Chapter XII: Book III: Roman School (10)

I shall now pass from native to foreign artists, and shall take a brief notice of them, since my work has grown upon me with so many new Italian names, which are its proper object, that I have not much spare room for foreigners, and a sufficient notice of them may be found in their own country. Not a few _oltremonti_ painted at this period in Rome, celebrated for the most part in the inferior branches of painting, where they deserve commemoration. Some of them were employed in the churches, as Gio. Batista Vanloo di Aix, a favorite scholar of Luti, who painted the picture of the Flagellation at S. Maria in Monticelli. But he did not remain in Rome, but passed to Piedmont, and from thence to Paris and London, and was celebrated for his historical compositions, and highly esteemed in portrait. Some years after Vanloo, Pietro Subleyras di Gilles settled in Rome, and conferred great benefit on the Roman School; for whilst it produced only followers of the old manner, and thus fell gradually into decay, he very opportunely appeared and introduced an entirely new style. An academy had been founded in Rome by Louis XIV., about the year 1666. Le Brun had there cooperated, the Giulio Romano of France, and the most celebrated of the four Carli, who were at that time considered the supporters of the art; the others were Cignani, Maratta, and Loth. It had already produced some artists of celebrity, as Stefano Parocel, Gio. Troy, Carlo Natoire, by whom many pictures are to be found in the public edifices in Rome. There prevailed, however, in the style of this school a mannerism, which in a few years brought it into disrepute. Mengs designated it by the epithet of _spiritoso_, and it consisted, according to him, in overstepping the limits of beauty and propriety, overcharging both the one and the other, and aiming at fascinating the eyes rather than conciliating the judgment. Subleyras, educated in this academy, reformed this taste, retaining the good, and rejecting the feeble part, and adding from his own genius what was wanting to form a truly original manner. There was an engaging variety in the air of his heads, and in his attitudes, and he had great merit in the distribution of his chiaroscuro, which gives his pictures a fine general effect. He painted with great truth; but the figures and the drapery, under his pencil, took a certain fulness which in him appears easy, because it is natural; it remained his own, for although he left some scholars, none of them ever emulated the grandeur of style which distinguished their master.

He was mature in talent when he left the academy, and the portrait which he in preference to Masucci, painted of Benedict XIV., established his reputation as the first painter in Rome. He was soon afterwards chosen to paint the history of S. Basil, for the purpose of being copied in mosaic for the church of the Vatican. The original is in the church of the Carthusians, and astonishes, by the august representation of the Sacrifice solemnly celebrated by the saint in the presence of the emperor, who offers bread at the altar. The countenances are very animated, and there is great truth in the drapery and accompaniments, and the silks in their lucid and light folds appear absolutely real. From this production, and others of smaller size, and particularly the Saint Benedict at the church of the Olivetani di Perugia, which is perhaps his masterpiece, he deserves a place in the first collections, where, indeed, his pictures are rare and highly prized. Further notices of this artist may he found in the second volume of the _Giornale delle belle Arti_.

Egidio Ale, of Liege, studied in Rome, and became a spirited, pleasing, and elegant painter. His works in the sacristy dell'Anima, in fresco and oil, painted in competition with Morandi, Bonatti, and Romanelli, do him honour. Ignazio Stern was a Bavarian, who was instructed by Cignani in Bologna, and worked in Lombardy. An Annunciation in Piacenza, in the church of the Nunziata, exhibits a certain grace and elegance, which is peculiar to him, as is observed in the description of the public pictures in that city. Stern afterwards established himself in Rome, where he painted in fresco the sacristy of S. Paolino, and left some oil pictures in the church of S. Elisabetta, and in other churches. He was more particularly attached to profane history, conversations, and similar subjects, which have a place even in royal collections. Spain possessed a disciple of the school of Maratta, in Sebastiano Mugnoz, but dying young he left few works behind him.

In this place I ought to notice an establishment designed _to revive the art in that quarter, where it seemed to have so much declined_, as D. Francesco Preziado, of that country, says, in a letter which we shall shortly have occasion to mention with commendation. "The royal academy of S. Ferdinand, in Madrid, which owed its origin to Philip V., and was completed and endowed by Ferdinand VI., sent several students to Rome, and provided for their maintenance." They there selected the master the most agreeable to their genius, and had, in addition, a director, who was employed to superintend their studies; as I am informed by Sig. Bonaventura Benucci, a Roman painter, educated in that academy. Bottari and all Rome called it the Spanish academy, and I myself, in a former edition, followed the common report, and the two above named sovereigns I described as the founders of the academy. Having been censured for this statement, I have here thought proper to specify my authorities. It may without dispute be asserted, that the Spanish students have left in Rome many noble specimens of their talents and taste. D. Francesco Preziado was for many years the director of this academy, and painted a Holy Family at the S. S. Quaranta, in a good style. He made also a valuable communication to the Lettere Pittoriche (tom. vi. p. 308), on the artists of Spain, very useful to any one desiring information respecting this school, which is less known than it deserves to be.

