Chapter X: Book III: Roman School (8)

He did not owe this elegant expression of sentiment to his genius alone, but was indebted for it, as well to the perusal of the first classic authors, as the conversation of literary men, and his intercourse with scholars. He deferred much to the Cav. Marini, and might do so with advantage where poetry was not concerned. In the art of modelling, in which he excelled, he accomplished himself under Fiammingo; he consulted the writings of P. Zaccolini for perspective; he studied the naked figure in the academy of Domenichino and in that of Sacchi; he made himself acquainted with anatomy; he exercised himself in copying the most beautiful landscapes from nature, in which he acquired an exquisite taste, which he communicated to his relative Gaspar Dughet, of whom we shall speak in a short time. I think it may be asserted without exaggeration, that the Caracci improved the art of landscape painting, and that Poussin brought it to perfection.[81] His genius was less calculated for large than small figures, and he has generally painted them a palm and a half, as in the celebrated sacraments, which were in the Casa Boccapaduli: sometimes of two or three palms size, as in the picture of the Plague in the Colonna gallery, and elsewhere. Other pictures of his are seen in Rome, as the Death of Germanicus in the Barberini palace, the Triumph of Flora in the Campidoglio, the Martyrdom of S. Erasmus, in the Pope's collection at Monte Cavallo, afterwards copied in mosaic in S. Peter's. Although he had established himself in Rome, he afterwards left that city for Paris, where he was appointed first painter to the court; after two years time, however, he again returned to Rome, but had his appointment confirmed, and, though absent, enjoyed the same place and stipend. He remained in Rome for twenty three years, and there closed his days. It is not long since his bust in marble, with an appropriate eulogy, was placed in the church of the Rotonda, at the suggestion and generous expense of the Sig. Cav. d'Agincourt.

In the class of portrait painters, we find at the beginning of the seventeenth century, Antiveduto Grammatica, and Ottavio Lioni of Padua, who engraved the portraits of the painters; and, on his death, Baldassare Galanino was preeminent. It must however be remarked, that these artists were also designers; and that even those who were held the first masters in composition were employed in portrait painting, as Guido for example, who executed for the Cardinal Spada one of the finest portraits in Rome.

Thus far of historical painters. We may now recur to landscape and other inferior branches of the art, whose brightest era may be said to have been in the reign of Urban VIII. Landscape, indeed, never flourished so greatly as at that period. A little time before this pontificate, died in Rome, Adam Elzheimer, or Adam of Frankfort, or Tedesco, who had already, under the pontificate of Paul V., established a school (in which David Teniers was instructed); an artist of an admirable fancy, who in an evening committed to the canvass, with singular fidelity, the scenery which he had visited in the early part of the day, and he so refined his style in Rome, that his pictures, which generally represented night scenes, were there held in the greatest request. Only a short time too had elapsed since the death of Giovanni Batista Viola in Rome, one of the first artists who, profiting from the instructions of Annibal Caracci, reformed the old, dry style of the Flemish, and introduced a richer mode of touching landscape. Vincenzio Armanno had also promoted this branch of art, adding to his landscapes a similitude to nature, which without much selection of ground, or trees, or accompaniments, charms us by its truth, and a certain stilness of colour, pleasingly chequered with lights and shades. He is highly to be commended too in his figures, and is copious in his invention. But the three celebrated landscape painters, whose works are so much sought after in the collections of princes, appeared under Urban; Salvator Rosa, a Neapolitan, and a poet of talent; Claude Gellee, of Lorraine; and Gaspar Dughet, also called Poussin, the relative of Niccolas, as I have already mentioned. That kind of fashion, which often aspires to give a tone to the fine arts, alternately exalted one or other of these three, and thus also obliged the painters in Rome to copy in succession, and to follow their various styles.

Rosa was the most celebrated of this class at the commencement of this century. A scholar of Spagnoletto, and the son, as one may say, of Caravaggio, as in historical composition he attached himself to the strong natural style and dark colouring of that master, so in landscape he seems to have adopted his subject without selection, or rather to have selected the least pleasing parts. _Le selve selvagge_, to speak with Dante, savage scenery, Alps, broken rocks and caves, wild thickets, and desert plains, are the kind of scenery in which he chiefly delighted; his trees are shattered, torn, and dishevelled; and in the atmosphere itself he seldom introduced a cheerful hue, except occasionally a solitary sunbeam. He observed the same manner too in his sea views. His style was original, and may be said to have been conducted on a principle of savage beauty, as the palate of some persons is gratified with austere wines. His pictures too were rendered more acceptable from the small figures of shepherds, mariners, or banditti, which he has introduced in almost all his compositions; and he was reproached by his rivals with having continually repeated the same ideas, and in a manner copied himself.

