BOOK II
.
SIENESE SCHOOL.
EPOCH I.
_The old Masters._
The Sienese is the lively school of a lively people; and is so agreeable in the selection of the colours and the air of the heads, that foreigners are captivated, and sometimes even prefer it to the Florentine. But this gaiety of style forms not the only reason of this preference; there is another, which few have attended to, and none have ever brought forward. The choicest productions of the painters of Siena are all in the churches of that place; and he who wishes to become acquainted with the school, after having seen these, need not be very solicitous to visit the private collections, which are numerous and well filled. In Florence it is otherwise: no picture of Vinci, of Bonarruoti, of Rosso, is to be seen in public; none of the finest productions of Andrea, or of Frate, and few of any other master who has best supported the credit of the school: many of the churches abound in pictures of the third and fifth epochs; which are certainly respectable, but do not excite astonishment like the works of the Razzi, the Vanni, and other first rate artists, every where to be met with in Siena. They are, moreover, two different schools, and ought not to be confounded together in any work of art; possessing, for a long period of time, different governments, other heads of schools, other styles; and not affected by the same changes. A comparison between the two schools is drawn by P. della Valle,[247] whom we have mentioned, and shall afterwards mention with respect; and his opinion appears to be, that the Florentine is most philosophical, the Sienese the most poetical. He remarks on this head, that the school of Siena, from its very beginning, displays a peculiar talent for invention; animating with lively and novel images the stories it represents; filling them with allegory, and forming them into spirited and well constructed poetic compositions. This originates in the elevated and fervid genius of the people, that no less aids the painter, whose poetry is addressed to the eye, than the bard who yields it to the ear. In the latter, and also in extemporary poets, the city abounds, and still maintains in public estimation, those laurels, which, after Petrarca and Tasso, her Perfetti won in the capital. He likewise observes that those artists particularly attended to expression. Nor was this difficult, in a city so adverse to dissimulation as Siena, whose natural disposition and education have adapted the tongue and countenance to express the emotions of the heart. This vivacity of genius has perhaps prevented their attaining perfection in design, which is not the great attribute of those masters, as it is reckoned of the Florentines. To sum up all, the character of the school of Siena is not so original as that of some others; and we shall find, during its best period, that some of its artists distinctly imitated the style of other painters. With regard to the number of its artists, Siena has been prolific in the proportion of its population; its artists were numerous while it had many citizens; but on the decrease of the latter, its professors of the fine arts also diminished, until every trace of a school was lost.
The accounts of the early painters of Siena are rather confused during the three first centuries by the plurality of the Guidi, the Mini, the Lippi, the Vanni (abbreviations of Giacomo, Filippo, Giovanni), and such sort of proper names as are used without a surname: hence it is not sufficient to peruse only such accounts; we must reflect on them and compare them. They are scattered in many histories of the city, especially in Ugurgieri, who was pleased to entitle his work _Le Pompe Sanesi_; in the Diary of Girolamo Gigli; and in several works of the indefatigable Cav. Gio. Pecci, whom we have before noticed. Many manuscripts, rich in anecdotes of painting, still remain in the libraries: of this number are the histories of Sigismondo Tizio, of Castiglione, who lived at Siena from 1482 to 1528; _the Cathedral of Siena_, minutely described by Alfonzo Landi; the _Treatise on old_ _Paintings_ of Giulio Mancini; and some _Memoirs_ of Uberto Benvoglienti, whom Muratori denominates _diligentissimus rerum suae patriae investigator_. From these, and other sources,[248] P. della Valle has drawn what is contained in the Lettere Sanesi, and repeated in the notes on Vasari concerning the school of Siena. By the work of Della Valle it has acquired a celebrity to which it has long been entitled. I take him for my guide in the documents and anecdotes which he has given to the public;[249] in the older authorities I follow Vasari and Baldinucci in many circumstances, but dissent from them in others: and hostile to error, and anxious for the truth, I shall pursue the same plan with regard to the historians of the school of Siena. I shall omit many names of old masters, of whom no works now remain, and here and there shall add a few modern artists who have come to my knowledge, by the examination of pictures, or by the perusal of books.
The origin of the Sienese school is deduced either from the crusades in the east, whence some Grecian painter has been brought to Siena; or from Pisa, which, as we have seen, had its first artists from Greece. On such a question every one may judge for himself: to me the data necessary for resolving it appear to be wanting. I know that Italy was never destitute of painters, and artists who wrought in miniature; that from such, without any Grecian aid, or example, some Italian schools took their origin. Siena must have had them in the twelfth century. The _Ordo officiorum Senensis Ecclesiae_ which is preserved in the library of the academy at Florence, was written in the beginning of the thirteenth century, and exhibits initial letters, surrounded with illuminations of little stories and ornaments of animals. They are painted in vermilion, in a very hard and meagre style; but they are valuable on account of their era, 1213, in which they were executed by Oderico Canonico of Siena.[250] Similar books were ornamented by the same painter in the parchment of the leaves, and painted on the covers without;[251] and afford a proof that thus the art of ornamenting with miniatures might lead to large compositions. All, however, more or less, savour of the Greek design; either because the Italians were originally disciples of the Greeks, dispersed over Italy, or because they regarded the Grecian masters as models, and ventured not to attempt much beyond them.
The most ancient pictures in the city, the Madonna _of the Graces_, the Madonna of Tressa, the Madonna of Bethlehem, a S. Peter in the church dedicated to that saint, and a S. John the Baptist, surrounded by many small historical representations at S. Petronilla, are believed to be older than 1200; but it is by no means clear that they are the works of Italians, though often believed such from their initial characters, plaister, and design. On the two last the names of the saints near the figures are in Latin characters; a circumstance, however, which does not prove an Italian painter. On the mosaic works at Venice, on the Madonna of Camerino, brought from Smyrna,[252] and on other pictures executed by the Greeks for Italian cities, ignorant of their language, they wrote, or got others to write, inscriptions in Latin; and they did the same on statues.[253] The method of painting on gilt plaister, which we observe in some old pictures, decidedly Italian, is no argument; for I have several times observed a similar practice in what was unquestionably the work of a Greek artist. The drawing of the features in those pictures, the grimness of the aspect, and the composition of the stories, all accord with the productions of the Greeks. They may, therefore, have been painted by Greek artists, or by a scholar, or, at least, by an imitator of the Greeks. Who, then, can determine whence the artist came, whether he was a restorer of painting, and whether he executed those paintings at Siena, or sent them from some other place? This is certain, that painting quickly established itself at Siena, sent out roots, and rapidly multiplied its blossoms.
