Albani opened an academy for several years at Rome, and at Bologna,

invariably a competitor of Guido, both in his magisterial and his

professional capacity.[32] Hence arose those strictures upon his style

which Guido's disciples affected to despise as loose and effeminate,

wanting elegance in the virile forms, while those of the boys were all of

the same proportion, and his heads of the Holy Family, and of saints had

always one idea. Similar accusations, advanced likewise against Pietro

Perugino, are not calculated to depress so great an artist's merit, so much

as the esteem of Annibal, his own writings, and his pupils, serve to raise

him in our regard. It is matter of historical fact that Annibal, seized

with admiration of some of his small pictures, and among others a

bacchante, seen at a fountain pouring out wine, purchased it, and declared

that he had not even paid for the drops of water so exquisitely coloured by

the wine. Of his writings there remain only a few fragments, preserved by

Malvasia, not indeed reduced to method, a task that ought to devolve on

some other pen, but highly valuable from the information and maxims which

they contain. Among his pupils Sacchi and Cignani are in themselves

sufficient to reflect credit upon their master, the first of whom sustained

the art at Rome, the other at Bologna, and to whose efforts it was owing

that its reputation so long continued in both those schools. There,

moreover, we recounted the names of Speranza, and Mola, of Lugano, his

noble disciples; and to these, besides Cignani, to whom we refer elsewhere,

we can add a considerable number. Gio. Batista Mola, a Frenchman, long

continued with Albano, and, according to Boschini, resided with the other

Mola at Venice, where they copied a vast work of Paul Veronese for Cardinal

Bichi. He displayed surprising skill in drawing rural scenes and trees, and

being preferred by many in this branch to his master, he often added

landscape to his master's figures, and occasionally adapted figures to his

own landscape, very beautiful, in Albani's style, but without his softness.

In the excellent collection of the Marchesi Rinuccini, at Florence, is a

picture of the Repose in Egypt, by the same hand. Two other foreign pupils

also did him credit; Antonio Catalani, called Il Romano, and Girolamo

Bonini, also from his native place, entitled l'Anconitano, who, in

imitating Albani, was equalled by few, and who enjoyed his perfect

confidence and friendship. Settling at Bologna, they there employed

themselves with reputation in some elegant works, and left several

histories in fresco in the public palace. In this last branch, Pierantonio

Torri also distinguished himself, called, in Guarienti's lexicon, Antonio,

dropping Pietro on the authority of the Passagiere disingannato; and

Torrigli, in the Guide of Venice, where he painted the architectural parts

in the church of S. Giuseppe for the figures of Ricchi. Filippo Menzani is

known only as the attached disciple and faithful copyist of his master.

Gio. Batista Galli, and Bartolommeo Morelli, the former called from his

birth-place, Bibiena, the latter Pianoro, were similarly employed in taking

copies from him; though the second applied to it with extreme reluctance,

on account of Albani being "too highly finished, diligent, and laborious,

for the task of copying." Both these artists are commended by the

continuator of Malvasia. Bibiena, though he died early, conducted works

that might be ascribed to Albani, in particular the Ascension at the

Certosa, and his St. Andrew at the Servi in Bologna. Pianoro succeeded

admirably well in his frescos, more especially in the chapel of Casa Pepoli

at S. Bartolommeo di Porta, decorated by him throughout in such exquisite

taste, that, were history silent, it would be said to have been designed

and coloured by Albani's own hand.

Footnote 32: This rivalship is questioned in many places by

Malvasia, and denied by Orlandi, who in the article

Francesco Albano, designates him as the sworn friend of

Guido Reni, in close union with whom he prosecuted their

delightful art; but this can only apply to their early

years.

By some, Guido Reni is esteemed the great genius of the school; nor did any

other single artist excite so much jealousy in the Caracci. Lodovico was

unable to disguise it; and from a pupil he made him his rival, and in order

to humble him, bestowed his favour on Guercino, an artist in quite another

taste. Annibal too, after some years, on seeing him at Rome, blamed Albani

for inviting him thither; and, in order to depress him, he put Domenichino

in opposition to him. Even from the age of twenty, when he left the school

of Calvart, the Caracci discovered in him a rare genius for the art, so

elevated and ambitious of distinction, that he aspired to something great

and novel from the outset of his career. Some of his early efforts are to

be seen in the Bonfigliuoli palace, and in other choice collections,

displaying a variety of manner. He devoted much study to Albert Durer, he

imitated the Caracci, studied the forms of Cesi, and, like Passerotti,

aimed at giving strong relief and accuracy to the drawing of the muscles.

In some instances he followed Caravaggio, and in the aforesaid palace is a

figure of a sibyl, very beautiful in point of features, but greatly

overlaid with depth of shade. The style he adopted arose particularly from

an observation on that of Caravaggio one day incidentally made by Annibal

Caracci, that to this manner there might be opposed one wholly contrary; in

place of a confined and declining light, to exhibit one more full and

vivid; to substitute the tender for the bold, to oppose clear outlines to

his indistinct ones, and to introduce for his low and common figures those

of a more select and beautiful kind.

These words made a much deeper impression on the mind of Guido than Annibal

was aware of; nor was it long before he wholly applied himself to the style

thus indicated to him. Sweetness was his great object; he sought it equally

in design, in the touch of his pencil, and in colouring; from that time he

began to make use of white lead, a colour avoided by Lodovico, and at the

same time predicted the durability of his tints, such as they have proved.

His fellow pupils were indignant at his presuming to depart from the

Caracci's method, and returning to the feeble undecided manner of the past

century. Nor did he pretend to be indifferent to their remarks and advice.

He still preserved that strength of style, so much aimed at by his school,

while he softened it with more than its usual delicacy; and by degrees

proceeding in the same direction, he, in a few years, attained to the

degree of delicacy he had proposed. For this reason I have observed that in

Bologna, more than elsewhere, his first is distinguished from his second

manner, and it is made a question which of the two is preferable. Nor do

all agree with Malvasia, who pronounced his former the most pleasing, his

latter manner the most studied.

In these variations, however, he never lost sight of that exquisite ease

which so much attracts us in his works. He was more particularly attentive

to the correct form of beauty, especially in his youthful heads. Here, in

the opinion of Mengs, he surpassed all others, and, according to Passeri's

expression, he drew faces of Paradise. In these Rome abounds more richly

than Bologna itself. The Fortune in the capitol; the Aurora, belonging to

the Rospigliosi; the Helen to the Spada; the Herodias to the Corsini; the

Magdalen to the Barberini, with other subjects in possession of several

princes, are regarded as the wonders of Guido's art. This power of beauty

was, in the words of Albano, his most bitter and constant rival, the gift

of nature; though the whole was the result of his own intense study of

natural beauty, and of Raffaello, and of the ancient statues, medals, and

cameos. He declared that the Medicean Venus and the Niobe were his most

favourite models; and it is seldom we do not recognize in his paintings

either Niobe herself, or one of her children, though diversified in a

variety of manner with such exquisite skill, as in no way to appear

borrowed. In the same way did Guido derive advantage from Raffaello,

Coreggio, Parmigianino, and from his beloved Paul Veronese; from all of

whom he selected innumerable beauties, but with such happy freedom of hand

as to excite the envy of the Caracci. And, in truth, this artist aimed less

at copying beautiful countenances, than at forming for himself a certain

general and abstract idea of beauty, as we know was done by the Greeks, and

this he modulated and animated in his own style. I find mention, that being

interrogated by one of his pupils, _in what part of heaven, in what mould_

existed those wondrous features which he only drew, he pointed to the casts

of the antique heads just alluded to, adding, "You too may gather from such

examples beauties similar to those in my pictures, if your skill be equal

to the task." I find, moreover, that he took for model of one of his

Magdalens, the extremely vulgar head of a colour-grinder; but under Guido's

hand every defect disappeared, each part became graceful, the whole a

miracle. Thus too in his naked figures he reduced them, whatever they were,

to a perfect form, more especially in the hands and feet, in which he is

singular, and the same in his draperies, which he often drew from the

prints of Albert Durer, enriching them, freed from their dryness, with

those flowing folds or that grandeur of disposition best adapted to the

subject. To portraits themselves, while he preserved the forms and age of

the originals, he gave a certain air of novelty and grace, such as we see

in that of Sixtus V., placed in the Galli palace at Osimo, or in that

wonderful one of Cardinal Spada, in possession of some of his descendants

at Rome. There is no one action, position, or expression at all injurious

to his figures; the passions of grief, terror, sorrow, are all combined

with the expression of beauty; he turns them every way as he lists, he

changes them into every attitude, always equally pleasing, and every one

equally entitled to the eulogy of displaying in every action, and in every

step, the beauty which secretly animates and accompanies it.[33]

Footnote 33:

Illam quidquid agat, quoquo vestigia vertat,

Componit furtim, subsequiturque decor.--TIBUL.

What most surprises us is the variety which he infuses into this beauty,

resulting no less from his richness of imagination than from his studies.

Still continuing to design in the academy up to the close of his career, he

practised his invention how best to vary his idea of the beautiful, so as

to free it from all monotony and satiety. He was fond of depicting his

countenances with upraised looks, and used to say that he had a hundred

different modes of thus representing them. He displayed equal variety in

his draperies, though invariably preferring to draw the folds ample, easy,

natural, and with clear meaning, as to their origin, progress, and

disposition. Nor did he throw less diversity into the ornaments of his

youthful heads, disposing the tresses, whether loose, bound, or left in

artful confusion, always different, and sometimes casting over them a veil,

fillet, or turban, so as to produce some fresh display of grace. Nor were

his heads of old men inferior in this respect, displaying even the

inequality of the skin, the flow of the beard, with the hair turned as we

see on every side, and animating the features with a few bold, decided

touches, and few lights, so as to give great effect at a distance,

altogether with a surprising degree of nature; specimens of which are seen

at the Pitti palace, the Barberina and Albana galleries; and yet among the

least rare of this artist's productions. He bestowed similar attention to

varying his fleshes; in delicate subjects he made them of the purest white,

adding, moreover, certain livid and azure, mixed among middle tints, open

to a charge, at least by some, of mannerism.[34]

Footnote 34: The harmony and union of colour of this artist

would seem to excuse some trifling licenses, respecting

which see Lazzarini upon the Paintings of Pesaro, p. 29.

The preceding commendations, however, will not extend to the whole of

Guido's works. His inequality is well known, but not owing to any maxim of

his art. It arose from his love of play, a failing which obscured his many

moral qualities. His profits were great; but he was kept continually in a

state of indigence by his losses, which he endeavoured to repair by the too

negligent practice of his art. Hence we trace occasional errors in

perspective, and deficiency of invention, a defect so much insisted upon by

the implacable Albani. Hence too his incorrectness of design, the

disproportion of his figures, and his works put to sale before their

completion. Yet these are not excluded from royal cabinets, and that of

Turin possesses one of Marsyas, a finely finished figure, before which is

seen standing little more than the sketch of an Apollo. To form then a fair

estimate of Guido, we must turn to other efforts which raised him to high

reputation. Among his most excellent pieces I am of opinion that his

Crucifixion of St. Peter, at Rome, is a specimen of his boldest manner; the

Miracle of the Manna at Ravenna, the Conception at Forli, the Slaughter of

the Innocents at Bologna; and there too his celebrated picture of Saints

Peter and Paul in the Casa Sampieri. Specimens of his more tender manner

may be found in the St. Michael at Rome, the Purification at Modena, the

Job at Bologna, St. Thomas the Apostle at Pesaro, the Assumption at Genoa,

one of Guido's most studied pieces, and placed directly opposite the St.

Ignatius of Rubens.

