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the
HISTORY OF PAINTING
in
ITALY.
the
HISTORY OF PAINTING
in
ITALY,

from the period of the revival of
THE FINE ARTS
to the end of the eighteenth century:

translated
From the Original Italian
of the
ABATE LUIGI LANZI.

By THOMAS ROSCOE.

IN SIX VOLUMES.

VOL. V.
CONTAINING THE SCHOOLS OF BOLOGNA, FERRARA, GENOA, AND PIEDMONT.

LONDON:
printed for
W. SIMPKIN AND R. MARSHALL,
stationers'-hall court, ludgate street.

1828.

J. M'Creery, Tooks Court,
Chancery Lane, London.

CONTENTS

of

THE FIFTH VOLUME.

HISTORY OF PAINTING IN UPPER ITALY.

HISTORY OF PAINTING
in
UPPER ITALY.

BOOK III.

BOLOGNESE SCHOOL.

During the progress of the present work, it has been observed that the fame of the art, in common with that of letters and of arms, has been transferred from place to place; and that wherever it fixed its seat, its influence tended to the perfection of some branch of painting, which by preceding artists had been less studied, or less understood. Towards the close of the sixteenth century, indeed, there seemed not to be left in nature, any kind of beauty, in its outward forms or aspect, that had not been admired and represented by some great master; insomuch that the artist, however ambitious, was compelled, as an imitator of nature, to become, likewise, an imitator of the best masters; while the discovery of new styles depended upon a more or less skilful combination of the old. Thus the sole career that remained open for the display of human genius was that of imitation; as it appeared impossible to design figures more masterly than those of Bonarruoti or Da Vinci, to express them with more grace than Raffaello, with more animated colours than those of Titian, with more lively motions than those of Tintoretto, or to give them a richer drapery and ornaments than Paul Veronese; to present them to the eye at every degree of distance, and in perspective, with more art, more fulness, and more enchanting power than fell to the genius of Coreggio. Accordingly the path of imitation was at that time pursued by every school, though with very little method. Each of these was almost wholly subservient to its prototype; nor was it distinguished in any other portion of the art than that by which its master had surpassed all competitors. Even in this portion, the distinction of these followers consisted only in copying the same figures, and executing them in a more hasty and capricious manner, or at all events, in adapting them out of place. Those devoted to Raffaello were sure to exaggerate the ideal in every picture: the same in regard to anatomy in those of Michelangiolo: while misplaced vivacity and foreshortening were repeated in the most judicious historic pieces of the Venetians and the Lombards.

A few, indeed, there were, as we have noticed, in every place, who rose conspicuous above those popular prejudices and that ignorance which obscured Italy, and whose aim was to select from the masters of different states the chief merit of each; a method of which the Campi of Cremona more especially furnished commendable examples. Yet these artists being unequal in point of genius and learning, broken into different schools, separated by private interests, accustomed to direct their pupils only in the exact path they themselves trod, and always confined within the limits of their native province, failed to instruct Italy, or at least to propagate the method of correct and laudable imitation. This honour was reserved for Bologna, whose destiny was declared to be the art of teaching, as governing was said to be that of Rome; and it was not the work of an academy, but of a single house. Gifted with genius, intent upon attaining the secrets more than the stipends of their art, and unanimous in their resolves, the family of the Caracci discovered the true style of imitation. First, they inculcated it through the neighbouring state of Romagna, whence it was communicated to the rest of Italy; so that in a little while nearly the whole country was filled with its reputation. The result of their learning went to shew that the artist ought to divide his studies between nature and art, and that he should alternately keep each in view, selecting only, according to his natural talents and disposition, what was most enviable in both. By such means, that school, which appeared last in the series that flourished, became the first to instruct the age; and what it had acquired from each it afterwards taught to all: a school which, until that period, had assumed no form or character to distinguish it from others, but which subsequently produced almost as many new manners, as the individuals of the family and their pupils. The mind, like the pen, would gladly arrive at that fortunate epoch; aiming at the most compendious ways to reach it, and studiously avoiding whatever may impede or divert its course. Let Malvasia exclaim against Vasari as much as he pleases: let him vent his indignation upon his prints, in which Bagnacavallo appears with a goat's physiognomy, when he was entitled to that of a gentleman: let him farther vituperate his writings, in which Bolognese professors are either omitted, dismissed with faint praise, or blamed, until one Mastro Amico and one Mastro Biagio fall under his lash:—to attempt to reconcile or to aggravate such feuds will form little part of my task. Concerning this author I have sufficiently treated in other places; though I shall not scruple to correct, or to supply his information in case oaf need, on the authority of several modern writers.[1] Nor shall I fail to point out in Malvasia occasional errors in sound criticism, which seem to have escaped him in the effervescence of that bitter controversy. The reader will become aware of them even in the first epoch; in treating which, agreeably to my own method, I shall describe the origin and early progress of this eminent school. Together with the Bolognese, I shall also give an account of many professors of Romagna, reserving a few, however, for a place in the Ferrarese School, in which they shone either as disciples or as masters.

[1] No Italian school has been described by abler pens. The Co. Canon. Malvasia was a real man of letters; and his life has been written by Crespi. His two volumes, entitled Felsina Pittrice, will continue to supply an[TN1] abundance of valuable information, collected by the pupils of the Caracci, to whom he was known, and by whom he was assisted in this work; charged, however, with a degree of patriotic zeal at times too fervid.

Crespi and Zanotti were his continuators, whose merits are considered in the last epoch. To these volumes is added the work entitled, "Pitture, Sculture, e Architetture di Bologna," of which the latest editions have been supplied with some very valuable notices, (drawn also from MSS.) by the Ab. Bianconi, already commended by us, and by Sig. Marcello Oretti, a very diligent collector of pictoric anecdotes, as well as by other persons. I cite this work under the title of the Guide of Bologna; in addition to which I mention in Romagna that of Ravenna by Beltrami, that of Rimini by Costa, and of Pesaro by Becci, which is farther illustrated by observations upon the chief paintings at Pesaro, and a dissertation upon the art; both very ably treated by the pen of Sig. Canon. Lazzarini.

BOLOGNESE SCHOOL.

EPOCH I.

The Ancients.

The new Guide of Bologna, published in the year 1782, directs our attention to a number of figures, in particular those of the Virgin, which, on the strength of ancient documents, are to be assigned to ages anterior to the twelfth century. Of some of these we find the authors' names indicated; and it forms, perhaps, the peculiar boast of Bologna to claim three of them during the twelfth century: one Guido, one Ventura, and one Ursone, of whom there exist memorials as late back as 1248. Most part, however, are from unknown hands, and so well executed, that we are justified in suspecting that they must have been retouched about the times of Lippo Dalmasio, to whose style a few of them bear considerable resemblance. Yet not so with others; more especially a specimen in San Pietro, which I consider to be one of the most ancient preserved in Italy. But the finest monument of painting possessed by Bologna, at once the most unique and untouched, is the Catino of San Stefano, on which is figured the Adoration of the Lamb of God, described in the Apocalypse; and below this are several scriptural histories; as the Birth of our Lord, his Epiphany, the Dispute, and similar subjects. The author was either Greek, or rather a scholar of those Greeks who ornamented the church of St. Mark in Venice with their mosaics; the manner much resembling theirs in its rude design, the spareness of the limbs, and in the distribution of the colours. It is besides, certain, that these Greeks educated several artists for Italy, and among others the founder of the Ferrarese School, of whom more in its appropriate place. However this may be, the painter exhibits traces that differ from those mosaic workers, such as the flow of the beard, the shape of the garments, and a taste less bent on thronging his compositions. And in respect to his age, it is apparent it must have been between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, from the form of the characters, collated with other writings belonging to the same period.

Entering upon the age of Giotto, the most disputed of all, on account of the Florentines having declared themselves the tutors of the Bolognese, and the aversion of the latter to admit that they have been instructed by the Florentines;—I decline to dwell upon their writings, in which the heat of controversy has effectually obscured the candour of real history. I shall rather gather light from the figures of the trecentisti dispersed throughout the city and all parts of Romagna, and from the ample collections which are to be seen in various places. Such is that of the Padri Classensi at Ravenna, that of the Institute at Bologna, and in the same place one at the Malvezzi palace, where the pictures of the ancient masters are exhibited in long series, with their names; not always inscribed, indeed, in ancient character, nor always equally genuine; but still calculated to reflect honour upon the noble family that made the collection. In all these I discovered paintings, some manifestly Greek; some indisputably Giottesque; certain others of Venetian style; and not a few in a manner which I never saw, except in Bologna. They possess a body of colouring, a taste in perspective, a method of designing and draping the figures, not met with in any other cities; as for instance, in several places I saw scripture histories, where the Redeemer invariably appears arrayed in a red mantle; while other characters appear in garments trimmed in a certain novel style with gilt borders; trifles in themselves, yet not apparent in any other school. From similar observations we seem to be justified in concluding that the Bolognese of that age likewise had a school of their own, not indeed so elegant, nor so celebrated, but nevertheless peculiar, and so to say, municipal, derived from ancient masters of mosaic, and also from those in miniature.

On this head, notwithstanding our proposed brevity, I must here refer to the words of Baldinucci in his notices of the miniature painter, Franco: "After Giotto, that very celebrated Florentine painter, had discovered his novel and fine method by which he gained the name of the first restorer of the art of painting, or rather to have raised it from utter extinction; and after he had acquired with industrious diligence that fine mode of painting which is called di minio,[2] which for the most part consists in colouring very diminutive figures; many others also applied themselves to the like art, and soon became illustrious. One of these was Oderigi d'Agubbio, concerning whom we have spoken in his proper place among the disciples of Cimabue. We discovered that this Oderigi, as we are assured by Vellutello in his comment upon Dante, in the eleventh canto of the Purgatorio,[3] was master in the art to Franco Bolognese, which assertion acquires great credit from his having worked much in miniature in the city of Bologna, according to these words that I find said of him by Benvenuto da Imola, a contemporary of Petrarch, in his comment upon Dante: 'Iste Odorisius fuit magnus miniator in civitate Bononiæ, qui erat valde vanus jactator artis suæ.' From this Franco, according to the opinion of Malvasia, the most noble and ever glorious city of Bologna received the first seeds of the beautiful art of painting."

With this narrative does the author proceed, like a careful culturist, gently sprinkling with refreshing drops his pictoric tree, whose seed he had shortly before planted, in order to trace the whole derivation of early artists from the leading stock of Cimabue. It has elsewhere been observed that this famous tree can boast no root in history; that it sprung out of idle conjectures, put together as an answer to the Felsina Pittrice of Malvasia, in which the Bolognese School is made to appear, as it were, autoctona, derived only from itself. Now Baldinucci, in order to give its origin to Florence, would persuade us that Oderigi, a miniaturist, and master of Franco, the first painter at Bologna on the revival of the arts, had actually been a disciple of Cimabue. His argument amounts to this: that Dante, Giotto, and Oderigi, being known to have lived on the most intimate terms together, and all three greatly devoted to the fine arts, must have contracted their friendship in the school of Cimabue; as if such an intimacy might not have sprung up at any other time or place amongst three men who travelled. It is besides difficult to believe that Oderigi, ambitious of the fame of a miniaturist in ornamenting books, should have applied to Cimabue, who in those times was not the best designer of figures, though the most eminent painter in fresco, and of grand figures.

A more probable supposition, therefore, is that Oderigi acquired the art from the miniaturists, who then greatly abounded in Italy, and carried it to further perfection by his own design. Neither are the epochs themselves, fixed upon by Baldinucci, in favour of his system. He would have it that Giotto, at ten years of age, being about the year 1286, began to design in the school of Cimabue, when the latter had attained his forty-sixth year; nor could Oderigi have been any younger, whose death happened about 1299, one year before that of Cimabue, his equal in reputation, and in the dignity of the pupil, who already surpassed the master. How difficult then to persuade ourselves that a genius, described by Dante as lofty and full of vaunting, should demean himself by deigning to design at the school of a contemporary, near the seat of a mere child; and subsequently surviving only thirteen years, should acquire the fame of the first miniaturist of his age, besides forming the mind of a pupil superior to himself. It is no less incredible that Oderigi, after having seen Giotto's specimens in miniature, "should in a short time become famous." Giotto, in 1298, when twenty-two years of age, was at Rome in the service of the pope; where, observes Baldinucci, he also illuminated a book for the Car. Stefaneschi; a circumstance not mentioned by Vasari, nor supported by any historical document. Yet taking all this for granted, what length of time is afforded for Oderigi to display his powers, on the strength of seeing Giotto's models; for Oderigi, who having been already some time before deceased, was found by Dante in purgatory, according to Baldinucci's computation, in the year 1300?

I therefore refer this miniaturist to the Bolognese School, most probably as a disciple, assuredly as a master; and, on the authority of Vellutello, as the master of Franco, both a miniaturist and a painter. Franco is the first among the Bolognese who instructed many pupils; and he is almost deserving the name of the Giotto of this school. Nevertheless he approached only at considerable distance, the Giotto of Florence, as far as we can judge from the few relics which are now pointed out as his in the Malvezzi museum. The most undoubted specimen is one of the Virgin, seated on a throne, bearing the date of 1313; a production that may compare with the works of Cimabue, or of Guido da Siena. There are also two diminutive paintings, displaying much grace, and similar miniatures, ascribed to the same hand.

The most eminent pupils educated by Franco in his school, according to Malvasia, are by name, Vitale, Lorenzo, Simone, Jacopo, Cristoforo; specimens of whose paintings in fresco are still seen at the Madonna di Mezzaratta. This church, in respect to the Bolognese, exhibits the same splendor as the Campo Santo of Pisa, in relation to the Florentine School; a studio in which the most distinguished trecentisti who flourished in the adjacent parts, competed for celebrity. They cannot, indeed, boast all the simplicity, the elegance, the happy distribution, which form the excellence of the Giottesque; but they display a fancy, fire, and method of colouring, which led Bonarruoti and the Caracci, considering the times in which they lived, not to undervalue them; insomuch that, on their shewing signs of decay, these artists took measures for their preservation. In the forementioned church, then, besides the pupils of Franco already named, Galasso of Ferrara, and an unknown imitator of the style of Giotto, asserted by Lamo in his MS. to have been Giotto himself, painted, at different times, histories from the Old and New Testament. I am inclined rather to pronounce the unknown artist to be Giotto's imitator; both because Vasari, in Mezzaratta, makes no mention of Giotto, and because, if the latter had painted, he would have ranked with the most eminent, and would have been selected to pursue his labours, not in that corner ornamented with paintings in the Florentine style, but in some more imposing situation.

I ought not to omit to mention in this place, that Giotto employed himself at Bologna. There is one of his altar-pieces still preserved at San Antonio with the superscription of Magister Ioctus de Florentia. We, moreover, learn from Vasari that Puccio Capanna, a Florentine, and Ottaviano da Faenza, with one Pace da Faenza, all pupils of Giotto, pursued their labours more or less at Bologna. Of these, if I mistake not, there are occasional specimens still to be met with in collections and in churches. Nor are there wanting works of the successors of Taddeo Gaddi, one of the school of Giotto, which, as I have seen great numbers in Florence, I have been able to distinguish with little difficulty among specimens of this other school. Besides this style, another was introduced into Bologna from Florence, that of Orcagna, whose Novissimi of S. Maria Novella were almost copied in a chapel of San Petronio, painted after the year 1400; the same edifice which Vasari on the strength of popular tradition, has asserted, was ornamented by Buffalmacco. From this information, we are brought to conclude that the Florentines exercised an influence over the art, even in Bologna; nor can I commend Malvasia, who, in recounting the progress of his school, gives them no place, nor makes them any acknowledgment. Their models, which at that period were the most excellent in the art, there is reason to suppose, may in those times have afforded assistance to the young Bolognese artists, as those of the school of Caracci, in another age, instructed the youth of Florence. It is time, however, to return to the pictures of Mezzaratta.

The authors of those just recorded, were, some of them, contemporary with the disciples of Giotto; others flourished subsequent to them; nor is there any name more ancient than that of Vital da Bologna, called dalle Madonne, of whom there are accounts from 1320 till the year 1345. This artist, who painted for that church a picture of the Nativity, and from whose hand one of S. Benedetto with other saints is seen in the Malvezzi palace, had more dryness of design than belonged to the disciples of Giotto at that period; and he employed compositions that differed from that school, so extremely tenacious of Giotto's ideas. If Baldinucci ventured to assert of him that his style, in every particular, agrees with that of his Florentine contemporaries, he wrote on the faith of others; a sufficient reason with him for affirming that he was pupil to Giotto, or to some one of his disciples. I would not venture so far; but rather, to judge from the hand of Vitale, which Baldi, in his Biblioteca Bolognese, entitles "manum elimatissimam," from the dryness of design, and from his almost exclusive custom of painting Madonnas, I argue that he had not departed much from the example set by Franco, more of a miniaturist than a painter, and that his school could not have been that school more elevated, varied, and rich in ideas, formed by Giotto.

Lorenzo, an artist, as is elsewhere observed, of Venice more probably than of Bologna,[4] who produced the history of Daniel, on which he inscribed his name, painted during the same period, and attempted copious compositions. He was greatly inferior to the Memmi, to the Laurati, to the Gaddi, though he is represented as their equal in reputation by Malvasia. He betrays the infancy of the art, no less in point of design than in the expressions of his countenances, whose grief sometimes provokes a smile; and in his forced and extravagant attitudes in the manner of the Greeks. Hence it is here out of the question to mention Giotto, in whose school, cautiously avoiding every kind of extravagance, there predominates a certain gravity and repose, occasionally amounting to coldness; described by the author of the Bolognese Guide as the statuary manner; and it is one of those marks by which to distinguish that school from others of the same age.

At a later period flourished Galasso, who is to be sought for in the list of artists of Ferrara, along with the three supposed disciples of Vitale; namely, Cristoforo, Simone, and Jacopo; all of whom, in mature age, were engaged in pictures to decorate the church at Mezzaratta, which were completed in 1404. Vasari writes that he is uncertain whether Cristoforo belonged to Ferrara, or da Modena; and whilst the two cities were disputing the honour, the Bolognese historians, Baldi, Masini, and Bumaldo, adjusted the difference by referring him to their own Felsina. For me his country may remain matter of doubt, though not so the school in which he flourished; inasmuch as he certainly resided, and painted a great deal, both on altar-pieces and on walls, at Bologna. At that period, he must have attracted the largest share of applause; since to him was committed the figure of the altar, which is still in existence, with his name. The Signori Malvezzi, likewise, are in possession of one of his altar-pieces, abounding with figures of saints, and divided into ten compartments. The design of these figures is rude, the colouring languid; but the whole displays a taste assuredly not derived from the Florentines, and this is the principal difficulty in the question.

Simone, most commonly called in Bologna Da Crocifissi, was eminent in these sacred subjects. At S. Stefano, and other churches, he has exhibited several fine specimens, by no means incorrect in the naked figure, with a most devotional cast of features, extended arms, and a drapery of various colours. They resemble Giotto's in point of colouring, and in the posture of the feet, one of which is placed over the other, but in other respects they approach nearer the more ancient. I have seen also some Madonnas painted by him; sometimes in a sitting posture, at others in half-size, with drapery and with hands in the manner of the Greek paintings. In features, however, and in the attitudes, they are both carefully studied and commendable for those times; a specimen of which is still to be seen at S. Michele in Bosco.

Among the Bolognese trecentisti Jacopo Avanzi is the most distinguished. He produced the chief part of the histories at the church of Mezzaratta, many in conjunction with Simone, and a few of them alone; as the miracle of the Probation, at the bottom of which he wrote Jacobus pinxit. He appears to have employed himself with most success in the chapel of S. Jacopo al Santo, at Padua, where, in some very spirited figures, representing some exploit of arms, he may be said to have conformed his style pretty nearly to the Giottesque; and even in some measure to have surpassed Giotto, who was not skilful in heroic subjects. His masterpiece seems to have been the triumphs painted in a saloon at Verona, a work commended by Mantegna himself as an excellent production. He subscribed his name sometimes Jacobus Pauli; which has led me to doubt whether he was not originally from Venice, and the same artist who, together with Paolo his father, and his brother Giovanni, painted the ancient altar-piece of San Marco at that place. The time exactly favours such a supposition; the resemblance between the countenances in the paintings at S. Marco and at the Mezzaratta, farther confirms it; nor can I easily persuade myself that Avanzi would have entitled himself Jacobus Pauli, had there flourished another artist at the same period, likely, from similarity of signatures, to create a mistake. In the Notizia of Morelli, p. 5, he is called Jacomo Davanzo, a Paduan, or Veronese, or as some maintain a Bolognese, words which may create a doubt of the real place of his birth. Without entering on such a question, I shall only observe, that I incline to believe that his most fixed domicile, at least towards the close of his days, was at Bologna; and it has already been remarked, that some artists were accustomed to assume their place of residence for a surname. It would seem that two painters of this age derive their parentage from him: one who on an altar-piece at S. Michele in Bosco signs himself Petrus Jacobi, and the same Orazio di Jacopo mentioned by Malvasia. At all events it is observable in each school, that, where an artist was the son of a painter, he gladly adopted his father's name as a sort of support and recommendation of his own. One Giovanni of Bologna, unknown in his own country, has left at Venice a painting of S. Cristoforo, in the school of the Merchants at S. Maria dell'Orto, to which he adds his name, though without date; and, from his ancient manner, we are authorized to believe that he really belongs to the place which is here assigned him.

Lippo di Dalmasio, formerly believed to be a Carmelite friar, until the Turin edition of Baldinucci proved that he had died married, sprung from the school of Vitale, and was named Lippo dalle Madonne. It is not true, as reported, that he instructed the Beata Caterina Vigri in the art, by whom there remain some miniatures, and an infant Christ painted on panel. Lippo's manner scarcely varies from the ancient, except perhaps in better harmony of tints and flow of drapery; to which last, however, he adds fringes of gold lace tolerably wide, a practice very generally prevalent in the early part of the fifteenth century. His heads are beautiful and novel, more particularly in several Madonnas, which Guido Reni never ceased to admire, being in the habit of declaring that Lippo must have been indebted to some supernatural power for his exhibition in one countenance of all the majesty, the sanctity, and the sweetness of the holy mother, and that in this view he had not been equalled by any modern. Such is the account given by Malvasia, who relates it, he adds, as he heard it. He moreover assures us, on the authority of Guido, that Lippo painted several histories of Elias in fresco, with great spirit; while, on the experience of Tiarini, he would persuade us that he painted in oil at S. Procolo in via S. Stefano, and in private houses; on which point he impugns the commonly received opinion respecting Antonello, examined by us more than once. Contemporary with Lippo must have flourished Maso da Bologna, painter of the ancient cupola of the cathedral.

Subsequent to 1409, the latest epoch of the paintings of Lippo, the Bolognese School began to decline; nor could it well be otherwise. Dalmatio, an instructor of youth, was not by profession a painter of history; and, as portrait painters never particularly promoted the progress of any school, so on his part he conferred little benefit on his own. This decline has been attributed to some specimens of art brought from Constantinople, overcharged with dark lines in the contours and folds, and in the remaining parts resembling rather the dryness and inelegance of the Greek mosaic-workers, than the softness and grace then sought to be introduced by the most eminent Italians in the art. Copies of these were eagerly inquired for in Bologna, and in all adjacent cities, which produced that abundance of them, still to be seen in the sale shops and private houses throughout those districts, besides several in the city and state of Venice.[5] But, in these instances, they were only copied; in Bologna they were imitated likewise by several pupils of Lippo, who, either in part or altogether, adopted that style in their own compositions. One Lianori, usually inscribing his name Petrus Joannis, and known by some works interspersed in different churches and collections, is most accused of this extravagance; an Orazio di Jacopo, (perhaps dell'Avanzi) of whom there remains a portrait of S. Bernardino, at the church of the Osservanza; a Severo da Bologna, to whom is ascribed a rude altar-piece, in the Malvezzi Museum; with several others, either little known or unmentioned, whose names I am not surprised should be omitted by Vasari, who, in the same way, passes over the least distinguished of his own country. It is true, he makes mention of one Galante da Bologna, who, he avers, designed better than Lippo, his master; but in this he is still taken to task by Malvasia, who includes Galante among the inferior pupils of Dalmasio.

Nevertheless, the germ of good painting was not wanting, as far as the times permitted it to exist, both in Bologna and throughout Romagna. Malvasia commends one Jacopo Ripanda, who long flourished at Rome, where, as is commemorated by Volterrano, he began to design the bassi-relievi of the Trajan Column; one Ercole, a Bolognese, who somewhat improved the symmetry of the human figure; one Bombologno, a carver of crucifixes, like Simone, but of more refined composition. He more particularly celebrates a Michel di Matteo, or Michel Lambertini; in whose commendation it may be enough to state, that Albano praised one of his pictures, supposed to be in oil, completed in 1443, for the fish-market, and even preferred it for its softness to those of Francia. The few which we still possess in our own times, both at the churches of S. Pietro and S. Jacopo, might be put in competition with the contemporary works of almost any master.

But the artist who produced an epoch in his school is Marco Zoppo, who having transferred his education under Lippo to the studio of Squarcione, rose to equal eminence with Pizzolo and Dario da Trevigi; and, like them, vied with the genius of Mantegna, and gave a farther spur to his exertions. He also studied some time in the Venetian School, where he painted for the Osservanti, at Pesaro, a picture of the Virgin on a Throne, crowned, with S. Giovanni the Baptist, San Francesco, and other saints, and signed it Marco Zoppo da Bologna Dip. in Vinexia, 1471. This is the most celebrated production which he left behind him; from which, and a few other pieces in the same church, and at Bologna, we may gather some idea of his style. The composition is that common to the quattrocentisti, particularly the Venetians, and which he probably introduced into Bologna, a style which continued to the time of Francia and his school, for the most part unvaried, except in the addition of some cherub to the steps of the throne, sometimes with a harp, and sometimes without. It is not a free and graceful style, like that of Mantegna, but rather coarse, particularly in the drawing of the feet; yet less rectilinear in the folds, and bolder, and more harmonious, perhaps, in the selection of the colours. The fleshes are as much studied as in Signorelli, and in others of the same age; while the figures and the accessories are conducted with the most finished care. Marco was, likewise, a fine decorator of façades, in which kind of painting he was assisted by his companion and imitator, Jacopo Forti, to whose hand is ascribed a Madonna, painted on the wall, at the church of S. Tommaso, in Mercato. In the Malvezzi collection there is also attributed to Jacopo a Deposition of the Saviour from the Cross; a work which does not keep pace with the progressive improvements of that age. The same remark will apply to a great number of others, produced about the same period, in the same city, which, towards the close of the century, displayed a striking deficiency in good artists. It was owing to this circumstance that Gio. Bentivoglio, then master of Bologna, wishing to ornament his palace, which, had fortune favoured him, would one day have become that of all Romagna, invited a number of artists from Ferrara and Modena, who introduced a better taste into Bologna, besides affording an occasion for the grand genius of Francia to develop itself likewise in the art of painting, as we shall proceed to shew.

This artist, whose real name was Francesco Raibolini, was, according to Malvasia, esteemed and celebrated as the first man of that age; and he might have added, in Bologna, where many so considered him; being there, as is attested by Vasari, held in the estimation of a god. The truth is, that he had a consummate genius for working in gold; on which account the medals and coins taken with his moulds rivalled those of Caradosso, the Milanese; and he was also an excellent painter, in that style which is termed modern antique, as may be gathered from a great number of collections, where his Madonnas rank at the side of those of Pietro Perugino and Gian Bellini. Raffaello, too, compares him with them, and even greater artists, in a letter dated 1508, edited by Malvasia, in which he praises his Madonnas, "never having beheld any more beautiful, more devotional in their expression, and more finely composed by any artist." His manner is nearly between that of these two heads of their schools, and participates in the excellence of both; it boasts Perugino's choiceness and tone of colours; while, in the fulness of its outlines, in the skill of the folding, and ample flow of the draperies, it bears greater resemblance to Bellini. His heads, however, do not equal the grace and sweetness of the former; though he is more dignified and varied than the latter. In the accessories of his landscapes he rivals both; but in landscape itself, and in the splendor of his architecture, he is inferior to them. In the composition of his pictures he is less fond of placing the divine infant in the bosom of the Virgin than upon a distinct ground, in the ancient manner of his school; and he sometimes adds to them some half figures of saints, as was customary with the Venetians of that period. On the whole, however, he approaches nearer to the Roman School; and, not unfrequently, as is noticed by Malvasia, his Madonnas have been ascribed by less expert judges to Pietro Perugino. He likewise produced works in fresco at Bologna, commended by Vasari; and both there and elsewhere are many of his altar-pieces yet remaining, displaying figures of larger dimensions than those usually painted by Bellini and Perugino; the peculiar merit of the Bolognese School, and by degrees extended to others, augmenting at once the grandeur of painting and of the temples it adorned.

But the chief praise due to him yet remains to be recorded, and this is, that he did not begin to exercise his pencil until he had arrived at manhood, and, in the course of a few years, displayed the rare example of becoming a scholar and a master, able to compete with the best artists of Ferrara and Modena. These, as we have mentioned, were invited by Gio. Bentivoglio, in order to decorate his palace. There, too, Francia was employed; and he was afterwards commissioned to paint the altar-piece of the Bentivogli chapel, in 1490, where he signed himself Franciscus Francia Aurifex, as much as to imply that he belonged to the goldsmith's art, not to that of painting. Nevertheless, that work is a beautiful specimen, displaying the most finished delicacy of art in every individual figure and ornament, especially in the arabesque pilasters, in the Mantegna manner. In process of time he enlarged his style; a circumstance that induced historians to make a distinction between his first and second manner. Cavazzoni, who wrote respecting the Madonnas of Bologna, wishes to persuade us that Raffaello himself had availed himself of Francia's models, in order to dilate that dry manner which he imbibed from Perugino. We shall award this glory to the genius of Raffaello, whose youthful performances at San Severo of Perugia, display a greater degree of softness than those of his master and of Francia; and after his genius, to the examples of F. Bartolommeo della Porta, and of Michelangiolo; leaving, we fear, no room to include the name of Francia. When Raffaello, at Rome, was regarded rather in the light of an angel than a man, and had already executed some works at Bologna, he began a correspondence with Francia, urged to it by his letters; Raffaello became his friend; and, on sending to Bologna his picture of S. Cecilia, he intreated him, on discovering any error in it, to correct it; an instance of modesty in our Apelles, more to be admired even than his paintings. This occurred in 1518, in which year Vasari closes his life of Francia, who he declares died with excess of passion, on first beholding that grand performance. Malvasia, however, refutes him, by proving Francia to "have lived many years afterwards, and when aged and declining, even to have changed his manner;" and in what way, except upon the models of Raffaello? In his new manner he painted and exhibited, in a chamber of the Mint, his celebrated piece of S. Sebastian, which, according to a tradition handed from the Caracci to Albano, and from the latter to Malvasia, served as a studio for the Bolognese pupils, who copied its proportions with as much zeal as the ancients would have done those of a statue of Polycletes, or the moderns of the Apollo, or of the supposed Antinous of Belvidere. Albani has added that Francia, on perceiving the concourse of people increase round his picture, and diminish round the St. Cecilia of Raffaello, then dead, apprehensive lest they should suspect him of having executed and exhibited his own in competition with such an artist, instantly removed and placed it in the church of the Misericordia, where, at this time, there remains a copy of it. The precise year of his decease, hitherto unknown, has been communicated to me by the Sig. Cav. Ratti, who found on an ancient drawing of a female saint, now in possession of Sig. Tommaso Bernardi, a noble of Lucca, a memorandum of this event having occurred on the seventh day of April, 1533.

Francia, in addition to his cousin Giulio, who devoted himself but little to painting, gave instructions in the art to his own son of the name of Giacomo. It is often doubtful, as we find in the Gallery of the princes Giustiniani, whether such a Madonna is by the hand of Francesco Francia, or by that of his son, who, in similar pictures imitated closely his father's style, although, in Malvasia's judgment, he never equalled it. In works on a larger scale too, he is sometimes to be pronounced inferior, in comparison with his father, as in S. Vitale, at Bologna, where Francesco painted the cherubs round a Madonna, in his first manner, somewhat meagre, perhaps, but still beautiful and full of animated movements, while Giacomo drew the figures, representing a Nativity of our Lord, more soft in point of design, but with features less beautiful, and in attitudes and expressions bordering on extravagance. At other times, the son seems to have surpassed the father, as at S. Giovanni, of Parma, where there is no artist who would not wish to have produced that fine picture by Giacomo, marked with the year 1519, rather than the Deposition from the Cross, by Francesco. Elsewhere too, as in the picture of S. Giorgio, at the church of San Francesco in Bologna, he rivals, perhaps, the finest works by his father; insomuch that this specimen was ascribed to the latter, until there was recently noticed the signature I., (meaning Jacobus) Francia, 1526. He appears, from the first, to have practised a design approaching that of the moderns; neither have I observed in his paintings such splendid gildings, nor such meagre arms, as for some time distinguished the elder Francia. He rather, in progress of time, continued to acquire a more free and easy manner, insomuch that a few of his Madonnas were more than once copied and engraved by Agostino Caracci. His heads were extremely animated, though generally less select, less studied, and less beautiful, than his father's. He had a son, named Giambatista, by whom there remains, at S. Rocco, an altar-piece, and a few other specimens, displaying mere mediocrity.

