observed, that no distinction had yet been made between certain species
of painting, previous to the sixteenth century. The figurist copied
every thing, and availed himself of every thing to adorn his
compositions; landscapes, animals, fruits, flowers, and perspective,
were all employed as accessaries in favour of the leading art; the
execution of which was about as difficult to the great masters as the
throne of Jupiter to Phidias, after having completed the figure of the
god. By degrees, however, they began to separate, and to treat these
parts of painting severally. The Flemish were among the first, who,
pursuing the bent of their genius, selected the respective branches, and
composed pictures, in which, landscape for example, became the principal
object, while the figure in its turn became an accessary. And we may
here remark, with Bellori, that "the best of these artists dipped their
pencil in those fine Venetian colours;" by no means one of the least
boasts of the Venetian School. The Italians, likewise, attended
severally to these branches of the art, and in particular to landscapes.
It was Titian who opened the true path to our landscape painters;
although nearly the whole of his champaign scenery was introduced in aid
of his figures; never the contrary. One of these, consisting of a Holy
Family, was in possession of the Duchess of Massa and Carrara, lately
deceased, who left it as a legacy to the Prince Carlo Albani, of Milan.
It is one of the most beautiful of the kind I ever saw. Titian was
imitated by many Flemish artists; and among the Venetians by Gio. Maria
Verdizzotti, one of his literary friends, who painted under his
direction several landscapes, much esteemed in different collections,
where they are rarely to be seen.
The Bassani produced examples of small pictures of quadrupeds and birds,
which consisting of copies taken from those seen in their histories, are
easily recognized. They are not so numerous, however, as their history
pieces; nor do I recollect having seen specimens of them except in the
Venetian state. In drawing fish, an artist of the name of Genzio or
Gennesio Liberale, a native of Friuli, has been mentioned with praise by
Vasari, and afterwards by Ridolfi.
A taste for grotesque, was introduced into Venice from Rome, by a
citizen of the republic, recorded by me elsewhere as the master of this
kind of art. His name was Morto da Feltro, who, in the company of
Giorgione, employed himself in Venice, though without leaving any traces
of his hand. There are specimens of grotesque, in the Ducal Palace,
painted by Batista Franco, who had likewise beheld ancient examples of
them at Rome. There were others painted for the Patriarch of Aquileja,
his patron, by Giovanni di Udine, mentioned by Vasari under the names of
Manni and Ricamatore; an artist very celebrated in his line, and almost
unique in drawing every kind of birds, quadrupeds, fruits, and flowers.
I have included him in the school of Giorgione; and he is stated more at
length in that of Raffaello; for he remained but little while with his
first master, and in Upper Italy; but longer in Rome, and during some
time in Florence. His pictures of birds, or fruits, executed in oil, are
pointed out in different collections, though, if I mistake not, they are
not all genuine. It is not, indeed, that he produced no specimens in
oil, although it is extremely difficult to discover any that are
certain; nor that he was incapable of drawing larger figures than such
as we see in his satyrs, in his boys, and nymphs, with which he
diversified the little landscapes and the tracery of his grotesques.
Vasari mentions some of his standards, one of which, executed in Udine,
for the Fraternity of Castello, presents in rather large proportions, a
blessed virgin with the divine child, and an angel making her an
offering of the same castle. The original, though much defaced, still
exists, and there is also a copy in the chapel, executed by Pini in
1653. There likewise remains in the archiepiscopal palace, a chamber
containing, among some grotesques, two scriptural histories, drawn in
half-length figures, not so perfect as the ornamental part, but valuable
from their rarity. His other productions, both in Udine and the state,
have been enumerated in a learned letter written by the Ab. Boni, upon
the standard or gonfalone, just described. If we might hazard a
conjecture relative to the school of Giovanni and of Feltro, we should
be inclined to give for a pupil to one of these, Giorgio Bellunese, an
artist, as we are informed by Cesarini, "_very excellent in friezes and
in minute ornaments_," and moreover an able portrait painter. He
flourished at San Vito, a place in the Friuli, about the middle of the
sixteenth century; so that the time, the place, and his employment in
ornamental work, seem equally to favour our opinion.