Guido taught at Rome, and gave his pupils, as we have stated, to that city.

He educated still more for his native place, where he opened a school,

frequented by more than two hundred pupils, as we are informed by Crespi.

Nor are we by this number to measure the dignity of his character as a

master. He was an accomplished head of his school, who, in every place,

introduced into the art a more sweet and engaging manner, entitled in the

times of Malvasia the modern manner. Even his rivals took advantage of it,

the fact being indisputable that Domenichino, Albano, and Lanfranco, along

with their best disciples, derived that degree of delicacy, in which they

sometimes surpass the Caracci, from none but Guido. He would not permit the

scholars in his studio to copy in the first instance from his own works,

but exercised them in those of Lodovico, and the most eminent deceased

masters. It is conjectured also by Crespi, that he grounded his scholars in

the principles of the art of imitation, and all the first requisites,

without reference to the minutiae, which are easily acquired in the course

of practice. Guido particularly prided himself on Giacomo Semenza, and

Francesco Gessi, whom he thought equal to any masters at that time in

Bologna. He employed them in that chapel of the cathedral at Ravenna, a

perfect miracle of beauty, and gave them commissions from the court of

Mantua and Savoy, assisting them also, both at Rome and his native place;

in return for all which he was repaid by Semenza with gratitude, but by

Gessi with bitter persecutions. He was followed by both in point of style,

and specimens are to be seen in some choice collections.

Semenza emulated Guido in both his manners, and displayed more correctness,

erudition, and strength. His pictures at Araceli and other places

sufficiently distinguish him from the immense crowd of fresco-painters at

Rome. There too are many of his altar-pieces, none more beautiful, perhaps,

than the S. Sebastian, at S. Michele in Bologna. Gessi surpassed him in

spirit, invention, and rapidity, for which last quality even Guido envied

him. This enabled him too, from the first, to vary his works in point of

manner until he hit upon the right one, as in his very beautiful St.

Francis at the Nunziata, little inferior to Guido, as well as in several

others conducted in his earlier and best days. To these he was indebted for

his name of a second Guido; but subsequently he abused his talents, as is

the case with those who are held in slight esteem for performing much and

rapidly. Thus Bologna abounds with his pictures, in which, with the

exception of their fine character and much delicacy, there is nothing to

commend; his pictures are cold, his colouring is slight; the shape and

features are often too large, and not seldom incorrect. He is known to have

invariably affected the second manner of Guido, and hence he is always more

feeble, dry, and less harmonious than his master. By these distinctions are

the differences between salesmen and purchasers usually decided, as to

whether such a piece be a poor Guido or a Gessi.

Yet Gessi had a numerous school at Bologna, on Guido's retiring, and formed

scholars of some reputation, such as Giacomo Castellini, Francesco

Coreggio, and Giulio Trogli, who, devoting himself to perspective, under

Mitelli, and publishing a work entitled Paradossi della Prospettiva, went

ever afterwards by the name of the _Paradox_. Ercole Ruggieri was a

faithful follower of Gessi's style, insomuch as at first sight to be

mistaken for his master. He was called Ercolino del Gessi, and his brother

Batistino del Gessi, an artist of rare talent, commended by Baglione, and

much esteemed by Cortona, in whose arms he breathed his last. Batistino was

first a pupil of Domenichino, as before mentioned; and might more properly

be named dello Zampieri than del Gessi, from his education and his style.

He accompanied Gessi to Naples, and subsequently became his rival, and

surpassed him at S. Barbaziano in Bologna. Finally he fixed his residence

at Rome, where remain some of his paintings in fresco, in the cloister of

the Minerva, in the Cenci palace, and elsewhere, which shew in him the

promise of a very distinguished artist; but he did not survive his

thirty-second year.

To Guido Reni belongs Ercole de Maria, or da S. Giovanni, called Ercolino

di Guido. So pliant was his genius to that of his master, that when the

latter had half completed a picture, his pupil made a copy and substituted

it for the original, and Guido continued the work, unsuspicious of the

cheat, as if it had been his own. He willingly employed him, therefore, in

multiplying his own designs, two of which copies are yet seen in public,

extremely beautiful, though not displaying the same freedom as others which

he conducted on private commission, at a more advanced age. In these there

appears a decision and flow of pencil which imposed upon the best judges, a

talent that procured him admiration at Rome, with an honour received by no

other copyist, being created a Cavalier by Urban VIII.; but this artist

also died in the flower of his age.

Another good copyist and master of Guido's style appeared in Gio. Andrea

Sirani. On his master's death he completed the great picture of St. Bruno,

left unfinished at the Certosini, with others throughout the city in the

same state. Whether owing to Guido's retouches, or want of freedom,

Sirani's earliest works bear much resemblance to that master's second

manner, more particularly his Crucifixion in the church of S. Marino, which

seems like a repetition of the S. Lorenzo in Lucina, or that in the

Modenese gallery, in whose features death itself appears beautiful. In

progress of time Sirani is supposed to have aimed at the stronger style of

Guido in his early career, and conducted in such taste are his pictures of

the Supper of the Pharisee, at the Certosa, the Nuptials of the Virgin, at

St. Giorgio, in Bologna, and the Twelve Crucifixions, in the cathedral of

Piacenza, an extremely beautiful painting, ascribed by some to Elisabetta

Sirani, a daughter and pupil of Gio. Andrea.

This lady adhered faithfully to Guido's second manner, to which she added

powerful relief and effect. She is nearly the sole individual of the

family, whose name occurs in collections out of Bologna. Anna and Barbara,

her two sisters, also artists, as well as their father himself, yield

precedence to her single name. How surprising that a young woman, who

survived not her twenty-sixth year, should have produced the number of

paintings enumerated by Malvasia, still more that she should execute them

with so much care and elegance; but most of all, that she could conduct

them on a grand scale and in histories, with none of that timidity so

apparent in Fontana, and in other artists of her sex. Such is her picture

of Christ at the River Jordan, painted for the Certosa; her St. Antony, at

S. Leonardo, and many other altar-pieces in different cities. In the

subjects which she most frequently painted by commission, she still

improved on herself, as we perceive in her Magdalens and figures of the

Virgin and infant Christ, of which some of the most finished specimens are

in the Zampieri, Zambeccari, and Caprara palaces, as well as in the Corsini

and Bolognetti collections at Rome. There are also some small paintings of

histories on copper, extremely valuable, from her hand, as that of Lot, in

possession of Count Malvezzi, or the St. Bastian, attended by S. Irene, in

the Altieri palace; the former at Bologna, the latter at Rome. I have also

discovered some portraits, no unfrequent commissions which she received

from a number of sovereigns and innumerable distinguished personages

throughout Europe. Of this class I saw a singularly beautiful specimen at

Milan, being her own likeness crowned by a young cherub. It is in the

possession of Counsellor Pagave. Elisabetta died by poison, administered by

one of her own maids, and was bewailed in her native place with marks of

public sorrow. She was interred in the same vault which contained the ashes

of Guido Reni. Besides her two sisters, who imitated her in the art, were

many other ladies; Veronica Franchi, Vincenzia Fabri, Lucrezia Scarfaglia,

Ginevra Cantofoli; of which last, as well as of Barbara Sirani, there

remain some fine pictures, even in some churches of Bologna.[35]

Footnote 35: See Crespi, p. 74.

Among the Bolognese pupils of Guido, Domenico Maria Canuti obtained great

celebrity. He was employed by the Padri Olivetani, (an order the most

distinguished for its patronage of first rate artists,) in several

monasteries, more particularly at Rome, Padua, and Bologna, whose library

and church he decorated with numerous paintings. One of these, the Taking

down from the Cross by torch-light, is greatly admired, several copies of

which are met with, in general called the Night of Canuti; also a St.

Michael, painted in part within the arch, and in part on the exterior, is

considered a rare triumph of the power of perspective. His entire work in

that library was afterwards described and printed by the Manolessi. He left

immense works also in two halls of the Pepoli palace, in the Colonna

gallery at Rome, in the ducal palace at Mantua, and elsewhere, being

esteemed one of the best fresco painters of his time. His fertility and

vivacity please more than his colouring, while his individual figures are,

perhaps, more attractive than the general effect of the picture. He was

excellent too in oil, and succeeded admirably in copying Guido, whose

Magdalen of the Barberini was taken so exactly, that it appears the best

among all the copies seen at S. Michele in Bosco. Canuti opened school at

Bologna; but his pupils, during his tour to Rome, attached themselves

chiefly to Pasinelli, in whose school, or in that of Cignani, they will be

found included during the last epoch.

Other of Guido's scholars are indicated by Malvasia, among whom he highly

extols Michele Sobleo, or Desubleo, from Flanders, though resident at

Bologna. But he left little in public there, and that is a mixture of

Guercino and of Guido. Several churches at Venice were decorated by his

hand, and the altar-piece at the Carmelite friars, representing also

various saints of that order, is among his most celebrated works. From the

same country was Enrico Fiammingo, whom we must not confound with Arrigo

Fiammingo, an artist made known to us by Baglione. Both fixed their abode

in Italy, and the follower of Guido, formerly pupil to Ribera, painted some

pictures at S. Barbaziano in Bologna, that may compete with those of Gessi,

were it not for the fleshes being of a darker tinge. A few pictures by

another foreigner are preserved at the Capuccini and elsewhere; his name,

Pietro Lauri, or rather De Laurier, a Frenchman, whose crayons were

frequently retouched by Guido, and whose oil pictures also shew traces of

the same hand. Respecting another, whose name only remains, it will be

sufficient to mention an altar-piece of the Magdalen, placed in the oratory

of S. Carlo, at Volterra, relating to which is a letter of Guido to the

Cav. Francesco Incontri, stating that he had retouched it, particularly in

the head; but that, with the aid of Guido's design, it was painted by the

Signor Camillo. He is said to have been a member of that noble family, of

whom memorials have been preserved by his house.

Returning to the Bolognese artists, Gio. Maria Tamburini will be found to

hold a high rank, the author of many fresco histories in the portico of the

Conventuals, and of the Nunziata at the Vita, a very graceful painting

drawn from his master's sketch. Yet he was surpassed by Gio. Batista

Bolognini, by whose hand there is a S. Ubaldo at S. Gio. in Monte,

altogether in the style of Guido. This artist had a nephew and pupil in

Giacomo Bolognini, who painted large pictures and capricci, and is

mentioned by Zanotti and Crespi. Bartolommeo Marescotti is hardly deserving

notice; at S. Martino he appears only as a hasty imitator, or rather a

corrupter of the Guido manner. Mentioned, too, by various writers, is a

Sebastiano Brunetti, a Giuliano Dinarelli, a Lorenzo Loli, and in

particular a Pietro Gallinari, on whom his master's predilection conferred

also the name of Pietro del Sig. Guido. His earliest pieces, retouched by

Reni, are held in high esteem, and others which he produced for the court,

and in various churches at Guastalla, are valuable. He was an artist of the

noblest promise, but cut off prematurely, not without suspicion of poison.