An institution very much on the plan of the French academy was founded in Rome a few years ago, by his most faithful majesty, for Portuguese students, to the promotion of which, two celebrated Portuguese, the Cav. de Manique, intendant general of the police in Lisbon, and the Count de Souza, minister of that court in Rome, had the merit of contributing their assistance; the one having projected, and the other executed, the plan in the year 1791. The government of the academy was entrusted to the Sig. Gio. Gherardo de' Rossi, known for his very numerous and able writings, to which he has recently added an ingenious little work, intitled, _Scherzi poetici e pittorici_, with engravings by a celebrated academician. These establishments are of too recent a date to allow me to speak further respecting their productions.

The provincial painters have been occasionally noticed in connexion with their masters. I here add a supplement, which may be useful in the way of completion. Foligno possessed a Fra Umile Francescano, a good fresco painter, engaged in Rome by Cardinal Castaldi, to ornament the tribune of S. Margaret, while Gaulli and Garzi were commanded to paint the pictures for it. The Abbate Dondoli lived at Spello at the beginning of this century. He was more to be commended for his design than for his colouring. Marini has some celebrity in S. Severino, his native place. He was the scholar of Cipriano Divini, whom he surpassed in his art. Marco Vanetti, of Loreto, is known to me more from his life of Cignani, who was his master, than from his own works. Antonio Caldana, of Ancona, painted a very large composition in Rome, in the sacristy of S. Niccola da Tolentino, from the life of that saint. I do not know whether there remain any works of his in his native place; but there are a great number by a respectable artist, one Magatta, whose name was Domenico Simonetti, and who painted the gallery of the Marchesi Trionfi; he furnished many churches with his paintings, and distinguished himself in that of the church of the Suffragio, which is his most finished production. Anastasi di Sinigaglia was a painter less elegant and finished, but free and spirited. His works are not scarce in that city, and his best are the two historical subjects in the church della Croce. Three pictures by him also in S. Lucia di Monte Alboddo, are highly prized, and are called by the writer of the _Guida_, "_Capi d'opera dell'Anastasi_." Camillo Scacciani, of Pesaro, called Carbone, flourished at the beginning of the age we are writing on, and had a Caracciesque style allied to the modern. There is a S. Andrea Avellino by him in the Duomo of Pesaro; his other works are in private collections. This notice I deem sufficient, always excepting the living artists, whom I of course omit.[90]

Three masters who died successively in the pontificate of Pius VI. seem to require from me more than a transient notice, and with them I shall conclude the series of historical painters of the fifth epoch. I shall first commemorate the Cav. Raffaello Mengs, from whom our posterity may perhaps date a new and more happy era of the art. He was born in Saxony, and brought to Rome by his father while yet a boy, and was at that time skilled in miniature, and was a careful and correct draughtsman. On his arrival in Rome, his father employed him in copying the works of Raffaello, and chastised the young artist for every fault in his work, with an incredible severity, or rather inhumanity, inflicting on him even corporeal punishment, and reducing his allowance of food. Being thus compelled to study perfection, and endowed with a genius to appreciate it and perceive it, he acquired a consummate taste in art; he communicated to Winckelmann very important materials for his _Storia delle belle arti_, and was himself the author of many profound and valuable essays on the fine arts, which have materially contributed to improve the taste of the present age. They have different titles, but all the same aim, the discrimination of the real perfection of art.[91]

The artist, as characterized by Mengs, may be compared to the orator of Cicero, and both are endued by their authors with an ideal perfection, such as the world has never seen, and will probably never see; and it is the real duty of an instructor to recommend excellence, that in striving to attain it, we may at least acquire a commendable portion of it. Considered in this point of view, I should defend several of his writings, where in the opinion of others he seems to assume a dictatorial tone, in the judgment he passes on Guido, Domenichino, and the Caracci; the very triumvirate whom he proposes as models in the art. Mengs assuredly was not so infatuated as to hope to surpass these great men, but because he knew that no one does so well but that it might be done still better, he shews where they attained the summit of art, and where they failed. The artist, therefore, described by Mengs, and to whose qualifications he also aspired, and was anxious that all should do the same, ought to unite in himself the design and beauty of the Greeks, the expression and composition of Raffaello, the chiaroscuro and grace of Coreggio, and, to complete all, the colouring of Titian. This union of qualities Mengs has analyzed with equal elegance and perspicuity, teaching the artist how to form himself on that ideal beauty, which is itself never realised. If, on some occasions, he appears too enthusiastic, or in some degree obscure, it cannot excite our surprise, as he wrote in a foreign language, and was not much accustomed to composition. His ideas therefore stood in need of a refined scholar to render them clear and intelligible; and this advantage he would have procured, had he been resolved to publish them; but his works are all posthumous, and were given to the world by his excellency the Sig. Cav. Azara. Hence it frequently happens in his works, that one treatise destroys another, as Tiraboschi has observed in regard to his notice of Coreggio, in his _Notizie degli Artefici Modenesi_; and hence concludes that the _Riflessioni di Mengs su i tre gran Pittori_, where he finds much to censure in Coreggio, were written by him before he saw the works of that master; and that his _Memorie_ on the life of the same master, where he extols Coreggio to the skies, and calls him the Apelles of modern painting, were written after having seen and studied him.[92] In spite however of all objections, he will retain a distinguished place, as well among the theorists or writers, as among professors themselves, as long as the art endures.

