Chapter VI: Book III: Bolognese School (2)

We must previously however take a survey of some cities of Romagna, and select what seems to belong to our present argument. We shall commence with Ravenna, a city that preserved design during periods of barbarism better than any other in Italy. Nor do we elsewhere meet with works in mosaic so well composed, and in ivory, or in marble, cut in so able a manner; all vestiges of a power and grandeur worthy of exciting the jealousy of Rome, when the seat of her princes and exarchs was removed to Ravenna. This city too having fallen from its splendour, and after many vicissitudes being governed by the Polentani, was no less indebted to them for an illustrious poet in the person of Dante, than a great painter in Giotto.[6] This artist painted in the church called Porto di Fuori, several histories from the evangelists, which still remain there; and at S. Francesco and other places in the city, we may trace reliques of his pencil, or at least of his style. The Polentani being expelled, and the state brought under the subjection of Venice, from this last capital the city of Ravenna derived the founder of a new school.

Footnote 6: It is remarkable that, a century previous to the
arrival of Giotto, we find in Ravenna one _Johannes Pictor_;
a fact supplied by the learned Count Fantuzzi, to whom both
Ravenna and the public owe so much valuable information. See
his "_Monumenti Ravennati_, during the middle ages, for the
most part inedited," vol. i. p. 347. In vol. ii. p. 210,
there is mention of a parchment of 1246, in which one
Graziadeo, a notary, orders that in the Portuense church
there be made "imagines magnæ et spatiosæ ad aurum," which
means mosaic, or painting upon a gold ground, a custom so
much practised in those times.

This was Niccolo Rondinello, mentioned by Vasari as one "who, above all others, imitated Gian Bellini, his master, to whom he did credit, and assisted him in all his works." In the life of Bellini, and in that of Palma, Vasari gives a list of his best paintings, exhibited in Ravenna. In these his progress is very perceptible. He displays most of the antique in his picture of S. Giovanni, placed in that church, for which he also executed one of the Virgin, upon a gold ground. His taste is more modern in the larger altar-piece of San Domenico; whose composition rises above the monotony of the age, giving a representation of saints in great variety of attitudes and situations. The design is exact, though always inclining to dryness, the countenances less select, and the colouring less vivid than those of his master; with equal care in his draperies, richly ornamented with embroidery in the taste of those times. It is, however, uncertain whether he had obtained any idea of the last and most perfect style of Bellini. He had a pupil and successor in his labours at Ravenna in Francesco da Cotignola, whom Bonoli, in his history of Lugo, and that of Cotignola, as well as the describer of the Parmese paintings, agree in surnaming Marchesi, while in the Guide to Ravenna, he is denominated Zaganelli. Vasari commends him, as a very pleasing colourist; although inferior to Rondinello in point of design, and still more of composition. In this he was not happy, if we except his celebrated Resurrection of Lazarus, which is to be seen at Classe; his extremely beautiful baptism of Jesus Christ, at Faenza, and a few other histories, where he checks his ardour, and more carefully disposes his figures, for the most part fine and well draped; occasionally whimsical, and in proportions less than life. One of his most extraordinary productions is a large altar-piece at the church of the Osservanti, in Parma, where he represented the Virgin between several Saints, enlivened by several portraits in the background. He never, in my opinion, produced any work more solid in conception, nor more harmoniously disposed, nor more ingenious in the colonnade, and the other accessary parts. Here he preserved the most moderate tints, contrary to his usual practice, which was glowing and highly animated, and distributed more in the manner of Mantegna, than of any other master. He had a brother named Bernardino, with whom, in 1504, he painted a very celebrated altar-piece, representing the Virgin between S. Francesco and the Baptist, placed in the interior chapel of the Padri Osservanti, in Ravenna; and another to be seen at Imola, in the church of the Riformati, with the date 1509. Bernardino, likewise, displayed tolerable ability alone, and among the paintings at Pavia, there is one at the Carmine, inscribed with his name; a fact that may correct an error of Crespi, who names the elder brother Francesco Bernardino, making the two into one artist.

Contemporary with him, Baldassare Carrari was employed at Ravenna along with his son Matteo, both natives of that state. They painted for San Domenico the celebrated altar-piece of S. Bartolommeo, with the grado, containing very elegant histories of the Holy Apostle. Such is its merit, as hardly to yield to the gracefulness of Luca Longhi, who placed one of his own pictures near it. It was one of the earliest which was painted in oil in Ravenna; and it deserved the eulogium bestowed by Pope Julius II., who on beholding it, in 1511, declared, that the altars of Rome could boast no pieces which surpassed it in point of beauty. The painter there left his portrait in the figure of S. Pietro, and that of Rondinello in the S. Bartolommeo, somewhat older; an observance shewn in those times by the pupils towards their masters. Yet I should not here pronounce it such, as Vasari is not only wholly silent as to his school, but omits even his name.