Many foreigners who acquired the art from Guido, particularly at Bologna,

were dispersed throughout various schools, according to the places where

they resided; such were Boulanger, Cervi, Danedi, Ferrari, Ricchi, and

several more. Two artists who chiefly dwelt in Bologna and Romagna in high

esteem, I have reserved for this place, named Cagnacci and Cantarini. Guido

Cagnacci, referred by Orlandi to Castel Durante, though the Arcangelesi

more properly claim him for their fellow-citizen, was a rare exception to

Italian artists, in having sought his fortunes in Germany, where he was

highly deserving of the success he met with at the court of Leopold I. What

he has left in Italy, such as his St. Matthew and St. Teresa, in two

churches of Rimini, or the Beheading of St. John, in the Ercolani palace at

Bologna, shew him to have been a diligent and correct, as well as a refined

artist, in his master's latest style. Malvasia was of opinion that he

carried the colour of his fleshes, now rather faded, somewhat too high; to

others it appeared that he drew the extremities too small in proportion to

his figures; while some have remarked a capricious degree of freedom, shewn

in sometimes representing his angels at a more advanced age than was

customary. All, however, must acknowledge Guidesque beauties apparent in

every picture, added to a certain original air of nobility in his heads,

and fine effect of his chiaroscuro. His pictures for the most part were

painted for the ornament of cabinets, such as are seen in the ducal gallery

at Modena, and in private houses. There is his Lucretia in the Casa

Isolani, and his magnificent David, which is esteemed one of the noblest

pieces, in possession of the princes Colonna; two pictures abundantly

repeated both in the Bolognese and Roman Schools, and of which, indeed, I

have seen more copies than even of the celebrated David by Guido Reni.

Simone Cantarini da Pesaro became an exact designer under Pandolfi, greatly

improved in the school of Claudio Ridolfi, and by incessant study of the

Caracci engravings. For colouring he studied the most eminent Venetian

artists, and, more than all, the works of Barocci. In one of his Holy

Families he shews great resemblance to this last artist, a picture

preserved in Casa Olivieri, along with several others, and some portraits,

of different taste, but by the same hand. This was caused by the arrival of

the grand pictures by Guido, of St. Thomas at Pesaro, and the Nunziata, and

the St. Peter, in the adjacent city of Fano, after which he so wholly

devoted himself to the new style, as to induce him to emulate, and, if

possible, to attempt to surpass that artist. In the same chapel where Guido

placed his picture of St. Peter receiving the Keys, Simone displayed his

miracle of the Saint at the Porta Speciosa, where he so nearly resembled,

as to appear Guido himself; and even in Malvasia's time, foreigners were

unable to detect any difference of hand. It is certain he possessed much of

that artist's more powerful manner, which is shewn in his principal

picture; the heads very beautiful and varied, the composition natural; fine

play of light and shade, except that the chief figure of his history is too

much involved in the latter. The better to approach his prototype, Simone

proceeded to Bologna, and became Guido's disciple, affecting at first much

humility and deference, while he artfully concealed the extent of his own

skill. Then gradually developing it, he soon rose in high esteem, no less

with his master than the whole city, aided as he was by his singular talent

for engraving. Shortly he grew so vain of his own ability, as to presume to

censure not only artists of mediocrity, but Domenichino, Albano, and even

Guido. To the copies made by the pupils from their master's pieces, he gave

bold retouches, and occasionally corrected some inaccuracy in their model,

until at length he began to criticise Guido openly, and to provoke his

resentment. Owing to such arrogance, and to negligence in executing his

commissions, he fell in public esteem, left Bologna for some time, and

remained like a refugee at Rome. Here he studied from Raffaello, and from

the antique, then returned and taught at Bologna, whence he passed into the

Duke of Mantua's service. Still to whatever country he transferred his

talents, he was accompanied by the same malignant disposition; a great

boaster, and a despiser of all other artists, not even sparing Giulio and

Raffaello, insomuch that the works could not be so greatly esteemed as the

man was detested. Incurring also the duke's displeasure, and not succeeding

in his portrait, his pride was so far mortified as to throw him ill, and

passing to Verona, he there died, aged 36, in 1648, not without suspicion

of having been poisoned, no very rare occurrence with defamers like him.

Baldinucci, supported by most of the dilettanti, extols him as another

Guido; and assuredly he approaches nearer to him than to any other, and

with a decision which belonged to few imitators. His ideas are not so

noble, but in the opinion of many they were even more graceful. He is less

learned, but more accurate; and may be pronounced the only artist who in

the hands and feet very assiduously studied the manner of Lodovico. He was

extremely diligent in modelling for his own use, and one of his heads in

particular is commended, from which he drew those of his old men, which are

extremely beautiful. From the models, too, he derived his folds, though he

never attained to the same majestic and broad sweep as Guido and Tiarini, a

truth which he as candidly admitted. In point of colouring he is varied and

natural. His greatest study was bestowed upon his fleshes, in which, though

friendly to the use of white lead, he was content with moderate white,

avoiding what he called the cosmetics of Domenichino and the shades of the

Caracci. In his outlines and shadows, dismissing the use of the lacca and

terra d'ombra,[36] he introduced ultramarine and terra verde, so much

commended by Guido. He animated his fleshes with certain lights from place

to place, never contrasting them with vivid colours, except in as far as he

frequently studied to give them from depth of shadow, that relief which

serves to redouble their beauty. If there was nothing decidedly bold in his

painting, yet he covered the whole with an ashy tone, such as Guido applied

in his St. Thomas, and which became so perfectly familiar to Cantarini as

to acquire for him from Albani the surname of _pittor cenerino_. Spite of

this opinion, however, he is considered by Malvasia as _the most graceful

colourist_, and he adds, the _most correct designer_ of his age. His most

beautiful pictures that I have seen, in which his heads of saints are

always conspicuous for beauty and expression, are the St. Antony, at the

Franciscans di Cagli; the St. James, in the church of that name in Rimini;

the Magdalen, at the Filippini of Pesaro; and, in the same city, his St.

Dominick, at the Predicatori; in whose convent are also two Evangelists,

half-size figures, animated to the life. There is also a S. Romualdo, in

possession of the noble Paolucci, a figure that seems to start from the

canvass, and at the Casa Mosca, besides various other works, is a portrait

of a young nun that rivets every beholder. Many of his Holy Families also

are to be seen in Bologna, in Pesaro, and at Rome; nor are his heads of St.

John very rare, any more than his half-figures, or heads of apostles, a

specimen of which is to be seen in the Pitti palace.

Footnote 36: Lacca, a dark red; terra d'ombra, umber.

Simon Cantarini educated a few of his fellow-citizens to the art. One of

these was Gio. Maria Luffoli, many of whose paintings, which display the

school, are to be met with in his native place, particularly at S. Giuseppe

and at S. Antonio Abate. Gio. Venanzi (or Francesco) had been already

instructed by Guido, when he entered the school of Cantarini, though he

resembles neither of these masters so nearly as he does the Gennari. When

we inspect the two beautiful histories of St. Antony, in the church of that

name, we might pronounce him their disciple. An ancient MS. of Pesaro,

edited along with the pictures of the city,[37] places him at the court of

Parma, most probably for the purpose of decorating the palace, there being

nothing from his hand in the churches. In the same MS. mention is made of

Domenico Peruzzini, as born at Pesaro, and the pupil of Pandolfi. In

Orlando's Lexicon and other books there is frequent mention made of one

Cav. Giovanni, and he is given out as belonging to Ancona, and a disciple

of Simone. The Pesarese Guide, in which the very diligent Can. Lazzarini

indisputably took part, informs us that these artists were brothers, both

born at Pesaro, and that they transferred their services to Ancona, their

adopted country, (p. 65). From the dilettanti of Ancona I could gather

tidings of only one Peruzzini; and I doubt whether his being named Domenico

by the author of the MS. may not have arisen from mistake, as he proceeds

to relate matters chiefly appertaining to Giovanni. However this be, there

is a picture of S. Teresa by Peruzzini at the Carmelite Friars in Ancona,

bearing some traces of Baroccio's manner. That of the Beheading of St.

John, at the hospital, is extremely beautiful; and here he appears rather a

disciple of the Bolognese. He seems to have displayed a similar character

elsewhere; it being known that this artist, after forming a style

participating of those of the Caracci, of Guido, and of Pesarese, took to a

wandering life, and painted in various theatres and churches, if not with

much study, with tolerable correctness, a knowledge of perspective, in

which he was excellent, and with a certain facility, grace, and spirit,

which delight the eye. His paintings are dispersed through various places

in the Picenum, even as far as Ascoli on the confines, where are a number

of works by his hand. There are some at Rome and at Bologna, where he

painted in the cloister of the Servi a lunette,[38] very fairly executed

within twenty-four hours; at Turin, where he was made a cavalier; and in

Milan, where he died. At Rome are some specimens too from the hand of his

son and pupil, Paolo, entitled in the aforesaid MS. a good and decided

painter.

Footnote 37: See p. 75. This MS. is said to have been drawn

up previous to 1680. I believe it must be somewhere about

1670, Venanzi being therein described as still young.

Notices of the artists of Pesaro and Urbino, collected by

Giuseppe Montani, a good landscape-painter, who flourished

some time at Venice, are now lost. (Of him, see Malvasia,

vol. ii. p. 447.) I have recently read a letter from Sig.

Annibale Olivieri to the Prince Ercolani, in which,

computing the age of Venanzi, he is unable to make him out a

pupil of Cantarini; from which it would appear that he was

ignorant of the date of Venanzi's birth, which was about

1628. I admit that he could not have been long instructed by

him, nor by Guido, and am more than ever confirmed in my

conjecture that he was pupil to Gennari.

Footnote 38: Lunetta, an architectural term; meaning that

semicircular space, or any other portion of a circle, placed

in the walls between the different supports of ceilings.

An undoubted scholar of Simone was Flamminio Torre, called _dagli

Ancinelli_, who came from the studio of Cavedone and Guido. His chief

talent consisted in an easy perfect imitation of every style, which brought

him as high a price for his copies as was given for the originals of

eminent artists, sometimes even more. Though not learned in the theory of

the art, by his practical ability he acquired the manner of Cantarini,

dismissing, however, his ashy colour, and often turning to the imitation of

Guido. He was court-painter at Modena; and at Bologna in particular are

preserved both scriptural and profane histories, displaying very pleasing

figures as large as Poussin, or on the same scale. Some I saw in possession

of Monsig. Bonfigliuoli, others in the collection of the librarian Magnani;

and some still more firm, and in the best style of colouring, in the Ratta

palace. Yet we rarely meet with them uninjured by the use of rock oil,

which he carried to excess; and his church paintings, such as a Depositing

from the Cross at S. Giorgio, as they have been least attended to, have

suffered the most. On the death of Simone, as his first pupil, he succeeded

to his magisterial office, and promoted the progress of the scholars whom

he left. Girolamo Rossi succeeded better in engraving than in painting.

Lorenzo Pasinelli became an excellent master, but of a different style, as

we shall see in another epoch. The most eminent among Torre's disciples was

Giulio Cesare Milani, rather admired in the churches of Bologna, and

extolled in many adjacent states. But it is now time to turn our attention

from Guido and his disciples to Guercino, which will afford the same

pleasure, I trust, to my readers, as the dilettanti enjoy, in beholding two

styles, so strikingly opposed, immediately contrasted. In a similar manner,

to adduce an instance taken from the Spada Gallery, it yields delight to

turn our eye from Guido's Rape of Helen to the funeral pyre of Dido,

painted by Guercino, and placed directly opposite.

Gio. Francesco Barbieri, surnamed Guercino da Cento, would, to speak with

precision, be better ranked among the artists of Ferrara, to which city

Cento is subject; but we must observe the almost universal custom of

including him among the Caracci's disciples. This has arisen either from a

tradition that his genius at an early age received some bias towards design

from the Caracci, which but ill accords with the epoch of his age, or from

the circumstance of his having taken one of Lodovico's pictures for a

model, which is slight ground enough for attaching him to the school.

