Chapter XI: Book I: Venetian School (10)

He first studied Titian's works in fresco, such as he found in Padua, and his copies still continue to attract the admiration of the greatest professors. In Venice he persevered in his assiduous attention to the same incomparable master, penetrating so far by degrees into his peculiar character, as to be preferred by many to any of Titian's other disciples. But comparison is invariably disagreeable, and I am inclined to think that those who personally received from the lips of great artists a few brief and sound rules, as to what ought to be avoided or achieved in order best to resemble them, are entitled to a high degree of respect: all the speculations of the finest genius upon their works are not half so valuable; for the second century is fast passing away, since the oral tradition of the best colourists wholly ceased, and we have been attempting to attain their method, in which we cannot succeed. Padovanino was always equal to the task of handling any subject that had before been treated by Titian; his softer ones with grace, his more powerful with strength, his heroic pieces with dignity; in which last, if I mistake not, he surpassed every other disciple of this master. "Le donne, i cavalier, l'armi, e gli Amori," these, and let us add to them his boys, were the favourite subjects of his pencil, which he exhibited to most advantage, and which he most frequently introduced into his compositions. And he knew how to treat landscape as well; which, in some of his small pictures, he has succeeded in admirably. He was familiar with the science of the sotto in su,[80] of which he gave the most favourable specimen in the church of San Andrea di Bergamo, in three admirable histories of that saint. It is a work embellished with beautiful architecture, and replete with graces in every part. He has approached equally near his model in the sobriety of his composition, in the very difficult use of his middle tints, in his contrasts, in the colour of his fleshes, in smoothness and facility of hand. But Titian was still to remain unequalled in his art; and Varotari is not a little inferior to him in animation, and in the expression of truth. Nor can I believe that his method of preparing his canvass, and of colouring it, was the same as that pursued by Titian's disciples, many of his pieces being much darkened, with the shades either deepened or altered. This is very perceptible even in Varotari's Dead Christ, at Florence, a painting which the prince not very long since purchased for his gallery there.

In other points he appears to me to have observed the same method, in regard to his model, as Poussin, who aimed at Raffaello's manner, without reaching it, either from want of ability, or from a dread of falling into servility. His masterpiece is said to be the Supper of Cana, a piece that has been engraved by Patina, among the _Select Paintings_. It was formerly in Padua, and is now at Venice in the Chapter of La Carita; with few figures in proportion to the place; a rich display of costume and ornament; dogs that appear like those of Paul, full of life; grand attendance, women of the most exquisite forms warmed with more ideal beauty than those of Titian, and drawn in the most graceful attitudes. Still it is not every one who will approve of his introduction of them for the service of such a table, in preference to men, as is the more general custom. The above picture cannot, however, boast such fresh and lucid tints as his four histories of the Life of San Domenico, which are to be seen in a Refectory of Santi Giovanni and Paolo, containing as it were the flower of Padovanino's best style. This very elegant artist spent his time between the capital and his native province, where alone his pictures abound in public; in other cities they are more rarely met with, and are scarce even in private collections.

In forming a judgment of his productions, it is necessary to be upon our guard against a variety of copies, many of his disciples having so happily imitated him, that Venetian professors themselves with difficulty distinguish their hand from that of their master.

Bartolommeo Scaligero ranks among the most celebrated pupils and imitators of Padovanino, an artist enumerated by the people of Padua among their fellow citizens, although they can boast little from his pencil; while the Venetians are in possession of his pictures in various churches, the most beautiful, perhaps, at the _Corpus Domini_. Gio. Batista Rossi, from Rovigo, produced one of his pictures for San Clemente at Padua; subsequently he flourished at Venice, executing few things for public exhibition, but which are much extolled by Boschini. Giulio Carpioni was accounted also among the pupils of Varotari, and acquired a reputation rather for his small than his larger compositions; but we shall have occasion to allude to him again. Maestri and Leoni are names recorded in the _Guida_ of Venice, distinguished for their works in fresco, exhibited at the Conventuali. The former was most probably a foreigner, as well as the latter, whom we shall find at Rimino. Were Boschini somewhat of a less profuse panegyrist, we might here add to this list the name of Dario, a son of Padovanino, uniting the character of the physician, the poet, the painter, and engraver. In the index to the _Carta del Navegar_, we find him placed in the rank of Dilettanti, from the circumstance of his producing little in the art, and this more with the object of presenting his pictures as gifts than of gain. Nevertheless we meet with an encomium upon them,[81] sufficient to satisfy the claims even of a good professor; besides which, several of his virtues and portraits, with an excellent body of colouring, are equally extolled for the spirit of their attitudes, and exquisite taste in the Giorgione manner.