At Rimini, where the Malatesti spared no expense to attract the best masters, the art of painting flourished. It was at this time that the church of San Francesco, one of the wonders of the age, was nobly erected, and as richly decorated. A number of artists at Rimini had succeeded Giotto in his school; and it is to them the author of the Guide ascribes the histories of the B. Michelina, which Vasari conceived were from Giotto's own hand.[7] At a later period one Bitino, whose name I am happy to rescue from oblivion, was employed at the same place; an artist not perhaps excelled in Italy, about the year 1407, when he painted an altar-piece of the titular saint, for the church of S. Giuliano. Around it he represented the discovery of his body, and other facts relating to the subject; extremely pleasing in point of invention, architecture, countenances, draperies, and colouring.[8] Another noble production is a S. Sigismondo, at whose feet appears Sigismondo Malatesta, with the inscription, _Franciscus de Burgo_, _f._ 1446; and by the same hand there is the Scourging of our Saviour. Both these paintings are seen on the wall of S. Francesco; abounding in perspectives and _capricci_, with character approaching so nearly to the taste of Pietro della Francesca, then living, as to induce me to believe, that they are either by him, and that he has thus Latinized the name of his house, or by some one of his pupils, whose name has perished. Not such has been the fate of Benedetto Coda, of Ferrara, who flourished at Rimini, as well as his son Bartolommeo, where they left a number of their works. Vasari, in his life of Gio. Bellini, makes brief mention of them, describing Benedetto as Bellini's pupil, "though he derived small advantage from it." Yet the altar-piece representing the Marriage of the Virgin, which he placed in the cathedral, with the inscription of _Opus Benedicti_, is a very respectable production; while that of the Rosary, in possession of the Dominicans, is even in better taste, though not yet modern. This, however, cannot be said of the son, one of whose pictures I saw at S. Rocco da Pesaro, painted in 1528, with such excellent method, as almost to remind us of the golden age. It represents the titular saint of the church along with S. Sebastiano, standing round the throne of the Virgin, with the addition of playful and beautiful cherubs. Another pupil of Gio. Bellini is noticed by Ridolfi. Lattanzio da Rimino, or Lattanzio della Marca, referred by others to the school of Pietro Perugino, which, perhaps too, produced Gio. da Rimino, one of whose pictures, bearing his signature, belongs to the grand Ercolani collection at Bologna.[9]

Footnote 7: To this period belonged that _Joannes Rimerici
Pictor Arimini_, who is pointed out to us in 1386 by Count
Marco Fantuzzi, in his _Monumenti Ravennati_, vol. vi.
edited in the year 1804.

Footnote 8: In the above named volume (vi) we find mention
of the son of this distinguished man: "_Magister Antonius
Pictor quondam Mag. Bictini Pictoris de Arimino_, 1456."

Footnote 9: I made a mistake in my former edition in
supposing him to have been a pupil of Bellino, who died in
1516. Concerning this Gio. who subscribed himself likewise
Gio. Francesco, we observe that Oretti, in his _Memorie_,
_MSS._, points out two pictures with the dates of 1459 and
1461. He adds, that there are accounts of his having been
living in 1470.

Forli, as far as I can learn, boasts no artist earlier than Guglielmo da Forli, a pupil of Giotto. His paintings in fresco, conducted at the Francescani, no longer survive, nor in the church of that order could I meet with any specimen of the thirteenth century, besides a Crucifix by some unknown hand. From that period, perhaps, a succession of artists appeared, there being no scarcity of anonymous paintings from which to conjecture such a fact; but history is silent until the time of Ansovino di Forli, who has already been included among the pupils of Squarcione. I have my doubts whether this artist could be the master of Melozzo, a name venerated by artists, inasmuch as he was the first who applied the art of foreshortening, the most difficult and the most severe, to the painting of vaulted ceilings. Considerable progress was made in perspective after the time of Paolo Uccello, with the aid of Piero della Francesca, a celebrated geometrician, and of a few Lombards. But the ornamenting of ceilings with that pleasing art and illusion, which afterwards appeared, was reserved for Melozzo. It is observed by Scannelli, and followed by Orlandi, that in order to acquire the art he studied the works of the best ancient artists, and though born to fortune, he did not refuse to lodge with the masters of his times, in quality of attendant and compounder of their colours. Some writers give him as a pupil to Pietro della Francesca. It is at least probable, that Melozzo was acquainted with him and with Agostino Bramantino, when they were employed at Rome by Nicholas V., towards the year 1455. However this may be, Melozzo painted on the ceiling of the great chapel, at Santi Apostoli, the Ascension of our Lord, where, says Vasari, "the figure of Christ is so admirably foreshortened as to appear to pierce the vault; and in the same manner the angels are seen sweeping through the field of air in two opposite directions." This painting was executed for Card. Riario, nephew to Pope Sixtus IV. about the year 1472; and when that edifice required to undergo repairs, it was removed and placed in the Quirinal palace in 1711; where it is still seen, bearing this inscription: "Opus Melotii Foroliviensis, qui summos fornices pingendi artem vel primus invenit vel illustravit." Several heads of the apostles which surrounded it, and were likewise cut away, were deposited in the Vatican palace. Taken as a whole, he approaches Mantegna and the Paduan School nearer than any other in point of taste; finely formed heads, fine colouring, fine attitudes, and almost all as finely foreshortened. The light is well disposed and graduated, the shadows are judicious, so that the figures seem to stand out and act in that apparent space; dignity and grandeur in the principal figure, and white drapery that encircles it; with delicacy of hand, diligence and grace in every part. What pity that so rare a genius, pronounced by his contemporaries "an incomparable painter, and the splendour of all Italy,"[10] should not have had a correct historian to have described his travels and his pursuits, which must have been both arduous and interesting, before they raised him to the eminence he attained, in being commissioned by Card. Riario to execute so great a work. At Forli, there is still pointed out the façade of an apothecary's shop, displaying Arabesques in the first style; and over the entrance appears a half-length figure, well depicted, in the act of mixing drugs, said to have been the work of Melozzo. Vasari states, that in the villa of the Dukes of Urbino, named the Imperial, Francesco di Mirozzo, from Forli, had been employed a long while previous to Dosso; and it would appear that we are here to substitute the name of Melozzo, to correct one of those errors which we have so frequently before remarked in Vasari. In the lives of the Ferrarese painters there is named a Marco Ambrogio, detto Melozzo di Ferrara, who seems to be confounded with the inventor of foreshortening; but it is my opinion that this was quite a different artist, of which his name itself gives us reasons to judge. Melozzo di Forli was still alive in 1494: since F. Luca Paccioli, publishing the same year his "Summa d'Aritmetica e Geometria," ranks him among painters in perspective, "_men famous and supreme_," who flourished in those days.