We perhaps should not say that Mengs was a whetstone which gave a new quality to the steel, which it could not otherwise have acquired; but that he was the steel itself, which becomes brighter and finer the more it is used. He became painter to the court of Dresden; every fresh work gave proof of his progress in the art. He went afterwards to Madrid, where in the chambers of the royal palace he painted the assembly of the Gods, the Seasons, and the various parts of the day, in an enchanting manner. After repairing a second time to Rome to renew his studies, he again returned to Madrid, where he painted in one of the saloons the Apotheosis of Trajan, and in a theatre, Time subduing Pleasure; pictures much superior to his former pieces. In Rome there are three large works by him; the painting in the vault of S. Eusebio; the Parnassus in the saloon of the Villa Albani, far superior to the preceding one;[93] and lastly, the cabinet of manuscripts in the Vatican was painted by him, where the celestial forms of the angels, the majesty of Moses, and the dignified character of S. Peter, the enchanting colour, the relief, and the harmony, contribute to render this chamber one of the most remarkable in Rome for its beautiful decorations. This constant endeavour to surpass himself, would be evident also from his easel pictures, if they were not so rare in Italy; as he painted many of this description for London and the other capitals of Europe. In Rome itself, where he studied young, where he long resided, to which he always returned, and where at last he died, there are few of his works to be found. We may enumerate the portrait of Clement XIII. and his nephew Carlo, in the collection of the prince Rezzonico; that of Cardinal Zelada, secretary of state; and a few other pieces, in the possession of private gentlemen, more particularly the Sig. Cav. Azara. Florence has some large compositions by him in the Palazzo Pitti, and his own portrait in the cabinet of painters, besides the great Deposition from the Cross in chiaroscuro, for the Marchese Rinuccini, which he was prevented by death from colouring; and a beautiful Genius in fresco in a chamber of the Sig. Conte Senatore Orlando Malevolti del Benino.

Returning from the consideration of his works to Mengs himself, I leave to others to estimate his merit, and to determine how far his principles are just.[94] As far as regards myself, I cannot but extol that inextinguishable ardour of improving himself by which he was particularly distinguished, and which prompted him, even while he enjoyed the reputation of a first rate master, to proceed in every work as if he were only commencing his career. Truth was his great aim, and he diligently studied the works of the first luminaries of the art, analysed their colours, and examined them in detail, till he entered fully into the spirit and design of those great models. Whilst employed in the ducal gallery in Florence, he did not touch a pencil, until he had attentively studied the best pieces there, and particularly the Venus of Titian in the tribune. In his hours of leisure he employed himself in carefully studying the fresco pictures of the best masters of that school, which is so distinguished in this art. He was accustomed to do the same by every work of celebrity which fell in his way, whether ancient or modern; all contributed to his improvement, and to carry him nearer to perfection; he was in short a man of a most aspiring mind, and may be compared to the ancient, who declared that he wished "to die learning." If maxims like these were enforced, what rapid strides in the art might we not expect!

But the greater part of artists form for themselves a manner which may attract popularity, and then relax their efforts, satisfied with the applause of the crowd; and if they feel the necessity of improving, it is not with a design of acquiring a just reputation, but of adding to the price of their works.

Notwithstanding the considerable space which Mengs has occupied in our time, he has nevertheless left room for the celebrity of Pompeo Batoni, of Luca. The Cav. Boni, who has honoured this artist with an elegant eulogium, thus expresses himself in comparing him with Mengs. "The latter," he says, "was the painter of philosophy, the former of nature. Batoni had a natural taste which led him to the beautiful without effort; Mengs attained the same object by reflection and study. Grace was the gift of nature in Batoni, as it had formerly been in Apelles; while the higher attributes of the art were allotted to Mengs, as they were in former days to Protogenes. Perhaps the first was more painter than philosopher, the second more philosopher than painter. The latter, perhaps, was more sublime, but more studied; Batoni less profound, but more natural. Not that I would insinuate that nature was sparing to Mengs, or that Batoni was devoid of the necessary science of the art, &c." If it were ever said with truth of any artist, that he was born a painter, this distinction must be allowed to Batoni. He learned only the principles of the art in his native country, and of the two correspondents from whom I have received my information, the one considers him to have been the scholar of Brugieri, the other of Lombardi, as already mentioned, vol. i. p. 360, and probably he was instructed by both. He came young to Rome, and did not frequent any particular school, but studied and copied Raffaello and the old masters with unceasing assiduity, and thus learnt the great secret of copying nature with truth and judgment.