Moreover, he never frequented the Caracci's academy; but, after staying a

short time with Cremonini, his fellow-countryman, at Bologna, he returned

to Cento, and there resided with Benedetto Gennari the elder, first as his

pupil, next his colleague, and lastly his kinsman. Some too would contend

that one among the masters of Gio. Francesco was Gio. Batista Gennari, who

in 1606 painted for S. Biagio, in Bologna, a Madonna among various saints,

in a style resembling Procaccini. And indeed the Paradise, at S. Spirito in

Cento, and an altar-piece at the Capuccini, with other early works by

Guercino, partake of the old style. Subsequently he studied, along with

Benedetto, to find by experiment what constituted grand effect in the art,

in which taste I cannot distinguish, with the generality of dilettanti and

writers, two manners only; he having openly professed three, as we learn

from Sig. Righetti, in his Description of the paintings of Cento.

Of these the first is the least known, consisting of abundance of strong

shades, with sufficiently animated lights, less studied in the features and

in the extremities, with fleshes inclining to the yellow; in the rest less

attractive in point of colouring; a manner distantly resembling that of

Caravaggio, in which kind are to be found several specimens both at Cento

and in S. Guglielmo a' ministri degl'Infermi at Bologna. From this he

passed to his second manner, which is by far the most pleasing and

valuable. He continued to improve it during several years, with the aid of

other schools; in this interval often visiting Bologna, residing for some

time at Venice, and remaining many years at Rome along with the most

eminent followers of Caracci, and entering into terms of friendship with

Caravaggio. His taste is mainly founded on the style of this last master;

displaying strong contrast of light and shadow; both exceedingly bold, yet

mingled with much sweetness and harmony, and with powerful art of relief, a

branch so greatly admired by professors.[39] Hence some foreigners have

bestowed on him the title of the magician of Italian painting; for in him

were renewed those celebrated illusions of antiquity, such as that of the

boy who stretched forth his hand to snatch the painted fruit. From

Caravaggio too he borrowed the custom of obscuring his outlines, and

availed himself of it for despatch. He also imitated his half-sized figures

upon one ground, and for the most part composed his historical pictures in

this method. Yet he studied to become more correct in point of design, and

more select than Caravaggio; not that he ever attained peculiar elegance or

peculiar dignity of features, though most frequently he drew his heads,

like a sound observer of nature, with graceful turns, easy natural

attitudes, and a colouring, which if not the most delicate, is at least the

most sound and most juicy. Often in comparing the figures of Guido with

Guercino's, one would say that the former had been fed with roses, as

observed by one of the ancients, and the latter with flesh. How far he

excelled as a colourist in his draperies, formed in the taste of the best

Venetians, in his landscape, and in his accessories, will sufficiently

appear on beholding his S. Petronilla in the Quirinal, or his picture of

Christ risen from the Dead, at Cento,[40] or his St. Helen, at the

Mendicants in Venice; excellent specimens of his second manner. To the same

belong in general all that he left at Rome, even his greater works, such as

the S. Gio. Grisogono in the soffitto of that church, or the Aurora,

adorning the villa Lodovisi. Yet he surpassed even these, to the surprise

of all, in the cupola of the Piacenza cathedral; and in the same city he

appears to have competed with Pordenone, and in point of vigour of style to

have gone beyond him.

Footnote 39: "To me it seems that painting ought to be

considered excellent, the more it inclines towards relief."

Bonarruoti, Letter to Varchi, inserted among the Lettere

Pittoriche, vol. i. p. 7.

Footnote 40: There is a description of this painting

contained in a letter of Algarotti, addressed to the learned

Zanotti, dated Sept. 1760, in which, though in other works

he observes Guercino to have excelled more in colouring than

in design, yet respecting this specimen he declares, "that

Pesarese himself would here have detected little or nothing

to which to object. The folds, especially those of a cloth

wrapped round the body of Christ, are admirable. The force

and sweetness of his tints are equal to the bold relief of

the picture, and the passion with which it is conducted....

I never beheld two figures better set off in one picture,

nor did ever Guercino's close light and shade so well unite

perhaps in effect as here; whilst the figures are pourtrayed

within an apartment, in which that kind of light which

affords such strong relief to objects, is represented with

an admirable degree of truth."

Some years having elapsed, after his return from Rome to Cento, he began to

emulate Guido, perceiving that his sweetness of manner obtained such

distinguished applause. By degrees he softened down that power of hand just

noticed, and painted more open and vividly. He added somewhat more

attraction and variety to his heads, and a certain study of expression,

almost indescribable, which is surprising in some of his pictures of this

period. Some have assigned such a change of manner to the time of Guido's

decease, when Guercino, perceiving that he could take the lead at Bologna,

left Cento, in order to fix his residence in that great city. But several

pictures which he had conducted in his third manner, previous to Reni's

death, fully confute such an opinion. On the contrary, it was rumoured that

Guido remarked this change, which he construed into commendation of

himself, declaring that he had avoided Guercino's style as much as

possible, whilst the latter approached as nearly as he could to Guido's. In

this taste, though partaking of the preceding, is the Circumcision of

Jesus, placed in the church of Gesu e Maria, in which the study of

architecture and drapery vies with that of the figures; and it is difficult

to decide whether these most please by their form, or by their expression.

We might add the Nuptials of the Virgin, at S. Paterniano in Fano, the S.

Palazia in Ancona, the Nunziata at Forli, the Prodigal Son in the royal

palace at Turin, a history piece of entire figures, which is met with in

half figures in many galleries. However attractive this last manner may be

found, skilled judges would have wished Guercino not to have swerved from

the vigour of the second, to which his genius was moulded, and in which he

shone unrivalled and unique.

The frequency of his commissions contributed, perhaps, to put him upon a

more easy method, no less than his own incredible genius for execution and

despatch. He produced a hundred and six altar-pieces, and a hundred and

forty-four large pictures for princes and other persons of distinction,

without including numbers of others painted for private persons, Madonnas,

portraits, half-length figures, and landscapes, in which the rapidity of

execution is highly original. Hence he is by no means rare in collections.

The noble Zolli family at Rimino possesses about twenty of his pieces,

Count Lecchi at Brescia also a great number; all perfect and polished

according to his manner. Among these is a portrait of a friar of the

Osservanti, his father confessor, quite a miracle of art.

Guercino's school greatly flourished at Cento, in Bologna not so much,

owing to his own choice of having his two nephews the Gennari, and a few

other intimate friends with him, which led him to exclude strangers in some

degree from his studio. Few Bolognese artists, therefore, belong to this

master; such as Giulio Coralli, whom Orlandi, a contemporary writer, gives

as pupil to Guercino at Bologna, and of Cairo at Milan, and who, Crespi

adds, was much employed at Parma, at Piacenza, and at Mantua. He was a

better portrait-painter, if I mistake not, than a composer. Fulgenzio

Mondini was an artist of more merit; he painted two fresco histories in the

church of S. Petronio at Bologna, relating to the Paduan saint. He died

young at Florence, where, after having painted some time for the court, he

was employed by the Marchesi Capponi to decorate their villa of Colonnata,

and his memory has been honoured with a long eulogy by Malvasia. The latter

declares that he knew none gifted with qualities that promised so much in

that age, and conjectures that had he survived he would have become the

first fresco painter of his age.

The two young Gennari were sons of Gio. Francesco's sister, and of Ercole,

son of Benedetto Gennari. Respecting Ercole, it is stated that no more

exact copyist of the works of Guercino was to be met with. His sons,

Benedetto and Cesare, likewise distinguished themselves in copying the

original compositions of their uncle, and the numerous repetitions of

Guercino's sibyls, of his pictures of St. John, of his Herodiads, and

similar pieces, are ascribed more particularly to them. They may all be

recognized, however, by a more feeble tone in their tints; and I once saw

in the Ercolani palace a Bathsheba of Guercino, along with a copy by one of

the Gennari. The former appeared as if newly painted at the time, the

latter as if many years previously, such was its inferiority in strength of

hand. The two brothers were employed in Cento, in Bologna, and in other

cities of Italy; while Benedetto, the ablest of them, was engaged also in

England, as court-painter under two reigns. Both would seem to have

inherited the style along with the fortune of Gio. Francesco, and, I may

also add, his studies; because in the manner of sectaries, they made

repeated copies of the heads of his old men, women, and boys, which he

himself was in the habit of repeating on his canvass too frequently. There

is a S. Leopardo by Benedetto in the cathedral at Osimo, and a S. Zaccaria

at the Filippini in Forli, which might have been mistaken for the uncle's,

had the nephew displayed somewhat more strength and power of relief. In the

same way Cesare, in a Mary Magdalen of the Pazzi, at S. Martino in Bologna,

and in other pieces, has succeeded in giving the features better than the

spirit of Barbieri. It ought to be observed that Cesare preserved his first

manner to the close of his life, and that he was assiduous in teaching at

Bologna, where his school was frequented also by foreigners, among whom

Simon Gionima distinguished himself as a follower of Guercino, and was well

received at Vienna. Benedetto subsequently formed for himself a style in

England, both more polished and careful, and exemplified it more

particularly in his portraits, which he conducted there for Charles II. and

the royal family. On the expulsion of that family he returned to Italy,

almost transformed into a Dutch or Flemish painter, such was the truth with

which he imitated velvets, lawns, lace, gems, and other ornaments in gold,

indeed all that can enrich a portrait, besides drawing it extremely like,

and artfully freed from any blemishes in the original. By means of this

taste, new in Italy, Benedetto obtained much applause and much employment

in portrait, both from princes and individuals. We may here add a

Bartolommeo Gennari, brother to Ercole, who resembles Guercino less than

any of the three preceding, though extremely natural and spirited. He has a

picture of St. Thomas at the Rosario di Cento, in the act of putting his

hand to our Saviour's side, and the admiration both of him and the other

apostles is very finely expressed. The pupil, and probably the relation of

Guercino, was one Lorenzo Gennari di Rimini, at which place is one of his

pictures at the Capuccini, very fairly executed.

Francesco Nagli, surnamed, from his country, Centino, was much employed at

the Angeli and in other churches at Rimini. He was an excellent imitator of

Barbieri, in point of colouring and chiaroscuro; in the rest somewhat dry

in design, cold in his attitudes, and no way novel in his ideas. To the

same district belonged Stefano Ficatelli, a painter of good invention, who

decorated several churches of Ferrara; but more especially an excellent

copyist of Guercino, not inferior in this respect to Francesco Bassi, of

Bologna, so highly commended by Crespi. Among Guercino's copyists, Gio.

Francesco Mutii, or Mucci, of Cento, son of a sister of Guercino,

distinguished also as an engraver, held a high rank. Stefano Provenzali,

likewise from Cento, and a pupil of Barbieri, applied his talents to

battle-pieces, much extolled by Crespi, from whose MSS. I have borrowed

several of my notices of the Centese artists.

Two of these, followers of Guercino, are mentioned by Malvasia. They are

Cristoforo Serra, a faithful and excellent imitator of Gio. Francesco, and

preceptor of Cristoforo Savolini, who has a fine picture of the saint at S.

Colomba in Rimini; and Cesare Pronti, an Augustine, born at Rimini, if we

give credit to the author of its city guide, and called _da Ravenna_, on

account of his long residence at that place. Both the above cities exhibit

his altar-pieces, much extolled, and some chiaroscuri happily enough

disposed; in particular those histories of St. Jerome painted in the

Confraternity of his name at Rimini, with abundant grace and spirit. In

Pesaro, also, he exhibited in the church of his order a St. Thomas da

Villanova, with beautiful specimens of architecture, and in a more original

taste than the two Gennari. The life of this able ecclesiastic has been

written by Pascoli, who knew him, insomuch that we may give him credit when

he declares that he was born at the Cattolica, of the family of the

Baciocchi, afterwards assuming the name of Pronti, the maiden name of his

mother. He gives other anecdotes of him; and what is more interesting is

the account of his first passion for the art, on contemplating, when a boy,

a collection of fine pictures in a shop at the fair of Sinigaglia. He gazed

upon them during several hours, unmindful of his meals, and of his parents,

who were in search of him through the city, and who on finding him could

with difficulty tear him from the spot. They were unable, however, to

destroy the fixed determination of his soul to become a painter; the

impression was indelible, and he set out for Bologna. There he first

entered the school of Barbieri; and afterwards, as we have already

remarked, the cloister. Respecting different scholars of Guercino, such as

were Preti, Ghezzi, and Triva, it is unnecessary here to repeat what has

already been stated in several other schools.

