Chapter XIX: Book V: Genoese School (3)

The most remarkable in this band are the sons of three celebrated masters; Andrea Carlone, Paolgirolamo Piola, and Domenico Parodi. The first was son of Giambatista, from whose style and that of Rome, and afterwards from that of Venice, he formed a mixed manner, which, if I mistake not, is more pleasing in oil than in fresco. He painted much in Perugia and the neighbouring cities; far from the finish and grace of his father, and less happy in composition; but displaying a Venetian style of freedom, vigour, and spirit; particularly in some histories of S. Feliciano, painted at Foligno, in the church of that saint. Returning to Rome, he improved his manner; and his works after that period are much his best. Such are some passages from the life of S. Xavier, at the Gesù in Rome; and many poetical subjects at Genoa, in the palaces Brignole, Saluzzo, and Durazzo. This painter affords an excellent admonition to writers on art, not to form their judgment too hastily on the merit of artists, without having first seen their best productions. Whoever judged of Carlone from the picture he painted at the Gesù in Perugia, would not persuade himself that he could, in Genoa, have left so many fine works as to be ranked, according to Ratti, among the painters of Genoa most worthy of commemoration. Niccolò, his brother, may be also added as his scholar. He is the least celebrated of the family; not that he wanted talent, but it was not of a transcendant kind.

Piola, the son of Domenico, as I have noticed in a former place, is one of the most cultivated and finished painters of this school; a true disciple of Maratta, as regards his method of carefully studying and deliberately executing his works, but otherwise not his close imitator. In this respect it should seem he attached himself more to the Caracci, whom he very much copied in Rome; and traces of this style may be seen in his beautiful picture of S. Domenico and Ignazio, in the church of Carignano, and in every place where he painted. It is known that he was rebuked by his father for slowness; but by this he was not moved; intent on a more exalted walk than his father, and exhibiting more selection, grandeur, tenderness, and truth. He had singular merit in works in fresco; and being a man of letters, he designed extremely well fables and historical subjects, in decorating many noblemen's houses. His Parnassus, painted for Sig. Gio. Filippo Durazzo, has been much praised; and it is added, that that nobleman said, that he was glad he had not sent for Solimene from Naples, whilst Genoa possessed such an artist. Had he painted less on walls and more on canvass, his merit would have become known also to foreigners.

Domenico Parodi was, like his father, a sculptor, and moreover an architect; but he owed his reputation to painting. Less equal to himself than Piola, he enjoyed a greater fame; as he had a more enlarged genius, a more extended knowledge of letters and the arts, a more decided imitation of the Greek design, and a pencil more pliable to every style. He first studied in Venice under Bombelli, and there remain, in a casa Durazzo, some excellent copies of Venetian pictures made at that period; nor did he forsake this style during the many succeeding years that he studied in Rome. He painted, in a good Marattesque style, the noble picture of S. Francesco di Sales at the Filippini, and several other pictures; but of him, as well as of the Caracci, we find works partaking in an extraordinary manner of the style of Tintoretto or Paolo, and which are described in his life. His most celebrated work is the Sala of the palace Negroni. Some professors have expressed their opinion, that there is not so fine a performance in all Genoa; and it is a fact, that Mengs's attention was there arrested for several hours by a painter that he had never before heard of. A correct design, a vigour and harmony of colour, a mode of decorating the walls peculiarly his own, attempted by many, but not understood by any, render this a most remarkable production; nor is it a little aided by the poetical invention and the beautiful distribution and grouping of the figures. The whole is devoted to the glory of this noble family, whose escutcheon is crowned by Prudence, Continence, and other virtues, expressed by their several symbols; and there are also fables of Hercules slaying the Lion, and Achilles instructed by Chiron, which indicate the honours acquired by this family in letters and in arms. Portraits are added to these decorations, and every part is so well connected, and so well varied, and so enriched by vestures, drapery, and other ornaments, that, though many noble families may boast of being more highly celebrated by the muse, few have obtained such distinguished honours from the sister art. Other noble houses were also ornamented by him in fresco; and the gallery of the Sig. Marcello Durazzo, decorated with stories, and fables, and chiariscuri, which might be taken for bassi-relievi, is a work much resembling the one just described. In some pictures, as in the S. Camillo de' Lellis, he does not seem the same; and probably some of his scholars had the greater share in them. His most celebrated scholar was the priest Angiolo Rossi, one of the best imitators, in humorous subjects, of Piovan Arlotto; and in painting a good follower of Maratta, though he left but few works. Batista Parodi was the brother of Domenico, but not the scholar; he partook of the Venetian School; expeditious, free, fertile in invention, and brilliant in colouring, but not sufficiently select, nor equal to the better artists. He lived for some time in Milan and Bergamo. Pellegro, the son of Domenico, resided in Lisbon, and was a celebrated portrait painter in his day.

