The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. 4 from the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century

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Title: The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. IV (of 6)

from the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End

of the Eighteenth Century

Author: Luigi Antonio Lanzi

Translator: Thomas Roscoe

Release Date: February 24, 2012 [EBook #38967]

Language: English

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THE

HISTORY OF PAINTING

IN

ITALY.

VOL. IV.

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. IV.

CONTAINING THE SCHOOLS OF LOMBARDY, MANTUA,

MODENA, PARMA, CREMONA, AND MILAN.

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 FOURTH VOLUME.

HISTORY OF PAINTING IN UPPER ITALY.

BOOK THE SECOND.

SCHOOLS OF LOMBARDY.

HISTORY OF PAINTING

IN

UPPER ITALY.

BOOK II.

THE SCHOOLS OF LOMBARDY.

After a consideration of the principles and progress of painting in Lombardy, I came to the conclusion that its history ought to be treated and arranged in a manner altogether different from the rest of the schools. Indeed those of Florence, of Rome, of Venice, and of Bologna, may be almost considered in the light of so many dramas, in which there occurs an interchange of acts and scenes, for such are the epochs of each school; and there is also a change of actors, for such are the masters of each new period; but the unity of place, which is no other than the capital city, is invariably preserved; while the principal actors, and as it were protagonists of the story, always continue in action, at least in the way of example. Every capital, it is true, is in possession of its own state, and in that ought to be comprehended the various other cities, and the revolutions in each; but these are in general so nearly connected with those of the metropolis as to be easily reducible to the same leading law, either because the state artists have acquired the art in the principal city, or because they have taught it there, as may easily be gathered from the history of the Venetian School; while the few who wander out of the usual routine, cannot be said to infringe greatly upon the unity of the school and the succession of its histories. But it happens differently in the history of Lombardy, which, in the happier periods of the art, being divided into many more districts than it now is, possessed in each state a school distinct from all the others; enumerated also distinct eras; and when the style of one influenced that of another, such a circumstance occurred neither so universally, nor so near in regard to time, as to admit of the same epoch being applied to many of them. Hence it is, that even from the outset of this book, I renounce the received manner of speaking which would mention the Lombard School, as if in itself constituting one school, in such a way as to be compared for instance with the Venetian, which in every place acknowledged the sway of its sovereign masters; of the Bellini first, next of Titian and his noblest contemporaries, and then of Palma; and moreover established several characteristics of design, of colouring, of composition, of the use of the pencil, so as easily to distinguish it from every other school. But in that which is called the Lombard the case is otherwise. For its founders, such as Lionardo, Giulio, the Campi, and Coreggio, are too widely opposed to each other to admit of being brought under one standard of taste, and referred to the same epoch. I am aware that Coreggio, being by birth a Lombard, and the originator of a new style that afforded an example to many artists in that part of Italy, has conferred the name of Lombard School upon the followers of his maxims; and according to these characteristics the contours were to be drawn round and full, the countenance warm and smiling, the union of the colours strong and clear, the foreshortenings frequent, with a particular regard to the chiaroscuro. But the school thus circumscribed, where shall we find a place for the Mantuans, the Milanese, the Cremonese, and the many others who, having been born, and having flourished in Lombardy, and moreover being the tutors of a long extended line, justly deserve a rank among the Lombards.

From such considerations I have judged it most advisable to treat severally of each school, enlarging upon them more or less, according as the number of the professors and the information respecting them may seem to render it requisite. For the accounts of some of these schools have been already separately compiled; Zaist having treated of the Cremonese painters, and Tiraboschi of the Modenese; thus conferring upon artists the same obligations which he so richly conferred upon the literati in a still greater work; a rare writer, for whose loss we yet indulge a mournful recollection. In the rest of the schools I shall be supplied with ample materials from Vasari, from Lomazzo, and the Guides of the cities, besides some authors to be cited when requisite, together with my own observations and sources of information borrowed from different places; whence it is hoped that the pictoric history of Lombardy, the least known amongst all the schools of Italy, may by my means have at least some additional light thrown upon it.

CHAPTER I.

MANTUAN SCHOOL.

EPOCH I.

Of Mantegna and his Successors.