Footnote 10: Morelli Notizie, p. 109.

Towards the beginning of the sixteenth century, or shortly afterwards, Bartolommeo di Forli flourished in the same city, a pupil of Francia, noticed by Malvasia, whose style was more dry than that of the generality of his fellow pupils. Next to him I place Palmegiani, transformed by Vasari into Parmegiano; a good, yet almost unknown artist, of whom, in books upon the art, I have found mention only of two works, although I have myself seen a great number. He was cautious too that posterity should not forget him, for the most part inscribing his name and country upon his altar-pieces, and upon pictures for private ornament, as follows: _Marcus Pictor Foroliviensis_: or _Marcus Palmasanus P. Foroliviensis pinsebat_. He seldom adds the year, as in two in possession of prince Ercolani, on the first of which we find the date of 1513, and on the second that of 1537. In the forementioned pictures, and more particularly in those of Forli, we may perceive that he practised more than one style. His earliest was in common with that of the quattrocentisti, in the extremely simple position of the figures, in the gilt ornaments in study of each minute part, as well as in the anatomy, which in those times consisted almost wholly in drawing with some skill a S. Sebastian, or some holy anchorite. In his second manner he was more artificial in his grouping, fuller in his outlines, and greater in his proportions; though at times more free and less varied in his heads. He was accustomed to add to his principal subject some other unconnected with it, as in his picture of the Crucifixion, at S. Agostino di Forli, where he inserted two or three groups on different grounds; in one of which is seen S. Paul visited by S. Antony; in another, S. Augustine convinced by the angel on the subject of the incomprehensibility of the Supreme Triad; and in these diminutive figures, which he inserted either in the altar-pieces or on the steps, he displays an art extremely refined and pleasing. His landscape is likewise animated, and his architecture beautiful, while his Madonnas and other portraits are superior in point of beauty to those of Costa, but not equal to Francia, whose style of colouring he less resembles than that of Rondinello; a circumstance which led Vasari to attribute to the artist of Ravenna an altar-piece in the cathedral, undoubtedly from the hand of Palmegiani. The works of the latter are very numerous in Romagna; and exist in the state of Venice. One of his Madonnas was in possession of the Ab. Facciolati, in Padua, and mentioned by Bottari; and another belongs to the Sig. Dottore Antonio Larber, at Bassano. The select gallery of Count Luigi Tadini, at Crema, possesses a third; the going up of Jesus to Mount Calvary; and I saw a Dead Christ, between Nicodemus and Joseph, in the Vicentini palace at Vicenza; a very beautiful picture, in which the dead has truly the appearance of death, and those living of real life. I had long entertained a curiosity to learn whose pupil so considerable an artist could have been; until I was gratified by finding that Paccioli, in his dedication of the above cited volume, addressed to Guidubaldo, Duke of Urbino, calls him the "attached disciple of Melozzo."

I was made acquainted with an artist of Forli, who flourished at the period of Palmegiani, by his Eminence Card. Borgia, who in the church of S. Maria dell'Orto, at Velletri, transcribed the following inscription: "Jo. Baptista de Rositis de Forlivio pinxit, I. S. O. O. de Mense Martii." The picture is on panel, and displays both good design and good colouring. It represents the Virgin, with the holy child in her arms, seated in a round temple supported by four columns, and each of these columns is clasped by an angel, as if bearing the temple in procession through the air. The angels are wholly arrayed in heroic dress. For this description I am indebted to the very worthy cardinal.

In respect to the other cities of Romagna, I can easily suppose that I am rather in want of materials, than that these have had no artists to boast. I have recorded, not long since, one Ottaviano, and also one Pace da Faenza, pupils of Giotto; and there was pointed out to me as the production of the latter, an ancient figure of our Lady, in a church of the same city, an edifice formerly belonging to the Templars. Giacomo Filippo Carradori is included, from his style, among the ancients; in other points it is hardly possible that he could have reached the fifteenth century. There are more especially two pictures, in which he exhibits a change of style, although he never displayed the powers of a superior artist. One of them bears the date of 1580; the other that of 1582.

Another artist of Faenza better deserved mention in the first edition, but I had then no account of him. This was Giambatista da Faenza, one of whose pictures is preserved in the Communal Collection of the Lyceum, with the author's name, and dated 1506. It exhibits the Holy Virgin; on whose right two angels support the mantle, and on the steps of the throne appear St. John the Baptist, a youth, and another cherub, in the act of playing on the harp. It is correct in point of design, the tints are very pleasing, and the folds something similar to those of Albert Durer; in other respects, equal to Costa, and perhaps, also, not inferior to Francia. He was the father of Jacopone da Faenza, and of his brother, Raffaello, from whom descended Gio. Batista Bertuzzi, likewise an artist.

