The city of Bologna, likewise, contributed to repair the loss sustained by Verona of so many artists. Guido and Albani conferred great obligations, by instructing the Cavalier Coppa (his real name, however, was Antonio Giarola, or Gerola) who is to be enumerated in the list of their best disciples, though he is somewhat too loaded in his composition, and, with a view of catching the sweetness of Guido, became wanting in strength of colouring. There is one of his Magdalens in the Desert, however, placed at the Servi, which is full of fine expression. And in the refectory, also, of the Veronese college, is his Supper of Emmaus, a picture conducted in the style of the best Venetians. Although addicted to the style of Guido, he was also considered by Albani as one of his favourite pupils, who sent him as court painter to the Duke of Mantua, as we are informed by Malvasia.[86]From the same academy sprung GiacomoLocatelli, distinguished for several works, chiefly produced for San Procolo, as well as on account of the merit of some of his pupils. They rose into notice in the decline of the art, about the close of the seventeenth century. Andrea Voltolino, a careful but cold painter, was more fitted to succeed in portraits than in compositions; Biagio Falcieri, instructed also by the Cavalier Liberi at Venice, possessed much of the fire and imagination abounding in the Venetian School. Of this he gave an example in his great picture representing the Council of Trent, where the figure of St. Thomas, in the act of overthrowing heretics, appears conspicuous on high, a piece that adorns the church of the Domenicans. Santo Prunato was instructed by these two professors, an artist who brought the Veronese School into fresh notice, as we shall have occasion to observe in the following period.
The school of Moretto continued during this epoch to flourish in Brescia;a master exquisitely delicate in his colours, and extremely diligent, as is evident from his works. Such is the opinion expressed by Vasari; but he did not always preserve the same excellence. There is not the same degree of finish in his disciples, and it was, indeed, too difficult, while so large a portion of the state put a high value upon celerity of hand, to pursue more tedious processes. The Brescian artists who succeeded him, having in part received a Venetian education, the city abounded in manneristsand the class oftenebrosi. Still there appeared among these some excellent painters. Antonio Gandini and Pietro Moroni, or Maroni, are enumerated among the pupils of Paul. The former sometimes imitated Vanni, without neglecting Palma; vast, varied, and ornate in his compositions, an artist every way deserving of consideration in the grand history of the Cross, which he painted in the old cathedral, where his son Bernardino, a poor imitator of his father, also employed himself. Moroni studied a good deal the works of Titian, and was one of the most accurate and fine designers the school could, at that time, boast; nor does he yield to any of his contemporaries in the strong body, and in the clearness of his colouring. Such at least he appeared to me at San Barnaba, in his picture of Christ going to Mount Calvary, when compared with other productions of the same period exhibited there.
Filippo Zanimberti, pupil to Peranda, and an artist of fine character, and a fine hand, as well as a very natural colourist, has never been sufficiently appreciated in Brescia. But in Venice, where he resided many years, and where he painted with real genius and skill for different churches, he is very highly esteemed. In Santa Maria Nuova appears his grand picture of the Manna, so much commended by Ridolfi, by Boschini, and by Zanetti; though he chiefly seems to have employed himself in the ornament of palaces. He possessed singulartalent for drawing small figures, and composing fables and histories, which were eagerly sought after, insomuch that the poet of the Venetian paintings affirms that whoever possessed Zanimberti's pictures, was sure of his money.
Francesco Zugni, of Brescia, is mentioned by Ridolfi among the best of Palma's disciples. He could not compete with him in the beauty of his forms and attitudes, though he surpassed him in the fulness of his colouring, and in the spirit in which he conducted his works. These were for the most part in fresco, and frequently exhibited the perspectives of Sandrini, an architect of great merit. With him he was employed in the hall of the Podestà, in that of the Capitano, and in several villas. He displayed equal excellence in his oil paintings, as we gather from that of the Circumcision at the Grazie, and from some small figures adorning one of the choirs, designed and touched with great spirit.
Grazio Cossale, or Cozzale, produced a variety of pieces upon a large scale, still remaining in his native province. He was gifted with a rich imagination, and of a character, compared by Cozzando, the historian of Brescia, to that of Palma; and he indeed appears to have emulated his facility without abusing it. His picture of the Presentation, which he left at the church of the Miracoli; his Epiphany at the Grazie, and other pieces dispersed throughout Brescia, are all calculated to arrest the eye of the spectator, whomust likewise possess little feeling, should he fail to lament the unhappy fate of so great a man, who fell by the hand of one of his own sons. Neither in Camillo Rama, Ottavio Amigoni, nor in Jacopo Barucco, all disciples of Palma, have I met with any works of equal beauty throughout that city, the last of whom, indeed, has loaded his pieces with a more than ordinary degree of shade. Amigoni, who had been pupil to Gandino, likewise held his school, in which he counted, among other scholars, Pompeo Ghiti, an artist who, under Zoppo of Lugano, succeeded in improving his manner, or rendered it at least more powerful. He possessed a rich imagination, excellent in the art of design, and in his touch similar to, though perhaps not so strong as the Luganese. Francesco Paglia was a pupil and imitator of Guercino, and the father of Antonio and Angelo, both devoted to the art. He was most successful in his portraits, though he painted also scriptural pieces; one of the most esteemed of which is to be seen at La Carità. He was excellent in the laying on of his colours, and in chiaroscuro, but displayed little spirit, while his proportions were frequently too long and slender. But to describe minutely the manner of the successors of Ghiti and Paglia, would occupy too much of our space; such are the names of Tortelli, very spirited in Venetian composition, of Cappelli, instructed likewise by Pasinelli at Bologna, and by Baciccio at Rome, along with some others of a more modern character, who succeeded tolerablyin the path marked out by the artists of Bologna, and a few of whom may be referred to the ensuing epoch.
During the time of Palma and the Venetian mannerists, the art had been maintained in Bergamo by the successors of Lotto, and of his contemporaries. We meet with ample commendations of Gio. Paolo Lolmo, a good artist in diminutive pictures. In the altarpiece of Santi Rocco and Sebastiano at S. Maria Maggiore, and executed about 1587, not one of his earliest pieces, he displayed a great partiality for the design of the fourteenth century; diligent, a minute observer of refinements in figures, though not sufficiently modern. But there were two excellent artists, altogether in the modern style, who flourished at the same period; Salmeggia and Cavagna, who competed with one another in perfect amity, for many years, in ornamenting their native province. One of them died in 1626, the other in the following year.