The Abate Lorenzo, the son of Gregorio Ferrari, though educated in Genoa, had much of the Roman style. He was one of the most elegant painters of this school, and an imitator of the foreshortenings and the graces of Coreggio, as was his father, but more correct than he, and a good master of design. In refining on delicacy he sometimes falls into languor; except when he painted in the vicinity of the Carloni, (as in the palace Doria, at S. Matteo), or some other lively colourist. He then invigorated his tints, so that they possess all the brilliancy of oil, and yield the palm to few. He excelled in fresco, like most of this school, and is almost unrivalled in his chiaroscuro ornaments. The churches and palaces abound with them; and in the palace of the noble family of Carega is a gallery, his last work, decorated with subjects from the Æneid, and ornamented with arabesques, stuccos, and intaglios, by artists under his direction. He also painted historical subjects. In his first public works he painted from his father's designs; afterwards, as in the picture of various saints of the Augustine order, at the church of the Visitation, he trusted to his own genius, and enriched his school with the best examples. He too was a painter whose reputation was not equal to his merits.

In Bartolommeo Guidobono, or Prete di Savona, we find the delicate pencil of Ferrari, and an imitation of Coreggio, but with less freedom of style. This artist, who was in the habit of painting earthenware with his father, at that time in the employ of the royal court of Savoy, established the first rudiments of the art in Piedmont; and I have seen, in Turin, some pictures by him partaking of the Neapolitan style of colour, which was at one time in favour there. He afterwards went to Parma and Venice, and by copying and practising became a very able painter, and had an abundance of commissions in Genoa and the state. He is not so much praised for correctness of design in his figures, as for his skill in the ornamental parts, as flowers, fruits, and animals; and this excellence is particularly seen in some fabulous subjects in the Palazzo Centurioni. He had diligently studied the style of Castiglione, and made many copies of him, which are with difficulty distinguished from the originals. He is not, however, a figurist to be despised; and it is his peculiar praise to unite a great sweetness of pencil with a fine effect of chiaroscuro; as in the Inebriation of Lot, and in three other subjects in oil, in the palace Brignole Sale. In Piedmont too there remain many works by him, and by his brother Domenico, also a delicate and graceful painter, by whom there is in the Duomo of Turin a glory of angels, which might belong to the school of Guido. He would have been preferred to Prete if he had always painted in this style; but this he did not do, and in Genoa there remain of his, amongst a few good, many very indifferent pictures.

Before I quit the followers of the school of Parma, I shall return to the Cav. Gio. Batista Draghi, to whom I alluded in the third book. He was a scholar of Domenico Piola, from whom he acquired his despatch; and was the inventor of a new style, which I know not where he formed, but which he practised very much in Parma, and more in Piacenza, where he long lived and where he died. We may trace in it the schools of Bologna and Parma; but in the character of the heads and in the disposition of the colours there is a novelty which distinguishes and characterizes him. Though he painted with extraordinary celerity, yet we cannot accuse him of negligence. To a vivacity and fancy that delight us, he added an attention to his contours and colouring, and a powerful relief, particularly in his oil pictures. There are many pictures by him in Piacenza, and amongst them the Death of St. James in the church of the Franciscans, in the Duomo his St. Agnes, in S. Lorenzo his picture of the titular saint, and the great picture of the Religious Orders receiving their regulations from S. Augustin; a subject painted already in the neighbouring town of Cremona by Massarotti, and well executed, but inferior to Draghi. The Sig. Proposto Carasi particularly praises the picture he painted at Busseto, in the palace Pallavicino. In Genoa he painted, I believe, only some pictures for private collections.

Orlandi, who does not even notice this excellent painter, places among the first artists of Europe Gioseffo Palmieri, who, together with the preceding artist, flourished in the early part of the eighteenth century. This praise seems exaggerated, and he probably refers only to the merit which Palmieri exhibited in his pictures of animals, which he was employed to paint even for the court of Portugal. Still in the human figure he is a painter of spirit, and of a magic and beautiful style of colour; very harmonious and pleasing in those pictures where the shades do not predominate. He is, however, reprehended for his incorrect drawing, although he studied under a Florentine painter, who seems to have initiated him well; for in the Resurrection at the church of St. Dominic, and in other pictures more carefully painted, judges of the art find little to reprove.