Among the foreign pupils of Francia, the Bolognese enumerated Lorenzo Costa, and, indeed, he thus ranks himself, by inscribing under the portrait of Gio. Bentivoglio, L. Costa Franciae discipulus. True it is, that such inscriptions, as I have frequently found, might come from another hand; or that, granting he wrote it, he may have done so more out of regard to such a man, than for the sake of acquainting the world, as Malvasia contends, that he had been his sole master. Vasari is of a different opinion, introducing him to us at Bologna as an established artist, already employed in several considerable cities, and bestowing the highest eulogium on his earliest production, the S. Sebastiano at the church of S. Petronio, declaring it the best specimen in water-colours that had, till then, been seen in the city. Add to this, that Francia exhibited his first altar-piece in the Bentivogli chapel in 1490, a few years after he had devoted himself to the art; and there Costa placed the two lateral pictures, tolerably excellent in point of composition, and filled with those very spirited portraits of his in 1488. Now had he boasted only Francia for his master, of what rapid improvement must we suppose him to have been capable! Besides, would not his style almost invariably resemble that of Francia, at least in the works he produced at Bologna? Yet the contrary is the case; and from his less free, and sometimes ill drawn figures; from the coarser expression of his countenances, his more hard and dull colouring, and his abundance of architecture, with the taste shewn in his perspective, it is evident he must have studied elsewhere. Still I believe that he received the rudiments of his education in his own country; that then passing into Tuscany, he formed himself, not by the voice, but, as Vasari avers, upon the pictures of Lippi and Gozzoli; and that finally seeking Bologna, he painted for the Bentivogli, and resided also with Francia rather in quality of an assistant than a pupil. A farther proof I gather from Malvasia himself; that in the journals of Francesco, in which he read the names of two hundred and twenty pupils, he found no mention of Costa. In the rest, however, I concur; as to his having availed himself of the works of Francia, in imitation of whom a number of Madonnas are seen in the collections at Bologna, much inferior to the paintings of the supposed master; but occasionally not unworthy of being compared with them. Such is an altar-piece, divided into several compartments, removed from Faenza into the Casa Ercolani; a production characterized by Crespi, in his annotations to Baruffaldi, as being executed "with a fervour, a refinement, softness, and a warmth which may be pronounced altogether Raffaellesque." He particularly shone in his countenances of men, as may be seen from those of the apostles at S. Petronio, and from his San Girolamo, which there offers the finest specimen of his art. He was less employed in his own country than in Bologna, though he gave several pupils to the former; among others the celebrated Dosso and Ercole of Ferrara. He mostly resided at Mantua, at which court he was highly appreciated, although Mantegna had been his immediate predecessor, and Giulio Romano succeeded him. I may refer to what I there wrote respecting this artist.

A less doubtful pupil of Francia's was Girolamo Marchesi da Cotignola. His portraits are much praised by Vasari, but his compositions much less so. He was by no means happy in all; and in particular one which he produced at Rimini, is severely criticised by the historian. There are various altar-pieces by him at Bologna and elsewhere, all of the usual composition of the quattrocentisti, which goes to redeem his fault. One of these, exhibiting very beautiful perspective, is in possession of the Serviti at Pesaro, where the Virgin is seen on a throne, before which, in a kneeling posture, is the Marchesa Ginevra Sforza, with her son Constantius II.; nor is this the only specimen of his works conducted in the service of royal houses. The design is rather dry, but the colour very pleasing; the heads grand, the draperies well disposed; and in short, were it the only production of his hand, he would well deserve to rank among the most illustrious painters in the old style. That he obtained no reputation at Rome, or Naples, as Vasari observes, was owing to his arriving in those cities too late, namely, in the pontificate of Paul III.; so that his style being then regarded merely in the light of an article out of fashion, he was unable to make his way. He died during the same pontificate, between the interval of 1534 and 1549. Orlandi, who brings in the decease of Cotignola as early as 1518, is not only refuted by the above dates marked by Vasari, and, with slight difference, by Baruffaldi, but moreover by a picture of S. Girolamo at the church of the conventual friars of S. Marino, executed in 1520.

Amico Aspertini is enrolled by Malvasia (pp. 58, 59) in the school of Francia, a fact that Vasari did not choose to notice, being wholly bent on amusing posterity with a portrait of the person and manners of "Mastro Amico," who was indeed a compound of pleasantry, eccentricity, and madness. He had adopted a maxim in painting, which in regard to literature, was commonly received in that age; to wit, that every individual ought to impress upon his works the image of his own genius; and, like Erasmus, who exposed to ridicule Cicero's imitators in writing, this artist was fond of deriding those of Raffaello in painting. It was his leading principle to take the tour of Italy, to copy here and there, without discrimination, whatever most pleased him, and afterwards to form a style of his own, "like an experienced inventor," to preserve an expression of Vasari. Conducted on this plan is a Pietà by him, in the church of S. Petronio, which may be compared with the trecentisti in point of forms, the attitudes, and the grouping of the figures. We may add, however, with Guercino, that this artist seemed to handle two pencils; with one of which he painted for low prices, or out of despite, or for revenge; and this he made use of in S. Petronio and several other pieces; the other he practised only on behalf of those who remunerated him honourably for his labours, and were cautious how they provoked him; and with this he displayed his art in various façades of palaces, commended by Vasari himself; in the church of S. Martino; and in many other works cited by Malvasia, who describes him as a good imitator of Giorgione.

He had an elder brother of the name of Guido, a youth who employed uncommon diligence and care, carried perhaps to excess, in his art. He died at the age of thirty-five, and was lamented by his more poetical fellow citizens in elegiac strains. Malvasia is of opinion, that, had he survived, he would have equalled the fame of Bagnacavallo; such was the promise held forth by a painting of the Crucifixion under the portico of S. Pietro, and by his other works. According to the same biographer, it was Vasari's malice which led him to assign Ercole of Ferrara for Guido's master, being jealous of affording M. Amico the fame of forming such a pupil. I feel persuaded, with Vasari, no less from the age of Guido than from his taste, and from the date of 1491, which he inscribed on this highly commended picture, that assuredly it cannot belong to the pupil of a pupil formed by Francia. Similar critical errors we have already noticed in Baldinucci; and they are not very easily to be avoided where a party spirit is apt to prevail.

Gio. Maria Chiodarolo, a rival of the preceding, and subsequently of Innocenzo da Imola, in the palace of Viola, left behind him a name above the generality of this school. Malvasia mentions twenty-four other scholars of Francesco Francia, in which he was followed by Orlandi, when treating of Lorenzo Gandolfi. By some mistake these pupils are referred by him to Costa; while Bottari, misled by Orlandi, fell into the same error, although he laments "that men, in order to spare trouble, are apt to follow one another like sheep or cranes." Yet in very extensive and laborious works it is difficult sometimes not to nod; nor should I occasionally note down others' inequalities, except in the hope of finding readers considerate enough to extend the same liberality towards mine. The forementioned names will prove of much utility to those who, in Milan, in Pavia, in Parma, and other places in Italy, may turn their attention to works in the ancient Bolognese style, and may hear them attributed, as it often happens, to Francia, instead of the pupils formed by him to practice in those districts, and invariably tenacious of his manner. He had also others, who from their intercourse with more modern artists, claim place in a better epoch; and for such we shall reserve them.

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.

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]

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.

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[TN2] 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.

[2] Di minio, a peculiar red colour, used also in oil painting, and well known to the ancients, who on festal days were accustomed to ornament with it the face of Jove's statue, as also that of the victors on days of triumph. Pliny and others explain the ancient method of employing it. The term, in its simple acceptation, means here the art of designing and colouring in miniature, (from di minio) early applied to the ornamenting and illuminating of ancient works and MSS. R.

[3]

"Oh dissi lui non se' tu Oderisi,
L'onor d'Agubbio, e l'onor di quell'arte
Che alluminar è chiamata a Parisi?
Frate, diss'egli, più ridon le carte
Che pennellegia Franco Bolognese:
L'onor è tutto or suo, e mio in parte.
Ben non sarei stato sì cortese
Mentre ch'io vissi per lo gran disìo
Dell'eccellenza, ove mio cor intese.
Di tal superbia qui si paga il fio."

[4] [ Vol. iii. p. 16.]

[5] The Greeks, during the earliest periods, having uniformly represented the Virgin in so rude a style, were always pleased with similar paintings. I state this to remove a very prevalent error, that every Madonna of Greek style, with distended eyes, long fingers, and dark complexion, in the style of that of Pisa, called Degli Organi, or those of Cimabue, is to be referred to the remotest dates. Indeed I have seen specimens of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and even eighteenth centuries, particularly in the Classe Museum, in that of Cattaio, and in the palaces of Venetian nobles. One in the possession of the E. E. Signori Giustiniani Recanati, has, notwithstanding its very antique air, red letters inscribed on a gold ground, expressing, ΧΕΙΡ Ε᾿ΜΜΑΝΟΥΗΛ ΙΕΡΕΩϹ ..... α ... λξ, Manus Emanuelis Sacerdotis. an. 1660. From the hand of the same Greek priest, well known to Venetian artists, there are other altar-pieces with a similar inscription; and it is still customary in that city to reproduce specimens of a similar kind, to satisfy the continual inquiries of the Greek merchants. To judge correctly, then, of the age of such images, we must look for other indications besides their design, such as the letters, (see [ vol.i. p. 49]), the fashion of the cornice, the method of colouring, or those cherubs, holding a gold crown over the head of the Virgin, in the edges and the folds of whose drapery are imprinted marks of ages nearer to our own.

[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.

[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.

[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."

[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.

[10] Morelli Notizie, p. 109.

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[TN3] 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.

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.

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.

Dionisio Calvart, born at Antwerp, and hence also called Dionisio the Fleming, came, when young, into Bologna, and displayed some ability in landscape painting. In order to become a figure painter, he entered first the school of Fontana, and next that of Sabbatini, whom he greatly assisted in his labours for the Vatican. But after quitting also this master, and occupying himself, some little time, in designing from Raffaello's pictures, he returned to Bologna, opened a studio, and there educated as many as a hundred and thirty-seven masters in the art, some of whom were excellent. He was a fine artist for his age; understood perspective well, which he acquired from Fontana, and designed both correctly and gracefully in the taste of Sabbatini. He moreover possessed the art of colouring, in the taste of his own countrymen, a quality which induced the Bolognese to regard him as a restorer of their school, which in this branch of painting had declined. If there were some degree of mannerism in his style, some action in his figures too little dignified, or too extravagant; the former was the fault of his age, and the latter of his temperament, which is described as extremely restless and violent. Notwithstanding, he instructed his pupils with assiduous care, and from the cartoons of the most celebrated inventors he gave them lectures in the art. Different collections abound with his small pictures, painted chiefly on copper, representing incidents from the Gospel, which attract by the abundance of the figures, by their spirit, and by the lusciousness of their tints. Similar commissions in this line were then very frequently given in Bologna; most times proceeding from the noviciate nuns, who were in the habit of carrying with them into the cloister similar little paintings to decorate their lonely cells; and Calvart provided abundance of them, with the assistance of his young men, whose pieces he retouched; and they obtained immense circulation both in Italy and Flanders. In particular those conducted by Albano and Guido, his two pupils, boast the most attractive graces, and may be known by a certain superior decision, knowledge, and facility. In the list of his altar-pieces, the S. Michele, at S. Petronio, and the Purgatory, at the Grazie, bear the palm; and from these, as well as others, the best disciples of the Caracci confessed the assistance which they received.

On the rise of the new Bolognese School, the pupils of Calvart for the most part changed their manner, attaching themselves some to one master, and some to another. Those who preserved most evident traces of their former education, in other words, who continued more feeble and less natural than the Caracceschi, were but few. Malvasia enumerates Gio. Batista Bertusio in this list, who vainly aspired at resembling Guido, leaving a variety of paintings both at Bologna and its villages, displaying beauties more apparent than real. Two other artists, Pier Maria da Crevalcore, a painter in oil, and Gabriel Ferrantini, known by his frescos, called also Gabriel degli Occhiali, seem both to have seen, and attempted to imitate the Caracci. Emilio Savonanzi, a Bolognese noble, attached himself to the art when nearly arrived at manhood, but he attended Cremonini more than Calvart; and strongly addicted to changing masters, entered the school of Lodovico Caracci, next that of Guido at Bologna, of Guercino at Cento, and finally the studio of Algardi, an excellent sculptor at Rome. By such means he became a good theorist and an able lecturer, applauded in every particular of his art; nor was he wanting in good practice, uniting many styles in one, in which however that of Guido most prevails. Still he was not equally correct in all his pieces, even betraying feebleness of touch, and not scrupling to denominate himself an artist of many hands. He resided at Ancona, next at Camerino, at which places, as well as in the adjacent districts, he left a variety of works. Of another Bolognese, who flourished at the same period, there remains at Ancona a picture of the offering of the Infant Jesus at the Temple, ornamenting the larger altar of S. Jacopo. The inscription shews him to have resided at Brescia, F. Tiburtius Baldinus Bononiensis F. Brixiæ, 1611. This date proves him to have belonged to the present epoch. His taste, from what I am informed by Sig. Cav. Boni, extremely well informed on subjects of the fine arts, reminds us of the excellent school that flourished in 1500: magnificence in the architecture, great copiousness of composition, and clearness of effect, except that in the general tone of his tints, and in his fleshes, he is somewhat cold. One artist there was, who declared that he had laid down for himself a maxim, never to alter with other styles that of Calvart; and this was Vincenzo Spisano, called likewise Spisanelli. He however is inferior in solidity and truth of design, and displays quite as much caprice and mannerism as any of the practitioners of his time. Nor does he always preserve the colours peculiar to his school; but deadens them with a leaden hue, which is still not unpleasing. His altar-pieces, executed at Bologna, and in the neighbouring cities, are less celebrated than his small pictures for private ornament, which abound in Bologna, and which he was in the habit of enlivening with very attractive landscape. It has already been observed that those who were mannerists in their style, like Zuccaro and Cesari, always when working on a small scale, improved upon themselves.

Bartolommeo Cesi fills the rank also of head of a school, among those who cleared the path to the good method pursued by the disciples of the Caracci. From him Tiarini acquired the art of painting fresco, and his works gave the first impulse to Guido in attaining to his sweet and graceful manner. On examining a work by Cesi, it sometimes seems doubtful whether it may not have been that of Guido when young. He dares little, copies every thing from nature, selects fine forms of each period of life, and makes sparing use of the ideal; his lines and folds are few, his attitudes measured, and his tints more beautiful than strong. He has some paintings at San Jacopo, and at San Martino, which are extremely pleasing; and it is said that Guido, during his early youth, was in the habit of sitting to contemplate them sometimes for hours. His frescos, perhaps, display more power, where he has introduced many copious histories with great judgment, variety, and mastery; and such are those of Æneas, in the Favi palace. His Arch of Forli, painted for Clement VIII., with different exploits, surprises us even more. Though exposed to the action of the open air, during so many years, this piece retains the vividness of its tints to a surprising degree. Malvasia's opinion, in commendation of this artist, is very remarkable, that he had a manner which at once satisfies, pleases, and enamours the beholder, as truly exquisite and sweet as any style of the best Tuscan masters in fresco. In the larger chapel of the Bolognese monastery of Carthusians, there are distinguished examples in both kinds of painting; and the describer of the Carthusian monastery, in his account of them, likewise enumerates Cesi's works for other monasteries of the same order, those of Ferrara, of Florence, and Siena. He was held in esteem by the Caracci, and very generally so by the different professors, no less for the candour of his character, than for his love of the art. To his efforts it was chiefly owing that the company of painters, in 1595, obtained a separation from the artificers of swords, of saddles, and of scabbards, with all of whom they had for centuries been united in the same corporation, and that a new one being formed of painters and of cotton manufacturers,[14] it not being possible wholly to exclude the latter, they were to rank inferior to the artists, or, to use the words of Malvasia, "that they should condescend to furnish to the amount of two hundred, or more, crowns, rich purple cloaks to decorate the wearer of the laurel crown, preceding their vice steward."[15]

Cesare Aretusi, a son, perhaps, of Pellegrino Munari,[16] was distinguished as a colourist in the Venetian taste, but in point of invention weak and dull; while Gio. Batista Fiorini, on the other hand, was full of fine conceptions but worthless in his colouring. Friendship, that introduces community in the possessions of friends, here achieved what is narrated in the Greek anthology of two poor rogues, one of whom was blind and stout, and carried on his shoulders a sharp-eyed cripple, who thus provided himself with a friend's pair of feet, while he afforded him the advantage of as many eyes. So it fared with our two artists, who separately could accomplish very little; though in uniting their powers they produced paintings of considerable merit. In the Guida di Bologna they are very properly rarely divided from each other; and I believe, that in every painting we find attributed to Aretusi, we ought farther to seek for some companion of his labours. Of such kind is a Nativity of the Virgin at S. Afra in Brescia, passing under his name, and painted in a very powerful style. Respecting this picture, however, Averoldi is of opinion that it was in part the workmanship of Bagnatore, in part of other painters, or, perhaps, only painter; in other words that of his useful friend Aretusi. Nevertheless in the branch of portrait, Cesare possessed merit above sharing it with others, and in this capacity he was employed by different princes, and he also succeeded in copying the works of excellent masters better than any other of his age. He could assume the style of almost every painter, and even pass off his imitations for the originals. In his imitation of Coreggio, he was more particularly successful, and received a commission to execute a painting from the celebrated Night, by that master, for the church of S. Gio. di Parma, where it still remains. Mengs, who saw it, declared that were the original at Dresden by any accident lost, it might be well supplied by so fine a duplicate. It was this performance that obtained him the honour of restoring the painting, formerly executed by Coreggio for the same church, of which mention was made in the school of Parma, and to which we here refer the reader. Here too we should add, that such was the success of that picture, "from its accurate imitation of the taste displayed in the original, of its conception, and of its harmony, as to lead those unacquainted with the fact to suppose it to be the work of Allegri." Such are the words of Ruta in his Guida.

Little attention seems to have been given to inferior branches of the art during this epoch, if, indeed, we except that of portrait, whose leading artists must not again be introduced here, having treated of their merits in the proper place. Nor probably were there then wanting painters in oil, who severally produced ornamental pieces of landscape and animals, besides Cremonini and Baglione, whose ability in this line we shall shortly notice, in the class of ornamental fresco painters; though none, as far as I can learn, acquired celebrity. In one instance only I meet with handsome eulogiums on a miniature painter, occasionally mentioned throughout this work. He was called Gio. Neri, also Gio. degli Ucelli, from his peculiar talent in delineating all kinds of birds from the life. With these, and with fish of various species, with quadrupeds and other animals, he filled seven folio volumes, which are cited by Masini in the studio of Ulisse Aldovrandi.

Throughout the whole of this epoch we find no mention in Malvasia of any ornamental or perspective painters, except, perhaps, some figurist, who paid little attention to decorations. There is reason, however, to suppose that the celebrated Sebastiano Serlio, while yet a youth, painted perspectives. The Cav. Tiraboschi, in the seventh volume of his history, remarks that "there is no account of Serlio's occupation during the early part of his life." But the Guida of Pesaro, p. 83, alludes to him at the close of 1511, and subsequently in 1514, as residing in that city in quality of an artist; and in what branch can we more probably suppose him to have been engaged than in perspective? For this, indeed, was the tirocinium of other able architects, where, previous to being entrusted with the anxious duties of their profession, they were enabled, with more facility, to sustain themselves, until their reputation permitted them to assume the character of architects, and abandon the pursuit of painting. Indisputably he could not have been an architect at Pesaro, otherwise there would never have been written on a parchment of 1514, remaining in the archives of the Servi:—Sebastiano qu. Bartholomæi de Serlis de Bononia pictore habitatore Pisauri. And it is about 1534 that we have an account of his being at Venice, no longer handling the pencil, but the square. Masini, who had written his Bologna Perlustrata only a short period before the Felsina Pittrice, commends an Agostino dalle Prospettive, who had reached such a degree of perfection in that art, as even to deceive animals and men with his illusive staircases and similar works, executed at Bologna. It is doubtful whether he did not belong to another school, and may have been omitted by Malvasia as a foreigner. I suspected him to be a Milanese in my fourth volume p. 231), and pupil to the great Soardi, not inferior to his master. Next to him, and to Laureti, Gio. Batista Cremonini of Cento was employed in such commissions more than any other artist. He had received rather superior instructions in the rules of perspective, and respectable practice in the line of statues, figures, and histories, with whatever went to give splendour and effect to a façade, a theatre, or a hall; more particularly he succeeded in delineating animals, however ferocious and wild. There was scarcely a house of any account in all Bologna, which, if nothing more, could not boast some specimen of his chiaroscuro, some frieze for ornament, chimney-piece, or vestibule, decorated by Cremonini; to say nothing of his numerous works in fresco which filled the churches. He was also employed for the adjacent cities, and in different courts of Lombardy kept open school and instructed Guercino, Savonanzi, Fialetti, who flourished in Venice as before stated. He had for his companion Bartolommeo Ramenghi, cousin of Gio. Batista, with whom also lived Scipione Ramenghi, son of Gio. Batista himself, and both eminent[TN4] ornamental painters during that period.

Cremonini had a rival in one Cesare Baglione, an artist in the same sphere, and of the same eager and expeditious character in the art. He was, moreover, a better painter of landscape, and even surpassed all others, including the most ancient, in the method of drawing his foliage. In his inventions too, both of a serious and comic kind, he displayed greater novelty and variety than Cremonini. He thus became a favorite at Parma, where in the ducal palace he left some of his best works, all in harmony with the places which he painted; in the larder illusive eatables of every kind, and cooks employed in dressing them; in the bakehouse utensils for the bakers, and incidents relating thereto; in the washhouses women were seen busied in their different duties, and all in dismay at some untoward or comic accidents; works abounding in spirit and reality sufficient to procure him reputation in his line, had he shewn less eagerness in the execution. This praise will not apply, however, to his decorative taste, which excited the ridicule of the Caracci, who were in the habit of laughing at the fantastic ornaments of his capitals, and those arabesques, most resembling, they declared, the staves of barrels; as well as that custom of filling his compositions with useless ornaments, without rule or discretion, which his own pupils afterwards proceeded to introduce, especially Spada and Dentone. Several others were instructed by him in the art, as Storali and Pisanelli, and some of less note, who painted well in perspective, without aspiring to the reputation of figurists.

Thus we have taken a brief survey of the state of painting in Bologna from the time of Bagnacavallo to the Caracci, who already rising into repute about 1585, in some measure competed with the elder artists, and in some measure by their example, and the spirit of emulation, tended to improve them, of which more in the following epoch. Meanwhile, let us turn our attention to what was passing during this period in Romagna.

Ravenna prides herself on the name of Jacopone, a pupil of Raffaello, who, by his paintings at S. Vitale, introduced into that city the principles of the modern style, and of whom we shall shortly state our opinion, not without some degree of novelty. Another of Raffaello's disciples, if what is averred of him be correct, nourished at Ravenna about 1550, called Don Pietro da Bagnaia, a canon of the Lateran. In the church of his order he painted the altar-piece of S. Sebastian; in the Refectory, the scriptural history of the Loaves and Fishes, besides leaving in another place a history-piece of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, abounding in figures equal to the preceding. To these, enumerated by Orlandi, may be added the picture of Padua, with the Virgin between St. John the Baptist and St. Augustine, executed for the church of S. Giovanni di Verdara; in the sacristy of which is a Holy Family by him, imbued with all the graces of Raffaello in every feature and action, but sadly wanting in strength and harmony of colouring. There is another Holy Family at the Lateran Friars in Asti, on a larger scale, designed and composed with equal grace, but with similar feebleness of tints, even more lifeless; and to both pieces is appended an inscription, entreating the beholder to pray for the soul of the painter. I am not aware whether this worthy ecclesiastic was in Ravenna in 1547, at the period of Vasari's visit thither, but the latter makes no mention of his name.

Yet he mentioned, among the excellent artists who still flourished there, Luca Longhi, whose ability in the essentials of the art is highly praised. He regrets, however, that he should always have resided in his native place, which had he left for objects of improvement, he might have become a very distinguished artist. He was a good portrait-painter, and produced a great number of pictures for Ravenna. Some, too, he sent elsewhere, and they are met with at San Benedetto in Ferrara, in the Abbey at Mantua, in that of Praglia near Padua, at S. Francesco in Rimini, with the date of 1580, in Pesaro, and other places. They are chiefly composed in the ancient manner, but on comparing some of the earlier with those that follow, a more modern air is perceptible, a circumstance attributed by Vasari to his own conversations with the artist. Longhi's style, however, was opposed to that of Vasari, being very correct and highly finished; his conceptions sweet, varied, and graceful; with a powerful union of colours; more nearly resembling Innocenzo da Imola, if I mistake not, than any other artist of the times, though inferior to him in point of grandeur and beauty. Luca's most perfect pictures that I have met with in Ravenna are those of S. Vitale, of S. Agata, of S. Domenico, all with a representation of the Virgin between two or more saints, and with some graceful cherubs playing above. There are others more laboured, which please us less, and demonstrate that to succeed in grand compositions, it is previously necessary to have studied the great schools. Luca had a daughter, named Barbara, yet a child at the period when Vasari published his work, but who had begun to paint "with a tolerable degree of grace and manner." From the hand of this lady there is only a single specimen remaining in public. Respecting a son of Luca, named Francesco, the historian is wholly silent, being, doubtless, at the time he wrote, still younger than his sister, but who became an artist in maturer years. In 1576 he produced a picture for the church of the Carmine, and there are accounts of him, even down to 1610. He chiefly pursued the steps of his father, though he is more common in his countenances, and more feeble in point of colouring, which he copied rather from Vasari.

Francesco Scannelli mentions a pupil of Raffaello at Cesena[TN5], omitted by all other historians, named Scipione Sacco. He painted a picture of S. Gregory for the cathedral of Cesena, in a grand style,[17] and the Death of St. Peter the Martyr for the church of S. Domenico. Doubtless he was of Raffaello's school, and not remembered out of Romagna.

While the family of the Longhi was employed at Ravenna, that of the Minzocchi, which was surnamed San Bernardo, was distinguishing itself at Forli. Francesco, called also the elder di S. Bernardo, studied the works of Palmigiani in his native place; and there remain pictures conducted in his youth, but feeble in point of design, such as his Crucifixion at the Padri Osservanti. But under Genga, according to Vasari, and, as some writers add, under Pordenone, he changed his manner, assuming a more correct style, graceful, animated, and of an expression which looks like nature herself in these his subsequent productions. Among the works he executed with most care are two lateral pictures at the cathedral of Loreto, in a chapel of S. Francesco di Paola. These consist of a Sacrifice of Melchisedec, and the miracle of the Manna, in which the prophets and the principal characters boast all the dignity and nobleness of drapery becoming the school of Pordenone. The crowd, however, is represented in the most popular features and attitudes, sufficient almost to excite the envy of Teniers, and the most natural artists of the Flemish school. His delineations in these pictures, of numerous and various animals, are expressed to the life, with baskets and different utensils like reality, though the attempt to excite our mirth in treating serious subjects has a bad effect. Scannelli extols a specimen of his works in fresco at S. Maria della Grata in Forli, representing the Deity on the ceiling, surrounded by a number of angels; figures full of spirit, majestic, varied, and painted with a power and skill of foreshortening, which entitles him to greater celebrity than he enjoys. He left a variety of productions, likewise, at S. Domenico, at the cathedral, and at private houses in his native place, where such is his reputation, that on the chapels being taken down, his least celebrated frescos were carefully cut out, and replaced elsewhere. Among his sons and pupils were Pietro Paolo, mentioned also by Vasari, and Sebastiano, both artists of the same natural style, not very select, with little relief, and mediocrity of invention. To Pietro Paolo belong several figures at the Padri Francescani at Forli, of feeble execution; and to Sebastiano a picture at S. Agostino, composed in 1593 in the ancient taste, and of a style like his other works, inferior to the character of his age.

Subsequent to the elder Minzocchi, Forli produced two other artists deserving commemoration; namely, Livio Agresti, conspicuous in the histories of Vasari and Baglione, as a daring designer, a copious composer, and universal in point of manner; the other, Francesco di Modigliana, an artist of more limited genius, but still deserving to be known. Of Livio, I spoke in the third epoch of the Roman School, to which, as pupil to Perino, and resident in Rome, where he was employed at the Castello, in the Vatican, at S. Spirito and elsewhere, he doubtless belongs. His native place, however, seems to have culled the fairest fruit of his labours, Rome possessing nothing nearly so Raffaellesque, as are his Scriptural Histories in the public palace at Forli. Nor ought we to pass over that finely decorated chapel in the cathedral, where he represented the Last Supper, with some majestic figures of the prophets upon the ceiling; a work that for depth and intricacy of perspective yields in nothing to Minzocchi. I shall not stop to inquire, with Malvasia, whether having gone to Rome in a moment of disgust and in haste, instead of there advancing himself, he wholly failed; but of this I am convinced, that his history in the Cappella Paolina, is by no means his masterpiece.

Francesco di Modigliana is said to have been pupil to Pontormo, in whose school he almost fills the same rank as Bronzino in that of Florence; not remarkably powerful, nor always consistent with himself, but very graceful and beautiful, and deserving a place in our pictoric Lexicons, where his name is wanting. His works at Urbino consist of those which are pointed out under the name of Francesco da Forli; a picture of Christ taken down from the cross, in oil, at S. Croce; and some angels in fresco at S. Lucia; productions much commended, and resembling in style his best at the Osservanti in Forli, and at the Rosario in Rimini. Here, perhaps, he most distinguished himself; in his picture of Adam driven from Eden, his Deluge, the Tower of Babel, with similar histories already treated by Raffaello at Rome, and by Agresti in Forli, from imitating whom, if I mistake not, he greatly improved and advanced himself. Dying suddenly he left his work imperfect, afterwards continued by Gio. Laurentini, called Arrigoni, who painted the Death of Abel at the same place.

After Bartolommeo da Rimini, who inclined more towards the modern than the ancient style, I find no other artist of celebrity in that city besides Arrigoni. Even his name has not been recorded by Orlandi, nor by his continuator. He diligently employed himself in his native place, and two of his pictures representing martyrdoms, met with surprising success; one of St. John the Baptist, at the Augustine friars, and another of the Saints John and Paul, at the church bearing their name. Yet they do not display that beau ideal, so attractive at that period in the productions even of the inferior disciples of the Roman School; but they convey the impression of grand compositions, a vivacity of action, a boldness of hand, a splendor in the retinue of horse and arms, and military ensigns, calculated to compete with the chief part of the painters employed at Rome in the service of Gregory and of Sixtus.

Faenza, too, at the opening of this epoch, boasted her Jacopone, or Jacomone, of whom we treated among the assistants of Raffaello, and among the masters of Taddeo Zuccaro. Vasari makes brief mention and smaller account of this artist; recording only one of his productions, the tribune of S. Vitale at Ravenna, and which has ceased to exist. In the cupola of the church, however, subsequently repainted by another hand, there were visible, in the time of Fabri, author of "Ravenna Ricercata," (researches in that city) several figures of saints richly apparelled, bearing this inscription: "Opus Jacobi Bertucci et Julii Tondutii Faventinorum. Pari voto f. 1513."[18] At present I no longer doubt but that under this Jacopo was concealed the name of Jacopone di Faenza, though according to Orlandi they were two several painters, and though it has never occurred to Baldinucci and Bottari, and other writers of pictoric history, to unite them into one. My conjecture is founded upon a picture which I saw in the church of the Dominican nuns in Faenza, representing the Birth of the Virgin, with the name of Jacopo Bertucci of Faenza, and dated 1532. It is a work which arrests the eye by its resemblance to the style of Raffaello, though his harmonious gradations have not been well observed, and the colouring inclines more to the strong than to the beautiful. The women busied about the couch of St. Anne are beautiful, graceful, and animated figures, and there are some animals, and in particular a fowl, which a Bassano himself would not have been sorry to have painted. Now what other Jacopo of Faenza could in the year 1532, have painted in this style, with more shew of reason and probability than Jacopone da Faenza, whose family would here appear to be discovered?

The same city possesses a variety of other pieces by this Bertucci, and in the soffitto of S. Giovanni, various histories, both of the Old and New Testament, were pointed out to me as his. There too are several of inferior character attributed to another Bertucci, his son, an artist who in his heads repeats the same idea, even to satiety. Still his merit ought not, I think, to be estimated from a single work, but rather from some pictures cited by Crespi.[19] One of these is the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, animated and high toned in its colours, beautiful in point of design and character, and worthy of decorating the Ercolani collection at Bologna. Upon it is inscribed "Bertucius pinxit, 1580." The other is at the Celestini of Faenza, a singular work, as Crespi denominates it, from which he appears to have learnt the proper name of this younger Bertucci, whom he calls Giambatista. Baldinucci treats of Jacopone at the commencement of his fifth volume, and on the credit of Count Laderchi, he enumerates his different paintings, which then remained at Faenza. Of his surname he mentions nothing; nothing of his altar-piece of the Nativity; nothing of S. Vitale; nothing of the son, or the other artist of Faenza lately alluded to. He adds, that works of Jacopone were to be seen up to the year 1570, but I believe these last to have belonged to the son, inasmuch as the father, at the period when Vasari wrote, was already deceased. Other pictures by this artist are mentioned, painted in glowing and attractive colours, and in particular the Baptizing of Christ, preserved in the public collection, valuable from its giving the epoch of 1610, which must have been towards the close of his days.