Owing to his frequent practice, he had more merit in his small than in his large figures. He was accustomed to insert them in his landscapes, and composed his historical pictures in the same style as the Regulus, so highly praised in the Colonna palace, or fancy subjects, as the Witchcrafts, which we see in the Campidoglio, and in many private collections. In these he is never select, nor always correct, but displays great spirit, freedom of execution, and skill and harmony of colour. In other respects he has proved, more than once, that his genius was not confined to small compositions, as there are some altarpieces well conceived, and of powerful effect, particularly where the subject demands an expression of terror, as in a Martyrdom of Saints at S. Gio. de' Fiorentini at Rome; and in the Purgatory, which I saw at S. Giovanni delle Case Rotte in Milan, and at the church del Suffragio in Matelica. We have also some profane subjects by him, finely executed on a large scale; such is the Conspiracy of Catiline, in the possession of the noble family of Martelli, in Florence, mentioned also by Bottari, as one of his best works. Rosa left Naples at the age of twenty, and established himself in Rome, where he died at the age of about sixty. His remains were placed in the church degli Angeli, with his portrait and eulogy; and another portrait of him is to be seen in the Chigi gallery, which does not seem to have been recognised by Pascoli; the picture represents a savage scene; a poet is represented in a sitting attitude, (the features those of Salvator,) and before him stands a satyr, allusive to his satiric style of poetry, but the picture is described by the biographer as the god Pan appearing to the poet Pindar. He had a scholar in Bartol. Torregiani, who died young, and who excelled in landscape, but was not accomplished enough to add the figures. Giovanni Ghisolfi, of Milan, a master of perspective, adopted in his figures the style of Salvator.

Gaspar Dughet, or Poussin, of Rome, or of the Roman School, did not much resemble Rosa, except in despatch. Both these artists were accustomed to commence and finish a landscape and decorate it with figures on the same day. Poussin, contrary to Salvator, selected the most enchanting scenes, and the most beautiful aspects of nature; the graceful poplar, the spreading plane trees, limpid fountains, verdant meads, gently undulating hills, villas delightfully situated, calculated to dispel the cares of state, and to add to the delights of retirement. All the enchanting scenery of the Tusculan or Tiburtine territory, and of Rome, where, as Martial observes, nature has combined the many beauties which she has scattered singly in other places, was copied by this artist. He composed also ideal landscapes, in the same way that Torquato Tasso, in describing the garden of Armida, concentrated in his verses all the recollections of the beautiful which he had observed in nature.

Notwithstanding this extreme passion for grace and beauty, it is the opinion of many, that there is not a greater name amongst landscape painters. His genius had a natural fervour, and as we may say, a language, that suggests more than it expresses. To give an example, in some of his larger landscapes, similar to those in the Panfili palace, we may occasionally observe an artful winding of the road, which in part discovers itself to the eye, but in other parts, leaves itself to be followed by the mind. Every thing that Gaspar expresses, is founded in nature. In his leaves he is as varied as the trees themselves, and is only accused of not having sufficiently diversified his tints, and of adhering too much to a green hue. He not only succeeded in representing the rosy tint of morning, the splendour of noon, evening twilight, or a sky tempestuous or serene; but the passing breeze that whispers through the leaves, storms that tear and uproot the trees of the forest, lowering skies, and clouds surcharged with thunder and rent with lightning, are represented by him with equal success. Niccolas, who had taught him to select the beauties of nature, instructed him also in the figures, and the accessary parts of the composition. Thus in Gaspar every thing displays elegance and erudition, the edifices have all the beautiful proportions of the antique; and to these may be added arches and broken columns, when the scene lay in the plains of Greece or Rome; or, if in Egypt, pyramids, obelisks, and the idols of the country. The figures which he introduces are not in general shepherds and their flocks, as in the Flemish pictures, but are derived from history, or classic fables, hawking parties, poets crowned with laurel, and other similar decorations, generally novel, and finished in a style almost as fine as miniature. His school gave birth to but few followers. By some Crescenzio di Onofrio is alone considered his true imitator, of whom little remains in Rome; nor indeed is he much known in Florence, although he resided there many years in the service of the ducal house. It is said that he executed many works for the ducal villas; and that he painted for individuals may be conjectured from some beautiful landscapes which the Sig. Cancelliere Scrilli possesses, together with the portrait of Sig. Angelo, his ancestor, on which the artist has inscribed his name and the year 1712, the date of his work. After him we may record Gio. Domenico Ferracuti, of Macerata, in which city, and in others of Piceno, are to be found many landscapes painted by him, chiefly snow pieces, in which kind of landscape he was singularly distinguished.

Claude Lorraine is generally esteemed the prince of landscape painters, and his compositions are indeed, of all others, the richest and the most studied. A short time suffices to run through a landscape of Poussin or Rosa from one end to the other, when compared with Claude, though on a much smaller surface. His landscapes present to the spectator an endless variety; so many views of land and water, so many interesting objects, that like an astonished traveller, the eye is obliged to pause to measure the extent of the prospect, and his distances of mountains or of sea are so illusive, that the spectator feels, as it were, fatigued by gazing. The edifices and temples, which so finely round off his compositions, the lakes peopled with aquatic birds, the foliage diversified in conformity to the different kinds of trees,[82] all is nature in him; every object arrests the attention of an amateur, every thing furnishes instruction to a professor; particularly when he painted with care, as in the pictures of the Altieri, Colonna, and other palaces of Rome. There is not an effect of light, or a reflection in the water, or in the sky itself, which he has not imitated; and the various changes of the day are no where better represented than in Claude. In a word, he is truly the painter, who in depicting the three regions of air, earth, and water, has embraced the whole universe. His atmosphere almost always bears the impress of the sky of Rome, whose horizon is, from its situation, rosy, dewy, and warm. He did not possess any peculiar merit in his figures, which are insipid, and generally too much attenuated; hence he was accustomed to observe to the purchasers of his pictures, that he sold them the landscape, and presented them with the figures gratis. The figures indeed were generally added by another hand, frequently by Lauri. A painter of the name of Angiolo, who died young, deserves to be mentioned as the scholar of Claude, as well as Vandervert. Claude also contributed to the instruction of Gaspar Poussin.