A Pietro Paolo Raggi obtained also celebrity in invention and colouring. I know not to what school to assign him, but he was certainly a follower of the Caracci in a S. Bonaventura contemplating a Crucifix; a large picture in the Guastato. There are Bacchanal subjects by him in some collections, which partake of the style of Castiglione, as Ratti has observed, and also of that of Carpioni, as we read in one of the _Lettere Pittoriche_, inserted in the fifth volume. We there find him highly extolled. Nor is he any where better known than in Bergamo; where, amongst other works which he executed for the church of St. Martha, a Magdalen borne to Heaven by Angels is particularly esteemed. He is described as a man of a restless disposition, irascible, and dissatisfied with every place he inhabited. This truant disposition carried him to Turin, then to Savona, then afresh to Genoa, now to Lavagna, now to Lombardy, and last to Bergamo, where death put an end to his wanderings. About this time died in Finale, his native place, Pier Lorenzo Spoleti, formerly a scholar of Domenico Piola. His favourite occupation was to copy in Madrid the pictures of Morillo and Titian. By this practice he was prevented from distinguishing himself by any works of invention; but he became a very accomplished portrait painter, and was employed in that branch of the art at the courts of Spain and Portugal. He had also the habit of copying the compositions of others, and of transferring them with remarkable ability from the engraving to the canvass, enlarging the proportions and expressing them with a colouring worthy of his great originals. A copyist like this painter has a better claim to our regard than many masters, whose original designs serve only to remind us of our ill fortune in meeting with them.

Among these native artists I may be allowed to commemorate two foreigners, who came to Genoa and established themselves there, and succeeded to the chief artists of this epoch, or were their competitors. The one was Jacopo Boni of Bologna, who was carried to Genoa by his master Franceschini as an assistant, when he painted the great hall of the Palazzo Publico. Boni from that time was esteemed and employed there, and established himself there in 1726. There are some fine works by him, especially in fresco, in the Palazzo Mari and in many others; and the most remarkable which he executed in the state is in the oratory of the Costa, at S. Remo: but we have spoken sufficiently of him in the third Book.

The other, who repaired thither three years afterwards, was Sebastiano Galeotti, a Florentine, and in his native city a scholar of Ghilardini, in Bologna of Giangioseffo dal Sole, a man of an eccentric and facile genius; a good designer when he pleased, a bold colourist, beautiful in the air of his heads, and fitted for large compositions in fresco, in which he was sometimes assisted in the ornamental parts by Natali of Cremona. He decorated the church of the Magdalen in Genoa; and those frescos, which first made him known in the city, are among his most finished productions; but he was obliged, after painting the first history, to soften his tones in some degree. He worked little in his native city, and that only in his early years; whence he does not there enjoy so high a reputation as in Upper Italy. He traversed it almost all in the same manner as the Zuccheri, Peruzzini, Ricchi, and other adventurers of the art, whose lives were spent in travelling from place to place, and who repeated themselves in every city, giving the same figures, without any fresh design, and often the same subject entire. Hence we still find the works of this painter, not only in many cities of Tuscany, but also in Piacenza and Parma, where he executed many works for the court; and also in Codogno, Lodi, Cremona, Milan, Vicenza, Bergamo, and Turin, in which latter city he was appointed director of the academy. In this office he ended his days in 1746. Genoa was however his home, where he was succeeded by two sons, Giuseppe and Gio. Batista, who were living in 1769, and are mentioned with commendation by Ratti as excellent painters.

From the middle of the century to our own days, what from the evils of war in which Genoa was involved, and the general decline of the art in Italy, but few artists present themselves to our notice. Domenico Bocciardo of Finale, a scholar and follower of Morandi, possessed considerable merit in historical cabinet pictures; a painter of not much genius, but correct, and a beautiful colourist. At S. Paolo in Genoa there is by him a S. Giovanni baptizing the Multitude; and although there are many better pictures by him in the state, still this is sufficient to render him respectable. Francesco Campora, a native of Polcevera, also possessed some reputation. He had studied in Naples under Solimene, from whose school came also Gio. Stefano Maia, an excellent portrait painter. A Batista Chiappe of Novi, who had spent much time in Rome in drawing, and had become a good colourist in Milan, gave great promise of excellence. In the church of S. Ignazio of Alessandria there is a large picture of the patron saint, one of his best performances, well conceived and well composed; a noble ground, a beautiful choir of angels, a fine character in the principal figure, except that the head does not present a true portrait. We should have seen still better works, but the author was arrested in his career by death; and he is described by Ratti as the last person of merit of the Genoese School.