By Giulio Tonduzzi there is pointed out at Ravenna the Stoning of St. Stephen, on the large altar of a church consecrated to that saint, a beautiful picture, but not indisputably proved to be his. I conjecture it to be a copy of the St. Stephen that decorates the church of Faenza, in which the whole style of Giulio Romano is apparent; so much so, that it has been attributed to him, a mistake arising from resemblance of names; but Tonduzzi is known to have been Giulio's pupil. I omit other productions of this excellent artist, though I ought to notice, that in the soffitto of S. Giovanni, he also painted several sacred histories, in competition with all the first artists, who then flourished at Faenza, on which account that very cultivated city has preserved the whole of these paintings, although much defaced by age, in the Lyceum collection, belonging to the commune, mentioned in other places. I also find one M. Antonio da Faenza, commended by Civalli for a very excellent picture, possessing fine relief, at the church of the Conventuali of Monte Lupone, in the Marca, dated 1525. Contemporary with these must have been Figurino da Faenza, enumerated by Vasari among the best disciples of Giulio Romano, though I meet with no mention of him elsewhere. It is conjectured, however, with good reason, that Figurino was only a surname given to Marc Antonio Rocchetti, a painter of great reputation at Faenza, who in youth took great delight in minute drawing, producing, among other pieces, little histories of St. Sebastian, for the ornament of that church, now destroyed, when they came into possession of various individuals who treasure them up in the present day. In maturer years he enlarged his manner, attaching himself to the imitation of Baroccio, which he did with a simplicity of composition and sweetness of tints, that made him conspicuous in different churches which he adorned, as we may gather from the picture of the titular Saint at S. Rocco, with the year 1604, the latest period which we find mentioned on his productions. In the Communal collection, also, there is seen a picture of the Virgin, known in Faenza under the name of the Madonna of the Angels, with a St. Francis, a holy bishop, and two portraits below. It bears the inscription, M. Antonius Rochettus Faventinus pingebat, 1594. It was requisite to mention this picture, which I find extolled above all other specimens that have remained. The name of Niccolo Paganelli, before unknown to us, is also met with in the Oretti correspondence, contained in a letter of Zanoni, which we cite in treating of Benedetto Marini. He is supposed to have been a good pupil of the Roman School, and some attribute to him the fine picture of S. Martino, in the cathedral of Faenza, the supposed work of Luca Longhi. His genuine pictures are recognized by the initials N.+P.

Subsequent to the period of Jacopone, who never acquired fortune, Marco Marchetti greatly distinguished himself. So at least he is named by Baglione, or Marco da Faenza, according to Vasari, who observes that he was "particularly experienced in regard to frescos; bold, decided, terrible; and especially in the practice and manner of drawing grotesques, not having any rival then equal to him." Nor perhaps has any artist since appeared who equals him in this respect, and in happily adapting to grotesques little histories, full of spirit and elegance, and with figures which form a school for design. Such is the Slaughter of the Innocents, in the Vatican. He succeeded Sabbatini in the works of Gregory XIII. and entered the service of Cosmo I. for whom he decorated the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence. He painted little in his own country, though a few pieces in oil are still pointed out, and an arch in a public way, with festoons of flowers, monsters, and capricci, resembling the work of an ancient artist. The whole reminds us of mythology and erudition, while at subsequent periods it became customary in this kind of painting to dare every extravagance and excess. Perhaps his most finished piece adorns the Communal collection, representing the Feast of Christ in the house of the Pharisee. His death occurred in 1588. Contemporary with him flourished Gio. Batista Armenini, also of Faenza, an able artist, and author of the "True Precepts of Painting,"[20] published at Ravenna in 1587, a work that re-appeared in the ensuing century at Venice. In fact Armenini was a better theorist than a practitioner; nor has he any production in his native place, except a large picture of the Assumption, on which he inscribed Jo. Bapt. Armenini primiliæ, meaning, that it was among the first, or perhaps the very first altar-piece which he ever painted. Perotti, the author of certain Farragini,[21] which are still preserved in the library of the Seminary at Faenza, there observes, that Armenini was a pupil of Perin del Vaga. Nor is there a great interval between him and Cristoforo Lanconello, an artist of Faenza, first discovered to us in the letter of Crespi, just before cited. He is celebrated for his picture in the Casa Ercolani, in which the Virgin appears crowned with a glory, attended by Saints Francis and Chiara, and two more; a work displaying great freedom of hand, beauty of colouring, fine airs of the heads, and altogether in the composition of Barocci.

We must not take our leave of the Cinquecentisti[22] without first noticing a cavalier of Faenza, who flourished till the year 1620, in which he died at the age of 83. His name was Niccolo Pappanelli, and such was his enthusiasm for the art, that he attended all the most distinguished masters then in vogue at Rome. On his return to his native place, he produced, along with some pieces of mediocrity, a few of an exquisite character, such as his picture of S. Martino at the cathedral, so well executed in point of design, force of colouring, and expression, as to be truly admirable. He, too, attempted to follow in the track of Barocci.

Other artists of Romagna, belonging to this period, are treated of in the schools where they chiefly flourished, such as Ingoli of Ravenna, at Venice, Zaccolini of Cesena at Rome, and Ardente, a native of Faenza, in Piedmont.

[11] In [vol . iv. p. 47].

[12] Foreshortening figures; here meant on a ceiling.

[13] This worthy writer would appear to have been aware that he sometimes exceeded due bounds. In the course of that work we meet with other expressions highly creditable to Vasari; and it is well known, that having spoken contemptuously of Raffaello, by designating him boccalaio Urbinate, the potter of Urbino, because some vases there had been painted from his designs, "he repented of the expression so much as to lead him to erase it from as many copies of the work as he could meet with." Lett. Pitt. vol. vii. p. 130.

[14] In the original the term used for these cotton merchants is bambagiai.

[15] In the Italian called promassaro.

[16] See [vol . iv. p. 43.]

[17] On this picture is inscribed, Cæsenas, 1545. Oretti, Memorie, MSS.

[18] Sig. Abbate Zannoni, a librarian in Faenza, assisted by Sig. Zauli, a distinguished professor of design in that Lyceum, has made some clever remarks upon that school. They observe that this date of Fabri must be erroneous, it not being possible for Jacopone to have commenced painting in 1513, and much less Tonduzzi, pupil to Giulio Romano, probably, in Mantua: I suspect that the order of the last two figures should be inverted, so as to read 1531.

They inform me that I was misled in supposing the picture of the Dominican Nuns to be from the hand of Jacopone, its great height preventing me from distinguishing the name. It belongs to his nephew and pupil, Gian Batista, and thus resembles his style, though coloured with stronger tints in the taste of Titian, whom he is known to have greatly consulted in after years. Other pictures of Jacopone might be cited, that still exist, but injured by time and by retouches of other destroyers. Yet, they continue, all are surpassed by a figure that was placed at the Celestini, and is now in the general collection. It represents St. John pointing out to the ecclesiastic who ordered the picture, the Virgin crowned, between Saints Celestino and Benedetto; a grand piece wonderfully preserved, formed upon the composition of Raffaello, and coloured after Titian. On the right side is written, "F. Jo. Bapt. Para Brasius hoc opus ob devotionem fieri jussit anno domini 1565:" (the most assured epoch of his life;) and on the left hand, "Et semper Jacobius Bertusius F. (for Faventinus) invicto tandem Momo faciebat." Who this Momo was, against whose desire (since we must read invito) he completed the picture, I know not; whether a painter, or perhaps a friar, whom Jacopone's dilatoriness had offended, and who wished to substitute another artist, in which good office he did not succeed.

[19] Lettere Pittoriche, vol. vii. p. 66.

[20] Veri Precetti della Pittura.

[21] A mixture of all styles and subjects

[22] Artists of the fifteenth century.

BOLOGNESE SCHOOL.

EPOCH III.

The Caracci, their Scholars, and their Successors, until the time of Cignani.

To write the history of the Caracci and their followers would in fact be almost the same as to write the pictoric history of all Italy during the last two centuries. In our preceding books we have taken a survey of almost every school; and everywhere, early or late, we have met with either the Caracci or their pupils, or at least with their successors, employed in overthrowing the ancient maxims, and introducing new, until we reach the period when there was no artist who, in some respect or other, might not be said to belong to their school. Now, as it is grateful to the traveller, after long following the course of some royal river, to ascend still higher to its source, so I trust it will, in like manner, prove delightful to my readers, to be here made acquainted with those principles that conferred this new style upon the world of art, and in a short time filled with its specimens, and took the lead of every individual school. What, in my opinion, too, is still more surprising is, that it should owe its origin to Lodovico Caracci, a young artist, who appeared of a slow, inactive intellect in early years, and better adapted to grind colours than to harmonize and apply them. He was advised, both by Fontana, his master at Bologna, and by Tintoretto[TN6], who directed his studies in Venice, to adopt a new profession, as quite unqualified for the art of painting; his fellow pupils likewise bantering him with the epithet of the ox, in allusion to his extreme dulness and tardiness. Indeed, every thing seemed to conspire to discourage him; he alone did not despair; from the obstacles he had to encounter he only gathered courage, and inducements to rouse, not to alarm himself. For this, his dilatory character, did not spring from confined genius, but from deep penetration; he shunned the ideal of the art as a rock on which so many of his contemporaries had suffered shipwreck; he pursued nature every where; he exacted of himself a reason for every line he drew; and considered it the duty of a young artist to aim only at doing well, until at length it grows into a habit, and such habit assists him in expediting his work.

Resolute, then, in his purpose, after having studied the best native artists in Bologna, he proceeded to do the same under Titian and Tintoretto at Venice. Thence he passed to Florence, and improved his taste from the pictures of Andrea, and the instructions of Passignano. At that period, the school of the Florentines had attained to that crisis, described in treating of its fourth epoch. Nothing could be more advantageous to young Lodovico than to observe there the competition between the partizans of the old and the new style; nor could there be better means of ascertaining the causes of the decline, and of the revival of the art. Such a scene was assuredly of the greatest use to him, though hitherto not much noticed, in attempting the reform of painting, and carrying it to a higher degree of perfection. The most eminent Florentines, with the view of improving the languid colouring of their masters, turned to the models of Coreggio and his followers; and their example, I am of opinion, induced Lodovico to leave Florence for Parma, where, observes his historian, he wholly devoted himself to that master and to Parmigianino. On his return to Bologna, although well received and esteemed as a good artist, he soon became aware that a single individual, so reserved and cautious as he was, could ill compete with an entire school; unless, following the example of Cigoli at Florence, he were to form a party among the rising pupils at Bologna.

In the first instance, he sought support in his own relatives. His brother Paolo cultivated the art, but was deficient both in judgment and in ability, and calculated only to execute with mediocrity the designs of others. On him he placed no reliance, but a good deal on two of his cousins. He had a paternal uncle named Antonio, by profession a tailor, who educated his two sons, Agostino and Annibale, at home. Such was their genius for design, that Lodovico was accustomed to say in his old age, that he had never had, during his whole professional career, a single pupil to equal them. The first devoted his attention to the goldsmith's art—always the school of the best engravers; the second was at once the pupil and assistant of his father in his calling. Though brothers, their dispositions were so opposite, as to render their society insufferable to each other, and they were little less than enemies. Accomplished in letters, Agostino always sought the company of learned men; there was no science on which he could not speak; at once a philosopher, a geometrician, and a poet; of refined manners, ready wit, and averse to the pursuits of the crowd. Annibale, on the contrary, neglected letters, beyond the mere power of reading and writing, while a natural bluntness of manner inclined him to taciturnity, and when compelled to speak, it was mostly in a satirical, contemptuous, or disputing tone.

On devoting themselves, at the suggestion of Lodovico, to the pictoric art, they still found themselves opposed to each other in genius, as they were in manners. Agostino was timid, and extremely select, backward in resolve, difficult to please himself, and was never aware of a difficulty that he did not encounter, and attempt to vanquish it. Annibal, in common with numbers of artificers, was an expeditious workman, intolerant of doubts and delays, eagerly seeking every remedy for the intricacies of the art, trying the most easy methods, and to perform much in little time. Had they indeed fallen into other hands, Agostino would have become a new Samacchini, Annibal a new Passerotti; and painting would have owed no improvement to their efforts. But their cousin's fine judgment led him, in their education, to imitate Isocrates, who, instructing Ephorus and Theopompus, was accustomed to say, that he was compelled to apply spurs to the one, and a rein to the other. With similar views he consigned Agostino to Fontana, as an easy and rapid master, and retained Annibal in his own studio, where works were carried to higher perfection. By such means too he kept them apart, until riper age should by degrees remove the enmity subsisting between them, and convert it into a bond of amity, when devoted to the same profession, they might unite their capital, and mutually assist each other. In a few years he succeeded in reconciling them, and in 1580 he placed them at Parma and at Venice, of which an account has been given under those schools. During this period Agostino collected materials for his varied learning, and enlarged his design; and as before leaving Bologna he had made great progress in engraving under Domenico Tibaldi, he continued in Venice to practise it under Cort with such success, as to excite his master's jealousy, who drove him, but in vain, from his studio; for Agostino was already esteemed the Marc Antonio of his time. Annibal, devoted to a single aim, both at Parma and Venice continued to paint, availing himself of the works and conversation of illustrious men, with whom at that period the Venetian School abounded. It was then, or shortly subsequent, that he executed his beautiful copies of Coreggio, Titian, and Paul Veronese; in whose taste he also conducted some small pictures. Several specimens of these I saw in possession of the Marchese Durazzo at Genoa, displaying opposite, but very graceful styles.

Returning accomplished artists into their native place, they struggled long and nobly with their fortunes. Their first undertakings consisted of the exploits of Jason, in a frieze of the Casa Favi; these, though conducted with the assistance of Lodovico, were vituperated with excessive scorn by the old painters, as deficient both in elegance and correctness. To this censure, the credit of these masters who had flourished at Rome, who were extolled by the poets, adorned with diplomas, and regarded by the declining age as pillars of the art, seemed to give weight. Their disciples echoed their words, and the crowd repeated them; and such murmurs proceeding from a public, gifted with as much volubility in conversation as would suffice for purposes of declamation or controversy elsewhere, wounded the feelings of the Caracci, overwhelmed and depressed them. I was informed by the accomplished Cav. Niccolò Fava, that Lodovico's change of fortune, along with that of his cousins, occurred on an occasion, and at a period little differing from the above; which is supported by a tradition to the same effect. The two cousins had executed the frieze in the same hall where Cesi adorned another, in opposition to it, with histories of Æneas, which we have already mentioned, (p. 74). The work, conducted in the old style, was certainly beautiful, but Lodovico, in the new, painted another chamber with other histories, twelve in number, of Æneas, of which mention is made in the Guide of Bologna, (p. 14); histories in no way inferior to those in the Casa Magnani. Here was the beginning of the Caracci's fortune, and of the fall of the old masters, Bologna at length preparing to do justice to the worth of that divine artist, and to verify in respect to Cesi that sentence of Hesiod, of which, to the best of my ability, I here offer a version from the Greek, as follows:

Folle chi al più potente fa contrasto!
Che perde la vittoria; e sempre al fine,
Oltra lo scorno, di dolor si è guasto!
Opera V. 210.

Fool, that will dare to cross the path of one
More powerful! and ever to the loss
Of victory, at last add scorn and grief.

It was now that the Caracci, more than ever confident in their style, answered the voice of censure only by works full of vigour and nature, opposed to the works of older masters, feeble and void of truth. By such means that revolution of style which had so long been meditated, at length took place; but it became necessary, in order to accelerate it, to bring over the students of the art to their party, the better to insure the hopes of a new and improved era. This too the Caracci achieved, by opening an academy of painting at their house, which they entitled Degli Incamminati, supplying it with casts, designs, and prints, in the same manner as those of their rivals; besides introducing a school for the drawing of the naked figure, and for the study of anatomy and perspective: in short, every thing requisite to the art; directing the whole with a skill added to a kindness that could not fail to procure it abundance of pupils. In particular, the fiery temper of Dionisio Calvart contributed to fill it, who, being in the habit of striking, and even wounding his disciples, drove Guido, Albano, and Domenichino, to transfer their talents to the studio of the Caracci. Panico too entered it from the school of Fontana, and from all sides the best young artists assembled, drawing after them fresh ranks of students. Finally, the other academies were closed; every school was left to solitude; every name gave way before that of the Caracci; to them the best commissions, to them the meed of praise were accorded. Their humbled rivals soon assumed another language, especially when the grand hall of Magnani was thrown open, presenting the wonders of the new Carraccesque art. It was then Cesi declared that he would become a disciple of the new school; and Fontana only lamented that he was too grey-headed to keep pace with it, while Calvart alone, with his usual bravado, ventured to blame the work, being the last of all to recant, or at least to become silent.

It is now time to record the pursuits and the maxims of an academy, which, besides educating many illustrious pupils, perfected the art of their masters; and confirmed the axiom, that the shortest method of learning much is that of teaching. The three brothers were on the most perfect understanding as to the art of teaching, as free from venality as from envy; but the most laborious branches of the professorship were sustained by Agostino. He had drawn up a short treatise of perspective and architecture, from which he expounded to the school. He explained the nature of the bones and muscles, designating them by their names, in which he was assisted by Lanzoni the anatomist, who also secretly provided the school with bodies for such dissections as were required. His lectures were sometimes founded upon history, at others upon fictions; and these he illustrated, and offered for designs, which being exhibited at stated intervals, were examined by skilful judges, who decided upon their respective merits; as we gather from a ticket written to Cesi, one of the arbiters. The meed of fame was sufficient for the crowned candidates, round whom the poets collected to celebrate their name; with whom Agostino enthusiastically joined both with harp and voice, applauding the progress of his scholars. These last were likewise instructed in true criticism, and to give due praise or blame to the works of others; they were also taught to criticise their own works, and whoever could not give good reasons for what he had done, and defend his own work, must cancel it upon the spot. Each, however, was at liberty to pursue what path he pleased, or rather each entered upon that to which nature had best adapted him, which gave rise to so many original manners from the same studio; yet each style was to be founded upon reason, nature, and imitation. In all more doubtful points, recourse was had to the opinion of Lodovico; the cousins presided over the daily exercises of design, full of assiduity, industry, and perseverance. Even the recreations of the academicians had a view to art; to draw landscapes from nature, or to sketch caricatures, were the customary amusements of Annibale and the disciples of the school, when they wished to relax from study.[23]

The maxim of uniting together the study of nature, and the imitation of the best masters, already touched upon in the outset of this book, formed the real foundation of the school of Caracci; although they took care to modify it according to particular talents, as we have seen. Their object was to collect into one whatever they found most valuable in other schools, and in this process they observed two methods. The first resembles that of the poets, who, in several Canzoni, propose different models for imitation; in one, for instance, borrowing from Petrarch, in another from Chiabrera, in a third from Frugoni. The second method is like that of those, who, being masters of these three styles, form and harmonize them into one, like Corinthian metal, composed of various other kinds. Thus the Caracci, in some of their compositions, were accustomed to present different styles in a variety of different figures. So Lodovico, in his Preaching of St. John the Baptist, at the church of the Certosini (where Crespi is especially opposed to Paul Veronese), has exhibited the audience of the saint in such a manner that a judge described them by these names:—the Raffaellesque, the Tizianesque, and the imitator of Tintoretto. Annibal too, who had long admired only Coreggio, having finally adopted Lodovico's maxim, painted his celebrated picture for the church of St. George, where, in his figure of the Virgin, he imitated Paolo; in that of the Divine Infant and St. John, Coreggio; in St. John the Evangelist he exhibited Titian; and in the very graceful form of St. Catherine, the sweetness of Parmigianino. Most generally, however, they pursued the second path, and still more examples might be adduced of less apparent and more free and mixed imitations, so modified as to produce a whole of a perfectly original character. And the ingenious Agostino, emulating the ancient legislators, who embodied all their laws in a few verses, composed that very picturesque, rather than poetical sonnet, in praise of Niccolino Abati, but which also well explains the maxim of their school, in selecting the peculiar merits of each different style. It has been handed down to us by Malvasia, in his life of Primaticcio, and runs as follows:—

Chi farsi un buon pittor brama e desia
Il disegno di Roma abbia alla mano,
La mossa coll'ombrar Veneziano,
E il degno colorir di Lombardia;
Di Michelangiol la terribil via,
Il vero natural di Tiziano,
Di Coreggio lo stil puro e sovrano,
Di un Raffael la vera simmetria;
Del Tibaldi il decoro e il fondamento,
Del dotto Primaticcio l'inventare,
E un po' di grazia del Parmigianino:
Ma senza tanti studii e tanto stento
Si ponga solo l'opre ad imitare
Che qui lasciocci il nostro Niccolino.

To paint for fame, who nurtures high desire,
Will Rome's design keep ever in his view;
To the Venetian shade and action true,
Of Lombardy's whole colouring never tire;
Kindle at Michael's terrors, and his fire,
Seize Titian's living truth, who nature drew;
Allegri's pure and sovereign graces too;
To heavenly Raphael's symmetry aspire:
Tibaldi's solid sense, appropriate air,
And Primaticcio's learn'd inventive thought,
With Parmigiano's graceful sweetness fraught.
And should all these ask too much studious care,
Turn to our Niccolino's bright display
Of wondrous works, the envy of his day.

It is not easy to ascertain how far the Caracci may have carried this project, though it must always reflect the highest degree of credit upon them to have executed it in a superior manner to all other artists. In the outset they most felt their deficiency in their imitation of the antique, called by Agostino the design of Rome. He and Annibal, however, while residing there as strangers, in some measure reproduced and restored it to Roman artists themselves; and Lodovico, though remaining at Bologna, shewed that he was by no means unacquainted with it. At first, observes Mengs, they devoted much study to Coreggio, both in their ample outline and in their general design, although they did not observe the same exact equilibrium in their concave and convex lines, but rather affected the latter. There were other points which they did not attempt to include in such imitation, as in the shortening of the heads, and exhibiting them so very frequently with that smile so much repeated by the Parmigiani, by Barocci, and Vanni. They took their heads from life, and improved upon them by general ideas of the beautiful. Hence Annibal's Madonnas, many of them of a small size on copper, exhibit a peculiar and original beauty derived from his studies; and the same may be said of Lodovico, who, in his softer heads, often gives the portrait of a lady named Giacomazzi, celebrated for her beauty at that time. The Caracci were extremely well-grounded in a knowledge of anatomy, and of the naked figure; and it would be manifest injustice not to give them credit for due estimation of Michelangiolo, whom they also imitated. One of them indeed is known to have said, with some acrimony towards the rival school, that Bonarruoti ought to have covered his bones with a little flesh, in the manner of their own Tibaldi. It is true they availed themselves less of the naked form in composition than the Florentines, though more largely than the other schools. In their costume, they were not so anxious to observe the exactness and richness of Paul Veronese, as the grandeur of his folds and form; nor did any other school give more ample flow of drapery, or arrange it with dignity more suitable to the figures.

Yet Mengs denies that they were consummate colourists, though they studied the Lombard and Venetian schools, an opinion confirmed by Lodovico's paintings in oil, which are faded and almost gone. This arose, either from the nature of his grounds, from too abundant use of oil, or from not allowing due time between preparing his canvass and colouring it. The same remark will not apply to his frescos, which, on a near view, exhibit a boldness of hand equal almost to Paolo's; nor, in the opinion of Bellori, was there any work which, in point of colouring, reflected higher credit on the Caracci, and on the age, than their pictures in the Casa Magnani. They boast a truth, force, mixture, and harmony of colours, such as to entitle them also in this portion of the art to the praise of being reformers of the age. They effectually banished those wretched yellows, and other weak, washy tints, introduced from parsimony, in place of the azures and different colours of higher price. In this Bellori accords most merit to Annibal; declaring it was owing to him that Lodovico himself renounced his first method of colouring, which was formed on that of Procaccini.

In action and expression they aimed at vivacity, but without ever losing sight of propriety, of which they were extremely observant; and to which they were ready to sacrifice any of the graces of the art. In taste of invention and composition, they come near that of Raffaello. The Caracci were not lavish of their figures, conceiving twelve sufficient for any historical piece, except in crowds, or in battle-pieces, where they were still moderate, in order to give greater relief to particular groups. That they were competent to compose with judgment, learning, and variety, is fully apparent from their sacred histories represented on altars, where they avoided, as much as possible, the very trite representation of a Madonna between various saints. This truth is still more remarkably shewn in their profane histories, and in none better than those of Romulus, in the family just before mentioned. The three relations there appear universal in the art, as perspective, landscape, and ornamental painters, masters of every style, and concentering in one point of view whatever is most desirable in any single work. The three artists seem to disappear in one; and the same is observed also in several galleries and churches of Bologna. They followed the same maxims, and in the same studio designed in union with one another, conferring and taking measures how best to complete every work in hand. In several instances it still remains matter of doubt whether pictures are to be attributed to Annibal or to Lodovico; and the three scriptural histories of the Sampieri, in which the three relations wished to display their respective powers, do not exhibit a diversity which might essentially characterize their respective authors. Some indeed there are who may detect in Lodovico a more general imitation of Titian, than is observable in the cousins, Agostino inclining more to the taste of Tintoretto, Annibal to that of Coreggio. It has sometimes been remarked that the figures of the first of the three are light in form, those of the third, robust; while those of Agostino hold a middle rank. At Bologna I found Lodovico enjoying most repute for a certain elevation and grandeur; Agostino for his inventive powers; Annibal for grace. Every one must judge, however, according to his own views. It is now my duty to consider these separately.

Lodovico, doubtless, rises into the sublime in many of his works at Bologna. His picture of the "Probatica" so excellent both in point of architecture and the design of the figures; that of S. Girolamo, who, suspending his pen, turns towards heaven with a look and gesture so truly impressive and dignified; his Limbo of holy fathers, which, as if to renew his delight in it, he repeated in the cathedral of Piacenza, and sketched also under a Crucifixion at Ferrara: these have ever been regarded in that school as models of the sublime. Nevertheless, if we examine the "Assumption," at the Teresiani, the "Paradise," at the Barnabiti, or the "S. George," in which is represented that admirable virgin, who is seen seized with terror in the act of flight, it will be allowed that Annibal himself could not have exhibited more grace in his drawing of young maidens or of boys. More excelling, therefore, than great, Lodovico may be said to be transcendant in every character; and it would even seem that he had aimed at this boast in the two frescos that have perished, with which he decorated, at S. Domenico, the chapel of the Lambertini. In one he exhibited the holy founder, with S. Francis, in a manner very easy and pleasing to the eye, with few lights and as few shades, but both powerful, and with few folds in the drapery; the countenances full of piety; insomuch that the whole performance, in the words of Malvasia, "rose to a pitch of grandeur not to be excelled." In the other piece he represented "Charity," in a style equally soft, graceful, and polished, and which was subsequently, says the historian, esteemed "the model and the rule of modern painting." He proceeds to relate, that Albani, Guido, and Domenichino all derived their sweetness from this source, in the same way, most probably, that Cavedoni took his first style from the S. Domenico; and from his Paul at the Conventuali Guercino acquired his grand power of chiaroscuro. In short, if we may give credit to history, Lodovico in his own school ranks like Homer among the Greeks, fons ingeniorum. Individual artists in him have recognized what constituted the character of their own knowledge, because in every branch of painting he was truly profound.[24]

The masterly dignity of his character appears to most advantage in the cloister of S. Michele in Bosco, where, assisted by his pupils, he represented the actions of St. Benedict and St. Cecilia in thirty-seven separate histories. By his hand is the Conflagration of Mount Cassino, and some other portions; the remaining parts are by Guido, by Tiarini, by Massari, by Cavedoni, by Spada, by Garbieri, by Brizio, and other young artists. These paintings have been engraved, and are worthy of the reformers of that age. On beholding what we may term this gallery by different hands, we should be almost inclined to bestow upon the school of Lodovico this trite eulogy; that from it, as from the Trojan horse, there issued only princes. What does him still more honour is, that his relatives themselves, down to the least and last, uniformly venerated him as a preceptor, insomuch that Annibal, on the completion of the Farnese gallery, invited him to Rome, as the adviser, arbiter, and umpire of that work. He remained there less than two weeks, and then returning to his beloved Bologna, he survived Agostino seventeen years, and Annibal ten. Being separated from the two cousins, he employed himself at an advanced age in a manner less studied, but still exemplary and masterly. Nor ought a few slight inaccuracies of design to detract from the praise due to him, inaccuracies which he fell into about this period, as in the drawing of the hand of the Redeemer, in the act of calling St. Matthew to follow him, or in the foot of the Madonna of the Annunciation painted at S. Pietro, a fault which he saw too late, and it may be added, for which he died of affliction. Other less well founded criticisms advanced against him by a traveller have been fully rebutted and confuted by the Can. Crespi.[25]

Agostino, occupied for the most part in engraving, painted but little, this employment supplying him at once with the means of subsistence, and of shining in the class of artists. Doubtless painting here sustained a loss, deprived of a genius equally calculated as his relations to promote the art. His powers of invention surpassed those of the other Caracci, and many rank him foremost in point of design. It is certain that in his engraving he corrected and improved upon the outlines of his originals. On his return from Venice he applied himself more effectually to colouring, and succeeded in that of a horse, so far as to deceive the living animal, a triumph so much celebrated in Apelles. He once competed with his brother Annibal for an altar-piece intended for the church of the Carthusians. His design was preferred; and it was then that in his Communion of S. Girolamo he produced one of the most celebrated pictures of which Bologna can boast. Nothing can be imagined finer than the expression of devotion in the aged saint, the piety of the priest at the communion, the looks of the spectators, who support the dying, who catch his last accents, committing them instantly to writing, lest they escape; countenances finely varied and animated, each breathing and speaking, as it were, peculiar mind. On its first exhibition, the pupils thronged around the picture to make their studies, insomuch that Annibal, urged by jealousy, assumed more of his brother's taste, becoming more select and slow, contriving further to addict his brother to engraving; a plan in which he succeeded. He returned, as a painter, to Rome; and the fine representation of Poetry, so much admired in the Farnese gallery, was, in great part, owing to his talent; and the same may be said of the fables of Cephalus and Galatea, exquisitely graceful productions, which seem dictated by a poet, and executed by a Greek artist. Hence it was rumoured that in the Farnesian paintings the engraver had surpassed the painter; at which Annibal, no longer able to subdue his envy, removed his brother from the undertaking under a variety of false pretences; nor was any humility on the part of Agostino, any advice of his elders, or any mediation of the great, sufficient to appease him. Quitting Rome, Agostino entered into the service of the Duke of Parma, for whom he painted Celestial Love, Terrestrial Love, and Venal Love, to adorn one of the halls, a very beautiful work, which he terminated only just before his death. A single figure remained wanting, and this the duke would never consent to have supplied by any other hand. At the point of death he was seized with lively remorse, on account of his many licentious engravings and prints, and even wept bitterly. At that period he designed a picture of the Last Judgment, which, however, he was unable to complete. In the account of his funeral, and in the oration recited on that occasion by Lucio Faberio, mention is made of a head of Jesus Christ, in the character of the universal judge, painted at that time, though unfinished, upon a black ground. Such a head is pointed out in the Albani palace at Rome, and duplicates exist elsewhere. In the features we see exhibited all that is at once most majestic and most terrible within the limits of the human imagination.

Annibal was greatly celebrated in Lombardy in every peculiar taste which he chose to pursue. In his earliest works Mengs declares that he traces the appearance, but not the depth and reality of Coreggio's style; but it is an appearance so extremely plausible, that it compels us to pronounce him one of the most perfect imitators of that consummate master. His Taking down from the Cross, at the church of the Capuccini in Parma, may challenge the most distinguished followers of the Parmese School. His picture of S. Rocco is still more celebrated, comprising the perfections of different artists, a piece engraved in aqua forte by Guido Reni. It was executed for Reggio, thence transferred to Modena, and from the last place to Dresden. He represented the saint, standing near a portico on a basement, and dispensing his wealth to poor mendicants; a composition not so very rich in figures as in knowledge of the art. A throng of paupers, as different in point of infirmity as in age and sex, is admirably varied, both in the grouping and the gestures. One is seen receiving with gratitude, another impatiently expecting, a third counting his alms with delight; every object is misery and humiliation, and yet every thing seems to display the abundance and dignity of the artist. But proceeding to Rome in the year 1600, he entered on another career; "he checked his fire," observes Mengs, "he improved the extravagance of his forms, imitated Raffaello and the ancients, retaining at the same time a portion of the style of Coreggio to support dignity." (Tom.ii. p. 19.) Albano makes use of nearly the same words in a letter given by Bellori, (p. 44,) adding, that Annibal, in the opinion of competent judges, "far surpassed his cousin, from a knowledge of the works of Raffaello, in addition to that of the most beautiful ancient statues." He was there employed in various churches, though his crowning effort, and nearly the whole foundation of the art, as restored by his means, are to be sought for in the Farnese palace. The subjects were selected by Monsig. Agucchi; and together with the allegories may be read in Bellori. In a small chamber he gave representations of the Virtues, such as his Choice of Hercules, Hercules sustaining the World, Ulysses the Liberator; in the gallery various fables of Virtuous Love, such as those of Arion and Prometheus; with others of Venal Love, among which a wonderful figure of a Bacchanal is one of the most conspicuous. The work is admirably distributed and varied with ovals, cornices, and with a variety of ornamental figures, sometimes in stucco, at others in chiaroscuro, where the effect of his assiduous studies of the Farnesian Hercules is very apparent, as well as of the torso of the Belvidere, which he accurately designed, without even having the model before him. The whole of the other parts breathe Attic elegance combined with Raffaellesque grace, and imitations not only of his own Tibaldi but of Bonarruoti himself, no less than all the sprightly and the powerful added to the art by the Venetians and Lombards. This was the earliest production, where, as in Pandora's box, all the geniuses of the Italian schools united their several gifts; and in its fit place I described the astonishment created by it at Rome, with the revolution it occasioned in the whole art.