The series of painters known by name commences with Guido, or Guidone, already noticed in the beginning of this volume. He flourished before Cimabue of Florence saw the light; and seems to have been at the same time an illuminator of manuscripts and a painter. The writers of Siena have declaimed against Vasari and Baldinucci for omitting this artist; notices of whom could not have escaped the former, who was many times at Siena; nor the latter, who was made acquainted with them before the publication of his _Decennali_. Cav. Marmi, a learned and celebrated Florentine, thus notices the omission in one of his letters.[254] "Baldinucci laboured to make us credit the restoration of painting by Cimabue and Giotto; and to give stability to his hypothesis, it is probable that he omitted to make any mention of the painters who, independent of the two just named, departed from the raw and feeble manner of the Greeks." And Guido certainly left it not a little behind, in his picture of the Virgin, now hung up in the Malevolti chapel in the church of S. Domenico. On it he has thus inscribed his name and the date:
_Me Guido de Senis diebus depinxit amenis Quem Christus lenis nullis velit agere poenis_.
An. 1221.
And this example was often followed by the masters of this school, to the great benefit of the history of painting. The countenance of the Virgin is lovely, and participates not in the stern aspect that is characteristic of the Greeks; we may discover some trace of a new style in the drapery. The Madonnas of Cimabue which are at Florence, the one in the church of the Trinity, the other in S. Maria Novella, are not, however, inferior. In them we may discern the improvement of the art; a more vivid colouring, flesh tints more true; a more natural attitude of the head of the infant, while the accompaniments of the throne, and of the glory of angels, proclaim a superior style.
On this subject I make two remarks, in which I widely dissent from the opinion of the author of the Sienese Letters, without committing any breach of our long established friendship. The one is, that to prove Guido superior to Cimabue, he frequently compares the Madonna of S. Domenico, which is the only one of his pictures which he mentions,[255] with the paintings of Cimabue, which are numerous, and full of subject; and without setting any value on the colouring, the fertility of invention, and the various other qualities in which the Florentine surpassed the artist of Siena, he dwells on certain little particulars, in which it appears that Guido was superior. An artist of whom it is not known that he ever attempted any picture but Madonnas, might become more or less perfect in this subject; but painting is not so much indebted to him, as to one who has carried it to the higher walks of the art; a merit which Marco of Siena, a writer not inclined to favour the Florentines, denies not to Cimabue, as we shall find in the fourth book. The other circumstance alluded to is, that when he mentions a picture which does honour to the fame of Cimabue, he attempts to discredit its history, and the tradition; as I have already observed with regard to the two large pictures in the church of Assisi, and am now under the necessity of remarking with regard to the two Madonnas at Florence above mentioned. He "strongly suspects"[256] them to be the work of Mino da Turrita, since mosaic, in which Mino was expert, is there represented by a skilful hand; and Cimabue was not dexterous in that art; as if a painter could not represent buildings without being an architect, or garments without knowing how to cut them out, or drapery without being versed in the art of weaving. He even doubts whether Giotto visited France, for, had this been the case, he, and not Simone da Siena, would have painted the portrait of Laura, as if history did not inform us that Giotto visited that country about 1316, long before the period when Petrarca first became enamoured of that beauty. He has introduced some other speculations, which he would not have admitted, had he not been betrayed into it, almost involuntarily, by a system which has some probable foundation, but is carried to an extravagant length. I should have been silent on this subject; but when writing of these artists it became me to recollect that the _unicuique suum_ was no less the duty of the historian than the judge.
The authors of chronicles require correction on the era of this painter. The most undoubted picture of Guido is that bearing the date 1221, for the other in the church of S. Bernardino, dated 1262, is ascribed to him without sufficient evidence. It is hardly probable that he who was so eminent in a new art in 1221, was still alive in 1295, as is affirmed by some,[257] on the faith of a sum of money paid to one Guido, a painter. The celebrated Guido must then have been at least 105 years of age: it is more probable that he was dead, and the name applied to another Guido, without any danger of a mistake.
It is generally believed that the elder Guido instructed F. Mino, or Giacomino da Turrita, the celebrated artist in mosaic, of whom we have spoken in the first book. On the era of Mino also much has been written without sufficient authority. Baldinucci says he died about 1300; and omits to mention in his life that he was employed in 1225; although this date is legible on the mosaic of Mino in the church of S. Giovanni at Florence, in letters a cubit in length.[258] This circumstance has likewise escaped the historians of Siena, some of whom have prolonged his life to the year 1298, on the authority of payment made to Minuccio, a painter; and others have extended it to about 1200, on account of the tomb of Boniface VIII. which is said to be the work of Turrita. The utmost period that can be granted them is about 1290: for Titi observes, in his _Description of the Paintings in Rome_, that Mino finished the mosaic of S. Maria Maggiore in 1289, and died, after beginning another in S. Giovanni Laterano, which was completed by Gaddo Gaddi in 1292. This renders it extremely doubtful that F. Mino was taught painting by Guido, that he imparted it not only to Giotto, whom, for other reasons, we have excluded from his school (p. 20) but to the Sienese artists, Memmi and Lorenzetti,[259] and even that he was a painter; all which is founded on the following memorandum, under the year 1289, in a manuscript in the library of Siena: "Paid on the twelfth day of August, nineteen lire to Master Mino, the painter, who painted the Virgin Mary, and other SS. in the council room of the public palace, the balance, &c."
