entire age to become wholly corrupt, so among the mannerists, who mark
the character of this epoch, there nourished some good imitators of
Titian, of Paul Veronese, and of Raffaello himself, both in the capital
and its adjacent provinces. In the last, indeed, they were more
numerous, because the artists of the terra firma did not so greatly
abound in those masterpieces of the art, of which the Venetians
themselves were enabled so easily to become the plagiarists, to the
serious deterioration of the art. In the first rank then of supporters
of the solid style, I must mention Giovan Contarino, who flourished in
the time of Palma, a companion of Malombra, and an exact imitator of
Titian's method. He did not always succeed in improving and embellishing
the nature which he copied, though, at the same time, he displayed a
soundness of taste that was truly that of Titian. He shewed exquisite
skill in his foreshortening from above (di sotto in su), and in the
church of San Francesco di Paola, he exhibited a Resurrection in the
entablature, or ceiling, along with other mysteries and figures, so
beautifully coloured, so distinct, and so finely expressed, as to be
considered some of the most perfect of which the city can boast. He
employed himself much for collections, even extending to Germany, by
which he obtained from the Emperor Rodolph II., the collar of the order
of cavaliers. His favourite subjects were such as he drew from
mythology, being possessed of sufficient learning to treat them with
classic propriety, and of these, in the Barbarigo collection, I saw a
considerable number. He was so extremely accurate in his portraits, that
on sending home one which he had taken of Marco Dolce, his dogs, the
moment it appeared, began to fawn upon it, mistaking it for their
master. His fame was nevertheless eclipsed in portrait by Tiberio
Tinelli, at first his scholar, afterwards an imitator of Leandro
Bassano, and raised to the rank of cavalier by the King of France.
Pietro da Cortona, on beholding one of his portraits, exclaimed that
Tiberio had not merely infused into it the whole soul of the original,
but added his own also. I have met with several at Rome, bearing a very
high price, and still more are to be seen in the Venetian state.
Sometimes they are left unfinished, at the desire of the parties for
whom they were taken, in order to diminish their price; sometimes they
are thrown into an historical character; and a Venetian Lord, for
instance, will appear as Marc Antony--his wife, as Cleopatra. Many of
this artist's pieces for private ornament, of the portrait size, are
very highly estimated: they are alternately borrowed from scripture and
from fable. Such is that of his _Iris_, belonging to the Conti
Vicentini, at Vicenza, simple in point of composition, very natural and
pleasing; and what is still more surprising, quite original. He did not
display equal facility in more copious compositions, requiring a larger
portion of time and leisure than he ever enjoyed, in order to leave
behind him a work which could give him full satisfaction.
Succeeding him, appears Girolamo Forabosco, a distinguished portrait
painter, of Venetian origin according to Orlandi, though believed by the
Paduans, to have been one of their fellow citizens. Two of the most
celebrated schools contended for the honour of adding him to their
respective ranks. He flourished in the time of Boschini, who bestowed
upon him and Liberi the precedency over all other Venetians of the age.
In order better to commend him in the spirit of his age, he puns upon
his name, declaring Forabosco one of those who emerged _fuor del bosco_,
or out of the wood, into full day; in other words that he rose out of
obscurity into considerable note. We are to forgive similar conceits
upon the part of Boschini, in consideration of the notices he handed
down to us; and we may add likewise with Zanetti, that Forabosco
possessed a noble and penetrating genius; a genius delighting the
professed artist by its display of judgment; arresting the observer by
its beauty; and which unites sweetness with refinement, beauty with
force, studious in every part, but particularly in the airs of its
heads, that appear endued with life. To form an adequate idea of these,
we ought not so much to direct our inquiries to churches, which rarely
boast any of his altarpieces, as to those collections which preserve his
portraits; his half-length figures of saints, and his little history
pieces, of which three are recorded in the catalogue of the Dresden
gallery. Resembling Forabosco in diligence and delicacy of finish,
though inferior to him in genius, we may mention his pupil Pietro
Bellotti. By some he is reproached for his minuteness and dryness of
style, which leads him to distinguish almost every hair, though always
an exact and faithful transcriber of nature. Boschini considers him in
the light of a prodigy, for having succeeded in uniting to so much
diligence, a most exquisite delicacy in his tints, to a degree never
before known. His compositions, more particularly his portraits and his
caricatures, which are to be met with in galleries, are held in much
esteem. Several I have seen in different places, even out of the limits
of the state; two of them very excellent--portraits of an old man and an
old woman, in possession of the Cavalier Melzi, at Milan, and such as
are not to be exceeded by the most polished and exquisite specimens of
Flemish art.
