Chapter IX: Book III: Roman School (7)

Angiolo Caroselli was a Roman, in whose works, consisting chiefly of portraits and small figures, if we except the S. Vinceslao of the Quirinal palace, and a few similar pictures, we find the style of Caravaggio improved by an addition of grace and delicacy. He was remarkable for not making his design on paper, or using any preparatory study for his canvass. He is lively in his attitudes, rich in his tints, and finished and refined in his pictures, which are highly prized, but few in number, when we consider the term of his life. Besides practising the style of Caravaggio, in which he frequently deceived the most experienced, he imitated other artists in a wonderful manner. A S. Elena by him was considered as a production of Titian even by his rivals, until they found the cipher A. C. marked on the picture in small letters, and Poussin affirms, that he should have taken his two copies of Raffaello for genuine pictures, if he had not known where the originals were deposited.

Gherardo Hundhorst is called Gherardo dalle Notti, from having painted few subjects except illuminated night pieces, in which he chiefly excelled. He imitated Caravaggio, adopting only his better parts, his carnations, his vigorous pencil, and grand masses of light and shade: but he aimed also at correctness in his costume, selection in his forms, gracefulness of attitude, and represented religious subjects with great propriety. His pictures are very numerous, and the Prince Giustiniani possesses the one of Christ led by night to the Judgment Seat, which is one of his most celebrated works.

The school of Caravaggio flourished for a considerable period, but its followers, painting chiefly for private individuals, have in a great degree remained unknown. Baglione makes particular mention of Gio. Serodine, of Ascona, in Lombardy, and enumerates many works by him, more remarkable for their facility of execution than their excellence. There remains no public specimen of him, except a Decollation of S. John at S. Lorenzo fuor delle Mura. One of the latest of the school of Caravaggio was Tommaso Luini, a Roman, who, from his quarrelsome disposition, and his style, was called Il Caravaggino. He worked in Rome, and appeared most to advantage when he painted the designs of his master, Sacchi, as at S. Maria in Via. When he embodied his own ideas, his design was rather dry and his colouring dark. About the same time Gio. Campino of Camerino, who received his first instructions under Gianson in Flanders, resided in Rome for some years, and increased the number of this school. He was afterwards painter to the court of Madrid, and died in Spain. It is not known whether or not Gio. Francesco Guerrieri di Fossombrone ever studied in Rome, but his works are to be seen at Filippini di Fano, where he painted in a chapel, S. Carlo contemplating the Mysteries of the Passion, with two lateral pictures from the life of that saint; and in another chapel, where he represented the Dream of S. Joseph, his style resembles that of Caravaggio, but possesses more softness of colour, and more gracefulness of form. In the Duomo of Fabriano is also a S. Joseph by him. He has left, in his native place, an abundance of works, which, if distributed more widely, would give him a celebrity which it has not hitherto been his lot to receive. I there saw, in a church, a night piece of S. Sebastian attended by S. Irene, a picture of most beautiful effect; a Judith, in possession of the Franceschini family; other works in the Casa Passionei and elsewhere, very charming, and which often shew that he had very much imitated Guercino. His female forms are almost all cast in the same mould, and are copied from the person of a favorite mistress.

We now come to the Caracci and their school. Before Annibale arrived in Rome, he had already formed a style which left nothing to be desired, except to be more strongly imbued with the antique. Annibale added this to his other noble qualities when he came to Rome; and his disciples, who trod in his steps, and continued after his death to paint in that city, are particularly distinguished by this characteristic from those who remained in Bologna under the instruction of his cousin Lodovico. The disciples of Annibale left scholars in Rome; but no one except Sacchi approached so near in merit to his master, as they had done to Annibale, nor did there appear, like them, any founder of an original style. Still they were sufficient to put a check on the mannerists, and the followers of Caravaggio, and to restore the Roman School to a better taste. We shall now proceed to enumerate their scholars in their various classes.

Domenichino Zampieri, to his talents as a painter, added commensurate powers of instruction. Besides Alessandro Fortuna, who under the direction of his master painted some fables from Apollo, in the villa Aldobrandini in Frescati, and died young, Zampieri had in Rome two scholars of great repute, mentioned only by Bellori; Antonio Barbalunga, of Messina, and Andrea Camassei of Bevagna, both of whom honoured their country with their name and works, although they did not live many years. The first was a happy imitator of his master, who had long employed him in copying for himself. In the church of the P. P. Teatini, at Monte Cavallo, is his picture of their Founder, and of S. Andrea Avellino, attended by angels, which might be ascribed to Zampieri himself, whose forms in this class of subjects were select, and his attitudes elegant, and most engaging. To him I shall return in the fourth book. The second, who had also studied in the school of Sacchi, lived longer in Rome; and whoever wishes justly to appreciate him, must not judge from the chapel which he painted whilst yet young in his native place, but must inspect his works in the capital. There, in S. Andrea della Valle, is the S. Gaetano, painted at the same time, and in competition with the S. Andrea of Barbalunga, before mentioned with commendation; the Assumption at the Rotonda, and the Pieta at the Capucins; and many excellent frescos in the Baptistery of the Lateran, and in the church of S. Peter; which evince that he had almost an equal claim to fame with his comrade. If, indeed, he was somewhat less bold, and less select, yet he had a natural style, a grace, and a tone of colour, that do honour to the Roman School, to which he contributed Giovanni Carbone, of S. Severino, a scholar of some note. It has been remarked, that his fate resembles that of Domenichino, as his merits were undervalued, and himself persecuted by his relatives, and he was also prematurely cut off by domestic afflictions.