On account of this work he is ranked by Mengs next after the three leading masters in the fourth degree, and even esteemed supereminent in regard to the form of his virile figures. Poussin asserts, that after Raffaello there were no better compositions than these, and he prefers the decorative heads and figures already mentioned, with the other naked forms, in which the artist was said to have surpassed himself, even to his fables so beautifully painted. To him Baglione refers the method of colouring from nature, which was nearly lost, as well as the true art of landscape-painting, afterwards imitated by the Flemish. To these might likewise be added the use of caricatures, which no one better than he knew how to copy from nature, and to increase with ideal power. In the Roman galleries many of Annibal's pictures are to be met with, conducted in this new style; and there is one in the Lancellotti palace, small, and painted a colla,[26] rivalling, I had almost said, the best pieces of Ercolani. It is a Pan teaching Apollo to play upon the pipe; figures at once designed, coloured, and disposed with the hand of a great master. They are so finely expressive, that we see in the countenance of the youth, humility, and apprehension of committing an error; and in that of the old man, turning another way, peculiar attention to the sound, his pleasure in possessing such a pupil, and his anxiety to conceal from him his real opinion, lest he might happen to grow vain.[27]

No other pieces so exquisitely finished are found by his hand at Bologna, where there prevails the same strong party, commenced in the time of the Caracci, and which prefers Lodovico to Annibal. When we reflect that Annibal, in addition to the patrimony left by his school, conferred upon it the riches which the genius of the Greeks, throughout many ages and many places had collected to adorn their style; when we reflect on the progress, which, on observing his new style at Rome, was made by Domenichino, Guido, Albano, Lanfranco, with the new light which it afforded to Algardi, according to the supposition of Passeri, in respect to sculpture, and the improvement which by his means took place in the very pleasing and attractive painting of Flanders and of Holland, we feel inclined to coincide with the general sentiment entertained beyond the limits of Bologna, that Annibal was the most eminent artist of his family. At the same time we may allow, that Agostino was the greater genius, and Lodovico, to whom we are indebted for both, the greater teacher of these three. As such, too, the learned Ab. Magnani, librarian and lecturer upon eloquence to the institution, assigns to him the office of teacher, in an able oration upon the fine arts, printed at Parma by Bodoni, along with others by the same author.

The three Caracci may be almost said to define the boundaries of the golden age of painting in Italy. They are her last sovereign masters, unless we are willing to admit a few of their select pupils, who extended that period during the space of some years. Excellent masters, doubtless, flourished subsequently; but after their decease, the powers of such artists appearing less elevated and less solid, we begin to hear complaints respecting the decline of the art. Nor were there wanting those who contended for a secondary age of silver, dating from Guido down to the time of Giordano, as well on account of the minor merit of the artists, as for the prices, so much greater than formerly, which Guido introduced into the art. The Caracci themselves had been only scantily remunerated. Count Malvasia admits this fact, not omitting to point out the small dwelling, and to describe the narrow circumstances in which Lodovico died, while his two relatives left the world still more impoverished than himself. The Caracci, moreover, did not, like other painters, leave legitimate sons to perpetuate their school; they never married, and were accustomed to observe that the art was sole partner of their thoughts. And this beloved mistress they adored and served with a love so passionate, as to abandon almost all worldly care for themselves. Even while sitting at their meals they had the implements of their art before them; and wherever they observed an action or gesture adapted to adorn it, they took instant note of it. And to this their free estate, more than to any other cause, were they indebted for their noble progress and improvement. Had they "taken to themselves a wife," how easily would their agreeable friendship and attachment, from which each of the three derived light and knowledge from the rest, have been broken in upon by tattling and trifles beneath their care. Most probably, too, it might have occasioned too great rapidity of hand, at the expense of study; such at least having been the result with regard to many, who, to indulge a woman's taste, or to provide for the wants of a family, have addicted themselves to carelessness and despatch. At the period, then, of the decease of the two cousins, and the advanced age of Lodovico, there remained of the family only two youths, one, named Francesco, at Bologna, the other, Antonio, in Rome.

Francesco was a younger brother of Agostino and Annibal. Confiding in his connexions and in his own talent, excellent in point of design, and reasonably good in colouring, he ventured to oppose a school of his own to that of Lodovico, his master, inscribing upon the door: "This is the true school of the Caracci." He enjoyed no reputation at Bologna, but was rather held in dislike, on account of his opposition to and detraction of Lodovico, to whom he owed what little he executed at that place, namely, an altar-piece, with various saints, at S. Maria Maggiore, the whole of which had been retouched by his kind and able cousin. Having gone to Rome, he was first received with applause, but becoming better known he was soon despised; and, without leaving a single specimen of his pencil, he died there in his twenty-seventh year, in the hospital. Antonio Caracci, a natural son of Agostino, and pupil to Annibal, was of a totally different disposition. Prudent, affectionate, and grateful to his relatives, he received Annibal's last sighs at Rome, bestowed upon him a splendid funeral in the same church of the Rotonda, where Raffaello's remains had been exhibited, and deposited his ashes at the side of that great artist. He survived, a valetudinarian, during some years, and died at the age of thirty-five, in Rome, where he left some works in the pontifical palace, and at S. Bartolommeo. They are rarely met with in cabinets, though I saw one in Genoa, a Veronica, in possession of the Brignole family. Bellori Had written his life, which, although now lost, leads to the supposition that he possessed great merit, inasmuch as that writer confined himself to the commemoration of only first rate artists. Baldassare Aloisi, called Galanino, a kinsman and scholar of the Caracci, yielded to few of his fellow-pupils in his compositions. His picture of the Visitation, at the church of the Carità in Bologna, so much extolled by Malvasia, to say nothing of various other pictures, executed at Rome, and favourably recorded by Baglione, affords ample proofs of it. His fortune, however, was not equal to his merit; so that he wholly devoted himself to portraiture, and as we have stated, in the Roman School, he there for some period boasted the chief sway in the branch of portraits, which were uniformly characterized by great power and strong relief.

Other Bolognese artists, educated in the same academy, took up their residence also at Rome, or in its state; nor were they few in number, since, as was observed in the fourth epoch of that school, they were received there with distinguished favour. We shall commence with the least celebrated. Lattanzio Mainardi, called by Baglione Lattanzio Bolognese, had visited Rome previous to Annibal, and in the pontificate of Sixtus V., conducted several works for the Vatican, which augured well of his genius, had he not died there very young; as well as one Gianpaolo Bonconti, at an age still more immature, having vainly followed his master to Rome, where he had only time to make a few designs, but conceived in the best taste. Innocenzio Tacconi was kinsman, according to some, and assuredly enjoyed the confidence of Annibale. From him he received designs and retouches, tending to make him appear a more considerable artist than he really was. To judge from some of his histories of St. Andrew, painted for S. Maria del Popolo, and S. Angiolo, in the fish-market, he may be said to have rivalled his best fellow-pupils. But abusing his master's goodness, and alienating his regard from Agostino, from Albano, and from Guido, by misrepresentations, he received the usual recompence of slanderers. Annibal withdrew his support, deprived of which he gradually became more and more insignificant. Anton Maria Panico early left Rome, and, entering the service of Mario Farnese, resided upon his estates, being employed in painting at Castro, at Latera, and at Farnese, in whose cathedral he placed his picture of the mass, to which Annibal also put his hand, even conducting some of the figures. Baldassare Croce is an artist enumerated by Orlandi among the pupils of Annibal; by Malvasia, among the imitators of Guido. Baglione describes him as superior in age to all three of the Caracci, introducing him into Rome as early as the times of Gregory. Towards reconciling the accounts of these writers, it might be observed, that continuing to reside at Rome, he may have taken advantage, as he advanced in age, of the examples afforded by his noble fellow-citizens. His style, from what we gather of it in the public palace of Viterbo, and a cupola of the Gesù, as well as from his large histories of S. Susanna, and other places in Rome, is easy, natural, and entitling him to the name of a good mechanist and painter of frescos, but not so easily to that of a follower of the Caracci. Gio. Luigi Valesio entered, though late, into the same school, and chiefly attached himself to engraving and to miniature. Proceeding to Rome, he was there employed by the Lodovisi under the pontificate of Gregory XV., and obtained great honours. We find him commended in the works of Marini and other poets, though less for the art, in which he only moderately excelled, than for his assiduity and his fortune. He was one of those wits, who in the want of sound merit know how to substitute easier methods to advance themselves; seasonably to regale such as can assist them, to affect joy amidst utter humiliation, to accommodate themselves to men's tempers, to flatter, to insinuate, and to canvass interest, until they attain their object. By means like these he maintained his equipage in Rome, where Annibal, during many years, obtained no other stipend for his honourable toils, than a bare roof for his head, daily pittance for himself and his servant, with annual payment of a hundred and twenty crowns.[28] In the few pieces executed by Valesio at Bologna, such as his Nunziata of the Mendicants, we perceive a dry composition of small relief, yet exact according to the method of the miniaturists. He appears to have somewhat improved at Rome, where he left a few works in fresco and in oil, exhibiting his whole power, perhaps, in a figure of Religion, in the cloister of the Minerva. To these artists of the Caracci school it will be sufficient only to have alluded. They were indeed no more than gregarious followers of those elevated standards of their age.

The five, however, who next follow, deserve a nearer view, and more accurate acquaintance with their merits. These, remaining indeed at Rome, became leaders of new ranks, which from them assumed their name and device; and hence we have alternately been compelled to record the disciples of Albano, of Guido, and so of the rest. This repetition, however, in other places, will now permit us to treat of them in a more cursory view.

Domenico Zampieri, otherwise Domenichino, is at this day universally esteemed the most distinguished pupil of the Caracci; and has even been preferred by Count Algarotti to the Caracci themselves. What is still more, Poussin ranked him directly next to Raffaello; and in the introduction to the life of Camassei, almost the same opinion is given by Passeri. During the early part of his career his genius appeared slow, because it was profound and accurate; and Passeri attributes his grand progress more to his amazing study than to his genius. From his acting as a continual censor of his own productions, he became among his fellow pupils the most exact and expressive designer, his colours most true to nature, and of the best impasto, the most universal master in the theory of his art, the sole painter amongst them all in whom Mengs found nothing to desire, except a somewhat larger proportion of elegance. That he might devote his whole being to the art, he shunned all society, or if he occasionally sought it in the public theatres and markets, it was in order better to observe the play of nature's passions in the features of the people;—those of joy, anger, grief, terror, and every affection of the mind, and to commit it living to his tablets; and thus, exclaims Bellori, it was, he succeeded in delineating the soul, in colouring life, and rousing those emotions in our breasts at which his works all aim; as if he waved the same wand which belonged to the poetical enchanters, Tasso and Ariosto. After several years' severe study at Bologna, he went to Parma to examine the beautiful works of the Lombards; and thence to Rome, where he completed his erudite taste under Annibal, who selected him as one of his assistants.

His style of painting is almost theatrical, and he in general lays the scene amidst some splendid exhibition of architecture,[29] which serves to confer upon his compositions a new and elevated character in the manner of Paul Veronese. There he introduces his actors, selected from nature's finest models, and animated by the noblest impulses of the art. The virtuous have an expression so sweet, so sincere, and so affectionate, as to inspire the love of what is good. And in the like manner do the vicious, with their guilty features, create in us as deep aversion to their vice. We must despair to find paintings exhibiting richer or more varied ornaments, accessaries more beautifully adapted, or more majestic draperies. The figures are finely disposed both in place and action, conducing to the general effect; while a light pervades the whole which seems to rejoice the spirit; growing brighter and brighter in the aspect of the best countenances, whence they first attract the eye and heart of the beholder. The most delightful mode of view is to take in the whole scene, and observe how well each personage represents his intended part. In general there is no want of an interpreter to declare what the actors think and speak; they bear it stamped upon their features and attitudes; and though gifted with audible words, they could not tell their tale to the ear, more plainly than they speak it to the eye. Surely, of this, we have proof in the Scourging of St. Andrew, at S. Gregorio, at Rome, executed in competition with Guido, and placed opposite to his St. Andrew, in the act of being led to the gibbet. It is commonly reported that an aged woman, accompanied by a little boy, was seen long wistfully engaged with viewing Domenichino's picture, shewing it part by part to the boy, and next turning to the history by Guido, she gave it a cursory glance, and passed on. Some assert, that Annibal, being acquainted with the fact, took occasion from the circumstance to give his preference to the former piece. It is moreover added, that in painting one of the executioners, he actually threw himself into a passion, using threatening words and actions, and that Annibal surprising him at that moment, embraced him, exclaiming with joy, "To-day, my Domenichino, thou art teaching me!" So novel, and at the same time so natural it appeared to him, that the artist, like the orator, should feel within himself all that he is representing to others.

Yet this picture of the Scourging is in no way to be compared with the Communion of S. Jerome, or to the Martyrdom of S. Agnes, and other works, conducted in his riper years. The first of these is generally allowed to be the finest picture Rome can boast next to the Transfiguration of Raffaello; while the second was estimated by his rival Guido at ten times the merit of Raffaello's own pieces.[30] In these church paintings one great attraction consists in the glory of the angels, exquisitely beautiful in feature, full of lively action, and so introduced as to perform the most gracious offices in the piece; the crowning of martyrs, the bearing palms, the scattering of roses, weaving the mazy dance, and waking sweet melodies. In the attitudes we often trace the imitation of Coreggio; yet the forms are different, and for the most part have a flatness of the nose, which distinguishes them, and gives them an air of comeliness. Much, however, as Domenichino delighted in oil-painting, he is more soft and harmonious in his frescos; some of which are to be seen, besides those in Naples, at Fano, but the greatest part of them were destroyed by fire. They consist of scriptural histories in a chapel of the cathedral; of mythological incidents in villa Bracciano, at Frascati; the acts of S. Nilo, at Grotta Ferrata; and various sacred subjects interspersed through different churches at Rome. In the corbels of the cupolas at S. Carlo a' Catinari, and at S. Andrea della Valle, he painted, at the former, the four Virtues, at the latter, the four Evangelists, still regarded as models after innumerable similar productions. At S. Andrea also are seen various histories of that saint in the tribune, besides those of St. Cecilia, at S. Luigi; others at S. Silvestro, in the Quirinal of David, and other scriptural subjects, which in point of composition and taste of costume are by some esteemed superior to the rest.

It seems almost incredible, that works like these, which now engage the admiration of professors themselves, should once, as I have narrated, have been decried to such a degree, that the author was long destitute of all commissions, and even on the point of transferring his genius to the art of sculpture. This was in part owing to the arts of his rivals, who represented his very excellences as defects, and in part to some little faults of his own. Domenichino was less distinguished for invention than for any other branch of his profession. Of this, his picture of the Rosary at Bologna affords an instance, which neither at that period nor since has been fully understood by the public; and it is known not to have pleased even his own friends, which led the author to regret its production. Diffident thenceforward of his powers in this department, he often borrowed the ideas of others; imitated Agostino in his St. Jerome, the S. Rocco, of Annibal, in his almsgiving of St. Cecilia; and even other less eminent artists; observing, that in every picture he found something good, as Pliny said, that from every book we may cull some useful information. These imitations afforded occasion for his rivals to charge him with poverty of invention, procuring an engraving of Agostino's St. Jerome, of which they circulated copies, denouncing Domenico Zampieri as a plagiarist. Lanfranco, the chief agent in these intrigues, exhibited on the contrary only his own designs, invariably novel, and made a display of his own celerity and promptness of hand, as contrasted with his rival's want of resolution and despatch. Had Domenichino enjoyed the same advantages of party as the Caracci in Bologna, which he well deserved, he would soon have triumphed over his adversaries, by proving the distinction between imitation and servility,[31] and that if his works were longer in being brought to perfection than his rival's, their reputation would be proportionally durable. The public is an equitable judge; but a good cause is not sufficient without the advantage of many voices to sanction it. Domenichino, timid, retired, and master of few pupils, was destitute of a party equal to his cause. He was constrained to yield to the crowd that trampled him, thus verifying the observation of Monsig. Agucchi, that his worth would never be rightly appreciated during his lifetime. The spirit of party passing away, impartial posterity has rendered him justice; nor is there a royal gallery but confesses an ambition for his specimens. His figure pieces are in the highest esteem, and fetch enormous prices. He is rarely to be met with except in capital cities; his David is a first rate object of inquiry to all strangers visiting the college of Fano, who have the least pretensions to taste; the figure of the king, as large as life, being of itself sufficient to render an artist's name immortal.

There is a small, but inestimable picture of St. Francis, that belonged to the late Count Jacopo Zambeccari, at Bologna. The saint is seen in the act of prayer, and by the animated and flushed expression of the eyes, it appears as if his heart had just been dissolved in tears. Two pictures, likewise beautifully composed, I have seen at Genoa; the Death of Adonis bewailed by Venus, in the Durazzo Gallery just before mentioned, and the S. Rocco in the Brignole Sale, offering up prayers for the cessation of the plague. The attitude of the holy man; the eagerness of those who seek him; the tragic exhibition of the dying and the dead around him; a funeral procession going by; an infant seen on the bosom of its dead mother, vainly seeking its wonted nutriment; all shake the soul of the spectator as if he were beholding the real scene. Among his pictures from profane history the most celebrated is his Chase of Diana, in the Borghesi Palace, filled with spirited forms of nymphs, and lively incidents. In the same collection are some of his landscapes, as well as in that of Florence; and some of his portraits in others. Here too he is excellent, but they are the least difficult branches to acquire. Respecting his other works, and the most eminent of his pupils, enough has been stated in the Roman and Neapolitan schools. He educated for his native place Gio. Batista Ruggieri; and to his numerous other misfortunes was added the pain of finding him ungrateful, after having rendered him eminent in his art. This pupil united with Gessi in quality of assistant; and as we shall shew, also took his denomination from him. Passeri dwells on this disappointment of Domenichino incidentally in his life of Algardi, (p. 198).

Next to Zampieri comes his intimate friend Francesco Albani, "who, aiming at the same object," observes Malvasia, "and adopting the same means, pursued the like glorious career." They agree in a general taste for select design, solidity, pathetic power, and likewise in their tints, except in Albani's fleshes being ruddier, and not unfrequently faded, from his method of laying on the grounds. In point of original invention he is superior to Domenichino, and perhaps to any other of the school; and in his representation of female forms, according to Mengs, he has no equal. By some he is denominated the Anacreon of painting. Like that poet, with his short odes, so Albani, from his small paintings, acquired great reputation; and as the one sings Venus and the Loves, and maids and boys, so does the artist hold up to the eye the same delicate and graceful subjects. Nature, indeed formed, the perusal of the poets inclined, and fortune encouraged his genius for this kind of painting; and possessing a consort and twelve children, all of surprising beauty, he was at the same time blest with the finest models for the pursuit of his studies. He had a villa most delightfully situated, which farther presented him with a variety of objects, enabling him to represent the beautiful rural views so familiar to his eye. Passeri greatly extols his talent in this branch, remarking, that where others, being desirous of suiting figures to the landscape, or its various objects to one another, most frequently alter their natural colour, he invariably preserves the green of his trees, the clearness of his waters, and the serenity of the air, under the most lovely aspect; and contrived to unite them with the most enchanting power of harmony.

Upon such grounds, for the most part, he places and disposes his compositions, although he may occasionally introduce specimens of his architecture, in which he is equally expert. His pictures are often met with in collections, or to speak more correctly, they re-appear, inasmuch as both he himself made repetitions, and practised his pupils in them, giving them his own touches. He exhibits few bacchanals, avoiding figures that had already been so admirably treated by Annibal in many of his little pictures, from which, if I mistake not, Albano drew the first ideas of his style; adapting it to his own talent, which was not so elevated as that of Annibal. His most favourite themes are the sleeping Venus, Diana in her bath, Danae on her couch, Galatea in the sea, Europa on the bull, a piece which is also seen on a large scale in the Colonna and Bolognetti collections at Rome, and in that of the Conti Mosca at Pesaro. How beautifully do those figures of the Loves throw their veil over the virgin, in order to protect her from the sun's rays, while others are seen drawing forward the bull with bands of flowers, or goading him in the side with their darts. At times he introduces them in the dance, weaving garlands, and practising with their bows at a heart suspended in the air for a target. Occasionally he conceals some doctrine, or ingenious allegory, under the veil of painting; as in those four oval pictures of the Elements in the Borghesi palace, which he repeated for the royal gallery at Turin. There too are Cupids seen employed in tempering Vulcan's darts; spreading their snares for birds upon the wing; fishing and swimming in the sea; culling and wreathing flowers, as if intended to represent the system of the ancients, who referred every work of nature to Genii, and with Genii accordingly peopled the world. To sacred subjects Albano devoted less attention, but did not vary his taste. The entire action of such pieces was made to depend on the ministry of graceful cherubs, in a manner similar to that which was subsequently adopted by P. Tornielli in his marine canzonettes, where, in every history of the Virgin and Holy Child, he introduces a throng of them as a sacred train. Another very favourite repetition of idea is that of representing the Infant Christ, with his eye turned towards Heaven upon the angels, some in the act of bringing thorns, some the scourge, some the cross, or other symbols of his future passion. There is a picture of this kind in Florence, to which I alluded in the Description of the ducal gallery, and it is also found somewhat varied in two fine pieces; one at the Domenicani in Forli, the other in Bologna, at the Filippini. These, and other works of Albani, interspersed throughout different cities, as in Matelica, in Osimo, in Rimini, besides his fresco paintings in Bologna, at S. Michele in Bosco, at S. Jacopo, of the Spaniards at Rome, with the design of Annibal; these sufficiently exhibit his superior talent for large paintings, although he applied himself with greater zest and vigour to those on a smaller scale.

Albani opened an academy for several years at Rome, and at Bologna, invariably a competitor of Guido, both in his magisterial and his professional capacity.[32] Hence arose those strictures upon his style which Guido's disciples affected to despise as loose and effeminate, wanting elegance in the virile forms, while those of the boys were all of the same proportion, and his heads of the Holy Family, and of saints had always one idea. Similar accusations, advanced likewise against Pietro Perugino, are not calculated to depress so great an artist's merit, so much as the esteem of Annibal, his own writings, and his pupils, serve to raise him in our regard. It is matter of historical fact that Annibal, seized with admiration of some of his small pictures, and among others a bacchante, seen at a fountain pouring out wine, purchased it, and declared that he had not even paid for the drops of water so exquisitely coloured by the wine. Of his writings there remain only a few fragments, preserved by Malvasia, not indeed reduced to method, a task that ought to devolve on some other pen, but highly valuable from the information and maxims which they contain. Among his pupils Sacchi and Cignani are in themselves sufficient to reflect credit upon their master, the first of whom sustained the art at Rome, the other at Bologna, and to whose efforts it was owing that its reputation so long continued in both those schools. There, moreover, we recounted the names of Speranza, and Mola, of Lugano, his noble disciples; and to these, besides Cignani, to whom we refer elsewhere, we can add a considerable number. Gio. Batista Mola, a Frenchman, long continued with Albano, and, according to Boschini, resided with the other Mola at Venice, where they copied a vast work of Paul Veronese for Cardinal Bichi. He displayed surprising skill in drawing rural scenes and trees, and being preferred by many in this branch to his master, he often added landscape to his master's figures, and occasionally adapted figures to his own landscape, very beautiful, in Albani's style, but without his softness. In the excellent collection of the Marchesi Rinuccini, at Florence, is a picture of the Repose in Egypt, by the same hand. Two other foreign pupils also did him credit; Antonio Catalani, called Il Romano, and Girolamo Bonini, also from his native place, entitled l'Anconitano, who, in imitating Albani, was equalled by few, and who enjoyed his perfect confidence and friendship. Settling at Bologna, they there employed themselves with reputation in some elegant works, and left several histories in fresco in the public palace. In this last branch, Pierantonio Torri also distinguished himself, called, in Guarienti's lexicon, Antonio, dropping Pietro on the authority of the Passagiere disingannato; and Torrigli, in the Guide of Venice, where he painted the architectural parts in the church of S. Giuseppe for the figures of Ricchi. Filippo Menzani is known only as the attached disciple and faithful copyist of his master. Gio. Batista Galli, and Bartolommeo Morelli, the former called from his birth-place, Bibiena, the latter Pianoro, were similarly employed in taking copies from him; though the second applied to it with extreme reluctance, on account of Albani being "too highly finished, diligent, and laborious, for the task of copying." Both these artists are commended by the continuator of Malvasia. Bibiena, though he died early, conducted works that might be ascribed to Albani, in particular the Ascension at the Certosa, and his St. Andrew at the Servi in Bologna. Pianoro succeeded admirably well in his frescos, more especially in the chapel of Casa Pepoli at S. Bartolommeo di Porta, decorated by him throughout in such exquisite taste, that, were history silent, it would be said to have been designed and coloured by Albani's own hand.

By some, Guido Reni is esteemed the great genius of the school; nor did any other single artist excite so much jealousy in the Caracci. Lodovico was unable to disguise it; and from a pupil he made him his rival, and in order to humble him, bestowed his favour on Guercino, an artist in quite another taste. Annibal too, after some years, on seeing him at Rome, blamed Albani for inviting him thither; and, in order to depress him, he put Domenichino in opposition to him. Even from the age of twenty, when he left the school of Calvart, the Caracci discovered in him a rare genius for the art, so elevated and ambitious of distinction, that he aspired to something great and novel from the outset of his career. Some of his early efforts are to be seen in the Bonfigliuoli palace, and in other choice collections, displaying a variety of manner. He devoted much study to Albert Durer, he imitated the Caracci, studied the forms of Cesi, and, like Passerotti, aimed at giving strong relief and accuracy to the drawing of the muscles. In some instances he followed Caravaggio, and in the aforesaid palace is a figure of a sibyl, very beautiful in point of features, but greatly overlaid with depth of shade. The style he adopted arose particularly from an observation on that of Caravaggio one day incidentally made by Annibal Caracci, that to this manner there might be opposed one wholly contrary; in place of a confined and declining light, to exhibit one more full and vivid; to substitute the tender for the bold, to oppose clear outlines to his indistinct ones, and to introduce for his low and common figures those of a more select and beautiful kind.

These words made a much deeper impression on the mind of Guido than Annibal was aware of; nor was it long before he wholly applied himself to the style thus indicated to him. Sweetness was his great object; he sought it equally in design, in the touch of his pencil, and in colouring; from that time he began to make use of white lead, a colour avoided by Lodovico, and at the same time predicted the durability of his tints, such as they have proved. His fellow pupils were indignant at his presuming to depart from the Caracci's method, and returning to the feeble undecided manner of the past century. Nor did he pretend to be indifferent to their remarks and advice. He still preserved that strength of style, so much aimed at by his school, while he softened it with more than its usual delicacy; and by degrees proceeding in the same direction, he, in a few years, attained to the degree of delicacy he had proposed. For this reason I have observed that in Bologna, more than elsewhere, his first is distinguished from his second manner, and it is made a question which of the two is preferable. Nor do all agree with Malvasia, who pronounced his former the most pleasing, his latter manner the most studied.

In these variations, however, he never lost sight of that exquisite ease which so much attracts us in his works. He was more particularly attentive to the correct form of beauty, especially in his youthful heads. Here, in the opinion of Mengs, he surpassed all others, and, according to Passeri's expression, he drew faces of Paradise. In these Rome abounds more richly than Bologna itself. The Fortune in the capitol; the Aurora, belonging to the Rospigliosi; the Helen to the Spada; the Herodias to the Corsini; the Magdalen to the Barberini, with other subjects in possession of several princes, are regarded as the wonders of Guido's art. This power of beauty was, in the words of Albano, his most bitter and constant rival, the gift of nature; though the whole was the result of his own intense study of natural beauty, and of Raffaello, and of the ancient statues, medals, and cameos. He declared that the Medicean Venus and the Niobe were his most favourite models; and it is seldom we do not recognize in his paintings either Niobe herself, or one of her children, though diversified in a variety of manner with such exquisite skill, as in no way to appear borrowed. In the same way did Guido derive advantage from Raffaello, Coreggio, Parmigianino, and from his beloved Paul Veronese; from all of whom he selected innumerable beauties, but with such happy freedom of hand as to excite the envy of the Caracci. And, in truth, this artist aimed less at copying beautiful countenances, than at forming for himself a certain general and abstract idea of beauty, as we know was done by the Greeks, and this he modulated and animated in his own style. I find mention, that being interrogated by one of his pupils, in what part of heaven, in what mould existed those wondrous features which he only drew, he pointed to the casts of the antique heads just alluded to, adding, "You too may gather from such examples beauties similar to those in my pictures, if your skill be equal to the task." I find, moreover, that he took for model of one of his Magdalens, the extremely vulgar head of a colour-grinder; but under Guido's hand every defect disappeared, each part became graceful, the whole a miracle. Thus too in his naked figures he reduced them, whatever they were, to a perfect form, more especially in the hands and feet, in which he is singular, and the same in his draperies, which he often drew from the prints of Albert Durer, enriching them, freed from their dryness, with those flowing folds or that grandeur of disposition best adapted to the subject. To portraits themselves, while he preserved the forms and age of the originals, he gave a certain air of novelty and grace, such as we see in that of Sixtus V., placed in the Galli palace at Osimo, or in that wonderful one of Cardinal Spada, in possession of some of his descendants at Rome. There is no one action, position, or expression at all injurious to his figures; the passions of grief, terror, sorrow, are all combined with the expression of beauty; he turns them every way as he lists, he changes them into every attitude, always equally pleasing, and every one equally entitled to the eulogy of displaying in every action, and in every step, the beauty which secretly animates and accompanies it.[33]

What most surprises us is the variety which he infuses into this beauty, resulting no less from his richness of imagination than from his studies. Still continuing to design in the academy up to the close of his career, he practised his invention how best to vary his idea of the beautiful, so as to free it from all monotony and satiety. He was fond of depicting his countenances with upraised looks, and used to say that he had a hundred different modes of thus representing them. He displayed equal variety in his draperies, though invariably preferring to draw the folds ample, easy, natural, and with clear meaning, as to their origin, progress, and disposition. Nor did he throw less diversity into the ornaments of his youthful heads, disposing the tresses, whether loose, bound, or left in artful confusion, always different, and sometimes casting over them a veil, fillet, or turban, so as to produce some fresh display of grace. Nor were his heads of old men inferior in this respect, displaying even the inequality of the skin, the flow of the beard, with the hair turned as we see on every side, and animating the features with a few bold, decided touches, and few lights, so as to give great effect at a distance, altogether with a surprising degree of nature; specimens of which are seen at the Pitti palace, the Barberina and Albana galleries; and yet among the least rare of this artist's productions. He bestowed similar attention to varying his fleshes; in delicate subjects he made them of the purest white, adding, moreover, certain livid and azure, mixed among middle tints, open to a charge, at least by some, of mannerism.[34]

The preceding commendations, however, will not extend to the whole of Guido's works. His inequality is well known, but not owing to any maxim of his art. It arose from his love of play, a failing which obscured his many moral qualities. His profits were great; but he was kept continually in a state of indigence by his losses, which he endeavoured to repair by the too negligent practice of his art. Hence we trace occasional errors in perspective, and deficiency of invention, a defect so much insisted upon by the implacable Albani. Hence too his incorrectness of design, the disproportion of his figures, and his works put to sale before their completion. Yet these are not excluded from royal cabinets, and that of Turin possesses one of Marsyas, a finely finished figure, before which is seen standing little more than the sketch of an Apollo. To form then a fair estimate of Guido, we must turn to other efforts which raised him to high reputation. Among his most excellent pieces I am of opinion that his Crucifixion of St. Peter, at Rome, is a specimen of his boldest manner; the Miracle of the Manna at Ravenna, the Conception at Forli, the Slaughter of the Innocents at Bologna; and there too his celebrated picture of Saints Peter and Paul in the Casa Sampieri. Specimens of his more tender manner may be found in the St. Michael at Rome, the Purification at Modena, the Job at Bologna, St. Thomas the Apostle at Pesaro, the Assumption at Genoa, one of Guido's most studied pieces, and placed directly opposite the St. Ignatius of Rubens.

Guido taught at Rome, and gave his pupils, as we have stated, to that city. He educated still more for his native place, where he opened a school, frequented by more than two hundred pupils, as we are informed by Crespi. Nor are we by this number to measure the dignity of his character as a master. He was an accomplished head of his school, who, in every place, introduced into the art a more sweet and engaging manner, entitled in the times of Malvasia the modern manner. Even his rivals took advantage of it, the fact being indisputable that Domenichino, Albano, and Lanfranco, along with their best disciples, derived that degree of delicacy, in which they sometimes surpass the Caracci, from none but Guido. He would not permit the scholars in his studio to copy in the first instance from his own works, but exercised them in those of Lodovico, and the most eminent deceased masters. It is conjectured also by Crespi, that he grounded his scholars in the principles of the art of imitation, and all the first requisites, without reference to the minutiæ, which are easily acquired in the course of practice. Guido particularly prided himself on Giacomo Semenza, and Francesco Gessi, whom he thought equal to any masters at that time in Bologna. He employed them in that chapel of the cathedral at Ravenna, a perfect miracle of beauty, and gave them commissions from the court of Mantua and Savoy, assisting them also, both at Rome and his native place; in return for all which he was repaid by Semenza with gratitude, but by Gessi with bitter persecutions. He was followed by both in point of style, and specimens are to be seen in some choice collections.

Semenza emulated Guido in both his manners, and displayed more correctness, erudition, and strength. His pictures at Araceli and other places sufficiently distinguish him from the immense crowd of fresco-painters at Rome. There too are many of his altar-pieces, none more beautiful, perhaps, than the S. Sebastian, at S. Michele in Bologna. Gessi surpassed him in spirit, invention, and rapidity, for which last quality even Guido envied him. This enabled him too, from the first, to vary his works in point of manner until he hit upon the right one, as in his very beautiful St. Francis at the Nunziata, little inferior to Guido, as well as in several others conducted in his earlier and best days. To these he was indebted for his name of a second Guido; but subsequently he abused his talents, as is the case with those who are held in slight esteem for performing much and rapidly. Thus Bologna abounds with his pictures, in which, with the exception of their fine character and much delicacy, there is nothing to commend; his pictures are cold, his colouring is slight; the shape and features are often too large, and not seldom incorrect. He is known to have invariably affected the second manner of Guido, and hence he is always more feeble, dry, and less harmonious than his master. By these distinctions are the differences between salesmen and purchasers usually decided, as to whether such a piece be a poor Guido or a Gessi.