There is a Francesco Bandinelli da Imola, a pupil of Francia, pointed out by Malvasia; and one Gaspero, also of Imola, was employed in painting at Ravenna. In his native state, there is to be seen, at the Conventual friars, a picture of our Lady, between Saints Rocco and Francis, in a style inclining to the modern, accompanied with two portraits, very animated in point of expression.

SCHOOL OF BOLOGNA.

EPOCH II.

_Various styles from the time of Francia to that of the
Caracci._

Subsequent to the discovery of the new style, when every school of Italy was devoted to its cultivation in the track of one of its masters, the Bolognese artists having none at home from whom to acquire it, either removed elsewhere to study it under the eye of living masters, or, if remaining in their native place, they contrived to attain it from such foreigners as had there conducted, or at least sent thither their works. Of these they possessed, besides the St. Cecilia, and a few small paintings by Raffaello, other productions by his pupils, such as the St. John, coloured by Giulio, and the St. Zacchary, a work by Garofolo. Nor was it long before the Lombard style was introduced into Bologna, Parmigianino having there produced his St. Rocco and his St. Margaret, pictures which are enumerated among his happiest efforts, and Girolamo da Carpi, and Niccolo dell'Abate having long resided, and left there many fine specimens of their mixed style, between the Lombard and the Roman. Another artist sojourning there was Girolamo da Trevigi, an imitator of Raffaello, not without some mixture of Venetian taste, some of whose productions are still seen at Bologna. A still more constant resident there was Tommaso Laureti, a Sicilian, a pupil, according to Vasari, of Sebastian del Piombo, and assuredly a more powerful colourist than most of his age. He there conducted a number of works, and among others the painting of a recess _di sotto in su_, for the house of Vizzani, which Father Danti, commending Vignola's perspective, pronounces perfectly unique in its kind. At the same place he left compositions abounding in figures, displaying much fancy, not however to be placed in competition with the history of Brutus, which he afterwards completed, along with several more in the Campidoglio at Rome, where he long resided and taught. At Bologna is also the altar-piece of Boldraffio, pupil to Vinci, and various other pieces by a Florentine, who signs himself _Iul. Flor._ read by some for _Julius_, and by others _Julianus_. Possibly he might be that Giulian Bugiardini, poor both as inventor and composer, but excellent in point of copying and colouring. Whoever he may have been, the whole of his productions, particularly his St. John, which adorns the Sacristy of St. Stephen's, shew him to have been an imitator of Vinci, almost on a par with the Luini, and the best known Milanese artists. Michelangiolo shone there in the character of a statuary in the time of Julius II., but neither produced any paintings, nor left behind him, among artists, any wish for his return, having for some little indiscreet word treated Francia and Costa with the most sovereign contempt, in the same manner as at another period he criticised Pietro Perugino. His style, nevertheless, took root in Bologna within a very few years, no less from the studies pursued by Tibaldi at Rome, as will be seen, than from the examples left by Giorgio Vasari at San Michele in Bosco, in Bologna, in Michelangiolo's style. Nor did these examples prove more useful to the Bolognese than they had done to the Florentine artists; and here also they opened the path to a less correct style. It is known that Vasari's works were much commended there, and copied by young artists; that he had, moreover, assistants among the Bolognese, such as Bagnacavallo, the younger, and Fontana, who instructed not a few of his fellow citizens in the art. To these causes we may attribute the circumstance, that those Bolognese artists, nearest to the Caracci, were accustomed to colour, for the most part, like the Florentines of the third epoch, that several were extremely careless of the chiaroscuro, and frequently pursued the ideal and the practical, more than nature and truth. Yet these complaints do not apply either to so great a number of Bolognese, or to so long a period, as to give a different aspect to the whole epoch. The one which we are now about to describe, abounds with excellent artists; and to this shortly succeeded the epoch of the Caracci, which improved the good, and brought many extravagant artists into a correct method.

The earliest founders of the new school were Bartolommeo Ramenghi, called Bagnacavallo, being sprung from thence, and Innocenzio Francucci da Imola. Both educated by Francia, the former subsequently went to Rome, where we have given an account of him among Raffaello's assistants; the latter to Florence, where he attached himself to the school of Albertinelli, besides studying very accurately, if I mistake not, the works of Frate and Andrea del Sarto. Both, on returning to Bologna, met with rivals, though less with the pencil than the tongue, in Aspertini and Cotignuola, artists whose works present no instance of a style wholly modern. One master, Domenico, a Bolognese, then flourished, equal to compete with the first names, but who resided out of his native place. His name, lost during two or more centuries, was brought to light, a few years ago, from the archives of S. Sigismondo of Cremona, in whose church he executed, upon the ceiling, a picture of Jonah ejected from the whale, which, in respect of the _di sotto in su_, is most admirable. It was completed in 1537, when this art was yet new in Italy; and I am at a loss to say whether Domenico acquired it from Coreggio, or, as is more likely, from Melozzo, whose style he most resembles of the two. I have seen no other work, nor met with any other notice of this artist, unknown even to the Bolognese historians, perhaps on account of his constant residence out of the place.

