Chapter VI: Book III: Roman School (4)

We may now return to the original subject of our inquiry, examine the principles of the Roman School, and attend it to its latest epoch. Raffaello at all times employed a number of scholars, constantly instructing and teaching them; whence he never went to court, as we are assured by Vasari, without being accompanied by probably fifty of the first artists, who attended him out of respect. He employed every one in the way most agreeable to his talent. Some having received sufficient instruction, returned to their native country, others remained with him as long as he lived, and after his death established themselves in Rome, where they became the germs of this new school. At the head of all was Giulio Romano, whom, with Gio. Francesco Penni, Raffaello appointed his heir, whence they both united in finishing the works on which their master was employed at his death. They associated to themselves as an assistant Perino del Vaga, and to render the connexion permanent, they gave him a sister of Penni to his wife. To these three were also joined some others who had worked under Raffaello. On their first establishment they did not meet with any great success, for, as Vasari informs us, the chief place in art being by universal consent assigned to Fra Sebastiano, through the partiality of Michelangiolo, the followers of Raffaello were kept in the back ground. We may also add, as another cause, the death of Leo X., in 1521, and the election of his successor, Adrian VI., a decided enemy to the fine arts, by whom the public works contemplated, and already commenced by his predecessor, remained neglected; and many artists, in consequence of the want of employment, occasioned by this event, and by the plague, in 1523, were reduced to the greatest distress. But Adrian dying after a reign of twenty-three months, and Giulio de' Medici being elected in his place under the name of Clement VII., the arts again revived. Raffaello, before his death, had begun to paint the great saloon, and had designed some figures, and left many sketches for the completion of it. It was intended to represent four historical events, although the subjects of some of them are disputed. These were the Apparition of the Cross, or the harangue of Constantine; the battle wherein Maxentius is drowned, and Constantine remains victor; the Baptism of Constantine, received from the hands of S. Silvester; and the Donative of the city of Rome, made to the same pontiff. Giulio finished the two first subjects, and Giovanni Francesco the other two, and they added to them bassirelievi, painted in imitation of bronze under each of the same subjects, with some additional figures. They afterwards painted, or rather finished the pictures of the villa at Monte Mario, a work ordered by the Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, and suspended until the second or third year of his papal reign. This villa was afterwards called di Madama, and there still remain many traces, although suffering from time, of the munificence of that prince, and the taste of the school of Raffaello. Giulio meanwhile, with the permission of the pope, established himself in Mantua, Il Fattore went to Naples; and some little time afterwards, in 1527, in consequence of the sacking of Rome, and the unrestrained licence of the invading army, Vaga, Polidoro, Giovanni da Udine, Peruzzi, and Vincenzio di S. Gimignano left Rome, and with them Parmigianino, who was at this time in the capital, and passionately employed in studying the works of Raffaello. This illustrious school was thus separated and dispersed over Italy, and hence it happened that the new style was quickly propagated, and gave birth to the florid schools, which form the subjects of our other books. Although some of the scholars of Raffaello might return to Rome, yet the brilliant epoch was past. The decline became apparent soon after the sacking of the city, and from the time of that event, the art daily degenerated in the capital, and ultimately terminated in mannerism. But of this in its proper place. At present, after this general notice of the school of Raffaello, we shall treat of each particular scholar and of his assistants.

Giulio Pippi, or Giulio Romano, the most distinguished pupil of Raffaello, resembled his master more in energy than in delicacy of style, and was particularly successful in subjects of war and battles, which he represented with equal spirit and correctness. In his noble style of design he emulates Michelangiolo, commands the whole mechanism of the human body, and with a masterly hand renders it subservient to all his wishes. His only fault is, that his demonstrations of motion are sometimes too violent. Vasari preferred his drawings to his pictures, as he thought that the fire of his original conception was apt to evaporate, in some degree, in the finishing. Some have objected to the squareness of his physiognomies, and have complained of his middle tints being too dark. But Niccolo Poussin admired this asperity of colour in his battle of Constantine, as suitable to the character of the subject. In the picture of the church dell'Anima, which is a Madonna, accompanied by Saints, and in others of that description, it does not produce so good an effect. His cabinet pictures are rare, and sometimes too free in their subjects. He generally painted in fresco, and his vast works at Mantua place him at the head of that school, which indeed venerates him as its founder.

Gianfrancesco Penni of Florence, called Il Fattore, who when a boy was a servant in the studio of Raffaello, became one of his principal scholars, and assisted him more than any other in the cartoons of the tapestries: he painted in the gallery of the Vatican the Histories of Abraham and Isaac, noticed by Taja. Among other works left incomplete by his master, and which he finished, is the Assumption of Monte Luci in Perugia, the lower part of which, with the apostles, is painted by Giulio, and the upper part, which abounds with Raffaellesque grace, is ascribed to Il Fattore, although Vasari assigns it to Perino. Of the works which he performed alone, his frescos in Rome have perished, and so few of his oil pictures remain, that they are rarely to be found in any collection. He is characterised by fertility of conception, grace of execution, and a singular talent for landscape. He was joint heir of Raffaello with Giulio, and wished to unite himself with him in his profession; but being coldly received by Giulio in Mantua, he proceeded to Naples, where he, as we shall see, contributed greatly to the improvement of art, although cut off by an early death. Orlandi notices two Penni in the school of Raffaello, comprehending Luca, a brother of Gianfrancesco, a circumstance not improbable, and not, as far as I know, contradicted by history. We are also told by Vasari, that Luca united himself to Perino del Vaga, and worked with him at Lucca, and in other places of Italy; that he followed Rosso into France, as we have before observed; and that he ultimately passed into England, where he painted for the king and private persons, and made designs for prints.