Enea Salmeggia, called Talpino, received instructions in the art from the Campi at Cremona, and from the Procaccini in Milan; whence proceeding to Rome, he studied for a period of fourteen years the models of Raffaello, imitating him during the remainder of his life. Orlandi and other writers join in extolling his San Vittore, at the Olivetani in Milan, as well as a few other of his works, observing that they had been even ascribed to Raffaello. And whoever attentively examines that fine specimen, will not feel inclined to refuse Salmeggiaone of the most distinguished places in the rank of Raffaello's followers. The clearness of his contours (sometimes, however, carried to the borders of littleness) the expression of his youthful countenances, the smoothness of his pencil and the flow of his drapery, together with a certain graceful air in the motions and expressions, sufficiently mark him for an admirer of that sovereign master, however much inferior to him in point of dignity, in imitation of the antique, and in felicity of composition. His method of colouring was also different. He affects greater variety of colours in his draperies; the tints in a large portion of his works are at present faded; and the shades as in other pictures of the same period, are much altered. Yet it is probable that this great artist, as it has been observed of Poussin and of Raffaello himself, did not always bestow the same degree of care upon his colouring, satisfied with displaying from time to time his surpassing excellence in this department. In the church of La Passione at Milan, he produced his Christ praying in the Garden, as well as his picture of the Flagellazione, works conducted in his best style. The former of these is finely coloured in the manner of the Bassani; and the latter, of a more lofty and animated character, is superior to the other even in force of colouring. Bergamo boasts other specimens of him, and in particular in the two great altars of Santa Marta and of Santa Grata. There we meet with two noble pictures, each of which may boastits separate admirers who prefer it to the other; and each displays an union of colours, at once so fresh, clear, and beautiful, that we are never weary of contemplating them. In both he has observed the same general composition; the Virgin being represented on high, crowned with a glory, while below her are seen the figures of several saints; but in the second, perhaps, he has employed a greater degree of care. Here he has introduced a splendid variety of shortenings, of attitudes, and of lineaments; and even inserted the city of Bergamo, with some fine architecture in the style of Paul Veronese. The figures are arrayed with extreme care, among which appears a bishop in his sacred paraphernalia, that serves to remind us of Titian himself. His pictures for private ornament are rare and valuable, but not sufficiently known beyond his native province and its vicinity, a circumstance common to many very excellent artists belonging to all our schools. Italy, indeed, is too abundantly supplied with distinguished names to admit of the whole of them being generally known and estimated as they deserve.
The style of Enea was not such as to be easily maintained, without consulting the great examples of Raffaello as he had done. His two sons, Francesco and Chiara, although educated by their father, succeeded rather in imitating his studies and his figures, than in thoroughly penetrating into the principles of his art. The fruits, however, of a good education were sufficiently apparent inthem; and when placed in competition with some of their contemporaries, they appear, if not very animated, at least very sedulous artists, and greatly exempt from the faults of the mannerists. The city is in possession of many of their public works; in some of the best of which their father is supposed to have afforded them his assistance.
Gianpaolo Cavagna seems in some way to have escaped the notice of Boschini, and even of Orlandi, who had bestowed so much commendation upon his rival. He ranks, in his native province, as high as Salmeggia, and he certainly appears to have possessed a still more enlarged genius, more decision, and more talent for extensive works. A pupil of Morone, the great portrait painter, as we have already mentioned, he evinced a taste for the Venetian School, attaching himself in particular to Paul Veronese, in whose style he conducted some of his best productions. He was ambitious of surpassing him likewise in point of design, which he assuredly did in his naked figures, exhibiting even the adult form with a degree of masterly power. He had acquired the best method of painting in fresco, in his native place, and he succeeded in it admirably, as appears from the choir of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he represented the Virgin received into Heaven, a very spirited and varied composition, abounding with figures of angels and of prophets, truly great; the distinguishing characteristic, perhaps, of this artist's genius. Nor did he appear to less advantage inoils, more particularly when the immediate vicinity of other celebrated painters put his talents to the test. Of this kind the most successful, perhaps, are his Daniel in the Lions' Den, and his picture of San Francesco receiving the stigmata, forming side pictures to one of the best altarpieces by Lorenzo Lotto at San Spirito; yet they are nevertheless worthy of that distinguished post. His Crucifixion, between various saints, placed at Santa Lucia, has been still more highly extolled as one of the finest productions the city has to boast, and preferred by many judges to any of the altarpieces of Talpino. I shall abstain from expressing an opinion upon a subject in which artists themselves would disagree, merely observing that it is more difficult to meet with inferior or careless pieces from the hand of Salmeggia than from Cavagna's. He had also a son a painter of the name of Francesco, called Cavagnuola, who, surviving his father, acquired some degree of celebrity. He attached himself wholly to the style of Gianpaolo, as well as certain foreigners sprung from the same school, such as Girolamo Grifoni, in whose productions we seem to trace the copy of a copy of the style of Paul. If the artists named Santa Croce belong to Bergamo, and to one family, as we are informed in theGuidaof Padua, we ought here to insert the name of Pietro Paolo, the least distinguished among the Santa Croce, but not unworthy of commemoration for one of his Madonnas at the Arena, and for other pictures at differentchurches in Padua, in all of which he appears attached to the school of Cavagna, or at least to the less mannered class of the Venetians.
Subsequent to the above two artists, we meet with the name of Francesco Zucco, a good pupil of the Campi at Verona, and of Moroni at Bergamo. From this last he acquired the art of giving a singular degree of spirit to his portraits, and from Paul Veronese the mode of ornamenting them with most taste and fancy. Even in his larger compositions he sometimes adhered so closely to the same artist, that several of them were ascribed even by his fellow citizens to Paul, a circumstance that occurred to his pictures of the Nativity and of an Epiphany, on the organ of San Gottardo. He adopted, moreover, a variety of manners, apparently ambitious of displaying to the public his power of imitating Cavagna or Talpino, as he pleased. Contemporary with these artists, he so far rivalled them, (as in his San Diego at Le Grazie, or in the large altar at the Cappuccine,) as to approve himself worthy of such emulation. In other works he gives us occasion to wish for a better union of his colours, in which he cannot be pronounced equal to the first masters of the school, so admirable in this department.
Subsequent to the year 1627, there was no want of artists of ability at Bergamo, among whom we may mention a Fabio di Pietro Ronzelli, whose style, if not sufficiently select and ideal, was at least solid and robust. To his we may add the nameof Carlo Ceresa, an artist of much study and research, pleasing in his colouring, and having apparently formed his taste upon the models of the best age, successful in giving ideal beauty to his countenances. The former of these, most probably the son of one Piero, known as a good portrait painter, and respectable in point of composition, painted the Martyrdom of San Alessandro, for the church of Santa Grata, while the latter added the two side pictures without the least traces of mannerism. Contemporary with both these, Domenico Ghislandi distinguished himself as a painter of frescos, more particularly in architecture. He was the father of Fra Vittore, called likewise Frate Paolotto, whom we shall have occasion to mention hereafter. At present it will hardly be desirable that I should extend my remarks to other names scarcely heard of beyond the limits of their native province; though in justice to the city I must observe that in its dearth of native talent, it spared no expense in decorating public places with the works of the best foreign artists, of every country. Ample proofs of this liberality may be seen in the cathedral and the adjacent church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Such are among the advantages enjoyed by cities, which are equally in possession of taste and of riches. But when deficient in either of these, they will be compelled to adopt the plan pursued in rural occupations, where each agriculturist employs the oxen that belong to his own fields.