Gio. Lanfranco, one of those distinguished disciples of the Caracci who

followed Annibal to Rome, was born at Parma. He was early employed by the

Conti Scotti in Piacenza, where, for mere pastime, drawing some figures in

charcoal upon a wall, his rare genius shone forth, and was assigned to the

cultivation of Agostino Caracci. Frequent mention of him is made in the

course of this work. At Parma the reader finds him a pupil to Agostino, and

on his death under the care of Lodovico, after which he pursued his studies

under Annibal at Rome. Both there and in Naples we have seen him celebrated

as a professor and preceptor in both schools. The character of his genius

was sought, conceitedly perhaps, but still with truth, by Bellori, in his

name; and doubtless it would be difficult to find an artist more bold and

striking, alike in conception and in execution. He had formed a peculiar

manner, which both in design and expression partakes of the Caracci's,

while the composition is drawn from Coreggio. It is a manner at once easy,

and elevated by the dignity of the countenances and actions, by the ample

and well disposed masses of light and shade, by the nobleness of the

drapery and its imposing folds, broad and wholly novel in the art. For this

precise reason its grandeur is without that last finish which adds to the

worth of other artists, but would in him diminish it. In such a style he

was enabled to be less exact without displeasing us, possessing so many

admirable qualities, rare conceptions, colours wonderfully harmonized, if

not animated; very beautiful foreshortening; contrasts of parts and

figures, which have served as models, as is observed by Mengs, for the

tasteful style of the moderns.

He adopted this style in a number of pictures for private ornament, both

for the Dukes Farnesi, in whose palace at Rome he first began to paint, and

for other noblemen. His Polyphemus, conducted for the Casa Borghese in that

city, is highly extolled, as well as his scriptural histories at S.

Callisto. There are many pictures also from his hand; his St. Andrea

Avellino at Rome, enriched with splendid architecture, boasts singular

merit; his Dead Christ at Foligno, with the "Padre Eterno," a figure, which

though in human form, nevertheless impresses us with grand ideas of the

Divine Being; the Transit of our Lady, in Macerata; the S. Rocco, and the

S. Corrado, in Piacenza; perhaps the most finished among Lanfranco's

productions, and deservedly the most celebrated. But he exhibited this

style still more fully in cupolas and other scenes on a grand scale,

according to Coreggio's example. When young, he executed a small coloured

model of the cupola of the cathedral at Parma, emulating his whole style,

in particular that grace of motion, of all by far the most difficult. He

imitated it too at S. Andrea della Valle at Rome, and in his picture

availed himself of the example afforded by Michelangiolo in architecture,

when unable to execute a more beautiful cupola than Brunelleschi's, and

desirous of differing from it, he worked from a new design, and succeeded

to admiration. This production forms an epoch in the art, inasmuch "as he

was the first," says Passeri, "to irradiate the opening of a celestial

glory with a splendour of light, of which there was formerly seen no

example." ... "Lanfranco's cupola remains a solitary specimen in the way of

glories; because, in respect to its celestial idea, in the opinion of the

most dispassionate judges, he has attained the highest degree, as well in

the harmony of the whole, its chief object, as in the distribution of the

colours, in the parts, and in force of chiaroscuro," &c. Nor was this, on

which he spent four years, the sole example he left of a fecundity of idea

and rare elevation of mind, of which we meet with no account in any other

artist, even among the ancient painters. Add to this, the cupolas at the

Gesu, and at the Tesoro of S. Gennaro at Naples, where he succeeded

Domenichino, with various tribunes and chapels in Rome and Naples, adorned

with equal majesty, and which have given to Lower Italy the most genuine

examples in this kind, of which the art can boast. From him it was that the

Machinists acquired the power of gratifying the eye at larger distances,

painting only in part, and in part leaving the work, as he was accustomed

to express it, for the air to paint. In the two schools above-mentioned we

have embraced his best disciples: to the Bolognese he gave no pupils, as

far as I learn, any more than to Romagna and its dependencies; if we except

Gio. Francesco Mengucci, of Pesaro, who assisted him in the cupola of St.

Andrea; a painter, I believe, for collections, who has been much extolled

by Malvasia.

Next to the five heads of schools hitherto recorded, ought to be mentioned

Sisto Badalocchi; and the more as he was Annibal's disciple, and long

resided with him at Rome. He was fellow citizen, and a faithful companion

too of Lanfranco, whose style he approached very nearly. Sisto designed

admirably, being preferred by Annibal in this branch to any of his fellow

pupils, and even, with singular modesty, to himself. Ample testimony of his

ability is proclaimed in the engravings of Raffaello's _loggie_, executed

in conjunction with Lanfranco, and dedicated to Annibal; besides the six

prints of Coreggio's grand cupola, a work which, to the public regret, was

left incomplete. He was also selected by his master to decorate the chapel

of S. Diego, where he directed him to paint from one of his cartoons a

history of that saint. In point of invention he was not equal to the

leaders of his school; so that, employed in filling up the secondary parts,

he assisted Guido and Domenichino at S. Gregorio; and attended Albani at

the Verospi palace; although his picture of Galatea left there is worthy of

the hand of a great master. He appears to advantage in competition, and

mostly excels, as we may gather from the church of St. Sebastian at Rome,

where he painted along with Tacconi; and at Reggio, where he rivalled some

of the less distinguished artists of Bologna. Besides his other works, that

city has to boast the rich cupola of S. Giovanni, on which Sisto conducted

a small, but very beautiful copy of that in the cathedral at Parma. Other

of his specimens are to be met with in the Modenese state, particularly in

the ducal palace at Gualtieri, where he represented in one chamber the

Trials of Hercules. Of his pictures at Parma the most celebrated is that of

St. Francis, at the Cappuccini; a painting, both in point of figures and

landscape, composed in the best taste of the Caracci. For the rest, we may

add what has been said of Lanfranco, that he most frequently executed much

less than he knew.

So far we have treated of the followers of the Caracci employed at Rome;

and these in general, judging from their style, shewed more deference to

Annibal than any other of the family. Many others remained at Bologna, who

either never visited Rome, or produced nothing there worthy of

consideration. These were chiefly attached to Lodovico, in whose studio

they had been educated, with the exception of Alessandro Tiarini, who

sprung from another school, though he benefited by his advice and example,

as much as if Lodovico had really been his master. But he was pupil to

Fontana, subsequently of Cesi, and finally also of Passignano at Florence.

He had fled thither from his native place on account of a quarrel; and

after a lapse of seven years, through the intervention of Lodovico, he was

enabled to return to Bologna, leaving at Florence and some places in the

state a few paintings in his first easy style, resembling Passignano's. In

such style he conducted his S. Barbara, at S. Petronio, a work which failed

to please the Bolognese public. To give it greater attractions, he next

proceeded to copy from, and to consult Lodovico, not in order to attain his

manner, but with the view of improving his own. This task was short to a

man of genius, well grounded in the theory of his art, and perhaps more

philosophical than any other artist of Bologna. He soon became a different

painter, and in his novel taste of composing, of distributing his lights

and expressing the passions, he shone like a disciple of the Caracci.

Nevertheless he preserved a character distinct from the rest, grounded upon

his naturally severe and melancholy disposition. All in him is serious and

moderate; the air of his figures, his attitudes, his drapery, varied with

few, but noble folds, such as to excite the admiration of Guido himself. He

avoids, moreover, very gay and animated colours, chiefly contenting himself

with light violets or yellows, and tawny colours, tempered with a little

red; but so admirably laid on and harmonized, as to produce the finest

feeling of repose to enchant the eye. His subjects, too, are well adapted

to his taste, as he generally selected, when he could, such as were of a

pathetic and sorrowful cast. For this reason his Magdalens, his S. Peters,

and his Madonnas in grief--one of which, presented to the Duke of Mantua,

drew tears from his eyes--are held in high esteem.

Subsequently he became expert in foreshortening, and all the intricacies of

the art, more particularly in point of invention. There is scarcely one of

his works to be met with, that does not exhibit a certain air of novelty

and originality of idea. On occasion of representing the Virgin in grief,

in the church of S. Benedict, he drew her seated together with St. John and

the Magdalen; the one upright, the other kneeling, in the act of

contemplating the Redeemer's crown of thorns. Other incidents of his

passion also are alluded to; all are silent indeed, but every eye and

attitude is eloquent in its silence. Obtaining a commission for an

altar-piece in S. Maria Maggiore, to represent St. John and St. Jerome, he

shunned the trite expression of drawing them in a glory; but he feigned an

apparition, through which the holy doctor, while intent at his studies,

appears to receive from the beatified evangelist lectures in theology. His

most distinguished production, however, is at S. Domenico, the saint seen

raising a man from the dead; a picture abounding with figures varied in

point of feature, attitude, and dress; every thing highly select. Lodovico

expressed his astonishment at it, and declared that he knew of no master

then to compare with Tiarini. It is true that, in this instance, having to

compete with Spada, he raised his tone of colouring, and shunned every

common form; two precautions which, had he introduced into every work,

would have left him perhaps second to none of the Bolognese. He survived

until his ninetieth year, and during a long period dwelt at Reggio, whence

he had often occasion to proceed to other cities of Lombardy, which

preserve many of his altar-pieces, and cabinet pictures. The Modenese

gallery abounds with them, his St. Peter being more particularly extolled,

seen struck with remorse as he stands outside the praetorium. The

architecture, the depth of night lighted up with torches, Christ's judgment

beheld in the distance, all conspire to raise the tragic interest of the

scene. He was employed also by the Duke of Parma, for whose garden he

painted some incidents from the Jerusalem Delivered, conducted in fresco;

but which, though much extolled, are no longer met with. In short Tiarini

was one of the most eminent artists next to the Caracci, at least in point

of composition, expression of features and of the passions, perspective,

power and durability of colouring, if not of the most exact elegance.

Lionello Spada was one of the leading geniuses of the school. Sprung from

the lowest origin, and employed by the Caracci as a grinder of colours, by

dint of hearing their conferences, and observing the process of their

labours, he began to design; first under them, and next with Baglione, he

acquired a knowledge of the art; during several years studying no other

models besides the Caracci. He lived on familiar terms with Dentone, and

thus became skilful in the use of perspective. Incensed by a jest of

Guido's, he determined to seek revenge by opposing his delicacy of manner

with another more full and strong; for which purpose going to Rome, he

studied both there and in Malta under Caravaggio, and returned home master

of a new style. It does not indeed lower itself to every form, like his,

but still is not so elevated as that of the Caracci: it is studied in the

naked parts, but not select; natural in point of colouring, with good

relief in the chiaroscuro, but too frequently displaying a ruddy tone in

the shadows, giving an expression of mannerism. One of Lionello's most

characteristic marks is a novelty and audacity, the result of his natural

disposition, which was equally agreeable for its pleasantry, and hateful

for its insolence. He often competed with Tiarini, always superior in point

of spirit and force of colouring; but inferior in all the rest. Thus at S.