He who is here denominated _Maestro_ Mino, not Fra Mino; who is sometimes called Minuccio, a diminutive not fitted for an old monk; and appears to have been employed in Siena when Fra Mino was at Rome, is another artist. Thus we discover another eminent painter of the name of Mino, or Minuccio, who seems to be in reality the author of the picture of 1289, above alluded to, which remained in the council hall even within my memory, and of others, down to 1298. He there represented the Virgin and Child, surrounded by angels, and under a canopy, supported by Apostles and the patron saints of the city. The size of the figures, the invention and the distribution of the work, are surprising for that age; of the other qualities one cannot speak with certainty; for it was repaired in 1321 by Simone da Siena, and there are beauties in the features and the drapery that can be ascribed only to the restorer. The mistake thus occasioned by the same name being cleared up, the system of the learned author of the Lettere Sanesi, is in part confirmed, and in part falls to the ground. He is right in refusing to Giotto certain Sienese pupils, referred to him only from traces of a more modern style; for we here discover an artist who made some advances towards the new manner even previous to Giotto, who, in 1289, was only thirteen years of age. Now this Mino, and Duccio, of whom we shall soon treat, might certainly have formed pupils able to compete with the school of Giotto, and even in length of years to surpass Giotto himself. There is no reason, however, to prefer the Sienese painters to Cimabue, on the strength of this painting, as the author in question has so often done. Comparison ought to be employed between painter and painter, between contemporary and contemporary. F. Mino, to whom this single picture was attributed, is now shewn to have been merely a mosaic worker: Mino or Minuccio began to be known when Cimabue was fifty years of age; and is the author of a single work, not so free from retouches, nor so large as that of Assisi, already described. The comparison then is not just.
Every school thinks itself sufficiently honoured when it can produce two or three painters of the thirteenth century: the school of Siena is peculiarly rich in them, and these are recorded in the twenty-fifth letter _On the disciples of Guido_. As usual I shall omit the names of those least entitled to recollection. I will not affirm that all of them proceeded from the school of Guido; for in a city where the fine arts flourished so rapidly, masters unknown to us may have been produced. Much less will I ascribe artists of other cities to this school. In the manuscripts of Mancini, one Bonaventura da Lucca is mentioned, who is the Berlingieri already mentioned.[260] I neither assign him to Guido nor to Giunta. Who can tell whether Lucca had not also in those early times an original school, now unknown to us? Setting aside uncertain points therefore, we can only assert, that after the middle of the century, Siena abounded in painters, more, perhaps, than any other city of Italy; and the causes of this are as follows.
The cathedral was begun several years before, in a style of magnificence suited to the lordly views of the citizens. It was not a work to be completed in a short time: hence it was frequently interrupted, and a long period had elapsed before it was finished. During this time many architects (_magistri lapidum_) and sculptors either were invited from other places, or were reared up in the city; and in 1250 they formed a corporate body, and required particular laws.[261] Although nothing is ascertained with regard to their mode of study, it is natural to suppose that the study of sculpture contributed to the advancement of painting, a sister art. The celebrated battle of Monte Aperto, in which the people of Siena defeated the Florentines, happened in 1260. This victory produced an era of peace and opulence to the city, and encouraged both in public and in private the arts depending on luxury. The victory was ascribed to the interference of the blessed Virgin Mary, to whom the city was consecrated; the adoration of her votaries increased, and her images were multiplied in the streets, and in all other places; and thence painting obtained fresh encouragement, and new followers.
Ugolino da Siena should be referred to this era; he died decrepid in 1339, and consequently might have been born before 1260. We cannot agree with Vasari, who insinuates that he was the scholar of Cimabue; nor with Baldinucci, who ingrafts him on his _Tree_; nor yet with others who assert that he was the pupil of Guido; for the latter must have been dead when Ugolino was very young. That he was educated in Siena, seems to me highly probable, from the number of masters then in that city, and because the colouring of his Madonna of Orsanmichele at Florence is in the style of the old school of Siena; less strong and less true than that of Cimabue and the Florentines. This fact appears to me of importance, for it depends on the mechanism of the art, which was different in different schools. Design at that early period savoured more or less of the Greeks; and in this respect Ugolino adhered to them too closely. "He painted pictures and chapels over all Italy," says Vasari; and if I am not mistaken he came to Florence after his travels, and at length died at Siena.
Duccio di Boninsegna is another master of this age, of whom I shall speak in another place, as the inventor of a new species of painting. Tizio says he was the pupil of Segna, an artist now almost unknown in Siena. He must, however, have enjoyed great celebrity in his day among his countrymen; for Tizio informs us that he painted a picture at Arezzo, containing a figure which he pronounces excellent and highly esteemed. He has transmitted to us the following remarkable testimony concerning Duccio: "_Ducius_ Senensis inter ejusdem opificii artifices ea tempestate primarius; ex cujus officina veluti ex equo Trojano pictores egregii prodierunt."