Crema, at this period, might pride itself on having produced such an artist as Carlo Urbini, who, though of limited genius, was very pleasing skilful in perspective, and equal to grand historical pieces. He had afforded a specimen of his powers in one of the public halls, in which he exhibited national battles and victories, besides having employed his talents in different churches. In ornamenting that of San Domenico, however, an artist of the name of Uriele, most probably of the Gatti family at Cremona, was preferred before him, though extremely inferior. This injustice seemed to alienate his mind from his native place, and he proceeded to Milan, by whose writers he has been recorded with honour. Yet his history piece at San Lorenzo, conducted in fresco, seems to contain rather the seeds than the fruits of noble painting, and he appears to greater advantage in oil colours, as we gather from his picture of our Saviour taking leave of his virgin mother previous to his sufferings, a production ornamenting Santa Maria near San Celso, where it may compete with the best Lombard masters of that time. Lomazzo makes mention of him in reference to such as produced pieces most suitable to the places for which they were intended; an useful practice, familiar to the old masters, who took care to adapt their pictures, not only to places, but to household furniture, insomuch that in many of their vases and drinking cups, which we meet with in the kingdom of Naples, are represented, for the most part, scenesof festivity, mysteries, and fables of the Bacchanalian God. Subsequent to him flourished Jacopo Barbello, whose paintings in various churches at Bergamo are extolled by Pasta, more particularly in that of San Lazzaro, an altarpiece representing the titular saint, remarkable no less for its dignity of design, than for decision of hand. In the series of this school I find mention of no other artist after him, a school distinguished in its origin by the name of Polidoro, and afterwards adorned by few but very select artists.
We shall next proceed, according to our plan, to treat of certain painters of landscape, of battle pieces, of perspective, flowers, and similar subjects. Henry de Bles, a Bohemian, better known under the name of Civetta, an owl, from the frequent introduction of that bird into his landscapes, was an artist who resided for a long period in the Venetian state. Besides his specimens of landscape to be met with in Venice, and which uniformly present some traces of ancient crudeness, he painted a Nativity of our Lord, for San Nazaro in Brescia, resembling in its style of composition the manner of Bassano. Its prevailing tone is sky-coloured, and in the features of its countenances it partakes of a foreign expression. I have also seen small pictures from his hand intended for cabinets, often thronged with minute figures, known by the name ofChimereandStregozzi, or witch pieces, a kind in which he was extremely fanciful. But on this head we shall have occasion to return to him in ashort time, and proceed to a Flemish artist, who flourished, about the beginning of 1600, in the state. His name was Lodovico Pozzo, or Pozzoserrato, called also da Trevigi, from his long residence in that city, where he died, leaving it, as Federici relates, beautifully decorated with specimens of his hand. He excelled in the representation of distant objects, like his rival Paol Brilli of Venice, in such as were viewed near; and he is more pleasing and select than the latter in, his variation of clouds and distinctions of light; while at the same time he was celebrated for his altarpieces. Subsequent to these appeared several foreign artists, eminent for their skill in landscape, in the time of Boschini at Venice, where several specimens of their art must be still in existence. They were afterwards extolled likewise by Orlandi. There was a Mr. Filgher, a German, who very happily represented the different seasons of the year, and even the different lights throughout the day; a Mons. Giron, a French artist, extremely natural in all kind of views, both of a terrestrial and aerial character, and a M. Cusin who imitated the noble manner of Titian in his landscapes, with much success. Nor ought we to omit Biagio Lombardo, a citizen of Venice, an artist highly commended by Ridolfi, who declares that he rivalled both the best Italian and Flemish painters in his landscape. Girolamo Vernigo, surnamed also da' Paesi, and particularly celebrated in his native city of Verona, where he fell a victim to theplague in 1630, is entitled to rank in the same list. Jacopo Maffei succeeded admirably in his display of incidents at sea, a picture of which kind was engraved by Boschini. Another artist of the name of Bartolommeo Calomato has been pointed out to me by his excellency Persico, in his cabinet of medals; and he ought apparently to be referred to this epoch, judging from his less vigorous and less refined style, although graceful and lively in his expression. He was remarkable for his small pictures representing both rural and civic views, along with small figures very animated and well composed.
A taste for battle pieces had begun to gain ground in this part of Italy from the time of Borgognone. The first who procured for himself a name in this branch was Francesco Monti, of Brescia, and a pupil of Ricchi, as well as of Borgognone himself. He was commonly called II Brescianino delle Battaglie, the Brescian battle painter, in which line he exercised his talents in different Italian cities, ultimately establishing himself at Parma, where he opened a school, and instructed one of his sons in the same style of painting. He pursued, as far as lay in his power, his master's example, though he remained much inferior to him in point of colouring. His productions are not scarce, but in many collections they do not appear under his name, being frequently attributed to the school at large of Borgognone. One of his fellow citizens and scholars, called Fiamminghino, but whose real name was Angiolo Everardi, acquiredgreat reputation also by his battle scenes, but they are seldom to be met with, owing to his having died young. Another of his disciples, a native of Verona, named Lorenzo Comendich, flourished also about the year 1700, in high repute at Milan. Antonio Calza, a Veronese, is to be referred to the same period. Being ambitious of representing military actions, he left the school of Cignani, and transferred his residence to Rome, where, assisted by Cortesi himself, he met with success. He spent his time in Tuscany, at Milan, and in particular at Bologna. There we meet with his pictures pretty abundantly, innumerable copies of them having been taken by his pupils, who by frequently varying the disposition of the groups, succeeded in giving a seeming novelty to his pictures. Upon the authority of the Melchiori MS., I am inclined to add to the list of good battle painters, Agostino Lamma, a Venetian, who employed himself for collections; and in that of Sig. Gio. Batista Curti, there is a piece of his representing the Siege of Vienna, very excellent in point of taste, modelled according to his custom upon that of Matteo Stom.
Towards the year 1660, when the three artists, Civetta, Bosch, and Carpioni, had already filled the galleries with that very tasteful class of pictures called capricci; when Salvator Rosa had produced such curious examples of his transformations and necromancies; and Brughel, surnameddall'Inferno, had drawn from the scenes of that abyss, and fromits monsters, a large supply for every capital in Italy; at that period another artist, Gioseffo Ens, or Enzo, the son of him I have mentioned in the preface, and father of Daniele, a tolerably good figurist, was acquiring rapid celebrity in Venice with some highly imaginative little pictures, partaking in some measure of the style of the above artists. For the chief part they represent allegorical fictions, in which are introduced sphinxes, chimeræ, and monsters in grotesque shape; or to speak more correctly, perhaps, extravagances of imagination quite unauthorized by ancient example, and formed out of the grotesque union of various parts of different animals, much in the same manner as they are seen by persons in their delirious dreams. Boschini adduces an example of this strange poetical folly at page 604, where Pallas is seen putting to flight a troop of these wild fancies, haunting an old decayed mansion, buried in fire and smoke, as the symbol of Virtue dispersing the shades of ignorance and error. In such a career did Enzo arrive at the honour of being made a Chevalier of the Cross, by his Holiness Pope Urban VIII. Subsequently, however, he applied himself with more judgment to the study of truth, and left behind him, in Venice, several altarpieces, one of which adorning the church of the Ognissanti is extremely beautiful. I have also noticed in different collections some burlesques of dwarfs, &c. from the hand of Faustino Bocchi, a Brescian, and pupil to Fiamminghino. He was admirable in hisportraits of these embryos, as it were, of the human race; representations by no means displeasing to some of the ancients, and of which we have examples afforded us in what are termed Etruscan vases. In the production of fables, in which the dwarfs were to appear as actors, he displayed the most fanciful combinations, and in the Carrara collection at Bergamo, there is represented a sacrifice of these pigmies, and a popular feast in honour of an idol, full of humour, in which one of them is seen caught in the claws of a crab, while some of his own party attempt to save him, and his mother hastens, half distracted, to his relief. In order to convey a better idea of their size he inserted a small water melon, which appears almost like a mountain by their side. The design does not seem to differ much from that of Timanthes, who introduced little satyrs, in the act of measuring one of the Cyclops' thumbs with their thyrsus, as he lies asleep, to give a just notion of his bulk. It is to be regretted that Bocchi became addicted to the sect of thetenebrosi, owing to which many of his labours seem to be fast losing their value.
