engraved by the hand of the celebrated Volpato.
Another, likewise of Simon, was sent from Venice to Genoa, which I saw
in possession of the Durazzo family; with a Magdalen that may be
esteemed a miracle of art; and I also met with an old copy in the Casa
Paolucci, at Pesaro. What novel methods he adopted in all these to
decorate the place with architecture, and how well he availed himself of
them to add to the spectators at the festival! What passions depicted in
each of the principal actors, and how appropriate to the period! What
splendour in the preparation, luxury of dishes, and pomp of guests!
Whoever considers these, will easily excuse such an artist for some
occasional imperfection of design, and for inattention to ancient
costume, in which he is always faulty.[71] Even Guido, an artist so
highly celebrated, so far excused them, that he was accustomed to say,
"were it given me to choose what painter I would be, I should prefer
being Paul Veronese; for in others every thing appears the effect of
art, but he alone seems all nature."
He continued to produce specimens until he was sixty years of age,
though he cannot, like many others, be accused of having painted too
much; each piece is worthy of Paul Veronese, and each has been
multiplied by some copyist; an honour that artists have not bestowed
upon the works of Tintoretto, or those of many others. His method of
making use of clear grounds, and as much as possible of virgin colours,
has greatly contributed to the preservation and freshness of his
colouring. In Venice we meet with several of his pictures yet glowing
with the peculiar grace he shed over them. A remarkable specimen is seen
in that belonging to the noble house of Pisani, exhibiting the family of
Darius presented to Alexander, which surprises as much by its splendour
as it affects us by its expression. Equal admiration was at one time
evinced for his Rape of Europa, which he drew upon a large scale, in
various groups, much in the same manner as Coreggio, in his Leda. In the
first she appears among her virgins in the act of caressing the animal,
and desirous of being borne upon him: in the second, she is seen carried
along, applauded by her companions, as she enjoys the scene riding along
the shore. In the third, (the only one in grand dimensions) she cleaves
the sea in terror, in vain desired and lamented by her virgin train.
This work, ornamenting the Ducal Palace, suffered much from the effects
of time, and has subsequently been restored.
In Verona, boasting a clime more favourable to paintings, we more
frequently meet with his pictures in complete preservation. Many noble
houses, in particular that of Bevilacqua, at one period his patrons, are
in possession of several. As an expression of his gratitude, he
represented in a portrait of one of the Bevilacqua family, his own
figure standing upright, with the air of his attendant. But his San
Giorgio, surrounded by the two grand histories of Farinato and of
Brusasorci already described, by some esteemed to be the best painting
in Verona, is, perhaps, in the most perfect state of any that remain.
The San Giuliano of Rimini is likewise a valuable piece, which may,
perhaps, compete with the San Giorgio. The San Afra, at Brescia, and the
S. Giustina, at Padua, placed in their respective churches, have also
suffered little; but the last, indeed, is in too lofty a situation. His
labours for different collections were very great, consisting of
portraits, Venus, Adonis, Cupids, Nymphs, and similar figures, in which
he displayed the most rich and varied beauty of forms, fancy in their
embellishment, and novelty in his inventions; all subjects indeed
familiar to his pencil, and which are to be seen in different galleries,
not omitting even the imperial one. Among his sacred subjects he was
more particularly attached to the marriage of St. Catherine, one of the
most laboured of which fell to the share of the royal collection of
Pitti. He produced, also, several Holy Families, in which the better to
depart from the common practice, he gave birth to new inventions. They
are to be met with in Ridolfi (p. 307), copied from one of his own MSS.
But his devotional pieces were also, for the most part, copious
histories; such as the Slaughter of the Innocents, laboured in the
miniature style, at the Palazzo Borghese; the Esther, at Turin, in
possession of the King of Sardinia. The Queen of Sheba, among a troop of
handmaids at the throne of Solomon, a picture lately acquired by the
reigning sovereign at Florence. Halls, chambers, and facades likewise,
decorated by him in fresco with allegorical poems and representations of
histories, are frequently met with in Venice, and in the palaces and
seats belonging to the state. Highly meriting notice is the palace of
His Serene Highness Manin, Doge of Venice, to be seen in the territory
of Asolo; the architecture is that of Palladio; the stuccoes, of
Vittoria; while the pictures of the Muses, and of many other Pagan
deities, are from the hand of Paul; forming an union of artists
sufficient to render the place as celebrated among modern villas, as was
that of Lucullus among the ancients.