Perino del Vaga, whose true name was Pierino Buonaccorsi, was a relation and fellow citizen of Penni. He had a share in the works of the Vatican, where he at one time worked stuccos and arabesques with Giovanni da Udine, at another time painted chiaroscuri with Polidoro, or finished subjects from the sketches and after the style of Raffaello. Vasari considered him the best designer of the Florentine School, after Michelangiolo, and at the head of all those who assisted Raffaello. It is certain, at least, that no one could, like him, compete with Giulio, in that universality of talent so conspicuous in Raffaello; and the subjects from the New Testament, which he painted in the papal gallery, were praised by Taja above all others. In his style there is a great mixture of the Florentine, as may be seen at Rome, in the Birth of Eve, in the church of S. Marcello, where there are some children painted to the life, a most finished performance. A convent at Tivoli possesses a S. John in the desart, by him, with a landscape in the best style. There are many works by him in Lucca, and Pisa, but more particularly in Genoa, where we shall have occasion again to consider him as the origin of a celebrated school.

Giovanni da Udine, by a writer of Udine called Giovanni di Francesco Ricamatore, (Boni, p. 25,) likewise assisted Sanzio in arabesques and stuccos, and painted ornaments in the gallery of the Vatican, in the apartments of the pope, and in many other places. Indeed, in the art of working in stucco, he is ranked as the first among the moderns,[53] having, after long experience, imitated the style of the baths of Titus, discovered at that time in Rome, and opened afresh in our own days.[54] His foliage and shells, his aviaries and birds, painted in the above mentioned places, and in other parts of Rome and Italy, deceive the eye by their exquisite imitation; and in the animals more particularly, and the indigenous and foreign birds, he seems to have reached the highest point of excellence. He was also remarkable for counterfeiting with his pencil every species of furniture; and a story is told, that having left some imitations of carpets one day in the gallery of Raffaello, a groom in the service of the Pope coming in haste in search of a carpet to place in a room, ran to snatch up one of those of Giovanni, deceived by the similitude. After the sacking of Rome he visited other parts of Italy, leaving wherever he went, works in the most perfect and brilliant style of ornament. This will occasion us to notice him in other schools. At an advanced age he returned to Rome, where he was provided with a pension from the Pope, till the time of his death.[55]

Polidoro da Caravaggio, from a manual labourer in the works of the Vatican, became an artist of the first celebrity, and distinguished himself in the imitation of antique bassirelievi, painting both sacred and profane subjects in a most beautiful chiaroscuro. Nothing of this kind was ever seen more perfect, whether we consider the composition, the mechanism, or the design; and Raffaello and he, of all artists, are considered in this respect to have approached nearest to the style of the ancients. Rome was filled with the richest friezes, facades, and ornaments over doors, painted by him and Maturino of Florence, an excellent designer, and his partner; but these, to the great loss of art, have nearly all perished. The fable of Niobe, in the Maschera d'Oro, which was one of their most celebrated works, has suffered less than any other from the ravages of time and the hand of barbarism. This loss has been in some measure mitigated by the prints of Cherubino Alberti, and Santi Bartoli, who engraved many of these works before they perished. Polidoro lost his comrade by death in Rome, as was supposed, by the plague, and he himself repaired to Naples, and from thence to Sicily, where he fell a victim to the cupidity of his own servant, who assassinated him. With him invention, grace, and freedom of hand, seem to have died. This notice of him as an artist may suffice for the present, as we shall again recur to him in the fourth book, as one of the masters of the Neapolitan School.

Pellegrino da Modena, of the family of Munari, of all the scholars of Raffaello, perhaps resembled him the most in the air of his heads, and a peculiar grace of attitude. After having painted in an incomparable manner the history of Jacob, before mentioned, and others of the same patriarch, and some from the life of Solomon, in the gallery of the Vatican, under Raffaello, he remained in Rome employed in the decoration of many of the churches, until his master's death. He then returned to his native place, where he became the head of a numerous succession of Raffaellesque painters, as we shall in due time relate.

Bartolommeo Ramenghi, or as he is sometimes named, Bagnacavallo, and by Vasari Il Bologna, is also included in the catalogue of those who worked in the gallery. There is not however any known work of his in Rome, and we may say the same of Biagio Pupini, a Bolognese, with whom he afterwards united himself to paint in Bologna. Vasari is not prodigal of praise towards the first, and writes with the most direct censure against the second. Of their merits we shall speak more fully in the Bolognese School, to which Bagnacavallo was the first to communicate a new and better style.

Besides these, Vasari mentions Vincenzio di S. Gimignano, in Tuscany, to whom, as a highly successful imitator of Raffaello, he gives great praise, referring to some facades in fresco by him, which have now perished. After the sacking of Rome he returned home, but so changed and dispirited, that he appeared quite another person, and we have no account of any of his subsequent works. Schizzone, a comrade of Vincenzio, a most promising artist, shared the same fate; and we find also, in the Bolognese School, Cavedone losing his powers by some great mental affliction. Among the subjects of the Vatican we do not find any ascribed to Vincenzio, but we may perhaps assign to him the history of Moses in Horeb, which Taja, on mere conjecture, ascribes to the bold pencil of Raffaele del Colle, who was employed by Raffaello in the Farnesina, and in the Hall of Constantine, under Giulio. Of this artist and his successors we have spoken in the first book, where we have made some additions to the account of Vasari.