Yet Gessi had a numerous school at Bologna, on Guido's retiring, and formed scholars of some reputation, such as Giacomo Castellini, Francesco Coreggio, and Giulio Trogli, who, devoting himself to perspective, under Mitelli, and publishing a work entitled Paradossi della Prospettiva, went ever afterwards by the name of the Paradox. Ercole Ruggieri was a faithful follower of Gessi's style, insomuch as at first sight to be mistaken for his master. He was called Ercolino del Gessi, and his brother Batistino del Gessi, an artist of rare talent, commended by Baglione, and much esteemed by Cortona, in whose arms he breathed his last. Batistino was first a pupil of Domenichino, as before mentioned; and might more properly be named dello Zampieri than del Gessi, from his education and his style. He accompanied Gessi to Naples, and subsequently became his rival, and surpassed him at S. Barbaziano in Bologna. Finally he fixed his residence at Rome, where remain some of his paintings in fresco, in the cloister of the Minerva, in the Cenci palace, and elsewhere, which shew in him the promise of a very distinguished artist; but he did not survive his thirty-second year.

To Guido Reni belongs Ercole de Maria, or da S. Giovanni, called Ercolino di Guido. So pliant was his genius to that of his master, that when the latter had half completed a picture, his pupil made a copy and substituted it for the original, and Guido continued the work, unsuspicious of the cheat, as if it had been his own. He willingly employed him, therefore, in multiplying his own designs, two of which copies are yet seen in public, extremely beautiful, though not displaying the same freedom as others which he conducted on private commission, at a more advanced age. In these there appears a decision and flow of pencil which imposed upon the best judges, a talent that procured him admiration at Rome, with an honour received by no other copyist, being created a Cavalier by Urban VIII.; but this artist also died in the flower of his age.

Another good copyist and master of Guido's style appeared in Gio. Andrea Sirani. On his master's death he completed the great picture of St. Bruno, left unfinished at the Certosini, with others throughout the city in the same state. Whether owing to Guido's retouches, or want of freedom, Sirani's earliest works bear much resemblance to that master's second manner, more particularly his Crucifixion in the church of S. Marino, which seems like a repetition of the S. Lorenzo in Lucina, or that in the Modenese gallery, in whose features death itself appears beautiful. In progress of time Sirani is supposed to have aimed at the stronger style of Guido in his early career, and conducted in such taste are his pictures of the Supper of the Pharisee, at the Certosa, the Nuptials of the Virgin, at St. Giorgio, in Bologna, and the Twelve Crucifixions, in the cathedral of Piacenza, an extremely beautiful painting, ascribed by some to Elisabetta Sirani, a daughter and pupil of Gio. Andrea.

This lady adhered faithfully to Guido's second manner, to which she added powerful relief and effect. She is nearly the sole individual of the family, whose name occurs in collections out of Bologna. Anna and Barbara, her two sisters, also artists, as well as their father himself, yield precedence to her single name. How surprising that a young woman, who survived not her twenty-sixth year, should have produced the number of paintings enumerated by Malvasia, still more that she should execute them with so much care and elegance; but most of all, that she could conduct them on a grand scale and in histories, with none of that timidity so apparent in Fontana, and in other artists of her sex. Such is her picture of Christ at the River Jordan, painted for the Certosa; her St. Antony, at S. Leonardo, and many other altar-pieces in different cities. In the subjects which she most frequently painted by commission, she still improved on herself, as we perceive in her Magdalens and figures of the Virgin and infant Christ, of which some of the most finished specimens are in the Zampieri, Zambeccari, and Caprara palaces, as well as in the Corsini and Bolognetti collections at Rome. There are also some small paintings of histories on copper, extremely valuable, from her hand, as that of Lot, in possession of Count Malvezzi, or the St. Bastian, attended by S. Irene, in the Altieri palace; the former at Bologna, the latter at Rome. I have also discovered some portraits, no unfrequent commissions which she received from a number of sovereigns and innumerable distinguished personages throughout Europe. Of this class I saw a singularly beautiful specimen at Milan, being her own likeness crowned by a young cherub. It is in the possession of Counsellor Pagave. Elisabetta died by poison, administered by one of her own maids, and was bewailed in her native place with marks of public sorrow. She was interred in the same vault which contained the ashes of Guido Reni. Besides her two sisters, who imitated her in the art, were many other ladies; Veronica Franchi, Vincenzia Fabri, Lucrezia Scarfaglia, Ginevra Cantofoli; of which last, as well as of Barbara Sirani, there remain some fine pictures, even in some churches of Bologna.[35]

Among the Bolognese pupils of Guido, Domenico Maria Canuti obtained great celebrity. He was employed by the Padri Olivetani, (an order the most distinguished for its patronage of first rate artists,) in several monasteries, more particularly at Rome, Padua, and Bologna, whose library and church he decorated with numerous paintings. One of these, the Taking down from the Cross by torch-light, is greatly admired, several copies of which are met with, in general called the Night of Canuti; also a St. Michael, painted in part within the arch, and in part on the exterior, is considered a rare triumph of the power of perspective. His entire work in that library was afterwards described and printed by the Manolessi. He left immense works also in two halls of the Pepoli palace, in the Colonna gallery at Rome, in the ducal palace at Mantua, and elsewhere, being esteemed one of the best fresco painters of his time. His fertility and vivacity please more than his colouring, while his individual figures are, perhaps, more attractive than the general effect of the picture. He was excellent too in oil, and succeeded admirably in copying Guido, whose Magdalen of the Barberini was taken so exactly, that it appears the best among all the copies seen at S. Michele in Bosco. Canuti opened school at Bologna; but his pupils, during his tour to Rome, attached themselves chiefly to Pasinelli, in whose school, or in that of Cignani, they will be found included during the last epoch.

Other of Guido's scholars are indicated by Malvasia, among whom he highly extols Michele Sobleo, or Desubleo, from Flanders, though resident at Bologna. But he left little in public there, and that is a mixture of Guercino and of Guido. Several churches at Venice were decorated by his hand, and the altar-piece at the Carmelite friars, representing also various saints of that order, is among his most celebrated works. From the same country was Enrico Fiammingo, whom we must not confound with Arrigo Fiammingo, an artist made known to us by Baglione. Both fixed their abode in Italy, and the follower of Guido, formerly pupil to Ribera, painted some pictures at S. Barbaziano in Bologna, that may compete with those of Gessi, were it not for the fleshes being of a darker tinge. A few pictures by another foreigner are preserved at the Capuccini and elsewhere; his name, Pietro Lauri, or rather De Laurier, a Frenchman, whose crayons were frequently retouched by Guido, and whose oil pictures also shew traces of the same hand. Respecting another, whose name only remains, it will be sufficient to mention an altar-piece of the Magdalen, placed in the oratory of S. Carlo, at Volterra, relating to which is a letter of Guido to the Cav. Francesco Incontri, stating that he had retouched it, particularly in the head; but that, with the aid of Guido's design, it was painted by the Signor Camillo. He is said to have been a member of that noble family, of whom memorials have been preserved by his house.

Returning to the Bolognese artists, Gio. Maria Tamburini will be found to hold a high rank, the author of many fresco histories in the portico of the Conventuals, and of the Nunziata at the Vita, a very graceful painting drawn from his master's sketch. Yet he was surpassed by Gio. Batista Bolognini, by whose hand there is a S. Ubaldo at S. Gio. in Monte, altogether in the style of Guido. This artist had a nephew and pupil in Giacomo Bolognini, who painted large pictures and capricci, and is mentioned by Zanotti and Crespi. Bartolommeo Marescotti is hardly deserving notice; at S. Martino he appears only as a hasty imitator, or rather a corrupter of the Guido manner. Mentioned, too, by various writers, is a Sebastiano Brunetti, a Giuliano Dinarelli, a Lorenzo Loli, and in particular a Pietro Gallinari, on whom his master's predilection conferred also the name of Pietro del Sig. Guido. His earliest pieces, retouched by Reni, are held in high esteem, and others which he produced for the court, and in various churches at Guastalla, are valuable. He was an artist of the noblest promise, but cut off prematurely, not without suspicion of poison.

Many foreigners who acquired the art from Guido, particularly at Bologna, were dispersed throughout various schools, according to the places where they resided; such were Boulanger, Cervi, Danedi, Ferrari, Ricchi, and several more. Two artists who chiefly dwelt in Bologna and Romagna in high esteem, I have reserved for this place, named Cagnacci and Cantarini. Guido Cagnacci, referred by Orlandi to Castel Durante, though the Arcangelesi more properly claim him for their fellow-citizen, was a rare exception to Italian artists, in having sought his fortunes in Germany, where he was highly deserving of the success he met with at the court of Leopold I. What he has left in Italy, such as his St. Matthew and St. Teresa, in two churches of Rimini, or the Beheading of St. John, in the Ercolani palace at Bologna, shew him to have been a diligent and correct, as well as a refined artist, in his master's latest style. Malvasia was of opinion that he carried the colour of his fleshes, now rather faded, somewhat too high; to others it appeared that he drew the extremities too small in proportion to his figures; while some have remarked a capricious degree of freedom, shewn in sometimes representing his angels at a more advanced age than was customary. All, however, must acknowledge Guidesque beauties apparent in every picture, added to a certain original air of nobility in his heads, and fine effect of his chiaroscuro. His pictures for the most part were painted for the ornament of cabinets, such as are seen in the ducal gallery at Modena, and in private houses. There is his Lucretia in the Casa Isolani, and his magnificent David, which is esteemed one of the noblest pieces, in possession of the princes Colonna; two pictures abundantly repeated both in the Bolognese and Roman Schools, and of which, indeed, I have seen more copies than even of the celebrated David by Guido Reni.

Simone Cantarini da Pesaro became an exact designer under Pandolfi, greatly improved in the school of Claudio Ridolfi, and by incessant study of the Caracci engravings. For colouring he studied the most eminent Venetian artists, and, more than all, the works of Barocci. In one of his Holy Families he shews great resemblance to this last artist, a picture preserved in Casa Olivieri, along with several others, and some portraits, of different taste, but by the same hand. This was caused by the arrival of the grand pictures by Guido, of St. Thomas at Pesaro, and the Nunziata, and the St. Peter, in the adjacent city of Fano, after which he so wholly devoted himself to the new style, as to induce him to emulate, and, if possible, to attempt to surpass that artist. In the same chapel where Guido placed his picture of St. Peter receiving the Keys, Simone displayed his miracle of the Saint at the Porta Speciosa, where he so nearly resembled, as to appear Guido himself; and even in Malvasia's time, foreigners were unable to detect any difference of hand. It is certain he possessed much of that artist's more powerful manner, which is shewn in his principal picture; the heads very beautiful and varied, the composition natural; fine play of light and shade, except that the chief figure of his history is too much involved in the latter. The better to approach his prototype, Simone proceeded to Bologna, and became Guido's disciple, affecting at first much humility and deference, while he artfully concealed the extent of his own skill. Then gradually developing it, he soon rose in high esteem, no less with his master than the whole city, aided as he was by his singular talent for engraving. Shortly he grew so vain of his own ability, as to presume to censure not only artists of mediocrity, but Domenichino, Albano, and even Guido. To the copies made by the pupils from their master's pieces, he gave bold retouches, and occasionally corrected some inaccuracy in their model, until at length he began to criticise Guido openly, and to provoke his resentment. Owing to such arrogance, and to negligence in executing his commissions, he fell in public esteem, left Bologna for some time, and remained like a refugee at Rome. Here he studied from Raffaello, and from the antique, then returned and taught at Bologna, whence he passed into the Duke of Mantua's service. Still to whatever country he transferred his talents, he was accompanied by the same malignant disposition; a great boaster, and a despiser of all other artists, not even sparing Giulio and Raffaello, insomuch that the works could not be so greatly esteemed as the man was detested. Incurring also the duke's displeasure, and not succeeding in his portrait, his pride was so far mortified as to throw him ill, and passing to Verona, he there died, aged 36, in 1648, not without suspicion of having been poisoned, no very rare occurrence with defamers like him.

Baldinucci, supported by most of the dilettanti, extols him as another Guido; and assuredly he approaches nearer to him than to any other, and with a decision which belonged to few imitators. His ideas are not so noble, but in the opinion of many they were even more graceful. He is less learned, but more accurate; and may be pronounced the only artist who in the hands and feet very assiduously studied the manner of Lodovico. He was extremely diligent in modelling for his own use, and one of his heads in particular is commended, from which he drew those of his old men, which are extremely beautiful. From the models, too, he derived his folds, though he never attained to the same majestic and broad sweep as Guido and Tiarini, a truth which he as candidly admitted. In point of colouring he is varied and natural. His greatest study was bestowed upon his fleshes, in which, though friendly to the use of white lead, he was content with moderate white, avoiding what he called the cosmetics of Domenichino and the shades of the Caracci. In his outlines and shadows, dismissing the use of the lacca and terra d'ombra,[36] he introduced ultramarine and terra verde, so much commended by Guido. He animated his fleshes with certain lights from place to place, never contrasting them with vivid colours, except in as far as he frequently studied to give them from depth of shadow, that relief which serves to redouble their beauty. If there was nothing decidedly bold in his painting, yet he covered the whole with an ashy tone, such as Guido applied in his St. Thomas, and which became so perfectly familiar to Cantarini as to acquire for him from Albani the surname of pittor cenerino. Spite of this opinion, however, he is considered by Malvasia as the most graceful colourist, and he adds, the most correct designer of his age. His most beautiful pictures that I have seen, in which his heads of saints are always conspicuous for beauty and expression, are the St. Antony, at the Franciscans di Cagli; the St. James, in the church of that name in Rimini; the Magdalen, at the Filippini of Pesaro; and, in the same city, his St. Dominick, at the Predicatori; in whose convent are also two Evangelists, half-size figures, animated to the life. There is also a S. Romualdo, in possession of the noble Paolucci, a figure that seems to start from the canvass, and at the Casa Mosca, besides various other works, is a portrait of a young nun that rivets every beholder. Many of his Holy Families also are to be seen in Bologna, in Pesaro, and at Rome; nor are his heads of St. John very rare, any more than his half-figures, or heads of apostles, a specimen of which is to be seen in the Pitti palace.

Simon Cantarini educated a few of his fellow-citizens to the art. One of these was Gio. Maria Luffoli, many of whose paintings, which display the school, are to be met with in his native place, particularly at S. Giuseppe and at S. Antonio Abate. Gio. Venanzi (or Francesco) had been already instructed by Guido, when he entered the school of Cantarini, though he resembles neither of these masters so nearly as he does the Gennari. When we inspect the two beautiful histories of St. Antony, in the church of that name, we might pronounce him their disciple. An ancient MS. of Pesaro, edited along with the pictures of the city,[37] places him at the court of Parma, most probably for the purpose of decorating the palace, there being nothing from his hand in the churches. In the same MS. mention is made of Domenico Peruzzini, as born at Pesaro, and the pupil of Pandolfi. In Orlando's Lexicon and other books there is frequent mention made of one Cav. Giovanni, and he is given out as belonging to Ancona, and a disciple of Simone. The Pesarese Guide, in which the very diligent Can. Lazzarini indisputably took part, informs us that these artists were brothers, both born at Pesaro, and that they transferred their services to Ancona, their adopted country, (p. 65). From the dilettanti of Ancona I could gather tidings of only one Peruzzini; and I doubt whether his being named Domenico by the author of the MS. may not have arisen from mistake, as he proceeds to relate matters chiefly appertaining to Giovanni. However this be, there is a picture of S. Teresa by Peruzzini at the Carmelite Friars in Ancona, bearing some traces of Baroccio's manner. That of the Beheading of St. John, at the hospital, is extremely beautiful; and here he appears rather a disciple of the Bolognese. He seems to have displayed a similar character elsewhere; it being known that this artist, after forming a style participating of those of the Caracci, of Guido, and of Pesarese, took to a wandering life, and painted in various theatres and churches, if not with much study, with tolerable correctness, a knowledge of perspective, in which he was excellent, and with a certain facility, grace, and spirit, which delight the eye. His paintings are dispersed through various places in the Picenum, even as far as Ascoli on the confines, where are a number of works by his hand. There are some at Rome and at Bologna, where he painted in the cloister of the Servi a lunette,[38] very fairly executed within twenty-four hours; at Turin, where he was made a cavalier; and in Milan, where he died. At Rome are some specimens too from the hand of his son and pupil, Paolo, entitled in the aforesaid MS. a good and decided painter.

An undoubted scholar of Simone was Flamminio Torre, called dagli Ancinelli, who came from the studio of Cavedone and Guido. His chief talent consisted in an easy perfect imitation of every style, which brought him as high a price for his copies as was given for the originals of eminent artists, sometimes even more. Though not learned in the theory of the art, by his practical ability he acquired the manner of Cantarini, dismissing, however, his ashy colour, and often turning to the imitation of Guido. He was court-painter at Modena; and at Bologna in particular are preserved both scriptural and profane histories, displaying very pleasing figures as large as Poussin, or on the same scale. Some I saw in possession of Monsig. Bonfigliuoli, others in the collection of the librarian Magnani; and some still more firm, and in the best style of colouring, in the Ratta palace. Yet we rarely meet with them uninjured by the use of rock oil, which he carried to excess; and his church paintings, such as a Depositing from the Cross at S. Giorgio, as they have been least attended to, have suffered the most. On the death of Simone, as his first pupil, he succeeded to his magisterial office, and promoted the progress of the scholars whom he left. Girolamo Rossi succeeded better in engraving than in painting. Lorenzo Pasinelli became an excellent master, but of a different style, as we shall see in another epoch. The most eminent among Torre's disciples was Giulio Cesare Milani, rather admired in the churches of Bologna, and extolled in many adjacent states. But it is now time to turn our attention from Guido and his disciples to Guercino, which will afford the same pleasure, I trust, to my readers, as the dilettanti enjoy, in beholding two styles, so strikingly opposed, immediately contrasted. In a similar manner, to adduce an instance taken from the Spada Gallery, it yields delight to turn our eye from Guido's Rape of Helen to the funeral pyre of Dido, painted by Guercino, and placed directly opposite.

Gio. Francesco Barbieri, surnamed Guercino da Cento, would, to speak with precision, be better ranked among the artists of Ferrara, to which city Cento is subject; but we must observe the almost universal custom of including him among the Caracci's disciples. This has arisen either from a tradition that his genius at an early age received some bias towards design from the Caracci, which but ill accords with the epoch of his age, or from the circumstance of his having taken one of Lodovico's pictures for a model, which is slight ground enough for attaching him to the school. Moreover, he never frequented the Caracci's academy; but, after staying a short time with Cremonini, his fellow-countryman, at Bologna, he returned to Cento, and there resided with Benedetto Gennari the elder, first as his pupil, next his colleague, and lastly his kinsman. Some too would contend that one among the masters of Gio. Francesco was Gio. Batista Gennari, who in 1606 painted for S. Biagio, in Bologna, a Madonna among various saints, in a style resembling Procaccini. And indeed the Paradise, at S. Spirito in Cento, and an altar-piece at the Capuccini, with other early works by Guercino, partake of the old style. Subsequently he studied, along with Benedetto, to find by experiment what constituted grand effect in the art, in which taste I cannot distinguish, with the generality of dilettanti and writers, two manners only; he having openly professed three, as we learn from Sig. Righetti, in his Description of the paintings of Cento.

Of these the first is the least known, consisting of abundance of strong shades, with sufficiently animated lights, less studied in the features and in the extremities, with fleshes inclining to the yellow; in the rest less attractive in point of colouring; a manner distantly resembling that of Caravaggio, in which kind are to be found several specimens both at Cento and in S. Guglielmo a' ministri degl'Infermi at Bologna. From this he passed to his second manner, which is by far the most pleasing and valuable. He continued to improve it during several years, with the aid of other schools; in this interval often visiting Bologna, residing for some time at Venice, and remaining many years at Rome along with the most eminent followers of Caracci, and entering into terms of friendship with Caravaggio. His taste is mainly founded on the style of this last master; displaying strong contrast of light and shadow; both exceedingly bold, yet mingled with much sweetness and harmony, and with powerful art of relief, a branch so greatly admired by professors.[39] Hence some foreigners have bestowed on him the title of the magician of Italian painting; for in him were renewed those celebrated illusions of antiquity, such as that of the boy who stretched forth his hand to snatch the painted fruit. From Caravaggio too he borrowed the custom of obscuring his outlines, and availed himself of it for despatch. He also imitated his half-sized figures upon one ground, and for the most part composed his historical pictures in this method. Yet he studied to become more correct in point of design, and more select than Caravaggio; not that he ever attained peculiar elegance or peculiar dignity of features, though most frequently he drew his heads, like a sound observer of nature, with graceful turns, easy natural attitudes, and a colouring, which if not the most delicate, is at least the most sound and most juicy. Often in comparing the figures of Guido with Guercino's, one would say that the former had been fed with roses, as observed by one of the ancients, and the latter with flesh. How far he excelled as a colourist in his draperies, formed in the taste of the best Venetians, in his landscape, and in his accessories, will sufficiently appear on beholding his S. Petronilla in the Quirinal, or his picture of Christ risen from the Dead, at Cento,[40] or his St. Helen, at the Mendicants in Venice; excellent specimens of his second manner. To the same belong in general all that he left at Rome, even his greater works, such as the S. Gio. Grisogono in the soffitto of that church, or the Aurora, adorning the villa Lodovisi. Yet he surpassed even these, to the surprise of all, in the cupola of the Piacenza cathedral; and in the same city he appears to have competed with Pordenone, and in point of vigour of style to have gone beyond him.

Some years having elapsed, after his return from Rome to Cento, he began to emulate Guido, perceiving that his sweetness of manner obtained such distinguished applause. By degrees he softened down that power of hand just noticed, and painted more open and vividly. He added somewhat more attraction and variety to his heads, and a certain study of expression, almost indescribable, which is surprising in some of his pictures of this period. Some have assigned such a change of manner to the time of Guido's decease, when Guercino, perceiving that he could take the lead at Bologna, left Cento, in order to fix his residence in that great city. But several pictures which he had conducted in his third manner, previous to Reni's death, fully confute such an opinion. On the contrary, it was rumoured that Guido remarked this change, which he construed into commendation of himself, declaring that he had avoided Guercino's style as much as possible, whilst the latter approached as nearly as he could to Guido's. In this taste, though partaking of the preceding, is the Circumcision of Jesus, placed in the church of Gesù e Maria, in which the study of architecture and drapery vies with that of the figures; and it is difficult to decide whether these most please by their form, or by their expression. We might add the Nuptials of the Virgin, at S. Paterniano in Fano, the S. Palazia in Ancona, the Nunziata at Forli, the Prodigal Son in the royal palace at Turin, a history piece of entire figures, which is met with in half figures in many galleries. However attractive this last manner may be found, skilled judges would have wished Guercino not to have swerved from the vigour of the second, to which his genius was moulded, and in which he shone unrivalled and unique.

The frequency of his commissions contributed, perhaps, to put him upon a more easy method, no less than his own incredible genius for execution and despatch. He produced a hundred and six altar-pieces, and a hundred and forty-four large pictures for princes and other persons of distinction, without including numbers of others painted for private persons, Madonnas, portraits, half-length figures, and landscapes, in which the rapidity of execution is highly original. Hence he is by no means rare in collections. The noble Zolli family at Rimino possesses about twenty of his pieces, Count Lecchi at Brescia also a great number; all perfect and polished according to his manner. Among these is a portrait of a friar of the Osservanti, his father confessor, quite a miracle of art.

Guercino's school greatly flourished at Cento, in Bologna not so much, owing to his own choice of having his two nephews the Gennari, and a few other intimate friends with him, which led him to exclude strangers in some degree from his studio. Few Bolognese artists, therefore, belong to this master; such as Giulio Coralli, whom Orlandi, a contemporary writer, gives as pupil to Guercino at Bologna, and of Cairo at Milan, and who, Crespi adds, was much employed at Parma, at Piacenza, and at Mantua. He was a better portrait-painter, if I mistake not, than a composer. Fulgenzio Mondini was an artist of more merit; he painted two fresco histories in the church of S. Petronio at Bologna, relating to the Paduan saint. He died young at Florence, where, after having painted some time for the court, he was employed by the Marchesi Capponi to decorate their villa of Colonnata, and his memory has been honoured with a long eulogy by Malvasia. The latter declares that he knew none gifted with qualities that promised so much in that age, and conjectures that had he survived he would have become the first fresco painter of his age.

The two young Gennari were sons of Gio. Francesco's sister, and of Ercole, son of Benedetto Gennari. Respecting Ercole, it is stated that no more exact copyist of the works of Guercino was to be met with. His sons, Benedetto and Cesare, likewise distinguished themselves in copying the original compositions of their uncle, and the numerous repetitions of Guercino's sibyls, of his pictures of St. John, of his Herodiads, and similar pieces, are ascribed more particularly to them. They may all be recognized, however, by a more feeble tone in their tints; and I once saw in the Ercolani palace a Bathsheba of Guercino, along with a copy by one of the Gennari. The former appeared as if newly painted at the time, the latter as if many years previously, such was its inferiority in strength of hand. The two brothers were employed in Cento, in Bologna, and in other cities of Italy; while Benedetto, the ablest of them, was engaged also in England, as court-painter under two reigns. Both would seem to have inherited the style along with the fortune of Gio. Francesco, and, I may also add, his studies; because in the manner of sectaries, they made repeated copies of the heads of his old men, women, and boys, which he himself was in the habit of repeating on his canvass too frequently. There is a S. Leopardo by Benedetto in the cathedral at Osimo, and a S. Zaccaria at the Filippini in Forli, which might have been mistaken for the uncle's, had the nephew displayed somewhat more strength and power of relief. In the same way Cesare, in a Mary Magdalen of the Pazzi, at S. Martino in Bologna, and in other pieces, has succeeded in giving the features better than the spirit of Barbieri. It ought to be observed that Cesare preserved his first manner to the close of his life, and that he was assiduous in teaching at Bologna, where his school was frequented also by foreigners, among whom Simon Gionima distinguished himself as a follower of Guercino, and was well received at Vienna. Benedetto subsequently formed for himself a style in England, both more polished and careful, and exemplified it more particularly in his portraits, which he conducted there for Charles II. and the royal family. On the expulsion of that family he returned to Italy, almost transformed into a Dutch or Flemish painter, such was the truth with which he imitated velvets, lawns, lace, gems, and other ornaments in gold, indeed all that can enrich a portrait, besides drawing it extremely like, and artfully freed from any blemishes in the original. By means of this taste, new in Italy, Benedetto obtained much applause and much employment in portrait, both from princes and individuals. We may here add a Bartolommeo Gennari, brother to Ercole, who resembles Guercino less than any of the three preceding, though extremely natural and spirited. He has a picture of St. Thomas at the Rosario di Cento, in the act of putting his hand to our Saviour's side, and the admiration both of him and the other apostles is very finely expressed. The pupil, and probably the relation of Guercino, was one Lorenzo Gennari di Rimini, at which place is one of his pictures at the Capuccini, very fairly executed.

Francesco Nagli, surnamed, from his country, Centino, was much employed at the Angeli and in other churches at Rimini. He was an excellent imitator of Barbieri, in point of colouring and chiaroscuro; in the rest somewhat dry in design, cold in his attitudes, and no way novel in his ideas. To the same district belonged Stefano Ficatelli, a painter of good invention, who decorated several churches of Ferrara; but more especially an excellent copyist of Guercino, not inferior in this respect to Francesco Bassi, of Bologna, so highly commended by Crespi. Among Guercino's copyists, Gio. Francesco Mutii, or Mucci, of Cento, son of a sister of Guercino, distinguished also as an engraver, held a high rank. Stefano Provenzali, likewise from Cento, and a pupil of Barbieri, applied his talents to battle-pieces, much extolled by Crespi, from whose MSS. I have borrowed several of my notices of the Centese artists.

Two of these, followers of Guercino, are mentioned by Malvasia. They are Cristoforo Serra, a faithful and excellent imitator of Gio. Francesco, and preceptor of Cristoforo Savolini, who has a fine picture of the saint at S. Colomba in Rimini; and Cesare Pronti, an Augustine, born at Rimini, if we give credit to the author of its city guide, and called da Ravenna, on account of his long residence at that place. Both the above cities exhibit his altar-pieces, much extolled, and some chiaroscuri[TN7] happily enough disposed; in particular those histories of St. Jerome painted in the Confraternity of his name at Rimini, with abundant grace and spirit. In Pesaro, also, he exhibited in the church of his order a St. Thomas da Villanova, with beautiful specimens of architecture, and in a more original taste than the two Gennari. The life of this able ecclesiastic has been written by Pascoli, who knew him, insomuch that we may give him credit when he declares that he was born at the Cattolica, of the family of the Baciocchi, afterwards assuming the name of Pronti, the maiden name of his mother. He gives other anecdotes of him; and what is more interesting is the account of his first passion for the art, on contemplating, when a boy, a collection of fine pictures in a shop at the fair of Sinigaglia. He gazed upon them during several hours, unmindful of his meals, and of his parents, who were in search of him through the city, and who on finding him could with difficulty tear him from the spot. They were unable, however, to destroy the fixed determination of his soul to become a painter; the impression was indelible, and he set out for Bologna. There he first entered the school of Barbieri; and afterwards, as we have already remarked, the cloister. Respecting different scholars of Guercino, such as were Preti, Ghezzi, and Triva, it is unnecessary here to repeat what has already been stated in several other schools.

Gio. Lanfranco, one of those distinguished disciples of the Caracci who followed Annibal to Rome, was born at Parma. He was early employed by the Conti Scotti in Piacenza, where, for mere pastime, drawing some figures in charcoal upon a wall, his rare genius shone forth, and was assigned to the cultivation of Agostino Caracci. Frequent mention of him is made in the course of this work. At Parma the reader finds him a pupil to Agostino, and on his death under the care of Lodovico, after which he pursued his studies under Annibal at Rome. Both there and in Naples we have seen him celebrated as a professor and preceptor in both schools. The character of his genius was sought, conceitedly perhaps, but still with truth, by Bellori, in his name; and doubtless it would be difficult to find an artist more bold and striking, alike in conception and in execution. He had formed a peculiar manner, which both in design and expression partakes of the Caracci's, while the composition is drawn from Coreggio. It is a manner at once easy, and elevated by the dignity of the countenances and actions, by the ample and well disposed masses of light and shade, by the nobleness of the drapery and its imposing folds, broad and wholly novel in the art. For this precise reason its grandeur is without that last finish which adds to the worth of other artists, but would in him diminish it. In such a style he was enabled to be less exact without displeasing us, possessing so many admirable qualities, rare conceptions, colours wonderfully harmonized, if not animated; very beautiful foreshortening; contrasts of parts and figures, which have served as models, as is observed by Mengs, for the tasteful style of the moderns.

He adopted this style in a number of pictures for private ornament, both for the Dukes Farnesi, in whose palace at Rome he first began to paint, and for other noblemen. His Polyphemus, conducted for the Casa Borghese in that city, is highly extolled, as well as his scriptural histories at S. Callisto. There are many pictures also from his hand; his St. Andrea Avellino at Rome, enriched with splendid architecture, boasts singular merit; his Dead Christ at Foligno, with the "Padre Eterno," a figure, which though in human form, nevertheless impresses us with grand ideas of the Divine Being; the Transit of our Lady, in Macerata; the S. Rocco, and the S. Corrado, in Piacenza; perhaps the most finished among Lanfranco's productions, and deservedly the most celebrated. But he exhibited this style still more fully in cupolas and other scenes on a grand scale, according to Coreggio's example. When young, he executed a small coloured model of the cupola of the cathedral at Parma, emulating his whole style, in particular that grace of motion, of all by far the most difficult. He imitated it too at S. Andrea della Valle at Rome, and in his picture availed himself of the example afforded by Michelangiolo in architecture, when unable to execute a more beautiful cupola than Brunelleschi's, and desirous of differing from it, he worked from a new design, and succeeded to admiration. This production forms an epoch in the art, inasmuch "as he was the first," says Passeri, "to irradiate the opening of a celestial glory with a splendour of light, of which there was formerly seen no example." ... "Lanfranco's cupola remains a solitary specimen in the way of glories; because, in respect to its celestial idea, in the opinion of the most dispassionate judges, he has attained the highest degree, as well in the harmony of the whole, its chief object, as in the distribution of the colours, in the parts, and in force of chiaroscuro," &c. Nor was this, on which he spent four years, the sole example he left of a fecundity of idea and rare elevation of mind, of which we meet with no account in any other artist, even among the ancient painters. Add to this, the cupolas at the Gesù, and at the Tesoro of S. Gennaro at Naples, where he succeeded Domenichino, with various tribunes and chapels in Rome and Naples, adorned with equal majesty, and which have given to Lower Italy the most genuine examples in this kind, of which the art can boast. From him it was that the Machinists acquired the power of gratifying the eye at larger distances, painting only in part, and in part leaving the work, as he was accustomed to express it, for the air to paint. In the two schools above-mentioned we have embraced his best disciples: to the Bolognese he gave no pupils, as far as I learn, any more than to Romagna and its dependencies; if we except Gio. Francesco Mengucci, of Pesaro, who assisted him in the cupola of St. Andrea; a painter, I believe, for collections, who has been much extolled by Malvasia.