To the preceding may be added those artists who particularly distinguished themselves by sea views and shipping. Enrico Cornelio Vroom is called Enrico di Spagna, as he came to Rome immediately from Seville, although born in Haerlem in Holland. He was a pupil of the Brills, and seems rather to have aimed at imitating the national art of shipbuilding, than the varying appearances of the sea and sky. No one is more diligent, or more minute in fitting up the vessels with every requisite for sailing; and some persons have purchased his pictures, for the sole purpose of instructing themselves in the knowledge of ships, and the mode of arming them. Sandrart relates that he returned to Spain, and there painted landscapes, views of cities, fishing boats, and seafights. He places his birth in 1566, whence he must have flourished about the year 1600. Guarienti makes a separate article of Enrico Vron of Haerlem, as if he had been a different artist. Another article is occupied upon _Enrico delle Marine_, and on the authority of Palomino, he says, that that artist was born in Cadiz, and coming to Rome, there acquired that name; and that, without wishing ever to return to Spain, he employed himself in painting in that city shipping and sea views until his death, at the age of sixty in 1680. I have named three writers, whose contradictions I have frequently adverted to in this work, and whose discordant notices require much examination to reconcile or refute. What I have advanced respecting Enrico was the result of my observations on several pictures in the Colonna gallery, six in number, and which, as far as I could judge, all partake of a hard and early style, and generally of a peculiar reddish tone, often observed in the landscapes of Brill. Any other Enrico di Spagna, a marine painter, or of a style corresponding with that of him who died in 1680, I have not met with in any collection, nor is any such artist to be found in the works of Sig. Conca, as any one may ascertain by referring to the index of his work. Hence, at present, I can recognize the Dutch artist alone, and shall be ready to admit the claims of the Cadiz painter whenever I am furnished with proofs of his having really existed.

Agostino Tassi, of Perugia, whose real name was Buonamici, a man of infamous character, but an excellent painter, was the scholar of Paul Brill, though he was ambitious of being thought a pupil of the Caracci. He had already distinguished himself as a landscape painter, when he was condemned to the galleys at Leghorn, where through interest the laborious part of his sentence was remitted, and in this situation he prosecuted his art with such ardour, that he soon obtained the first rank as a painter of sea views, representing ships, storms, fishing parties, and the dresses of mariners of various countries with great spirit and propriety. He excelled too in perspective, and in the papal palace of the Quirinal and in the palace de' Lancellotti displayed an excellent style of decoration, which his followers very much overcharged. He painted many pictures in Genoa, in conjunction with Salimbeni and Gentileschi, and was assisted by a scholar of his born in Rome, and domiciled in Genoa, where he died. This scholar is called by Raffaello Soprani, Gio. Batista Primi, and he eulogizes him as an esteemed painter of sea views.

Equal to Tassi in talent, and still more infamous in his life, was Pietro Mulier, or Pietro de Mulieribus, of Holland, who, from his surprising pictures of storms, was called Il Tempesta. His compositions inspire a real terror, presenting to our eyes death, devoted ships overtaken by tempests and darkness, fired by lightning, or driving helpless before the demons of the storm; now rising on the mountain waves, and again submerged in the abyss of ocean. His works are more frequently met with than those of Tassi, as he almost always painted in oil. He was assisted in Rome by a young man, who in consequence obtained the name of Tempestino, though he often exercised his genius in landscape in the style of Poussin. He afterwards married a sister of this young artist, and subsequently procured her assassination, for which he was sentenced to death in Genoa, but his sentence was commuted for five years imprisonment. His pictures of storms, which he painted in his dungeon, seem to have acquired an additional gloom from the horrors of his prison, his merited punishment, and his guilty conscience. These works were very numerous, and were considered his best performances. He excelled also in the painting of animals, for which purpose he kept a great variety of them in his house. Lastly, he acquired celebrity from his landscapes, in some of which he has shewn himself not an unworthy follower of Claude in invention, enriching them with a great variety of scenery, hills, lakes, and beautiful edifices, but he is still far behind that master in regard to tone of colour and finishing. He was however superior to Claude in his figures, to which he gave a mixed Italian and Flemish character, with lively, varied, and expressive countenances. There are more specimens of his talents in Milan than in any other place, as he passed his latter years in that and the neighbouring cities, as in Bergamo, and particularly in Piacenza. His epitaph is given in the Guida di Milano, page 129.