We have next to treat of Pietro Liberi, an artist who succeeded Padovanino in sustaining the honour of his native place. He ranks among the great men of his art, and is esteemed by many the most learned in point of design, of all who adorned the Venetian School. From his early studies of the antique at Rome, of Michelangiolo, and of Raffaello, of Coreggio at Parma, and of all the most excellent masters in the city of Venice, he was led to form a style partaking of every school; a style that pleased in Italy, but far more in Germany, and which obtained for him the titles of Count and Cavalier, with wealth to support them handsomely in Venice. And, in fact, to estimate his merits rightly, we ought not to consider him as a painter in one style, but in many. For according to his own confession, he employed for the eye of true judges a free and rapid pencil, not very studious of finish; for the less intelligent he worked with a very careful one, which bestowed the last touch upon every part, distinguishing the very hairs in such a manner that one might number them; and these paintings he executed on panels of cypress wood. Most probably the fire of this man's genius became quenched whenever he attempted to paint slowly, and his pieces were certainly less perfect, which is known to have occurred to several painters in fresco. But with the exception of these enthusiasts, who are extremely rare, and always adduced by the indolent in defence of their haste, an observing diligence is the perfection of every artist; and even those two thunderbolts, let us call them, of art, Tintoretto and Giordano, where they most practised it, succeeded most in charming the eye of taste. The style of this artist may also be distinguished into the sublime and beautiful. He produced fewer specimens, however, in the former, of which Venice boasts a Slaughter of the Innocents, Vicenza a Noah just landed from the Ark, Bergamo the Great Deluge, in which the shore is said to have been the work of M. Montagne; the whole of them painted for churches, robust in their design, displaying fine variety of foreshortenings and of attitudes, with naked parts in grand character, and more in emulation of the Caracci than of Michelangiolo. He even abused the singular skill that he thus displayed; drawing the Supreme Deity by an unprecedented example, without the least drapery, in the church of Santa Caterina at Vicenza, an error of judgment which detracts from the worth of one of his most beautiful productions. In a lighter character he produced several pictures for private ornament, sometimes consisting of fables familiar to us, and sometimes of _capricci_ and allegorical subjects, too obscure even for OEdipus himself to unravel. Most frequently he drew naked figures of Venus, in the taste of Titian; and these are esteemed his masterpieces, which have acquired for him, indeed, the name of Libertino. It is asserted, that being unequal to the formation of the folds of his draperies, for the most part ill disposed and vague, he the more willingly exercised himself in these schools. We meet with a great number in different collections, and after beholding one, we are at no loss to recognize the remainder, both from the heads which are often repetitions of each other, and from the rosy tinge of his fleshes, and of the general tone of his pictures. He was extravagantly fond indeed of this last colour; which he often misapplied in regard to the hands and the extremities of the fingers. For the rest the composition of his colours was sweet; his shades delicate, in the Correggio manner, and his profiles often borrowed from the antique, while his whole handling was free and elevated.

Marco Liberi, his son, was not in any way comparable to his father, either in point of dignity or beauty, when left to his own invention. His forms are either caricatures, in a manner, of those of his father, or are very inferior where they are original. This striking difference may be observed in numerous collections, where their paintings of Venus are placed together, as we see in that of Prince Ercolani at Bologna. Still he was an excellent copyist of his father's works, a talent possessed by many others of the same school, whose imitations are easily mistaken for originals, even by professors themselves.

An excellent foreign artist ought not to be omitted in this place, one who flourished during a long period, and taught and died in Padua. His name is Luca Ferrari, from Reggio, fully deserving of being enrolled in the _Abbeccedario Pittorico_. Although Guido's pupil, his style became rather lofty than delicate; so that judging by the pictures that he produced for Santa Maria della Ghiaja in Reggio, Scannelli pronounced him a disciple of Tiarini. In some of the airs of his heads, however, and in certain graceful motions, he shews himself not unworthy of the character of the former master. In Padua there is a _Pieta_ of his at San Antonio, of a very masterly kind, a picture that displays the rarest beauty of colouring. In his pieces abounding with figures, like that of the Plague of 1630, painted for the Domenicani, he does not appear to so much advantage; nor had Guido, indeed, offered him any great examples in this line, being accustomed rather to weigh than to number his figures. Minorello and Cirello, two of his pupils and followers, continued to support in Padua some relish of the Bolognese School. Their names might be added to the dictionary above mentioned, as Rosetti seemed to wish, and the former, who might sometimes be confounded with Luca, ought to hold a higher place in it than the latter. Francesco Zanella deserves likewise to be recorded there, as an artist of spirit, though neither very diligent nor very learned in his art. He is esteemed almost the Giordano of this city, from the great number of his works conducted in a short time, and may be computed almost as the last of the school; for Pellegrini, who flourished during the same age, was not a native, though tracing his origin to Padua; nor did he reside there many years.

The city of Vicenza produced nothing original during this epoch; though it possessed a school, sprung from that of Paul Veronese and from Zelotti, of which I promised the reader a series in a more appropriate part of the work. In regard to its style, this school, in part, belongs to a better age; but its productions are chiefly so very indifferent, and so much the result of mechanic art, that it may rather be ascribed to the present. Vicenza indeed might have had reason to boast, had it possessed artists at all equal in point of genius to its architects. I shall first commence with the name of Lucio Bruni, whether a native of the state or a foreigner is uncertain, an artist who produced, for San Jacopo, a little altarpiece, representing the marriage of S. Catherine, executed in 1585, and partaking of the genius of a better age. I have met with no other notice of him; for as he was probably little known in times when Italy abounded with the choicest artists, he found no historian who might have rescued his reputation from oblivion. Yet this I would willingly do, if not by giving him a rank in this school, at least including him in the list of artists of the city, where I find mention of his name. Giannantonio Fasolo received the instructions of Paul, and for a longer period those of Zelotti; still adhering, however, to Paul as his first example. At San Rocco there is one of his pictures, a Probatica, so beautifully decorated with perspective, and so finely filled with sick figures, in various groups and distances, that Paul Veronese would not have disclaimed it for his own. There are likewise three Roman histories in the ceiling of the prefectory palace; Mutius Scaevola before Porsenna, Horatius at the Bridge, and Curtius before the Gulf; the whole of them nobly executed. By some strange mistake Orlandi mentions Verona as the place of his birth, and where he exercised his talents.