Next to the five heads of schools hitherto recorded, ought to be mentioned Sisto Badalocchi; and the more as he was Annibal's disciple, and long resided with him at Rome. He was fellow citizen, and a faithful companion too of Lanfranco, whose style he approached very nearly. Sisto designed admirably, being preferred by Annibal in this branch to any of his fellow pupils, and even, with singular modesty, to himself. Ample testimony of his ability is proclaimed in the engravings of Raffaello's loggie, executed in conjunction with Lanfranco, and dedicated to Annibal; besides the six prints of Coreggio's grand cupola, a work which, to the public regret, was left incomplete. He was also selected by his master to decorate the chapel of S. Diego, where he directed him to paint from one of his cartoons a history of that saint. In point of invention he was not equal to the leaders of his school; so that, employed in filling up the secondary parts, he assisted Guido and Domenichino at S. Gregorio; and attended Albani at the Verospi palace; although his picture of Galatea left there is worthy of the hand of a great master. He appears to advantage in competition, and mostly excels, as we may gather from the church of St. Sebastian at Rome, where he painted along with Tacconi; and at Reggio, where he rivalled some of the less distinguished artists of Bologna. Besides his other works, that city has to boast the rich cupola of S. Giovanni, on which Sisto conducted a small, but very beautiful copy of that in the cathedral at Parma. Other of his specimens are to be met with in the Modenese state, particularly in the ducal palace at Gualtieri, where he represented in one chamber the Trials of Hercules. Of his pictures at Parma the most celebrated is that of St. Francis, at the Cappuccini; a painting, both in point of figures and landscape, composed in the best taste of the Caracci. For the rest, we may add what has been said of Lanfranco, that he most frequently executed much less than he knew.

So far we have treated of the followers of the Caracci employed at Rome; and these in general, judging from their style, shewed more deference to Annibal than any other of the family. Many others remained at Bologna, who either never visited Rome, or produced nothing there worthy of consideration. These were chiefly attached to Lodovico, in whose studio they had been educated, with the exception of Alessandro Tiarini, who sprung from another school, though he benefited by his advice and example, as much as if Lodovico had really been his master. But he was pupil to Fontana, subsequently of Cesi, and finally also of Passignano at Florence. He had fled thither from his native place on account of a quarrel; and after a lapse of seven years, through the intervention of Lodovico, he was enabled to return to Bologna, leaving at Florence and some places in the state a few paintings in his first easy style, resembling Passignano's. In such style he conducted his S. Barbara, at S. Petronio, a work which failed to please the Bolognese public. To give it greater attractions, he next proceeded to copy from, and to consult Lodovico, not in order to attain his manner, but with the view of improving his own. This task was short to a man of genius, well grounded in the theory of his art, and perhaps more philosophical than any other artist of Bologna. He soon became a different painter, and in his novel taste of composing, of distributing his lights and expressing the passions, he shone like a disciple of the Caracci. Nevertheless he preserved a character distinct from the rest, grounded upon his naturally severe and melancholy disposition. All in him is serious and moderate; the air of his figures, his attitudes, his drapery, varied with few, but noble folds, such as to excite the admiration of Guido himself. He avoids, moreover, very gay and animated colours, chiefly contenting himself with light violets or yellows, and tawny colours, tempered with a little red; but so admirably laid on and harmonized, as to produce the finest feeling of repose to enchant the eye. His subjects, too, are well adapted to his taste, as he generally selected, when he could, such as were of a pathetic and sorrowful cast. For this reason his Magdalens, his S. Peters, and his Madonnas in grief—one of which, presented to the Duke of Mantua, drew tears from his eyes—are held in high esteem.

Subsequently he became expert in foreshortening, and all the intricacies of the art, more particularly in point of invention. There is scarcely one of his works to be met with, that does not exhibit a certain air of novelty and originality of idea. On occasion of representing the Virgin in grief, in the church of S. Benedict, he drew her seated together with St. John and the Magdalen; the one upright, the other kneeling, in the act of contemplating the Redeemer's crown of thorns. Other incidents of his passion also are alluded to; all are silent indeed, but every eye and attitude is eloquent in its silence. Obtaining a commission for an altar-piece in S. Maria Maggiore, to represent St. John and St. Jerome, he shunned the trite expression of drawing them in a glory; but he feigned an apparition, through which the holy doctor, while intent at his studies, appears to receive from the beatified evangelist lectures in theology. His most distinguished production, however, is at S. Domenico, the saint seen raising a man from the dead; a picture abounding with figures varied in point of feature, attitude, and dress; every thing highly select. Lodovico expressed his astonishment at it, and declared that he knew of no master then to compare with Tiarini. It is true that, in this instance, having to compete with Spada, he raised his tone of colouring, and shunned every common form; two precautions which, had he introduced into every work, would have left him perhaps second to none of the Bolognese. He survived until his ninetieth year, and during a long period dwelt at Reggio, whence he had often occasion to proceed to other cities of Lombardy, which preserve many of his altar-pieces, and cabinet pictures. The Modenese gallery abounds with them, his St. Peter being more particularly extolled, seen struck with remorse as he stands outside the prætorium. The architecture, the depth of night lighted up with torches, Christ's judgment beheld in the distance, all conspire to raise the tragic interest of the scene. He was employed also by the Duke of Parma, for whose garden he painted some incidents from the Jerusalem Delivered, conducted in fresco; but which, though much extolled, are no longer met with. In short Tiarini was one of the most eminent artists next to the Caracci, at least in point of composition, expression of features and of the passions, perspective, power and durability of colouring, if not of the most exact elegance.

Lionello Spada was one of the leading geniuses of the school. Sprung from the lowest origin, and employed by the Caracci as a grinder of colours, by dint of hearing their conferences, and observing the process of their labours, he began to design; first under them, and next with Baglione, he acquired a knowledge of the art; during several years studying no other models besides the Caracci. He lived on familiar terms with Dentone, and thus became skilful in the use of perspective. Incensed by a jest of Guido's, he determined to seek revenge by opposing his delicacy of manner with another more full and strong; for which purpose going to Rome, he studied both there and in Malta under Caravaggio, and returned home master of a new style. It does not indeed lower itself to every form, like his, but still is not so elevated as that of the Caracci: it is studied in the naked parts, but not select; natural in point of colouring, with good relief in the chiaroscuro, but too frequently displaying a ruddy tone in the shadows, giving an expression of mannerism. One of Lionello's most characteristic marks is a novelty and audacity, the result of his natural disposition, which was equally agreeable for its pleasantry, and hateful for its insolence. He often competed with Tiarini, always superior in point of spirit and force of colouring; but inferior in all the rest. Thus at S. Domenico, where he represented the saint in the act of burning proscribed books; and this is the best picture on canvass which he exhibited at Bologna. At S. Michele in Bosco also is seen his Miracle of St. Benedict, which the young artists call the Scarpellino of Lionello; a picture so wholly novel as to induce Andrea Sacchi, who was greatly struck with it, to copy the design. In a similar way at the Madonna di Reggio, where both artists painted as usual in competition, as well in oils as in fresco, they appeared, as it were, to go beyond themselves. We often meet with specimens of Spada in private galleries; holy families and scripture histories in half-length figures, like those of Caravaggio and Guercino; his heads full of expression, but not very select. He seems most frequently to have repeated the decollation of St. John the Baptist, often met with in the Bolognese galleries, and the best perhaps is in that of the Malvezzi.

He became painter to Duke Ranuccio at Parma, where he decorated that admirable theatre, which then stood unrivalled. In that city, and at Modena, as well as other places, I have seen some of his pictures in a taste wholly opposed to those of Bologna, displaying a mixture of the Caracci and of Parmigianino. His histories in the ducal gallery at Modena are highly beautiful; such as the Susanna and the Elders, and the Prodigal Son. One of his most remarkable is the Martyrdom of a Saint, at S. Sepolcro in Parma, and the St. Jerome, in the Carmelitani, in the same city. Specimens such as these must have been among his last, at a period when he was residing in affluence at court, and enabled to conduct his works at leisure. His good fortune terminated with the life of Ranuccio; for with the loss of such a patron his talent, too, seemed to have deserted him, and he shortly followed to the tomb. The names of some of his scholars occur in the schools of Lombardy. Here too we ought to add that of Pietro Desani of Bologna, who following him into Reggio, there established himself; a young artist of rapid hand and quick genius, whose works are to be met with very frequently in Reggio and its vicinity.

Lorenzo Garbieri was an artist of more learning and caution than Lionello, though resembling him in point of style. His austere, and almost fiery disposition, with an imagination abounding in wild and mournful ideas, impelled him to a style of painting less open than that of the Caracci. To this cause must be added his emulation of Guido, whom, like Lionello, he wished to humble, by adopting a very powerful manner; and, though he did not put himself under Caravaggio, he eagerly copied his pictures, including all the best at Bologna. Garbieri was one of the most successful imitators of Lodovico; less select in the heads, but grand in the forms, expressive in the attitudes, and studied in his large compositions; insomuch that his paintings at S. Antonio in Milan, which are less loaded with shade, were attributed by Santagostini in his Guide to the Caracci. To this style of the Caracci he added the daring character of Caravaggio, and he was skilful in selecting always funereal subjects most suitable to his genius; so that we meet with little else than scenes of sorrow, slaughter, death, and terror, from his hand. At the Barnabiti, in Bologna, he painted for the chapel of S. Carlo an altar-piece with two lateral pictures; it presents us with the horrors of the Milanese plague, amidst which is seen the saint visiting the sick, and conducting a penitential procession. He painted also at the Filippini in Fano a picture of St. Paul, near the St. Peter of Guido, in the act of raising the young man from the dead; a work of such power of hand and expression as to excite at once terror and pity in the beholders. At S. Maurizio, in Mantua, he exhibited in a chapel the Martyrdom of S. Felicita and her seven children; a piece inferior indeed to the Miracle of St. Paul in point of vigour, but containing such variety of images, and such deathly terror, as not to be surpassed in tragic interest by any thing from the same school. He had the choice of establishing himself as court-painter at Mantua, an office he rejected, preferring to take a wife with a handsome dowry at Bologna. This step was a loss, however, to the art, as mentioned by Malvasia; since from that period finding himself rich, and occupied with family cares, he painted little, and with as little study, leaving his final labours by no means equal to the preceding. His son Carlo applied still less than his father to the profession, though he gave proofs in several works exhibited in public, that in time he would have equalled his father. Lorenzo educated few other pupils, but he was highly esteemed for his profound knowledge, and for his method of communicating it, at once easy and precise, resting upon few but comprehensive maxims.

Giacomo Cavedone was from Sassuolo, and hence included among the artists of the Modenese state by Tiraboschi, in whose work we may read the origin of his career. His genius was more limited, his spirit less animated, than those of the preceding; but being assisted by the Caracci in the right path, he attained to equal, and even greater celebrity. Leaving the intricacies of the art to the more enterprising, he fixed upon attitudes comparatively easy and devoid of foreshortening, gentle expressions distinct from the stronger passions, correct design in his figures, and more particularly in the hands and feet. Nature had endued him with promptness and facility; so that on occasion of designing models, or copying pictures, he with rare exactness took the substance of the subject, and afterwards reduced the whole by a more easy method in his own peculiarly resolute and graceful touch, in which he has always remained original. He was equally novel in his frescos; employing few tints, but so attractive, that Guido was induced to make him his pupil, and retained him at Rome as his assistant. Another striking characteristic was his strength of colouring, which he acquired from those Venetians themselves, who shone the masters of his masters. Here he attained to such excellence, that Albani, when asked whether there were any pictures of Titian's at Bologna, replied, there were not; but we may substitute the two at S. Paolo by Cavedone (a Nativity and an Epiphany) which look like Titian's, and are executed with a bolder hand. One of his most distinguished productions at Bologna is the S. Alò at the Mendicanti, in which Girupeno discovers, besides its fine design, a Titianesque taste that excites astonishment; and a French tourist entitles it a most admirable work, such as might be fairly attributed to the Caracci. The mistake indeed has occurred to persons of first rate tact, most frequently at Imola, on contemplating the beautiful picture of St. Stephen at that church; and yet more out of Italy, in regard to his pictures of private ornament, in which he is more than usually attractive and perfect. Judges know how to recognize Cavedone's hand by his very compendious manner of treating the hair and beards, as well as by that graceful and rapid touch, loaded with much lightish yellow, or burnt terra gialla. Length of proportions is likewise considered another peculiarity, with a flow of the folds more rectilinear than in other artists of the same school. Such ascendancy in the art was maintained by Cavedone during some years, till the death of a favourite son, who had early distinguished himself in the same career, united to other heavy sorrows, deprived him of his powers, and he subsequently executed nothing of importance. A specimen of that period is in possession of the fathers of S. Martino; an Ascension that excites only our compassion, with similar pieces met with throughout Bologna, that can boast no glimpse of grace. Still deteriorating, he was at length deprived of commissions and reduced to penury, which, in his old age, attended him to the tomb.

Lucio Massari possessed a more joyous spirit, ever glad and festal; devoted to the theatre and to the chase, rather than to his academy and his pallet; being usually impatient and averse to commence his subjects, until his genius and good humour were propitious. For this reason his works are few, but conducted in a happy vein, graceful and finished, both in colour and in taste appearing to breathe of cheerfulness. His style most resembles Annibal's, whose works he copied to admiration, and after whose example, while a few months at Rome, he designed the most finished and noble remnants of Grecian sculpture. There shines also in his countenances the spirit of Passerotti, his earliest master, and more frequently the gracefulness of his near friend, Albani, whose society he enjoyed both in his studio and his villa, and in works undertaken in conjunction. His S. Gaetano, at the Teatini, is crowned with a glory of exquisitely graceful cherubs, that seem from the hand of Albani; and in his other pictures we often recognise those full countenances, those delicate fleshes, that sweetness, and those sportful expressions, in which revelled the genius of Albani. In point of beauty, the Noli me tangere, at the Celestini, and the Nuptials of St. Catherine, at S. Benedetto, are among his most esteemed pieces; to say nothing of his histories at the Cortile of S. Michele in Bosco, where he left many very elegant specimens.

On occasion of treating strong or tragic subjects, he did not shrink from the task; and although he had a real knowledge of the art, he conducted them without that extreme study of foreshortenings and naked parts, of which others make so lavish a display. He shewed noble clearness and decision, fine colouring, a grand spirit, enlivening them with light and graceful figures, more particularly of women. Such is the Slaughter of the Innocents, at the Bonfigliuoli palace, and the Fall of Christ, at the Certosini, a most imposing production, from the number, variety, and expression of the figures, whose pictoric fire surpasses all we could mention from the hand of Albani. He has left some cabinet pictures, always in good design, and mostly possessing soft and savoury tints; so that all we would farther look for is, occasionally, a more gradual distribution of tints in the background of his pieces. Among other pupils, he instructed Sebastiano Brunetti, polished by Guido, a sweet and delicate artist, but of brief career; and Antonio Randa of Bologna. Malvasia has observed, that there is little good to be said respecting him, apparently alluding to a deed of homicide committed by him at Bologna. In other respects, he includes him among the best pupils, first of Guido, next of Massari, to whose style he became attached. On account of his reputation the Duke of Modena granted him an asylum in his state, declaring him, according to Orlandi, his court-painter, in 1614. Here he was much employed, and subsequently at Ferrara, for the most part at S. Filippo; also in many places of the Polesine, where I find his Martyrdom of S. Cecilia, in possession of the Sign. Redetti, at Rovigo, the most celebrated of his productions. Finally, he betook himself to the cloister, a fact unnoticed by Malvasia, which might have induced him to speak of him in milder terms.

Pietro Facini entered late into the profession, at the suggestion of Annibal Caracci, who from one of his playful sketches in charcoal, declared how excellent a painter he would become, if he were to enter his school. Annibal subsequently regretted the discovery, not only because Facini's progress excited his jealousy, but, because, on leaving the academy, he became his rival in educating young artists, and even plotted against his life. He has two striking characteristics, vivacity in his gestures, and in the expression of his heads, such as to place him on a footing with Tintoretto, and a truth of carnations, which induced Annibal himself to observe, that he seemed to have ground human flesh in his colours. With this exception, he has nothing superior; feeble in point of design, too large in his naked figures of adults, incorrect in the placing of his hands and heads. Neither had he time to perfect himself, dying young, and before the Caracci, in 1602. There is a picture of the Patron Saints, at S. Francesco, in Bologna, with a throng of cherubs, which is indeed among his best works. In the Malvezzi collection, and in others of the city, are much esteemed some of his Country Dances, and Sports of Boys, in the manner of Albani, but on a larger scale. He had a pupil in Gio. Mario Tamburini, who afterwards attached himself to Guido, forming himself on his manner, as we have already stated.

Francesco Brizio, gifted with rare genius, was, up to his twentieth year, employed as a shoe-maker's boy. Impelled, at length, by his bias for the art, he acquired a knowledge of design from Passerotti, and of engraving from Agostino Caracci. Lastly, he commenced painting under Lodovico, and very soon arrived at such celebrity, that by some he has been pronounced the most eminent disciple of the Caracci. Doubtless, if we except the previous five, he was equal to any others, and, excepting Domenichino, gifted with the most universal genius. He was not deficient, like Guido, in perspective; nor in the branch of landscape, like Tiarini; nor in splendour of architecture, like so many others. In these accessaries he surpassed all his rivals, as we gather from his histories, painted for S. Michele in Bosco; at least such was the opinion of Andrea Sacchi. He is extremely correct in his figures, and perhaps approached Lodovico more closely than any other artist. The graceful beauty of his cherubs excites admiration, an excellence at that period so greatly studied by all the school; and here, in the opinion of Guido, he outshone even Bagnacavallo. His chief talent lay in imitation; owing to which, and his character for indecision, in addition to the number of great artists, superior to him in manners, he was deprived of assistants and commissions, and reduced to execute such as he had solicited at very insignificant prices. One of the most extensive altar-pieces in the city is from his hand, representing the Coronation of the Virgin, at S. Petronio, with a few figures in the foreground truly joyous and well arranged; besides others in the distance grouped and diminished with art; a picture of great merit even in strength of colouring. He produced also for the noble family Angelelli the Table of Cebes, in one grand painting; the work of an entire year, which displayed all the depth, imagination, and genius of a great artist. There are also a number of small engravings from his hand, in which he often approaches Guido.

His son Filippo and Domenico degli Ambrogi, called Menichino del Brizio, were his most distinguished disciples. These artists painted more for private ornament than for that of the churches. The latter became celebrated for his design; was employed chiefly in friezes for chambers, in architecture, and landscape in fresco, sometimes in conjunction with Dentone and Colonna, sometimes alone. He was also a finished artist of pictures for private rooms, occasionally exhibiting there copious histories, as in that we read of in the full and well drawn up catalogue of the Sig. Canon Vianelli's pictures at Chioggia. It presents us with the entrance of a pontiff into the city of Bologna. It is not surprising that he should be acknowledged and esteemed even in the Venetian territories, having been the preceptor of Fumiani, and master of Pierantonio Cerva, who painted a good deal for the Paduan state.

Gio. Andrea Donducci, called from his father's profession Mastelletta,[41] inherited a genius for the art. Impatient, however, of the precepts of the Caracci, his masters, he neglected to ground himself in the art, was unequal to designing naked figures, and far from producing any masterpiece. His method was short, and wholly intent upon attracting the eye by effect; loading his pictures with shadow in such a way as to conceal the outlines, and opposing to his shadows masses of light sufficiently strong, thus succeeding in disguising from judges the inaccuracies of his design, and gratifying the multitude with a display of apparent novelty. I have often imagined that this artist had great influence with the sect of the Tenebrosi, which afterwards spread itself through the Venetian state, and almost every district in Lombardy. He was enabled to support his credit by a noble spirit of design, by a tolerable imitation of Parmigianino, the sole artist adapted to his disposition, and by a natural facility that enabled him to colour a very large extent of canvass in a short time. Among such specimens are the Death, and the Assumption of the Virgin, at the Grazie, and some similar histories, not unfrequent in Bologna. Perhaps his picture of S. Irene, at the Celestini, is superior to any other. When advanced in life, hearing the applause bestowed on the clear, open style, he began to practise it, but with no kind of success, not possessing ability to appear to advantage out of his own obscure manner. In his former one he had painted at S. Domenico two miracles of the saint, which were esteemed his masterpieces; but these he altered according to his new method, and they were thenceforth regarded among his most feeble performances. In his half-figures the same diversity of manner is observable; and those executed in the first, such as his Miracle of the Manna, in the Spada palace, with others at Rome, are justly held in esteem. The same may be said of his landscapes, which, in many galleries, are attributed to the Caracci; but the taste in the rapidity of touch, very original and remarkable in Mastelletta, is sufficient to distinguish them. Annibal was so well pleased with these pictures for galleries, that, having his company at Rome, he advised him to settle there and confine himself to similar labours; advice by no means pleasing to Donducci. But he a good deal frequented the studio of Tassi, and these artists mutually assisted each other, freely communicating between themselves what they knew. Soon after he returned to Bologna, and resumed his more extensive works; but met with serious disappointments, such as to induce him to enter as a friar, first among the Conventuals, next with the canons of S. Salvatore. He educated no pupils of merit, except that one Domenico Mengucci, of Pesaro, resembled Mastelletta a good deal in his landscape; an artist better known at Bologna than in his native place.

Besides the forementioned disciples of the Caracci academy, several others are entitled to consideration; such as Schedone and more names recorded in the schools already described, with a few yet left to mention in those of which we have to treat. Many names will also find a place among the Bolognese painters of landscape, or those of perspective. A few others, who devoted themselves to figures, have been scarcely alluded to by Malvasia, either because then living, or not so distinguished as some of the preceding; nevertheless they are not despicable, for to hold a second or third rank, where Domenichino and Guido are the foremost, is a degree of honour not to be regretted. One of these is Francesco Cavazzone, a writer too on the art, of whom the Canon Crespi subsequently collected very ample notices, in particular extolling a Magdalen kneeling at the feet of the Redeemer, a truly imposing picture, that ornamented the church of that saint in via S. Donato. Of much the same degree of merit was Vincenzio Ansaloni, who gave only two altar-pieces to the public, but sufficient to establish his title to the character of a great artist. Giacomo Lippi, called also Giacomone da Budrio, was another distinguished artist, of universal genius, in whose fresco histories at the portico of the Nunziata we trace the pupil of Lodovico, not very select, but of prompt and practised hand. Some pictures in fresco too by Piero Pancotto, at S. Colombano, gave rise to feelings of disgust from the ridicule attempted to be cast on his own parish priest, caricatured by him in the features of a holy evangelist, though as an artist he could not be despised.

Among the histories at S. Michele in Bosco, already described, is seen the Sepulture of the SS. Valeriano and Tiburzio by Alessandro Albini, a painter of spirit; the Giving Alms of S. Cecilia, by Tommaso Campana, who afterwards followed Guido; the St. Benedict among the Thorns, by Sebastiano Razali; the Conference between Cecilia and Valeriano, by Aurelio Bonelli; all respectable artists, except that Malvasia blames the last mentioned as unworthy of a school productive of so many noble disciples; but it is rare that in such rich abundance some abortive specimen does not appear. Florio and Gio. Batista Macchi, Enea Rossi, Giacinto Gilioli, Ippolito Ferrantini, Pier-Maria Porettano, Antonio Castellani, Antonia Pinelli;[42] all these gave to the Bolognese public some superior specimens of their skill, and more in the adjacent places; and we may add Gio. Batista Vernici, who was subsequently employed by the Duke of Urbino. Nothing remains there from the hand of Andrea Costa, or of Vincenzio Gotti; of whom the former, according to Malvasia, painted for the S. Casa of Loreto some admirable pieces, now known, if I mistake not, under another name. The latter resided in the kingdom of Naples, mostly at Reggio, an artist of singular rapidity, whose altar-pieces in that city alone amount to the number of two hundred and eighteen. Other followers of the Caracci are known to have renounced painting in favour of engraving and sculpture. The academy was closed on Lodovico's death; and the casts, with other requisites for the art, remained for a long period at Bologna. Domenico Mirandola, on the opening of Facini's academy, quitted that of Lodovico, became a celebrated sculptor, enriched himself with the spoils of both, and kept an open studio, regulated according to the method of his first masters; called for this reason by some the studio of the Caracci. Names, however, are not realities; and correctness of design was not maintained in this soi-disant academy, but gradually deteriorated; the honour of its revival being reserved for the genius of Cignani, of whom we shall say more in our fourth epoch.

The review of the Bolognese artists is here complete. In the year 1617 the state of Ravenna had to boast a Guarini, an artist of a sound style, not far removed from that of the Caracci, if we may judge from a Pietà, at S. Francesco, in Rimini, to which place he belonged. There too was one Matteo Ingoli, who is mentioned in the Venetian School, to which he wholly devoted his talents. To the same state belonged the family of Barbiani, who have continued down to this period their services to their country. Giambatista, the most ancient, is mentioned by Orlandi; his school is not known, though he possesses an attractive manner, much resembling Cesi's, but differing from him in the study of each figure, and on this account unequal with himself. His St. Andrew, and his St. Joseph, on two altars at the Francescani; his S. Agatha, in the church of that name, with other pieces in different places, are well executed in oil. In the chapel of N. Signora del Sudore, in the cathedral, is the vaulted ceiling painted by him with an Assumption of the Virgin, which, even compared with Guido's cupola at Ravenna, does not displease. A son of Gio. Batista succeeded him in his profession, not in his reputation; from whom, or some other member of the family, sprung Andrea Barbiani, who, on the corbels of the said ceiling, coloured the four evangelists, and painted several altar-pieces both at Ravenna and at Rimini. After examining his manner, and in particular his tints, I believe him to have been a pupil, or at least a disciple of P. Pronti of Rimini, shortly before commended among Guercino's disciples along with Gennari, also from that place. Here likewise we shall mention a third, sprung from the school of Padovanino, but residing in his native place; a painter more of pictures for private ornament than for churches. His name was Carlo Leoni, and he competed with Centino in his picture of the Penitence of David, at the Oratorio, and with other excellent figurists who then flourished in Romagna. Among Guercino's disciples will be found also natives of Cesena; and I am convinced that many other artists of Romagna were retained by him at Cento; a fact which is alluded to in his life, without any mention of the names.

At Faenza, in the time of the Caracci, flourished one Ferraù da Faenza, with the additional family appellation of Fanzoni, or Faenzoni, derived probably from his country. According to Titi he was pupil to Vanni, but left nothing at Rome besides his fresco paintings at the Scala Santa, at S. Gio. Laterano, and in great number at S. Maria Maggiore. They consist of scripture histories, of exact design, very pleasing tints, and good mixture of colours; mostly executed in competition with Gentileschi, Salimbeni, Novara, and Croce. From his hand is the S. Onofrio, in the cathedral at Foligno, with several pieces at Ravenna and Faenza, where however his manner seems to have changed. There I heard him included among the pupils of the Caracci, from whom perhaps he some time studied. Nor is this at all difficult to believe on contemplating the chapel of S. Carlo, in the cathedral, or his Deposition from the Cross, at the nunnery of S. Domenico; or his Probatica, at the confraternity of S. Giovanni, which is the best preserved of all his pictures in the district, and nearest resembling Lodovico's style. I am assured that his real family was the Fenzoni, of noble origin, now extinct at Faenza; and that he died in his native place in 1645, aged 83. It is related that he perpetrated an atrocious deed, having assassinated, out of mere professional jealousy, one Manzoni of Faenza, a young artist of rising reputation, as is apparent from several of his pictures, of which two are in the possession of the Ab. Strocchi, Giudice di Pace, in Faenza. Nor is he less esteemed for his altar-pieces, particularly that of the Martyrdom of S. Eutropio Vescovo, exhibited in that church. He would have shone a distinguished ornament of the art, had not his career been thus untimely cut short by envy. The assassin artist failed to restore to Painting that of which he had deprived her, even by educating his two young daughters, Teresa, who painted much for her native place, and Claudia Felice, perhaps her superior, at Bologna, where she died in 1703.

One Tommaso Misciroli left several specimens of his hand at Faenza, known generally by the name of Pittor Villano. He flourished after Ferraù,[TN8] and owed his reputation to his genius rather than to any precepts of the art. Neither in his design, his expression, nor his costume, has he any thing to recommend him, and in these he often errs. But in the vivacity of his attitudes, in his colouring, acquired from Guido, his draperies from the Venetians, he is equal to many of this school; yet this remark applies only to a few works executed with much care. The best of these is at the church of S. Cecilia, where he has exhibited the martyrdom of that saint; and in the scene is introduced an executioner stirring up the flames, a figure almost copied from the grand picture by Lionello, at the church of S. Domenico in Bologna.

Gaspero Sacchi da Imola is known to me only from some pictures he conducted at Ravenna, and recorded first by Fabbri, next by Orlandi. It is uncertain to what country the Cav. Giuseppe Diamantini belonged, called by some in mistake Giovanni; but generally acknowledged to have been a native of Romagna. In the twenty-eighth volume of the Antichità Picene it is asserted that he came from Fossombrone. He resided at Venice, and left at S. Moisè an Epiphany, in which he displays great freedom of hand, and a bold effect in the execution. He is more celebrated in collections belonging to the Venetian state than in churches, being met with at Rovigo and at Verona, where, in Casa Bevilacqua, are some heads of philosophers in a very novel manner. His character indeed consisted in this kind of painting, and he would seem to have derived his idea of them from Salvator Rosa.

We shall now proceed to treat of the landscape, flower, and perspective painters; all artists in short connected with minor branches of the art. On this subject the historians who preceded me have attributed no improvement to the Caracci, except in landscape; though I believe that their prevailing maxim of shunning all caprice and fallacy, and confining themselves to representations of truth and nature in the art, spread its influence from the human figure down to the insect, from the tree to the fruit, from the palace to the cottage. In a similar way too was introduced the maxim of avoiding in literature that affectation, prevalent in the sixteenth century, in favour of the purity of better ages; owing to which the style of writing, from that of history even to familiar correspondence, from the poetry of the epic to the sonnet, shone with real lustre.

Gio. Batista Viola and Gio. Francesco Grimaldi were the two leading painters of landscape at that period, in the manner of the Caracci. Viola was among the first to exclude from painting that hard, dry style so much practised by the Flemish. He has been mentioned as being at Rome, where he established himself, and decorated with landscape-frescos different villas belonging to those nobles; in particular the Villa Pia. But portable pictures of this artist are rarely to be met with, except, that being in company with Albani at Rome, his landscapes were frequently introduced into the pictures of the latter, and may be recognized in that city by judges as those of Viola, like Mola's in other pieces of Albani at Bologna. Grimaldi continued many years in the service of different pontiffs at Rome; and some years in that of the Car. Mazarini at Paris, and of Louis XIV. He surpassed Viola in good fortune as well as science; a noble architect, excellent in perspective, in figures, and as an engraver of Titian's landscapes and of his own. His prints display singular judgment in the individual parts, and great beauty in their edifices; he is also much more ample in drawing the foliage than the Caracci, and also very different; as is observed in the Lettere Pittoriche.[43] His design always answers to the workmanship; his touch is light, his colouring very strong, only partaking too much of the green. He was employed by Innocent X., in competition with other artists, in the Quirinal and in the Vatican palace; and was also selected to decorate some churches, in particular at S. Martino a' Monti. The Colonna gallery is enriched with his views, and he is often met with in others, though not so much sought after in foreign parts as Claude and Poussin. Such is their number, that I doubt not some of his works were executed by his son Alessandro, who, according to Orlandi, was a disciple and follower of Gio. Francesco. His specimens are not equally abundant at Bologna, where, about the same period, other landscape painters are known to have flourished.

We have extolled Mastelletta, and now for a similar taste we must praise Benedetto Possenti, a pupil of Lodovico, and also a spirited painter of figures. His landscapes present us with seaports, embarkations, fairs, festivals, and the like objects. Bartolommeo Loto, or Lotti, was also held in high esteem, first a disciple and next competitor of Viola, one who invariably adhered to the taste of the Caracci. Paolo Antonio Paderna, a pupil of Guercino, afterwards of Cignani, displayed in his landscape admirable imitation of Guercino's manner. There was likewise Antonio dal Sole, from the circumstance of painting with his left hand, denominated il Monchino de' Paesi,[44] Francesco Ghelli, and Filippo Veralli, all sprung from the school of Albani, and all much prized for their rural views in different collections.

Annibal formed, as stated in the second volume, a Gio. da Udine of his own, in a distinguished painter of fruits, called il Gobbo di Cortona, or il Gobbo de' Caracci. Similar reputation was acquired by two Bolognese artists, Antonio Mezzadri, whose flowers and fruits are in abundance at Bologna; and Anton Maria Zagnani, who received commissions even from princely foreigners. Both were excelled by Paolo Antonio Barbieri, as famous for his representation of animals, flowers, and fruits, as his brother Gio. Francesco for the human figure. He bestowed, however, little study on the art, being too much occupied with his family affairs.[45] There was a pupil of Guido, by birth a Milanese, but settled at Bologna, named Pierfrancesco Cittadini, commonly called il Milanese, who surpassed all his fellow scholars. Some of his altar-pieces shew him to have been capable of greater performances; but following the genius and example of several artists whom he saw at Rome, he restricted himself to painting small pictures on canvass, and small branches of histories and landscapes. Yet these were excelled by his specimens of fruits and flowers, with birds of every kind, to which he occasionally added portraits and very graceful figures, in the same piece. Bologna abounds with his paintings, as such a line of study proved useful to the quadraturists,[46] who were often desirous to secure Cittadini's assistance and that of his pupils in their ornamental labours.

For portraits drawn from life, without any other accessaries, Gio. Francesco Negri, pupil of Fialetti, in Venice, was then in credit at Bologna; where he had for his fellow pupil Boschini, who finally became a designer and engraver in copper. Commendations of Negri are met with in the volumes of Malvasia and of Crespi.