Timoteo della Vite, of Urbino, after some years spent at Bologna in studying under Francesco Francia, returned to his native city, and from thence repaired to the academy which his countryman and relation Raffaello had opened in the Vatican. He assisted Raffaello at the Pace, in the fresco of the Sybils, of which he retained the cartoons; and after some time, from some cause or other, he returned to Urbino, and there passed the remainder of his days. He brought with him to Rome, a method of painting which partook much of the manner of the early masters, as may be seen in some of his Madonnas, at the palace Bonaventura, and the chapter of Urbino; and in a Discovery of the Cross in the church of the conventuals of Pesaro. He improved his style under Raffaello, and acquired much of his grace, attitudes, and colour, though he always remained a limited inventor, with a certain timidity of touch, more correct than vigorous. The picture of the Conception at the Osservanti of Urbino, and the Noli me Tangere, in the church of S. Angelo, at Cagli, are the best pieces that remain of Timoteo. Pietro della Vite, who is supposed to have been his brother, painted in the same style, but in an inferior manner. This Pietro is, perhaps, the relative and heir of Raffaello, whom Baldinucci mentions in his fifth volume. The same writer affirms, at the end of his fourth volume, that the artists of Urbino included amongst the scholars of Raffaello one Crocchia, and assign to him a picture at the Capuchins in Urbino, of which I have no further knowledge.

Benvenuto Tisi, of Ferrara, or as he is generally called, Il Garofalo, also studied only a little time under Sanzio; but it was sufficient to enable him to become, as we shall notice hereafter, the chief of the Ferrarese School. He imitated Raffaello in design, in the character of his faces, and in expression, and considerably also in his colouring, although he added something of a warmer and stronger cast, derived from his own school. Rome, Bologna, and other cities of Italy, abound with his pictures from the lives of the apostles. They are of various merit, and are not wholly painted by himself. In his large pictures he stands more alone, and many of these are to be found in the Chigi gallery. The Visitation in the Palazzo Doria, is one of the first pieces in that rich collection. This artist was accustomed, in allusion to his name, to mark his pictures with a violet, which the common people in Italy call garofalo. It does not appear from Vasari, Titi, and Taja, that Garofalo had any share in the works which were executed by Raffaello and his scholars.

Gaudenzio Ferrari is mentioned by Titi, as an assistant of Raffaello in the story of Psyche, and we shall advert to him again in another book as chief of the Milanese School. Orlandi, on the credit of some more modern writers, asserts, that he worked with Raffaello also at Torre Borgia; and before that time, he considers him to have been a scholar of Scotto and Perugino. In Florence, and in other places in Lower Italy, some highly finished pictures are attributed to him, which partake of the preceding century, though they do not seem allied to the school of Perugino. Of these pictures we shall resume our notice hereafter; at present it may be sufficient to remark, that in Lombardy, where he resided, there is not a picture in that style to be found with his name attached to it. He is always Raffaellesque, and follows the chiefs of the Roman School.

Vasari also notices Jacomone da Faenza. This artist assiduously studied the works of Raffaello, and from long practice in copying them, became himself an inventor. He flourished in Romagna, and it was from him that a Raffaellesque taste was diffused throughout that part of Italy. He is also mentioned by Baldinucci, and we shall endeavour to make him better known in his proper place.

Besides the above mentioned scholars and assistants of Raffaello, several others are enumerated by writers, of whom we may give a short notice. Il Pistoja, a scholar of Il Fattore, and probably employed by him in the works of Sanzio, as Raffaellino del Colle was with Giulio, is mentioned as a scholar of Raffaello by Baglione, and, on the credit of that writer, also by Taja. We mentioned him among the Tuscans, and shall further notice him in Naples, where we shall also find Andrea da Salerno, head of that school, whom Dominici proves to be a scholar of Raffaello.

In the _Memorie di Monte Rubbiano_, edited by Colucci, at page 10, Vincenzo Pagani, a native of that country, is mentioned as a pupil of the same master. There remains of him in the collegiate church there, a most beautiful picture of the Assumption; and the Padre Civalli points out another in Fallerone and two at Sarnano, in the church of his religious fraternity, much extolled, and in a Raffaellesque manner, if we are to credit report. This painter, of whom, in Piceno, I find traces to the year 1529, again appears in Umbria in 1553, where Lattanzio his son, being elected a magistrate of Perugia, he transferred himself thither, and was employed to paint the altarpiece of the Cappella degli Oddi, in the church of the Conventuals, as we have already mentioned. According to the conditions of the contract, Paparelli had a share with him in this work, and he must be considered as an assistant of Vincenzo, both because he is named as holding the second place, and because he is reported by Vasari on other occasions, as having been an assistant. But as history mentions nothing relative to this picture, except the contract, we shall content ourselves with observing, that this praiseworthy artist, who was passed over in silence for so many years, still painted in the year 1553. Whether he was a scholar of Raffaello, or whether this was a tradition which arose in his own country in progress of time, supported only on the consideration of his age and his style, is a point to be decided by proofs of more authority than those we possess. I agree with the Sig. Arciprete Lazzari, when, writing of F. Bernardo Catelani of Urbino, who painted in Cagli the picture of the great altar in the church of the Capucins, he says, that he had there exhibited the style of the school of Raffaello, but he does not consider him his scholar.