That boundless and instructive volume, open to all, but cultivated by few, was rightly appreciated by Batoni, and it was hence that he derived that beautiful variety in his heads and contours, which are sometimes wanting even in the great masters, who were occasionally too much addicted to the ideal. Hence, too, he derived the gestures and expressions most appropriate to each subject. Persuaded that a vivid imagination was not alone sufficient to depict those fine traits in which the sublimity of the art consists, he did not adopt any attitudes which were not found in nature. He took from nature the first ideas, copied from her every part of the figure, and adapted the drapery and folds from models. He afterwards embellished and perfected his work with a natural taste, and enlivened all with a style of colour peculiarly his own; clear, engaging, lucid, and preserving after the lapse of many years, as in the picture of various saints at S. Gregorio, all its original freshness. This was in him not so much an art as the natural ebullition of his genius. He sported with his pencil. Every path was open to him; painting in various ways, now with great force, now with a touch, and now finishing all by strokes. Sometimes he destroyed the whole work, and gave it the requisite force by a line.[95] Although he was not a man of letters, he yet shows himself a poet in conception, both in a sublime and playful style. One example from a picture in the possession of his heirs, will suffice. Wishing to express the dreams of an enamoured girl, he has represented her wrapped in soft slumbers, and surrounded by loves, two of whom present to her splendid robes and jewels, and a third approaches her with arrows in his hand, while she, captivated by the vision, smiles in her sleep. Many of these poetical designs, and many historical subjects, are in private collections, and in the courts of Europe, from which he had constant commissions.

Batoni possessed an extraordinary talent for portrait painting, and had the honour of being employed by three pontiffs in that branch of the art, Benedict XIV., Clement XIII., and Pius VI.; to whom may be added, the emperor Joseph II. and his august brother and successor, Leopold II., the Grand Duke of Muscovy, and the Grand Duchess, besides numerous private individuals. He for some time painted miniatures, and transferred that care and precision which is essential in that branch to his larger productions, without attenuating his style by hardness. We find an extraordinary proof of this in his altarpieces, spread over Italy, and mentioned by us in many cities, particularly in Lucca. Of those that remain in Rome, Mengs gave the preference to S. Celso, which is over the great altar of that church. Another picture, the Fall of Simon Magus, is in the church of the Certosa. It was intended to have been copied in mosaic for the Vatican, and to have been substituted for a picture of the same subject by Vanni, the only one in that church on stone. But the mosaic, from some cause or other, was not executed. Perhaps the subject displeased, from not being evangelical, and the idea of removing the picture of Vanni not being resumed, the subject was changed, and a commission given to Mengs to paint the Government of the church conferred on S. Peter. He made a sketch for it in chiaroscuro with great care, which is in the Palazzo Chigi, but did not live to finish it in colours. This sketch evinces a design and composition superior to the picture of Batoni, but the subject of the latter was more vigorously conceived. At all events, however, Batoni must henceforth be considered the restorer of the Roman School, in which he lived until his 79th year, and educated many pupils in his profession.

The example of the two last eminent artists was not lost on Antonio Cavallucci da Sermoneta, whose name when I began to print this volume, I did not expect would here have found a place. But having recently died, some notice is due to his celebrity, as he is already ranked with the first artists of his day. He was highly esteemed both in Rome and elsewhere. The Primaziale of Pisa, who in the choice of their artists consulted no recommendation but that of character, employed him on a considerable work, representing S. Bona of that city taking the religious habit. It breathes a sacred piety, which he himself both felt and expressed in a striking manner. In this picture he wished to shew that the examples of christian humility, such as burying in a cloister the gifts of nature and fortune, are susceptible of the gayest decoration. This he effected by introducing a train of noble men and women, who, according to custom, assisted in the solemnity. In this composition, in which he follows the principles of Batoni rather than those of Mengs, we may perceive both his study of nature, and his judgment and facility in imitating her. Another large picture of the saints Placido and Mauro, he sent into Catania, and another of S. Francesco di Paola, he executed for the church of Loreto, and which was copied in mosaic. In Rome are his S. Elias and the Purgatorio, two pictures placed at S. Martino a' Monti, and many works in the possession of the noble family of Gaetani, who were the first to encourage and support this artist. His last work was the Venus and Ascanius, in the Palazzo Cesarini, which has been described to me as a beautiful production by the Sig. Gio. Gherardo de' Rossi, who has declared his intention of publishing the life of Cavallucci, which will no doubt be done in his usual masterly manner.