Domenico, where he represented the saint in the act of burning proscribed

books; and this is the best picture on canvass which he exhibited at

Bologna. At S. Michele in Bosco also is seen his Miracle of St. Benedict,

which the young artists call the Scarpellino of Lionello; a picture so

wholly novel as to induce Andrea Sacchi, who was greatly struck with it, to

copy the design. In a similar way at the Madonna di Reggio, where both

artists painted as usual in competition, as well in oils as in fresco, they

appeared, as it were, to go beyond themselves. We often meet with specimens

of Spada in private galleries; holy families and scripture histories in

half-length figures, like those of Caravaggio and Guercino; his heads full

of expression, but not very select. He seems most frequently to have

repeated the decollation of St. John the Baptist, often met with in the

Bolognese galleries, and the best perhaps is in that of the Malvezzi.

He became painter to Duke Ranuccio at Parma, where he decorated that

admirable theatre, which then stood unrivalled. In that city, and at

Modena, as well as other places, I have seen some of his pictures in a

taste wholly opposed to those of Bologna, displaying a mixture of the

Caracci and of Parmigianino. His histories in the ducal gallery at Modena

are highly beautiful; such as the Susanna and the Elders, and the Prodigal

Son. One of his most remarkable is the Martyrdom of a Saint, at S. Sepolcro

in Parma, and the St. Jerome, in the Carmelitani, in the same city.

Specimens such as these must have been among his last, at a period when he

was residing in affluence at court, and enabled to conduct his works at

leisure. His good fortune terminated with the life of Ranuccio; for with

the loss of such a patron his talent, too, seemed to have deserted him, and

he shortly followed to the tomb. The names of some of his scholars occur in

the schools of Lombardy. Here too we ought to add that of Pietro Desani of

Bologna, who following him into Reggio, there established himself; a young

artist of rapid hand and quick genius, whose works are to be met with very

frequently in Reggio and its vicinity.

Lorenzo Garbieri was an artist of more learning and caution than Lionello,

though resembling him in point of style. His austere, and almost fiery

disposition, with an imagination abounding in wild and mournful ideas,

impelled him to a style of painting less open than that of the Caracci. To

this cause must be added his emulation of Guido, whom, like Lionello, he

wished to humble, by adopting a very powerful manner; and, though he did

not put himself under Caravaggio, he eagerly copied his pictures, including

all the best at Bologna. Garbieri was one of the most successful imitators

of Lodovico; less select in the heads, but grand in the forms, expressive

in the attitudes, and studied in his large compositions; insomuch that his

paintings at S. Antonio in Milan, which are less loaded with shade, were

attributed by Santagostini in his Guide to the Caracci. To this style of

the Caracci he added the daring character of Caravaggio, and he was skilful

in selecting always funereal subjects most suitable to his genius; so that

we meet with little else than scenes of sorrow, slaughter, death, and

terror, from his hand. At the Barnabiti, in Bologna, he painted for the

chapel of S. Carlo an altar-piece with two lateral pictures; it presents us

with the horrors of the Milanese plague, amidst which is seen the saint

visiting the sick, and conducting a penitential procession. He painted also

at the Filippini in Fano a picture of St. Paul, near the St. Peter of

Guido, in the act of raising the young man from the dead; a work of such

power of hand and expression as to excite at once terror and pity in the

beholders. At S. Maurizio, in Mantua, he exhibited in a chapel the

Martyrdom of S. Felicita and her seven children; a piece inferior indeed to

the Miracle of St. Paul in point of vigour, but containing such variety of

images, and such deathly terror, as not to be surpassed in tragic interest

by any thing from the same school. He had the choice of establishing

himself as court-painter at Mantua, an office he rejected, preferring to

take a wife with a handsome dowry at Bologna. This step was a loss,

however, to the art, as mentioned by Malvasia; since from that period

finding himself rich, and occupied with family cares, he painted little,

and with as little study, leaving his final labours by no means equal to

the preceding. His son Carlo applied still less than his father to the

profession, though he gave proofs in several works exhibited in public,

that in time he would have equalled his father. Lorenzo educated few other

pupils, but he was highly esteemed for his profound knowledge, and for his

method of communicating it, at once easy and precise, resting upon few but

comprehensive maxims.

Giacomo Cavedone was from Sassuolo, and hence included among the artists of

the Modenese state by Tiraboschi, in whose work we may read the origin of

his career. His genius was more limited, his spirit less animated, than

those of the preceding; but being assisted by the Caracci in the right

path, he attained to equal, and even greater celebrity. Leaving the

intricacies of the art to the more enterprising, he fixed upon attitudes

comparatively easy and devoid of foreshortening, gentle expressions

distinct from the stronger passions, correct design in his figures, and

more particularly in the hands and feet. Nature had endued him with

promptness and facility; so that on occasion of designing models, or

copying pictures, he with rare exactness took the substance of the subject,

and afterwards reduced the whole by a more easy method in his own

peculiarly resolute and graceful touch, in which he has always remained

original. He was equally novel in his frescos; employing few tints, but so

attractive, that Guido was induced to make him his pupil, and retained him

at Rome as his assistant. Another striking characteristic was his strength

of colouring, which he acquired from those Venetians themselves, who shone

the masters of his masters. Here he attained to such excellence, that

Albani, when asked whether there were any pictures of Titian's at Bologna,

replied, there were not; but we may substitute the two at S. Paolo by

Cavedone (a Nativity and an Epiphany) which look like Titian's, and are

executed with a bolder hand. One of his most distinguished productions at

Bologna is the S. Alo at the Mendicanti, in which Girupeno discovers,

besides its fine design, a Titianesque taste that excites astonishment; and

a French tourist entitles it a most admirable work, such as might be fairly

attributed to the Caracci. The mistake indeed has occurred to persons of

first rate tact, most frequently at Imola, on contemplating the beautiful

picture of St. Stephen at that church; and yet more out of Italy, in regard

to his pictures of private ornament, in which he is more than usually

attractive and perfect. Judges know how to recognize Cavedone's hand by his

very compendious manner of treating the hair and beards, as well as by that

graceful and rapid touch, loaded with much lightish yellow, or burnt terra

gialla. Length of proportions is likewise considered another peculiarity,

with a flow of the folds more rectilinear than in other artists of the same

school. Such ascendancy in the art was maintained by Cavedone during some

years, till the death of a favourite son, who had early distinguished

himself in the same career, united to other heavy sorrows, deprived him of

his powers, and he subsequently executed nothing of importance. A specimen

of that period is in possession of the fathers of S. Martino; an Ascension

that excites only our compassion, with similar pieces met with throughout

Bologna, that can boast no glimpse of grace. Still deteriorating, he was at

length deprived of commissions and reduced to penury, which, in his old

age, attended him to the tomb.

Lucio Massari possessed a more joyous spirit, ever glad and festal; devoted

to the theatre and to the chase, rather than to his academy and his pallet;

being usually impatient and averse to commence his subjects, until his

genius and good humour were propitious. For this reason his works are few,

but conducted in a happy vein, graceful and finished, both in colour and in

taste appearing to breathe of cheerfulness. His style most resembles

Annibal's, whose works he copied to admiration, and after whose example,

while a few months at Rome, he designed the most finished and noble

remnants of Grecian sculpture. There shines also in his countenances the

spirit of Passerotti, his earliest master, and more frequently the

gracefulness of his near friend, Albani, whose society he enjoyed both in

his studio and his villa, and in works undertaken in conjunction. His S.

Gaetano, at the Teatini, is crowned with a glory of exquisitely graceful

cherubs, that seem from the hand of Albani; and in his other pictures we

often recognise those full countenances, those delicate fleshes, that

sweetness, and those sportful expressions, in which revelled the genius of

Albani. In point of beauty, the _Noli me tangere_, at the Celestini, and

the Nuptials of St. Catherine, at S. Benedetto, are among his most esteemed

pieces; to say nothing of his histories at the Cortile of S. Michele in

Bosco, where he left many very elegant specimens.

On occasion of treating strong or tragic subjects, he did not shrink from

the task; and although he had a real knowledge of the art, he conducted

them without that extreme study of foreshortenings and naked parts, of

which others make so lavish a display. He shewed noble clearness and

decision, fine colouring, a grand spirit, enlivening them with light and

graceful figures, more particularly of women. Such is the Slaughter of the

Innocents, at the Bonfigliuoli palace, and the Fall of Christ, at the

Certosini, a most imposing production, from the number, variety, and

expression of the figures, whose pictoric fire surpasses all we could

mention from the hand of Albani. He has left some cabinet pictures, always

in good design, and mostly possessing soft and savoury tints; so that all

we would farther look for is, occasionally, a more gradual distribution of

tints in the background of his pieces. Among other pupils, he instructed

Sebastiano Brunetti, polished by Guido, a sweet and delicate artist, but of

brief career; and Antonio Randa of Bologna. Malvasia has observed, that

there is little good to be said respecting him, apparently alluding to a

deed of homicide committed by him at Bologna. In other respects, he

includes him among the best pupils, first of Guido, next of Massari, to

whose style he became attached. On account of his reputation the Duke of

Modena granted him an asylum in his state, declaring him, according to

Orlandi, his court-painter, in 1614. Here he was much employed, and

subsequently at Ferrara, for the most part at S. Filippo; also in many

places of the Polesine, where I find his Martyrdom of S. Cecilia, in

possession of the Sign. Redetti, at Rovigo, the most celebrated of his

productions. Finally, he betook himself to the cloister, a fact unnoticed

by Malvasia, which might have induced him to speak of him in milder terms.

Pietro Facini entered late into the profession, at the suggestion of

Annibal Caracci, who from one of his playful sketches in charcoal, declared

how excellent a painter he would become, if he were to enter his school.

Annibal subsequently regretted the discovery, not only because Facini's

progress excited his jealousy, but, because, on leaving the academy, he

became his rival in educating young artists, and even plotted against his

life. He has two striking characteristics, vivacity in his gestures, and in

the expression of his heads, such as to place him on a footing with

Tintoretto, and a truth of carnations, which induced Annibal himself to

observe, that he seemed to have ground human flesh in his colours. With

this exception, he has nothing superior; feeble in point of design, too

large in his naked figures of adults, incorrect in the placing of his hands

and heads. Neither had he time to perfect himself, dying young, and before

the Caracci, in 1602. There is a picture of the Patron Saints, at S.

Francesco, in Bologna, with a throng of cherubs, which is indeed among his

best works. In the Malvezzi collection, and in others of the city, are much

esteemed some of his Country Dances, and Sports of Boys, in the manner of

Albani, but on a larger scale. He had a pupil in Gio. Mario Tamburini, who

afterwards attached himself to Guido, forming himself on his manner, as we

have already stated.

Francesco Brizio, gifted with rare genius, was, up to his twentieth year,

employed as a shoe-maker's boy. Impelled, at length, by his bias for the

art, he acquired a knowledge of design from Passerotti, and of engraving

from Agostino Caracci. Lastly, he commenced painting under Lodovico, and

very soon arrived at such celebrity, that by some he has been pronounced

the most eminent disciple of the Caracci. Doubtless, if we except the

previous five, he was equal to any others, and, excepting Domenichino,

gifted with the most universal genius. He was not deficient, like Guido, in

perspective; nor in the branch of landscape, like Tiarini; nor in splendour

of architecture, like so many others. In these accessaries he surpassed all

his rivals, as we gather from his histories, painted for S. Michele in

Bosco; at least such was the opinion of Andrea Sacchi. He is extremely

correct in his figures, and perhaps approached Lodovico more closely than

any other artist. The graceful beauty of his cherubs excites admiration, an

excellence at that period so greatly studied by all the school; and here,

in the opinion of Guido, he outshone even Bagnacavallo. His chief talent

lay in imitation; owing to which, and his character for indecision, in

addition to the number of great artists, superior to him in manners, he was

deprived of assistants and commissions, and reduced to execute such as he

had solicited at very insignificant prices. One of the most extensive

altar-pieces in the city is from his hand, representing the Coronation of

the Virgin, at S. Petronio, with a few figures in the foreground truly

joyous and well arranged; besides others in the distance grouped and

diminished with art; a picture of great merit even in strength of

colouring. He produced also for the noble family Angelelli the Table of

Cebes, in one grand painting; the work of an entire year, which displayed

all the depth, imagination, and genius of a great artist. There are also a

number of small engravings from his hand, in which he often approaches

Guido.