The school of Paul Veronese commences like those already described, with
his own family; in the first place, with Benedetto, his younger brother,
and with his two sons, Carlo and Gabriele. Benedetto was remarkable for
the fraternal affection he displayed towards Paul, assisting him in the
ornamental part of his labours, particularly in his perspectives, in
which he possessed considerable skill. And, after his death, he shewed
the same affection to the two sons, directing them by his advice,
supporting them in their undertakings, and leaving his inheritance to
their family. His genius for the art was not very great, and in the
pieces conducted by his own hand, he appears only as an imitator of
Paul, occasionally happy however in a few heads, or in his drapery, but
by no means equal with himself. There is hardly a work in which the
connoisseur may not easily detect something weak or faulty, as in the
Last Supper, in the Flagellation, in the Appearance of the Saviour
before the Tribunal of Pilate, which he painted for the church of San
Niccolo, and which are some of his best productions. If he ever appears
to have surpassed himself, as in the instance of his picture of St.
Agatha, placed at the Angeli, in Murano, the work has been ascribed to
Paul, and has even been engraved under his name. According to Ridolfi he
succeeded better in fresco than in oils; and both he and Boschini, who
examined his Roman histories, and his mythological fables, painted in
stone colour, in the Cortile of the Mocenighi, give us a very favourable
idea of them; and the same where they speak of his ornamental work, in
halls and other places, which admitted of his introducing a display of
architecture and embellishments, rather than of figures.
Carlo Caliari, generally entitled Carletto, the diminutive of his name,
from the circumstance of his dying at the early age of twenty-four,[72]
as we find in the register of his parish, owing to his excessive
application to study, was gifted with a genius like that of his father.
His disposition was particularly docile and attentive, and he was the
boast of his parent, whose style he emulated better than any other
artist. But Paul, ambitious that he should even excel him, was
unwilling, that by forming himself upon a single model, he should
succeed only in becoming a feeble sectarist. He sent him, therefore, to
study the school of Bassano, the robustness of which blended with his
own elegance, would, he expected, produce an original manner superior to
either of the other two. At the period when Carletto closed the eyes of
his beloved father, he was only in his sixteenth, or at farthest his
eighteenth year, though he had attained such progress and reputation in
the art as to be enabled to complete several pictures left unfinished by
his parent, nor was he ever in want of commissions. His productions
often appear by the hand of Paul; whether at that time he did not wholly
depend upon his own resources, or that his father, at least, might have
retouched his pieces, is not certain. Skilful judges, indeed, have
pretended to discern, or rather to count the number, of the strokes
traced by the paternal pencil, from their inimitable ease, lightness,
and rapidity. Thus it has occurred in an altarpiece of San Frediano
Vescovo, to which is added St. Catherine, and some other saint, placed
in the Medicean Museum, and bearing the son's name, though boasting at
the same time all the grace of his father. But, wherever Carlo executed
his pieces alone, he is easily distinguishable; his pencil is somewhat
more full and heavy, while his tints are stronger and deeper than those
of his father. We have an instance in his San Agostino, at the church of
La Carita, whose colouring betrays that union of the two schools so much
desired by Paul.
Gabriele executed little in which he was not assisted by his brother. In
several altarpieces we read as follows: "_Heredes Pauli Caliari
Veronensis fecerunt_;" which alludes to such pieces as Paul himself left
imperfect, the completion of which became a joint labour; a system they
continued, likewise, in others, which they produced for churches, and
for the public palace. Ridolfi awards the chief merit to Carlo, placing
Gabriele second, and adding, that Benedetto had, likewise, his share,
more especially in the architectural parts. Probably too some other
pupil of Paul assisted them. For, in these, we find represented the
maxims of the master, even his studies, and the same figures as his.