Bologna had to boast little that was great in regard to ornamental architecture up to the time of Dentone (Girolamo Curti), who became its restorer also in other parts of Italy. I say restorer, inasmuch as Gio. and Cherubino Alberti at Rome, and the Sandrini at Brescia, with the Bruni in Venice, had produced some fine specimens. Nor, if we consider the times, were Agostino dalle Prospettive and Tommaso Lauretti, in Bologna itself, destitute of merit, as we have already stated. But their models being either neglected or corrupted by their successors, produced no solid advantage to the art; so that there were either no quadraturists in any cities of Italy, or they were extremely rare, and esteemed only as the refuse of the figurists. Dentone, with his companions, not only revived, but elevated and enlarged this art. Sprung from a spinning manufactory of the Signori Rizzardi, he commenced under Lionello Spada to attempt the design of figures; and finding this too difficult, he turned to ornamental painting, and acquired from Baglione the use of the rule, and to draw the lines. He proceeded no farther with this master; but, having purchased the works of Vignola and Serlio, he in these studied the different orders of architecture, grounded himself in perspective, formed a solid and well regulated taste, which he farther improved with what he saw at Rome, among the remains of ancient architecture. He attempted much in the form of relief, which is indeed the soul of this profession. His fine illusions of cornices, colonnades, lodges, balustrades, arches, and modiglioni, seen with the effect of foreshortening, have led to the supposition of his being assisted by stuccos, or some materials of strong relief; while the whole is produced by the effect of chiaroscuro, brought to a facility, truth, and grace never before seen. In his colours he preserved those of the stones and marbles; avoiding those tints of gems and precious stones, afterwards introduced at the expense of all verisimilitude. It was an invention of his to lay gold-leaf over his works in fresco. He made use of burnt oil, with turpentine and yellow wax, melted together, and placed, in a dissolved state, with a fine pencil, on the parts where the lights occur, and where the gold leaf is applied. Still he but sparingly availed himself of such discovery, consigning its abuse to his followers. Anxious for durability, he was accustomed to rough sketch, and afterwards to fill up with other layers, then making of the whole one solid impasto, or mingled layers of colours; while in the most exposed spots, not trusting wholly to the plaster, he united very fine portions of white marble, as subtly inserted as we see in the façade of the Grimaldi palace. He thus conferred fresh lustre on both palaces and churches; and next proceeding to the theatres, he exhibited novel spectacles in them. The nearmost scenes he painted with the most commanding power of shade, and diminishing its depth by degrees, conducted the eye to the most remote with sensations of harmony and delight. This contrast of depth and sweetness gave the illusion of an immense prospect in small space; and such was the degree of relief in the edifices there represented, that numbers, on the first appearance, went upon the stage in order to explore the reality more nearly. His excellence in this respect soon obtained him commissions out of Bologna; from the Card. Legate, at Ravenna, from the sovereigns of Parma and Modena, and at Rome from Prince Lodovisi, for whom he painted a hall, which outshone the Sala Clementina, decorated by Gio. Alberti, until then esteemed the most admirable of its kind.

It was Dentone's custom to retain the services of a figurist, in order to model his statues, prepare his chiaroscuri, figures of boys, and sometimes even animals and flowers, with all which he ornamented, not always with discreetness, his architectural views. The most erudite among the young artists here vied in offers of their services, desirous of profiting by the same art, and acquiring reputation. In the hall of the Conti Malvasia, at Trebbio, he was assisted by Brizio, Francesco and Antonio Caracci, and Valesio; also by Massari, in the grand chapel of S. Domenico, who attended him as well in the library of the fathers of S. Martino, where he painted the celebrated Dispute of S. Cirillo. In the Tanara palace he even engaged Guercino, who there exhibited his grand Hercules; while elsewhere he was assisted by Campana, Galanino, and Spada, and a few cartoons were afforded him by Guido himself. But his most useful colleague was Angiol Michele Colonna, who arriving at an early age from Como, and having studied some time under Ferrantini, finally united himself with Dentone, and became celebrated throughout Europe. This artist, according to Crespi, enjoyed the reputation of the greatest fresco painter of whom Bologna could boast; such was his spirited drawing both of men and animals, such his eminence in perspective, and every species of ornamental work, that he was himself alone equal to any grand undertaking, and painted alone an entire chamber at the Florentine court, and a chapel at S. Alessandro, in Parma. The perspectives in the tribune of that church were by his hand; the figures by Tiarini; and in several other places the perspectives were by Dentone, the figures by Colonna. It formed his peculiar talent, with whatever painter he might engage, so to adapt himself to the style and spirit of his colleague, that the entire work seemed the idea of the same mind, the product of a single hand. Nor did he require any delay; for whilst his companion proceeded with his own portion, he, with wonderful velocity, consistency, and admirable harmony, despatched the work; a gift for which he was very generally sought after, and more particularly by Dentone, who retained him after his return from Rome, until the period of his decease.

Whilst these two celebrated men thus promoted their profession, there was rising into notice one Agostino Mitelli, a youth of very prolific genius, not unacquainted with the figure, which Passeri supposes he acquired from the Caracci, and well-grounded in perspective and architecture, under Falcetta. When the two friends were engaged in decorating the archiepiscopal palace at Ravenna, and at the courts of Parma and Modena, Mitelli alternately assisted the figurist and the quadraturist. This last, however, was the art he most affected, and to which, on separating from his masters, he finally devoted himself. His first labours proved very attractive to the public; not that they equalled the force, solidity, and reality of Dentone, but on account of their peculiar grace and beauty, such as almost to obtain for him the fame of the Guido of the quadraturists. Employing his own taste, he softened down the harder features of the art, made the elevations more delicate, the tints more mild, and added a style of foliage, scrolls, and arabesques, decorated with gold, such as seemed to breathe of grace. The play of the ornaments varied with the nature of the edifices; some ideas were adapted to halls, some to churches, and others to theatres. Each ornament filled its appropriate place, at just intervals; the entire work finally according with a delightful symmetry and harmony, so as to take by surprise people not yet familiar with similar illusions, and to remind them, as it were, of the enchanted palaces of the romancers. Mitelli's first assistants were two of his fellow pupils in this art, Andrea Sighizzi and Gio. Paderna, with occasionally the figurist Ambrogi; names not unworthy of[TN9] a place in the history of the arts, though unequal to compete with such a colleague.

Colonna alone seemed born to associate with him, as he did after the death of his favourite Curti. An intimacy ensued, which was like the second act of Angiol Michele's life; an intimacy which, strengthened by mutual esteem and interest, and cherished by habit and kind offices, continued during twenty-four years, until terminated by the death of Mitelli. These two friends added greatly to the excellent models of the art at Bologna; and among their most celebrated labours are the chapel of Rosario, and the hall of the Conti Caprara. Elsewhere, as in the Bentivogli and Pepoli palaces, Agostino produced only specimens of architecture; and in others we see his pictures of perspective conducted a guazzo, with figures by Gioseffo, his son, a disciple of Torre, who engraved even better than he painted. In their commissions beyond Bologna, Mitelli and Colonna were always invited together; as to Parma, to Modena, to Florence, by their respective rulers; by the Marchesi Balbi to Genoa, and by Cardinal Spada to Rome, whose ample hall they enlarged, as it were, and dignified by means of feigned colonnades, artful recesses, and magnificent steps, where numbers of figures, arrayed in varied and novel drapery, were seen ascending and descending. Called subsequently to the court of Philip IV., they decorated three chambers and a magnificent hall in Madrid, where Colonna, too, produced his so highly extolled Fable of Pandora. They here sojourned for the space of two years, the last of Mitelli's life, who died much regretted by the whole court, and by the Spanish artists, at whose head stood Diego Velasquez.

Colonna returned into Italy, and as a third act of his life, we may record the twenty-seven years which he afterwards lived; during the earlier portion, availing himself, for his architectures, of the services of Giacomo Alboresi, Mitelli's great pupil; and in the latter, of Giovacchino Pizzoli, his own scholar, known also among painters of landscape. Crespi adds the name of Gio. Gherardini, and Antonio Roli, or Rolli according to the Cav. Titi, whose specimens in this branch, at the Certosa of Pisa, he extols as perfect miracles of the art (p. 301). In this trio are included all belonging to Colonna's school. It is observed by Malvasia, that from Mitelli's society, Angiol Michele himself derived utility, as regarded architecture; not that he ever equalled his deceased friend, but from adopting thenceforward a more elegant manner. This progress is apparent in the cupola of S. Biagio; as well as in the ceiling and in a chapel of S. Bartolommeo, decorated by him after his return from Spain. Other specimens he produced at this period, at Ponzacco, a villa of the Marchese Nicolini, of Florence; in the Morisini palace, at Padua, and at Paris, for M. Lionne, state secretary to the French king. Colonna attained the age of eighty-six, and left, at his death, numerous professors of an art, which he and his two colleagues may almost be said to have invented, and given to the public.

I have enumerated different young artists of these schools; and they, too, united together, traversing Italy in the service of princes and nobles, and forming pupils in every place; so that no art ever spread more rapidly. Gio. Paderna, pupil to Dentone, and next an accomplished imitator of Mitelli, became the colleague of Baldassare Bianchi; and the latter, at the death of Paderna, having become Mitelli's son-in-law, was placed companion, by the father-in-law, with Gio. Giacomo Monti. This partnership also met with success in Italy, in particular at Mantua, where they both received regular salaries. Their figure-painter was Gio. Batista Caccioli, of Budrio, pupil to Canuti, and a good disciple of Cignani, who left frescos, altar-pieces, and private pictures; in particular, his heads of old men, in high request. Another son-in-law of Mitelli, Giacomo Alboresi, was much employed at the court of Parma, in that of Florence, and in the villa Capponi, of Colonnata. He was assisted in his figures by Fulgenzio Mondini, and on his death, by Giulio Cesare Milani, who was esteemed the best pupil of Torre. Domenico Santi, named Mengazzino, was also one of the ablest among Mitelli's pupils, and left, at the Servi, in S. Colombano, and in the Ratta palace, some fine works in perspective, with figures by Giuseppe Mitelli, by Burrini, and most of all by Canuti, never having left his native place. His perspectives, on canvass, are highly esteemed in cabinets, and are sometimes hardly to be distinguished from those of Agostino. Andrea Sighizzi, the father and master of three artists, was employed also at Turin, Mantua, and Parma, where he received a salary from the court, and had Pasinelli for his best companion. It would carry us too far, to recount all the quadraturists sprung from these schools; nor would all, perhaps, deserve commemoration. Though no art was more rapidly extended, none sooner degenerated; caprice usurped the place of sound rules of architecture, and was carried to a pitch of extravagance and impertinence, when the Borrominesque taste began to extend through Italy. Architecture itself, which forms the basis of this profession, began, in course of time, to be regarded as an accessary; a greater share of study was employed in the vases of flowers, in festoons, in fruits, and foliages, and certain novelties of grotesque, against which both Algarotti and Crespi have so justly and successfully inveighed.

We cannot close this account without the name of Giovannino da Capugnano, an artist very fully treated of by Malvasia and Orlandi, and highly extolled in the studies of the painters, even in our own days. Misled by a pleasing self-delusion, he believed himself born to become a painter; like that ancient personage, mentioned by Horace, who imagined himself the owner of all the vessels that arrived in the Athenian port. His chief talent lay in making crucifixes, to fill up the angles, and in giving a varnish to the balustrades. Next, he attempted landscape in water-colours, in which were exhibited the most strange proportions, of houses less than the men; these last smaller than his sheep; and the sheep again than his birds. Extolled, however, in his own district, he determined to leave his native mountains, and figure on a wider theatre at Bologna; there he opened his house, and requested the Caracci, the only artists he believed to be more learned than himself, to furnish him with a pupil, whom he intended to polish in his studio. Lionello Spada, an admirable wit, accepted this invitation; he went and copied designs, affecting the utmost obsequiousness towards his master. At length, conceiving it time to put an end to the jest, he left behind him a most exquisite painting of Lucretia, and over the entrance of the chamber some fine satirical octaves, in apparent praise, and real ridicule of Capugnano. His worthy master only accused Lionello of ingratitude, for having acquired from him in so short a space the art of painting so beautifully from his designs; but the Caracci at last acquainted him with the joke, which acted as a complete antidote to his folly. In some Bolognese galleries his pictures are preserved as specimens, in some degree connected with pictorial history;[47] and which, though composed with all becoming gravity, are as diverting as any caricature of Miel or of Cerquozzi. Were we to desire a second example of such imbecility in the art, it would be found in Crespi,[48] who gives some account of one Pietro Galletti. Equally persuaded of having been born a painter, Pietro became a laughing-stock to the students, who solemnly invested him with a doctorial degree in the art, assembling for that purpose in the cellar of a monastery.

[23] It must be observed that the two younger Caracci visited Rome, where they continued to instruct their pupils on the same plan. Passeri, in his life of Guido, says, that they were joined by literary men, who proposed history-pieces to them, with premiums for such as should be best executed; and that on one occasion Domenichino, one of the youngest, being preferred above all, Guido was seized with the most lively emulation to eclipse him. The historian adds, that the same method was soon adopted in the Roman academy, and that Car. Barberini, nephew to Urban VIII., presided at the election of the first, and rewarded him with money, and those that next followed, to the fourth member. Moreover he gave the first a commission for a picture from the same subject as the design. What a secret is here shewn for promoting the fine arts.

[24] See Crespi's analysis of the two pictures at the church of the Certosa, (p. 32,) one representing the Scourging of Christ, the other his Crown of Thorns, where the most beautiful art of disposing the light to produce the desired effect is remarkable; with an exquisite effect of perspective, and a degree of invention not to be surpassed in representing the suffering of our Redeemer.

[25] Lettere Pittoriche, tom. vii. lettera 4.

[26] In colours, of which yolk of egg, or a kind of glue, is the vehicle.

[27] See the Dissertazione su la Pittura, by the Canon Lazzarini, in the Catalogue of Pictures at Pesaro, p. 118.

[28] See Malvasia, vol.i. p. 574.

[29] He was likewise very eminent in this branch, being named by Gregory XV. as architect for the Apostolic Palace.

[30] The Cav. Puccini very justly condemns this opinion in his Esame Critico del Webb, p. 49.

[31] See the defence set up by Crespi, both for Domenichino and Massari, another imitator of Agostino's picture. It is inserted in the Certosa di Bologna, described at p. 26. He has also been commended by Bellori for his slowness of hand, who brings forward some of his maxims, such as that, "no single line is worthy of a real painter which is not dictated by the genius before it is traced by the hand; that excellence consists in the full and proper completion of works;" and he used to reproach those pupils who designed in sketch, and coloured by dashes of the pencil (p. 213). We meet with a third apology in Passeri, (p. 4,) for some figures borrowed from the Farnese Gallery, and imitated by Domenichino in the histories of St. Jerome in the portico of S. Onofrio. At p. 9 too he defends him in regard to the style of his folds, in which by some he was thought too scanty, and too hard in their disposition.

[32] This rivalship is questioned in many places by Malvasia, and denied by Orlandi, who in the article Francesco Albano, designates him as the sworn friend of Guido Reni, in close union with whom he prosecuted their delightful art; but this can only apply to their early years.

[33]

Illam quidquid agat, quoquo vestigia vertat,
Componit furtim, subsequiturque decor.—Tibul.

[34] The harmony and union of colour of this artist would seem to excuse some trifling licenses, respecting which see Lazzarini upon the Paintings of Pesaro, p. 29.

[35] See Crespi, p. 74.

[36] Lacca, a dark red; terra d'ombra, umber.

[37] See p. 75. This MS. is said to have been drawn up previous to 1680. I believe it must be somewhere about 1670, Venanzi being therein described as still young. Notices of the artists of Pesaro and Urbino, collected by Giuseppe Montani, a good landscape-painter, who flourished some time at Venice, are now lost. (Of him, see Malvasia, vol. ii. p. 447.) I have recently read a letter from Sig. Annibale Olivieri to the Prince Ercolani, in which, computing the age of Venanzi, he is unable to make him out a pupil of Cantarini; from which it would appear that he was ignorant of the date of Venanzi's birth, which was about 1628. I admit that he could not have been long instructed by him, nor by Guido, and am more than ever confirmed in my conjecture that he was pupil to Gennari.

[38] Lunetta, an architectural term; meaning that semicircular space, or any other portion of a circle, placed in the walls between the different supports of ceilings.

[39] "To me it seems that painting ought to be considered excellent, the more it inclines towards relief." Bonarruoti, Letter to Varchi, inserted among the Lettere Pittoriche, vol.i. p. 7.

[40] There is a description of this painting contained in a letter of Algarotti, addressed to the learned Zanotti, dated Sept. 1760, in which, though in other works he observes Guercino to have excelled more in colouring than in design, yet respecting this specimen he declares, "that Pesarese himself would here have detected little or nothing to which to object. The folds, especially those of a cloth wrapped round the body of Christ, are admirable. The force and sweetness of his tints are equal to the bold relief of the picture, and the passion with which it is conducted.... I never beheld two figures better set off in one picture, nor did ever Guercino's close light and shade so well unite perhaps in effect as here; whilst the figures are pourtrayed within an apartment, in which that kind of light which affords such strong relief to objects, is represented with an admirable degree of truth."

[41] A pail or bucket maker.

[42] The wife of Bertusio, and admired by Lodovico Caracci for her singular modesty and attachment to the art. Her finest production adorns the Nunziata, composed from Lodovico's design, in which she drew her own portrait with a bonnet, and that of her husband.

[43] Vol. ii. p. 289.

[44] The handless landscape painter.

[45] As the head of the domestic establishment, he inserted in a book the pictures on which he and his brother were employed, with the prices which they obtained. On his death this was continued by Benedetto and Cesare Gennari, who recorded the works conducted by their surviving uncle. Such a registry was very useful to ascertain the dates and prices of the Guercinesque pictures; from the family of Gennari it came into possession of the Prince Ercolani, who made a valuable collection of MSS. and very rare books on the fine arts.

[46] Ornamental and architectural painters.

[47] See Lettere Pittoriche, vol. ii. p. 53.

[48] Crespi, p. 141.

BOLOGNESE SCHOOL.

EPOCH IV.

Pasinelli, and in particular Cignani, cause a Change in the Style of Bolognese Painting. The Clementine Academy and its Members.

The commencement of the final epoch of the Bolognese School may be dated some years previous to 1700; when Lorenzo Pasinelli and Carlo Cignani had already produced a striking alteration in painting. The disciples of the Caracci, who had imitated Lodovico, and those who had produced new manners, had all disappeared; while the pupils who still continued attached to their taste were very few; consisting of Guercino's Gennari, of Gio. Viani, formerly pupil to Torre, and some other less distinguished names. Pasinelli himself ceased to exist, on the opening of the new century, leaving the entire credit of the preceptorship in the hands of Cignani. This, too, was shortly increased by the formation of a public academy of the fine arts in the city, to which he was appointed president during life. These details are to be met with in the excellent "History of the Clementine Academy" composed by Giampietro Zanotti. Here we are made acquainted with the principles and progress of that celebrated society, which, in the year 1708, received from Pope Clement XI. its sanction and its name, from the Senate its rooms, and its organization from Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsili; besides effectual support both from him and other nobles; and here also we are presented with the lives of the academicians up to the year 1739. To Zanotti's History, as well as to others of an older date, much useful supplement was added by the Canon Crespi; and upon these two recent works, with a due degree of caution, I propose to rest the authority of my succeeding narrative.

In tracing the origin of the new taste, it will be requisite to go back to 1670, or near that period; when Pasinelli and Cignani, after their return from Rome, commenced teaching and operating, each in their respective method. Lorenzo pursued the design of Raffaello, combined with the fascination of Paul Veronese; while Carlo delighted in the grace of Coreggio, united to Annibal's learning; and both had executed at Rome studies agreeable to their genius. It is reported, that one day they happened to enter upon a long discussion of the relative merits of Raffaello and Coreggio. Would that they had been joined by some new Borghini, as a third party, who might have put the discourse into the form of a dialogue, and have preserved it for posterity! In course of time, Cignani came into higher repute than Pasinelli, though this excited no kind of jealousy; they had both of them wisdom enough to be satisfied each with his own share of genius, and to commend his competitor; thus abstaining from that indulgence of rivalry which gives, even to the most celebrated artists and writers, an air of meanness. Thus, when the Clementine academy was instituted, the pupils of both masters readily united in serving that new assembly; voluntarily submitting to the direction of Cignani, placed by the pontifical diploma at their head. Thenceforward the style of Cignani came into vogue; though others sprung from it, composed of two or more manners, which may yet be called national. Each has in it something of the Caraccesque, owing to the young artists having commenced their career by designing from the works of the three brothers. A few of these painters exhibit even too much of their manner, and that of the best among other artists; we find figures taken partially from different ancient masters, and worked up into one composition; as we see sometimes done in poetry, with the lines of one or more writers. About this period the study of the beau-ideal received some accession, by means of the casts with which the academy was supplied. The style of coloring is far from careless; though in the principles then adopted, there was a certain method pursued by different artists, from which their shadows have grown deeper, and assumed a rusty colour; and towards the middle of the same epoch, false and capricious colours came into use, and long continued to find patrons. Nor was this error confined solely to the Bolognese School. Balestra, in one of his letters, dated 1733, inserted in the Pictoric Collection, (vol. ii.) laments the decline of "all the Italian schools," from their having fallen into mistaken methods. Possessing himself in Verona three scholars, capable of great performances, namely, Pecchio, who became a fine landscape painter, Rotari, and Cignaroli, he seems to have had his fears even for them. In particular, speaking of the last, he says, "I fear lest he, too, should suffer himself to be borne away by the prevailing stream, and become enamoured of certain ideal manners, and of a rapid touch; consequently careless of good practice and of rules." Respecting these alterations, however, it is not yet time to treat.

To come down, at present, to the two heads of the school; Pasinelli, who first ceased to live, will first come under our consideration. He received his education in the art from Cantarini; subsequently from Torre, whose school he too early left, owing to which, most probably, he never attained to perfect correctness of design. In this, nevertheless, he surpassed Paul Veronese, who formed his great prototype. He did not imitate him, according to the sectarists; he borrowed from him that effective and majestic composition; but the ideas of the faces, and the distribution of the colours he acquired elsewhere. He was naturally too inclined to create surprise by the display of copious, rich, and spirited compositions; such as his two pictures at the Certosa, of Christ's Entrance into Jerusalem, and his Return into Limbo; and such too is his History of Coriolanus, in the Casa Ranuzzi, a piece found repeated in many collections. No one can behold these paintings without granting to Pasinelli a true painter's fire, great novelty of idea, and a certain elevated character, never the boast of middling artists. With these gifts, however, he is sometimes too extravagant in his attitudes, and in his Paolesque imitation of spectacles, and strange novel draperies, which he is thought to have carried to an extreme, as in his Preaching of John the Baptist, in which his rival, Taruffi, found, instead of the desert[TN10] of Judea, the piazza of St. Mark, in Venice. He knew, withal, to restrain his fire according to the genius of his themes, as we may see in that Holy Family in possession of the Scalzi; a work partaking of Albani. He painted more for private persons than for the public; uniform in the spirit, varied in the colours of his pictures. Some of these private pictures boast, at once, a softness of hand, and a peculiarly vivid and gay light, that might be taken for those of the Venetians or Lombards; in particular, a few of his Venuses, which are supposed to be portraits of one of his three wives. In a few of his other specimens he displays very little relief, whole colours, a tint almost like that of the Bolognese artists preceding the Caracci; and these I should either attribute to his early youth, or his closing days.

One of the four leading artists of his age was the Cav. Carlo Cignani, as elsewhere stated, a genius more profound than prompt; a hand eager to engage in labours, but most difficult, and ever dissatisfied in their completion. His picture of Joseph's Flight into Egypt, belonging to the Counts Bighini, of Imola, cost him six months' labour; and many similar instances are recorded. Nevertheless, he always appears complete, never hard or laborious; and his facility is esteemed one of his rarest gifts. Cignani's inventions are often referable to Albani, who was his master. He produced, for a monastery of Piacenza, a picture of the Conception of the Virgin, who, robed in a white garment, is seen bruising the serpent's head; and arrayed in a garment of rich purple, her infant son at her feet, who, with an air at once of dignity and grace, places his foot upon that of his mother;—what a language does this speak, how truly sublime! There is much, too, of a novel and poetic cast, in his Birth of the Virgin, at the cathedral of Urbino; a picture that at Rome was censured even for its novelty. Cignani was likewise a good composer, and so disposed his figures, by the example of the Caracci, as to give his pictures an air of larger dimensions than they really have. His four Scriptural Histories, in four ovals, each sustained by two cherubs, among the most perfectly beautiful in Bologna, are truly attractive ornaments of S. Michele in Bosco; nor are two others less so, of the public hall, where he represented Francis I., in the act of healing the lepers; and Paul III. seen entering into Bologna. Less majestic, perhaps, but more beautiful, is one of his paintings, in the palace of the ducal garden at Parma. Agostino Caracci had there decorated the ceiling of a chamber; there Cignani exhibited, on the walls, various fables, illustrative of the power of Love; in which, if he surpassed not that great master, he, in the opinion of many, at least equalled him. In design he invariably emulated Coreggio; but, in his outlines, in his beauteous and noble countenances, and in his grand, ample folds, he preserved something original, and distinct from the Lombards; while he is less studious than they respecting the use of foreshortening. He aimed at a strong layer of colours, which were clear and animated like Coreggio's, to which he added, also, a sweetness derived from Guido. He was especially careful in his chiaroscuro, and gave a great degree of roundness to all his objects; which, though in certain subjects it may appear overwrought, and more ample than in nature, is nevertheless pleasing.

His historical pieces are rare; but not so a number of others, containing one or two half-length figures, and still less his Madonnas. One of the most beautiful is in the Albani palace, painted for Clement XI., with the Holy Child; and another, representing her grief, belongs to the Princes Corsini, extremely graceful, as is also the Angel seen consoling her. It would be difficult to decide whether he excelled most in oils or in fresco, which last is the kind of painting in which great artists have ever distinguished themselves. He spent the closing years of a long life at Forli, where he established his family, and left the proudest monument of his genius in that grand cupola, perhaps the most remarkable of all the pictoric productions belonging to the eighteenth century. The subject is the Assumption of our Lady, the same as in the cathedral at Parma; and here, too, as there, it exhibits such a real paradise, that the more we contemplate it, the more it delights us. Near twenty years were devoted to its production, from time to time; the artist, occasionally, during that period, visiting Ravenna, to consult the cupola by Guido, from whom he took his fine figure of St. Michael, and some other ideas. It is reported that the scaffolds were, against his wish, removed, as he appeared to be never satisfied with retouching and bringing the work to his usual degree of finish.

From these two masters I now proceed to their disciples, and shall annex, also, a few others, who sprung from other schools. Pasinelli had the good fortune to inherit, from Canuti, an excellent master, a number of fine scholars, on the latter quitting Bologna. One of these was Gio. Antonio Burrini, who, while he retained his first master's manner, became attached, also, to the composition of Paolo, so much to the taste of Pasinelli. Indeed, he himself appeared naturally inclined to it, by the richness of his imagination, and his surprising eagerness and industry in his works. He devoted much time to Paolo Veronese, at Venice, often imitating him in those pictures which are referred to his first style. Distinguished among these is an Epiphany, painted for the noble Ratta family, which yields to very few pieces in their collection. He subsequently executed a martyrdom of S. Vittoria for the cathedral of Mirandola, in competition with Gio. Gioseffo dal Sole; who on beholding it so greatly superior to his own picture, was bitterly mortified. He was reassured, however, by Pasinelli, their common master, who predicted he would become a better artist than Burrini, whose own facility of genius would at length betray him into a mere practical line. And this prediction was very exactly fulfilled, though he continued upwards of fifteen years to paint with tolerable care, both for the Prince of Carignano at Turin, and at Novellara. He in particular appeared to advantage as a fresco painter at Bologna, being by some termed the Pier da Cortona, or the Giordano of his school. His fresco histories in the Casa Albergati are well deserving notice, as are those in the Alamandini and the Bigami families, with others produced in early youth. Impelled at length by the cares of an increasing family to look for greater profits, he gave way by degrees to his facility of hand, and formed a second style, which, owing to the indolence of human nature, obtained more disciples than his first.

Gio. Gioseffo dal Sole, on the contrary, burned to become each day more perfect, and raised himself to one of the first posts among the artists of his age. He had constant commissions from noblemen, both native and foreign, and received invitations also from the courts of Poland and of England. For some time he preserved a style conforming to Pasinelli's; and in order to improve it from the same sources he frequently returned to Venice, though he never attained to that degree of beauty, in his more elegant subjects, that formed the boast of his master. In many particulars, however, he displays exquisite grace; as in the hair and plumes of the angels, and equally in the accessaries, such as the veils, bracelets, crowns, and armour. He seems to have been inclined also more than Pasinelli to treat powerful themes; more observant of costume, more methodical in composition, and more informed in point of architecture and landscape. In these indeed he is almost unique; and the most beautiful specimens, perhaps, are to be seen at the Casa Zappi in Imola, representing Evening, Night, and Morning, all very pleasingly distributed, and with sober tints, such as the subject required. His other works display, in most instances, the most lovely play of vivid fluctuating light, more especially in his holy pieces and celestial visions, as we see in the St. Peter of Alcantara, at S. Angiolo in Milan. Moreover, he was more exact and polished than Pasinelli; not that he was by any means deficient in celerity in conducting his works, but esteemed it unworthy of an upright character to confer upon them less perfection than he was capable of bestowing. Being employed at Verona for the noble family of Giusti, where he left several mythological pieces and scriptural histories, truly beautiful, he completed one of Bacchus and Ariadne, which artists pronounced excellent, within a week. Yet he cancelled almost the whole, to remodel it according to his own wish, declaring that it was enough to have shewn his rapidity of hand to satisfy others, but that it became his duty, by additional accuracy, to satisfy also himself. Hence his fresco at S. Biagio in Bologna, which is his greatest work, cost him an infinite deal of labour in its completion; and in conducting his altar-pieces, few and valuable, as well as in his private pictures, which are very numerous, he called for high remuneration, persevering in his determination to paint only with care. In this artist, as many others, two manners are observable, of which the second partakes of Guido Reni's. It is on record, that he became attached to it late in life, and was less successful in it. It appears to me that a large portion of his pictures nearly approach the taste of Guido, and that the surname of the modern Guido, conferred upon him by so many, has not been granted as matter of favour, nor at the expense of little time.

No artist of these times could boast more disciples than Giangioseffo dal Sole, if we except Solimene, who was held by him in high esteem. In order to study his paintings, executed for the Counts Bonaccorsi, Dal Sole went to Macerata, where he conducted a few works for the church of the Vergini, and for the house of the said nobles. I am uncertain if he derived from this visit that style of colouring, more attractive than natural, such as we find it in some of his smaller pictures, and in some Bolognese artists who succeeded him. From his school sprung Felice Torelli of Verona, and Lucia Casalini, his wife, of a Bolognese family. Torelli came to it already instructed in the art, acquired in his native place from Sante Prunato, whose taste he, in a great measure, preserved. He became a painter of strong character, fine chiaroscuro, and of no common merit in canvass paintings for altars. These are found at Rome, Turin, Milan, and other cities of Italy. That of S. Vincenzio is most conspicuous, in the act of freeing a female possessed, at the Domenicans of Faenza; a picture finely varied in the heads, in the draperies, and the attitudes. Lucia likewise painted for some churches, as nearly as she could in her consort's style; but her chief merit lay in portrait, such as to obtain for her admission of her own in the royal gallery at Florence. Another artist of her sex, initiated in the art of design by Sirani, and in colouring by Taruffi and Pasinelli, received her last instructions from Gioseffo dal Sole. Her name was Teresa Muratori Scannabecchi, who was in the habit of painting a good deal by herself, and with great credit. Assisted by her master, she executed a picture of St. Benedict in the act of preserving the life of a child; a very graceful production and of good effect, exhibited in a chapel of S. Stefano.

Francesco Monti, another pupil of the same school, was endowed by nature with an enthusiasm for ample and copious subjects, to which he applied himself without much previous culture, either from imitation or from art. He executed for the Counts Ranuzzi, who patronised him, a picture of the Rape of the Sabines; and for the court of Turin the Triumph of Mardocheo; works abounding with figures, and highly extolled; besides many other oil paintings for different collections and churches. But his surpassing merit is to be sought for in his frescos, and more particularly at Brescia, in which city he fixed his residence. He also conducted many pieces for the adjacent places, applauded for his fertile genius and his masterly style of colouring. A number of churches and noble houses, such as the Martinengo, the Avogadro, the Barussi, were also decorated by him on a very extended scale of painting. Some portraits, too, executed by his daughter Eleonora, who received constant commissions from the same nobility, are held in high esteem.

Gio. Batista Grati and Cesare Mazzoni remained at Bologna, and as belonging to the Clementine Academicians who then flourished, we meet with their lives in Zanotti. Subsequent to their decease, Crespi was enabled to treat their memory with more fairness. He praises the accuracy of the former, and regrets his want of talent; the second he pronounces a commendable artist, observing that he was long employed at Faenza, Turin, and Rome, as well as at Bologna itself; though not with good fortune. Antonio Lunghi also flourished for the most part in foreign states; at Venice, in Rome, and the kingdom of Naples. He returned, at an advanced age, to his native place, where there is his picture of S. Rita at S. Bartolommeo, and others in different churches, which merited for their author some favourable consideration of Crespi. Yet he has omitted him, for the purpose, as I suppose, of reserving him for the fourth volume of the "Felsina Pittrice." It would be too much to attempt a complete sketch of Gio. Gioseffo's disciples who flourished in other schools, such as Francesco Pavona of Udine, a good painter in oil, and better in crayons; superior in his large altar-pieces, and still more in his portraits. He afterwards studied at Milan, and thence proceeded to Genoa; next into Spain, Portugal, and Germany, being well received in all these courts; after which he married and had a family at Dresden. Subsequently he returned to Bologna, which he left in the course of a few years for Venice, where he shortly afterwards died. Francesco Comi also left Bologna, called il Fornaretto,[49] and the Mute of Verona, being deprived both of speech and hearing. Nevertheless he was distinguished in the art, and is commemorated by Pozzo among the artists of his country, and also by Orlandi. There are others, of whom we make mention in almost every school.