Francesco Cozza was born in Calabria, but settled in Rome. He was the faithful companion of Domenichino during the life of that master, and after his death completed some works left unfinished by that artist, and executed them in the genuine spirit of his departed friend, as may be seen in Titi. He appears to have inherited from his teacher his learning rather than his taste. One of his most beautiful pictures is the Virgin del Riscatto at S. Francesca Romana a Capo alle Case. Out of Rome there are few public or private works to be met with by him. He was considered exceedingly expert in his knowledge of the hands of the different masters, and on disputed points, which often arose on this subject in Rome, his opinion was always asked and acted on, without any appeal from his judgment. Of Pietro del Po, also a disciple of Domenichino, and of his family, we shall speak more at large in the fourth book.

Giannangiolo Canini, of Rome, was first instructed by Domenichino, and afterwards by Barbalunga, and would have obtained a great reputation for his inventive genius, if, seduced by the study of antiquities, he had not for his pleasure taken a short way to the art; which led him to neglect the component parts, and to satisfy himself with a general harmonious effect. He possessed, however, great force and energy in subjects which required it, as in the Martyrdom of S. Stephen at S. Martino a' Monti. The works which he executed with the greatest labour and care, were some sacred and profane subjects, which he was commissioned to paint for the Queen of Sweden. But although he was appointed painter to that court, and was also a great favourite with the queen, it should seem that he did not much exercise his profession either for her or others, as his great pleasure was in designing from the antique. He filled a large volume with a collection of portraits of illustrious ancients, and heads of the heathen deities, from gems and marbles. This book, the Cardinal Chigi having carried it with him into France, he presented to Louis XIV., and received a collar of gold as a remuneration for it. On his return to Rome he was intending to eulogize the queen in verse, and to continue in prose the lives of the painters, which he had in part prepared when he died. His biographical work probably afforded assistance to Passeri or to Bellori, his intimate friends.

With Canini worked Giambatista Passeri, a Roman, a man of letters, and who became afterwards a secular priest. It is recorded, that in the early part of his life he lived on very intimate terms with Domenichino at Frescati, and he adhered much to his style. There exists by him a Crucifixion between two Saints at S. Giovanni della Malva, but no other work in public, as most of his pictures are in private collections. In the Palazzo Mattei are some pictures representing butcher's meat, birds, and game, touched with a masterly pencil; to these are added some half figures, and also some sparrows (_passere_), in allusion to his name. There is also, by his hand, at the academy of S. Luke, the portrait of Domenichino, painted on the occasion of his funeral; on which occasion Passeri, and not Passerino, as Malvasia states, recited a funeral oration, and probably paid some poetical tribute to his memory, since he was accustomed to write both verse and prose as Bellori did; and his silence on the Lives of Bellori, which had then appeared, and which he had numerous opportunities of noticing, probably arose from feelings of jealousy. He is esteemed one of the most authentic writers on Italian art; and if Mariette expressed himself dissatisfied with him, (v. Lett. Pitt. tom. vi. p. 10,) it probably arose from his having seen only his Life of Pietro da Cortona, which was left unfinished by the author. He possessed a profound knowledge of the principles of art, was just in his criticisms, accurate in his facts; if, indeed, as has been pretended by a writer in the _Pittoriche Lettere_, he did not in some degree depreciate Lanfranc, in order to raise his own master, Zampieri. His work contains the lives of many painters, at that time deceased, and was published anonymously, it is supposed, by Bottari, who in many places shortened it, and improved the style, which was too elaborate, containing useless preambles, and was occasionally too severe against Bernino and others, on which account the work remained unedited for more than a century.

Vincenzio Manenti, of Sabina, who was first the scholar of Cesari, and afterwards of Domenichino, left many works in his native place. Some pictures by him are to be seen in Tivoli, as the S. Stefano in the Duomo, and the S. Saverio at the Gesu, which do not exhibit him as an artist of very great genius, but assiduous and expert in colouring. Of Ruggieri, of Bologna, we shall speak elsewhere.

Guido cannot be said to have contributed much to the Roman School, except in leaving in the capital a great number of works displaying that charm of style, and distinguished by that superhuman beauty, which were his characteristics. We are told of two scholars who came to him at the same time from Perugia, Giandomenico Cerrini, and Luigi, the son of Giovanni Antonio Scaramuccia. The pictures of Cerrini, (who was commonly called Il Cav. Perugino) were frequently touched by his master Guido, and passed for originals of that artist, and were much sought after. In his other works he varies, having sometimes followed the elder Scaramuccia. His fellow disciple is more consistent. He displays grace in every part of his work, and if he does not soar, still he does not fall to the ground. There are many of his paintings in Perugia, both in public and private, amongst which is a Presentation at the Filippini, from all accounts a beautiful performance. He left many works in Milan, where in the church of S. Marco, is a S. Barbera by him; a large composition, and extremely well coloured. He published a book in Pavia, in 1654, which he intituled _Le Finezze de' Pennelli Italiani_. It is full, says the Abbate Bianconi, _di buona volonta pittorica_. It possesses nevertheless some interesting remarks.