I shall first commence with Mantua, from which there emanated two sister schools, those of Modena and of Parma. Were any one desirous of investigating the most ancient remains that the art of colouring in that state can boast, he might record the celebrated anthem book, still preserved at S. Benedetto at Mantua, a gift of the Countess Matilda to that monastery, which being founded by her long preserved her remains, transferred during the late century into the Vatican. In this book, shewn me by the learned and courteous Abbate Mari, are exhibited several little histories of the life and death of the Virgin, which, notwithstanding the barbarous period in which they were produced, display some taste, insomuch that I do not remember having seen any work of the same age at all equal to it. Upon this subject it may not be useless to observe, that in ages less uncivilized, and nearer our own, the art of miniature was practised in Mantua by a great number of professors, among whom is Gio. de Russi, who, about the year 1455, illustrated for the Duke Borso of Modena, the Bible of Este, in large folio, one of the rarest specimens of that distinguished collection. But in regard to pictures, I have been able to discover no artist who flourished in that place previous to Mantegna; and it is only some anonymous productions belonging to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, that can be mentioned as remaining to this day. Of the former age, I saw in the cloister of S. Francesco, a sepulchre, erected in 1303, with a Madonna among various angels, all rude and disproportioned figures, though coloured with such strong and animated tints as to appear truly surprising. I doubt not but that the revival of painting in Lombardy, through the genius of its natives, might be fairly proved from the existence of this monument, as its age is anterior to that of the followers of Giotto, scattered throughout Italy; besides the style is different. Of the fifteenth, I have seen another Madonna upon an altar likewise of S. Francesco; and whoever may have been the author, he has shewn that the art, even in those days, had already emerged from its infancy, without arriving at that rank to which the great Andrea Mantegna conducted it, of whom we have twice already had occasion to speak shortly in the course of this work; a subject which we now resume, and shall enlarge upon more fully.

Although the honour of having given birth to Mantegna can no longer, as formerly, be denied to Padua, his school was, nevertheless, established in Mantua, where, under the auspices of Marchese Lodovico Gonzaga, he settled with his family, without, however, ceasing to exert his talents elsewhere, and more particularly in Rome. The chapel which he painted at the desire of Innocent VIII. in the Vatican still exists, though injured by time; and it is clear that in the imitation of the antique constantly pursued by him he greatly improved, through the number of examples to be found throughout the city. He never varied his manner, which I described when I treated of him as a pupil of Squarcione in Padua; but he still continued to perfect it. Several works produced during his latter years are yet extant at Mantua; and far surpassing the rest is his picture of Victory, painted upon canvass. Another is the Virgin, amidst various saints, among whom S. Michele the Archangel, and S. Maurizio, are seen holding her mantle, which is stretched over Francesco Gonzaga; he is in a kneeling posture, while the Virgin extends her hand over him in sign of protection: more in the background appear the two patrons of the city, S. Andrea and S. Longino, and the infant St. John before the throne, with S. Anna, as is supposed at least by Vasari and Ridolfi, little exact in their description of this picture, inasmuch as the rosary held in her hand distinguishes her for the princess, consort of the Marchese, kneeling at her husband's side. Mantua, perhaps, boasts no other specimen equally sought after and admired by strangers; and though produced in 1495, it is still free, in a conspicuous degree, from the effects of three ages, which it has already survived. It is truly wonderful to behold carnations so delicate, coats of armour so glittering, draperies so finely varied, with ornamental fruits still so fresh and dewy to the eye. Each separate head might serve as a school, from its fine character and vivacity, and not a few from imitation of the antique; while the design, as well in its naked as in its clothed parts, expresses a softness which sufficiently repels the too general opinion, that the stiff style and that of Mantegna are much the same thing. There is also an union of colours, a delicacy of hand, and a peculiar grace, that to me appears almost the last stage of the art towards that perfection which it acquired from Lionardo. His works upon canvass remind us of that exquisite taste to which he had been habituated by Squarcione, who supplied him with pictures of the same kind from various places, and indeed the whole of the above specimen discovers him to have been an artist who spared neither his colours nor his time, to produce works that might satisfy his own ideas, as well as the eye of the spectator.

His great masterpiece, nevertheless, according to the judgment of Vasari, is the Triumph of Cæsar, represented in different pictures, which, becoming the prey of the Germans in the sackage of the city, were finally sent into England. They belonged to a great hall in the palace of S. Sebastiano, which was completed, says Equicola, an historian of his native place, by Lorenzo Costa, an excellent artist, who added to it all that pomp which used to attend upon a triumph, besides the spectators before wanting. But these pictures having perished, there yet remain other considerable relics from the works of Andrea, in a saloon of the castle, entitled by Ridolfi the Camera degli Sposi. We there behold copious productions executed in fresco, and among them several portraits of the Gonzaga family, still in good preservation; and some Genii drawn over a door-way, so joyous, animated, and airy, that nothing can be supposed to surpass them. Among collections of art we more rarely meet with specimens of him than is really believed, his genuine hand being recognized, not only by its lightness, by its rectilinear folds, or by its yellowish landscape, spread with certain minute and broken little stones; but by the skill of its design and the delicacy of its pencil. It does not appear that he produced many pictures for private exhibition, engaged as he was in works of greater magnitude, and upon many engravings. More than fifty of these last have been enumerated, for the chief part abounding with figures; labours which must have occupied a large portion of his best time. But there are some persons, as I have observed, (vol. i. p. 136,) who would considerably reduce this number, whether correctly or not posterity will, perhaps, ascertain.