The _ea tempestate_ refers to 1311, when Giotto was at Avignon; and when Duccio was employed on the picture that still exists in the opera-house, which was completed in three years, and almost forms an era in the art. It was large enough to have formed a picture for the great altar of the metropolitan church for which it was intended. On the side facing the people he painted large figures of the Virgin, and of various saints; on that fronting the choir he represented scriptural subjects, in many compartments, in which he introduced a vast number of figures a palm in length. Pius II. relates in his Annals of Siena, which were never published, that it cost 2,000 florins; others raise it to 3,000; but not so much on account of the workmanship as the profusion of gold and ultramarine. The style is generally thought to approach the Greek manner; the work, however, is the most copious in figures, and among the best executed productions of that age. Duccio was employed in many parts of Tuscany, and in the church of the Trinity at Florence he painted an Annunciation which, in the opinion of Baldinucci, "leaves no doubt that he was a scholar of Giotto, or of his disciples." But this will not be granted or believed by those who have seen it; for both the colouring and the style are totally dissimilar. Chronology, too, opposes the conclusion; unless we introduce here also a confusion, arising from artists with similar names: Duccio painted from 1282,[262] and died about 1340.[263]
The history becomes more complete, when we arrive at the celebrated Simone Memmi, or Simone di Martino,[264] the painter of Laura, and the friend of Petrarca, who has celebrated him in two sonnets that will hand him down to the latest posterity. The poet has also eulogized him in his letters, where he thus speaks: "duos ego novi pictores egregios ... Joctum Florentinum civem, cujus inter modernos fama ingens est, et Simonem Senensem;" which is not, however, comparing him to Giotto, to whom he pays a double compliment, but it is giving Memmi the next rank. In such a convenient place the poet would not, in my opinion, have omitted _Jocti discipulum_, had he been acquainted with such a circumstance: but he appears to have no knowledge of it; and this renders it doubtful whether Simone was the pupil of Giotto at Rome, notwithstanding the assertion of Vasari, who adds that the latter was then engaged in the mosaic of the _Navicella_. The writers of Siena contradict him with good reason; for in 1298 Simone was only fourteen years of age.[265] They reckon him the scholar of their Mino, and certainly he derived much from the large fresco before noticed: but as he retouched it himself we cannot put much faith on the resemblance. His colouring is more vivid than that of the followers of Giotto, and in floridness it seems a prelude to Baroccio. But if he was not the scholar of Giotto, he may have assisted him in some of his works, or, perhaps, studied him closely, as many eminent painters have often done with the best masters. This may account for his imitating Giotto so admirably in S. Peter's at Rome; a merit which procured him an invitation to the papal court at Avignon, where he died. The picture of the Vatican has perished; but some of his other works still exist in Italy; and they are not so numerous at Siena as in Pisa and Florence. In the Campo Santo of Pisa we find various actions of S. Ranieri, and the celebrated Assumption of the Virgin, amid a choir of angels, who seem actually floating in the air, and celebrating the triumph. Memmi was excellent in this species of composition, as I believe, from the numerous pictures of this subject which he painted at Siena, where there is one at the church of S. John, which is more copious but not more beautiful than that at Pisa. Some of his larger works may be seen in the chapter house of the Spanish Friars at Florence; several histories of Christ, of S. Domenico, and of S. Peter Martyr; and there the Order of the Preaching Friars are poetically represented as engaged in the service of the church, in rejecting innovators, and in luring souls to paradise. Vasari, to whom the inventions of Memmi appear "not those of a master of that age, but of a most excellent modern artist," especially praises the last: and, indeed, it might be supposed that it was suggested by Petrarch, did not a comparison of dates refute such an idea. The picture was painted in 1332, and Simone went not to France till 1336; what is said about the portrait of Laura in the chapterhouse is a mere fable. Taddeo Gaddi, an undoubted pupil of the improved and dignified school of Giotto, was there his competitor; and as far surpassed Memmi in the qualities of that school, as he was excelled by the latter in spirit, in variety of the heads and attitudes, in fancy of the draperies, and in originality of composition. Simone paved the way to more complex pictures, and extended them over a whole facade, so as to be taken in at one glance of the eye; whereas Giotto used to divide a large surface into many compartments, in each of which he painted an historical picture.
Although I do not usually dwell on miniature painting, I cannot resist mentioning one which is to be seen in the Ambrosian library at Milan, which appears to me a singular production. In that place, there is a manuscript of Virgil, with the commentary of Servius, which formerly belonged to Petrarca. In the frontispiece is a miniature that is reasonably conjectured to have been suggested to Simone by the poet, who has subjoined the following verses:
_Mantua Virgilium qui talia carmina finxit,_ _Sena tulit Simonem digito qui talia pinxit._
The artist has represented Virgil sitting in the attitude of writing, and with his eyes raised to heaven, invoking the favour of the Muses. AEneas is before him in the garb and with the demeanour of a warrior, and, pointing with his sword, intimates the subject of the AEneid. The Bucolics are represented by a shepherd, and the Georgics by a husbandman; both of whom are on a lower foreground of the piece, and appear listening to the strain. Servius, in the mean time, appears drawing aside a veil of great delicacy and transparency, to intimate that his readings unveil what would otherwise have remained obscure and doubtful to the reader of that divine poet. An account of this picture is contained in a letter of the secretary Ab. Carlo Bianconi,[266] where the author praises the originality of the idea, the colouring and harmony of the picture, the propriety and variety in the costume according with the subject. He also remarks a little rudeness in the design, more of truth than of beauty in the heads, and the largeness of the hands; that usually, indeed, were the characteristics of every school at this period.
Simone had a relation named Lippo Memmi, whom he himself instructed in the art. Although he was not equal in genius to Simone, he succeeded admirably in imitating his manner, and, aided by his designs, produced pictures that might have passed for the work of the former, had he not inscribed them with his name. When he wrought without such assistance there is a manifest mediocrity in his invention and design; but he is still a good colourist. A picture executed by them both is preserved in S. Ansano di Castelvecchio of Siena.[267] In Ancona, Assisi, and other places, pictures existed that were begun by the former, and finished by the latter. There is a picture wholly the work of Lippo in Siena; and the author of the Description of Pisa records one at the church of S. Paul in that place, which is not without merit. In my first edition, implicitly following the writers of chronicles, I mentioned a Cecco di Martino as the brother of Simone. But on considering that he flourished about 1380, and that there was a less celebrated Simon Martino, in Siena, about 1350, mentioned by Cittadini, I do not judge it right to follow their authority.