It has been asserted, that Marcantonio Raimondi painted some pictures from the sketches of Raffaello, in a style which excited the admiration of the designer himself; but this appears doubtful, and is so considered by Malvasia. L'Armenini also assigns to this school, Scipione Sacco, a painter of Cesena, and Orlandi, Don Pietro da Bagnaja, whom we shall mention in the Romagna School. Some have added to it Bernardino Lovino, and others Baldassare Peruzzi, a supposition which we shall shew to be erroneous. Padre della Valle has more recently revived an opinion, that Correggio may be ranked in the same school, and that he was probably employed in the gallery, and might have painted the subject of the Magi, attributed by Vasari to Perino. This is conjectured from the peculiar smile of the mother and the infant. But these surmises and conjectures we may consider as the chaff of that author, who has nevertheless presented us with much substantial information. We shall now advert to the foreigners of this school. Bellori has enumerated, among the imitators of Raffaello, Michele Cockier, or Cocxie, of Malines, of whom there remain some pictures in fresco in the church dell'Anima. Being afterwards in Flanders, where several works of Raffaello were engraved by Cock, he was accused of plagiarism, but still maintained a considerable reputation; as to a fertile invention he added a graceful style of execution. Many of his best pictures passed into Spain, and were there purchased at great prices. Palomino acquaints us with another excellent scholar of Sanzio, Pier Campanna, of Flanders, who, although he could not entirely divest himself of the hardness of his native school, was still highly esteemed in his day. He resided twenty years in Italy, and was employed in Venice by the Patriarch Grimani, for whom he painted several portraits, and the celebrated picture of the Magdalen led by Saint Martha to the Temple, to hear the preaching of Christ. This picture, which was bequeathed by the Patriarch to a friend, after a lapse of many years, passed into the hands of Mr. Slade, an English gentleman. Pier Campanna distinguished himself in Bologna, by painting a triumphal arch on the arrival of Charles V., by whom he was invited to Seville, where he resided a considerable time, painting and instructing pupils, among whom is reckoned Morales, who, from his countrymen, had the appellation of the divine. He was accustomed to paint small pictures, which were eagerly sought after by the English, and transferred to their country, where they are highly prized. Of his altarpieces, several remain in Seville, and we may mention the Purification, in the Cathedral, and the Deposition at S. Croce, as the most esteemed. Murillo, who was himself a truly noble artist, greatly admired and studied this latter picture, which, even after we have seen the masterpieces of the Italian School, still excites our astonishment and admiration. This artist, to some one, who, in his latter years, inquired why he so often repaired to this picture, replied, that he waited the moment when the body of Christ should reach the ground. Mention is also made of one Mosca, whether a native or foreigner I know not, as a doubtful disciple of this school. Christ on his way to Mount Calvary, now in the Academy in Mantua, is certainly a Raffaellesque picture, but we may rather consider Mosca an imitator and copyist, than a pupil of Raffaello. In the edition of Palomino, published in London, 1742, I find some others noticed as scholars of Raffaello, who being born a little before or after 1520, could not possibly belong to him; as Gaspare Bacerra, the assistant of Vasari; Alfonso Sanchez, of Portugal; Giovanni di Valencia; Fernando Jannes. It is not unusual to find similar instances in the history of painting, and the reports have for the most part originated in the last age. Whenever the artists of a country began to collect notices of the masters who had preceded them, their style had become the prevailing taste; and as if human genius could attain no improvement beyond that which it receives subserviently from another, every imitator was supposed to be a scholar of the artist imitated, and every school, arrogating to itself the names of the first masters, endeavoured to load itself with fresh honours.

[Footnote 26: Hist. Rom. vol. i. ad calcem.]

[Footnote 27: Besides his life by Vasari, another was published by Sig. Abate Comolli, which I consider posterior to that of Vasari. Memoirs of him were also collected by Piacenza, Bottari, and other authors whom I shall notice; and I shall also avail myself of the information derived from the inspection of his pictures, and their character, and the various dates of his works.]

[Footnote 28: We find his name written _Io. Sanctis_ in the Nunziata of Sinigaglia; and it appears that he was born of a father called, according to the expression of that age, _Santi_ or _Sante_; a name in common use in many parts of Italy. In support of the surname of Sanzio, Bottari produces a portrait of Antonio Sanzio, which exists in the Palazzo Albani, representing him holding in his hands a document, with the title of _Genealogia Raphaelis Sanctii Urbinatis_. Julius Sanctius is there named as the head of the family, _familiae quae adhuc Urbini illustris extat, ab agris dividendis cognomen imposuit_, and was the progenitor of Antonio. From the latter, and through a Sebastiano, and afterwards through a Gio. Batista, descends Giovanni, _ex quo ortus est Raphael qui pinxit a. 1519_. It is also recorded that Sebastiano had a brother, Galeazzo, _egregium pictorem_, and the father of three painters, Antonio, Vincenzio, and Giulio, called _maximus pictor_. Thus in this branch of the Sanzii are enumerated four painters, of whom I do not find any memorial in Urbino. The family also boasts of a Canon in divinity, and a distinguished captain of infantry. The anonymous writer of Comolli confirms this illustrious origin of Raffaello; but it is highly probable, that in that age, when the forgery of genealogies, as Tiraboschi observes, was a common practice, he may have adopted it without any examination. The portrait of Antonio is well executed, but it has been said that it would have been much more so, if Raffaello had painted it a year before his death, according to the inscription. If connoisseurs (who alone ought to decide this point) should be of this opinion, it may be suspected that the person that counterfeited the hand of the artist, might also substitute the writing; or we may at least conclude, that the etymology of Sanzio should be sought for in the word _Sanctis_, the name of the grandfather of Raffaello, not in _sancire_, (to divide fields or property). In tom. xxxi. of the Ant. Picene, a will is produced of Ser Simone di Antonio, in 1477, where a _Magister Baptista, qu. Peri Sanctis de Peris_, who is called _Pittor di grido e di eccellenza_, leaves his son Tommaso his heir, to whom is substituted a son of Antonio his brother, of the name of Francesco. I may remark, that in this _Batista di Pier Sante de' Pieri_, we may find the surname of a family different from that of Sanzia. But on this subject I hope we shall shortly be favoured with more certain information by the Sig. Arciprete Lazzari, who has obliged me with many valuable contributions to the present edition of this work.]