The same period likewise abounded in painters of flowers and fruits, in every part of Italy; but I observe that their names are, for the most part, forgotten, or where they exist in books, are accompanied by no mention of their works. Fortunately, among the pictures at Rovigo, I meet with the name of Francesco Mantovano, whether hissurname or patronymic is uncertain, an artist who excelled in similar works about the time of Borghini; besides those of Antonio Bacci and Antonio Lecchi, or Lech, both florists, and all mentioned by Martinioni in hisAdditions to Sansovino. To the number of these add the name of Marchioni, a native of Rovigo, an artist considered as the Bernasconi of the Venetian School, from her singular skill in flower painting, though not equalling the Roman lady in point of celebrity. Their works are to be seen in some of the collections at Rovigo, which abound also with many celebrated figure painters, no less of the Venetian than of other Italian Schools.
Pictures of animals do not seem to have been much in vogue with Venetian artists about this period, if, indeed, we are not to include Giacomo da Castello in the Venetian state. From verbal communications I learn that in collections at Venice he is not at all rare. I have seen only a few specimens at the Caza Rezzonico, and these consisting of various species of birds, drawn with great truth and force of colouring, as well as beautifully disposed. Domenico Maroli, a painter of flocks and herds, as well as of other rural subjects, was born at Messina, and exercised his talents in Venice. He was intimate with Boschini, who extolled him as a new Bassano, and as a specimen of his talents, inserted in hisCarta del Navegaran engraving after one of his designs. It represents a shepherd with his flocks, figures of cows with a dog, very forciblyand beautifully drawn; and it is altogether one of the best designs that has been engraved for that work. There resided also at Venice, where he was employed in the Casa Sagredo, and in that of Contarini, an artist named Gio. Fayt di Anversa, who, in addition to his paintings of fruits, and various rural implements, was esteemed one of the best copyists of animals, both alive and dead, in which he displayed a very polished, natural, and novel manner.
Among the perspective pieces of this epoch, ornamenting different collections, those by Malombra, as I have before stated, have been particularly commended by Ridolfi. And in architectural views we may mention Aviani, a native of Vicenza, very superior in this branch, as well as in sea views and landscapes. He was born during the lifetime of Palladio, or at least while his school still flourished, and resided in a city where every street presented specimens of a taste for architecture. He thus produced pictures of so fine a character, filled with little figures by Carpioni, under his direction, so extremely pleasing, that it is surprising he did not acquire equal celebrity with Viviano and other first rate artists. Probably he did not long flourish, and then, for the most part, in his native place. In the Foresteria, or Stranger's Lodge, of the Padri Serviti, are four of his views, exhibiting temples and other magnificent edifices, while several more are to be met with in possession of the Marchesi Capra, in the celebrated Rotundaof Palladio, as well as of other nobles in various places. He likewise decorated the ceilings, or cupolas of several churches. Indeed there was then a pretty considerable school established for this branch of the art in Brescia. Tommaso Sandrino was an artist who distinguished himself in it, as well as Ottavio Viviani his pupil, though he displayed a less sound and more loaded style than his master. Faustino Moretto, belonging to the same state, employed himself more at Venice than at Brescia. Domenico Bruni was an artist highly extolled by Orlandi; he exercised his talents at the Carmini, in his native place, as well as at Venice, along with Giacomo Pedrali, also a Brescian, who flourished in the time of Boschini. Together with these appeared Bortolo Cerù, whose scenes have been engraved in aqua fortis by Boschini himself. Zanetti also records the name of Giuseppe Alabardi, called Schioppi, and of Giulio Cesare Lombardo, an artist still superior to him. I might here introduce other artists and architects of the ornamental class, distinguished in proportion to their antiquity; for towards the close of the century architectural exhibitions became too much loaded with vases, figures, and a variety of ornament, which detracted much from that simplicity of taste so essential in some way towards the effect of every thing really great or beautiful.
A kind of minor painting is believed to have been introduced at this epoch, by a priest called Evaristo Baschenis, from Bergamo. He flourishedcontemporary with the three great artists, Cavagna, Salmeggia, and Zucchi; and he appears to have been instructed by one of these in representing every kind of musical instrument with much nature and effect. He arranged them upon tables covered with the most beautiful kinds of cloth, and mingled with them music books, leaves, boxes, fruits, inkstands, &c., drawn just as they might happen to lie; and from these objects he composed pictures executed with so much art as quite to deceive the spectator. Such was their effect, that they are still very much valued in different collections. There were formerly eight of them to be seen in the library of San Giorgio, the ingenuity of which has been highly commended by Zanetti.
[77]In theMemorie Trevigiane, I find that this artist was known also at Rome, in the Guide to which place, however, his name is not to be met with. I have some doubt it may have been confounded with that of Gio. Carbone. But this last was from S. Severino, and a follower of Caravaggio; the other a Venetian, attached to Titian; and, in some pictures he produced at San Niccolò of Trevigi, he subscribes notCarbonis, butCarboncini opus.
[78]Let no one, from this instance, altogether condemn the use of varnishes in the restoration of paintings; for by the application of mastic, and of gum water, according to all the most recent experiments, the colour does not suffer. But oil is injurious to ancient paintings, for the new never becomes incorporated with the old, and, in a short time, every fresh touch is converted into a stain.
[79]Quattro-centisti.Artists of the fourteenth century.
[80]Literally from below to above. Foreshortening on a ceiling.
[81]Vide pp. 512 and 513.
[82]V. tom. ii. p. 196; and, in the same place, I gave him as a pupil to Dario Pozzo, on the authority of the Commendatore del Pozzo. But writers disagree in regard to the chronology of this man; which, until it be further cleared up, may rest, for me, without this honour.
[83]An account of him may be found, tom. ii. p. 198, and in the series of painters of the Barocci school.
[84]Melchiori informs me of a pupil of his, unknown to Pozzo, probably because a non-resident in Verona. This was Father Massimo Cappucino, a Veronese by birth, and, in the historian's opinion, an excellent artist. In proof of this, he mentions four large pictures, placed in the dome of Montagnana, besides several altarpieces, distributed by him among the churches of his order. Along with this ecclesiastic I find mention of two contemporary lay brothers, who assisted him in the art, neither of them unworthy of being placed upon record. These are Fra Semplice, a native of Verona, and pupil to Brusasorci, and Fra Santo, of Venice; both of whom were particularly employed in painting for churches and convents, within the Venetian territory. Fra Semplice produced also some for Rome. A fine picture of San Felice, from his hand, placed at Castelfranco, was engraved in 1712.
[85]
Io mi son un che quandoAmore spira noto; ed a quel modoChe detta dentro vo significando.—Purg.C. 24.
[86]Tom. ii. p. 266.
Of Exotic and New Styles in Venice.