Still there is occasionally some diversity of hand perceptible, as in
the martyrdom of an Apostle at S. Giustina of Padua, where one of the
figures appears so much loaded with shade, as not merely to betray a
difference of hand, but of schools. Gabriele survived the other artists
of his family; residing subsequently in Venice, more in the character of
a merchant than a painter. Still he continued occasionally to produce a
few portraits in crayons, extremely rare, or some picture of a
cavalcade; nor did he desist from visiting the studio of the artists,
where he assisted them, when agreeable, with his advice. Arriving at the
period of 1531, memorable for the great pestilence in Italy, and
impelled by those noble precepts of humanity inculcated in the gospel,
he generously exposed his life in the service of his afflicted fellow
citizens, and fell a sacrifice to the task.
Proceeding to the other disciples of Paul, and to his imitators, it will
not be found easy to enumerate them. For having been interested beyond
any other painter in the cultivation of an art, whose object is to give
pleasure, so he excelled all others in the number of his followers. We
are told by Zanetti, that many of them were also very successful, owing
to which, less accurate judges are apt to confound the master with those
of his school, if they do not cautiously attend to the two following
points, in which none will be found to equal him. These are, 1st, the
fineness and peculiar lightness of his pencil combined with sound
judgment; 2d, a very ready and spirited expression of grace, and a
dignity in his forms, particularly in the air of his heads. It must,
however, be observed, that his scholars, in the progress of time, for
the most part varied the grounds and the colouring, as they approached
the style of the succeeding epoch. Among the Venetians, there is only
enumerated by Zanetti the name of Parrasio Michele,[73] an artist who
enriched with the designs of Paul, and experienced in the art of
colouring them, produced several works worthy of him, more especially
that of a Pieta, adorning a chapel within the church of San Giuseppe, a
piece in which he added a portrait of himself. The people of Coneglia
have preserved the recollection of one of their citizens named Ciro, to
whom they attribute an altarpiece of the Nativity of Christ, as nearly
resembling the style of Paul as possible, for which reason it was
transferred from the church of the Riformati in that city to Rome; and
they add, that its author was a youth, who never attained to mature age.
Castelfranco boasts one Cesare Castagnoli as a pupil of Paul; though in
his numerous paintings in fresco he cannot be said to display much
power, at least beyond a certain degree of spirit, promptness, and
copiousness of ideas. A few less shewy and fanciful productions from the
hand of Bartolo, his brother, executed in oil, acquired for him higher
reputation than that of Cesare. Angelo Naudi, an Italian, is much
commended by Palamino for his labours in the royal palaces, and in
various churches in Spain, when painter to the court of king Philip.
There is reason to doubt whether he really received the instructions of
Paul, instead of imbibing his manner by dint of study and copying, like
Bombelli and many others; it being recorded of this writer, otherwise
very estimable, that in regard to masters he was apt to embrace opinions
by no means always true. Omitting the names of a great number of
foreigners, we make mention here only of the Veronese, in order that
their master should not appear unaccompanied by the noble train of
disciples bestowed by him upon his country.
Luigi Benfatto, known by the name of dal Friso, a sister's son, and for
many years the guest of Paul, copied him in the outset even to
servility; though he afterwards gave himself up to an easy and rapid
style of composition, little short of the licence of the mannerists. It
has been supposed that he only availed himself of this facility in such
commissions as were of small value. He approaches nearest to Paul in the
church of San Raffaello; in other places he resembles Palma. A more free
and spirited imitator of Paul was found in Maffeo Verona, a pupil and
son-in-law to Luigi; but the quantity of vermilion with which he
heightened the colour of his fleshes, detracts from his worth. Francesco
Montemezzano, a Veronese, approached still more frequently than either
of the preceding to the character of the head of his school. He acquired
great reputation by a picture of the Annunciation, painted for the
church of the Osservanti alla Vigna; and he was employed, also, in the
Ducal Palace. He partakes of Caliari in his countenances, in his
costume, and in the beauty of his figures: as to the rest, he was slow
of hand, and feeble in his colouring. His picture at San Giorgio, in
Verona, consisting of the Apparition of Christ to the Magdalen, appears
extremely languid in competition with that of Paul, which is one of the
most brilliant productions remaining of that period. To these we might
add the names of other Veronese, as Aliprando, and Anselmo Canneri,
characterised by Vasari as an able assistant to Paul his master.