An artist named Lorenzo, and familiarly Lorenzetto, was the father of another family of painters: he had a son named Ambrogio, who is surnamed Lorenzetti by historians. A large picture by this artist, on which he subscribes himself _Ambrosius Laurentii_, is to be seen in the public palace, and may be designated a poem of moral precepts. The vices of a bad government are there represented under different aspects, and with appropriate symbols; accompanied by verses explanatory of their nature and consequences. The Virtues, too, are there personified with suitable emblems: and the whole is adapted to form governors and politicians for the republic, animated by the spirit of genuine patriotism alone. Had there been a greater variety in the countenances of the figures, and a superior arrangement in the piece, it would have been little inferior to the finest pictures in the Campo Santo of Pisa. Siena possesses many of his frescos and large pictures; but they are not so surprising as his smaller works, in which he appears as the forerunner of B. Angelico, whom we have commended in another place. I have observed nothing similar in his contemporaries; and it possesses a nationality of character that prevents his being confounded with the followers of Giotto: the ideas, the colouring, and the draperies, are wholly different. In a similar taste is a picture in the possession of Sig. Abate Ciaccheri, librarian to the university of Siena, where Ambrogio painted some very original works, in which he very far surpassed the Orcagni. His style was admired in Florence; where, to please his friends, who were desirous of seeing a specimen of his art, he painted several pieces from the life of S. Nicholas, in the church of S. Proculus, that were afterwards transferred to the abbey.
Another son of Lorenzo was called Pietro, and, in conjunction with his brother, painted the Presentation, and Nuptials of Our Lady, in the hospital of Siena, on which the following inscription was legible: _Hoc opus fecit Petrus Laurentii et Ambrosius ejus frater, 1335_. The inscription is preserved by Cav. Pecci, who in 1720, when the painting was destroyed, transcribed it most opportunely for correcting Vasari, who had read _Petrus Laurati_ instead of _Laurentii_ in another inscription; from which he concluded this artist not to be the brother of Ambrogio; and from some similarity between his style and that of Giotto, had concluded that he was the disciple of the latter: but it is highly improbable that with such a father and such a brother, Pietro would have gone from home for instruction. Vasari gives, however, a most favourable opinion of this illustrious Sienese, which may suffice to vindicate his impartiality. He says of one of his pictures, "that it was executed with a better design and in a superior manner to any thing that Tuscany had then seen;" and in another place he asserts, that Pietro "became a better master than either Cimabue or Giotto." What could he have said further? might it have been asserted that he was, if not the disciple of Giotto, at least his fellow student in the school of F. Mino? (Vasari, tom. ii. p. 78. ed. Sen.) But granting that Giotto was not his master, how are we to believe him his fellow student? The first pictures of Giotto are traced to 1295; those of Pietro to 1327. And where, when, or to whom did F. Mino teach painting? Pietro's historical picture of the Fathers dell' Eremo remains in the Campo Santo of Pisa, where, in conformity with ecclesiastical history, he has painted the various discipline of those recluses. This picture, if I am not mistaken, is richer in ideas, more original, and better conceived than any one in that place. In the ducal gallery there is a copy of this picture, if not a duplicate by the artist himself: the taste of the colouring certainly belongs not to the Florentine, but to the Sienese school, of that period.
After painting had attained so high a degree of excellence in Siena, it was liable to decline, both from the usual lot of the most auspicious eras, to which an age of servile imitation, and of hurried execution, generally succeeds, and also from the terrible plague which, in 1348, desolated Italy and Europe; sweeping off distinguished masters and pupils in every school. Siena, however, did not lose her Lorenzetti, who constituted her ornament for several years; but if her population at one time equalled 75,000, it was afterwards greatly diminished. She could, however, still vie in the number of her artists with Florence itself. This clearly appears from _The Statutes of the Painters of Siena_,[268] published by P. della Valle, in his first volume, letter sixteen. They are drawn up with the characteristic simplicity, clearness, and precision of the thirteenth century; and are a very admirable body of regulations for the due propriety and direction of artists, and for the honour of the art. We can discern that this society consisted of cultivated and well educated persons; and it does not excite astonishment to find that, democratic in government as Siena then was, the highest magistrates of the republic were sometimes elected from among the professors of the art. They formed a body-corporate; not merely a fraternity, nor an academy of design; and received their charter, not from the bishop but from the city, or the republic in 1355. Some have conjectured that those statutes are as old as the preceding century; and that they were translated into Italian from the Latin about 1291: for Tizio informs us that, in this year, "Statuta materna lingua edita sunt ad ambiguitates tollendas." But Tizio must have meant the statutes concerning wool, and others then existing; and those of the artists may have been framed at a subsequent period. Indeed, the manner in which they are drawn up, without a reference to preceding ordinances, indicates a first edition. If there were statutes published in the vulgar tongue in 1291, why was the sanction of the law deferred for 66 years? or why are the new not distinguished from the old, as is usual in similar codes?
In the code to which I refer, the names of a great number of artists are inscribed, who lived after 1350 and at the beginning of the next century. With the exception of a few who merit some consideration I shall pass them over in silence as I did in the Florentine school. I find among them Andrea di Guido,[269] Jacomo di Frate Mino, and Galgano di Maestro Minuccio; and I bring these forward to confirm what I have before observed, that painters of the same name have introduced confusion into the history of this school. I also find there N. Tedesco, Vannino da Perugia, Lazzaro da Orvieto, Niccolo da Norcia, Antonio da Pistoia, and other foreign artists: thence I infer that Siena, like a university for painting, had furnished masters to various cities of Italy, and other countries. We here meet with some painters of whom there still remains some trace in history, or in the inscriptions on pictures. Martino di Bartolommeo is the artist who, in 1405, painted the Translation of the Body of S. Crescentius at the cathedral, and of whom a still better picture remains at S. Antonio Abate. His family name brings to mind Bartolommeo Bolonghino, or Bolgarino, mentioned by Vasari as the best pupil of Pietro Laurati, and the painter of some excellent pictures in Siena, and other parts of Italy. He was a man of rank, and obtained the honour of the magistracy. Andrea di Vanni is undoubtedly the painter of the S. Sebastian in the convent of S. Martin, and of the Madonna surrounded by saints in that of S. Francis; an artist not unknown beyond the limits of his native country, especially in Naples, where he painted before 1373. He was likewise employed in public embassies, and, like another Rubens, was a magistrate, and ambassador of the republic to the Pope: and was honored by S. Catherine of Siena, who, in one of her letters, gives him some excellent advice on the subject of government.