If, according to the plan laid down by Pliny, and which I have hitherto observed, each several epoch ought to be deduced from one or more masters of a school, who may have given a new aspect to the art, it will be proper, in this instance, to vary my system. The epoch here nearest to us will be found to take its rise at a period when the Venetian artists, having almost wholly abandoned their national models, attached themselves some to one, and some to another foreign method, or formed out of them one of their own. Such were the times of which Signor Zanetti, in his work, observes, "there appeared in Venice as many different manners, as there were artists to practise them." This would appear to have been the state of the art towards the end of the 17th century. Those artists who followed, approaching still nearer to modern times, although various in point of style, resembled each other in a study of ideal beauty, and all agreed in copying from the modern Roman, or Bolognese Schools, with the addition, however, of their own defects. Still the old masterswere not, on this account, underrated; but were rather spoken of as the ancients who flourished at a golden period, whose customs are to be admired, indeed, but not imitated. Fashion, as it sometimes happens also in sciences, had usurped the seat of reason; while the artists who followed in her train alleged in excuse, that the age was fond of such novelties, and that it was incumbent upon them to second its inclination, in justice to their own fortunes. Amidst these changes, the Venetian School, which had always preserved its ascendency in point of colouring, then began to alter, losing the truth of nature, as it became more brilliant. Thus few artists flourished at that period who might not, more or less, be termed mannerists in colouring. But in other respects the school appears to have improved, and particularly in treating its history pieces more appropriately, without the introduction of portraits, dresses, and other accessaries, ill adapted to them; a defect to which it had been more attached, and had more obstinately adhered, than any other of the schools. Yet it cannot be denied, that during this period of the decline of art throughout Italy, the Venetian School shone peculiarly conspicuous in the number of superior inventors it produced. For whilst Lower Italy aimed at nothing beyond the striking contrasts of the followers of Cortona; whilst in so many schools of Upper Italy, the imitators of the imitators of the Caracci were esteemed the great models; in Venice, and the adjacent state, various styles wereseen to spring up, which, though not perfect, were at least original, and valuable in their way; if, indeed, the whole of Europe has not been deceived in its estimation of them, purchasing the pictures of the Ricci, of Tiepolo, of Canaletto, of Rotari, and of numerous other artists of the same time, at immense sums. But we must take a more particular survey of them.
The Cavalier Andrea Celesti, who died in the early part of the century, was disciple to Ponzoni, but without becoming his imitator. As an artist, he is very pleasing, fertile in noble images, flowing in his outlines, with delightful scenery, with airs, with features, and with draperies all graceful, and often resembling Paul Veronese. His style of colouring, also, was not remote from nature, equally lucid, pleasing, and soft. Owing to his fondness for the chiaroscuro, one of the chief attractions of his style, or rather, perhaps, to the imperfection of his grounds, there are few of his productions that continue to preserve their original beauty. Occasionally he seems to belong to the sect of Tenebrosi, and his middle tints have in some instances disappeared, destroying the harmony that in some of his best-conducted pictures was admirable. His distinguishing character was a happy audacity of hand, in which he is excelled by very few. He painted both history, and altarpieces for churches, a specimen of which is seen in hisProbaticaat the Ascension. In the public palace there is one of his histories from the Old Testament, aboundingwith all that masterly talent for which he was so remarkable, creating at once admiration and surprise. He produced pieces for private ornament, from profane history, with conversations, games, and rencounters, like Caravaggio's. Alberto Calvetti, an inferior artist, educated in his school, resembles him as little in talent, as, for the most part, in his style.
Antonio Zanchi da Este was an artist, also, better known in Venice for the number, than for the excellence of his works. His style is altogether distinct from that of the foregoing, and it is uncertain whether he derived it from his master Ruschi, or from some other of the sect of naturalists whom we have before described. Such, at least, appears the cast of his genius, common in its forms, sombre in its colours; but nevertheless exciting surprise, by a certain fulness and felicity of hand, by its picturesque spirit, by its effect of chiaroscuro, and by a grand general result, which imposes upon us by its power. If we examine more particularly into his manner, we shall not unfrequently discover an incorrectness of design, along with that kind of indecision, and indistinctness of outline, which is mostly the resource of weak, or, at least, of very hasty artists. He chiefly attached himself to Tintoretto, some traces of whom may be found in his style. In the college of S. Rocco, where that great master rendered his name immortal, we behold one of the best specimens of Zanchi. The subject, admirably fitted to his manner,contributed greatly to his success. He has there given a bold exhibition of the great plague that afflicted Venice in 1630, a picture filled with a concourse of the sick, the dying, and the dead, borne to one universal grave. Opposite to this grand painting there is another from the hand of Pietro Negri, his pupil, as is supposed, but more probably his rival, which represents the liberation of the city from that fatal scourge; and in it, too, we perceive the peculiar ease, and the manner of Zanchi, somewhat improved, however, and ennobled in its forms. Francesco Trevisani, another of his pupils, took up his residence at Rome, in the list of whose professors he has already been commended (tom. ii. p. 296). Gio. Bonagrazia, however, remained in the Venetian state; and acquired some reputation in his native town and province of Trevigi, more particularly for his paintings at San Vito.
Antonio Molinari belonged, likewise, to the same school, but almost wholly renounced the maxims he had acquired in it.[87]His style is by no means equally sustained; a case that frequently occurs to such as abandon the methods in which they have been educated, and attempt to strike into new paths. I have seen some of his pictures at Venice, and elsewhere, in fine relief, and others quite the contrary; at times, too, he appears beautiful,but cold. In the vigour of his powers, however, when he produced the works most decisive of his merits, such as his History of Oza, at the Corpus Domini, he displays a style no less solid than pleasing, and which equally satisfies the judgment and the eye. There is a study both of design and of expression, ample beauty of forms, richness of drapery, with a taste and harmony of tints not surpassed by any artist of the times.
We may mention, likewise, as distinguished by their manner, Antonio Bellucci, and Giovanni Segala, two painters who, like their masters, became addicted to the use of strong shades. Yet they possessed sufficient intelligence to derive some advantage even from a wrong direction of their powers. For the former disposed them in grand masses, yet delicate, and moreover united to pleasing colouring; while the latter made use of dark grounds, which he contrasted with very spirited lights, and with a skill that enlivens while it enchants us. Indeed, the style of both seemed adapted for great works, and both possessed genius enough to conduct them well. Segala, however, is preferred by Zanetti to his contemporary, and his picture of the Conception, executed for the college of La Carità, is particularly extolled by him, and, in truth, he there competes with, if he does not surpass, some of the first painters of the age. We ought to estimate the merit of Bellucci from those specimens he conducted with most care, and upon the best grounds, such as his scripture piecein the church of the Spirito Santo. He appears to most advantage, perhaps, in small figures, many of which he inserted in the landscapes of the celebrated Tempesta. When at Vienna, he became court painter to Joseph I. and to Charles VI.; and subsequently to other German princes, which he chiefly owed to this kind of talent.[88]
To this epoch, also, belongs the name of Gio. Antonio Fumiani, who acquired from the Bolognese School, in which he was educated, an excellent taste, both in composition and design. And from the works of Paul, which he studied with assiduity, he obtained a knowledge of architectural and other ornaments. Some have considered him deficient in warmth of tints, and in a just counterpoise of lights and shades, to which I should add, also in expression; appearing, as he does to me, cold in all his attitudes, even beyond the custom of this school. Perhaps his Dispute of Jesus with the Doctors, at the church of La Carità, is his finest work. Bencovich, having resided at Bologna, will be enumerated among the followers of Cignani.