Il Montagna, another artist from Holland, was also a painter of sea views, which may almost indeed be called the landscapes of the Dutch. He left many works in Italy, more particularly in Florence and in Rome, where he is sometimes mistaken for Tempesta in the galleries and in picture sales; but Montagna, as far as I can judge, is more serene in his skies, and darker in his waves and the appearance of the sea. A large picture of the Deluge, which is at S. Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, placed there in 1668, in which the figures are by the Cav. Liberi, is supposed to be by Montagna, from the tone of the water. This however is an error, for the Montagna of whom we speak, called by Felibien (tom. iii. p. 339,) Montagna di Venezia, certainly died in Padua; and in a MS. by a contemporary author, where he is mentioned as a distinguished sea painter, he is said to have died in 1644. I apprehend this is the same artist whom Malvasia (tom. ii. p. 78,) calls Mons. Rinaldo della Montagna, and states that he was held in esteem by Guido for his excellence in sea views. I also find a Niccolo de Plate Montagna, favourably mentioned by Felibien, also a marine painter, who died about 1665; and I formerly imagined that this might be the artist who painted so much in Italy, but I now retract that opinion.

Tempesti was the first to introduce the custom of decorating landscapes with battles and skirmishes. A Flemish artist of the name of Jacopo succeeded to him in this branch, but his fame was eclipsed by his own scholar Cerquozzi, a Roman, who from his singular talent in this respect, was called Michelangiolo delle Battaglie. He was superior to Tempesti in colouring, but inferior to him in designing horses. In the human figure, too, he is less correct, and more daring in the style of his master Cesari. It must however be remembered, that when Cerquozzi painted battles he was not in his prime, and that his chief merit lay in subjects on which I shall presently make some remarks.

Padre Jacopo Cortese, a Jesuit, called from his native country Il Borgognone, carried this branch of the art to a height unknown before or since. M. A. Cerquozzi discovered his genius for this department, and persuaded him to abandon the other branches of painting which he cultivated, and to confine himself to this alone. The Battle of Constantine, by Giulio Romano in the Vatican, was the model on which he founded his style. His youth had been dedicated to arms, and his military spirit was not to be extinguished by the luxury of Rome, or the indolence of the cloister. He imparted a wonderful air of reality to his compositions. His combatants appear before us courageously contending for honour or for life, and we seem to hear the cries of the wounded, the blast of the trumpet, and the neighing of the horses. He was indeed an inimitable artist in his line, and his scholars were accustomed to say that their own figures seemed to fight only in jest, while those of Borgognone were the real occupants of the field of battle. He painted with great despatch, and his battle pieces are in consequence very frequent in collections; his touch was rapid, in strokes, and his pencil flowing, so that the effect is heightened by distance; and this style was probably the result of his study of Paolo at Venice, and of Guido in Bologna. From whatever cause it may be, his colouring is very different from that of Guglielmo Baur, who is considered his master, and of whom there are some works in the Colonna gallery. There also may be seen several specimens of his scholars, Bruni, Graziano, and Giannizero, who adopted from Borgognone their colouring, and the selection of a distant point of view for their subject. Others of his scholars occur in various schools.

It was also during the pontificate of Urban, about the year 1626, that the burlesque style was first brought into notice in Rome. It had been practised by Ludius in the time of Augustus, and was not wholly unknown to our early artists; but I am not aware that any one had exercised this branch as a profession, or on so small a scale as was practised by Pietro Laar, who was called Bamboccio, from his deformity, as well as from the subjects of his pencil; and the appellation of _bambocciate_ is generally applied to these small pictures, which represent the festivities of the vintage, dances, fights, and carnival masquerades. His figures are usually of a span in size, and the accompanying landscape and the animals are so vividly coloured, that we seem, says Passeri, to see the very objects themselves from an open window, rather than the representation on canvass. The great painters frequently purchased the pictures of Pietro, in order to study his natural style of colour, though at the same time they lamented that so much talent should be misapplied to such low subjects.[83] He resided many years in Rome, and then retired to Holland, where he died at an advanced age, and not a young man, as Passeri has imagined.

His place and his employ in Rome were soon filled up by Cerquozzi, who had for some time past exchanged the name of M. A. delle Battaglie, for that of M. A. delle Bambocciate. Although the subjects which he represents are humourous, like those of Laar, the incidents and the characters are for the most part different. The first adopted the Flemish boors, the other the peasantry of Italy. They had both great force of colour, but Bamboccio excels Cerquozzi in landscape, while the latter discovers more spirit in his figures. One of Cerquozzi's largest compositions is in the Spada palace at Rome, in which he represented a band of insurgent Lazzaroni applauding Maso Aniello.

Laar had another excellent imitator in Gio. Miel, of Antwerp, who having imbibed a good style of colouring from Vandyke, came to Rome and frequented the school of Sacchi. From thence, however, he was soon dismissed, as his master wished him to attempt serious subjects, but he was led both by interest and genius to the burlesque. His pictures pleased from their spirited representations and their excellent management of light and shade, and brought high prices from collectors. He afterwards painted on a larger scale, and besides some altarpieces in Rome, he left some considerable works in Piedmont, where we shall notice him again. Theodore Hembreker, of Haerlem, also employed himself on humourous subjects, and scenes of common life, although there are some religious pieces attributed to him in the church della Pace in Rome, and a number of landscapes in private collections. He passed many years in Italy, and visited most of the great cities, so that his works are frequently found not only in Rome, where he had established himself, but in Florence, Naples, Venice, and elsewhere. His style is a pleasing union of the Flemish and Italian.