This school was for some time scanty in good perspective painters. Although Padre Pozzi was in Genoa, he did not form any scholars there. Bologna, more than any other place, supplied him with them. From thence came Colonna and Mitelli, at that time so much esteemed; thither also repaired Aldovrandini and the two brothers Haffner, Henry and Antony. The latter joined the monks of the order of St. Philip in Genoa, and decorated the church of that saint and other places, and initiated in the profession Gio. Batista Revello, called Il Mustacchi. His works were also studied by Francesco Costa, who was an ornamental painter from the school of Gregorio de' Ferrari. These two young men, from the similarity of their profession, one which combines in itself the greatest rivalry and the greatest friendship, became in process of time inseparable. They both conjointly served, for nearly the space of twenty years, the various historical painters mentioned in this epoch, preparing for them the perspectives and ornaments, and whatever else the art required. They are both alike commended for their knowledge of perspective, their grace, brilliancy, and harmony of tints; but Revello, in the embellishment of flowers, is preferred to his companion. Their best performance is considered to be at Pegli, in the Palazzo Grillo, where they ornamented a saloon and some chambers. There are also many works which they conducted separately, being considered as the Colonna and Mitelli of their country.

The most justly celebrated landscape painter of this epoch is Carlo Antonio Tavella, the scholar of Tempesta in Milan, and of Gruenbrech, a German, who, from the fires he introduced into his landscapes, was called Solfarolo. He at first emulated this artist; he then softened his style, from studying the works of Castiglione and Poussin, and the best Flemish painters. Amongst the Genoese landscape painters he ranks the next after Sestri. His works are easily distinguished in the collections of Genoa, particularly in the palace Franchi, which had more than three hundred pictures by him, and acquired for him the reputation of one of the first artists of the age. We are there presented with warm skies, beautiful distances in the landscape, pleasing effects of light; the trees, flowers, and animals are gracefully touched, and with wonderful truth of nature. In his figures he was assisted by the two Pioli, father and son; and oftener by Magnasco, with whom he was associated in work. He sometimes inserted them in his pictures himself, copying them indeed from the originals designed by his comrades, but identifying them by a style peculiarly his own. Tavella had a daughter of the name of Angiola, of a feeble invention, but a good copyist of her father's designs. He had also many other imitators; amongst whom one Niccolò Micone, or as he is commonly called by his fellow-citizens Lo Zoppo, most nearly resembles him.

Alessandro Magnasco, called Lissandrino, was the son of one Stefano, who was instructed by Valerio Castello, afterwards resided many years in Rome, and died young, leaving behind him few pictures, but extreme regret for the death of an artist of so much promise. His son was instructed by Abbiati in Milan; and that bold and simple stroke of the pencil, which his master used in his larger pictures, he transferred to his subjects of humour, shows and popular meetings, in which he may be called the Cerquozzi of his school. His figures are scarcely more than a span large. Ceremonies of the church, schools of maids and youths, chapters of friars, military exercises, artists' shops, Jewish synagogues, are the subjects he painted with humour and delight. These eccentric pieces are not rare in Milan, and there are some in the Palazzo Pitti at Florence, where Magnasco resided some years, a great favourite with the Grand Duke Gio. Gastone and all his court. When he accompanied other painters in their works, as often happened to him, he added very apposite subjects; this he did, not only in the landscapes of Tavella and others, but also in the ruins of Clemente Spera in Milan, and in other pictures of architecture. This artist was more esteemed by foreigners than by his own countrymen. His bold touch, though joined to a noble conception and to correct drawing, did not attract in Genoa, because it is far removed from the finish and union of tints which these masters followed; hence Magnasco worked little in his native country, and left no scholar there. In the school of Venice he educated a celebrated scholar, Sebastian Ricci, of whom mention has been made more than once.

Not many years since died Gio. Agostino Ratti of Savona, a painter of delightful genius. He ornamented the theatres with beautiful scenes, and the cabinets with lively caricatures, which he also engraved. He was clever in church paintings, as may be seen in the church of S. Giovanni at Savona, where, besides other subjects of the Baptist, there is a much praised Decollation. He painted also in the church of S. Teresa in Genoa; and was always a follower of Luti, whose school he had frequented when in Rome. He was also a good fresco painter; and I have seen his works in the choir of the Conventual church in Casale di Monferrato, where he added figures to the perspective of Natali of Cremona. But subjects of humour were his forte. In these he had an exhaustless fancy, fertile and ever creative. Nothing can be more amusing than his masks, representing quarrels, dances, and such scenes as form the subjects of comedy. Luti, who was his master in Rome, extolled him as one of the first artists in this line, and even equalled him to Ghezzi. This information respecting Gio. Agostino was communicated to me by his son, the Cavaliere often mentioned in the course of this work,[70] and who died in 1795.