Among his pupils was Alessandro Maganza, son of the same Giambatista whose name I recorded among Titian's followers. Fasolo inspired him with his own taste; and we may likewise consider him a fine imitator of Zelotti and of Paul Veronese; as he has shown in his Epiphany, at San Domenico; and in his Martyrdom of S. Giustina, at San Pietro. In his architecture he was excellent, judicious in his composition, very pleasing in his countenances; in his fleshes inclining towards white; in his folds somewhat hard and monotonous; and for the most part wanting in expression. Vicenza has an abundance of his paintings, both private and in public; besides the provinces and the adjacent cities, to such an amount, that we have no difficulty in believing that he flourished till his seventy-fourth year; that he painted for good prices, and with little trouble. A few of his pictures, such as we meet with at Vicenza, are amply sufficient to give us an idea of the rest; not unfrequently presenting us with the same features and the same attitudes and motions. We are to look for the cause of this, not so much in his genius, which he shows in many of his works to have been excellent, as in his domestic anxieties, occasioned by a numerous family for whom he had to provide. This artist was extremely unfortunate as a father. Giambatista, the eldest of his sons, emulated him in knowledge; and if we may venture to judge from one of his histories, of San Benedetto, at the church of S. Giustina, in Padua, he was superior to him in point of elegance. But the support he derived from this young man's talents was soon cut off by his early death, leaving a young family of his own to the care of their grandfather. His second son, Girolamo, who had also to make provision for his own children, and Marcantonio, quite a youth, afterwards assisted their father in his productions, and already began to acquire some degree of reputation from their own. When, in the year 1630, their native place was ravaged by the plague, Alessandro had the grief to witness the death of his two sons, and, one by one, of the whole of his grandchildren; until left "the last of his race," to lament over the destruction of his kindred, he shortly followed them to the tomb, closing with his death that noble school which the two illustrious Veronese had founded in Vicenza.

Yet it did not altogether perish; but was continued by Maffei, by Carpioni, and by Cittadella, three artists who, compared with the Maganza, sometimes appear to have sprung from the same academy, either from having studied in Vicenza the models they imitated, or because the style, which partakes both of that of Paul and Palma, was then in high repute, as that of Cortona at another period among us. They were all three, like Alessandro himself, rapid in their composition; and were their pictures, even belonging to the city, to be enumerated, they would most likely be found to equal those of all the other foreign or native artists employed there. Francesco Maffei, from Vicenza, had been the pupil of Peranda, some of whose unfinished pieces he completed. He next undertook to imitate Paul Veronese, with a tolerable degree of spirit and learning. His style is on a lofty scale; in so much that Boschini entitles him the great mannerist, extolling him as the painter of giants. Nor is he wanting in a certain grace peculiarly his; which distinguishes him from the mannerists. His picture of St. Anna, at San Michele di Vicenza, besides many works produced at the same place for the public palace, and elsewhere, extremely poetical, full of fine portraits, and coloured in the best Venetian taste, show that he was able to compete with more skilful artists than Carpioni and Cittadella, his contemporaries. And as he, perhaps, did not consider them very formidable rivals, he did not finish his pieces with much care, leaving many of his heads, besides other portions of his figures, incomplete; scanty in his colouring, employing dark grounds, and altogether painting rather for years than for ages. At San Francesco, in Padua, there is a grand picture of his "Paradise," which, owing to this method, has lost almost every trace of colour. This result extinguishes the praise which Boschini bestows upon him, that with four touches of his pencil he could make the observer raise his eyebrows with admiration, and is a very excellent warning, we think, for over expeditious artists. Their pictures may be said, indeed, to resemble certain children, the offspring of unhealthy parents, who sometimes exhibit a florid countenance in youth, accompanied with every other symptom of health, but, declining as they advance, their constitution becomes exhausted in a few years.

Giulio Carpioni, a pupil to Padovanino, and for the same reason familiar with the composition of Paul Veronese, has assuredly more vivacity, power of expression, and poetry than Maffei. He was not, however, equally inclined to grand proportions, and works upon an extensive scale. His figures do not usually exceed the size of those of Bassano; and they are more frequently met with in collections than in churches, throughout the whole Venetian state. In many noble houses we also find pictures consisting of bacchanals, dreams, fables, and capricci, or fancy pieces, as well as histories, all touched with a spirit and a taste in his tints, which his master himself might have thought worthy of his pencil. He appears to have produced others for the people, if indeed they are not the work of his pupils, or of his son Carlo, who is supposed to have followed, in all points, the example of his father; though I never met with any piece that was positively genuine. He was, likewise, a good portrait painter; and in the public Council Hall at Vicenza, as well as in the church of the Servi at Monte Berico, appear the portraits of several of the magistrates in that government, accompanied by their trains; in which, to singular correctness of feature, we meet with much ideal beauty in his representation of the Virtues, that he introduced with appropriate and noble inventions. Such an artist ought to be well known in Venice and Vicenza, where he flourished during many years. He passed his latter days in Verona, where his contemporary, Bartolommeo Cittadella, had likewise taken up his residence; last of the three whom I have just before mentioned. It is uncertain whether he was a pupil, or only a companion of Carpioni; but he is indisputably his inferior in point of genius and ability. To the same school we may add the name of Niccolo Miozzi, of Vicenza, recorded in the _Gioielli Pittoreschi_ of Boschini; and, though more doubtful, that of Marcantonio Miozzi, known by his superscription attached to a sacred subject, in possession of the house of Muttoni, at Rovigo.