Gio. Batista Michelini, called Il Folignate, is almost forgotten in this catalogue; but there are in Gubbio various works by him, and particularly a Pieta, worthy of the school of Guido. Macerata possessed a noble disciple of Guido, in the person of the Cav. Sforza Compagnoni, by whose hand there is, in the academy de' Catinati, the device of that society, which might be taken for a design of Guido. He gave a picture to the church of S. Giorgio, which is still there, and presented a still more beautiful one to the church of S. Giovanni, which was long to be seen over the great altar, but is now in the possession of the Conte Cav. Mario Compagnoni. Malvasia mentions him in the life of Viola, but makes him a scholar of Albano. The Ginesini boast of Cesare Renzi, as a respectable scholar of Guido, and, in the church of S. Tommaso, they shew a picture of that saint by his hand. In addition to the scholars of Guido, whose names have been handed down to us, I shall here beg leave to add an imitator of Guido, who from the time in which he flourished, and from his noble style of colour, probably belonged to the same school. I found his name subscribed Giorgio Giuliani da Civita Castellana, 161.., on a large picture of the Martyrdom of S. Andrew, which Guido painted for the Camaldolesi di S. Gregorio at Rome: and which this artist copied for the celebrated monastery of the Camaldolesi all'Avellana. It is exposed in the refectory, and notwithstanding the dampness of the place, maintains a freshness of colour very unusual in pictures of that antiquity.

The Cav. Gio. Lanfranco came to Rome whilst yet young, and there formed that free and noble style, which served to decorate many cupolas and noble edifices, and which pleases also in his cabinet pictures when he executed them with care. Giacinto Brandi di Poli was his most celebrated scholar in Rome. He at first adopted his master's moderate tone of colour, the variety and contrast of his composition, and his flowing pencil; but in consequence of his filling, as he did, Rome and the state with his works, he neglected correctness of design, and never arrived at that grandeur of style which we admire in Lanfranc. He sometimes indeed went beyond himself, as in the S. Rocco of the Ripetta, and in the forty martyrs of the Stigmata in Rome; but his inordinate love of gain would not allow him to finish many works in the same good style. I have been informed by a connoisseur, on whose opinion I can rely, that the best works of this artist are at Gaeta, where he painted at the Nunziata a picture of the Madonna with the Holy Infant; and where, in the inferior part of the Duomo, he painted in the vault three recesses and ten angles, adding over the altar the picture of the martyrdom of S. Erasmus, bishop of the city, who was buried in that church. Brandi did not perpetuate the taste of his school, not leaving any pupil of eminence except Felice Ottini, who painted in his youth a chapel at the P. P. di Gesu e Maria, and did not long survive that work. Orlandi also mentions a Carlo Lamparelli di Spello, who left in Rome a picture at the church of the Spirito Santo, but nothing further. An Alessandro Vaselli also left some works in another church in Rome.

After Brandi, we ought to commemorate Giacomo Giorgetti, of Assisi, who is little known beyond his native city, and the neighbouring towns. He is said to have first studied the art of design in Rome, when he learned colouring from Lanfranc, and became a good fresco painter. There is by him in a chapel of the Duomo at Assisi, a large composition in fresco, and in the sacristy of the Conventuals, various subjects from the Life of the Virgin, also in fresco; works coloured in a fine style, and much more finished than was usual with Lanfranc. If there be any fault to be found with them, it is the proportions of the figures, which not unfrequently incline to awkwardness. His name is found in the _Descrizione della Chiesa di S. Francesco di Perugia_, together with that of Girolamo Marinelli, his fellow citizen and contemporary, of whom I never found any other notice.

Lanfranc instructed in Rome a noble lady, who filled the church of S. Lucia with her pictures. These were designed by her master, and coloured by herself. Her name was Caterina Ginnasi. There were also with Lanfranc in Rome, Mengucci, of Pesaro, and others, who afterwards left Rome, and will be mentioned by us elsewhere. Some have added to these Beinaschi, but he was only an excellent copyist and imitator, as we shall see in the fourth book. At the same time, we may assert, that none of the Caracci school had a greater number of followers than Lanfranc; as Pietro di Cortona, the chief of a numerous family, derived much of his style from him, and the whole tribe of machinists adopted him as their leader, and still regard him as their prototype.

Albano too, here deserves a conspicuous place as a master of the Roman School. Giambatista Speranza, a Roman, learned from him the principles of the art, and became a fresco painter of the best taste in Rome. If we inspect his works at S. Agostino, and S. Lorenzo in Lucina, and in other places where he painted religious subjects, we immediately perceive that his age is not that of the Zuccari, and that the true style of fresco still flourished. From Albano too, and from Guercino, Pierfrancesco Mola di Como derived that charming style, which partook of the excellences of both these artists. He renounced the principles of Cesari, who had instructed him for many years; and after having diligently studied colouring at Venice, he attached himself to the school of the Caracci, but more particularly to Albano. He never, however, equalled his master in grace, although he had a bolder tone of colour, greater invention, and more vigour of subject. He died in the prime of life whilst preparing for his journey to Paris, where he was appointed painter to the court. Rome possesses many of his pictures, particularly in fresco, in the churches; and in the Quirinal palace, is Joseph found by his Brethren, which is esteemed a most beautiful piece. There are also many of his pictures to be found in private collections; and in his landscapes, in which he excelled, it is doubted whether the figures are by him or Albano. He had in Rome three pupils, who, aspiring to be good colourists, frequented the same fountains of art as their master had done, and travelled through all Italy. They were Antonio Gherardi da Rieti, who on the death of Mola frequented the school of Cortona; and painted in many churches in Rome with more despatch than elegance;[76] Gio. Batista Boncuore, of Abruzzo, a painter in a grand though somewhat heavy style;[77] and Giovanni Bonatti, of Ferrara, whom we shall reserve for his native school.