The Roman School has recently had to regret the loss of two accomplished masters; Domenico Corvi of Viterbo, and Giuseppe Cades of Rome, who although younger than Corvi, and for some years his scholar, died before him. In my notice of them, I shall begin with the master who has been honoured and eulogized more than once in the respectable _Memorie delle belle Arti_, as well as his scholar, and also some other disciples; as there was not in Rome in the latter times any school more productive in talent. He was truly an accomplished artist, and there were few to compare with him in anatomy, perspective, and design; and from Mancini his instructor, he acquired something of the style of the Caracci. Hence, his academy drawings are highly prized, and I may say, more sought after than his pictures, which indeed want that fascination of grace and colour which attracts the admiration alike of the learned and the vulgar. He maintained an universal delicacy of colour, and was accustomed to defend the practice by asserting, with what justice I cannot say, that pictures painted in that manner were less liable to become black. His most esteemed works are his night pieces, as the Birth of our Saviour in the church of the Osservanti at Macerata, which is perhaps the summit of his efforts. Some amateurs went thither express towards the close of day; a lofty window opposite favoured the illusion of the perspective of the picture; and Corvi, who in other pictures is inferior to Gherardo delle Notti, viewed in this manner, here excels him, by an originality of perspective and general effect. He worked much both for his own countrymen and foreigners, besides the pictures which he kept ready by him, to supply the daily calls of purchasers, and many of which are still on sale in the house of his widow.

Cades recommends himself to our notice, principally by a facility of imitation, dangerous to the art when it is not governed by correct principles. No simulator of the character of another handwriting, could ever rival him in the dexterity with which at a moment's call he could imitate the physiognomy, the naked figure, the drapery, and the entire character of every celebrated designer. The most experienced persons would sometimes request from him a design after Michelangiolo or Raffaello, or some other great master, which he instantly complied with, and when confronted with an indisputable specimen of the master, and these persons were requested to point out the original, as Buonaruoti for example, they often hesitated, and frequently fixed on the design of Cades. He was notwithstanding, extremely honourable. He made on one occasion, a large design in the style of Sanzio, to deceive the director of a foreign cabinet, who boasted an infallible knowledge of the touch of Raffaello; and employing a person to shew it to him, with some fictitious history attached to it, the director purchased it at 500 zecchins. Cades wishing to return the money, the other refused to receive it, insisting on retaining the drawing, and disregarding all the protestations of the artist, and his request to be remunerated by a smaller sum; and this drawing is at this moment probably considered as an original, in one of the finest cabinets of Europe. He was confident in his talents from his early years, and on a public occasion, he made a drawing after the bent of his own genius, regardless of the directions of Corvi, who wished it to be done in another style, and he was in consequence dismissed from that school. This drawing obtained the first premium, and now exists in the academy of S. Luke, where it is much admired. In the art of colouring, too, he owed little to the instruction of masters, and much to his native talent of imitation. I have seen exhibited in the church of the Holy Apostles, a picture by him, which in the upper part represents the Madonna with the Holy Infant, and in the inferior part five saints, an allegorical picture, as I have heard suggested, relating to the election of Clement XIV. That Pope was elected by the suffrages of the Cardinal Carlo Rezzonico and his friends, and contrary to the expectation of P. Innocenzio Buontempi, who ordered the picture, and who after this election was promoted by the Pope to the eminent station of Maestro nel S. Ordine Serafico, and afterwards to that of the Pope's confessor. Hence this piece represents in the centre S. Clement reading the sacred volume; on his right is S. Carlo, who appears to admire his learning, and by his attitude seems to say, "This is a man justly entitled to the pontificate;" and in the last place S. Innocent the Pope, which representing the person of the P. Maestro, must here for the sake of propriety yield the place to the Cardinal S. Carlo. In the background are S. Francis and S. Anthony, half figures. Cades here took for his model the picture of Titian in the Quirinal, which he imitated as well in the composition as in the colour. And in this, indeed, he proceeded too far, giving it that obscure tone which the works of Titian have acquired only by the lapse of time. Cades here defended himself by saying that this piece was intended to be placed in the church of S. Francesco di Fabriano in a very strong light, where if the colours had not been kept low, they would have been displeasing to the spectator. There is an error in the perspective which cannot be overlooked. The allegorical figure of P. M. Innocenzio, who stands amazed at the sudden phenomenon, appears to be out of equilibrium, and would fall in real life. Other faults of colour, of costume, or of vulgarity of form, are noticed in others of his pictures by the author of the _Memorie_, in tom. i. and iii. But as he advanced in life he improved his style from study, and attending to the criticisms of the public. In tom. iii. just referred to, we find the description of one of his works executed for the Villa Pinciana, the subject of which is taken from Boccaccio; Walter Conte di Anguersa recognized in London. Let us weigh the opinion which this eminent author gives of this most beautiful composition, or let us compare it with the picture of S. Joseph of Copertino, which he painted at twenty-one years of age, as an altarpiece in the church of the Apostles, and we shall perceive the rapid strides which are made by genius. Other princely families, besides the Borghesi, availed themselves of his talents to ornament their palaces and villas; as the Ruspoli and the Chigi, and he executed several works for the empress of Russia. He died before he had attained his fiftieth year, and not long after he had so much improved his style. In the opinion of some, his execution still required to be rendered more uniform, since he sometimes displayed as many different manners in a picture, as there were figures. But in that he might plead the example of Caracci, as we shall notice on a proper opportunity.