The art of architectural design received great assistance in Venice
during this period, from the works of Sansovino, Palladio, and other
consummate architects, who gave finished examples of magnificent
edifices; while Daniel Barbaro composed very useful treatises upon
perspective; and it became an attribute of the art to feign colonnades,
galleries, and rich cornices, for those halls in which real architecture
would not admit of them. In this, Cristoforo and Stefano Rosa more
particularly distinguished themselves. They were from Brescia, very
intimate with Titian, and merited the honour of being employed by him,
in his architectural ornaments for several of his pieces. In Brescia, in
Venice, and particularly in the anti-chamber to the library of S. Mark,
we may meet with some of their perspectives, so admirably executed as to
surprise us by their air of majesty, cheating the eye by their relief;
and when beheld in different points of view, always producing a good
effect. Their school continued to flourish during many years, in their
native state; and was subsequently supported by Bona, excellent also in
figures, as well as by other artists. Boschini bestows many
commendations upon it in different parts of his work in verse; and in
particular at p. 225, where he declares, that Brescia was the source of
this art; which applies of course to the Venetian state.
Finally, the art of mosaic work, in stone and coloured glass, at that
time, attained such a degree of perfection in Venice, that Vasari
observed with surprise, "that it would not be possible to effect more
with colours."[76] The church and portico of S. Mark remains an
invaluable museum of the kind; where, commencing with the eleventh
century, we may trace the gradual progress of design belonging to each
age up to the present, as exhibited in many works in mosaic, beginning
from the Greeks, and continued by the Italians. They chiefly consist of
histories from the Old and New Testament, and at the same time furnish
very interesting notices relating to civic and ecclesiastical antiquity.
A portion of the most ancient specimens had long either perished, or
fallen into decay, and it had been resolved to substitute fresh ones in
their place. It is not improbable, that after the year 1400, upon the
revival of painting, a desire prevailed to banish the taste of the
Greeks; and certain it is, that in the mosaics of that age we meet with
the modern antique style, the same as in regard to pictures. It will be
enough to cite the chapel of the _Mascoli_, decorated by Michele Zambono
with histories of the life of the virgin, executed with extraordinary
care, and designed in the best taste of the Vivarini.
The same taste prevailed in the time of Titian; and to this he gave a
renewed spirit, and even furnished several of these artists with
designs. Marco Luciano Rizzo and Vincenzo Bianchini are the first, who,
about 1517, succeeded in a complete reform of the art. To the last is
referred that celebrated Judgment of Solomon, which adorns the portico,
or vestibule. Both these, however, were surpassed by Francesco and
Valerio Zuccati of Treviso, or rather of the Valtelline, sons of the
same Sebastian who initiated Titian in the first rudiments of the art.
Of these, likewise, there appears in the portico a San Marco, among
various prophets and doctors, and with two histories that may be
pronounced the best mosaic works, produced during the age of painting. I
have seen altarpieces for churches, and pictures for private ornament,
in the same taste. The Royal Gallery at Florence possesses a portrait
from life of Cardinal Bembo, worked by Valerio; and a San Girolamo, by
Francesco, is known to have been presented by the republic to the court
of Savoy. Subsequent to these, whom Vasari erroneously calls sometimes
Zuccheri, sometimes Zuccherini, Arminio, a son of Valerio, was in much
repute. Nor did this family only possess the art of colouring stone and
glass with admirable skill; but they understood the principles of
design, more particularly Francesco, who had been a painter before
entering upon mosaic works. The family of Bianchini, and the other
artists then employed at S. Mark, were not equally well instructed; and,
stimulated by feelings of envy, they declared open enmity against the
Zuccati, for having assisted with the brush to supply some parts of the
design to be executed in mosaic; nor did they fail to cry down the
ability of Valerio, to whom it would appear that Titian and his son
afforded succour. It would be tedious here to relate the various
persecutions, litigations, and losses, owing to this quarrel; the
particulars of which were extracted by Zanetti from authentic documents,
and minutely described. Enough, that he concludes with extolling the
Zuccati, together with Vincenzio Bianchini; to whom, as being acquainted
with design, it was sufficient to furnish a rough draught for the
intended work. Others were, for the most part, in want of cartoons, and
complete paintings, in order to model their mosaic works, and even then
they conducted them with skill much inferior to their predecessors. In
this list he computes Domenico, the brother, and Gio. Antonio, the son
of Vincenzio Bianchini, as well as Bartolommeo Bozza, at one time a
pupil, and then an accuser along with the rest, of the Zuccati. In the
time of these were first adopted, and practically applied, the works and
designs of Salviati and of Tintoretto. The names succeeding these, were
Gio. Antonio Marini, a pupil of Bozza, and Lorenzo Ceccato, both
admirable artificers; Luigi Gaetano and Jacopo Pasterini, with Francesco
Turestio, notices of whom are brought up to the year 1618. They worked
after the cartoons of the two Tintoretti, of Palma the younger, of
Maffeo Verona, of Leandro Bassano, of Aliense, of Padovanino, of
Tizianello, besides several others. About the year 1600 commenced a
series of artists less generally known; a list of whose works may be
consulted at the close of that very valuable publication, "_Della
Pittura Veneziana_." These last, however, have confined their labours to
the decoration of new walls, from modern designs; as since 1610, a
decree has been in force against the destruction of ancient mosaic
works, in however rude or Greekish a taste; but in case of impending
destruction, they were to be removed and restored with care, and
afterwards refixed in the same place. By this measure a series of
monuments is preserved to posterity, which, in its kind, is quite unique
in Italy, and the world.