Towards the close of the century, one of the artists in most request was Menarola, whose style approaches nearer to the modern. He was pupil to Volpato, though chiefly following the manner of Carpioni. Next to him was Costantin Pasqualotto, more distinguished for colouring than for design; and Antonio de' Pieri, called Zoppo, of Vicenza, who possessed a rapid, but less decided hand; along with some others who may be recognized in this description. Still higher in repute than these was Pasquale Rossi, little of whom remains in Vicenza, having chiefly attached himself to the Roman School, where he will be found mentioned. Gio. Bittonte, leaving Vicenza, established himself, and painted a good deal at Castelfranco; where, from the circumstance of founding a school both of painting and of dancing, he acquired the surname of Ballerino. Melchiori represents him as pupil to Maffei, and master of Melchiore, his father, who lived also in Castelfranco, where he was much employed, although engaged also at Venice, in the Casa Morosini, where he competed with the Cavalier Liberi.

When the ancient school had become wholly extinct at Bassano, there appeared a Gio. Batista Volpati, who produced many pictures for his native state; somewhat resembling Carpioni in his capricci and in his style, but more common, perhaps, in his features and whole design. His pupils are said to have been one Trivellini, and one Bernardoni, both still inferior to their master. He left behind him several treatises upon the pictoric art, which are yet existing in MS. in the rich and select library of Count Giuseppe Remondini. In the preface to these he asserts that he had no master, though he is said, in a MS. at Castelfranco, to have been a pupil of Novelli. The work is interspersed with good remarks, such as to lead us to suppose him a tolerable theorist; and Algarotti took a copy of it, as we learn from the index of his works upon the fine arts, already before the public.

We have above alluded to a branch of the Veronese School, transplanted to Padua, where it flourished with extraordinary success. Referring to its origin, and to those Veronese artists who lived contemporary with Palma, and until the close of the 17th century, it must be observed, that they maintained the national reputation no less than those of Padua, and were even more constant in the good old method of managing their grounds and their style of colouring. I have noticed the name of Claudio Ridolfi[82] in a former school, from the circumstance of his having flourished in the pontifical state. He did not, however, desist from his labours in the Venetian state, some of which appear in the capital and the adjacent cities, particularly in his native place, and Padua. In the celebrated church of S. Giustina, there is a very fine piece, representing the honours of the Benedictine order, professed by princes, adorned by martyrs, and the nurse of the most distinguished pastors of the holy church. The invention is very appropriate, the execution altogether elegant and well finished, and the ornaments equally rich as in any of his other works. He presented his country with a good disciple of his style, in Gio. Batista Amigazzi, though his chief talent seemed to consist in the excellence of his copies. In San Carlo, at Verona, there is one taken from a Supper by Paul Veronese, not only finely drawn, but exhibiting colours fresh and vivid even at the present day. Still superior to him, and almost equal to his master, we meet with Benedetto Marini, of Urbino, an artist unheard of in his own country, though greatly distinguished at Piacenza.[83]