[Footnote 29: Condivi, in his Life of Bonarruoti, (num. 67.) assures us that Michaelangelo was not of a jealous temper, but spoke well of all artists, not excepting Raffaello di Urbino, "between whom and himself there existed, as I have mentioned, an emulation in painting; and the utmost that he said was, that Raffaello did not inherit his excellences from nature, but obtained them through study and application."]

[Footnote 30: See the Preface to the Life of Raffaello, by Vasari, _ediz. Senese_, p. 228, where the will is quoted.]

[Footnote 31: Vasari states, that that event occurred either whilst Michaelangelo was employed upon the Statues in S. Pietro in Vincoli, or whilst he was painting the vault of the Sistine Chapel, that is, some years afterwards, when Raffaello was in Rome. To this second opinion, which is the most common one, I formerly assented; but since, on perusal of a Brief of Julius II. (Lett. Pittoriche, tom. iii. p. 320) in which that Pope invites Michaelangelo back to Rome, and promises that _illaesus, inviolatusque erit_, I am inclined to believe that the Cartoon was finished in 1506, which is the date of the brief; so that Raffaello, if he could not see it on his first visit to Florence, might at least have done so on his second or third.]

[Footnote 32: See Vasari, ed. Sen. tom. v. p. 238, where we find the Letter written from him to one of his uncles, with all the provincialisms common to the inhabitants of Urbino and its neighbourhood.]

[Footnote 33: Malvasia, _Felsina Pittrice_, tom. i. p. 45. There are some facts, however, in opposition to this letter, and which seem to prove that Raffaello did not go to Rome until 1510. But the Sig. Abate Francesconi is now employed in rectifying the chronology of the Life and Works of Sanzio; and from his critical sagacity we may expect the solution of this difficulty.]

[Footnote 34: See Le Aggiunte al Vasari. Ed. Senese, p. 223.]

[Footnote 35: A sonnet by him is referred to by Sig. Piacenza, in his notes to Baldinucci, tom. xi. p. 371.]

[Footnote 36: In compliance with the wishes of Leo X. he made drawings of the buildings of Ancient Rome, and accompanied them with descriptions, employing the compass to ascertain their admeasurement. We owe this information to Sig. Abate Francesconi, who has restored to Sanzio a letter, formerly attributed to Castiglione. It is a sort of dedication of the work to Leo X.; but the work itself and the drawings are lost; and many of the edifices measured by Raffaello were destroyed in the following Pontificates. The Abate Morelli has made public a high eulogium on this work, by a contemporary pen, in the notes to the Notizia, page 210. It is written by one Marcantonio Michiel, who asserts, that Raffaello had drawn the ancient buildings of Rome in such a manner, and shewn their proportions, forms, and ornaments so correctly, that whoever had inspected them might be said to have seen Ancient Rome.]

[Footnote 37: In a brief of Leo X. 1514, mentioned by Sig. Piacenza, tom. ii. p. 321.]

[Footnote 38:

Caesaris in nomen ducuntur carmina: Caesar
Dum canitur, quaeso, Jupiter ipse vaces.
Prop. lib. iv. Eleg. vi.]

[Footnote 39: Vol. ii. p. 323 et seq.]

[Footnote 40: See the first letter of Crespi, Lettere Pittoriche, tom. ii. p. 338.]

[Footnote 41: Mengs has observed, that Raffaello diligently studied the bassirelievi of the arches of Titus and Constantine, which were on the arch of Trajan, and adopted from them his manner of marking the articulations of the joints, and a more simple and an easier mode of expressing the contour of the fleshy parts. Riflessioni sopra i tre gran Pittori, &c. cap. 1.]

[Footnote 42: Riflessioni su la bellezza e sul gusto della Pittura, parte iii. cap. 1, and see the _Osservazioni_ of the Cav. Azara on that tract, Sec.. xii.]

[Footnote 43: A doubt has arisen on the exact time in which he painted the Prophet and the Sybils, and from the grandeur of their style doubts have been thrown on Vasari's account, that they were painted anterior to 1511. But a painter who is the master of his art, elevates or lowers his style according to his subject. The Sybils are in Raffaello's grandest style; and that they are amongst his earliest works, is proved from his having had Timoteo della Vite, as his assistant in them.]

[Footnote 44: Lett. Pittor. tom. v. p. 131.]

[Footnote 45: Commencing at p. 139.]

[Footnote 46: I do not find that any mention has been made of his picture in the possession of the Olivieri family at Pesaro, or of the one in the Basilica di Loreto in the Treasury, which seems to be the same which was formerly in the church of the Madonna del Popolo, or a copy of it. I have seen a similar subject in the Lauretana, belonging to the Signori Pirri, in Rome. At Sassoferrato also, on the great altar of the church of the Capucins, there is a Virgin and child, said to be by him; but it is more probably by Fra Bernardo Catelani. There exist engravings of the two first, but I have not seen any of the last.]