The first artist, therefore, who introduced a new style into Bologna, and established it there, was Bagnacavallo, who had practised at Rome under Raffaello, and not without advantage. He had not the depth of design possessed by Giulio Romano, or Perino; but he nearly approached to the latter, and was perhaps equal to him in taste of colouring, while, in the gracefulness of his countenances, at least of the infantine and boyish, he surpassed him. In his composition he most affected Raffaello, as may be gathered from the celebrated Dispute of St. Augustine at the Scopetini, where the maxims of the School of Athens, and of other copious and noble conceptions of Sanzio, are apparent. Indeed in those subjects, treated by the latter, Bagnacavallo contented himself with being a mere copyist, declaring that it was madness to attempt to do better; in which it would seem he followed Vida's opinion, and that of other poets of his age, who inserted in their pages fragments of Virgil, because they despaired of excelling him. Such a maxim, which, whatever truth it may contain, opens a wide field for indolence and plagiarism, very probably injured him in the eyes of Vasari, who confers on him the praise due to a good practitioner rather than to a master grounded in the theory of his art. Still he conducted some paintings, on the strength of his own invention, at S. Michele in Bosco, at S. Martino, and at S. Maria Maggiore, which absolve him from such an accusation; nor can I believe that the Caracci, Albano, and Guido, would have copied from him and imitated his works, had they not recognized in them the hand of a master.

There was a son of Bagnacavallo, named Gio. Batista, who was employed as an assistant to Vasari in the palace of the chancery at Rome, and to Primaticcio in the court of France. He likewise left various original works in Bologna, more nearly inclining, if I judge rightly, to the decline of the art in his own time, than to the examples of his father. In addition to his son, mention ought here to be made of Bagnacavallo's companion, called Biagio Pupini, and sometimes Maestro Biagio dalle Lamme, who, having been at Rome with Ramenghi, contracted with him at Bologna a community of labours and of interests, and assisted him in the Dispute just before mentioned, as well as in other works. He formed the same connexion with Girolamo da Trevigi and others, uniformly acquiring, if we are to credit Vasari, more money than reputation, and at times injuring that of his companion by his eagerness to finish. Whatever opinion we may entertain regarding such facts, this artist by no means merits contempt; and perhaps Vasari might have treated him with more lenity, had there not existed between them mutual rivalship and disgust. In Pupini's style, where he exerted his powers, we trace the manner of Francesco Francia, his master, though a good deal enlarged, with the relief, and the various other characteristics of the good age. Of this taste is a Nativity of our Lord which he painted at Bologna, and which now adorns the institution of that place.

Innocenzio, born at Imola, but residing always in Bologna, was admitted into the school of Francia in 1506; from which we are not to infer, with Malvasia, that he did not spend some years at Florence in company with Albertinelli. This is attested by Vasari, and confirmed by the resemblance of his style to that of the most distinguished Florentines of the age. He produced several altar-pieces, composed in the taste of the fourteenth century; but following the example of Frate and of Andrea, he placed the Virgin above, without the ancient gildings, and with great art he grouped and disposed the saints who attend her; while, with equal novelty, he distributed the train of cherubs over the steps and through the surrounding space. Sometimes, as in the extraordinary picture displayed in the cathedral of Faenza, and another in possession of prince Ercolani, he added some noble architecture, bold and drawn from the antique. In other instances, as in the church of the Osservanti, at Pesaro, we observe the most attractive landscape, combined with an aërial perspective, sufficient to remind us of Vinci. He was accustomed too to insert little histories, as in S. Giacomo at Bologna, where, at the foot of the picture, he painted a Christ in the manger, of which it is enough to add, that it is perfectly Raffaellesque. This, indeed, was the style to which he invariably aspired, and so nearly attained, that very few of Raffaello's own pupils could equal him. Those who may be desirous of convincing themselves, may examine the altar-piece at Faenza in all its parts, and that of S. Michele in Bosco; to say nothing of his Madonnas and his Holy Families, interspersed throughout the Bolognese collections, and in the adjacent cities. He is preferred to Francia and to Bagnacavallo, in all that relates to erudition, majesty, and correctness. I am not aware that he executed compositions very new, or subjects requiring fire and vigour, nor would they have been consistent with his genius, which is described as of a gentle and tranquil cast.

The fame of the two masters, just celebrated, did not then extend far beyond their native districts, being eclipsed by the celebrity of many contemporaries, who swayed the regions of the art; in the list of whom was Giulio Romano. His reputation drew to Mantua Francesco Primaticcio, instructed in design by Innocenzio, and by Bagnacavallo in colouring. Under Giulio he afterwards became a painter on a great scale, and a very copious composer of large histories, as well as a decorator in wood and stucco in a magnificent style suitable only for a palace. In this way, having studied six years in Mantua, he was sent by Giulio to the court of the French king Francis, and there, though Rosso the Florentine had arrived a year before, and executed a variety of works, yet we learn that "the first stuccos and the first works in fresco of any consideration in France, took their rise from Primaticcio," in the words of Vasari. Nor has he omitted to mention, that the king bestowed upon this artist the abbey of St. Martin, though he did not add that it brought him an annual income of eight thousand crowns, while Rosso possessed only a canonship worth one thousand. In regard to this last omission he is severely taxed with malice by Malvasia, with what reason the reader will best judge for himself. We farther learn from Vasari that this artist employed himself, as well as his young assistants, in decorating a number of the halls and chambers at Fontainebleau, that he supplied the court with many ancient marbles, and many moulds of excellent sculpture, from which he had casts afterwards taken in bronze; in a word, that he was like another Giulio, if not in architecture, at least in every other kind of knowledge appertaining to the arts. The works conducted by him in France have been described by Felibien, and from the same pen is that appropriate eulogy--"that the geniuses of France are indebted to Primaticcio and to M. Niccolo, (dell'Abate) for many exquisite productions, and that they are entitled to the fame of having been the first who introduced Roman taste into France, with all the beau ideal of ancient painting and sculpture." At the Te of Mantua there remains the frieze of stuccos, so highly commended by Vasari, from Primaticcio's own hand, as well as a few pictures, which last, however, are not so assuredly his. His pictures indeed are objects of the utmost rarity in Italy, and in Bologna itself. In the grand Zambeccari gallery there is a concert by him, with three female figures, altogether enchanting; the forms, the motions, the colouring, the taste of the lines and folding so easy and chaste, all combined with a certain originality pervading the whole, are well calculated to attract and rivet the eye at the first moment. When dying, he assigned Niccolo Abati, called too dell'Abate, to continue his grand works, because he had brought him from Bologna, and laid the ground-work of his fortunes. An account of this delightful painter may be found in the Modenese School. He was not Primaticcio's pupil, but one Ruggiero Ruggieri was, and conducted by him into France, he left few paintings in his own country; to whom we may perhaps add one Francesco Caccianemici, called by Vasari his disciple, from whose hand, at Bologna, there only remain a few doubtful specimens.