We shall now pass to other branches of the art, and shall commence with landscapes. In this period flourished the scholars of the three famous landscape painters, described in their proper place, besides Grimaldi, mentioned in the Bolognese School, who resided a considerable time in Rome; and Paolo Anesi, of whom we made mention in speaking of Zuccherelli. With Anesi lived Andrea Lucatelli, a Roman, whose talents are highly celebrated in every inferior branch of the art. In the archbishop's gallery in Milan are a number of his pictures, historical, architectural, and landscapes. In these he often appears original in composition, and in the disposition of the masses; he is varied in his touch, delicate in his colouring, and elegant in his figures, which, as we shall see, he was also accustomed to paint in the Flemish style, separate from his landscapes.

Francis Van Blomen was a less finished artist, and from the hot and vaporous air of his pictures, obtained the name of Orizzonte. The palaces of the Pope and the nobility in Rome, abound with his landscapes in fresco and oil. In the character of his trees, and in the composition of his landscapes, he commonly imitated Poussin. In his general tone there predominates a greenish hue mixed with red. His pictures are not all equally finished, but they rise in value as those of older artists become injured by time, or rare from being purchased by foreigners. At the side of Van Blomen we often find the works of some of his best scholars, as Giacciuoli and Francis Ignazio, a Bavarian.

At the same time lived in Rome Francesco Wallint, called M. Studio, who painted small landscapes and sea views, ornamented with very beautiful figures; devoid however of that sentiment which is the gift of nature, and that delicacy which charms in the Italian School. He imitated Claude: Wallint the younger, his son, attached himself to the same manner with success, but did not equal his father.

At the beginning of this epoch, or thereabouts, there flourished two artists in Perugia in the same line; Ercolano Ercolanetti, and Pietro Montanini, the scholar of Ciro Ferri and of Rosa. The last was ambitious of the higher walks of art, and attempted the decoration of a church, but failed in the attempt, as his talent was restricted to landscape; and even when he added figures to these, they were not very correct, and possessed more spirit than accuracy of design. He was nevertheless a pleasing painter, and his pictures were sought after by foreigners. In Perugia there is an abundance of his works, and some are to be seen in the sacristy of the Eremitani, which might be said to discover a Flemish style.

Alessio de Marchis, a Neapolitan, is not much known in Rome, although in the Ruspoli and Albani palaces, some pleasing pieces by him are pointed out. He is better known in Perugia and Urbino, and the adjacent cities. It is said that, in order to obtain a study for a picture from nature, he set fire to a barn. For this act he was condemned to the galleys for several years, and was liberated under the pontificate of Clement XI. whose palace in Urbino he decorated with architectural ornaments, distant views, and beautiful seapieces, more in the style of Rosa than any other artist. There is an extraordinarily fine picture by him of the Burning of Troy, in the collection of the Semproni family, and some landscapes in other houses in Urbino, in which he has displayed all his genius, and extended it also to figures. But in general there is little more to praise in him than his spirit, his happy touch, and natural colouring, particularly in fires, and the loaded and murky air, and the general tone of the piece, as the detached parts are negligent and imperfect. He left a son, also a landscape painter, but not of much celebrity.

At the beginning of the century Bernardino Fergioni displayed in Rome an extraordinary talent in sea views, and harbours, to which he added a variety of humourous figures. He was first a painter of animals, and afterwards tried this line with better success; but his fame was a few years afterwards eclipsed by two Frenchmen, Adrian Manglard, of a solid, natural, and correct taste; and his scholar, Joseph Vernet, who surpassed his master by his spirit and his charming colouring. The first seemed to paint with a degree of timidity and care, the latter in the full confidence of genius; the one seemed to aim at truth, the other at beauty. Manglard was many years in Rome, and his works are to be seen in the Villa Albani, and in many other palaces. Vernet is to be seen in the Rondanini mansion, and in a few other collections.

There were not many painters of battles during this epoch, except the scholars of Borgognone. Christiano Reder, called also M. Leandro, who came to Rome about 1686, the year of the taking of Buda, devoted himself, in conformity with the feelings of the times, to painting battles between the Christians and the Turks; but his pictures, though well touched, were soon depreciated from the great number of them. The best in the opinion of Pascoli, was that in the gallery de' Minimi; and he left many also in the palaces of the nobility. He was also expert in landscape and humourous subjects, and was assisted by Peter Van Blomen, called also Stendardo, the brother of Francis Orizzonte. Stendardo also painted battle pieces, but he was more attached to Bambocciate, in the Flemish style, wherein he delights to introduce animals, and particularly horses, in designing which he was very expert, and almost unrivalled. His distances are very clear, and afford a fine relief to his figures.

In Rome, and throughout the ecclesiastical state, we find many pictures of this sort by that Lucatelli who has been mentioned among the landscape painters. The connoisseurs attribute to him two different manners; the first good, the second still better, and exhibiting great taste, both in colouring and invention. In some collections we find Monaldi near him, who although of a similar taste, yielded to him in correctness of design, in colour, and in that natural grace which may be called the _Attic salt_ of this mute poetry.