[Footnote 47: Riflessioni sopra i tre gran Pittori, &c., cap. i. Sec. 2.]

[Footnote 48: Lo dico con questa condizione che V. S. si trovasse meco a far la scelta del meglio: ma essendo carestia e di buoni giudici e di belle donne, mi servo di una certa idea che mi viene in mente. Lett. Pittor. tom. i. p. 84.]

[Footnote 49: Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. xxxv. cap. 10. Quintil. Instit. Orat. xii. 10.]

[Footnote 50: Portraits of Raffaello are to be found in the Duomo, and in the Sacristy of Siena, in more than one picture; but it is doubtful whether by his own hand or that of Pinturicchio. That which is mentioned in the Guida di Perugia, as being in a picture of the Resurrection at the Conventuals, is said to be by Pietro Perugino: and in the Borghese gallery in Rome, there is one, supposed to be by the hand of Timoteo della Vite. The portrait in the gallery in Florence, by Da Vinci, bears some resemblance to Raffaello, but it is not he. Another which I have seen in Bologna, ought, perhaps, to be ascribed to Giulio Romano. One of the most authentic portraits of Raffaello, by his own hand, next to the one in the picture of S. Luke, is that in the Medici Collection in the _Stanza de' Pittori_, though this is not in his best manner.]

[Footnote 51: Idee de Peintre parfait, chap. xix.]

[Footnote 52: Engraved by Morghen. The three figures, the Madonna, the Infant, and St. John, appear almost alive. It should seem that Raffaello made several studies for this picture, and he painted one without the St. John, which remained for some time in Urbino. I saw a copy in the possession of the Calamini family, at Recanati, which was said to be by Baroccio, and at all events belonging to his school. I have seen the same subject in the Casa Olivieri, at Pesaro, and at Cortona, in the possession of another noble family, to whom it had passed by inheritance from Urbino, and was considered to be by Raffaello. The faces in these are not so beautiful, nor the colours so fine; they are round, and in a larger circle, with some variations: I have also seen a copy in the Sacristy of S. Luigi de' Franzesi, in Rome, and in the Palazzo Giustiniani.]

[Footnote 53: Morto da Feltro sotto Alessandro VI., comincio a dipingere a grottesco, ma senza stucchi. Baglione, Vite, p. 21.]

[Footnote 54: The entrance into these baths was designedly and maliciously closed. Serlio, in speaking of the various arabesques in Pozzuolo, Baja, and Rome, says that they were injured or destroyed by the artists who had copied them, through a jealous feeling lest others should also avail themselves of the opportunity of studying them, (lib. iv. c. 11). The names of these destroyers, which Serlio has suppressed, posterity has been desirous of recovering, and some have accused Raffaello, others Pinturicchio, and others Vaga, or Giovanni da Udine, or rather his scholars and assistants, "of whom," says Vasari, "there were an infinite number in every part of Italy." This subject is ably discussed by Mariotti, in _Lettera_ ix. p. 224, and in the _Memorie delle belle Arti_, per l'anno 1788, p. 24.]

[Footnote 55: It was charged on the office of the Piombo, or papal signet, when Sebastiano da Venezia was invested with it, and was a pension of three hundred scudi. Padre Federici observes that the one was designated Fra Sebastiano, but that the other was not called Fra Giovanni; nor is this remarkable, for a Bishop is called Monsignore, but the person who enjoys a pension charged upon a Bishoprick has not the same title. It cannot however be deduced from this, as Federici wishes to do, that Sebastiano was first Frate di S. Domenico, by the name of F. Marco Pensaben, and afterwards secularized by the Pope, and appointed to the signet, and that he retained the _Fra_ in consequence of his former situation.]

ROMAN SCHOOL.

EPOCH III.

_The art declines in consequence of the public calamities of
Rome, and gradually falls into mannerism._

After the mournful events of the year 1527, Rome for some time remained in a state of stupor, contemplating her past misfortunes and her future destiny; and, like a vessel escaped from shipwreck, began slowly to repair her numerous losses. The soldiers of the besieging army, among other injuries committed in the Apostolic palace, had defaced some heads of Raffaello; and F. Sebastiano, an artist by no means competent to such a task, was employed to repair them. This, at least, was the opinion of Titian, who was introduced to these works, and ignorant of the circumstances, asked Sebastiano what presumptuous wretch had had the audacity to attempt their restoration;[56] an impartial observation, against which even the patronage of Michelangiolo could not shield the artist. Paul III. was now in possession of the papal chair, and under his auspices the arts again began to revive. The decoration of the palace of Caprarola, and other works of Paul and his nephews, gave employment to the painters, and happy had these patrons been, could they have found a second Raffaello. Bonarruoti, as we have observed, was engaged by the Pope, and gave to the Roman School many noble specimens of art, though he formed but few scholars. Sebastiano, after the death of Raffaello, freed from all further competition with that great artist, and honoured with the lucrative office of the papal signet, seemed disposed to rest from his labours; and as he had never, at any time, discovered great application, he now resigned himself to a life of vacant leisure, and Vasari does not mention with commendation any pupil of his school except Laureti.[57] Giulio Romano was now invited back to Rome, and the superintendence of the building of S. Peter's offered to him, but death prevented his return to his native city. Perino del Vaga, however, repaired to Rome, and might, himself, have effected the restoration of art, if his magnanimity had corresponded with the sublimity of his mind. But he did not inherit the daring genius of his master. He communicated his instructions with jealousy, and worked with a spirit of gain, or to speak correctly, he did not paint himself, but undertaking works of more or less consequence, he allowed his scholars to execute them, often to the injury of his own reputation. He continued to secure to himself artists of the first talents, as we shall see; but this was done with the intention of making them dependant on him, and to prevent their interfering with his emoluments and commissions. But together with the good, he engaged also many indifferent and inferior artists, whence it happens, that in the chambers of the castle of S. Angelo, and in other places, we meet with so marked a difference in many of his works. Few of his scholars attained celebrity. Luzio Romano is the most noted, and possessed a good execution. Of him there exists a frieze in the Palazzo Spada; and for some time, too, he had for an assistant Marcello Venusti of Mantua, a young man of great talents, but diffident, and probably standing in need of more instruction than Perino afforded him. He afterwards received some instructions from Bonarruoti, whose ideas he executed in an excellent manner, as I have mentioned before, and by his aid he became himself also a good designer.[58] Perino, by these means, always abounded in work and in money. A similar traffic in the art was carried on by Taddeo Zuccaro, if we are to believe Vasari; and by Vasari himself, too, if we may be allowed to judge from his pictures.