Many artists of this period attached themselves to the painting of animals. Castiglione distinguished himself in this line, but he resided for the most part of his time in another country. M. Gio. Rosa, of Flanders, is the most known in Rome and the State, for the great number of his paintings of animals, in which he possessed a rare talent. It is told of him, that dogs were deceived by the hares he painted, thus reviving the wonderful story of Zeuxis, so much boasted of by Pliny. Two of his largest and finest pictures are in the Bolognetti collection, and there is attached to them a portrait, but whether of the painter himself, or some other person, is not known. We must not confound this artist with Rosa da Tivoli, who was also an excellent animal painter, but not so celebrated in Italy, and flourished at a later period, and whose real name was Philip Peter Roos. He was son-in-law of Brandi, and his scholar in Rome, and rivalled his hasty method in many pictures which I have seen in Rome and the states of the church; but we ought not to rest our decision of his merits on these works, but should view the animals painted by him at his leisure, particularly for the galleries of princes. These are to be found in Vienna, Dresden, Monaco, and other capital cities of Germany; and London possesses not a few of the first value in their way.[84]

After Caravaggio had given the best examples of flowers in his pictures, the Cav. Tommaso Salini, of Rome, an excellent artist, as may be seen in a S. Niccola at S. Agostino, was the first that composed vases of flowers, accompanying them with beautiful groups of corresponding foliage, and other elegant designs. Others too pursued this branch, and the most celebrated of all, was Mario Nuzzi della Penna, better known by the name of Mario da' Fiori; whose productions during his life were emulously sought after, and purchased at great prices; but after the lapse of some years, not retaining their original freshness, and acquiring, from a vicious mode of colouring, a black and squalid appearance, they became much depreciated in value. The same thing happened to the flower pieces of Laura Bernasconi, who was his best imitator, and whose works are still to be seen in many collections.

Orsini informs us, that he found in Ascoli some paintings of flowers by another of the fair sex, to whose memory the Academy of S. Luke in Rome erected a marble monument in their church, not so much in compliment to her talents in painting, as in consequence of her having bequeathed to that society all her property, which was considerable. In her epitaph she is commemorated only as a miniature painter, and Orlandi describes her as such, adding, that she resided for a long time in Florence, where she left a large number of portraits in miniature of the Medici, and other princes of that time, about the year 1630. She also painted in other capitals of Italy, and died at an advanced age in Rome, in 1673.

Michelangiolo di Campidoglio of Rome, was greatly distinguished for his masterly grouping of fruits. Though almost fallen into oblivion from the lapse of years, his pictures are still to be met with in Rome, and in other places. The noble family of Fossombroni in Arezzo, possess one of the finest specimens of him that I have ever seen. More generally known is Pietro Paolo Bonzi, called by Baglione, Il Gobbo di Cortona, which was his native place; by others, Il Gobbo de' Caracci, from his having been employed in their school; and by the vulgar, Il Gobbo da' Frutti, from the natural manner of his painting fruit. He did not pass the bounds of mediocrity in historical design, as we may see from his S. Thomas, in the church of the Rotonda, nor in landscapes; but he was unrivalled in painting fruits, and designing festoons, as in the ceiling of the Palazzo Mattei; and in his elegant grouping of fruit in dishes and baskets, as I have seen in Cortona, in the house of the noble family of Velluti, in the Olivieri gallery in Pesaro, and elsewhere. The Marchesi Venuti, in Cortona, have a portrait of him painted, it is believed, by one of the Caracci, or some one of their school, and it is well known, that the drawing of caricatures was a favourite amusement of that academy.

At this brilliant epoch, the art of perspective too was carried to a high degree of perfection in deceiving the eye of the spectator. From the beginning of the seventeenth century, it had made great advances by the aid of P. Zaccolini, a Theatine monk of Cesena, in whose praise it is sufficient to observe, that Domenichino and Poussin were instructed by him in this art. S. Silvestro, in Montecavallo, possesses the finest specimen of this power of illusion, in a picture of feigned columns, and cornices and other architectural decorations. His original drawings remain in the Barberini library. Gianfrancesco Niceron de' P. P. Minimi added to this science by his work entitled _Thaumaturgus opticus_, 1643; and in a gallery of his convent at Trinita de' Monti, he painted some landscapes, which, on being viewed in a different aspect, are converted into figures. But the most practised artist in the academy of Rome, was Viviano Codagora, who drew from the ruins of ancient Rome, and also painted compositions of his own invention in perspective. He engaged Cerquozzi and Miel, and others in Rome, to insert the figures for him, but he was most partial to Gargiuoli of Naples, as we shall mention in our account of that school. Viviano may he called the Vitruvius of this class of painters. He was correct in his linear perspective, and an accurate observer of the style of the ancients. He gave his representations of marble the peculiar tint it acquires by the lapse of years, and his general tone of colour was vigorous. What subtracts the most from his excellence is a certain hardness, and too great a quantity of black, by which his pictures are easily distinguished from others in collections, and which in the course of time renders them dark and almost worthless. His true name is unknown to the greater number of the lovers of art, by whom he is called Il Viviani; and who seem to have confounded him with Ottavio Viviani of Brescia, who is mentioned by the Dictionaries; a perspective painter also, but in another branch, and in a different style, as we shall hereafter see.

[Footnote 71: He excelled chiefly in architecture, although he had given a proof of his talents in painting, in some subjects in the gallery, executed under Gregory XIII.]