[Footnote 41: It is related by Vasari, that Titian was in the habit of
painting natural objects from the life, without making any previous
design, "a practice adopted for many years by the Venetian painters, by
Giorgione, by Palma, by Pordenone, and others who never visited Rome,
nor studied other specimens of greater perfection than their own." I
know not how far the above writer was acquainted with their method. But
their designs are still extant in various collections; and the Cartoon
of the celebrated S. Agostino, painted by Pordenone in that city, is now
in possession of the Count Chiappini in Piacenza, in good condition.]
[Footnote 42: I made mention elsewhere of P. Federici's supposition, as
being at least probable, that F. Sebastiano was the same person as F.
Marco Pensaben, a Dominican. The year of their birth is certainly the
same. But other dates are too discordant; if, indeed, we are not to
suppose that the whole of what Vasari has written of Sebastiano, in his
life of him, as well as in those of Sanzio and Peruzzi, is merely
fanciful. It is by no means worth our while to draw minute comparisons
between the epochs of these two painters. In 1520, we found Pensaben in
Venice; next at Trevigi, where he remained till July, 1521. Now
Sebastiano, the Venetian, was, at this very period, at Rome. The Car.
Giulio de'Medici had committed to Raffaello the picture of the
_Transfiguration_, which having hardly completed, that artist died on
Good Friday, 1520; and during the same time, as if in competition with
Raffaello, Sebastiano was employed in painting the Resurrection of
Lazarus, for the same Cardinal, which, soon after, was exhibited along
with the Transfiguration, and then sent into France. More still--he
likewise drew the Martyrdom of Santa Agata, for the Cardinal of Aragona;
a piece which, in the time of Vasari, was in possession of the Duke of
Urbino; then in the Palazzo Pitti at Florence, whence it passed into
France. There is the name of _Sebastianus Venetus_, and the year 1520
affixed to it. This artist therefore can, by no means, be confounded
with F. Marco, nor the painting of this last at Trevigi be ascribed to
the former. Such a mistaken opinion has been attributed to me by the
learned P. Federici; (vol. i. p. 120) but on what ground I know not.]
[Footnote 43: We confess our obligations to Sig. Giuseppe Beltramelli,
who informs us, in a work published in 1806, that this painter,
generally supposed from Bergamo, was really a Venetian, being thus
mentioned in a public contract: _M. Laurentius Lottus de Venetiis nunc
habitator Bergomi_. Father Federici, who, on the strength of some
historian, pronounces him of Trevigi, brings forward another document in
which Lotto is called: _D. Laurentii Lotti pictoris, et de presenti
Tarvisii commorantis_. If, therefore, _habitator Bergomi_ does not prove
him a native of Bergamo, will the words _Tarvisii commorantis_ make him
a native of Trevigi? But Father Affo, in one of his earliest pictures,
found him entitled _Tarvisinus_. Who, however, can assure us that it is
in fact the handwriting of Lotto, which he there found written?]
[Footnote 44: Thus called by the oldest writers, though, from his
father's testament, recently brought to light, it appears to be
erroneous. Here his father is entitled, _Angelus de Lodesanis de
Corticellis_, (or in a MS. of the Signori Mottensi of Pordenone _de
Corticelsis Brixiensis_).]