Posterior to Ridolfi appeared three scholars of Felice Brusasorci, in addition to Creara, an artist less celebrated; all of whom, on the death of their master, pursued their studies at Rome. There they imbibed, more or less, the prevailing style; and all of them occupy a distinguished rank in the history of the art. Alessandro Turchi, surnamed _Orbetto_, is, in particular, distinguished among the first of his age; he was called Orbetto, observes Pozzo, because, when quite a boy, he was in the habit of guiding an old blind mendicant, either his father, or some other person. Passeri declares that he derived it from his having a defect in one of his eyes; which was observable in his left eye, as I am informed by Signor Brandolese, after having seen his portrait, engraved after the original, in possession of the Signori Vianelli. Brusasorci, from certain undoubted symptoms, discovered in him a fine genius for the art; and, giving him the best instructions, in a few years encountered a rival, rather than a disciple. Residing afterwards in Venice, under Carlo Caliari, and thence proceeding to Rome, he formed a style wholly his own, possessing some strength but more elegance. He established himself in Rome, where he entered into competition with the followers of the Caracci, with Sacchi, and with Berrettini; with whom he appears to advantage in the church of the Concezione, as well as in a few others. But no city has so many of his pieces in public as Verona, to say nothing of those he painted for private persons. The family of the Marchesi Girardini alone, who patronised him and supported him at Rome, for which we have original letters and documents, possesses sufficient to enrich several collections, among which it is amusing to trace his progress from the inferior to the more correct specimens, and from a lower degree of ornament to the highest. Some, indeed, have ventured to put him in competition with Annibal Caracci; a comparison that, in other times, would have created as great a sensation in Bologna as the celebrated Rape of the Bucket, and one which ought not to be listened to, indeed, any where. Annibal was a painter worthy of our veneration, and Turchi succeeded in imitating his design in the "Sisara" of the Casa Colonna and elsewhere. But he was not so happy in every instance, and, generally, his naked figures, (which approach, in Annibal, to those of the ancient Greeks,) are not equal to such as he has thrown into costume. On the contrary, Passeri, in describing his picture at the Camaldolesi, in Rome, admits that he did not display _perfect_ taste in his art, while Pascoli, in his life of Gimignani, says he enjoyed _some_ degree of reputation at Rome; an incautious expression, if I mistake not, but which at least shews that Turchi is not entitled to a comparison with Annibal Caracci. Still he exhibits so many attractions, that he never fails to please us in every subject. He seems to have aimed at forming an union of various schools, and added to it a certain originality in giving dignity to the portraits introduced into his histories, with the most animated, yet the most delicate complexions. He excelled in the choice and distribution of his colours, among which he introduces a reddish tint, which much enlivens his pictures, and is one of the indications by which we may recognise the author. He is said to have employed exquisite care in the application of his tints, and to have possessed some secret art, by means of which they continue to attract the envy of posterity. The truth is, he selected, purified, and kneaded well his colours, besides consulting chemists upon the subject. From some pictures we feel inclined to turn away in disgust, so extremely do the colours resemble the tints made use of by coach painters; and we have reason to complain of want of refinement in many instances. But how very few apply themselves seriously to select and refine their materials, to make experiments, and to analyse those colours that have been once applied.

At the church of San Stefano, in Verona, there is exhibited his "Passion of the Forty Martyrs," a work that, in regard to depth of colours and foreshortening, partakes much of the Lombard; in point of expression and design, of the Roman; and in its colouring, of the Venetian School. It is one of the most studied, finished, and animated pieces that he produced: there is a choiceness in the heads that approaches Guido's; and a skill of composition, that throws into the background of the picture a great portion of the multifarious history, as appearing in a field of vast extent, where his figures are admirably varied, according to the distances in which they are supposed to appear. Yet he does not belong to that class of artists who go about in search of personages for their histories, in order to fill them with figures. On the other hand, he appears to take more pleasure in introducing an inferior number. Thus his picture of a Pieta painted for the church of La Misericordia, at Verona, exhibits only a dead Christ, the Virgin, and Nicodemus; but the whole so well designed, arranged, and animated, as well as coloured, that it has been esteemed by many his masterpiece, and is certainly one of the best paintings in Verona. In that of his Epiphany also, in possession of the Signori Girardini, of which the rough draft is preserved in the Casa Fattorini, at Bologna, he is by no means lavish of his figures; but he succeeded in arraying those of the Magi in so noble a manner, as to remind us of Titian and Bassano. Turchi died at Rome, leaving behind him two excellent disciples in Gio. Ceschini, and Gio. Batista Rossi, called il Gobbino. The first of these produced copies of his master's works, that had all the appearance of originals. Both continued to employ themselves at Verona, though declining in importance and in credit in proportion as they advanced in years.

Pasquale Ottini, the same who, with Orbetto, completed some pictures by Felice, was a good artist in regard to his forms, and of no common expression, particularly in the works he conducted after having seen Raffaello's. Of this we have a striking specimen in the "Slaughter of the Innocents," placed at San Stefano, although it is subjected to an unfavourable comparison, being placed opposite to one of the finest productions of Orbetto. He appears to more advantage, perhaps, at San Giorgio, where we meet with his picture of San Niccolo, with other saints, in the best Venetian style of colouring; whereas, in other instances, his colours are somewhat languid; a defect most probably arising from time, and unfavourable situations. Finally, he is in high repute in his own country; and in the learned Alessandro Carli's _History of Verona_, he is mentioned as approaching the nearest of all, in point of excellence, to Paul Veronese. Subsequent to him, and not inferior in talent, we meet with Marc Antonio Bassetti, who, leaving his fellow pupils, set out, very young, to complete his studies at Venice. After again joining them, he next transferred his residence to Rome; and having copied from the best models of both schools, he ultimately returned to his native place. He is particularly commended by Ridolfi in the branch of design, in which he was truly great; add to which, he was an excellent colourist. And he was accustomed to advise those who aimed at good colouring to return, in the first place, to Venice, and again to consult the most beautiful productions of the art. There is one of his altarpieces at San Stefano, in Verona, representing various holy bishops of the city, all arrayed in their sacred habits, all admirably contrasted, and in a taste nearly approaching that of Titian, were it not for the vicinity of Turchi, who seems here again to throw him somewhat into the shade. He left no succession of the school,[84] nor, indeed, many works of his own, though they were highly valued. For he was accustomed to say that painting ought not to be pursued by journeymen, like a mechanic art, but with the leisure that is bestowed upon literature, for the sake of the pleasure it affords. It would appear that Dante adopted almost the same maxim in his poetry, when he watched for, observed, and encouraged the impressions that nature, the first guide of all true geniuses, implanted in his spirit.[85] These two friends met their fate together, dying of the plague in the year 1630, as well as many other scholars of Brusasorci, mentioned by the Commendatore del Pozzo. But I omit their names, either because of their early death, or want of talent to distinguish themselves. Thus, about the same year, when Orbetto had already established himself in Rome, the succession of Brusasorci's school ceased in Verona. The disciples of Paul Veronese, mentioned subsequent to him, Montemezzano, Benfatto, Verona, and others, died likewise about this period; insomuch that every trace of the municipal school may be said to have disappeared, and it was succeeded by a variety of foreign styles.