Virgilio Ducci, of Citta di Castello, is little known among the scholars of Albano, though he does not yield to many of the Bolognese in the imitation of their common master. Two pictures of Tobias, in a chapel of the Duomo, in his native place, are painted in an elegant and graceful style. An Antonio Catalani, of Rome, is mentioned to us by Malvasia, and with him Girolamo Bonini, of Ancona, the intimate friend of Albani. These artists resided in Bologna, and were employed there, as we shall see in our history of that school. Of the second we are told that he painted both in Venice and in Rome; and Orlandi praises his works in the Sala Farnese, which either no longer exist, or are neglected to be mentioned in the Guida of Titi.

Lastly, from the studio of Albani issued Andrea Sacchi, after its chief the best colourist of the Roman School, and one of the most celebrated in design, in the practice of which he continued until his death. Profoundly skilled in the theory of art, he was yet slow in the execution. It was a maxim with him that the merit of a painter does not consist in giving to the world a number of works of mediocrity, but a few perfect ones; and hence his pictures are rare. His compositions do not abound with figures, but every figure appears appropriate to its place; and the attitudes seem not so much chosen by the artist, as regulated by the subject itself. Sacchi did not, indeed, shun the elegant, though he seems born for the grand style--grave miens, majestic attitudes, draperies folded with care and simplicity; a sober colouring, and a general tone, which gave to all objects a pleasing harmony, and a grateful repose to the eye. He seems to have disdained minuteness, and, after the example of many of the ancient sculptors, to have left some part always unfinished; so at least his admirers assert. Mengs expresses himself differently, and says, that Sacchi's principle was to leave his pictures, as it were, merely indicated, and to take his ideas from natural objects, without giving them any determinate form: on this matter the professors of the art must decide. His picture of S. Romualdo surrounded by his monks, is ranked among the four best compositions in Rome; and the subject was a difficult one to treat, as the great quantity of white in the vestures tends to produce a sameness of colour. The means which Sacchi adopted on this occasion have always been justly admired. He has placed a large tree near the foreground, the shade of which serves to break the uniformity of the figures, and he thus introduced a pleasing variety in the monotony of the colours. His Transito di S. Anna at S. Carlo a' Catinari, his S. Andrea in the Quirinal, and his S. Joseph at Capo alle Case, are also beautiful pictures. Perugia, Foligno, and Camerino, possess altarpieces by him which are the boast of these cities. He enjoyed the reputation of an amiable and learned instructor. One of his lectures, communicated by his celebrated scholar, Francesco Lauri, may be read in the life of that artist, written by Pascoli, who, as I have before remarked, collected the greater part of his information from the old painters in Rome. He has probably engrafted on them some sentiments either of his own or of others, as often happens in a narrative when the related facts are founded more in probability than in certainty; but the maxims there inculcated by Sacchi are worthy of an artist strongly attached to the true, the select, and the grand; and who, to give dignity to his figures, seems to have had his eyes on the precepts of Quintilian respecting the action of his orator. He had a vast number of scholars, among whom we may reckon Giuseppe Sacchi, his son, who became a conventual monk, and painted a picture in the sacristy, in the church of the Apostles. But his most illustrious disciple was Maratta, of whom, and of whose scholars, we shall speak in another epoch.

We find a follower of the Caracci, though we know not of what particular master, in Giambatista Salvi, called from the place in which he was born, Sassoferrato,[78] and whom we shall notice further when we speak of Carlo Dolci, and his very devotional pictures. This artist excelled Dolci in the beauty of his Madonnas, but yielded to him in the fineness of his pencil. Their style was dissimilar, Salvi having formed himself on other models; he first studied in his native place under Tarquinio, his father,[79] then in Rome and afterwards in Naples; it is not known precisely under what masters, except that in his MS. Memoirs we read of one Domenico. The period in which Salvi studied corresponds in a remarkable manner with the time in which Domenichino was employed in Naples, and his manner of painting shews that he adopted the style of that master, though not exclusively. I have seen in the possession of his heirs many copies from the first masters, which he executed for his own pleasure. I observed several of Albano, Guido, Barocci, Raffaello, reduced to a small size, and painted, as one may say, all in one breath. There are also some landscapes of his composition, and a vast number of sacred portraits; several of S. John the Baptist, but more than all of the Madonna. Though not possessing the ideal beauty of the Greeks, he has yet a style of countenance peculiarly appropriate to the Virgin, in which an air of humility predominates, and the simplicity of the dress and the attire of the head corresponds with the expression of the features, without at the same time lessening the dignity of her character. He painted with a flowing pencil, was varied in his colouring, had a fine relief and chiaroscuro; but in his local tints he was somewhat hard. He delighted most in designing heads with a part of the bust, which frequently occur in collections; his portraits are very often of the size of life, and of that size, or larger, is a Madonna, by him, with the infant Christ, in the Casali palace at Rome. The picture of the Rosario, that he painted at S. Sabina, is one of the smallest pictures in Rome. It is, however, well composed, and conducted with his usual spirit, and is regarded as a gem. In other places the largest picture by him which is to be seen, is an altarpiece in the cathedral of Montefiascone.