Much under the same circumstances as Primaticcio and Abati appeared Pellegrino Pellegrini, whose patronymic was Tibaldi, a native of Valdelsa in the Milanese; though residing from his childhood, educated, and established at Bologna. He next filled the same situation at the court of Spain, as the two preceding had done at that of France; he decorated it with his paintings, improved its taste in architecture, formed pupils, and rose in fortune until he at length became Marquess of that Valdelsa, where his father and uncle had resided as poor masons before they went to Bologna. It is not known who first imbued his liberal spirit with the elements of learning; but Vasari traces his progress from some pictures of his in the refectory of S. Michele in Bosco, copied by Tibaldi when young, along with other select pieces at Bologna. From this place he follows him to Rome in 1547, eager to study the finest works in that capital, where, after three years' residence, he re-conducts him to Bologna, still very young, but advanced in the knowledge of his art. His style was in great part formed upon the models of Michelangiolo--vast, correct in drawing, bold, and happy in his foreshortenings; yet, at the same time, tempered with so much mellowness and softness, as to induce the Caracci to denominate him the reformed Michelangiolo. The first work which he conducted, subsequent to the year 1550, is in the Bolognese Institution, and it is the most perfect, in Vasari's opinion, ever executed by him. It contains in particular various stories from the Odyssey, and this work, with that by Niccolino, mentioned elsewhere,[11] both executed for the Institution, were afterwards finely engraved by Sig. Antonio Buratti of Venice, accompanied with the lives of the two painters, written by Zanotti. Both there, and in the great merchants' hall at Ancona, where he subsequently represented Hercules, the monster-slayer, Tibaldi exhibited the true method of imitating the terrible in the style of Michelangiolo, which consisted in a fear of too nearly approaching him. Although Vasari greatly commends these works, the Caracci, to whose judgment we would rather defer, have bestowed higher praises on those executed by Pellegrino for the church of S. Jacopo; and it was on these pictures that both the Caracci and their pupils bestowed most study. In one is represented the preaching of St. John in the desert; in another the separation of the elect from the wicked, where, in the features of the celestial messenger announcing the tidings, Pellegrino displayed those of his favourite Michelangiolo. What a school for design and for expression is here! What art in the distribution of such a throng of figures, in varying and in grouping them! In Loreto too, and in different adjacent cities, he produced other histories, less celebrated perhaps, but all nearly as deserving of the burin as those executed at Bologna. Such is the Entrance of Trajan into Ancona, in possession of the Marchese Mancinforte; and various exploits of Scipio, belonging to the accomplished nobleman, Marchese Ciccolini, which decorate one of his halls, where he himself pointed them out to me. It is a work conceived in a more refined and graceful taste than we meet with in other compositions of Tibaldi; and of the same composition I have seen some of his pictures on a very small scale; but rare, like all his pieces in oil; wrought with the exquisite finish of a miniaturist; mostly rich in figures, full of fine spirit, vivid colouring, and decorated with all the pleasing perspectives that architecture could afford. This indeed was his favourite art; which, after he had afforded some beautiful specimens of it in Piceno, and next at Milan, procured him an appointment from Philip II. to superintend the engineers at the Spanish Court. There again, after the lapse of twenty years, during which he never touched the easel, he resumed the art of painting; and we meet with a list of his works in the Escurial of Mazzolari.

Footnote 11: In vol. iv. p. 47.

Domenico Tibaldi de' Pellegrini, once conjectured to be the son, was the pupil and brother of Pellegrino; and his name is in great repute among the architects and engravers of Bologna. His epitaph at San Mammolo states him also to have been a distinguished painter; but we must receive the authority of epitaphs with some caution; and not even a portrait from his hand is to be met with. Faberio speaks less highly of his powers, and in the funeral oration upon Agostino Caracci, whose master he had been, he mentions him as an able designer, engraver, and architect. Pellegrino's pupils in painting, and no obscure artists, were Girolamo Miruoli, commended by Vasari among the artists of Romagna, who left one of his frescos at the Servi, in Bologna, and several other pieces at Parma, where he filled the office of court-painter, and there died; and secondly, Gio. Francesco Bezzi, called Nosadella, who painted a great deal at Bologna and in other cities, in the style of his master, exaggerating it in point of power, but not equalling it in care, and in short, reducing it to mere mechanic labour and despatch.