Among all the Veronese artists most resembling Paul, when ambitious of
doing so, was his friend and companion, though his rival, Batista
Zelotti. Instructed in the same academy, he was occasionally the
companion of his labours, and occasionally taught and executed works
himself--always however observing the same rules. Vasari mentions him
with commendation in his Life of San Micheli, where he entitles him
Batista da Verona, and includes him among the disciples of Titian. I
have seen a Holy Family by this artist in Titian's style in the Carrara
collection, frequently extolled by us before; and from such a studio it
would appear we are to look for that warmth of tints, in which, for the
most part, he excels Caliari; as well as that power of design in which
Zanetti is of opinion that he also surpassed him, although others think
very differently. He often surpasses him, likewise, in grandeur, and in
what appertains to painting in fresco; a circumstance Paul was aware of,
and for that reason sought to obtain his assistance in works of that
kind. He possessed great fertility of ideas, and a rapid hand, while he
was profound and judicious in his compositions. Indeed, he might have
been esteemed another Paul, had he been able to compete with him in the
beauty of his heads, in variety, and in grace. In truth, his productions
were frequently given to Paul, even those he painted for the Council of
Ten having been engraved under the latter name by Valentino le Febre. He
was doubtless one of the first artists of his time, though not estimated
according to his deserts, from having worked chiefly in fresco, and at a
distance from capital cities; in villages, in country seats, and
palaces. One of his grandest works is seen at Cataio, a villa belonging
to the Marchese Tommaso Obizzi, where, about 1570, he represented in
different rooms, the history of that very ancient family, distinguished
no less in council than in arms. The place is continually sought by
foreigners, attracted thither by its splendour, by the fame of these
pictures, and by the valuable museum of antiquities, collected by the
hand of the Marchese; a task of few years, but in point of taste,
abundance, and rarity of specimens, calculated to confer honour upon the
state. In his oil paintings Zelotti could not compete with Caliari,
though he approached him near enough, in his Fall of St. Paul, and his
Fishing of the Apostles, which he executed for the dome of Vicenza, to
merit the honour of having them attributed to the pencil of Caliari.
This city was his chief theatre of action; he remained there during some
time, and initiated one Antonio, a youth called Tognone, in the art,
from whose hand a few works in fresco are pointed out in the city, while
he is honoured by Ridolfi both with a Life and Eulogy. Zelotti was in
Vicenza, both alone and together with Paul; where with the help of one
of his best pupils he established a school, which partook of the taste
of both these masters. I reserve a list of his followers for the
succeeding epoch.
It is here the place to inform our readers, that the various styles,
hitherto described as attaching to the Venetian School, do not
comprehend all that flourished in the state. Ridolfi remarks this in his
preface, and laments, that owing to the conflagrations occurring in the
city, or by the neglect of writers, not a few materials had perished,
that might have added interest to his history. In truth, he was not
merely ignorant of several of the more ancient artists, but in the
period we are describing omitted the names of Jacopo Fallaro and Jacopo
Pisbolica, whom Vasari, in his Life of Sansovino, records with praise,
citing from the hand of the former a picture of San Gio. Colombino, at
the Domenicani delle Zattere; and of the latter, his Ascension of Christ
at Santa Maria Maggiore. He likewise passed over Vitrulio, several of
whose productions are the ornament of Monte Novissimo, bearing his name.
These artists, judging from their manner and other points, are to be
referred to the age of Titian. Ridolfi made mention, and more at length,
of another, who, exactly contemporary with Paul, continued to flourish
many years after him, but always assailed by fortune; and though a good
colourist, being greatly deficient in point of invention and design. His
name was Antonio Foler; and, as a convincing proof of his mediocrity, it
will be sufficient to allude to his Martyrdom of St. Stephen, at the
church of that name; it is nevertheless, one of his best altarpieces. In
small figures, however, he appears to have had merit.