His son Filippo and Domenico degli Ambrogi, called Menichino del Brizio,

were his most distinguished disciples. These artists painted more for

private ornament than for that of the churches. The latter became

celebrated for his design; was employed chiefly in friezes for chambers, in

architecture, and landscape in fresco, sometimes in conjunction with

Dentone and Colonna, sometimes alone. He was also a finished artist of

pictures for private rooms, occasionally exhibiting there copious

histories, as in that we read of in the full and well drawn up catalogue of

the Sig. Canon Vianelli's pictures at Chioggia. It presents us with the

entrance of a pontiff into the city of Bologna. It is not surprising that

he should be acknowledged and esteemed even in the Venetian territories,

having been the preceptor of Fumiani, and master of Pierantonio Cerva, who

painted a good deal for the Paduan state.

Gio. Andrea Donducci, called from his father's profession Mastelletta,[41]

inherited a genius for the art. Impatient, however, of the precepts of the

Caracci, his masters, he neglected to ground himself in the art, was

unequal to designing naked figures, and far from producing any masterpiece.

His method was short, and wholly intent upon attracting the eye by effect;

loading his pictures with shadow in such a way as to conceal the outlines,

and opposing to his shadows masses of light sufficiently strong, thus

succeeding in disguising from judges the inaccuracies of his design, and

gratifying the multitude with a display of apparent novelty. I have often

imagined that this artist had great influence with the sect of the

Tenebrosi, which afterwards spread itself through the Venetian state, and

almost every district in Lombardy. He was enabled to support his credit by

a noble spirit of design, by a tolerable imitation of Parmigianino, the

sole artist adapted to his disposition, and by a natural facility that

enabled him to colour a very large extent of canvass in a short time. Among

such specimens are the Death, and the Assumption of the Virgin, at the

Grazie, and some similar histories, not unfrequent in Bologna. Perhaps his

picture of S. Irene, at the Celestini, is superior to any other. When

advanced in life, hearing the applause bestowed on the clear, open style,

he began to practise it, but with no kind of success, not possessing

ability to appear to advantage out of his own obscure manner. In his former

one he had painted at S. Domenico two miracles of the saint, which were

esteemed his masterpieces; but these he altered according to his new

method, and they were thenceforth regarded among his most feeble

performances. In his half-figures the same diversity of manner is

observable; and those executed in the first, such as his Miracle of the

Manna, in the Spada palace, with others at Rome, are justly held in esteem.

The same may be said of his landscapes, which, in many galleries, are

attributed to the Caracci; but the taste in the rapidity of touch, very

original and remarkable in Mastelletta, is sufficient to distinguish them.

Annibal was so well pleased with these pictures for galleries, that, having

his company at Rome, he advised him to settle there and confine himself to

similar labours; advice by no means pleasing to Donducci. But he a good

deal frequented the studio of Tassi, and these artists mutually assisted

each other, freely communicating between themselves what they knew. Soon

after he returned to Bologna, and resumed his more extensive works; but met

with serious disappointments, such as to induce him to enter as a friar,

first among the Conventuals, next with the canons of S. Salvatore. He

educated no pupils of merit, except that one Domenico Mengucci, of Pesaro,

resembled Mastelletta a good deal in his landscape; an artist better known

at Bologna than in his native place.

Footnote 41: A pail or bucket maker.

Besides the forementioned disciples of the Caracci academy, several others

are entitled to consideration; such as Schedone and more names recorded in

the schools already described, with a few yet left to mention in those of

which we have to treat. Many names will also find a place among the

Bolognese painters of landscape, or those of perspective. A few others, who

devoted themselves to figures, have been scarcely alluded to by Malvasia,

either because then living, or not so distinguished as some of the

preceding; nevertheless they are not despicable, for to hold a second or

third rank, where Domenichino and Guido are the foremost, is a degree of

honour not to be regretted. One of these is Francesco Cavazzone, a writer

too on the art, of whom the Canon Crespi subsequently collected very ample

notices, in particular extolling a Magdalen kneeling at the feet of the

Redeemer, a truly imposing picture, that ornamented the church of that

saint in via S. Donato. Of much the same degree of merit was Vincenzio

Ansaloni, who gave only two altar-pieces to the public, but sufficient to

establish his title to the character of a great artist. Giacomo Lippi,

called also Giacomone da Budrio, was another distinguished artist, of

universal genius, in whose fresco histories at the portico of the Nunziata

we trace the pupil of Lodovico, not very select, but of prompt and

practised hand. Some pictures in fresco too by Piero Pancotto, at S.

Colombano, gave rise to feelings of disgust from the ridicule attempted to

be cast on his own parish priest, caricatured by him in the features of a

holy evangelist, though as an artist he could not be despised.

Among the histories at S. Michele in Bosco, already described, is seen the

Sepulture of the SS. Valeriano and Tiburzio by Alessandro Albini, a painter

of spirit; the Giving Alms of S. Cecilia, by Tommaso Campana, who

afterwards followed Guido; the St. Benedict among the Thorns, by Sebastiano

Razali; the Conference between Cecilia and Valeriano, by Aurelio Bonelli;

all respectable artists, except that Malvasia blames the last mentioned as

unworthy of a school productive of so many noble disciples; but it is rare

that in such rich abundance some abortive specimen does not appear. Florio

and Gio. Batista Macchi, Enea Rossi, Giacinto Gilioli, Ippolito Ferrantini,

Pier-Maria Porettano, Antonio Castellani, Antonia Pinelli;[42] all these

gave to the Bolognese public some superior specimens of their skill, and

more in the adjacent places; and we may add Gio. Batista Vernici, who was

subsequently employed by the Duke of Urbino. Nothing remains there from the

hand of Andrea Costa, or of Vincenzio Gotti; of whom the former, according

to Malvasia, painted for the S. Casa of Loreto some admirable pieces, now

known, if I mistake not, under another name. The latter resided in the

kingdom of Naples, mostly at Reggio, an artist of singular rapidity, whose

altar-pieces in that city alone amount to the number of two hundred and

eighteen. Other followers of the Caracci are known to have renounced

painting in favour of engraving and sculpture. The academy was closed on

Lodovico's death; and the casts, with other requisites for the art,

remained for a long period at Bologna. Domenico Mirandola, on the opening

of Facini's academy, quitted that of Lodovico, became a celebrated

sculptor, enriched himself with the spoils of both, and kept an open

studio, regulated according to the method of his first masters; called for

this reason by some the studio of the Caracci. Names, however, are not

realities; and correctness of design was not maintained in this

_soi-disant_ academy, but gradually deteriorated; the honour of its revival

being reserved for the genius of Cignani, of whom we shall say more in our

fourth epoch.

Footnote 42: The wife of Bertusio, and admired by Lodovico

Caracci for her singular modesty and attachment to the art.

Her finest production adorns the Nunziata, composed from

Lodovico's design, in which she drew her own portrait with a

bonnet, and that of her husband.

The review of the Bolognese artists is here complete. In the year 1617 the

state of Ravenna had to boast a Guarini, an artist of a sound style, not

far removed from that of the Caracci, if we may judge from a Pieta, at S.

Francesco, in Rimini, to which place he belonged. There too was one Matteo

Ingoli, who is mentioned in the Venetian School, to which he wholly devoted

his talents. To the same state belonged the family of Barbiani, who have

continued down to this period their services to their country. Giambatista,

the most ancient, is mentioned by Orlandi; his school is not known, though

he possesses an attractive manner, much resembling Cesi's, but differing

from him in the study of each figure, and on this account unequal with

himself. His St. Andrew, and his St. Joseph, on two altars at the

Francescani; his S. Agatha, in the church of that name, with other pieces

in different places, are well executed in oil. In the chapel of N. Signora

del Sudore, in the cathedral, is the vaulted ceiling painted by him with an

Assumption of the Virgin, which, even compared with Guido's cupola at

Ravenna, does not displease. A son of Gio. Batista succeeded him in his

profession, not in his reputation; from whom, or some other member of the

family, sprung Andrea Barbiani, who, on the corbels of the said ceiling,

coloured the four evangelists, and painted several altar-pieces both at

Ravenna and at Rimini. After examining his manner, and in particular his

tints, I believe him to have been a pupil, or at least a disciple of P.

Pronti of Rimini, shortly before commended among Guercino's disciples along

with Gennari, also from that place. Here likewise we shall mention a third,

sprung from the school of Padovanino, but residing in his native place; a

painter more of pictures for private ornament than for churches. His name

was Carlo Leoni, and he competed with Centino in his picture of the

Penitence of David, at the Oratorio, and with other excellent figurists who

then flourished in Romagna. Among Guercino's disciples will be found also

natives of Cesena; and I am convinced that many other artists of Romagna

were retained by him at Cento; a fact which is alluded to in his life,

without any mention of the names.

At Faenza, in the time of the Caracci, flourished one Ferrau da Faenza,

with the additional family appellation of Fanzoni, or Faenzoni, derived

probably from his country. According to Titi he was pupil to Vanni, but

left nothing at Rome besides his fresco paintings at the Scala Santa, at S.

Gio. Laterano, and in great number at S. Maria Maggiore. They consist of

scripture histories, of exact design, very pleasing tints, and good mixture

of colours; mostly executed in competition with Gentileschi, Salimbeni,

Novara, and Croce. From his hand is the S. Onofrio, in the cathedral at

Foligno, with several pieces at Ravenna and Faenza, where however his

manner seems to have changed. There I heard him included among the pupils

of the Caracci, from whom perhaps he some time studied. Nor is this at all

difficult to believe on contemplating the chapel of S. Carlo, in the

cathedral, or his Deposition from the Cross, at the nunnery of S. Domenico;

or his Probatica, at the confraternity of S. Giovanni, which is the best

preserved of all his pictures in the district, and nearest resembling

Lodovico's style. I am assured that his real family was the Fenzoni, of

noble origin, now extinct at Faenza; and that he died in his native place

in 1645, aged 83. It is related that he perpetrated an atrocious deed,

having assassinated, out of mere professional jealousy, one Manzoni of

Faenza, a young artist of rising reputation, as is apparent from several of

his pictures, of which two are in the possession of the Ab. Strocchi,

Giudice di Pace, in Faenza. Nor is he less esteemed for his altar-pieces,

particularly that of the Martyrdom of S. Eutropio Vescovo, exhibited in

that church. He would have shone a distinguished ornament of the art, had

not his career been thus untimely cut short by envy. The assassin artist

failed to restore to Painting that of which he had deprived her, even by

educating his two young daughters, Teresa, who painted much for her native

place, and Claudia Felice, perhaps her superior, at Bologna, where she died

in 1703.

One Tommaso Misciroli left several specimens of his hand at Faenza, known

generally by the name of Pittor Villano. He flourished after Ferrau, and

owed his reputation to his genius rather than to any precepts of the art.