At the same period flourished the Cavalier Carlo Ridolfi, a native of
Vicenza, but who received his education and distinguished himself at
Venice. His natural good sense led him to shun the peculiar style of his
times, no less in writing than in painting; and we may observe the same
character that is displayed in his "Lives of the Venetian Painters,"
written with equal fidelity and judgment, preserved also in his
pictures. Thus his _Vizitazione_, painted for the church of the
Ognissanti at Venice, has been much extolled; a piece that exhibits some
novelty in the adaptation of the colours; a fine relief, and exactness
in every part. Other specimens of him are to be met with in public
places, both in Venice and throughout the state; but a great part of his
productions were for private persons, consisting of portraits,
half-length figures, and historical pieces. Ridolfi imbibed excellent
principles of the art from Aliense, which he afterwards improved in
Vicenza and Verona, by copying the best models he could find, and
attending to perspective, to the belles lettres, and to other pursuits
best calculated to form a learned artist. Such he likewise appears in
the two volumes of his "Lives," which are at present extremely rare, and
deserving of republication, either with the plates which I heard were
still in existence at Bassano, or without them, since it is no very
serious loss after all to remain ignorant of the features of celebrated
men, provided we become acquainted with their virtues. Upon a comparison
of Ridolfi's style of writing with that of Boschini, we might suppose
that these authors flourished at two different epochs, though they were
very nearly contemporary. Bayle's observation, indeed, may be considered
correct, as applied to them; that there exists a certain mental, as well
as physical epidemic; and as, in the last, every individual is not
seized with the disorder, so, in the former, good sense, as evinced in
thinking and in writing, does not become altogether extinct. Thus the
Cav. Carlo, as I before noticed, was not only a good writer, but one of
the best biographers of artists we have. Not that he was wholly exempt
from every kind of grammatical error, any more than Baldinucci himself,
though one of the della Crusca academicians; but he knew how to avoid
errors of judgment, into which others fell; such as relating old
stories, fit only to amuse children when they first begin to draw eyes
and ears; making inquisition into the life and manners of every artist,
and wasting time in long preambles, episodes, and moral reflections,
quite out of place. On the contrary he is precise, rapid, and eager to
afford fresh information for his readers in a small space, with the
exception of quoting largely sometimes from the poets. His pictorial
maxims are just; his complaints against Vasari always in a moderate
tone, and his descriptions of paintings and of grand compositions very
exact, and displaying great knowledge, both of mythology and history. He
concludes the work with an account of his life, in which he complains of
the envy of rivals, and the ignorance of the great, too often combining
together to trample upon real merit. His epitaph, as given by Sansovino,
a contemporary writer, and afterwards by Zanetti, refers the year of his
decease to 1658. Boschini, on the contrary, in his Carta, page 509,
speaks of him as one of the living authors in 1660, in which year his
book was given to the world. I am inclined to think that those verses in
which Ridolfi is commended, were the production of Boschini while the
former was still living, and that after his death he neglected to
retouch them.
Two others, among the best of these imitators of a more solid taste, are
Vecchia and Loth, fully entitled as much as the rest to the rank they
hold. Pietro Vecchia sprung from the school of Padovanino, but he did
acquire altogether his style, most probably because Padovanino, like the
Caracci, gave an individual direction to the talents of his pupils, in
the path he judged best adapted to their success. The genius of Vecchia
was not at all calculated for lighter subjects. He had imbibed from his
master an admiration of the ancients, as well as the art of imitating
them; and with these principles he arrived at such a degree of
excellence, that several of his pictures pass for those of Giorgione, of
Licini, and even of Titian. It is true, that by dint of copying and
exactly imitating old paintings, much darkened by time, he contracted
the habit of colouring with considerable dulness of lights, affording an
example for every young artist, that he should learn to tinge with
lively colours, previous to taking copies of similar pictures. For
though he, indeed, acquired the colouring of the ancients, he added
neither much variety nor much choice of countenances; and he still
remained a naturalist, limited in his ideas, and more inclined towards
the burlesque than the serious. Some of his best productions consist of
pictures for private ornament; of youths armed, or equipped and
ornamented with plumes, in the manner of Giorgione, though not without
some degree of caricature. One of these, an astrologer telling their
fortune to some soldiers, is in possession of the senator Rezzonico at
Rome, altogether of so beautiful a character that Giordano painted a