Nearly contemporary with Fumiani, though he flourished longer and painted more, was the Cav. Niccolo Bambini, a pupil of Mazzoni, in Venice, and afterwards of Maratta, at Rome. There he became accomplished in design, exact and elegant,and capable of sustaining those noble conceptions derived from nature, which he developed in very enlarged works, both of oil and fresco. Fortunate, indeed, had he succeeded as well in his colouring; in which branch he was so sensible of his own mediocrity, as to forbid his scholars practising the art from his pictures. His taste is sometimes wholly Roman, as in his altarpiece at San Stefano, executed soon after his return from Rome. At other times, he has a more flowing manner, like that of Liberi, which he imitated for several years with success, ever afterwards retaining the beauty of his heads, especially in his women. Again he occasionally soars above himself, and in such works as he himself conceived and executed, and which were afterwards re-touched and animated, as it were, by Cassana, the Genoese, he shines as a great portrait painter, and a very powerful colourist. In theGuidaof Zanetti, we meet with the names of Giovanni and Stefano Bambini, two of his sons, and most probably his pupils, though from the same, and from another more extensive work, where he makes no mention of them, we can gather that they were held in very small esteem. Girolamo Brusaferro, and Gaetano Zompini were also his pupils, and ambitious, as well, of imitating Ricci, forming a kind of mixed style not altogether destitute of originality. The second of these received honourable commissions from the court of Spain, in which he displayed a rich fund of imagination, and, in some measure, distinguished himself by his engravings.
Gregorio Lazzarini was pupil to Rosa, and not only freed himself from the sombre sect, but rising into great reputation, wholly banished it from the Venetian School, of which, for accuracy of design, he might be pronounced to be the Raffaello. Whoever contemplates the pictures of Lazzarini would, at first, suppose he must have received his education at Bologna, or rather, perhaps, at Rome. Yet he never left Venice, and by the strength of his genius alone, acquired the esteem of the most learned professors in the art, and particularly of Maratta, a very scrupulous panegyrist of his contemporaries. Thus the Venetian ambassador at Rome, having occasion to apply to him for a picture, intended to ornament the hall of the Scrutinio, he declined the commission, expressing his surprise that it should be deemed requisite to apply to him at Rome, while they had Lazzarini at Venice. And the latter artist produced a piece which justified the judgment of Maratta, representing in the noblest manner the triumphal memory of Morosini, surnamed by the Venetians, Peloponnesiaco, which adorns the forementioned hall. He most distinguished himself by his picture of San Lorenzo Giustiniani, painted for the patriarchal church; perhaps the best specimen in oil displayed by the Venetian School during this period, whether for its taste of composition, its elegance of contours, or the original beauty and variety of its countenances and its attitudes. It possesses, likewise, force of colouring, in which he was not alwaysequally successful. In small figures he was extremely graceful, a specimen of which may be seen in a choir of Santa Caterina, at Vicenza, where he executed some very beautiful histories, in the most glowing colours imaginable. The last altarpiece, bearing his own name, was completed by his excellent pupil, Giuseppe Camerata, who in this, as well as other pieces produced for churches, pursued the same career as his master. Another of Lazzarini's pupils, however, Silvestro Manaigo, persevered in an opposite course, for though of a fine character, he was too rapid, and too much of a mannerist.
There flourished, likewise, at that period, two artists of Trevisi, Francesco, included in the list of the Roman School, and Angiolo Trevisani, who, both by birth and domicile, must be claimed for that of Venice. Fine in his inventive pieces, as we gather from those at La Carità, and various other churches in the capital, he was still more celebrated for his portraits. In exercising this branch, he formed a style founded upon nature, not, indeed, sublime, but very select, and in part conformable to the schools then in vogue. His pencil displayed diligence and research, especially in his management of the chiaroscuro.
Jacopo Amigoni can scarcely be justly estimated in Venice, where, if we except his picture of the Visitation at the monastery of San Filippo, there is nothing of his remaining in public in his best manner; that which he acquired by studying themasterpieces of the Flemish School in Flanders. It was there that his genius, naturally fertile and animated, uniting with facility qualities of grandeur and of beauty, and seizing upon the finest subject for copious histories, also discovered the kind of colouring he had in vain sought for at Venice. There, too, he "achieved the art of attaining, by force of shades, even to pure black, which colour he employed to produce perfect clearness, without injuring the beauty of his piece:" thus we are informed by Signor Zanetti. Had he succeeded in giving a little more relief to his pictures, and employed less care in giving brilliance to every part of his composition, he would have appeared to more advantage; but only in the eyes of good judges, as the multitude could not well be presented with any thing more calculated to enchant them than one of his pictures. Nor was it without reason that his style was so much applauded throughout England, Germany, and Spain, in which last country he died, when painter to the court, in 1752. Various productions of his hand are to be met with, though but rarely, in possession of private families in Italy, chiefly consisting of little histories, conversations, and similar pieces, in the manner of the Flemish artists. Of the Flemish, I say, in respect to the size, not the perfection of the drawing, this artist being accustomed to alter his tints in some degree, particularly in the shifting hues, to labour by touching, often leaving his outline undefined, and to raise the colourso as to produce effect in the distance. His pieces upon a larger scale are more rare, though I have seen several exhibiting great truth in the expression of countenance, and a rich flow of drapery, in possession of the celebrated musician, Farinello, at Bologna. And in these portraits the musician himself always appeared, as received at different courts, and in the act of being applauded and rewarded by the European Sovereigns.
Giambatista Pittoni, though less generally known than the preceding, is still entitled to a rank among the first artists of his age. The disciple and nephew of Francesco Pittoni, here mentioned, rather from his pupil's merit than his own, he subsequently became attached to foreign schools, and formed a style which displays some novelty in the warmth of its colouring, and in a certain pictorial amenity and attraction which prevail throughout the whole. He cannot, indeed, be said to be very select, but he is in general correct, polished, and intelligent in his entire composition. He particularly shone in figures, smaller than the life; and the galleries in the Venetian state are thus by no means scantily furnished with his histories; while we may observe of his altarpieces that they seem to increase in beauty in proportion to the diminution of their size. This we perceive at the Santo in Padua, where he painted in competition with the best of his contemporaries, the Martyrdom of San Bartolommeo, which he coloured upon a small canvass. A very rapid tourist attributesit to the pencil of Tiepolo, whose manner is altogether different.