Footnote 70: He had prepared for the press some further
information respecting this school, both with regard to
ancient and modern times. The MS. with which he favoured me
to perfect this edition of my work, I have unfortunately,
and to the great detriment of my own work, mislaid. He was
not a great painter, but certainly not deserving of the
contempt with which he has been treated. Gratitude,
friendship, truth, and humanity itself call on me to say all
the good I can of him; every thing that malevolence could
dictate has been already recorded against him. We may
therefore refer the reader to the perusal of the Defence of
him before mentioned by us, and noticed afterwards with its
true title, in our second index, under the head _Ratti_.
There (whoever may be the author of it,) many works are
enumerated which, in our opinion, would confirm to him the
title of a praiseworthy artist. But he derives peculiar
honour from the opinion of him expressed by Mengs, who
proposed him as director to the academy of Milan; and some
historical and national subjects being required in the royal
palace in Genoa, Ratti was recommended to this honourable
commission both by Mengs and Batoni, and he executed them to
the entire satisfaction of the public. The more experienced
judges pretend to detect in these works something more than
an imitation of the great masters; and it is acknowledged,
indeed, that he willingly availed himself of the designs of
others, either painted or engraved; but how few are there of
whom the same may not be said? Afterwards in Rome, where he
lived four years in the house of Mengs, he executed under
his eye some excellent works; as a Nativity, for which Mengs
made the sketch; which, when painted on a larger scale by
Ratti, was placed in a church in Barcelona. Being called on
to paint a St. Catherine of Genoa, afterwards placed there
in the church of that saint, Mengs designed for him the face
of the saint, of an enchanting expression, and afterwards
retouched the picture, rendering it a delightful
performance. On this it may be observed, that great masters
were not accustomed to shew such favours to their scholars
and friends, except when they discovered in them
considerable talent. As a copyist Ratti excelled in the
opinion of Mengs; the latter purchasing, at a considerable
sum, a copy of the S. Jerome of Coreggio, which Ratti had
made in Parma. Another proof of the esteem in which he held
him was his instigating him to write on art; for which they
must have amassed great materials during the four years they
lived together. In the before-mentioned _Difesa_ we read of
the academies that elected him, the poets and men of letters
that extolled him, the cross of a cavalier that he obtained
from Pius VI., the direction of the academy of Genoa,
conferred on him for life if he had chosen to retain it;
finally, the numerous commissions for pictures he received
from various places; all these things have their weight, but
the favourable opinion of Mengs is the strongest protection
that this Defence affords to shield him from his enemies.

When the materials were prepared for the new edition, the
_Elogio_ of the Cav. Azara was published, where it is said
that the MSS. of Mengs were given in a confused mass into
the hands of Milizia, who took the liberty of modifying at
his pleasure the opinions of Mengs respecting the great
masters. This information, which comes from a very
creditable quarter, I have wished to insert here for many
reasons. It takes away from Mengs the odium of some
inconsiderate criticism, or at least lessens it. It confirms
what the _Difesa_ of Ratti says respecting the true author
of the Life of Coreggio, who was in fact Ratti; but, with
some retouching, it was published as the work of Mengs,
without reflecting that the author was there placed in
contradiction with himself. It also shews us that Mengs, for
his great name, was indebted not only to his acknowledged
merit, but also to his good fortune, which gave him greater
patrons and friends than were perhaps ever enjoyed before by
any painter in the world.

The artists of this school, of our own day, will doubtless also receive their meed of praise from posterity. They are now industriously occupied in establishing their own fame, and conferring honour on their country. The rising generation, who are entering upon the art, may look for increased support from the Genoese academy, recently founded for the promotion of the three sister arts. Within these few years the members of this academy have been furnished with a splendid domicile, with an abundant collection of select casts and rare designs. With such masters and so many gratuitous sources of assistance to study, this institution may be already numbered amongst the most useful and ornamental of the city. This establishment owes its existence to the genius and liberality of a number of noblemen, who united together in its splendid foundation, and who continue to support it by their patronage.