companion to it; a little picture quite in the same taste. But although
his humourous pieces please us in some, they disgust us in many of his
other subjects, and more particularly in the Passion of our Saviour; a
sacred mystery, in which the spectator ought never to be presented with
cause for mirth. But Vecchia seemed to forget this, and introduces, like
Callot, certain caricatures among his sacred pieces, of which specimens
are to be seen in the church of Ognissanti at Venice; in possession of
the Conti Bevilacqua at Verona, and in other places. In other points,
with a style rather strong and loaded with shade than pleasing, he
shewed himself an excellent artist, both in his naked parts and his
draperies; which he designed and coloured at the same time in the
academies. His fleshes are dark red, his handling easy, his colour thick
and heavy, the effects of his light new and studied, and his whole taste
so far from any degree of mannerism, and of such a composition, that to
any one unversed in pictorial history, he would appear to have
flourished at least two ages before his real time. Melchiori bestows
particular commendation upon him for his talents in restoring old
pictures; and conjectures that he, in this way, acquired the appellation
of Vecchia, his family name being, as we have noted in the index, that
of _Muttoni_. He instructed several pupils in the art, none of whom
pursued their master's career. Agostino Litterini, and Bartolommeo his
son, were among these, both artists well known in Venice and the
islands, and both distinguished for clearness and boldness of style,
though the latter surpassed his father in this way. A specimen of his
altarpieces at San Paterniano, displays an imitator of Titian, and of
the better age. Melchiori likewise gives the reputation of an excellent
artist to his daughter Caterina, though commendations of this sort ought
always to be understood in reference to the time in which the artists
flourished. The same reasoning might apply also to politics. The title
of your Excellency used once to be applied to minor sovereigns, but it
has since become applicable also to the great officers and ministers of
state.
Gian Carlo Loth, an artist from Monaco, resided during a long period,
and subsequently died, at Venice, in the year 1698, aged sixty-six
years, as we find written in his epitaph. Both Orlandi and Zanetti are
mistaken in giving him as a scholar to Caravaggio, who died before Carlo
was born. It is probable, however, that he acquired his strong and
loaded manner of composition, and his exact representation of nature
without ennobling it, from the study of Caravaggio's pictures. And if he
were really the pupil, as is supposed, of Liberi, he failed to make
himself master of the lively and ideal character of that school; nor did
he perhaps derive any thing from it, but a certain rapidity of hand, and
an elevation of manner that distinguished him from the naturalists of
his time. He took a rank among the first four painters of his age, all
of whom bore the name of Carlo, as I have elsewhere observed. He was
much employed in Germany for the emperor Leopold I., as well as in Italy
for the churches, and still more for different collections. Many cabinet
pictures from his hand are to be met with in every state, in the style
of Caravaggio and Guercino, with histories; of which kind is the dead
Abel, so much praised in the royal gallery at Florence. One in the best
preservation I have seen, is to be found at Milan; a picture of Lot
inebriated, in the Trivulzi palace, celebrated among men of taste as a
museum of antiquities; newly arranged by the present young and
accomplished marquis, and forming a collection not unworthy of a royal
house. Daniele Seiter, a fine colourist, to whom we shall again allude,
was instructed in the art by Loth, during a period of twelve years. He
was distinguished both in Rome and at Turin; and was succeeded by
Ambrogio Bono, one of the best disciples formed by the same master in
Venice, where he left a variety of works, all executed in the taste he
had so early imbibed.
Other artists, about the same period, flourished in Venice, who by dint
of imitating the most approved models, and also through their own
talents, obtained easy access into the most choice collections. Jean
Lys, from Oldenburg, came early among these, bearing along with him the
style of Golzio. But, on beholding the Venetian and Roman schools, he
adopted an exceedingly graceful style, partaking of the Italian in its
design, and of the Flemish in its tints. He chiefly produced figures
upon a middle scale, such as his Prodigal Son, in the royal museum at
Florence; or of smaller dimensions, as in his various little pictures of
village sports and combats, with similar subjects, in the Flemish mode
of composition. Yet he produced a few pictures for churches, like his
St. Peter, in the act of resuscitating Tabitha, at the Filippini, in
Fano; and his more celebrated San Girolamo, at the Theatini, in Venice,
where he died. Valentino le Febre, from Brussels, is a name omitted by
Orlandi; while his very numerous engravings of Paul Veronese, and of the
best Venetian artists, are ascribed by him to another artist of the same
name. He painted little; and always pursued the track of Paul Veronese,
of whom he was one of the most successful imitators and copyists known.