[Footnote 72: In the, not very accurate, catalogue of the pictures in Fabriano, besides the above mentioned fourteen, seven more are mentioned by the same master.]

[Footnote 73: Mention is also made of one Basilio Maggieri, an excellent painter of portraits.]

[Footnote 74: V. Le Pitture pubbliche di Piacenza, p. 81.]

[Footnote 75: In a letter of the Oretti correspondence, written in 1777, from Andrea Zanoni to the Prince Ercolani, I find Marini classed in the school of Ferrau da Faenza, and there still remain many pictures by him in the style of that master.]

[Footnote 76: Pascoli has restored to him the picture of S. Rosalia at the Maddalena, which Titi had ascribed to Michele Rocca, called _Il Parmigianino_, an artist of repute, and proper to be mentioned, as by those who are not acquainted with his name and style, he might be mistaken for Mazzuola, or perhaps Scaglia. The same author, soon afterwards, mentions Grecolini, and thereby renders any further notice of that artist on my part unnecessary.]

[Footnote 77: We ought to judge of him from the Visitation, at the church of the Orfanelli, rather than from the picture of various Saints, in _Ara Coeli_. This kind of observation may be extended to many other artists, who are commemorated for the sake of some superior work.]

[Footnote 78: Memoirs of this painter have been long a desideratum, as may be seen from the Lett. Pitt. tom. v. p. 257. I give such information as I have been able to procure in his native place, assisted by the researches of the very obliging Monsignore Massajuoli, Bishop of Nocera. Gio. Batista was born in Sassoferrato on the 11th July, 1605, and died in Rome on the 8th August, 1685. And I may here correct an error of my first edition, where it is printed 1635.]

[Footnote 79: There is a picture of the Rosario in the church of the Eremitani, with his name, and the year 1573. It is a large composition.]

[Footnote 80: In the Oretti Correspondence there is a letter from an anonymous writer to Malvasia respecting this painter, who is there called Francesco, and is declared to be _Pittore di molta stima_. He then painted in Ancona, as appears from letters under his own hand to Malvasia, where he invariably subscribes himself Francesco.]

[Footnote 81: Passeri, Vite de' Pittori, page 363. He was remarkable for being the first to adopt a new style in trees in landscapes, where by a strong character of truth and attention to the forms of the trunk, foliage, and branches, he denoted the particular species he wished to express.]

[Footnote 82: He painted for his _studio_ a landscape enriched with views from the Villa Madama, in which a wonderful variety of trees was introduced. This he preserved for the purpose of supplying himself, as from nature, with subjects for his various pictures, and refused to sell it to the munificent pontiff, Clement IX., although that prince offered to cover it with pieces of gold.]

[Footnote 83: V. Salvator Rosa, sat. iii. p. 79, where he reprehends not only the artists, but also the great, for affording such pictures a place in their collections.]

[Footnote 84: He was the ancestor of the Sig. Giuseppe Rosa, director of the imperial gallery in Vienna, who has given us a catalogue of the Italian and Flemish pictures of that collection, and who will, we hope, add the German. Of this deserving artist he possesses a portrait, engraved in 1789, where we find a list of the various academies that had elected him a member, and these are numerous, and of the first class in Europe. We find him also amongst those masters whose drawings were collected by Mariette; and he is also mentioned in the Lessico Universale delle Belle Arti, edited in Zurich, in 1763.]

ROMAN SCHOOL.

FIFTH EPOCH.

_The Scholars of Pietro da Cortona, from an injudicious
imitation of their Master, deteriorate the art. Maratta
and others support it._

It may with equal justice be asserted of the fine arts, as of the belles lettres, that they never long remain in the same state, and that they experience often great changes even in the common period assigned to the life of man. Many causes contribute to this; public calamities, such as I mentioned to have occurred after the death of Raffaello; the instability of the human mind, which in the arts as in dress is guided by fashion and the love of novelty; the influence of particular artists; the taste of the great, who from their selection or patronage of particular masters, silently indicate the path to those artists who seek the gifts of fortune. These and other causes tended to produce the decline of painting in Rome towards the close of the seventeenth century, at a time too when literature began to revive; a clear proof that they are not mutually progressive. This was in a great measure occasioned by the calamitous events which afflicted Rome and the state, about the middle of that century; by the feuds of the nobles, the flight of the Barberini family, and other unfortunate circumstances, which, during the pontificate of Innocent X., as we are informed by Passeri, (p. 321,) rendered the employment of artists very precarious; but more than all the dreadful plague of 1655, under Alexander VII. To this state of decay too the evil passions of mankind contributed in no small degree, and these indeed in all revolutions are among the most active and predominant sources of evil, and often even in a prosperous state of things sow the seeds of future calamities.