Vasari, in his life of Parmigianino, has mentioned with praise Vincenzio Caccianemici, of a good family in Bologna, respecting whom there have been some discussions, to avoid confounding him with Francesco, who bore the same surname. The correctors of the old _Guide_ suppose him to be the author of a Decollation of St. John, placed at S. Petronio, in the family chapel; a picture well designed and better coloured, and executed, as they observe, in the style of Parmigianino.

Whilst the three great geniuses of the Bolognese School were residing abroad, the two first mentioned in France, and the third in Milan, and afterwards in Spain, the art continued stationary, or, more correctly, declined in Bologna. In the year 1569 three masters are pointed out by Vasari, namely, Fontana, Sabbatini, and Sammachini, whom he calls Fumaccini. For what reason he excluded Ercole Procaccini, an artist, if not of great genius, at least of finished execution, I am unable to say. Certain it is that Lomazzo, whilst he resided with him in Milan, mentioned him in the highest terms, and enumerated in the list of his pupils Sabbatini, and Sammachini too. I shall not here repeat what I have detailed in the Milanese School respecting Ercole and his sons; but, passing on to the others, I shall begin with Fontana, the principal cause of the decline above alluded to.

The long protracted life of this artist comprehended the whole of the period now under our view, and even extended beyond it. Born in the time of Francia, educated by Imola, who at his death selected him to finish one of his pictures, and subsequently employed for a long period as the assistant of Vaga, and of Vasari, he continued to labour and to teach without intermission, until the Caracci, once his disciples, drew all his commissions and followers to themselves. For this result he was indebted to his own conduct. Devoted to pleasure (the most fatal enemy to an artist's reputation) he could only provide the means of gratification by burthening himself with works, and executing them with little care. He possessed a fertility of ideas, a vehemence, and a cultivation of mind, well adapted for works of magnitude. Abandoning, therefore, the careful finish of Francucci, he adopted the method of Vasari, and like him covered with his works a vast number of walls in a short space of time, and nearly in the same taste. In design he is more negligent than Vasari, in his motions more energetic; his colours have the same yellow cast, but rather more delicacy. In Città di Castello a hall of the noble family of Vitelli is filled with family histories, painted by him in a few weeks, as Malvasia informs us, and the work confirms the assertion. Similar specimens, or but little superior, are met with in Rome, at the Villa Giulia, and at the Palazzo di Toscana, in the Campo Marzio, and in various houses in Bologna. Yet in other places he appears an artist of merit for a declining age; as in his Epiphany, at the Grazie, where he displays a facility, a pomp of drapery, and a magnificence nearly approaching the style of Paul Veronese. This work bears the name of the painter written in letters of gold. But his best claim to distinction is founded on his portraits, which are more highly prized in cabinets than are his compositions in the churches. It was this talent which induced Michelangiolo to present him to Julius III. by whom he was pensioned as one of the Palatine painters of his time.

He had a daughter and a pupil in Lavinia Fontana, named also Zappi, from the family of Imola, into which she was married. This lady executed several altar-pieces at Rome and at Bologna in the paternal style, as far as regards colouring; but less successful in point of design and composition. She felt the inferiority, as is observed by Baglione, and sought reputation from portrait-painting, a branch in which she is preferred by some to Prospero. It is certain that she wrought with a sort of feminine perseverance, in order that her portraits should more faithfully express every line and feature of nature in the countenances, every refinement of art in the drapery. She became painter to Pope Gregory XIII., and was more particularly applied to by the Roman ladies, whose ornaments she displayed more perfectly than any male artist in the world. She attained to so high a degree of sweetness and softness in the art, especially after knowing the works of the Caracci, that one or two of her portraits have been attributed to Guido. With equal ability she produced a number of cabinet pictures, such as that Holy Family for the Escurial, so much commended by Mazzolari, and her Sheba at the throne of Solomon, which I saw in the collection of the late Marchese Giacomo Zambeccari. She has there expressed, in the form of allegory, the Duke and Duchess of Mantua, surrounded by many lords and ladies of their court, arrayed in splendid style; a painting that would reflect credit on the Venetian School. Gifted with such genius, she was by no means chary of her own likenesses executed by herself, which ornament the royal gallery of Florence and other collections. But there remains no specimen more truly speaking and delightful than the one belonging to the Conti Zappi, at Imola, where it is accompanied by the portrait of Prospero in his declining days, also painted by her.

Lorenzo Sabbatini, called likewise Lorenzin di Bologna, was one of the most graceful and delicate painters of his age. I have heard him enumerated among the pupils of Raffaello by keepers of the galleries, deceived doubtless by his Holy Families, designed and composed in the best Roman taste, although invariably more feebly coloured. I have also seen some of his Holy Virgins and Angels painted for private ornament, which resemble Parmigianino. Nor were his altar-pieces inferior; the most celebrated of which is that of St. Michael, engraved by Agostino Caracci, from an altar of S. Giacomo Maggiore; and this he held up as an example of gracefulness and beauty, to his whole school. He was, moreover, a fine fresco painter, correct in design, of copious invention, universal master in the subjects of the piece, and what is still more remarkable, most rapid in point of execution. Endowed with such qualities, he was engaged by many noble houses in his native place; but on proceeding to Rome in the pontificate of Gregory XIII., according to Baglione, he there met with success; insomuch, that even his fleshes and naked figures were highly commended, though this was by no means a branch of his pursuits at Bologna. In the Capella Paolina, he represented the histories of St. Paul; in the royal hall, the picture of Faith, shewn in triumph over Infidelity; in the gallery and the lodges a variety of other pieces, always in competition with the best masters, and always with equal applause. Hence, in the immense list of artificers at that period congregated at Rome, he was selected to preside over the labours of the Vatican, in the enjoyment of which honourable post he died at an early age in 1577.