Gio. Batista Piazzetta, on the other hand, was an artist of as sombre a cast as the two preceding were animated and lively. He had acquired a good knowledge of design, either under his father, a tolerably skilful statuary in wood, or under some very exact naturalist; and in his early attempts he painted in a free and open style. Afterwards he embraced an opposite manner, and employing himself with Spagnolo at Bologna, and there likewise studying Guercino, he aimed at producing an effect by strong contrasts of lights and shades, and in this he succeeded. He had long, as it is supposed, observed the effects of light applied to statues of wood and models in wax; and by this he was enabled to draw, with considerable judgment and exact precision, the several parts that are comprehended in the shadowing, owing to which art his designs were eagerly sought after, and his works repeatedly engraved with assiduity. One of these, placed at the Domenicani delle Zattere was engraved by the celebrated Bartolozzi; another by his school; that is to say, his San Filippo, painted for the church of that name in Venice. Many were engraved also by Pitteri, by Pelli, and by Monaco, besides other prints that were executed in Germany. His method of colouring, however, diminished in a great measure the chief merit of his pictures. Thus his shades having increased and altered, his lights sunk, his tints become yellow,there remains only an inharmonious and unformed mass, which the venerators of names, indeed, may admire, but can hardly give a reason why. Where we happen to meet with a few of his pictures in good preservation, the effect is altogether so novel and original as to make a strong impression at first sight, more especially where the subject requires a terrific expression, as that of his beheading of St. John the Baptist in prison, produced at Padua, a work placed in competition with those of the first artists in the state, and at that period esteemed the best of all. Yet if we examine him more narrowly he will not fail to displease us by that monotonous and mannered colour of lakes and yellows, and by that rapidity of hand, by some called spirit, though to others it often appears neglect, desirous of abandoning its labour before it is complete.
Piazzetta could hardly boast strength enough to deal with pictures abounding with figures, and having received a commission from a Venetian noble, to represent the Rape of the Sabines, he spent many years in conducting it. In his altarpieces and other sacred subjects he produced a pleasing effect from the spirit of devotion, but never for the dignity he displayed in them. Duly estimating his own ability, he was more desirous of painting busts and heads for pictures adapted for private rooms than any other subjects. In his caricatures he succeeded admirably, several of which in possession of the Conti Leopardi d'Osimowould excite the risible muscles of a professed enemy to mirth. At one period this artist had a great number of followers, a fashion nevertheless that soon ceased. Francesco Polazzo, a good painter, but a better restorer of ancient pictures, somewhat softened down the style of Piazzetta with that of Ricci. Domenico Maggiotto also tempered it in his Miracle of San Spiridione, and in his other works engraved at Venice and in Germany. Various artists of this school in the same way gave softness to his manner by studying other models. Perhaps the one most addicted to his method was Marinetti, from the name of his native place more commonly called Chiozzotto.
The last of the Venetian artists who procured for himself a great reputation in Europe, was Gio. Batista Tiepolo, so frequently commended by Algarotti. He was honoured likewise with a poetical eulogy by the Ab. Bettinelli, became celebrated in Italy, in Germany, and in Spain, where he died painter to the court of Madrid. Pupil to Lazzarini, whose deliberate and cautious style served to curb his too great warmth and rapidity, he subsequently studied Piazzetta, animating and enlivening as it were his manner, as he appears to have done in his picture of the Shipwreck of San Satiro at San Ambrogio in Milan. He next became an assiduous imitator of Paul Veronese, whom, though inferior to him in the airs of his heads, he very nearly approached in his folds and his colouring. From the engravings also of AlbertDurer, that storehouse of copious composers, he derived no little advantage. Nor did he at any time abandon the study of nature in observing all the accidents of light and shade, and the contrasts of colour best adapted to produce effect. In this branch he succeeded admirably, particularly in his works in fresco, for which he appears to have been endued by nature with promptness, rapidity, and facility in great compositions. While others were accustomed to display the most vivid colours, he only availed himself in his frescos of what are termed low and dusky colours; and by harmonizing them with others of a common kind, but more clear and beautiful, he produced a species of effect in his frescos, a beauty, a sunlike radiance, unequalled, perhaps, by any other artist. Of this the grand vault belonging to the Teresiani in Venice presents a fine specimen. He has there represented the Santa Casa, accompanied by numerous groups of angels finely foreshortened and varied, surrounded by a field of light that appears to rise into the firmament. Such an artist would have been truly great, had he, in works upon this scale, succeeded in observing equal correctness in every part; in the whole he always produces an agreeable effect. He appears more correct and careful in his oil pieces, which we find dispersed throughout the metropolitan city as well as the state. At San Antonio in Padua we meet with his Martyrdom of Santa Agatha, a picture alluded to by Algarotti as a very rare example of fine expression, at once unitingthat of terror at approaching fate, and of joy for the glory of beatitude in view. Many other beauties are remarked by Rossetti in this picture, which he admits, however deeply interested in defending it from every imputation cast upon it by Cochin, is not altogether perfect in point of design.
In the list of his disciples we find the name of Fabio Canale, mentioned with honour in the work so often cited, from the pen of Zanetti; and to such of his pictures as he mentions we may add those he produced in Palazzo Zen at the Frari, and in that of the Priuli at the bridge of the Miglio. To this artist we might join a few others of this last age, recorded in the Guide to Venice, the same that was published by Zanetti in 1733, and some of whom are likewise mentioned in thePittura Veneziana, where, beginning at p. 470, he gave a catalogue of the names of such of the members of that estimable academy, as were then alive, some of whom are still in existence. But whoever is desirous of cultivating an acquaintance with them and with their works which are in possession of the public, may consult the above books as well as some of the more recent Guides of the city, which have continued from time to time to appear. I ought to add, that the Signor Alessandro Longhi has presented us with the portraits and the Elogj of the most celebrated of these moderns, in the year 1762, and this work also may supply what my brevity or my silence has omitted or compressed.
Proceeding in the next place from Venice to thecities of the state, we shall find that these also have produced many memorable artists. The Friuli will occupy but little of our attention, boasting few masters, and none of them distinguished for their figures. Pio Fabio Paolini, a native of Udine, studied at Rome, where he produced in fresco his San Carlo, which adorns the Corso, and was united to the academy there in 1678. Returning thence into his own country he painted several altarpieces and other minor pictures, such as to entitle him to a high place among the followers of Cortona. Giuseppe Cosattini, born at the same place, and canon of Aquileja, devoted himself to the same pursuit, and rose into so much estimation as to be declared painter to the Imperial Court. He particularly distinguished himself by his picture of San Filippo, preparing to celebrate mass, painted for the Congregation of Udine; the work of a real artist not of a dilettante, as he appears in some other of his paintings. Pietro Venier, a disciple of the Venetian artists, displayed some merit in his oil pieces, not uncommon at Udine; and more in his frescos in the ceiling of the church of San Jacopo, where he appears to great advantage. But the best painter of frescos in these later times, amongst his countrymen, was Giulio Quaglia, a native of Como. From his age and style I should suspect that he belonged to the school of the Recchi, although his design is less finished than that of Gio. Batista Recchi, the head of that family of painters. It would appear that hevisited Friuli young, towards the close of the last century, and there he conducted works, for the most part, in fresco, to an amount that almost defies enumeration. His histories of our Saviour's Passion, ornamenting the chapel of the Monte di Pietà at Udine, are held in high estimation, although he conducted works upon a much larger scale, for various halls of many noble families, in all which we trace a fecundity of ideas, a decision of pencil, a power for vast compositions, sufficient to have distinguished him in his age not only in the limits of Como but at Milan. I omit the names of those professors of the art who merely designed without colouring, or who never attained to mature age; and those of a few others I have to reserve for foreign schools, and for different branches of painting.