The Cav. Bernini, a man of more talents as an architect than as a sculptor, was under Urban VIII. and Innocent X., and also until the year 1680, in which he died, the arbiter of the public taste in Rome. The enemy of Sacchi and the benefactor of Cortona, he obtained more employ for his friend than for his rival; and this was easily accomplished, as Cortona was rapid as well as laborious, while Sacchi was slow and irresolute, qualities which rendered him unacceptable even to his own patrons. In course of time Bernini began to favour Romanelli, to the prejudice of Pietro; and, instructing that artist and Baciccio in his principles, he influenced them to the adoption of his own style, which, though it possessed considerable beauty, was nevertheless mannered, particularly in the folds of the drapery. The way being thus opened to caprice, they abandoned the true, and substituted false precepts of art, and many years had not elapsed before pernicious principles appeared in the schools of the painters, and particularly in that of Cortona. Some went so far as to censure the imitation of Raffaello, as Bellori attests in the Life of Carlo Maratta, (p. 102,) and others ridiculed, as useless, the study of nature, preferring to copy, in a servile manner, the works of other artists. These effects are visible in the pictures of the time. All the countenances, although by different artists, have a fulness in the lips and nose like those of Pietro, and have all a sort of family resemblance, so much are they alike; a defect which Bottari says is the only fault of Pietro, but it is not the only fault of his school. Every one was anxious to avoid the labour of study, and to promote facility at the expense of correct design; the errors in which they endeavoured to conceal by overcharging rather than discriminating the contours. No one can be desirous that I should enter into further particulars, when we are treating of matters so very near our own times, and whoever is free from prejudice may judge for himself. I now return to the state of the Roman School about one hundred and twenty years back.

The schools most in repute, after the death of Sacchi, in 1661, and of Berrettini, in 1670, when the best scholars of the Caracci were dead, were reduced to two, that of Cortona supported by Ciro, and that of Sacchi, by Maratta. The first of these expanded the ideas, but induced negligence; the second enforced correctness, but fettered the ideas. Each adopted something from the other, and not always the best part; an affected contrast pleased some of the scholars of Maratta, and the drapery of Maratta was adopted by some of the followers of Ciro.[85] The school of Cortona exhibited a grand style in fresco; the other school was restricted to oils. They became rivals, each supported by its own party, and were impartially employed by the pontiffs until the death of Ciro, that is, until 1689. From that time a new tone was given to art by Maratta, who, under Clement XI., was appointed director of the numerous works which that pontiff was carrying on in Rome and in Urbino. Although this master had many able rivals, as we shall see, he still maintained his superiority, and on his death, his school continued to flourish until the pontificate of Benedict XIV., ultimately yielding to the more novel style of Subleyras, Batoni, and Mengs. Thus far of the two schools in general: we shall now notice their followers.

Besides the scholars whom Pietro formed in Tuscany, as Dandini of Florence, Castellucci of Arezzo, Palladino of Cortona, and those whom he formed in other schools, where we shall see them as masters, he educated others in the Roman state, of whom it is now time to speak. The number of his scholars is beyond belief. They were enumerated by Sig. Cav. Luzi, a nobleman of Cortona, who composed a life of Berrettini with more accuracy than had been before done, but his death prevented the publication of it. Pietro continued to teach to the close of his life, and the picture of S. Ivo, which he left imperfect, was finished by Gio. Ventura Borghesi, of Citta di Castello. Of this artist there are also at S. Niccola, two pictures, the Nativity, and the Assumption of the Virgin, and I am not acquainted with any other public specimens of his pencil in Rome. His native place possesses many of his performances, and the most esteemed are four circles of the History of S. Caterina, V. M., in the church of that saint. Many of his works are to be found also in Prague, and the cities of Germany. He follows Pietro with sufficient fidelity in design, but does not display so much vigour of colour. Carlo Cesi, of Rieti, or rather of Antrodoco, in that neighbourhood, was also a distinguished scholar of Pietro. He lived in Rome, and in the Quirinal gallery, where the best artists of the age painted under Alexander VII., he has left a large picture of the Judgment of Solomon. He worked also in other places; as at S. M. Maggiore, at the Rotunda, and was patronized by several cardinals. He was correct in his design, and opposed, both in person and by his precepts and example, the fatal and prevailing facility of his time. Pascoli has preserved some of his axioms, and this among others, that the beautiful should not be crowded, but distributed with judgment in the composition of pictures; otherwise they resemble a written style, which by the redundancy of brilliant and sententious remarks fails in its effect. Francesco Bonifazio was of Viterbo, and from the various pictures by him, which Orlandi saw in that city, I do not hesitate to rank him among the successful followers of Pietro. We may mention Michelangiolo Ricciolini, a Roman by birth, although called of Todi, whose portrait is in the Medici gallery, where is also that of Niccolo Ricciolini, respecting whom Orlandi is silent. Both were employed in decorating the churches of Rome; the second had the reputation of a better designer than the first, and in the cartoons painted for some mosaics for the Vatican church, he competed with the Cav. Franceschini. Paolo Gismondi, called also Paolo Perugino, became a good fresco painter, and there are works remaining by him in the S. Agata, in the Piazza Nova, and at S. Agnes, in the Piazza Navona. Pietro Paolo Baldini, of whose native place I am ignorant, is stated by Titi to have been of the school of Cortona. Ten pictures by him are counted in the churches of Rome, and in some of them, as in the Crucifixion of S. Eustace, a precision of style derived from another school is observable. Bartolommeo Palombo has only two pictures in the capital. That of S. Maria Maddelena de' Pazzi, which is placed at S. Martino a' Monti, entitles him to rank with the best of his fellow scholars, the picture possesses so strong a colouring, and the figures are so graceful and well designed. Pietro Lucatelli, of Rome, was a distinguished painter, and is named in the catalogue of the Colonna gallery, as the scholar of Ciro, and in Titi, as the disciple of Cortona. He is a different artist from Andrea Lucatelli, of whom we shall shortly speak. Gio. Batista Lenardi, whom, in a former edition, I hesitated to place in the list of the pupils of Pietro, I now consider as belonging to that school, though he was instructed also by Baldi. In the chapel of the B. Rita, at S. Agostino, he painted two lateral pictures as well as the vault; he also ornamented other churches with his works, and particularly that of Buonfratelli, at Trastevere, where he painted the picture of S. Gio. Calibita. That of the great altar was ascribed to him, probably from a similarity of style; but is by Andrea Generoli, called Il Sabinese, a pupil either of Pietro himself, or of one of his followers.