A follower of the Caracci also, though of an uncertain school, was Giuseppino da Macerata, whom a dubious tradition has assigned to Agostino. His works are to be seen in the two collegiate churches of Fabriano; an Annunciation, in oils, in S. Niccolo, and at S. Venanzio two chapels, painted in fresco, in one of which, where he represented the miracles of the apostles, he surpassed himself in the beauty of the heads and in the general composition; in other respects he is somewhat hasty and indecisive. Two of his works remain in his native place; at the Carmelites the Madonna in Glory, with S. Nicola and S. Girolamo on the foreground; and at the Capucins, S. Peter receiving the Keys. Both these pictures are in the Caracci style, but the second is most so; corresponding in a singular manner with one of the same subject which the Filippini of Fano have in their church, and which is an authentic and historical work of Guido Reni. The second, therefore, is probably a copy. There is written on it _Joseph Ma. faciebat_ 1630, but the figures of the year are not very legible. Marcello Gobbi, and Girolamo Boniforti,[80] a tolerable good imitator of Titian, lived at this time in Macerata. Perugia presents us with two scholars of the Caracci, Giulio Cesare Angeli and Anton. Maria Fabrizzi, the one the pupil of Annibale in Rome, the other of Lodovico in Bologna. They were attracted by the fame of their masters, and secretly leaving their native place for about the space of twelve years, they obtained admission for some time into their school, if we may rely on Pascoli. Fabrizzi, who is also said to have worked under Annibale, does not shew great correctness; and the cause may be ascribed to his too ardent temperament, and the want of more mature instruction; for Annibale dying after three years, from a scholar he became a master, and was celebrated for his vigorous colouring, his composition, and the freedom of his pencil. Angeli was more remarkable for expression and colour than design, and excelled rather in the draped than in the naked figure. There is a vast work by him in fresco in the oratory of the church of S. Agostino in Perugia, and in part of it a limbo of saints, certainly not designed by the light of Lodovico's lamp, if indeed it ought not to be considered that this lunette is by another hand. This branch of the Bolognese School, which was constantly degenerating from the excellence of its origin, being at such a distance from Bologna as not to be able to be revivified by the pictures of the Caracci, still survived for a long time. Angeli instructed Cesare Franchi, who excelled in small pictures, which were highly prized in collections; and Stefano Amadei also, who was formed more on the Florentine School of that age than on the School of Bologna. Stefano was also attached to letters, and opened a school, and by frequent meetings and instructive lectures improved the minds of the young artists who frequented it. One of the most assiduous of these was Fabio, brother of the Duke of Cornia, of whom some works are mentioned in the Guida di Roma, and who entitled himself to a higher rank than that of a mere dilettante.

Besides the Bolognese, a number of Tuscans who were employed by Paul V. in the two churches of S. Peter and S. M. Maggiore, also contributed to the melioration of the Roman School; and some others who, deprived of that opportunity of distinguishing themselves, are yet memorable for the scholars they left behind them. Of the diocese of Volterra was Cristoforo Roncalli, called Il Cav. delle Pomarance, cursorily noticed by us among the Tuscans. I now place him in this school, because he both painted and taught for a considerable time in Rome; and I assign him to this epoch, not from the generality of his works, but from his best having been executed in it. He was the scholar of Niccolo delle Pomarance, for whom he worked much with little reward; and from his example he learnt to avail himself of the labour of others, and to content himself with mediocrity. Yet there are several pictures by him, in which he appears excellent, except that he too often repeats himself in his backgrounds, his foreshortened heads, and full and rubicund countenances. His style of design is a mixture of the Florentine and Roman. In his frescos he displayed fresh and brilliant colours; in his oil pictures, on the contrary, he adopted more sober tints, harmonized by a general tone of tranquillity and placidness. He frequently decorated these with landscapes gracefully disposed. Among his best labours is reckoned the death of Ananias and Sapphira, which is at the Certosa, and which was copied in mosaic in S. Peter's. Other mosaics also in the same church were executed after his cartoons, and in the Lateranense is his Baptism of Constantine, a grand historical composition. But his most celebrated work is the cupola of Loreto, very rich in figures, but injured by time, except some prophets, which are in a truly grand style. He painted considerably in the treasury of that church; and there are some histories of the Madonna not conducted with equal felicity, particularly in the perspective. He obtained this vast commission through the patronage of the Cardinal Crescenzi, in competition with Caravaggio, who, to gratify his revenge, hired an assassin to wound him in the face; and in rivalship too with Guido Reni, who retaliated in a more laudable manner, by proving his superiority by his works. Roncalli from this time was in great request in the cities of Picenum, which in consequence abound with his pictures. There is to be seen at the Eremitani at S. Severino, a _Noli me tangere_; at S. Agostino in Ancona, a S. Francis praying; and at S. Palazia in Osimo, a picture of a saint, one of his most finished productions. In the same city, in the Casa Galli, he painted _di sotto in su_ the Judgment of Solomon; and this is perhaps the best fresco that he ever executed. He could vary his manner at will. There is an Epiphany in the possession of the Marquis Mancinforti in Ancona, quite in the style of the Venetian School.