Proceeding towards the Marca Trevigiana, I meet with an artist's name that has been claimed by different schools of Italy, according to the place in which he painted, or studied, or gave instructions in the art. For this reason I have judged it best to speak of him as connected with his native place, which boasts a sufficient number of his works. This artist is Sebastiano Ricci, which the Venetians write Rizzi, one who can be reckoned second to none among the professors of our own epoch, in point of genius for the art, and the taste and novelty of his style. He was born in Cividal di Belluno, educated, as we have observed, by Cervelli at Venice, and afterwards conducted by his master into Milan; he there acquired,both from him and from Lisandrino, every thing that was of importance in the pursuit of his profession. Thence he went to study at Bologna and at Venice, subsequently transferring his residence to Rome and Florence. Lastly he made the tour of all Italy, employing his pencil wherever he received commissions, at any price. Having acquired reputation, and being invited by different potentates, he passed into Germany, England, and Flanders, in which last country he perfected his style of colouring, which had been always very pleasing and spirited, even in his first attempts. From his acquaintance with such a variety of schools, he stored his mind with fine images, and by dint of copying many models, his hand became practised in different styles. In common with Giordano he possessed the art of imitating every manner; some of his pictures in the style of Bassano and of Paul, continuing yet to impose upon less skilful judges, as in the instance of one of his Madonnas at Dresden, for some time attributed to Coreggio. The chief advantage he derived from his travels was, that on having occasion to represent any subject, he was enabled to recollect the manner in which different masters might have treated it, availing himself of it without plagiarism accordingly. Thus the Adoration of the Apostles at the Last Supper, a piece adorning the church of Santa Giustina at Padua, betrays many points of resemblance to the painting on the cupola of San Giovanni at Parma, while his San Gregorio at San Alessandro in Bergamorecalls to mind one by Guercino, executed at Bologna. The same method he observed in his scriptural histories, produced for SS. Cosmo and Damiano, which are preferred to any others he conducted in Venice, or perhaps in any other parts, and which frequently present us with fine imitations, but never with plagiarisms. He did not early acquire a good knowledge of design, but he afterwards succeeded in this object, which he cultivated with extreme assiduity in the academies, even in mature age. The forms of his figures are composed with beauty, dignity, and grace, like those of Paul Veronese; the attitudes are more than usually natural, prompt, and varied, and the composition appears to have been managed with truth and with good sense. Although rapid in the handling, he did not abuse his celerity of hand, as so many artists have been known to do. His figures are accurately designed, and appear starting from the canvass, most frequently coloured with a very beautiful azure, in which they shine conspicuous over all. Such pieces as he conducted in fresco, still preserve the native freshness of their tints; while some of his others seem to have suffered, owing to the badness of the grounds, or of the body of colour, which was weaker in the later than in the earliest Venetian artists. The amenity of Ricci's style soon procured for him disciples, in the list of whom Marco, his nephew, greatly distinguished himself, and subsequently devoting himself to the composition of landscape,he accompanied his master upon his travels, employing himself a good deal, both at Paris and in London. Gasparo Diziani, his fellow countryman, was an artist who excelled in his facility of painting large theatrical works, and in that line was employed in Germany. He was, moreover, a very pleasing composer of pictures for private ornament, several of which are now to be met with in the collections of the Sig. Silvestri and Sig. Casalini at Rovigo. Francesco Fontebasso, a pupil also of Bastiano, succeeded, notwithstanding some degree of crudeness, in acquiring celebrity in his day, both in Venice and the adjacent cities.
In the Guide of Padua Rosetti includes, in the list of its painters, Antonio Pellegrini, as being the son of one of its citizens, who had established himself, however, at Venice, where Antonio was born. And the Venetians, indeed, may concede him to that city without much sacrifice of fame. For the surprising success he met with in some of the most civilized kingdoms of Europe, is to be attributed to the decline of the art, and to the lively and mannered style he assumed, which found a welcome reception in all parts. He may be pronounced an artist of some ingenuity, facility, and sprightly conception; but he was by no means well grounded in the art; and he expressed his ideas with so little decision, that the objects which he represents sometimes appear to float in a kind of half-existence between visible and invisible. He was so very superficial a colourist, that even inhis own times it was said his productions would not continue to last during a half century. And, in truth, those I have seen at Venice and at Padua are already become extremely pallid; while such as he executed at Paris will, doubtless, be in the same state. Yet in that city he obtained a large sum in the year 1720, for merely painting a frieze in the celebrated hall of the Mississippi, which he executed in about six weeks. His best work is, perhaps, to be found at San Moisè, consisting of the Serpent of Bronze, erected by Moses in the Desert; no other equal to it having issued from his studio.
As the preceding one is considered the last of the Paduan artists of any note, we may mention, as the last among those of Bergamo, at least of any merit in composition, Antonio Zifrondi, or Cifrondi, pupil to Franceschini. Indeed he greatly resembled the former in his natural bias for the art, in an imagination adapted for great compositions, in facility and rapidity of hand, to such a degree as to dash off a picture in two hours. He likewise passed into France, though without meeting with success, and then resided in his native place, employing himself for those churches that are adorned with so many of his pictures, few of which are free from errors of over haste and carelessness. Thus he did not scruple at the church of S. Spirito, to place near his picture of a Nunziata, conducted in his best style, three other historicalpieces of quite an opposite character. We meet with his name mentioned more than once, in the Lettere Pittoriche, with much commendation. Several other artists, whose names are to be met with in Tassi, and his continuator, are known to have flourished at the same period. Nor ought we, by any means, here to omit that of Vittore Ghislandi, who, though little skilled in works of invention, yet in his portraits, and some of his heads, in the way of capricci, has almost equalled in our own times the excellence of the ancients. He was instructed in the art by Bombelli, and by dint of very assiduous study, particularly in the heads of Titian, in order to develop his whole artifice, he attained a degree of perfection that is truly surprising. Whatever can be esteemed most desirable in a portrait painter, such as lively features, natural fleshes, imitations of the most varied drapery, to make a distinction in dresses; these constitute a portion of his merits. The Carrara collection, above any other, may boast of several, distinct both in point of age and costume; and though surrounded by very select pictures from every school, and though mere portraits, they fail not to attract and surprise us. Less celebrated than many others, he is nevertheless an artist whose productions would do no discredit to any palace. One more generally known, however, is Bartolommeo Nazzari, pupil to Trevisani in Venice, and afterwards under Luti, and the other Trevisani, he perfected himself at Rome. Finally he establishedhimself at Venice, though he continued to visit various capitals, both of Italy and of Germany, invariably extolled, as well for his portraits of princes and of their courtiers, as for his heads of old men and youths, drawn from life, very fancifully dressed and ornamented.
Pietro Avogadro was a Brescian, and the scholar of Ghiti, who adopted the models of Bologna, imitating them without affectation, adding some mixture of Venetian colour, more particularly in his ruddier fleshes. The contours of his figures are correct, his shortenings pleasing and appropriate, and his compositions very judicious; the whole expressing great harmony and beauty. Next to the three leading artists of this city, he is entitled to the fourth place, at least in the esteem of many. Perhaps his masterpiece is to be seen in the church of San Giuseppe, representing the Martyrdom of the saints Crispino and Crispiniano. Andrea Toresani was also a Brescian, who flourished at the same period; excellent in design, with which he ornamented the cities of Venice and Milan more than his native place. His chief merit, however, lay in an inferior branch, that of painting animals, sea views, and landscapes in the Titian manner, often accompanied with figures in tolerably good taste.