Indeed, for some time before, the young Veronese artists had become attached to foreign academies, and several strangers had established themselves in Verona. Dionisio Guerri had formed, under the direction of Feti, a very striking and clear style; in himself equal to repairing the loss of many artists. But he died young, in 1640, leaving few works behind him, in a great measure dispersed through foreign collections; and he was much lamented. Francesco Bernardi, called _Bigolaro_, supposed to have been a native of Brescia, until the Commendatore del Pozzo proved him to have been of Verona, was an artist educated by the same master. He exhibited, in his picture of the Titular Saint, at the church of S. Carlo, seen in the act of attending his infected brethren, as well as in another piece, a companion to it, all the taste of his master. But he produced much more for private collections, than for the public. The Cavalier Barca was an artist who sprung from Mantua, though he subsequently became a citizen of Verona. It is uncertain whether he was instructed by Feti. His style is various; and in a Pieta of his, remaining at San Fermo, he appears a painter capable of producing a good effect; in other pieces, at the Scala, he abounds with pictorial grace and beauty, and he is fully worthy of commemoration.

The city of Bologna, likewise, contributed to repair the loss sustained by Verona of so many artists. Guido and Albani conferred great obligations, by instructing the Cavalier Coppa (his real name, however, was Antonio Giarola, or Gerola) who is to be enumerated in the list of their best disciples, though he is somewhat too loaded in his composition, and, with a view of catching the sweetness of Guido, became wanting in strength of colouring. There is one of his Magdalens in the Desert, however, placed at the Servi, which is full of fine expression. And in the refectory, also, of the Veronese college, is his Supper of Emmaus, a picture conducted in the style of the best Venetians. Although addicted to the style of Guido, he was also considered by Albani as one of his favourite pupils, who sent him as court painter to the Duke of Mantua, as we are informed by Malvasia.[86] From the same academy sprung Giacomo Locatelli, distinguished for several works, chiefly produced for San Procolo, as well as on account of the merit of some of his pupils. They rose into notice in the decline of the art, about the close of the seventeenth century. Andrea Voltolino, a careful but cold painter, was more fitted to succeed in portraits than in compositions; Biagio Falcieri, instructed also by the Cavalier Liberi at Venice, possessed much of the fire and imagination abounding in the Venetian School. Of this he gave an example in his great picture representing the Council of Trent, where the figure of St. Thomas, in the act of overthrowing heretics, appears conspicuous on high, a piece that adorns the church of the Domenicans. Santo Prunato was instructed by these two professors, an artist who brought the Veronese School into fresh notice, as we shall have occasion to observe in the following period.

The school of Moretto continued during this epoch to flourish in Brescia; _a master exquisitely delicate in his colours, and extremely diligent, as is evident from his works_. Such is the opinion expressed by Vasari; but he did not always preserve the same excellence. There is not the same degree of finish in his disciples, and it was, indeed, too difficult, while so large a portion of the state put a high value upon celerity of hand, to pursue more tedious processes. The Brescian artists who succeeded him, having in part received a Venetian education, the city abounded in mannerists and the class of _tenebrosi_. Still there appeared among these some excellent painters. Antonio Gandini and Pietro Moroni, or Maroni, are enumerated among the pupils of Paul. The former sometimes imitated Vanni, without neglecting Palma; vast, varied, and ornate in his compositions, an artist every way deserving of consideration in the grand history of the Cross, which he painted in the old cathedral, where his son Bernardino, a poor imitator of his father, also employed himself. Moroni studied a good deal the works of Titian, and was one of the most accurate and fine designers the school could, at that time, boast; nor does he yield to any of his contemporaries in the strong body, and in the clearness of his colouring. Such at least he appeared to me at San Barnaba, in his picture of Christ going to Mount Calvary, when compared with other productions of the same period exhibited there.

Filippo Zanimberti, pupil to Peranda, and an artist of fine character, and a fine hand, as well as a very natural colourist, has never been sufficiently appreciated in Brescia. But in Venice, where he resided many years, and where he painted with real genius and skill for different churches, he is very highly esteemed. In Santa Maria Nuova appears his grand picture of the Manna, so much commended by Ridolfi, by Boschini, and by Zanetti; though he chiefly seems to have employed himself in the ornament of palaces. He possessed singular talent for drawing small figures, and composing fables and histories, which were eagerly sought after, insomuch that the poet of the Venetian paintings affirms that whoever possessed Zanimberti's pictures, was sure of his money.