[Footnote 45: It is inserted in a _Transunto_ of MSS. belonging to the
noble Ernesto Mottensi of Pordenone, communicated to me by the P. D.
Michele Turriani Barnabita, extremely skilled in the parchments and
ancient memorials of Friuli.]
[Footnote 46: See his work on Venetian Painting, p. 250.]
[Footnote 47: By means of Sig. Ab. Gei, of Cadore, a young man of the
most promising abilities, I have obtained notice of an artist belonging
to that place, who, from various authorities, is supposed to have been
the instructor of the great Titian. It is certain he flourished towards
the close of the fifteenth century; nor does there exist accounts of any
other artist of Cadore, capable of initiating his countrymen in a
knowledge of the art. Three of his pictures in water colours, in the
usual style of composition at that time, so frequently described, are
yet extant; the first, a fine altarpiece, adorning the parish church at
Selva, in which the titular S. Lorenzo, with others, in an upright
posture, are seen surrounding the throne of the Virgin; a second, of
smaller size, is in the Oratory of Sig. Antonio Zamberlani, in the
parish church of Cadore, where the throne appears encompassed with
cherubs playing upon instruments; the third, placed at San Bartolommeo
of Nabiu, is divided into six compartments; the best, or at least the
most free from harshness of manner of the whole. It is inferior,
however, in design to Jacopo Bellini, though equal, perhaps, in point of
diligence and colouring, and similar in its style. Upon the first he has
inscribed, _Antonius RUBEUS de Cadubrio pinxit_; upon the second, _Opus
Antonii_ RUBEI: but the letter E being defaced, the word looks like
RUBLI; upon the third is found _Antonius Zaudanus_ (da Zoldo) _pinxit_.
Thus if we combine these inscriptions it will appear that this ancient
painter, whom we now place at the head of the artists belonging to that
prolific clime, was Antonio Rossi Cadorino.]
[Footnote 48: See Ridolfi. This picture is now in Dresden, and Italy
abounds with copies. One of these I saw at S. Saverio di Rimini,
inscribed with the name of Titian on the band of the Pharisee, a very
beautiful production, and believed by many to be a duplicate rather than
a copy. Albert was in Italy in 1495 and in 1506. In Venice, one of his
pictures, in the council of the Ten, is cited by Zanetti; it is Jesus
Christ shewn to the people; and an altarpiece is also mentioned by
Sansovino, placed at S. Bartolommeo, commended both by him and by other
writers. (See the Sig. Morelli's Annotations on the _Notizia_, p. 223.)]
[Footnote 49: Opere, tome i. p. 177.]
[Footnote 50: See his Life of Titian.]
[Footnote 51: See Bottari, Notes to Vasari, in the Life of Titian.]
[Footnote 52: See _Idea della Pittura, Edizione Rom._ p. 287.]
[Footnote 53: See Passeri.]
[Footnote 54: On the Arts of Design, Discourse, &c.]
[Footnote 55: He drew his head of San Niccolo a' Frari from a cast of
the Laocoon; and from other models of the antique, that of S. John the
Baptist, and of the Magdalen of Spain. From a Greek basso relievo he
likewise copied the angels of his S. Peter Martyr. The same artist drew
the Cesars, at Mantua, a work very highly commended, and impossible to
have been so well executed without a knowledge of ancient sculpture, of
which there yet exists a fine collection at Mantua. But what he drew
from the antique, he also inspired with nature, the sole method of
profiting by it, when a painter aspires to a higher character than that
of a mere statuary. See Ridolfi, p. 171.]
[Footnote 56: Lamberto Lombardo, of Liege, is the artist whose life was
written in Latin, by his disciple Golzio, a work edited in Bruges in
1565. In his youth he adopted the surname of Suterman, or Susterman, in
the Latin tongue _Suavis_, and having likewise been an excellent
engraver, his signature was sometimes L. L., at others, L. S. The whole
of this account is to be met with in Orlandi, and other books. Yet
Orlandi and the new Guide of Padua, acknowledge another Lamberti, also
surnamed Suster, upon the authority of Sandrart, who mentions him, p.