About the year 1370 flourished Berna, (i. e. Bernardo) da Siena, of whom Vasari says, that "he was the first who painted animals correctly;" and at the same time allows him no common merit in the human figure, especially in what regards expression. One of his frescos remains in the parish church of Arezzo, more praiseworthy on account of the extremities, in which he was superior to many of that age, than for the drapery or the colouring, in which many artists surpassed him. He died in the prime of life, about the year 1380, at S. Gimignano, after having made considerable progress in a copious work, consisting of some subjects from sacred history, that still remains in that parish church. The work was continued with a superior colouring, but with a less pure design, by Giovanni d'Asciano, who is his reputed scholar. The whole still exists, and thirteen of the pictures, or perhaps more, are the work of the scholar who exercised his art at Florence, under the protection of the Medicean family, much respected by his fellow artists. As those two painters lived long abroad, I find no mention of them in the catalogue just quoted. There is a well executed altar-piece in Venice, with the name _Bernardinus de Senis_. Some of his pictures have been discovered in the diocese of Siena, by the Archbishop Zondadari, who has formed a good collection of ancient pictures of the Sienese school. In these pictures Berna appears to be a pretty good colourist, a talent which he does not display in his frescos. Luca di Tome, another scholar of Berna, noticed by Vasari, is there mentioned. One of his Holy Families remains at S. Quirico, in the convent of the Capuchins, and bears the date of 1367. It has not sufficient softness, but in other respects is very reputable.
In the beginning of the fifteenth century, not only individual painters, but whole families of artists had multiplied, in which the art for a long series of years descended from father to son. This circumstance contributed greatly to the progress of painting: for the master, who is likewise the father, teaches without any feeling of jealousy, and generally aims at forming a pupil superior to himself. The family of the Fredi, or the Bartoli, became celebrated beyond all the rest. The reputation of Taddeo, who began to be distinguished in the fourteenth century, rose very high. In the records he is styled _Thaddaeus magistri Bartholi magistri Fredi_,[270] from his father[271] and grandfather, artists of some name. By him, "as the best master of the age," says Vasari, the chapel of the public palace was painted, where some historical pieces representing our Lady, are yet to be seen; and in 1414 he ornamented the adjoining hall. Besides some pictures from sacred history, he there formed, as it were, a gallery of illustrious men, chiefly republicans; and for the edification of the citizens, added some Latin and Italian verses; a mode of instruction very liberally employed in this school. The chief merit of the work lies in the dignity and originality of its invention, which was afterwards imitated in part by Pietro Perugino, in the hall of the Exchange, at Perugia. The portraits are ideal; they are dressed in the costume of Siena, even when they represent Romans and Grecians, and their attitudes are not happy. His pictures at Pisa and in Volterra, mentioned by Vasari, still exist; and that of the Arena in Padua, in the tribune of the church, is well preserved. In it we discover practical skill, little variety, and less grace in the heads, feeble tints, and imitations of Giotto, that lose their value on a comparison with the original. Some of his small pictures do him greater honour; and in them an imitation of Ambrogio, his great prototype, is conspicuous, and also the subdued but agreeable colouring of this school; which, like all the others in Italy, excelled about this period more in small than in large proportions.
The manner of Taddeo was first pursued and afterwards meliorated, and greatly aggrandized by Domenico Bartoli, his nephew and disciple. Foreign connoisseurs behold with delight the various fresco pictures which he painted in the pilgrim's ward of the hospital, representing the circumstances of its foundation, and the exercises of christian charity bestowed upon the sick, the dying, and the indigent. On comparing these, one with another, the artist displays considerable improvement, and a greater freedom than usual from the old dryness: his design and perspective are better, his compositions more scientific; without taking into account the richness and variety of ideas, which he has in common with the artists of this school. From those pictures Raffaello and Pinturicchio, while painting at Siena, took many of their notions of national costume, and, perhaps, of some other particulars: for it is characteristic of great minds to derive advantage even from examples not above mediocrity.
Thus the art was gradually advancing in the republic, when new opportunities were afforded for producing works on a grand scale; occasions in which genius is developed and invigorated. Siena gave Pius II. to the chair of S. Peter, who, to the most ardent love of his country, united a taste for magnificence; and during his residence in the city, it was embellished with architecture, and every kind of ornament. He would have been still more profuse, had he not, disgusted with the ingratitude of the people, turned his attention and beneficence to Rome. Among other advantages he conferred on the state of Siena, was that of adding to its territory the city of Corsignano, his native place; which from him was afterwards called Pienza. The new city received from him another form, and new edifices, among which was the cathedral. It was erected in 1462, and for its decoration he invited the best artists of Siena, Ansano and Lorenzo di Pietro, Giovanni di Paolo, and Matteo his son. Their style was laborious and minute; the universal character of that age: for the manner of painting was introduced and transferred from one country into another, without our being able to discover where it originated; but in the arts depending on design, as we have before remarked, when the path is once opened, the natural genius of each school will regulate its further progress. These four artists are mentioned in the catalogue of Sienese artists; and Ansano, or Sano, at one time enjoyed the highest reputation. About 1422 he had painted the beautiful fresco which still remains over the Roman gate; and which represents the Coronation of the Virgin: it is much in the style of Simone, and in some respects it surpasses him. A picture by this artist of inferior merit remains in the church of Pienza. Lorenzo di Pietro, surnamed Il Vecchietta, was eminent in sculpture and in casting in bronze; and he is noticed by Vasari. He was less successful in painting, and offends by hardness, as far as we can determine from the small remains of him in Siena, for there are none existing at Pienza. A picture of his, with the date 1457, was lately added to the Medicean gallery. Giovanni di Paolo makes a good figure in Pienza; and a still better in a Descent from the Cross, painted four years afterwards in the Osservanza of Siena; in which the defects of the age are counterbalanced by qualities, at that time by no means common, displaying a considerable knowledge of the naked figure.