I have not ascertained who was the instructor of Antonio Amorosi, a native of Comunanza, and a fellow countryman of Ghezzi, and his co-disciple also in the school of the Cav. Giuseppe (Vernet). I only know that he is in his way equally facetious, and sometimes satirical. Like Ghezzi he painted pictures in the churches, which are to be found in the Guida di Roma; he did not, however, succeed so well in them as in his _bambocciate_, which would appear really Flemish if the colours were more lucid. He is less known in the metropolis than in Piceno, where he is to be seen in many collections, and is mentioned in the Guida d'Ascoli. He pleased also in foreign countries, and represented subjects from common life, as drinking parties in taverns in town and country, on which occasion he discovered no common talent in architecture, landscape, and the painting of animals.

Arcangelo Resani, of Rome, the scholar of Boncuore, painted animals in a sufficiently good taste, accompanying them with large and small figures, in which he had an equal talent. In the Medici gallery is his portrait, with a specimen attached of the art in which he most excelled, the representation of still life. In the same way Nuzzi added flowers, and other artists landscapes, to their portraits.

Carlo Voglar, or Carlo da' Fiori, was a painter of fruit and flowers in a very natural style, and was also distinguished in painting dead game. He had a rival in this style in Francesco Varnetam, called Deprait, who was still more ingenious in adding glass and portraits, and composed his pieces in the manner of a good figurist. This artist after residing several years in Rome, was appointed painter to the Imperial Court, and died in Vienna, after having spread his works and his fame through all Germany. In the time of the two preceding artists, Christian Bernetz was celebrated, who on the death of the first, and the departure of the second artist, remained in Rome the chief painter in this style. All the three were known to Maratta, and employed by him in ornamenting his pictures; and he enriched theirs in return with children and other figures, which have rendered them invaluable. The last was also a friend of Garzi, in conjunction with whom he painted pictures, each taking the department in which they most excelled. Scipione Angelini, of Perugia, improperly called Angeli by Guarienti, was celebrated by Pascoli for similar talents. His flowers appear newly plucked and sparkling with dew drops. In the _Memorie Messinesi_, I find that Agostino Scilla when he was exiled from Sicily, repaired to Rome, where he died. Whilst in Rome, he seemed to shun all competition with the historical painters, and occupied himself (with a certainty of not being much celebrated), in designing animals, and in other inferior branches of the art. In this line both he and Giacinto, his younger brother, had great merit. Saverio, the son of Agostino, who, on the death of them both, continued to reside and to paint in Rome, did not equal them in reputation.

During this period of the decline of the art, one branch of painting, perspective, made an extraordinary progress by the talents of P. Andrea Pozzo, a Jesuit, and a native of Trent. He became a painter and architect from his native genius, rather than from the instruction of any master. His habit of copying the best Venetian and Lombard pictures, had given him a good style of colour, and a sufficiently correct design, which he improved in Rome, where he resided many years. He painted also in Genoa and Turin, and in these cities and in both the states, we find some beautiful works, the more so as they resemble Rubens in tone, to whose style of colour he aspired. There are not many of his oil paintings in Italy, and few of them are finished, as S. Venanzio in Ascoli, and S. Borgia at S. Remo. Even the picture of S. Ignatius at the Gesu in Rome, is not equally rendered in every part. Nevertheless, he appears on the whole a fine painter, his design well conceived, his forms beautiful, his colours fascinating, and the touch of his pencil free and ready. Even his less finished performances evince his genius; and of the last mentioned picture, I heard from P. Giulio Cordara, an eminent writer in verse and prose, an anecdote which deserves preservation. A painter of celebrity being directed to substitute another in its place, declared that neither himself nor any other living artist could execute a superior work. His despatch was such, that in four hours he began and finished the portrait of a cardinal, who was departing the same day for Germany.

He occupies a conspicuous place among the ornamental painters, but his works in this way would be more perfect if there was not so great a redundance of decoration, as vases, festoons, and figures of boys in the cornices, though this indeed was the taste of the age. The ceiling of the church of S. Ignatius is his greatest work, and which would serve to show his powers, if he had left nothing else, as it exhibits a novelty of images, an amenity of colour, and a picturesque spirit, which attracted even the admiration of Maratta and Ciro Ferri; the last of whom, amazed that Andrea had in so few years, and in so masterly a manner, peopled, as he called it, this Piazza Navona, concluded that the horses of other artists went at a common pace, but those of Pozzo on the gallop. He is the most eminent of perspective painters, and even in the concaves has given a convex appearance to the pieces of architecture represented, as in the Tribune of Frascati, where he painted the Circumcision of Jesus Christ, and in a corridor of the Gesu at Rome. He succeeded too in a surprising manner in deceiving the eye with fictitious cupolas in many churches of his order; in Turin, Modena, Mondovi, Arezzo, Montepulciano, Rome, and Vienna, to which city he was invited by the emperor Leopold I. He also painted scenes for the theatres, and introduced colonnades and palaces with such inimitable art, that it renders more credible the wonderful accounts handed down to us by Vitruvius and Pliny of the skill of the ancients in this art. Although well grounded in the theory of optics, as his two volumes of perspective prove, it was his custom never to draw a line without first having made a model, and thus ascertained the correct distribution of the light and shade. When he painted on canvass, he laid on a light coat of gum, and rejected the use of chalk, thinking that when the colours were applied, the latter prevented the softening of the lights and shadows, when requisite.