There were two artists who approached this master in style, the Cav. Gaspare Celio, a Roman, and Antonio, the son of Niccolo Circignani. Celio was the pupil of Niccolo, according to Baglione, but of Roncalli, if we are to believe Titi. He designed and engraved antique statues, and painted in a commendable manner whilst young, after the designs of P. Gio. Bat. Fiammeri, at the Gesu, and at a more mature age after his own, in numerous churches. The S. Francis, on the altar of the Ospizio, at Ponte Sisto, is by him; and he also painted the history of S. Raimondo at the Minerva, and the Moses passing the Red Sea, in a vault of the Mattei gallery, where he competed with other first rate artists. Antonio is not well known in Rome, where he worked with his father, after whose death he decorated by himself a chapel at the Traspontina, another at the Consolazione, and painted also in private houses. Citta di Castello, where he passed some of the best years of his life, possesses many of his pictures, and amongst the rest, that of the Conception, at the Conventuals, which may be called a mixture of Barocci and Roncalli, from whom he probably learned to improve the style he had inherited from his father.

The Cav. delle Pomarance instructed the Marchese Gio. Batista Crescenzi, who became a great patron of the fine arts, and who was so much skilled in them, that Paul V. appointed him superintendent of the works which he was carrying on in Rome; and Philip III., the Catholic, also availed himself of his services in the Escurial. He did not execute many works, and his chief talent lay in flower painting. His house was frequented by literary men, and particularly by Marino; he formed in it a gallery containing an extensive collection of pictures and drawings, of which he himself says, "I believe I may indeed safely affirm that there is not a prince in Europe that does not yield to me in this respect." (Lett. p. 89.) There the artists were always to be found, one of whom, his disciple, was called Bartolommeo del Crescenzi, of the family of Cavarozzi of Viterbo. He was a most correct artist, a follower first of Roncalli, and afterwards became the author of a captivating natural style. There exist many excellent pictures by him in collections, and in the church of S. Anna, a picture of that saint, executed, says Baglione, in his best taste, and with a vigorous pencil.

Among the scholars of Roncalli may also be ranked Giovanni Antonio, father of Luigi Scaramuccia, who also saw and imitated the Caracci. His works are often met with in Perugia. The spirit and freedom of his pencil are more commended than his tints, which are too dark, and which in the churches easily distinguish him amidst a crowd of other artists. It is probable that he used too great a quantity of _terra d'ombra_, like others of his day. Girolamo Buratti, of the same school, painted in Ascoli the beautiful picture of the Presepio at the Carita, and some subjects in fresco, highly commended by Orsini. Of Alessandro Casolani, who belongs to this master, we spoke in the Sienese School. With him, too, was included Cristoforo his son, who, with Giuseppe Agellio of Sorrento, may be ranked with the inferior artists.

Francesco Morelli, a Florentine, demands our notice only as having imparted the rudiments of the art to the Cav. Gio. Baglione of Rome. His pupil, however, did not remain with him for any length of time, but formed a style for himself from a close application to the works of the best masters, and was employed by Paul V., by the Duke of Mantua, and by persons of distinction. He is less vigorous in design and expression, than in colour and chiaroscuro. We meet with his works, not only in Rome, where he painted much, but also in several provincial towns, as the S. Stephen in the Duomo of Perugia, and the S. Catherine at the Basilica Loretana. In his colours he resembled Cigoli, but was far behind him in other respects. The picture which procured him great applause in the Vatican, the Resuscitation of Tabitha, is defaced by time; but both there and at the Cappella Paolina in S. Maria Maggiore, which was the most considerable work of Paul V., his pieces in fresco still remain, and are not unworthy of their age. He is not often found in collections, but in that of the Propaganda I saw a S. Rocco painted by him with great force of colour. He lived to a considerable age, and left behind him a compendium of the lives of professors of the fine arts, who had been his contemporaries in Rome from 1572 to 1642. He wrote in an unostentatious manner, and free from party spirit, and was on all occasions more disposed to commend the good than to censure the bad. Whenever I peruse him, I seem to hear the words of a venerable teacher, inclined rather to inculcate precepts of morals, than maxims on the fine arts. Of the latter, indeed, he is very sparing, and it would almost lead one to suppose that he had succeeded in his profession, more from a natural bias, and a talent of imitation, than from scientific principles and sound taste. It was, perhaps, in order that he might not be tied to treat of the art theoretically, and to write profoundly, that he distributed his work in five dialogues, in the course of which we do not meet with professors of art, but are introduced to a foreigner and to a Roman gentleman, who act the respective parts of master and scholar. Dialogues, indeed, were never composed in a more simple style, in any language. The two interlocutors meet in the cloisters of the Minerva, and after a slight salutation, one of them recounts the lives of the masters of the art, to the number of eighty, which are commenced, continued, and ended, in a style sufficiently monotonous, both as to manner and language; the other listens to this long narrative, without either interrupting or answering, or adding a word in reply: and thus the dialogue, or rather soliloquy, concludes, without the slightest expression of thanks on the part of the auditor, or even the ceremony of a farewell. We shall now return to the Tuscan scholars.

Passignano was at Rome many times, without, however, leaving there any scholars, at least of any name. We may indeed mention Vanni, and he left there, too, a Gio. Antonio, and a Gio. Francesco del Vanni, who are mentioned in the _Guida di Roma_. The school of Cigoli produced two Roman artists of considerable reputation; Domenico Feti, who distinguished himself in Mantua, and Gio. Antonio Lelli, who never left his native place. They painted more frequently in oil, and for private collections, than in fresco, or in churches. Of the first, no public work remains except the two Angels at S. Lorenzo in Damaso; of the second some pictures, and some histories on the walls, among which the Visitation in the choir of the Minerva is much praised.