Donato Creti, a cavalier of the gold spurs, ranks as one of the most eminent of Pasinelli's pupils, and as the most attached to his manner; though he was inclined to modify it with that of Cantarini, and of both composed a third, sufficiently noble and graceful. He would have made it still more free and original, had he applied himself diligently in early youth; which he omitted to do, and carried his regrets for such omission down with him to the tomb. His merit is impaired by his colouring, which has in it something hard and crude; entertaining a maxim, that tints, such as they are in nature, ought to be employed, and left to time for sobering and harmonizing—a maxim by some attributed to Paul Veronese. If there were ever a painter who knew not when to remove his hand from the canvass, it was Creti. In painting his S. Vincenzio, intended to be placed opposite the S. Raimond of Lodovico, he completed it with every attention to the art; yet was dissatisfied with the work, insomuch that the person who gave the commission was compelled to take it by force out of his studio, in order to place it in the grand church of the Padri Predicatori. This is, perhaps, his best altar-piece. His Alexander's Feast also boasts some merit, executed for the noble Fava family; by some even it is supposed to be his masterpiece. Creti had a pupil, named Ercole Graziani, who added greater power of execution to his master's style, a more enlarged character, greater freedom of hand, with other qualities which display his superiority. He approached Franceschini and others who succeeded to the school of Cignani. He has been accused by one of his rivals of too much effeminacy in his painting, and study of minutiæ in his ornaments. Others seek for a more just equality in his colours; others more spirit; though all must give him credit for genius and industry equal to compete with the eminent artists of his day, and to surpass many, had he enjoyed the good fortune to have met with an experienced master. He painted for S. Pietro, that Apostle in the act of ordaining S. Apollinare; a history both copious and full of dignity; commissioned by the Cardinal Lambertini, who, on becoming pope, caused him to make a duplicate for the church of S. Apollinare at Rome. Also his pictures of S. Pellegrino, in Sinigaglia, the princes of the Apostles, who take leave, with the most beautiful expression, to meet their martyrdom, placed at S. Pietro in Piacenza, with others belonging to his happier hours, are equally excellent. To Creti and Graziani we have to add Count Pietro Fava, in whose house both were, during some time, brought up, at once assistants and companions in the studies of this noble artist. He is ranked among Pasinelli's pupils and the Clementine academicians; and we have an account of his studying the works of the Caracci, to whose manner, equally with any other artist, he became attached. Although the cavalier is described as a dilettante in the art, yet on beholding his altar-pieces of the Epiphany and of the Resurrection of Christ, which he presented to the cathedral of Ancona, with a few other productions at Bologna, he appears more worthy of enrolment among its noble professors.

Aureliano Milani acquired the principles of painting from Cesare Gennari and Pasinelli; but, struck with the Caracci's style, he devoted his whole time to copying their compositions entire, as well as separate, repeating his designs of the heads, the feet, the hands, and the outlines. He caught their spirit, without borrowing their forms. It is remarked by Crespi, that no Bolognese shewed more of the Caraccesque in the naked figure, and in the whole symmetry and character of his painting. After Cignani, too, I have heard it noticed, that no one better maintained the design and the credit of the school. In colouring he was not so excellent; sometimes a follower of Gennari, as in his St. Jerome, at the church of the Vita in Bologna, and in some degree in his St. John beheaded, at the church of the Bergamaschi in Rome. Here he took up his residence, being ill able to support a family of ten children at Bologna. Here, too, he abounded with commissions, and promoted with Muratori, another pupil of Pasinelli, established there from early youth, the honour of his native place. Of the last one, however, we have treated under that school.

Aureliano taught during many years at Bologna, and among other pupils of his was the celebrated Giuseppe Marchesi, called il Sansone. He first studied under Franceschini, whose taste he nearly approaches in the vaulted ceiling of the Madonna di Galiera. It is even the opinion of some, that, in his skill of foreshortening, and in the tone of his colours, no artist succeeded in imitating him so well. He took his design from Milani; though at times his naked portion is rather too much loaded, which I would not venture to say of his master. Among his best pictures is the Martyrdom of S. Prisca, in the Rimini cathedral; an altar-piece of many and fine figures, and good tints, for which the S. Agnese of Domenichino supplied him with some ideas. He painted much for galleries, and among other pieces, one of his pictures representing the four seasons, (where it now is I cannot say,) is reputed, by a first rate judge, among the first works of the modern Bolognese school.

Antonio Gionima was some time also a pupil of Milani. He was a Paduan of obscure birth, whose father and grandfather had been artists; educated first by Simone his father (p. 171), afterwards by Milani, and for a longer period by Crespi. He died young, leaving works highly prized at Bologna for their inventive spirit and for the high tone and clearness of their colouring. His picture of St. Florian and accompanying martyrs was engraved by Mattioli; and a grand canvass history of Haman is shewn in the Ranuzzi apartment, conspicuous among numbers in the same place, where no common artists gained admittance.

Leaving aside certain other pupils of Pasinelli, of less account, as Odoardo Orlandi, or Girolamo Negri, who had a place, however, in the Dictionary of Painters, we shall close this catalogue with two others, who, becoming friends in the school of Lorenzo, continued their intimacy to extreme old age; Giuseppe Gambarini and Gian Pietro Cavazzoni Zanotti. Gambarini attended the studio of Cesare Gennari, whose rapidity of touch and power of natural effect, he afterwards retained. He added no dignity of forms; owing to which his few altar-pieces and other serious subjects obtained him no reputation. Applying himself subsequently to Flemish composition, he represented women intent on domestic affairs, boys' schools, mendicants begging alms, with similar popular objects, copied faithfully from life; in all which he abounded with commissions. At Bologna such familiar pieces by him and his able pupil Gherardini are very common, and please by their spirit and their exactness. Sometimes he represented also serious subjects, as in that picture in Casa Ranuzzi, exhibiting the coronation of Charles V. during the government of a Gonfalonier of the family.

Zanotti is well known among the writers on pictoric subjects; and few have been more successful in wielding with equal excellence both pencil and pen. His "Directions for the Progress of young Artists" contain some learned maxims, which were meant to stem the corruption of the art, by rescuing it from a low mechanical manner, and replacing it upon its true principles. Upon the same maxims he composed his "History of the Clementine Academy," although he was not enabled to adopt corresponding freedom of style; having there written the lives of the academicians, then lately deceased, or still alive. This work, printed by Lelio dalla Volpe, in 1739, with a splendor nearly unknown, up to that period, in Italy, excited some degree of indignation in good artists, who found, next their own, many names of mere mediocrity distinguished by portraits and lives, on a footing with themselves. The complaints raised by Spagnuolo, are recorded by the Canon Crespi in his Felsina, (p. 227, &c.). Other accusations were doubtless advanced against him by inferior parties, who, though commended beyond their merits, secretly, perhaps, believed themselves deserving of still higher praise. Zanotti, too, inserted notices relating to himself, who held in that assembly the offices of president and of secretary, for a much longer period. But domestic and literary matters combined, withdrew his attention from painting in his maturer years; whence we may date his more feeble performances, which convey no great idea of him. Before, however, he had conducted works which exempted him from the pictoric crowd; in which list we may include his grand picture of an Embassy from the People of Romagna to the Bolognese, which ornaments the public palace. In private houses, too, are other compositions, either historical or mythological, composed in excellent taste, one of which is in possession of the Signore Biancani Tazzi, a piece greatly admired by Algarotti, as a perfect model of refined taste. A similar graceful little picture of a Cupid and nymphs, which I saw at Signor Volpi's, displays much poetical imagination, this artist delighting in poetical composition, very different from Lomazzo's and Boschini's, to an extreme old age.[50]

From Zanotti, who was an excellent master, Ercole Lelli acquired his knowledge of design. His extraordinary genius, his anatomical preparations in wax, made by himself and Manzolini for the institution, and his great influence in the instruction of young artists, in the three branches of the fine arts, acquired him great reputation in Italy. At the same time, it is known that he lectured much better than he painted; the art requiring, like a knowledge of languages, close and persevering application, such as Lelli could not command. One of his altar-pieces is reported in the Bolognese Guide; and standing in need of defence, it was truly stated, that it was among his earliest pieces. In the Guide to Piacenza, another, his S. Fedele, at the Cappuccini, is also noticed; though it is added, with more candour, that his highest merit did not consist in painting.

Gio. Viani was fellow-pupil to Pasinelli in the school of Torre; but it is only a conjecture that he was also his assistant. He was a learned painter, not inferior in design to any contemporary of the same school; and added to his powers by assiduous drawing from the living model in the academy, and the study of anatomy, until the close of his career. To such knowledge he united elegance in his forms, softness of colouring, engaging attitudes, lightness of drapery, studying much from life, and giving it an air of grace, in the manner of Torre, or of Guido. That exquisite picture of St. John di Dio, at the hospital of the Buonfratelli, is such a specimen of his art. In the portico of the Servi he represented, in a lunette, S. Filippo Benizi, borne up to heaven by two angels; a figure which, both in countenance and action, breathes an expression of beatitude, conspicuous, even at the side of another history, by Cignani. In other lunettes of the same portico he does not excite equal admiration, and gives us an idea of an artist able to compete with the best masters, but obliged to work with a much larger share of study than they were accustomed to bestow.

Viani opened school opposite that of Cignani, and taught to some extent; in which he was succeeded by his son Domenico, whose life was written by Guidalotti, who, in point of merit, prefers him to his father. Few will subscribe to this opinion, he not having attained to that exactness, much less to that dignity of design, exhibited by his father; and inferior to him in the nature, truth, and clearness of his colouring. Still he possessed a grander character in his outline, a stronger execution, like Guercino's, more splendid ornaments, like the Venetians, whom he assiduously studied in their own capital. There is his St. Antony, at S. Spirito, in Bergamo, in the act of convincing a sceptic by a miracle; a surprising picture, extolled by Rotari and Tiepolo, and perhaps the best work which he left at Bologna. At the same place is his Jove, painted on copper, for the Casa Ratta, besides other works in private houses, to which he chiefly devoted himself.

His fellow-pupils in the paternal school were four Clementine academicians, whose altar-pieces we find mentioned among the "Paintings of Bologna." These were Gian Girolamo Bonesi, who renounced both the name and style of Viani, in order to follow Cignani, and complained of being included in Viani's school. However this might be, his pictures pleased, by adding to the beautiful a peculiar delicacy and sweetness that characterize him. Carlo Rambaldi, imitating both the Viani, was not the less employed by Bonesi; and pictures of both are met with, especially half-length figures, in select galleries at Bologna, and a few historical pieces in the royal collection at Turin. Antonio Dardani possessed more universal talent than either of the preceding, but was not equally refined. Pietro Cavazzi was a fine connoisseur in prints, and only on this account was celebrated in Italy and abroad. Tronchi, Pancaldi, Montanari, with others, not admitted into the Clementine academy, may be found mentioned in Crespi. No one, I imagine, would desire an account of the under graduates, when the academicians who enjoyed the first rank, were many of them, according to Zanotti, only artists of mediocrity.

From the school of Cignani, to which I now proceed, scarcely any disciple issued who ultimately adhered to his style. A master, whose maxim it was to labour every picture, as if his entire reputation depended on it; who preferred to cancel, rather than retouch his less successful pieces, might, perhaps, have scholars, but not many emulators. Two of his family, however, imitated him; Count Felice his son, who long assisted him, particularly in the Cupola at Forli; and the Count Paolo his grandson, whom he, perhaps, instructed in the outset; while his father indisputably employed him at Forli, and Mancini at Rome. Both were gifted with facility of genius; but being sufficiently wealthy, they only devoted themselves to the art for the sake of the pleasure it afforded. Felice is seldom mentioned in the Guide to Bologna; in which, however, his St. Antony, at the Carità, meets with praise. At Forli is the altar-piece of St. Philip, by some ascribed to him, and by others to Count Carlo, in his declining years; so inferior is it to the best style of that artist. In collections his paintings are not rare; though appearing, like a young boy in the presence of his father. Of Count Paolo's I only recollect a single altar-piece at Savignano, representing St. Francis in the act of appearing to St. Joseph da Copertino, and putting a demon to flight. The scene appears illuminated by torch-light, and has a fine effect; and the figures, in regard to their studied and finished manner, display the taste of his grandfather.

After the relatives of Carlo comes Emilio Taruffi, his fellow-pupil with Albani, as well as his assistant, first at Bologna, in decorating the public hall, and next at Rome, where he resided three years, sometimes employed at S. Andrea della Valle, at others for private houses. No artist then better conformed to Cignani's style; and Taruffi could at least second him in painting histories. But his genius lay more in minor compositions. He was an excellent copyist of any ancient manner; a portrait painter of great spirit, and, in landscape, one of the best pupils formed by Albani. In these three branches he obtained his usual commissions, which he ever discharged with credit. He also conducted some altar-pieces, and that of S. Pier Celestino, at the church of that name, yields to few of the same period.

Cignani's most distinguished pupils and heads of new schools were Franceschini and Crespi. The Cav. Marcantonio Franceschini left the school of Gio. Batista Galli for that of Cignani, and became his most effective assistant and intimate friend. This friendship was cemented by his union with Cignani's cousin, sister of Quaini, whom I shall shortly again mention. Some productions of Franceschini might be taken for Cignani's himself; but these were among his earliest, before he had formed his characteristic manner. He remained with his friend many years, and possessing peculiar gracefulness of design, Cignani availed himself of it to draw from life the individual portions of his compositions, engaging him to consult various models, in order to select the best forms from each. By this study of nature, in which he persevered, and by copying from the designs and under the eye of his master, he attained much of the taste, the nice selectness, and the grandeur of Cignani. To these he added a certain grace of colouring, and a facility which gave a novel character to his productions; besides an originality, equal to any other artist, in the form of his heads, in his attitudes, and in the costume of his figures. His freshness, his harmony, his just equilibrium of full and retreating parts; in short, his whole style presents a glowing spectacle never before seen. If we trace in his works, especially on an extended scale, a degree of mannerism, it may almost be excused: would that his disciples had restrained themselves within the same limits! But easy roads to painting are like walking on a declivity, where it is difficult to count one's steps, or restrain one's motions. Franceschini seemed born to execute works on a large scale, fertile in ideas, and with facility to dispose them in every point of view, and to colour them at any distance. He was accustomed to compose his cartoons in chiaroscuro, and, having fixed them in the intended spot, to judge of the success of his proposed work; a method it would be desirable to inculcate and adopt more generally.

His large fresco paintings are numerous; the recess in the Ranuzzi palace, the cupola and ceiling in the church of Corpus Domini, the tribune of S. Bartolommeo at Bologna. Among those in other states we shall mention only the corbels of the cupola, with three histories, in the cathedral of Piacenza, and the grand ceiling of the Hall of Public Counsel at Genoa. This painting, of which it is enough to state that Mengs devoted many hours in examining it in detail, the noblest of Franceschini's performances, perished by fire, without a single engraving having been taken to commemorate its grandeur of conception. The same fertility of ideas and attraction of style are conspicuous in his grand histories, dispersed among the first galleries of Europe, and in his no less copious altar-pieces. Such is the S. Tommaso da Villanova, in the act of dispensing alms, placed at the Agostiniani di Rimini; a picture truly imposing by its magnificent workmanship, and which surprises by the beauty of its figures. What is equally surprising, the Cavalier Franceschini, when nearly an octogenarian, displayed pictorial powers equal to his best days; as we gather from his Pietà, at the Agostiniani of Imola, and his BB. Fondatori, at the Serviti in Bologna, which betray no traces of decline. This artist rejected the most advantageous offers from courts, which all vied in soliciting his services. Giordano even was not invited to that of Madrid, until the situation had been refused by Franceschini. He chose to reside in Upper Italy, there assuming the same rank, as head of his school, with almost the same success as Cortona in Lower Italy. Both schools adhered much to the Caracci's style, and in some measure rendered it more popular; and hence, those who at Rome are not familiar with the features and contrasts characteristic of Cortona's sect, would easily confound them with the more modern artists of Bologna.

Luigi Quaini, cousin to Carlo Cignani, and brother-in-law to Franceschini, was one of the most animated characters of his time; equally well versed in history, in architecture, and in poetry. The pupil, first of Guercino, next of Cignani, he was employed by the last as an assistant, and with such success, that, in painting, his hand could not be distinguished from that of his master. In distributing their labours to Franceschini and to Quaini, he ordered the former to paint the fleshes for the roundness and softness he gave to them; while to the latter he committed certain gay and spirited countenances, and a certain finishing of parts, in which, from his peculiar talent, he admirably succeeded. Later in life, he united with Franceschini, and leaving to him the inventive parts, he followed him in the style of the figures; inferior, doubtless, to that of Cignani, in force of chiaroscuro and colouring, but more attractive from its peculiar beauty and felicity. He would, afterwards, wholly ornament the composition by himself, with flowers, armour, beautiful landscape, and noble perspective; an art acquired from Francesco, his own father, a fine pupil of Mitelli. In this way did these two artists continue to paint, conjointly, at Bologna, at Modena, Piacenza, Genoa, and Rome; at which last place they composed some cartoons for the cupola of St. Peter's, which were afterwards executed in mosaic. Quaini also painted many historical pictures of his own invention. They decorate private houses; his only composition in public being his St. Nicholas visited in prison by our Lady, a beautiful altar-piece, occupying the best place in the church of that name.

Marcantonio's school, from which he also derived those assistants who followed Quaini, dates its commencement from his son, the Canon Jacopo Franceschini. The Bolognese historians only represent him in the character of an honorary academician; so that, by their account, I ought here to omit him. The Cav. Ratti, however, informs us that Marcantonio, coming to Genoa to adorn the church of S. Filippo, brought with him his son as his assistant, together with Giacomo Boni. In the same city, too, I saw a large history, in the hall of the Marchese Durazzo, as well as other pieces by him, well worthy commendation. At Bologna, also, are several paintings in public, all conducted in the style, and with the assistance of his father.

Boni was employed by Franceschini in many of his works, more particularly in that at Rome. He had been pupil also to Cignani, along with a few more, to be mentioned in the same school; under whose care he chiefly had in view works of a more difficult cast. Such was the ceiling of S. Maria della Costa, at S. Remo, and of S. Pier Celestino, at Bologna; besides several paintings at Genoa, where he became established. Two of his pictures, at the church of the Magdalen, met with great applause; namely, a Preaching at Gethsemane, and a Pietà. He more particularly distinguished himself in fresco; and in a chamber of his Excel. Pallavicini is an infant Jove, in the act of receiving nutriment from a goat, executed in the most elegant style. He was much employed in that capital, where, says Crespi, "there is neither palace, nor church, nor monastery, nor house, in which his works are not met with; all striking and commendable." Nor did he produce little at Brescia, at Parma, and at Remo; besides being honoured with commissions from Prince Eugene of Savoy, and the King of Spain, for whose chapel he forwarded an altar-piece. This artist sometimes betrays the haste of a mere mechanist, not completing fully, or polishing his work; besides colouring with a degree of lightness of hand which easily yields to age. Yet he always retains a delicacy and a precision in his contours, with a certain open spirit and joyousness which delight the eye.

Antonio Rossi never conducted works on so large a scale as Boni, but he surpassed him in diligence; which induced his master, when entrusting commissions to his pupils, to prefer him to any other. He exercised himself in painting pictures for churches, and greatly added to his reputation by his Martyrdom of S. Andrea, placed at S. Domenico. He was much occupied, also, with architectural pictures and landscape, to which he added small figures, so well adapted as to appear by the same hand. On this account he was an artist much liked by the artificers of similar representations, particularly by Orlandi and Brizzi. Girolamo Gatti was less employed for churches than Rossi, but is distinguished for small figure pieces, with one of which he decorated the hall of the Anziani. It exhibited the coronation of Charles V. in S. Petronio, and shewed the artist to be as good a figurist as a painter of perspective. Although educated by Franceschini, as we learn from the new Guide, he did not imitate his colouring: this he sought to attain from Cignani. Giuseppe Pedretti long resided in Poland; and on his return to Bologna executed a number of works in a good style. Giacinto Garofolini, a pupil and kinsman of Marcantonio, displayed very middling ability when employed alone; but in conjunction with his relative, and with Boni, he conducted various works in fresco, from which he is entitled to what reputation he obtained. To these Bolognese artists and academicians various foreigners might be added, as one Gaetano Frattini, known at Ravenna by some altar-pieces at the Corpus Domini, and a few others whom we have referred to different schools. We shall now return to that of Cignani.

Giuseppe Maria Crespi, whom for his neatness of attire his fellow pupils surnamed Lo Spagnuolo, was instructed first by Canuti, next by Cignani; being early grounded in the best principles of taste. With unwearied assiduity he copied the Caracci paintings at Bologna; and at his leisure studied those of the first Venetians in that capital. He examined, too, Coreggio's at Modena and Parma, and long sojourned in Urbino and Pesaro to consult the works of Baroccio. Some of these he copied, and sold at Bologna for the originals. His object invariably was, to form a new manner out of many others, which he accomplished; at some times Baroccio would be his most admired model; at another, when he wished to employ more shade, he chose Guercino; nor did he dislike Cortona in respect to taste of composition. To the examples, too, of the dead, he added the observation of the living; and was averse, if we may credit his son, to the labours of a mere mechanist. He drew every thing from nature, and even had a camera optica in his house, from which he copied the objects that offered themselves to view, and remarked the various play and picturesque reflections of the vivid light. His compositions, indeed, teem with these novelties, and his shortenings also are as singular; so that he often places a number of figures in a small space, while the conceptions which he interweaves in his pictures, are more peculiarly fanciful.

This turn for novelty at length led his fine genius astray; insomuch that Mengs is brought to lament that the Bolognese School should approach its close in the capricious Crespi, (vol. ii. p. 124). In his heroic pieces, and even in scriptural subjects, he left room occasionally for caricature. Wishing to exhibit novelty in his shadows and in his draperies he fell into mannerism; and varying his first method of colouring similar to the old painters, he adopted another more lucrative but less excellent. It consists of few colours, selected chiefly for effect, and very common and oily; gums applied by him to colouring, as other artists use them for a veil, or varnish; few strokes, employed indeed with judgment, but too superficial and without strength or body. Such was the method which we see pursued in so many of his pictures; or to speak more correctly, which are no longer to be seen, the tints having decayed or disappeared, so as to require them to be newly copied by another hand. His son did not attempt to conceal this fault, though he wished to excuse it. The reader may peruse the defence in his Felsina Pittrice, p. 225; and should he feel convinced by it, with similar benignity he may apologize for Piazzetta, who acquired his method of colouring from Crespi; with others who more or less pursued the same practice, at this period extinct.

As a specimen of his more solid style, the picture of the BB. Fondatori, at the church of the Servi, appears to much advantage; our Lord's Supper, also, in Casa Sampieri; a few pieces in the royal Pitti palace, where he was long employed by the great Prince Ferdinando; besides a few other of his first productions. In his other style are various pictures conducted for the galleries of the Roman nobility; the SS. Paolo and Antonio as eremites, for the Princes Albani; the Magdalen for the Chigi palace; the Seven Sacraments for the Card. Ottoboni, of which I have seen copies in the Albani palace at Urbino. The whole of these seven pictures display certain bold coruscations and contrasts which dazzle the eye; all shew novelty of idea; in particular that of the Spousals between a young girl and an octogenarian, to the visible mirth of the spectators. Spagnuolo lived to advanced age, honoured by the pope with the insignia of cavaliere, esteemed among the first of his age, while his paintings everywhere abounded. Different houses, both in and beyond Bologna, possess them in great number; histories, fables, and familiar pieces. He received most part of his commissions from the Signori Belloni, who decorated various chambers with his historical pieces, remunerating him with one hundred crowns each, though they contained but few figures, and all of an ell's length.

Spagnuolo's manner was not one that could be pursued by every pupil with applause. Those artists who were unable to direct it with equal imagination, power of design, spirit and facility, produced very trifling results. Even his own sons, D. Luigi the canon, and Antonio, who painted for various churches, did not wholly follow their father's style, but appear invariably more studied. The canon wrote much upon the art, as the lives of the Bolognese artists, or the third volume of the Felsina Pittrice, edited in 1769; notices of the painters of Ferrara and Romagna, still unpublished; various treatises; with numerous letters inserted by Bottari in the pictoric collection. To few of his age is the history of painting so much indebted, although in certain national subjects he failed to satisfy the whole of his fellow citizens. The authors of the new Guide of Bologna require from him more diligence in examining documents; greater fidelity as a public instructor; more justice to the real merit of Ercole Lelli. The four dialogues in defence of his Felsina Pittrice, written by a friend, were published by Bottari in the seventh volume of the work just cited, and are worth perusal. In the same volume ((p. 143) we also meet with a letter of Crespi, in which he confesses his different errors, declaring that he would correct them in the fourth volume of his Felsina, which he was then composing, and which I am uncertain whether he ever completed. From these notices we gather, that, notwithstanding his violent temper, he was not wanting in fidelity as an historian, and in that readiness to retract his own errors, without which none can pretend to maintain the true literary or historical character.

For the rest, he must have afforded occasion for those clamours against his Felsina and other writings by some satirical strokes, which are assuredly severe, accompanied by many personal reflections on his contemporaries. Concerning that very respectable academy he relates some observations of his deceased father, which had better have been consigned to oblivion. He disapproves the methods introduced into his school, and laments, that owing to the failure of good masters, Bologna was no longer frequented as formerly by students. He detects, too, certain little impositions introduced into the art; such for instance as displaying in the studio a number of pictures prepared for colouring, to convey an idea of possessing abundance of commissions; pronouncing in a breath a number of anatomical terms on the bones and muscles, to inspire a high opinion of the artist's learning; publishing eulogiums on some particular painting in an article of the day, which only the artist himself could have conceived, and written, paid for, and believed to be true. Such, or similar details, which must have sufficed to recognize particular individuals, doubtless provoked many replies from persons not publicly known, as the author gave no contemporary names, but deeply offended and provoked to retaliate upon him.

Among the pupils of Crespi was Gionima, who survived only, as I have stated, to his thirty-fifth year. Nor did Cristoforo Terzi reach a much more advanced age, the pupil also of different masters. From his outset he boasted a decision of hand, able to sketch at few strokes very spirited heads, which, however, by dint of excessive retouching, he deprived of much of their expression. This defect he remedied under Crespi, and improved himself by residing several years at Rome. Many collections at Bologna possess some of his half-length figures and heads of old men, which are mistaken by less experienced judges for those of Lana. In the list of Crespi's pupils, too, are Giacomo Pavia of Bologna, who flourished in Spain; Gio. Morini d'Imola; Pier Guarienti, a Veronese, who flourished at Venice, and was afterwards appointed director of the Dresden gallery; and the same who wrote the additions to Orlandi's dictionary. Francesco l'Ange of Savoy, a pupil of Crespi, became a Philippine monk at Bologna. His chief merit lay in small scriptural pictures, some of which I saw in Vercelli, in possession of his Eminence Martiniana, bearing the author's name, and quite deserving, by their design and colouring, of a place in that collection.

Besides Franceschini and Crespi, many others were educated by Cignani. Their names have been given by Zannelli, who published their lives; a book I have vainly endeavoured to obtain while engaged in writing the present work. By Crespi we have an account of some pupils whom he instructed in perspective and landscape, as well as in flowers; this skilful preceptor being accustomed to ascertain the young artists' talents, and confine them to the inferior, when not competent to the higher branches of art, and even to direct them to other professions when unequal to these. Such pupils as he retained, ought not, then, to be lightly contemned, although little celebrated, either because they died young, were dispersed abroad, or obscured by brighter names. Among such are Baldassare Bigatti, Domenico Galeazzi, Pietro Minelli, known in history by a few altar-pieces. Matteo Zamboni died young, leaving in some private houses a few specimens of his works, as much in Cignani's style as those of any artist. I am uncertain what public works he conducted in Bologna; but he acquitted himself well, for his age, in two histories at S. Niccolo in Rimini; the one representing St. Benedict, the other S. Pier Celestino. Antonio Castellani is included by Guarienti in the school of Cignani, though I think by mistake, as he belongs to that of the Caracci. Not so Giulio Benzi, also mentioned in the Guide of Bologna, and to be distinguished from the Genoese of that name. I may observe the same of Guido Signorini, recorded by Crespi, and not to be confounded with another Guido Signorini, heir to Guido Reni. So far of the artists of Bologna.

Federigo Bencovich was a foreigner of a Dalmatian family, and I give his name as he himself wrote it.[51] In the Dictionaries it is spelt Boncorich and Bendonich; and by Zannelli, Benconich; so that foreigners may be well excused for often mistaking the names of Italian painters. Federigo, commonly called in his own time, Federighetto, acquired more of Cignani's solidity than amenity of style; correct in his design, strong in his execution, and well informed in the best principles of his art. Some of his altar-pieces are at Milan, Bologna, and Venice; though most of his productions adorn collections, even in Germany, where he resided many years. In that of the Signori Vianelli of Chioggia, mention is made of his S. Jacopo Sedente; and in another collection, of Count Algarotti, at Venice, his landscape, with a village girl, to which Piazzetta added another figure. Occasionally, his manner is somewhat too much loaded with shadows, but by no means to be pronounced contemptible, as asserted by Zanetti, (p. 450) in opposition to the opinion of Guarienti.

Girolamo Donnini also resided out of his country; born at Coreggio, he lived at Bologna; and being inclined to that school, was first treated of by Crespi, next by Tiraboschi. He had studied under Stringa at Modena, and under Giangioseffo dal Sole at Bologna. Thence he went to Forli, at the instigation of Cignani, not so much to become a machinist and a painter in fresco, as in order to treat less difficult subjects in oil. His chief merit lay in painting for private ornament, and Orlandi, then living, bore testimony that his pictures were held in high request for the decoration of houses. He excelled also on a larger scale; one of his altar-pieces of S. Antonio, at the Filippini in Bologna, being conducted in a very masterly style; as well as others, dispersed about Romagna, at Turin, in his native place, and elsewhere, the manner of which, as is remarked by Crespi, clearly displays the hand of Cignani's disciple. A favourite pupil of Donnini, and whom he assisted in a variety of circumstances, was Francesco Boni, termed also il Gobbino[52] de' Sinibaldi, from being in the service of those lords. He was from Faenza, and left several good pictures in his native place; among others, a S. Teresa, with S. Gio. della Croce, at the Carmelitani; a Noli me tangere, and the Meeting of S. Domenico and S. Francesco, in the church which formerly belonged to the Domenicans. Pietro Donzelli, of Mantua, placed an altar-piece in the cathedral of Pescia, in which he represented S. Carlo administering to the sick of the plague, displaying the style of a pupil of Cignani; and this constitutes all the information I could obtain respecting him.

The other foreign pupils of the Cav. Carlo, who diffused his manner through the Italian schools, are commemorated in the places where they flourished; as Lamberti, for instance, at Rome, and Parolini at Ferrara. Here I shall add a brief sketch of the artists of Romagna, whom I unite to those of Bologna. Antonio Santi was an Ariminese, whose school only is mentioned by Crespi; but in the Guide of Rimini, where a few of his works remain, he is extolled as one of its best pupils, though he died young. The same Guide makes mention of some paintings in oil and fresco, particularly in the church of the Angioli, attributed to Angiolo Sarzetti, pupil to Cignani; from whom, also, he obtained a design for an altar-piece at S. Colomba. Innocenzio Monti is included by Crespi among the Bolognese, and by Orlandi among the painters of Imola, where he left some works. One, of the Circumcision of our Lord, at the Gesù of Mirandola, executed in 1690, is extolled in a little book of poems. He was more industrious than ingenious, and more successful in Germany and in Poland than in Italy. Gioseffo Maria Bartolini, also of Imola, is esteemed, in his native place, for a Miracle of S. Biagio, and for other works at S. Domenico, and in other churches. He was employed a good deal at Imola, where he opened school, and throughout Romagna; an artist of great facility, and partaking, in some degree, of the manner of Pasinelli, his first master.

The artists of Forli, among whom Cignani lived during some years, are not a few. Filippo Pasquali was colleague to Franceschini, whose grand altar-piece at Rimini he surrounded with a very pleasing ornament. Some of his earliest efforts are met with in Bologna, at the portico of the Serviti; but not equal to the altar-piece in the church of S. Vittore at Ravenna, which he painted at a more advanced age, and which does him great credit. Andrea and Francesco Bondi, two brothers, are recorded by Guarienti; though, in the Guides of Pesaro and Ravenna only one is alluded to, whose name is not given; and what pieces I saw at Forli itself would seem to have proceeded from one hand; such as the chapel of S. Antonio, at the Carmelites, the Crucifixion at S. Filippo, besides others. He boasts the fine execution of Cignani; but the forms and expressions are not equally select. Among other artists of Forli, instructed by Cignani, was the priest Sebastiano Savorelli, employed in some church paintings even in the adjacent cities. To him we may add Mauro Malducci, and Francesco Fiorentini, both priests, too, of Forli; of all of whom there is found some account in the life of Cignani.