His countenances bear no stamp of a foreign origin, and his colours none
of the bad character of his age; while his touches are always strong,
without offending our taste. His smaller pieces are full of research and
finish; though he has less merit upon a larger scale, and is
occasionally wanting in point of composition. We meet with another
distinguished imitator of Paul, in Sebastiano Bombelli, from Udine;
Guercino's scholar in the outset, and subsequently a fine copyist of the
best works of Paul Veronese, which are scarcely to be distinguished from
the copies he took; until he gave up the more inventive branches of the
art, and devoted his attention to portraits. Here he restored the lost
wonders of a former age; his portraits being remarkable for strong
likeness, vivacity, and truth of colouring, both in the drapery and the
fleshes. In his painting there is a happy union of the Venetian and the
Bolognese manner; and in some specimens of his portraits that I have
seen, he seems to have preferred the delicacy of Guido to the vigour of
his own master. He was esteemed also beyond Italy; he was employed by
the archduke Joseph at Inspruck; took the portraits of several German
electors; of the King of Denmark, and of the emperor Leopold I., by whom
he was largely honoured and rewarded. It is a matter of regret, that,
owing to a peculiar varnish of pitch and gum,[78] which at the time
produced a good effect, a great portion of his pictures should have
become obscured; and that many by the more ancient masters, which he
wished to restore, should have been altogether blemished or destroyed
like his own. Among the imitators of Titian, of Tintoretto, and of Paul,
one Giacomo Barri is likewise mentioned by Melchiori; though he is the
sole authority we have upon the point. It is now easy to meet with his
engravings in aqua fortis, but not with his pictures. He was also the
author of a little work entitled by him _Viaggio Pittoresco d'Italia_,
which has become somewhat rare, owing, I imagine, to its small
dimensions, and to the researches made after it by those who preserve a
series of pictorial works; for the rest, his authority is of a middling
character.
In the changes which produced such an alteration in the state of
painting at Venice, several cities of the provinces also in some measure
partook, but in others many eminent geniuses arose, capable of resisting
the moral contagion that invaded the capital, and of barring its
entrance into their native provinces. The school of the Friuli, after
the death of Pomponio Amalteo and Sebastiano Seccante, owing to the
mediocrity of Sebastian's followers, or of the younger branches of his
family, had declined, as we before stated, from its original splendour.
It numbered, indeed, other pupils by different masters; limited in point
of invention, dry in design, and somewhat hard in their colouring. None
appeared capable of restoring the art, and succeeded only in furnishing
the city with works reasonably well executed, more or less, and borrowed
from familiar models. To this class belong Vincenzo Lugaro, mentioned by
Ridolfi for his altarpiece of San Antonio, at the Grazie in Udine;
Giulio Brunelleschi, whose _Nunziata_ in one of the Fraternities
presents a good imitation of the style of Pellegrino; and Fulvio
Griffoni, who received a commission from the city to produce a picture
of the Miracle of the Manna, to be placed in the public palace near the
Supper of Amalteo. Add to these Andrea Petreolo, who ornamented the
panels of the organ, in the dome of his native town of Venzone, as well
on the interior, where, in a very beautiful manner, he exhibited the
histories of San Geronimo and San Eustachio, as on the outside, where,
surrounded with fine architecture, he represented the Parable of the
wise and foolish Virgins. Without dwelling upon the names of Lorio and
Brugno, of whom there remain but few works, which obtained little
celebrity, we shall newly record the name of Eugenio Pini, the last it
may be said of those artists who but slightly addicted themselves to
foreign methods. He flourished about the middle of the seventeenth
century, was frequently employed at Udine, and in his own state;
extremely diligent and skilled in every office of a painter, if we
except, perhaps, his want of a more perfect harmony of tints. The Repose
of Egypt, in the dome of Palma, and his San Antonio in that of Gemona,
are pronounced by the Abbate Boni among his noblest productions.
During the period the latter flourished at Udine, Antonio Carnio, a
native of a town of Portogruaro, came to establish himself in the city.