Comodi and Ciarpi are said to have been the successive masters of Pietro di Cortona; and on that account, and from his birthplace, he has by many been placed in the school of Florence; although others have assigned him to that of Rome. It is true, indeed, that he came hither at the age of fourteen only, bringing with him from Tuscany little more than a well-disposed genius; and he here formed himself into an excellent architect, and as a painter became the head of a school distinguished for a free and vigorous style, as we have mentioned in our first book. Whoever wishes to observe how far he carried this style in fresco, and in large compositions, must inspect the Sala Barberina in Rome; although the Palazzo Pitti, in Florence, presents us with works more elegant, more beautiful, and more studied in parts. Whoever, too, wishes to see how far he carried it in his altarpieces, must inspect the Conversion of S. Paul at the Capucins in Rome, which, placed opposite the S. Michael of Guido, is, nevertheless, the admiration of those who do not object to a variety of style in art: nor am I aware that we should reject this principle in what we designate the fine arts; as it is invariably acknowledged in eloquence, in poetry, and history, where we find Demosthenes and Isocrates, Sophocles and Euripides, and Thucydides and Xenophon, equally esteemed, though all dissimilar in style.

The works of Pietro in Rome, and in the states of the church, are not at all rare. They are to be found also in other states of Italy, and those pieces are the most attractive in which he had the greatest opportunity of indulging his love of architecture. His largest compositions, which might dismay the boldest copyist, are S. Ivo at the Sapienza of Rome, and the S. Charles in the church of that saint, at Catinari, in the act of relieving the infected. The Preaching of S. James in Imola, in the church of the Domenicans, is also on a vast scale. The Virgin attended by S. Stephen, the Pope, and other saints in S. Agostino, in Cortona, is a picture of great research, and is considered one of his best performances. There is an enchanting picture of the Birth of the Virgin, in the Quirinal palace; and the Martyrdom of S. Stephen, at S. Ambrogio, in Rome, and Daniel in the Den of Lions, in the church of that saint, in Venice, are most beautiful works, superior to those of most of his competitors in this school, in regard to composition, and equal to them in colour. His historical subjects are not met with in the galleries of the Roman nobility. In that of the Campidoglio, is the battle between the Romans and the Sabines, full of picturesque spirit; and in possession of the Duke Mattei, is the Adultery, half figures, more studied and more highly finished than was customary with him. This brief notice of him may suffice for the present. Of the scholars whom he formed in the Roman School, I shall speak more opportunely in the subsequent epoch.

At this period we find three Veronese artists, Ottini, Bassetti, and Turchi, studying in Rome; and we shall speak of them more at length in the Venetian School. The first returned home without executing any public work. The second left, in the church dell'Anima, in Rome, two pictures in fresco, the Birth, and the Circumcision of Christ. The third, known under the name of Orbetto, took up his residence, and died in that capital; but I am not aware that he left there any disciples of merit, except some of his own countrymen, who returned to their native place. This engaging and elegant painter, who possessed great originality and beauty of colour, worked still more in Verona than in Rome, and we ought to see his works in the former city, in order justly to appreciate them. But he is not on that account held in the less esteem in Rome for his cabinet pictures, which are highly prized, as the Sisara de' Colonnesi, and for his scriptural subjects, as the Flight into Egypt, in the church of S. Romualdo, and the S. Felice Cappuccino, at the Conception, where, as we before observed, the Barberini family employed the most eminent artists.

Many other Italians worked in Rome in the time of the Caracci, but their schools, as well as the places of their birth, are uncertain; and of these, in a city so abounding in pictures, a slight notice will suffice. In the Guida di Roma, we find only a single notice of Felice Santelli, a Roman, in the church of the P. P. Spagnuoli del Riscatto Scalzi, where he painted in competition with Baglione; he is a painter full of truth, and one of his pictures in Viterbo, in the church of S. Rosa, is inscribed with his name. In Baglione, we read of Orazio Borgianni, a Roman, the rival of Celio, and we find pictures and portraits by him in a good natural style. Gio. Antonio Spadarino, of the family of Galli, painted in S. Peter's, a S. Valeria, with such talent, that Orlandi complains of the silence of biographers respecting him. He had a fellow disciple in Matteo Piccione, of the March, and Titi mentions their peculiar style. Nor is Grappelli much known, whose proper name or country I cannot accurately ascertain; but his Joseph Recognized, which is painted in fresco, in the Casa Mattei, commands our admiration. Mattio Salvucci, who obtained some reputation in Perugia, came to Rome, and although he was graciously received by the Pope, yet, from his inconstant temper, he did not remain there, nor does Pascoli, his fellow countrymen and biographer, mention any authentic pictures by him. Domenico Rainaldi, nephew of the architect, Cav. Carlo Rainaldi, who was employed by Alexander VII., is mentioned in the Roman Guida, as also Giuseppe Vasconio, praised too by Orlandi. In the same description of books, and particularly in those which treat of the pictures of Perugia, mention is made in this epoch of the Cav. Bernardino Gagliardi, who was domiciled for many years in that city, though born in Citta di Castello. Although a scholar of Avanzino Nucci, he adopted a different style, after having seen in his travels the best works of every school of Italy, from Rome to Turin. In historical composition he particularly followed the Caracci and Guido, but in what I have seen of him, both in his own and his adopted city, he appears exceedingly various. The noble house of Oddi, in Perugia, amongst some feeble productions of his, have a Conversazione of young people, half figures, and truly beautiful. In the Duomo of Castello is a Martyrdom of S. Crescenziano, a picture of fine effect, though inferior in other respects. He there appears more studied and more select in the two pictures of the young Tobias, which are included among his superior works. His best is perhaps the picture of S. Pellegrino, with its accompaniments, in the church of S. Marcello in Rome. I do not recollect any other provincial painters of this period whom I have not assigned to one or other of the various masters.