It is difficult to believe, as asserted by some writers, that Giulio Bonasone was his pupil, an artist who practised engraving in copper as early as 1544. On reaching a more mature age, he seems to have devoted himself to painting, leaving several paintings on canvass, but feeble and varying in their style. At S. Stefano there is one of Purgatory, in the style of Sabbatini, extremely fine, and composed, as it is conjectured, with the assistance of Lorenzino. The productions, also, of Cesare Aretusi, of Felice Pasqualini, and of Giulio Morina, are in existence, though the name of Sabbatini might perhaps be justly substituted for theirs; such was the part he took in their labours. The latter, with Girolamo Mattioli, after the celebrity gained by the Caracci, became their eager followers. The labours of Mattioli, who died young, were distributed among different private houses, particularly in that of the noble family of Zani: those of Morina are seen in various churches at Bologna, and for the most part betray a degree of affectation of the style of Parma, at which city he some time painted in the service of the duke.

Orazio Samacchini, the intimate friend of Sabbatini, his contemporary, and who followed him at a short interval to the tomb, began his career by imitating Pellegrino and the Lombards. Proceeding next to Rome, and employed in painting for the royal hall, under Pius IV.; he succeeded in catching the taste of the Roman School, for which he was praised by Vasari, (who calls him Fumaccini) and afterwards by Borghini and Lomazzo. In the display of this his new style, however, he contrived to please others more than himself; and returning to Bologna, he was accustomed to lament that he had ever removed from upper Italy, where he might have carried his early manner to greater perfection, without deviating in search of a new. Still he had no reason to feel dissatisfied with that which he had thus formed of various others, and so moulded by his own genius, as to exhibit something singular in its every character. In his altar-piece of the Purification, at S. Jacopo, it is all exquisite delicacy, in which the leading figures enchant us with at once a majestic and tender expression of piety; while those infant figures seen conversing near the altar, and that of the young girl holding a little basket with two doves, gazing on them in so peculiar a manner, delight us with their mingled simplicity and grace. Skilful judges even can take no exceptions but to the display of too great diligence, with which, during several years, he had studied and polished this single painting. This, however, as one of the most celebrated of its school, was engraved by Agostino, and it would seem that even Guido availed himself of it in his Presentation, painted for the cathedral of Modena, yet he was an equally powerful artist where his subjects required it of him. His chapel, of which we gave an account in the Parmese School, is highly commended, though his most vigorous effort is shewn in the ceiling of S. Abbondio, at Cremona. The grand and the terrible seem to strive for mastery in the figures of the prophets, in all their actions and positions; the most difficult from confinement of space, yet the best arranged and imagined. There is, moreover, a truth in the shortenings, and a skilful use of the _sotto in su_,[12] which appears in this instance to have selected the most difficult portion of the art, in order to triumph over it. His forte is believed to have consisted in grand undertakings in fresco, on which he impressed, as it were, the seal of a vast spirit, at once resolute and earnest, without altering it by corrections and retouches, with which he laboured his paintings in oil, as we have stated.

Footnote 12: Foreshortening figures; here meant on a ceiling.

Bartolommeo Passerotti has been commended by Borghini and Lomazzo; and he is casually named also by Vasari among the assistants of Taddeo Zuccaro; indeed, it may rather be said, this is the artist with whom Vasari ceases to write, and Malvasia to inveigh.[13] He possessed excellent skill in designing with his pen; a gift which drew to his school Agostino Caracci, and which assisted the latter as a guide in the art of engraving. He likewise wrote a book, from which he taught the symmetry and anatomy of the human body, essential to the artist; and was the first who, to make a grander display, began to vary scriptural histories at Bologna by drawing the naked torsi. The finest of these specimens are, the Beheading of St. Paul, at Rome, in the Tre Fontane; and at S. Giacomo, of Bologna, a picture of the Virgin among various saints; a work meant to compete with the Caracci, and embellished by their praise. One of his pictures too of "Tizio" was much celebrated, which, being exhibited to the public, was supposed by the professors of Bologna to have been the work of Michelangiolo. This exquisite degree of diligence and refinement he rarely used; most generally he was bold and free, somewhat resembling Cesare, only more correct. In his portraits, however, he is by no means a common painter. After Titian, Guido included him among the very first, not preferring before him the Caracci themselves, whose name, indeed, in several galleries, is attached to the portraits of Passerotti. The most commendable of all however, are those he executed for the noble family Legnani--entire figures extremely varied in costume, in action, and attitudes; it being his usual custom to compose portraits, such as Ridolfi described of Paris, which should appear ideal pictures. By means of such a talent, which made him agreeable to the great, by his polite and refined manners and malicious strictures, he became a match for the Caracci; for whom he also prepared rivals in a number of his sons, whom he carefully instructed in the art. Among these, Tiburzio possessed real merit, of which his fine picture of the Martyrdom of St. Catherine, conducted in the taste of his father, displays sufficient proof. Passerotto and Ventura, however, were below mediocrity. Aurelio was a good miniaturist, and in the same branch Gaspero, a son of Tiburzio, also met with success. In the works of Bartolommeo we often meet with a sparrow, the symbol of his own name; a custom derived from the ancients, and followed by many of our own artists. It is a well-known fact relating to two sculptors, Batraco and Sauro, that for their proper names they substituted, the former a frog, and the latter a lizard.