He had many scholars who imitated him in perspective; some in fresco; others in oil, taking their designs from real buildings, and at other times painting from their own inventions. One of these was Alberto Carlieri, a Roman, a painter also of small figures, of whom Orlandi makes mention. Antonio Colli, another of his scholars, painted the great altar at S. Pantaleo, and decorated it in perspective in so beautiful a manner, that it was by some taken for the work of his master. Of Agostino Collaceroni of Bologna, considered of the same school, we have before spoken.

There were also architectural painters in other branches. Pierfrancesco Garoli, of Turin, painted the interior of churches, and Garzi supplied the figures. Tiburzio Verzelli, of Recanati, is little known beyond Piceno, his birthplace. The noble family of Calamini of Recanati, possess perhaps his best picture, the elevation of S. Pietro in Vaticano, one of the most beautiful and largest works of this kind that I ever saw, which occupied the master several years in finishing. Gaspare Vanvitelli, of Utrecht, called _Dagli Occhiali_, may be called the painter of modern Rome; his pictures, which are to be found in all parts of Europe, represent the magnificent edifices of that city, to which landscapes are added, when the subject admits of it. He also painted views of other cities, seaports, villas, and farm houses, useful alike to painters and to architects. He painted some large pictures, though most of his works are of a small size. He was correct in his proportions, lively and clear in his tints, and there is nothing left to desire, except a little more spirit and variety in the landscape or in the sky, as the atmosphere is always of a pale azure, or carelessly broken by a passing cloud. He was the father of Luigi Vanvitelli, a painter, who owed his great name to architecture, as we shall see was the case also with the celebrated Serlio.

But no painter of perspective has found more admirers than the Cav. Gio. Paolo Pannini, mentioned elsewhere; not so much for the correctness of his perspective, in which he has many equals, as for his charming landscape and spirited figures. It cannot indeed be denied, that these latter are sometimes too high in proportion to the buildings, and that also, to shun the dryness of Viviani, he has a mannered style of mixing a reddish hue in his shadows. For the first defect there is no remedy; but the second will be alleviated by time, which will gradually subdue the predominant colour.

Lastly, to this epoch the art of mosaic owes the great perfection which it attained, in imitating painting, not only by the means of small pieces of marble selected and cemented together, but by a composition which could produce every colour, emulate every tint, represent each degree of shade, and every part, equal to the pencil itself. Baglione attributes the improvement in this art to Muziani, whom he calls the inventor of working mosaics in oil; and that which he executed for the Cappella Gregoriana, he praises as the most beautiful mosaic that has been formed since the time of the ancients. Paolo Rossetti of Cento was employed there under Muziani, and instructed Marcello Provenzale, his fellow countryman. Both left many works beautifully painted in mosaic; and the second, who lived till the time of Paul V. painted the portrait of that Pope, and some cabinet pictures. An extensive work, as has often been the case, was the cause of improving this art. The humidity of the church of S. Peter was so detrimental to oil paintings, that from the time of Urban VIII. there existed an idea of substituting mosaics in their place. The first altarpiece was executed by a scholar of Provenzale, already mentioned, Giambatista Calandra, born in Vercelli. It represents S. Michael, and is of a small size, copied from a picture of the Cav. d'Arpino. He afterwards painted other subjects in the small cupolas, and near some windows of the church, from the cartoons of Romanelli, Lanfranco, Sacchi, and Pellegrini; but thinking his talents not sufficiently rewarded, he began to work also for individuals, and painted portraits, or copied the best productions of the old masters. Among these Pascoli particularly praises a Madonna copied from a picture of Raffaello, in possession of the Queen of Sweden, and of this and other similar works he judged that from their harmony of colour and high finishing, they were deserving of close and repeated inspection.

At this time great approaches were made towards the modern style of mosaic; but this art was afterwards carried to a much higher pitch by the two Cristofori, Fabio, and his son Pietro Paolo. These artists painted the S. Petronilla, copied from the great picture of Guercino, the S. Girolamo of Domenichino, and the Baptism of Christ by Maratta. For other works by him and his successors, I refer the reader to the _Descrizione_ of the pictures of Rome above cited. I will only add, that when the works were completed for S. Peter's, lest the art might decay for want of due encouragement, it was determined to decorate the church of Loreto with similar pictures, which were executed in Rome, and transferred to that church.