The conspiracy of Bellisario Corenzio, Giuseppe Ribera, and Gio.
Battista Caracciolo, called the Neapolitan Triumvirate of Painters, to
monopolize to themselves all valuable commissions, and particularly the
honor of decorating the chapel of St. Januarius, is one of the most
curious passages in the history of art. The following is Lanzi's account
of this disgraceful cabal:
"The three masters whom I have just noticed in successive order,
(Corenzio, Ribera, and Caracciolo) were the authors of the unceasing
persecutions which many of the artists who had come to, or were invited
to Naples, were for several years subjected to. Bellisario had
established a supreme dominion, or rather a tyranny, over the Neapolitan
painters, by calumny and insolence, as well as by his station. He
monopolized all lucrative commissions to himself, and recommended, for
the fulfilment of others, one or other of the numerous and inferior
artists that were dependent on him. The Cav. Massimo Stanziozi,
Santafede, and other artists of talent, if they did not defer to him,
were careful not to offend him, as they knew him to be a man of a
vindictive temper, treacherous, and capable of every violence, and who
was known, through jealousy, to have administered poison to Luigi
Roderigo, the most promising and the most amiable of his scholars.
"Bellisario, in order to maintain himself in his assumed authority,
endeavored to exclude all strangers who painted in fresco rather than in
oil. Annibale Caracci arrived there in 1609, and was engaged to ornament
the churches of Spirito Santo and Gesu Nuovo, for which, as a specimen
of his style, he painted a small picture. The Greek and his adherents
being required to give their opinion on this exquisite production,
declared it to be tasteless, and decided that the painter of it did not
possess talent for large compositions. This divine artist in
consequence took his departure under a burning sun, for Rome, where he
soon afterwards died. But the work in which strangers were the most
opposed was the chapel of S. Gennaro, which a committee had assigned to
the Cav. d'Arpino, as soon as he should finish painting the choir of the
Certosa. Bellisorio, leaguing with Spagnoletto (like himself a fierce
and ungovernable man) and with Caracciolo, who aspired to this
commission, persecuted Cesari in such a manner, that before he had
finished the choir he fled to Monte Cassino, and from thence returned to
Rome. The work was then given to Guido, but after a short time two
unknown persons assaulted the servant of that artist, and at the same
time desired him to inform his master that he must prepare himself for
death, or instantly quit Naples, with which latter mandate Guido
immediately complied. Gessi, the scholar of Guido, was not however
intimidated by this event, but applied for, and obtained the honorable
commission, and came to Naples with two assistants, Gio. Batista
Ruggieri and Lorenzo Menini. But these artists were scarcely arrived,
when they were treacherously invited on board a galley, which
immediately weighed anchor and carried them off, to the great dismay of
their master, who although he made the most diligent inquiries both at
Rome and Naples, could never procure any tidings of them.
"Gessi in consequence also taking his departure, the committee lost all
hope of succeeding in their task, and were in the act of yielding to
the reigning cabal, assigning the fresco work to Corenzio and
Caracciolo, and promising the pictures to Spagnoletto, when suddenly
repenting of their resolution, they effaced all that was painted of the
two frescos, and intrusted the decoration of the chapel entirely to
Domenichino. It ought to be mentioned to the honor of these munificent
persons, that they engaged to pay for every entire figure, 100 ducats,
for each half-figure 50 ducats, and for each head 25 ducats. They took
precautions also against any interruption to the artist, threatening the
Viceroy's high displeasure if he were in any way molested. But this was
only matter of derision to the junta. They began immediately to cry him
down as a cold and insipid painter, and to discredit him with those, the
most numerous class in every place, who see only with the eyes of
others. They harassed him by calumnies, by anonymous letters, by
displacing his pictures, by mixing injurious ingredients with his
colors, and by the most insidious malice they procured some of his
pictures to be sent by the viceroy to the court of Madrid; and these,
when little more than sketched, were taken from his studio and carried
to the court, where Spagnoletto ordered them to be retouched, and,
without giving him time to finish them, hurried them to their
destination. This malicious fraud of his rival, the complaints of the
committee, who always met with some fresh obstacle to the completion of
the work, and the suspicion of some evil design, at last determined
Domenichino to depart secretly to Rome. As soon however as the news of
his flight transpired, he was recalled, and fresh measures taken for his
protection; when he resumed his labors, and decorated the walls and base
of the cupola, and made considerable progress in the painting of his
pictures.
"But before he could finish his task he was interrupted by death,
hastened either by poison, or by the many severe vexations he had
experienced both from his relatives and his adversaries, and the weight
of which was augmented by the arrival of his former enemy Lanfranco.
This artist superceded Zampieri in the painting of the basin of the
chapel; Spagnoletto, in one of his oil pictures; Stanzioni in another;
and each of these artists, excited by emulation, rivaled, if he did not
excel, Domenichino. Caracciolo was dead. Bellisario, from his great age,
took no share in it, and was soon afterwards killed by a fall from a
stage, which he had erected for the purpose of retouching some of his
frescos. Nor did Spagnoletto experience a better fate; for, having
seduced a young girl, and become insupportable even to himself from the
general odium which he experienced, he embarked on board a ship; nor is
it known whither he fled, or how he ended his life, if we may credit the
Neapolitan writers. Palomino, however, states him to have died in Naples
in 1656, aged sixty-seven, though he does not contradict the first part
of our statement. Thus these ambitious men, who by violence or fraud
had influenced and abused the generosity and taste of so many noble
patrons, and to whose treachery and sanguinary vengeance so many
professors of the art had fallen victims, ultimately reaped the merited
fruit of their conduct in a violent death; and an impartial posterity,
in assigning the palm of merit to Domenichino, inculcates the maxim,
that it is a delusive hope to attempt to establish fame and fortune on
the destruction of another's reputation."