Francesco Zugni, of Brescia, is mentioned by Ridolfi among the best of Palma's disciples. He could not compete with him in the beauty of his forms and attitudes, though he surpassed him in the fulness of his colouring, and in the spirit in which he conducted his works. These were for the most part in fresco, and frequently exhibited the perspectives of Sandrini, an architect of great merit. With him he was employed in the hall of the Podesta, in that of the Capitano, and in several villas. He displayed equal excellence in his oil paintings, as we gather from that of the Circumcision at the Grazie, and from some small figures adorning one of the choirs, designed and touched with great spirit.

Grazio Cossale, or Cozzale, produced a variety of pieces upon a large scale, still remaining in his native province. He was gifted with a rich imagination, and of a character, compared by Cozzando, the historian of Brescia, to that of Palma; and he indeed appears to have emulated his facility without abusing it. His picture of the Presentation, which he left at the church of the Miracoli; his Epiphany at the Grazie, and other pieces dispersed throughout Brescia, are all calculated to arrest the eye of the spectator, who must likewise possess little feeling, should he fail to lament the unhappy fate of so great a man, who fell by the hand of one of his own sons. Neither in Camillo Rama, Ottavio Amigoni, nor in Jacopo Barucco, all disciples of Palma, have I met with any works of equal beauty throughout that city, the last of whom, indeed, has loaded his pieces with a more than ordinary degree of shade. Amigoni, who had been pupil to Gandino, likewise held his school, in which he counted, among other scholars, Pompeo Ghiti, an artist who, under Zoppo of Lugano, succeeded in improving his manner, or rendered it at least more powerful. He possessed a rich imagination, excellent in the art of design, and in his touch similar to, though perhaps not so strong as the Luganese. Francesco Paglia was a pupil and imitator of Guercino, and the father of Antonio and Angelo, both devoted to the art. He was most successful in his portraits, though he painted also scriptural pieces; one of the most esteemed of which is to be seen at La Carita. He was excellent in the laying on of his colours, and in chiaroscuro, but displayed little spirit, while his proportions were frequently too long and slender. But to describe minutely the manner of the successors of Ghiti and Paglia, would occupy too much of our space; such are the names of Tortelli, very spirited in Venetian composition, of Cappelli, instructed likewise by Pasinelli at Bologna, and by Baciccio at Rome, along with some others of a more modern character, who succeeded tolerably in the path marked out by the artists of Bologna, and a few of whom may be referred to the ensuing epoch.

During the time of Palma and the Venetian mannerists, the art had been maintained in Bergamo by the successors of Lotto, and of his contemporaries. We meet with ample commendations of Gio. Paolo Lolmo, a good artist in diminutive pictures. In the altarpiece of Santi Rocco and Sebastiano at S. Maria Maggiore, and executed about 1587, not one of his earliest pieces, he displayed a great partiality for the design of the fourteenth century; diligent, a minute observer of refinements in figures, though not sufficiently modern. But there were two excellent artists, altogether in the modern style, who flourished at the same period; Salmeggia and Cavagna, who competed with one another in perfect amity, for many years, in ornamenting their native province. One of them died in 1626, the other in the following year.

Enea Salmeggia, called Talpino, received instructions in the art from the Campi at Cremona, and from the Procaccini in Milan; whence proceeding to Rome, he studied for a period of fourteen years the models of Raffaello, imitating him during the remainder of his life. Orlandi and other writers join in extolling his San Vittore, at the Olivetani in Milan, as well as a few other of his works, observing that they had been even ascribed to Raffaello. And whoever attentively examines that fine specimen, will not feel inclined to refuse Salmeggia one of the most distinguished places in the rank of Raffaello's followers. The clearness of his contours (sometimes, however, carried to the borders of littleness) the expression of his youthful countenances, the smoothness of his pencil and the flow of his drapery, together with a certain graceful air in the motions and expressions, sufficiently mark him for an admirer of that sovereign master, however much inferior to him in point of dignity, in imitation of the antique, and in felicity of composition. His method of colouring was also different. He affects greater variety of colours in his draperies; the tints in a large portion of his works are at present faded; and the shades as in other pictures of the same period, are much altered. Yet it is probable that this great artist, as it has been observed of Poussin and of Raffaello himself, did not always bestow the same degree of care upon his colouring, satisfied with displaying from time to time his surpassing excellence in this department. In the church of La Passione at Milan, he produced his Christ praying in the Garden, as well as his picture of the Flagellazione, works conducted in his best style. The former of these is finely coloured in the manner of the Bassani; and the latter, of a more lofty and animated character, is superior to the other even in force of colouring. Bergamo boasts other specimens of him, and in particular in the two great altars of Santa Marta and of Santa Grata. There we meet with two noble pictures, each of which may boast its separate admirers who prefer it to the other; and each displays an union of colours, at once so fresh, clear, and beautiful, that we are never weary of contemplating them. In both he has observed the same general composition; the Virgin being represented on high, crowned with a glory, while below her are seen the figures of several saints; but in the second, perhaps, he has employed a greater degree of care. Here he has introduced a splendid variety of shortenings, of attitudes, and of lineaments; and even inserted the city of Bergamo, with some fine architecture in the style of Paul Veronese. The figures are arrayed with extreme care, among which appears a bishop in his sacred paraphernalia, that serves to remind us of Titian himself. His pictures for private ornament are rare and valuable, but not sufficiently known beyond his native province and its vicinity, a circumstance common to many very excellent artists belonging to all our schools. Italy, indeed, is too abundantly supplied with distinguished names to admit of the whole of them being generally known and estimated as they deserve.