Instructed in the art by his own father, a very able artist, he
subsequently appears, as far as we may judge from his style, to have
studied the works of Paul Veronese and Tintoretto. Next to Pordenone,
the Friuli perhaps never produced a finer genius; equally original in
all the branches of historic painting, bold in his design, happy in his
colouring, more particularly of his fleshes; expressive in every variety
of passion; and all these comprehended within the limits of a grand
naturalist, though he frequently became a mannerist, in order to
expedite his works. Several of his best productions are, at this period,
lost to Udine, owing to the fault of the artist who retouched them; and
among the most studied and the best preserved, there still remains his
San Tommaso di Villanuova, adorning an altar of Santa Lucia. He produced
likewise several histories for private ornament, half-length figures,
portraits and heads in caricature, for which he displayed a peculiar
talent, and which still exist at Udine. Both the city and province are
well supplied with his pieces, few of which, however, are to be found
coloured with strength of handling or very highly finished. He was never
without numerous commissions, even though confining his talents to the
Friuli; but either from want of prudence, or some other reason, he
nevertheless died in penury near Portogruaro. A few of his pictures in
that place are still pointed out; but those seen at San Francesco, among
which are the Washing the Disciples' Feet, and our Lord's Last Supper,
said to have been executed by him in 1604, either bear a false date, or
are rather to be attributed to his father. For, at that period, Antonio
could not have produced them, since he was still alive in the year 1680;
and on this point we ought to admit the authority of Pavona, at one time
his pupil, from whom Guarienti received his notices of Carnio, which he
inserted in the Abecedario. This artist must not be confounded with
another Carnio, named Giacomo, who flourished posterior to him, and was
much inferior to Antonio in point of merit.
Sebastiano Bombelli was born at Udine, as I just observed, though he
studied and resided at other places. He left no specimens of his art in
the Friuli, if we except a few portraits and pieces for private
ornament, along with some heads or busts of saints; while his altarpiece
of the Redeemer upon the Cross, between some saints, in the parochial
church of Tricesimo, is considered a very rare piece. He had a brother
of the name of Raphael, whose labours were more abundant, but the whole
of them, together with his name, were confined within the limits of the
Friuli.
While the art thus declined in these parts of the Venetian dominions, it
appeared equally to revive in others; from whence it arose, that though
greatly diminished in the capital, the glory of the state did not become
wholly extinct. The city of Verona was its greatest support; for in
addition to having given birth to Ridolfi, to Turchi, and Ottoni, all of
whom did honour to their country, it produced likewise Dario Varotari,
who having established himself at Padua, laid the foundation of a very
flourishing school. He exercised his talents under Paul Veronese, at
Verona, to whom he has occasionally some resemblance, though his taste
appears to have been chiefly formed upon other models. His design is
very chaste, by no means an uncommon acquisition among the Veronese;
though he shews some traces of timidity in the method of some of those
pupils of the _quattro-centisti_,[79] who, whilst they draw their
contours fuller than those of their masters, appear as if they were
afraid in every line of departing too far from the models before them;
and this he has exemplified in the pictures of San Egidio at Padua. In
others, conducted at a more mature age, he seems to have aspired at
imitating more modern artists, sometimes Paul Veronese, and sometimes
Titian himself in point of design, particularly in the airs of the
heads; although his colours, however true and harmonious, can boast
neither the Venetian strength nor beauty. Dario painted in Venice, at
Padua, and in the Polesine; yet he produced little in reference to the
age in which he flourished. He educated several pupils, among whom was
Gio. Batista Bissoni, whose life has been given us by Ridolfi. This last
was also a scholar of Apollodoro, named di Porcia, a portrait painter of
much celebrity, and the style which he formed for himself is exactly
that of a good painter of portraits, with which he is fond of filling
his pictures, clothing them in the manner of his time. We may observe
this in his Miracles of San Domenico, placed in the church belonging to
his order, drawn upon a large scale, as well as in other pieces,
scattered throughout the city in almost every street.
We must not omit the name of his daughter, Chiara Dario, a lady extolled
by Ridolfi for the beauty of her portraits, and fully deserving of the
honour conferred upon her by the grand dukes of Tuscany, who placed one
of herself in their noble series of painters, where it is still to be
seen. Boschini seems to be of opinion that she gave public instructions
in the same manner as the fair Sirani of Bologna; and that she initiated
in the art Caterina Taraboti and Lucia Scaligeri, a niece of
Bartolommeo. Yet the passage referring to this, (p. 526) in the Venetian
poet, is somewhat ambiguous, and he perhaps only meant to assert that
these two young women pursued the same career. But the chief honour and
crown of Dario's reputation, was his own son and pupil, named
Alessandro, who, though left an orphan at an early age, shortly after
set out for Venice, where he soon began to distinguish himself. He there
received the name of Padovanino, which he retained at an advanced age,
and by which he is now generally known.