The actual state of the art at this period may be ascertained from a view of the numerous works produced; but none are so distinguished as the paintings in the Sala Regia, commenced under Paul III., and scarcely finished, after a lapse of thirty years, in 1573. Of these Vaga had the direction, as Raffaello had formerly had, of the chambers of the Vatican. He planned the compartments, ornamented the ceiling, directed all the stuccos, cornices, devices, and large figures, and all in the style of a great master. He then applied himself to design the subjects for his pencil, and was employed on them when he was carried off by death in 1547. Through the partiality of Michelangiolo, he was succeeded by Daniel di Volterra, who had already worked in stucco, under his direction, in the same place. Volterra resolved to represent the donations of those sovereigns who had extended or consolidated the temporal dominion of the church, whence the chamber was called Sala dei Regi, and this idea was, in some degree, though with variations, continued by succeeding artists. Volterra was naturally slow and irresolute, and after painting the Deposition from the Cross, which we have mentioned as being executed with the assistance of Michelangiolo, he produced no more of these prodigies of art. He had indeed begun some designs, but on the death of the Pope, in 1549, he was compelled, in order to accommodate the conclave, to remove the scaffolding, and expose the work unfinished. It did not meet with public approbation, nor was it continued under Julius III., and still less under Paul IV., in whose reign the art was held in so little respect, that the apostles, painted by Raffaello in one of the chambers of the Vatican, were displaced.

Pius IV., who resumed the work, on the suggestion of Vasari, in 1561, had intended to charge Salviati with the entire execution of it; but, by the intercessions of Bonarruoti, was at length prevailed on to assign one half of the apartment to Salviati, and the other half to Ricciarelli, though this did not contribute to expedite the work. Pirro Ligorio, a Neapolitan, was at this time held in high esteem by the Pope. He was an antiquarian, though not of great celebrity, but a good architect, and a fresco painter of some merit;[59] an enthusiast too, and alike jealous of Ricciarelli, for the homage he paid to Bonarruoti, and of Salviati, for the respect which he did not shew to Ligorio himself. Remarking that the Pope wished to hasten the completion of the work, he proposed to select a number of scholars, and to divide the work amongst them. Vasari adds, that Salviati was disgusted and left Rome; where, on his return, he died, without finishing his work; and that Ricciarelli, who was always slow, never touched it again, and died also after the lapse of some little time. The completion of the work was then entrusted, as far as possible, to the successors of Raffaello. Livio Agresti da Forli, Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta, and Marco da Pino, of Sienna, although they had received their first instructions from other masters, had been instructed by Perino del Vaga, and had assisted in his cartoons. Taddeo Zuccaro had accomplished himself under Giacomone da Faenza, and had made his younger brother Federigo an able artist. To these the work was assigned, and there were added to them Samacchini and Fiorini, Bolognese artists; and Giuseppe Porta della Garfagnana, called Giuseppe Salviati. This latter had been the pupil of Francesco Salviati, from whom he learnt the principles of design; he was afterwards a follower of the school of Venice, where he resided. Of these numerous artists Vasari assigns the palm to Taddeo Zuccaro, but the court was so much pleased with Porta, that it was in contemplation to destroy the works of the other artists, in order that the apartment might be finished by him alone. He represented Alexander III. in the act of bestowing his benediction on Frederick Barbarossa, in the Piazza of S. Mark, in Venice; and he here indulged his taste for architectural ornaments, in the Venetian manner. When however this work is viewed and compared with that of other artists, we discover a sameness of style, the character of the time; a deficiency of strength in the colours and shadows is the common failing. It seems as if the art, through a long course of years, had become debilitated: it discovers the lineaments of a better age, but feebly expressed and deprived of their primitive vigour. That portion of the work which remained unfinished, was, after the death of Pius IV., completed by Vasari and his school, under his successor; and some little was supplied under Gregory XIII., who was elected in 1572.