The style of Enea was not such as to be easily maintained, without consulting the great examples of Raffaello as he had done. His two sons, Francesco and Chiara, although educated by their father, succeeded rather in imitating his studies and his figures, than in thoroughly penetrating into the principles of his art. The fruits, however, of a good education were sufficiently apparent in them; and when placed in competition with some of their contemporaries, they appear, if not very animated, at least very sedulous artists, and greatly exempt from the faults of the mannerists. The city is in possession of many of their public works; in some of the best of which their father is supposed to have afforded them his assistance.

Gianpaolo Cavagna seems in some way to have escaped the notice of Boschini, and even of Orlandi, who had bestowed so much commendation upon his rival. He ranks, in his native province, as high as Salmeggia, and he certainly appears to have possessed a still more enlarged genius, more decision, and more talent for extensive works. A pupil of Morone, the great portrait painter, as we have already mentioned, he evinced a taste for the Venetian School, attaching himself in particular to Paul Veronese, in whose style he conducted some of his best productions. He was ambitious of surpassing him likewise in point of design, which he assuredly did in his naked figures, exhibiting even the adult form with a degree of masterly power. He had acquired the best method of painting in fresco, in his native place, and he succeeded in it admirably, as appears from the choir of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he represented the Virgin received into Heaven, a very spirited and varied composition, abounding with figures of angels and of prophets, truly great; the distinguishing characteristic, perhaps, of this artist's genius. Nor did he appear to less advantage in oils, more particularly when the immediate vicinity of other celebrated painters put his talents to the test. Of this kind the most successful, perhaps, are his Daniel in the Lions' Den, and his picture of San Francesco receiving the stigmata, forming side pictures to one of the best altarpieces by Lorenzo Lotto at San Spirito; yet they are nevertheless worthy of that distinguished post. His Crucifixion, between various saints, placed at Santa Lucia, has been still more highly extolled as one of the finest productions the city has to boast, and preferred by many judges to any of the altarpieces of Talpino. I shall abstain from expressing an opinion upon a subject in which artists themselves would disagree, merely observing that it is more difficult to meet with inferior or careless pieces from the hand of Salmeggia than from Cavagna's. He had also a son a painter of the name of Francesco, called Cavagnuola, who, surviving his father, acquired some degree of celebrity. He attached himself wholly to the style of Gianpaolo, as well as certain foreigners sprung from the same school, such as Girolamo Grifoni, in whose productions we seem to trace the copy of a copy of the style of Paul. If the artists named Santa Croce belong to Bergamo, and to one family, as we are informed in the _Guida_ of Padua, we ought here to insert the name of Pietro Paolo, the least distinguished among the Santa Croce, but not unworthy of commemoration for one of his Madonnas at the Arena, and for other pictures at different churches in Padua, in all of which he appears attached to the school of Cavagna, or at least to the less mannered class of the Venetians.

Subsequent to the above two artists, we meet with the name of Francesco Zucco, a good pupil of the Campi at Verona, and of Moroni at Bergamo. From this last he acquired the art of giving a singular degree of spirit to his portraits, and from Paul Veronese the mode of ornamenting them with most taste and fancy. Even in his larger compositions he sometimes adhered so closely to the same artist, that several of them were ascribed even by his fellow citizens to Paul, a circumstance that occurred to his pictures of the Nativity and of an Epiphany, on the organ of San Gottardo. He adopted, moreover, a variety of manners, apparently ambitious of displaying to the public his power of imitating Cavagna or Talpino, as he pleased. Contemporary with these artists, he so far rivalled them, (as in his San Diego at Le Grazie, or in the large altar at the Cappuccine,) as to approve himself worthy of such emulation. In other works he gives us occasion to wish for a better union of his colours, in which he cannot be pronounced equal to the first masters of the school, so admirable in this department.

Subsequent to the year 1627, there was no want of artists of ability at Bergamo, among whom we may mention a Fabio di Pietro Ronzelli, whose style, if not sufficiently select and ideal, was at least solid and robust. To his we may add the name of Carlo Ceresa, an artist of much study and research, pleasing in his colouring, and having apparently formed his taste upon the models of the best age, successful in giving ideal beauty to his countenances. The former of these, most probably the son of one Piero, known as a good portrait painter, and respectable in point of composition, painted the Martyrdom of San Alessandro, for the church of Santa Grata, while the latter added the two side pictures without the least traces of mannerism. Contemporary with both these, Domenico Ghislandi distinguished himself as a painter of frescos, more particularly in architecture. He was the father of Fra Vittore, called likewise Frate Paolotto, whom we shall have occasion to mention hereafter. At present it will hardly be desirable that I should extend my remarks to other names scarcely heard of beyond the limits of their native province; though in justice to the city I must observe that in its dearth of native talent, it spared no expense in decorating public places with the works of the best foreign artists, of every country. Ample proofs of this liberality may be seen in the cathedral and the adjacent church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Such are among the advantages enjoyed by cities, which are equally in possession of taste and of riches. But when deficient in either of these, they will be compelled to adopt the plan pursued in rural occupations, where each agriculturist employs the oxen that belong to his own fields.