A more arduous task than recording the names of the Italian artists now awaits us in the enumeration of strangers. About the beginning of the century Peter Paul Rubens came young to Rome, and left some oil pictures at the Vallicella, and in S. Croce in Gerusalemme. Not many years afterwards Antonio Vandyck arrived there also, with an intention of remaining for a long period; but many of his fellow countrymen, who were there studying, became offended at his refusing to join them in their convivial tavern parties and dissipated mode of life; he in consequence left Rome. Great numbers too of that nation who professed the lower school of art, remained in Italy for a considerable period, and some are mentioned in their classes. Others were employed in the churches of Rome, and the ecclesiastical state. The master is unknown who painted at S. Pietro in Montorio, the celebrated Deposition, which is recommended to students, as a school of colour in itself; by some he is called Angiolo Fiammingo. Of Vincenzio Fiammingo there is at the Vallicella a picture of the Pentecost; of Luigi Gentile, from Brussels, the picture of S. Antonio at S. Marco, and others in various churches in Rome; he painted also at the church of the Capucins, at Pesaro, a Nativity and a S. Stephen, pictures highly finished and of a beautiful relief. He executed others at Ancona, and in various cities, with his usual taste, which is still more to be admired in his easel pictures. He excelled, says Passeri, who was very sparing in his praise of artists, in small compositions; since besides finishing them with great diligence, he executed them in an engaging style, and he concludes with the further encomium, that he equalled, if not surpassed, most artists in portrait painting.

About the year 1630, Diego Velasquez, the chief ornament of Spanish art, studied in Rome and remained there for a year. He afterwards returned thither under the pontificate of Innocent X., whose portrait he painted, in a style which was said to be derived from Domenico Greco, instructed by Titian, at the court of Spain. Velasquez renewed in this portrait the wonders which are recounted of those of Leo X. by Raffaello, and of Paul III. by Titian; for this picture so entirely deceived the eye as to be taken for the Pope himself. At this time too a number of excellent German artists were employed in Rome, as Daniel Saiter, whom I shall notice in the school of Piedmont, and the two Scor, Gio. Paolo, called by Taja, Gian. Paolo Tedesco, whose Noah's Ark, painted in the Quirinal palace, has excited the most enthusiastic encomiums; and Egidio, his brother, who worked there for a considerable time in the gallery of Alexander VII. There were also in Rome Vovet, as we have observed, and the two Mignards, Nicolas, an excellent artist, and Pierre, who had the surname of Romano, and who left some beautiful works at S. Carlino and other places; and a master who claims more than a brief notice, Nicolas Poussin, the Raffaello of France.

Bellori, who has written the Life of Poussin, introduces him to Rome in 1624, and informs us that he was already a painter, and had formed his style more after the prints of Raffaello than the instruction of his masters. At Rome he improved, or rather changed his style, and acquired another totally different, of which he may be considered the chief. Poussin has left directions for those who come to study the art in Rome: the remains of antiquity afforded him instruction which he could not expect from masters. He studied the beautiful in the Greek statues, and from the Meleager of the Vatican (now ascertained to be a Mercury) he derived his rule of proportions. Arches, columns, antique vases, and urns, were rendered tributary to the decoration of his pictures. As a model of composition, he attached himself to the Aldobrandine Marriage; and from that, and from basso-relievos, he acquired that elegant contrast, that propriety of attitude, and that fear of crowding his picture, for which he was so remarkable, being accustomed to say, that a half figure more than requisite was sufficient to destroy the harmony of a whole composition.

Leonardo da Vinci, from his sober and refined style of colour, could not fail to please him; and he decorated that master's work _Su la Pittura_ with figures designed in his usual fine taste. He followed him in theory and emulated him in practice. He adopted Titian's style of colour, and the famous Dance of Boys, which was formerly in the Villa Lodovisi, and is now in Madrid, taught him to invest with superior colours the engaging forms of children, in which he so much excelled. It should seem that he soon abandoned his application to colouring, and his best coloured pictures are those which he painted on first coming to Rome. He was apprehensive lest his anxiety on that head might distract his attention from the more philosophical part of his picture, to which he was singularly attentive; and to this point he directed his most serious and assiduous care. Raffaello was his model in giving animation to his figures, in expressing the passions with truth, in selecting the precise moment of action, in intimating more than was expressed, and in furnishing materials for fresh reflection to whoever returns a second and a third time to examine his well conceived and profound compositions. He carried the habit of philosophy in painting even further than Raffaello, and often executed pictures, whose claim to our regard is the poetical manner in which their moral is inculcated. Thus, in that at Versailles, which is called _Memoria della morte_, he has represented a group of youths, and a maid visiting the tomb of an Arcadian shepherd, on which is inscribed the simple epitaph, "I also was an Arcadian."