Matteo di Giovanni was then young, but surpassed them all in the extent of his genius. This is the Matteo denominated by some the Masaccio of this school, although there is a great distance between him and the Florentine Masaccio. The new style of Matteo begins to be recognized in one of his two pictures in the cathedral. He afterwards improved it in his works in the church of S. Domenico, at Siena, in Madonna della Neve, and in some other churches; and it was he who first excited the Neapolitan school to attempt a less antiquated style. Having learnt the process of painting in oil, he imparted sufficient softness to his figures; and from his intimacy with Francesco di Giorgio, a celebrated architect,[272] he imbibed a good taste in buildings, and diversified them very ingeniously with alto and basso-relievos. He foreshortened level objects well; he cast draperies with more of nature, and with less frippery than was common in that age; if he imparted little beauty to the features, he attained, at least, variety of expression; and was sufficiently attentive in marking the muscles and veins in his figures. He did not always aim at novelty and display in his invention; on the contrary, after painting a Murder of the Innocents, which was his best composition,[273] he often repeated it in Siena, and in Naples, but always with improvements: his most studious picture on this subject is that at the Servi of Siena, painted in 1491, which must have been near the close of his life. He was accustomed to introduce into his pictures some episode, unconnected with the principal story, in small figures, a style in which he excelled. The noble house of Sozzini and some other families in Siena, possess several of his small pictures. As an artist, he is inferior to Bellini, to Francia, or Vannucci; but surpasses many others. Another eminent Sienese, who flourished in the first ages of oil painting, is made known to us by Ciriaco Anconitano,[274] who was acquainted with him in 1449, at the court of Leonello, Marquis of Este. This artist was named Angelo Parrasio: he painted the nine muses in the palace of Belfiore, near Ferrara, in imitation of the manner of Giovanni and Ruggieri da Bruggia.
[Footnote 247: See Lettere Sanesi, tom. ii. let. 23, addressed to the author of this work.]
[Footnote 248: See _Lett. Sen._ tom. ii. p. 23, et sequent.]
[Footnote 249: In regard to these documents the public is much indebted to the Abate Ciaccheri, the learned librarian of the city, who employed himself for many years in collecting them; but his eyes failing him, it became necessary that others should publish them: the excellent historian has frequently made mention of him.]
[Footnote 250: The work was published by Trombelli, at Bologna, in 1766. _Della Valle_, tom. i. p. 278. What he adds, that this very Oderico may be the Oderigi da Gubbio, noticed by Dante in the xith canto of his Purgatorio, ought not to be admitted. Dante might, for the sake of rhyme, change Oderico into Oderigi; but he has said, in the middle of the verse, that the celebrated miniature painter was a native of Gubbio. Moreover, the latter, who died about 1300, could not have painted in 1213.]
[Footnote 251: See Della Valle, tom. ii. p. 273.]
[Footnote 252: This is an Annunciation, with the following verse:
_Virgo parit Christum velut Angelus intimat ipso._
The error in the last word stands on the picture.]
[Footnote 253: Hard by the cathedral of that city there are two lions, on one of which, in a mixture of Greek and Latin characters, is written,
M_a_h_ister_ Th_exde fevit_ (fecit) & _fevit fieri ambos istos_. ]
[Footnote 254: See Lettere Sanesi, tom. i. p. 243.]
[Footnote 255: Tom. ii. p. 15.]
[Footnote 256: P. 288.]
[Footnote 257: See Lett. Sen. tom. ii. p. 276.]
[Footnote 258: _Vigintiquinque Christi cum mille ducentis_, &c. Vide Piacenza, tom. i. p. 70. Baldinucci was extremely diligent in his research of epochs; but he took care not to mention this, inasmuch as it overturned his system.]
[Footnote 259: History only gives him some assistants in mosaic; at Pisa Tafi and Gaddo Gaddi; at Rome, in S. Maria Maggiore, a Franciscan monk, who there executed a portrait of himself, and inscribed his name, that is now illegible, and his native place, which was Camerino. One F. Giacomo da Camerino painted in the cathedral of Orvieto in 1321, and it is probable that this is the same artist.]
[Footnote 260: See ante, p. 14.]
[Footnote 261: See Lett. Sen. p. 279.]
[Footnote 262: Lett. Sen. tom. i. p. 277.]
[Footnote 263: Ibid. tom. ii. p. 69.]
[Footnote 264: Martino was the father of Simone; Memmo or Guglielmo his father-in-law; and in the inscriptions on his pictures he sometimes assumes the one name, and sometimes the other. _Benvoglienti._]
[Footnote 265: I conjecture this on the authority of Vasari, who says, that he died in 1345, at the age of 60. In the genuine books at S. Domenico, of Siena, we find this sentence "Magister Simon Martini pictor mortuus est in curia; cujus exequias fecimus ... 1344." Since Vasari approaches so near the truth in the time of the painter's death, we may reasonably credit him also in his age. Mancini says he was born about 1270; which gives occasion for P. della Valle to mention Simone as a contemporary, and a competitor of Giotto at Rome. I cannot agree with him on this date, and the information drawn by him from books belonging to the Sienese hospital, that Simone was in Siena in 1344, only a few months before his death, at the court of the Pope at Avignon, strengthens my opinion. I cannot believe that an old man of seventy-four would transfer his residence from Siena to Avignon. If we credit Vasari the difficulty vanishes, inasmuch as Simone, being then scarcely sixty, might be equal to undertake so long a journey.]
[Footnote 266: See Lett. Senesi, tom. ii. p. 101.]
[Footnote 267: There is on it _A. D. 1333, Simon Martini et Lippus Memmi de Senis me pinxerunt_. It is now in the ducal gallery at Florence. It may be remarked on the chronology of this painter, that where we find not Memmi but only Lippo or Filippo, it does not always seem intended for him. Thus the M. Filippo, who received a sum of money in 1308, and that Lippo, who, in 1361, is said to be the assistant of another artist, (Lett. Sen. tom. ii. p. 110), most probably are not to be identified with Memmi. He was younger than his relation, and according to Vasari, survived him 14 years.]