The style of Andrea greatly influenced that of his age, and imitations of it are to be seen even beyond his school, which was extremely flourishing in Mantua. We enumerate among his most distinguished disciples Francesco, and one of his other sons. There is a paper yet extant, in which they undertake to complete the chamber of the castle just alluded to, of which their father Andrea had only painted the walls. To these they added the beautiful vaulted recess. Whoever examines it must confess that the science of foreshortening, originally attributed to Melozio, was here improved and nearly brought to perfection by Mantegna and his sons. In the same work appear several exquisitely drawn infantine figures, under different points of view, and admirably shortened, so as to lose nothing in comparison with those of Melozio, though his painting of Paradise, drawn for the church of SS. Apostoli, was afterwards cut down and placed in the grand Palazzo Quirinale. The same sons of Mantegna likewise added lateral pictures to an altar-piece of their father, in a family chapel they had, attached to the church of S. Andrea; and in the same place they raised a beautiful monument to his memory in 1517, which has been falsely supposed by some to be the year of his death, whereas it appears, from many authentic works, that he closed his days in 1505.

After the death of Mantegna, Lorenzo Costa held the first rank, an artist of whom we shall treat more at length in the Bolognese School. He adorned the palace with various histories, and the churches with many of his pictures, continuing under Francesco to reside in the same place, and afterwards under Federigo, until beyond the year 1525, in which time he produced also his picture for his family chapel. There too, like Mantegna, he wished to have his remains deposited. Following his example, he established his family in Mantua, where some of his descendants will again appear at a more modern epoch. But the young Mantegni must be referred to this more ancient period, and along with them ought to be mentioned Carlo del Mantegna, who having studied some length of time under Andrea, and cultivated a complete acquaintance with his style, afterwards introduced it, as we shall shew, into Genoa. Carlo is supposed to have assisted in the labours of the palace and the chapel above mentioned, as well as in many others ascribed to the disciples of Mantegna, among which are two histories of the ark preserved in the monastery of S. Benedetto at Mantua, where Andrea's manner appears somewhat more amplified, though boasting less beautiful forms. But few certain productions of his followers can be fixed upon, their labours being confounded by connoisseurs, from their resemblance of their style and name to those of their master. And it has thus happened in an extremely interesting historical point; for Coreggio having studied, it appears, under Francesco Mantegna, was believed a scholar of Andrea, already deceased before Allegri had attained his twelfth year.

Still more celebrated than the preceding were the names of Gianfrancesco Carotto and Francesco Monsignori, of Verona. Such was the progress made by the former, that Andrea was in the habit of sending forth his labours as the work of his own hand. He was celebrated for his portraits; and for his composition, equally excellent in large as in small pieces; and he was employed by the Visconti, at Milan, as well as in the court of Monferrato, and to a still greater extent in his native place. Although an artist who flourished at so early a period, in a few of his pictures he might be pronounced more great and harmonious than Andrea himself; as we may gather from his fine altar-piece of S. Fermo, at Verona, and from that of his Angioli, at Santa Eufemia, whose side pictures represent two virgins, very manifestly imitated from Raffaello. He is not to be confounded with Giovanni Carotto, his brother and his pupil, and very greatly inferior to him. Francesco Monsignori ought not to be referred to Verona, but to Mantua, where he established himself, honoured by the Marchese Francesco with his confidence, and remunerated in the most liberal manner. If this artist, also, does not exhibit the beautiful forms, and the purity of design so remarkable in the works of his master, he approaches nearer to the modern taste; his contours more full, his drapery less trite, and his softness more finely studied. In his drawings of animals, he was also considered the Zeuxis of his age; insomuch that he succeeded in imposing upon a real dog with a copy of the animal. In perspective he was a master; and in the refectory of the Franciscans, there is a picture of our Lord amidst the apostles, exhibiting an architecture, which, however much retouched, does not fail to produce great effect. In the pulpit of the same church is also a S. Bernardino, with a S. Lodovico, one of his most beautiful pieces; and elsewhere altar-grades, with figures which appear like miniature. He had a brother of the name of Girolamo, of the order of S. Domenico, also an excellent artist. The Last Supper, to be seen in the grand library of S. Benedetto, copied from that of Leonardo, in Milan, is from his hand. By many it is esteemed the best copy of that miracle of art, which now remains to us. I have before treated of several of Andrea's scholars, natives of Vicenza; and another of Cremona, I shall have to mention in due time. Yet the entire series of this school will not be completed with these names, as there are specimens of many unknown artists executed in fresco, interspersed throughout different places in Mantua. They are for the most part to be met with on the façades of buildings, and in the churches; while in several of the galleries we may observe pictures in oil, which appear to exhibit more of the defects than of the excellences of a Mantegna.