Thus far of the less celebrated of this school. The three superior artists, whose works still attract us in the galleries of princes, are Cortesi, and the two elder scholars of the academy of Pietro, Romanelli and Ferri. Nor is it improbable that having competitors in some of his first scholars, he became indisposed to instruct others with the same degree of good will, as those noble minds are few, in whom the zeal of advancing the art exceeds the regret at having produced an ingrate or a rival.

Guglielmo Cortesi, the brother of P. Giacomo, like him named Il Borgognone, was one of the best artists of this period; and a scholar rather than an imitator of Pietro. His admiration was fixed on Maratta, whom he followed in the studied variety of his heads, and in the sobriety of the composition, more than in the division of the folds of his drapery or in colour; in which latter he manifested a clearness partaking of the Flemish. His style was somewhat influenced by that of his brother, whose assistant he was, and by his study of the Caracci. He often appears to have imitated the strong relief and azure grounds of Guercino. His Crucifixion of S. Andrea, in the church of Monte Cavallo, the Fight of Joshua in the Quirinal palace, and a Madonna attended by Saints, in the Trinita de' Pellegrini, merit our attention. In these works there is a happy union of various styles, exempt from mannerism.

Francesco Romanelli was born at Viterbo, and, as well as Testa, studied some time under Domenichino. He afterwards placed himself with Pietro, whose manner he imitated so successfully, that on Pietro going on a journey into Lombardy, he left him, together with Bottalla (called Bortelli by Baldinucci) to supply his place in decorating the Barberini palace. It is reported that the two scholars, in the absence of their master, endeavoured to have the work transferred to themselves, and were on that account dismissed. It was at this time that Romanelli, assisted by Bernini, changed his style, and adopted by degrees a more elegant and a seductive manner in his figures, but possessing less grandeur and science than that of Pietro. He used more slender proportions, clearer tints, and a more minute taste in folding his drapery. His Deposition in S. Ambrogio, which was extolled as a prodigy, stimulated Pietro to paint opposite to it that wonderful picture of S. Stephen, on seeing which Bernini exclaimed, that he then perceived the difference between the master and the scholar. Romanelli was twice in France, having found a patron in the Cardinal Barberini, who had fled to Paris; and he participated in the spirited manner of that country, which gave an animation before unknown to his figures. This at least is the opinion of Pascoli. He decorated a portico of Cardinal Mazarine with subjects from the metamorphoses of Ovid, and afterwards adorned some of the royal saloons with passages from the AEneid. He was preparing to return to France with his family for the third time, when he was intercepted by death at Viterbo. He left in that city, at the grand altar of the Duomo, the picture of S. Lorenzo, and in Rome, and in other cities of Italy, numerous works both public and private, although he died at about forty-five years of age. He had the honour of painting in the church of the Vatican. The presentation which he placed there is now in the church of the Certosa, the mosaic in S. Peter. He did not leave behind him any scholars who inherited his reputation. Urbano, his son, was educated by Ciro after the death of his father. He is known for his works in the cathedral churches of Velletri and Viterbo: those in Viterbo are from the life of S. Lorenzo, the patron saint of the church, and prove him to have been a young man of considerable promise, but he was cut off prematurely.

Ciro Ferri, a Roman by birth, was, of all the disciples of Cortona, the one the most attached in person, and similar to him in style; and not a few of the works of Pietro were given to him to complete, both in Florence and in Rome. There are indeed some pictures so dubious, that the experienced are in doubt whether to assign them to the master or the scholar. He displays generally less grace in design, a less expansive genius, and shuns that breadth of drapery which his master affected. The number of his works in Rome is not proportioned to his residence there, because he lent much assistance to his master. There is a S. Ambrogio in the church of that saint just mentioned, and it is a touchstone of merit for whoever wishes to compare him with the best of his fellow scholars, or with his master himself. His works in the Pitti palace have been already mentioned in another place, and we ought not to forget another grand composition by him in S. M. Maggiore in Bergamo, consisting of various scriptural histories painted in fresco. He speaks of them himself in some letters inserted in the Pittoriche, (tom. ii. p. 38,) from which we gather, that he had been reprehended for his colouring, and contemplated visiting Venice in order to improve himself. He did not leave any scholar of celebrity in Rome. Corbellini, who finished the Cupola of S. Agnes, the last work of Ciro, which has been engraved, would not have found a place in Titi and Pascoli, if it had not been to afford those writers an opportunity of expressing their regret at so fine a composition being injured by the hand that attempted to finish it.