224. According to Orlandi, this artist was the assistant to Titian and
Tintoret, by whom he is first recorded as Lamberto Suster, and again as
Lamberto Tedesco. The same author mentions a Federigo di Lamberto, whose
name occurs in our first volume, (p. 268), likewise called del Padovano
and _Sustris_, certainly from _Suster_, for which see Vasari and his
annotators. These Lamberti, founded upon the diversity between the Liege
and German names of Susterman and Suster, received upon the authority of
Sandrart, not always very critical, are, I have reason to think, one and
the same artist. For in Venice one Lamberto only is alluded to by
Ridolfi, Boschini, and Zanetti, without a surname, but by the last held
to be the same as Lombardo; and what signifies it, whether he was called
Suster or Susterman, of Germany, or of Liege, in Italy.]
[Footnote 57: He is called by Vasari, Zanetti, and Guarienti, Bazzacco
and Brazzacco da Castelfranco, and Guarienti makes him a scholar of
Badile.]
[Footnote 58: They consist only of a few pages relating to the painters
of Castelfranco. I cannot explain why Padre Federici (Pref. p. 17)
supposes that I should have announced this as the MS. Melchiori,
although Sig. Trevisani may have drawn various notices from that
quarter.]
[Footnote 59: Padre Coronelli, in his Travels in England, (part i. p.
66), ascribes this picture to Paul Veronese, a mistake that is cleared
up by the tenor of the contract, preserved in the archives of San
Liberale. He adds that the picture contained a number of naked figures,
to which draperies were afterwards adapted by another hand--an assertion
wholly groundless.]
[Footnote 60: In a MS. by a contemporary author cited in the new Guide
of Padua, he is called Domenico Veneziano, educated by Julio
Campagnola.]
[Footnote 61: Thus stated in the _Lettere Pittoriche_, vol. i. p. 248.
Recent writers of Friuli make him a native of Udine, a modern
supposition, inasmuch as Grassi, a very diligent correspondent of
Vasari, would hardly have been silent upon such a name. It took its
rise, most likely, from the existence of a noble family of the same
surname, in Udine, and from three of the artist's pictures having been
discovered in the same place, one with the date 1595. Yet none are to be
seen at Casa Frangipane, a circumstance very unusual in regard to
excellent artists. We must look, therefore, for other proofs before we
can pronounce him a native of Udine, and before we can assent to the
conjecture of Rinaldis, who would admit two artists of the name of
Niccolo Frangipane, the one a painter by profession, and the other a
dilettante; and yet contemporaries, as appears from the authority of the
dates of the pictures, already referred to.]
[Footnote 62: This fact cannot easily be refuted, in the manner
attempted by Zaist, in his "Historical Notices of the Cremonese
Painters," with true party zeal, p. 162. (See the New Guide of Milan, p.
139.)]
[Footnote 63: To these the name of _Francesco da Milano_ has recently
been added, on the strength of an altarpiece, quite _Titianesque_,
exhibited with his name in the parish church of Soligo, to which is
added the date of 1540:--time may probably clear up the mystery of
this.]
[Footnote 64: He flourished several years subsequent, as appears from
the _New Milan Guide_, with MS. corrections, by Signor Bianconi, of
which the Cavalier Lazara has a copy. He there remarks that he had seen
in the greater monastery, now suppressed, belonging to the nuns of San
Maurizio, other paintings by Piazza; as Washing the Disciples' feet, in
the Refectory, and the Multiplication of Loaves, upon canvass. Also
within the interior church, among other scriptural stories in fresco, is
found, the Adoration of the Magi, the Marriage of Cana, and the Baptism
of Christ, bearing the date of 1556.]
[Footnote 65: Zanetti, p. 147. See also Ridolfi, parte ii. p. 10, where
he informs us that Tintoret, in the maturity of his powers, being
employed in painting for the church of La Trinita, Adam and Eve seduced
by the Serpent, and the Death of Abel, "designed the figures from
nature, placing over them a thin veil. To which figures he added a
peculiar grace of contours, which he acquired from studying relievi."]
[Footnote 66: This date is pointed out by Boschini, and corresponds with
the fortieth year of the artist, who, on the authority of Melchiori,
made a noble copy of Giorgione's San Liberale, at Castelfranco, besides
producing several original works in his native place and the vicinity.
Specimens of his labours exist in water colours, taken from pictures in
fresco executed by Paolo and by Zelotti, in different palaces belonging
to Venetian noblemen. The cavalier Liberi, his Venetian master, aware of
his singular talent for such species of painting, often employed him, to
the no small advantage both of his art and his fortune.]