With that year a reign commenced but little auspicious to art, and still less so was the Pontificate of Sixtus V., the successor of Gregory. These Pontiffs erected or ornamented so many public buildings, that we can scarcely move a step in Rome, without meeting with the papal arms of a dragon or a lion. Baglione has accurately described them, and to him we are indebted for the lives of the artists of this and the following period. It is natural for men advanced in years to content themselves with mediocrity in the works which they order, from the apprehension of not living to see them, if they wait for the riper efforts of talent. Hence those artists were the most esteemed, and the most employed, who possessed despatch and facility of execution, particularly by Sixtus, of whose severity towards dilatory artists we shall shortly adduce a memorable instance. This inaccuracy of style was continued to the time of Clement VIII., when a number of works were hastily finished to meet the opening of the holy year 1600. Under these pontiffs the painters of Italy, and even the _oltramontani_, inundated Rome with their works, in the same manner that the poets and philosophers had filled that city with their writings in the time of Domitian and Marcus Aurelius. Every one indulged his own taste; and the style of many was deteriorated through rapidity of execution. Thus the art, particularly in fresco, became the employment of a mechanic, not founded in the just imitation of nature, but in the capricious ideas of the artist.[60] Nor was the colouring better than the design. At no period do we find such an abuse of the simple tints, in none so feeble a chiaroscuro, or less harmony. These are the mannerists, who peopled the churches, convents, and saloons of Rome with their works, but in the collections of the nobility they have not had the same good fortune.

This era, nevertheless, is not wholly to be condemned, as it contains several great names, the relics of the preceding illustrious age. We have enumerated the painters who flourished in Rome in the first reigns of this century, and we ought to notice a number of others. They were for the most part foreigners, and ought to be introduced in other schools. I shall here describe those particularly, who were born within the limits of the Roman School, and those who, being established in it, taught and propagated their own peculiar style.

Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta, who adopted Raffaello's style, may be enumerated among the scholars of that great man, from his felicitous imitation of their common master. In the Sala de' Regi, in the Vatican, he painted Pepin, King of France, bestowing Ravenna on the church, after having made Astolfo, King of the Lombards, his prisoner. But he approached Raffaello more closely in some of his oil pictures than in his frescos, as in the martyrdom of S. Lucia, in the church of S. Maria Maggiore; in the Transfiguration in Ara Coeli, and in the Nativity in the church della Pace, a subject which he repeated in the most graceful style in the church of Osimo. His masterpiece is in Ancona on the great altar in the church of S. Bartolommeo, a vast composition, original and rich in invention, and commensurate with the grandeur of the subject, and the multitude of saints that are introduced in it. The throne of the Virgin is seen above, amidst a brilliant choir of angels, and on either side a virgin saint in the attitude of adoration. To this height there is a beautiful ascent on each side, and the picture is thus divided into a higher and lower part, in the latter of which is the titular saint, a half naked figure vigorously coloured, together with S. Paul and two other saints, the whole in a truly Raffaellesque style. This altarpiece possesses so much harmony, and such a force of colour, that it is esteemed by some persons the best picture in the city. If any thing be wanting in it, it is perhaps a more correct observance of the perspective. Sermoneta did not paint many pictures for collections. He excelled in portrait painting.

A similar manner, though more laboured, and formed on the styles of Raffaello and Andrea del Sarto, was adopted by Scipione Pulzone da Gaeta, who was educated in the studio of Jacopino del Conte. He died young in his thirty-eighth year, but left behind him a great reputation, partly in the painting of portraits, of which he executed a great number for the popes and princes of his day, and with so much success, that by some he is called the Vandyke of the Roman School. He was a forerunner of Seybolt in the high finishing of the hair, and in representing in the pupil of the eye the reflexion of the windows, and other objects as minute and exact as in real life. He also painted some pictures in the finest style, as the Crucifixion in the Vallicella, and the Assumption in S. Silvestro at Monte Cavallo, a composition of chaste design, great beauty of colouring, and brilliant in effect. In the Borghese collection is a Holy Family by him, and in the gallery in Florence, a Christ praying in the garden; and in other places are to be found some of his cabinet pictures, deservedly held in high esteem.

Taddeo and Federigo Zuccaro have been called the Vasaris of this school; for as Vasari trod in the steps of Michelangiolo, so these artists professed to follow Raffaello. They were the sons of an indifferent painter of S. Angiolo in Vado, called Ottaviano Zuccaro, and came to Rome one after the other, and in the Roman state executed a vast number of works, some good, some indifferent, and others, when they allowed their pupils to take a share in them, absolutely bad. A salesman, who dealt in the pictures of these artists, was accustomed, like a retailer of merchandize, to ask his purchasers whether they wished for a Zuccaro of Holland, of France, or of Portugal; intimating by this that he possessed them of all qualities. Taddeo, who was the elder of the two, studied first under Pompeo da Fano, and afterwards with Giacomone da Faenza. From the latter and other good Italian artists, whom he assiduously studied, he acquired sufficient talent to distinguish himself. He adopted a style which, though not very correct, was unconstrained and engaging, and very attractive to such as do not look for grandeur of design. He may be compared to that class of orators who keep the attention of their hearers awake, not from the nature of their subject, but from the clearness of their language, and from their finding, or thinking they find, truth and nature in every word. His pictures may be called compositions of portraits; the heads are beautiful, the hands and feet not negligently painted, nor yet laboured, as in the Florentine manner; the dress and ornaments, and form of the beard, are agreeable to the times; the disposition is simple, and he often imitates the old painters in shewing on the canvass only half figures in the foreground, as if they were on a lower plain. He often repeated the same countenance, and his own portrait. In his hands, feet, and the folds of his drapery, he is still less varied, and not unfrequently errs in his proportions.