Before concluding the present epoch, it will be proper to mention two
painters; one a foreigner, the other a Venetian, both of whom followed a
style altogether different from such as we have already described. The
artist of Venice is Batista Franco, called Semolei. He has been treated
of in the first volume in several parts, and especially in what relates
to Baroccio, to whom he was master. He pursued his studies in Rome, and
so great was his progress in the art of design, that he was accounted
one of the best imitators of Michel Angiolo. In ornamenting San Gio.
Decollato, a church belonging to the Florentines in Rome, he appears to
have been ambitious of making a parade of his powers, and his style
became somewhat loaded in the attempt. In his other pictures which I
have seen in the dome at Urbino, and in that of Osimo, where he painted
in 1547, in Bologna, and in Venice, I have not met with any thing
similar. He invariably appears to have been an able follower of Michel
Angiolo, and a more powerful colourist than the chief part of the
Florentine artists. It is easier to become acquainted with him in the
States of the Church than in his native city of Venice, whither he seems
to have retired towards the close of his days, since, in 1556, he was
among the artists selected to adorn the library of St. Mark. There he
represented his fable of Actaeon, along with several symbolical
inventions; and a few other of his pictures are exhibited there in
public. He died not long subsequently in the year 1561.
The foreign artist is Giuseppe Porta della Garfagnana, already
mentioned, likewise, under the Roman School, in which he was instructed
by Francesco Salviati, whose surname he assumed. For this reason he is
sometimes entitled in history Salviati the younger. He accompanied his
master to Venice, on the latter being invited by the Patriarch Grimani
to embellish his palace, where he produced his celebrated Psyche, still
to be seen there, near two pictures by the hand of Porta. Francesco,
however, soon left Venice; Vasari adducing as a very sufficient reason,
that it was no place for the residence of artists distinguished for
excellence in design. But the success of Porta, who became established
and died at Venice, clearly proves the contrary. Initiated in a
knowledge of design by Francesco, he wholly retained the character of
the Florentine School, only enlivening it with tints in the Venetian
taste. Nevertheless, he was approved by Titian, and selected along with
Paul and other leading names to paint in the library of St. Mark; he was
continually engaged to work in fresco and in oil, both in public and in
private; and was always distinguished there as one of the most able
masters of his age.[74] Several of his altarpieces remain, and among
others one of the Assumption; a beautiful piece, at the Servi, in
Venice, besides a Christ taken from the Cross, at Murano, displaying
powers of invention wholly original, full of expression, and an air of
majesty not very usual in this school. He repeated the same subject
frequently; and there was a duplicate in the Ducal collection at Modena,
subsequently transferred to Dresden.
Following these artists, the reader must not be surprised to meet with
the name of Jacopo Sansovino, who, as will appear from the index,
derived his surname also from his master. He was much courted in Venice,
owing to his excellence in the art of statuary, as well as in that of an
architect, with which he ornamented public places. Still he failed not
to exercise some influence over that of painting, at least of design; in
which he had been well instructed by Andrea del Sarto, in Florence.
Indeed, as the director of the edifice of St. Mark, numerous artists
were dependent upon him; and it is known, that he received some
commissions for designs in mosaic work, which I do not, however, find
particularized; as well as others, most probably, in tapestry, for the
altar of the sacrament, as it has been conjectured from their style, by
Signor Zanetti. In regard to foreign styles, we must proceed, without
dwelling upon the Cavalier Zuccaro, Passignano, and others already
treated in their respective schools, to make brief mention of Giuseppe
Calimberg, or Calimperg, by birth a German, who flourished a
considerable time at Venice, where he died about 1570. There is the
Battle of Constantine, by his hand, still preserved at the Servi; and
had he always displayed the same taste, I should not scruple to
pronounce him excellent, though somewhat heavy, in the practice of his
art. Subsequent to him appears to have flourished Gio. de Chere
Loranese, who ought to be mentioned, before we proceed to treat of the
sect of mannerists, and of the _Tenebrosi_.[75] Ranking among the
scholars of the best Venetian masters, he produced a history piece for
the grand council hall. Other names of foreign artists are to be looked
for in the Guida: it is my object in this school, as in the rest, to
record only such as are most deserving of commemoration.