MANTUAN SCHOOL.

EPOCH II.

Giulio Romano and his School.

The school of the Mantegni becoming extinct in Mantua, another of a more beautiful and distinguished character arose, sufficient to excite the envy even of Rome. Duke Federigo had succeeded to Francesco, a prince of much enlargement of mind, and so much devoted to the fine arts, that no artist of common genius would have been equal to execute his ideas. Through the interest of Baldassar Castiglione, then extremely intimate with Raffaello, Giulio Romano was prevailed upon to visit Mantua, where he became at once engineer and painter to Duke Frederic. The duties, however, of the first, occupied him more than those of the second. For the city having been damaged by the waters of the Mincio, the buildings being insecure or badly planned, and the architecture inferior to the dignity of a capital, he was thus furnished with sufficient materials on which to employ his talents, and to render him as it were a new founder of Mantua; insomuch, that its ruler, in a transport of gratitude, was heard to exclaim, that Giulio was in truth more the master of the city than he himself. The whole of these works are extensively recorded in different books of architecture. The duty here required of me is to point out to the reader the originality of this artist's character; a solitary instance perhaps in history, of one who, having erected the most noble and beautiful palaces, villas, and temples, painted and ornamented a considerable portion of them with his own hand; while at the same time a regular school of his pupils and assistants was formed in Mantua, which continued for a length of years to do equal honour to the country and to the city of Lombardy.

We have already considered Giulio, in treating of the Roman School, in the character of scholar, as well as heir and continuator of the works of Raffaello; but here he is to appear in that of a master, pursuing the method of the head of this school, both in teaching and composition. When he came to Mantua he found abundance of ancient marbles, to which he continued to add specimens, out of which the statues, the busts, and the bassi-relievi, still preserved in the academy, are mere relics. To such materials, collected by the Gonzaghi, he united some of his own. He was abundantly furnished with designs, as well copied from the antique in Rome, as executed by the hand of Raffaello. Nor were his own immediate studies less valuable, no designer having better succeeded in uniting freedom of invention with selection, rapidity with correctness, a knowledge of fable and of history with a certain popular manner, and facility in treating them. Upon the death of his master he began to give a freer scope to his natural genius, which inclined rather to the bold than to the beautiful, and induced him more to adopt the experience acquired by many years of application, than his own knowledge of nature and of truth. He considered it, therefore, mere amusement to adorn the palace of Mantua, and the great suburban of the Tè, (to say nothing of his numerous other works,) in the style that Vasari relates, and which is, in part, to be seen at the present day. So many chambers with gilded entablatures; such a variety of beautiful stucco work, the figures of which have been removed for the instruction of youth; so many stories and capricci finely conceived and connected with one another, besides such a diversity of labours adapted to different places and subjects, altogether form a collection of wonders, the honour of which Giulio divided with no other artist. For he himself conceived, composed, and completed these vast undertakings.

He was accustomed himself to prepare the cartoons, and afterwards having exacted from his pupils their completion, he went over the entire work with his pencil, removed its defects, impressing at the same time upon the whole the stamp of his own superior character. This method he acquired from Raffaello; and he is commended by Vasari as the best artist known for his production of distinguished pupils. It was the misfortune of Giulio to have the touches of his own hand in his labours at the Tè, modernized by other pencils, owing to which the beautiful fable of Psyche, the moral representations of human life, and his terrible war of the giants with Jove, where he appeared to compete with Michelangiolo himself in the hardihood of his design, still retain, indeed, the design and composition, but no longer the colours of Giulio. In these last his hand will more truly appear in his War of Troy, preserved at the royal court; in his history of Lucretia; and in those little cabinets ornamented by him with grotesques and other ingenious fancies. There we might sometimes pronounce him a Homer, treating of arms, or sometimes an Anacreon, celebrating the delights of wine and love. Nor did he employ his powers less nobly in sacred subjects, more particularly for the