Neither in his design, his expression, nor his costume, has he any thing to

recommend him, and in these he often errs. But in the vivacity of his

attitudes, in his colouring, acquired from Guido, his draperies from the

Venetians, he is equal to many of this school; yet this remark applies only

to a few works executed with much care. The best of these is at the church

of S. Cecilia, where he has exhibited the martyrdom of that saint; and in

the scene is introduced an executioner stirring up the flames, a figure

almost copied from the grand picture by Lionello, at the church of S.

Domenico in Bologna.

Gaspero Sacchi da Imola is known to me only from some pictures he conducted

at Ravenna, and recorded first by Fabbri, next by Orlandi. It is uncertain

to what country the Cav. Giuseppe Diamantini belonged, called by some in

mistake Giovanni; but generally acknowledged to have been a native of

Romagna. In the twenty-eighth volume of the _Antichita Picene_ it is

asserted that he came from Fossombrone. He resided at Venice, and left at

S. Moise an Epiphany, in which he displays great freedom of hand, and a

bold effect in the execution. He is more celebrated in collections

belonging to the Venetian state than in churches, being met with at Rovigo

and at Verona, where, in Casa Bevilacqua, are some heads of philosophers in

a very novel manner. His character indeed consisted in this kind of

painting, and he would seem to have derived his idea of them from Salvator

Rosa.

We shall now proceed to treat of the landscape, flower, and perspective

painters; all artists in short connected with minor branches of the art. On

this subject the historians who preceded me have attributed no improvement

to the Caracci, except in landscape; though I believe that their prevailing

maxim of shunning all caprice and fallacy, and confining themselves to

representations of truth and nature in the art, spread its influence from

the human figure down to the insect, from the tree to the fruit, from the

palace to the cottage. In a similar way too was introduced the maxim of

avoiding in literature that affectation, prevalent in the sixteenth

century, in favour of the purity of better ages; owing to which the style

of writing, from that of history even to familiar correspondence, from the

poetry of the epic to the sonnet, shone with real lustre.

Gio. Batista Viola and Gio. Francesco Grimaldi were the two leading

painters of landscape at that period, in the manner of the Caracci. Viola

was among the first to exclude from painting that hard, dry style so much

practised by the Flemish. He has been mentioned as being at Rome, where he

established himself, and decorated with landscape-frescos different villas

belonging to those nobles; in particular the Villa Pia. But portable

pictures of this artist are rarely to be met with, except, that being in

company with Albani at Rome, his landscapes were frequently introduced into

the pictures of the latter, and may be recognized in that city by judges as

those of Viola, like Mola's in other pieces of Albani at Bologna. Grimaldi

continued many years in the service of different pontiffs at Rome; and some

years in that of the Car. Mazarini at Paris, and of Louis XIV. He surpassed

Viola in good fortune as well as science; a noble architect, excellent in

perspective, in figures, and as an engraver of Titian's landscapes and of

his own. His prints display singular judgment in the individual parts, and

great beauty in their edifices; he is also much more ample in drawing the

foliage than the Caracci, and also very different; as is observed in the

_Lettere Pittoriche_.[43] His design always answers to the workmanship; his

touch is light, his colouring very strong, only partaking too much of the

green. He was employed by Innocent X., in competition with other artists,

in the Quirinal and in the Vatican palace; and was also selected to

decorate some churches, in particular at S. Martino a' Monti. The Colonna

gallery is enriched with his views, and he is often met with in others,

though not so much sought after in foreign parts as Claude and Poussin.

Such is their number, that I doubt not some of his works were executed by

his son Alessandro, who, according to Orlandi, was a disciple and follower

of Gio. Francesco. His specimens are not equally abundant at Bologna,

where, about the same period, other landscape painters are known to have

flourished.

Footnote 43: Vol. ii. p. 289.

We have extolled Mastelletta, and now for a similar taste we must praise

Benedetto Possenti, a pupil of Lodovico, and also a spirited painter of

figures. His landscapes present us with seaports, embarkations, fairs,

festivals, and the like objects. Bartolommeo Loto, or Lotti, was also held

in high esteem, first a disciple and next competitor of Viola, one who

invariably adhered to the taste of the Caracci. Paolo Antonio Paderna, a

pupil of Guercino, afterwards of Cignani, displayed in his landscape

admirable imitation of Guercino's manner. There was likewise Antonio dal

Sole, from the circumstance of painting with his left hand, denominated il

Monchino de' Paesi,[44] Francesco Ghelli, and Filippo Veralli, all sprung

from the school of Albani, and all much prized for their rural views in

different collections.

Footnote 44: The handless landscape painter.

Annibal formed, as stated in the second volume, a Gio. da Udine of his own,

in a distinguished painter of fruits, called il Gobbo di Cortona, or il

Gobbo de' Caracci. Similar reputation was acquired by two Bolognese

artists, Antonio Mezzadri, whose flowers and fruits are in abundance at

Bologna; and Anton Maria Zagnani, who received commissions even from

princely foreigners. Both were excelled by Paolo Antonio Barbieri, as

famous for his representation of animals, flowers, and fruits, as his

brother Gio. Francesco for the human figure. He bestowed, however, little

study on the art, being too much occupied with his family affairs.[45]

There was a pupil of Guido, by birth a Milanese, but settled at Bologna,

named Pierfrancesco Cittadini, commonly called il Milanese, who surpassed

all his fellow scholars. Some of his altar-pieces shew him to have been

capable of greater performances; but following the genius and example of

several artists whom he saw at Rome, he restricted himself to painting

small pictures on canvass, and small branches of histories and landscapes.

Yet these were excelled by his specimens of fruits and flowers, with birds

of every kind, to which he occasionally added portraits and very graceful

figures, in the same piece. Bologna abounds with his paintings, as such a

line of study proved useful to the quadraturists,[46] who were often

desirous to secure Cittadini's assistance and that of his pupils in their

ornamental labours.

Footnote 45: As the head of the domestic establishment, he

inserted in a book the pictures on which he and his brother

were employed, with the prices which they obtained. On his

death this was continued by Benedetto and Cesare Gennari,

who recorded the works conducted by their surviving uncle.

Such a registry was very useful to ascertain the dates and

prices of the Guercinesque pictures; from the family of

Gennari it came into possession of the Prince Ercolani, who

made a valuable collection of MSS. and very rare books on

the fine arts.

Footnote 46: Ornamental and architectural painters.

For portraits drawn from life, without any other accessaries, Gio.

Francesco Negri, pupil of Fialetti, in Venice, was then in credit at

Bologna; where he had for his fellow pupil Boschini, who finally became a

designer and engraver in copper. Commendations of Negri are met with in the

volumes of Malvasia and of Crespi.

Bologna had to boast little that was great in regard to ornamental

architecture up to the time of Dentone (Girolamo Curti), who became its

restorer also in other parts of Italy. I say restorer, inasmuch as Gio. and

Cherubino Alberti at Rome, and the Sandrini at Brescia, with the Bruni in

Venice, had produced some fine specimens. Nor, if we consider the times,

were Agostino dalle Prospettive and Tommaso Lauretti, in Bologna itself,

destitute of merit, as we have already stated. But their models being

either neglected or corrupted by their successors, produced no solid

advantage to the art; so that there were either no quadraturists in any

cities of Italy, or they were extremely rare, and esteemed only as the

refuse of the figurists. Dentone, with his companions, not only revived,

but elevated and enlarged this art. Sprung from a spinning manufactory of

the Signori Rizzardi, he commenced under Lionello Spada to attempt the

design of figures; and finding this too difficult, he turned to ornamental

painting, and acquired from Baglione the use of the rule, and to draw the

lines. He proceeded no farther with this master; but, having purchased the

works of Vignola and Serlio, he in these studied the different orders of

architecture, grounded himself in perspective, formed a solid and well

regulated taste, which he farther improved with what he saw at Rome, among

the remains of ancient architecture. He attempted much in the form of

relief, which is indeed the soul of this profession. His fine illusions of

cornices, colonnades, lodges, balustrades, arches, and modiglioni, seen

with the effect of foreshortening, have led to the supposition of his being

assisted by stuccos, or some materials of strong relief; while the whole is

produced by the effect of chiaroscuro, brought to a facility, truth, and

grace never before seen. In his colours he preserved those of the stones

and marbles; avoiding those tints of gems and precious stones, afterwards

introduced at the expense of all verisimilitude. It was an invention of his

to lay gold-leaf over his works in fresco. He made use of burnt oil, with

turpentine and yellow wax, melted together, and placed, in a dissolved

state, with a fine pencil, on the parts where the lights occur, and where

the gold leaf is applied. Still he but sparingly availed himself of such

discovery, consigning its abuse to his followers. Anxious for durability,

he was accustomed to rough sketch, and afterwards to fill up with other

layers, then making of the whole one solid impasto, or mingled layers of

colours; while in the most exposed spots, not trusting wholly to the

plaster, he united very fine portions of white marble, as subtly inserted

as we see in the facade of the Grimaldi palace. He thus conferred fresh

lustre on both palaces and churches; and next proceeding to the theatres,

he exhibited novel spectacles in them. The nearmost scenes he painted with

the most commanding power of shade, and diminishing its depth by degrees,

conducted the eye to the most remote with sensations of harmony and

delight. This contrast of depth and sweetness gave the illusion of an

immense prospect in small space; and such was the degree of relief in the

edifices there represented, that numbers, on the first appearance, went

upon the stage in order to explore the reality more nearly. His excellence

in this respect soon obtained him commissions out of Bologna; from the

Card. Legate, at Ravenna, from the sovereigns of Parma and Modena, and at

Rome from Prince Lodovisi, for whom he painted a hall, which outshone the

Sala Clementina, decorated by Gio. Alberti, until then esteemed the most

admirable of its kind.

It was Dentone's custom to retain the services of a figurist, in order to

model his statues, prepare his chiaroscuri, figures of boys, and sometimes

even animals and flowers, with all which he ornamented, not always with

discreetness, his architectural views. The most erudite among the young

artists here vied in offers of their services, desirous of profiting by the

same art, and acquiring reputation. In the hall of the Conti Malvasia, at

Trebbio, he was assisted by Brizio, Francesco and Antonio Caracci, and

Valesio; also by Massari, in the grand chapel of S. Domenico, who attended

him as well in the library of the fathers of S. Martino, where he painted

the celebrated Dispute of S. Cirillo. In the Tanara palace he even engaged

Guercino, who there exhibited his grand Hercules; while elsewhere he was

assisted by Campana, Galanino, and Spada, and a few cartoons were afforded

him by Guido himself. But his most useful colleague was Angiol Michele

Colonna, who arriving at an early age from Como, and having studied some

time under Ferrantini, finally united himself with Dentone, and became

celebrated throughout Europe. This artist, according to Crespi, enjoyed the

reputation of the greatest fresco painter of whom Bologna could boast; such

was his spirited drawing both of men and animals, such his eminence in

perspective, and every species of ornamental work, that he was himself

alone equal to any grand undertaking, and painted alone an entire chamber

at the Florentine court, and a chapel at S. Alessandro, in Parma. The

perspectives in the tribune of that church were by his hand; the figures by

Tiarini; and in several other places the perspectives were by Dentone, the

figures by Colonna. It formed his peculiar talent, with whatever painter he

might engage, so to adapt himself to the style and spirit of his colleague,

that the entire work seemed the idea of the same mind, the product of a

single hand. Nor did he require any delay; for whilst his companion

proceeded with his own portion, he, with wonderful velocity, consistency,

and admirable harmony, despatched the work; a gift for which he was very

generally sought after, and more particularly by Dentone, who retained him

after his return from Rome, until the period of his decease.