[Footnote 268: _Statuti dell' arte de' Pittori Senesi._]
[Footnote 269: This Guido da Siena is, perhaps, the one mentioned by Sacchetti in his eighty-fourth tale, and of whom there remains a picture in the church of S. Antonio, painted in 1362. _Baldinucci._]
[Footnote 270: Manfredi.]
[Footnote 271: In the parish church of S. Gimignano is an historical fresco of this artist, dated 1356, and in that of S. Agostino, a painting in a much better style, according to Vasari, executed in 1388, which date P. della Valle gives as 1358.]
[Footnote 272: He was a good sculptor; and, according to the custom of the time of uniting the three sister arts, he also practised painting, but not with great success. I have not seen any of his pictures but a Nativity, in which he chiefly appears emulous of Mantegna. It is in the possession of Sig. Abate Ciaccheri, whose collection will greatly assist any one desirous of becoming acquainted with this school.]
[Footnote 273: An engraving of it is in the third volume of Lettere Sanesi.]
[Footnote 274: In the fragment of a letter, quoted by Sig. Abate Colucci in Antichita Picene, tom. xv. p. 143. "Cujus nempe inclytae artis et eximii artificum ingenii egregium equidem imitatorem Angelum Parrasium Senensem, recens picturae in Latio specimen vidimus," &c.]
SIENESE SCHOOL.
EPOCH II.
_Foreign Painters at Siena. The origin and progress of the modern style in that city._
Before this era we have met with no strangers who had taught painting, or had changed the manner of this school. The art had there existed for three centuries, always, or almost always,[275] under the guidance of native painters; and it had even been provided by the statutes of the art, that no foreigner might be encouraged to practise it at Siena. In one chapter it is enacted, that "any stranger, wishing to be employed, shall pay a florin;" and elsewhere, that "he may receive a just and sufficient recompense to the extent of twenty-five livres." The provision was subtle: on the one hand they did not, with a marked inhospitality, positively exclude strangers; but, on the other, they deprived them of any chance of rivalling the artists of the city in employment at Siena. Hence it came to pass, according to P. della Valle, that no pictures of other schools, but those of a late period, are to be found there. But this circumstance, though favourable to the artist, was, in no small degree, detrimental to the art: for the school of Siena, by admitting strangers, would have swelled the list of her great masters; and she might have kept pace with other schools; but this she neglected, and, after having vied with the Florentine school in painting, and even surpassed it for some years, towards the close of the fifteenth century Siena could not, perhaps, boast of a better artist than Capanna, who executed some facades from the designs of others;[276] or than Andrea del Brescianino, who, in conjunction with one of his brothers, is said to have painted some pictures, with which I am unacquainted, in the church of the Olivetine Friars. They have been more commended by historians than Bernardino Fungai, an artist whose style was modernized, but dry,[277] than Neroccio, or any other Sienese painter of that period; but they could not be compared to the best masters of Italy. The nobility perceived the decline of the native school, and the necessity of supporting it by the accession of foreign artists; they wished for such assistance, to the dissatisfaction, probably, of the populace, every where apt to contend that the provender of the land should rather feed the native beast of burden than the foreign steed. The Florentine style of painting found its way to Rome; but ancient rivalry and political jealousy prevented its introduction into Siena. Perugia seemed a less objectionable ally; and from that place, first Bonfigli, and afterwards his scholar Pietro Perugino, who executed two pictures at Siena, were invited; and at length several scholars also of the latter were called, who long remained in the service of two celebrated natives of Siena. The one was Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini, who soon after became Pius III. For the purpose of decorating the sacristy of the cathedral, and the chapel of his family, with various pictures from the life of Pius II. he invited Pinturicchio to Siena, and this artist carried along with him other scholars of Perugino, and even Raffaello himself, who is reported to have designed either wholly, or in a great measure, those historical pictures. The other was Pandolfo Petrucci, who, for some time, usurped the government of the republic: eagerly desirous of embellishing the palace and some churches, he availed himself of Signorelli, and of Genga,[278] and recalled Pinturicchio.
This passed at the beginning of the sixteenth century; for the sacristy was completed in 1503; the return of Pinturicchio took place in 1508; and, after a short interval, it appears that Genga, the scholar of Perugino, and Signorelli, came to Siena. From that period, the Sienese school began to assume the modern style; and design, a full tone of colouring, and perspective, all attained perfection in a few years. Had Siena produced a family equal to the Medicean in taste, power, and a disposition to encourage the fine arts, what might it not have attained! Siena about this time could boast of four men of talents admirably adapted to produce a great revolution in the art, and these were Pacchiarotto, Razzi, Mecherino, and Peruzzi, all of whom (with the exception of Razzi), Baldinucci, for some reason unknown to me, has derived from the school of Raffaello. The works of Raffaello, then a young man, and of other foreign artists, far from repressing their spirit, awakened in them an honourable emulation. Whoever compares the pictures of Matteo with their works, would conclude that many years had intervened; yet they were all living at the death of Matteo. We now come to the bright era of the school of Siena; and to the consideration of its most eminent masters.
Jacopo Pacchiarotto[279] followed the manner of Pietro more closely than any of them, although he was not his scholar, and, perhaps, had not been out of Siena before 1535. In that year there happened an insurrection of the people against the government of that city, in which he was a ringleader, and would have suffered an ignominious death, had he not been saved by the Osservantine fathers, who concealed him for some time within a tomb. From thence he secretly withdrew to France, where he assisted Rosso, and is supposed to have died. Siena possesses several of his cabinet pictures and altar-pieces, in the style of Perugino; especially a very beautiful one in the church of S. Christopher. In his frescos, in the church of S. Catherine and of S. Bernardino, where he emulated the ablest artists of Siena, he appears great in composition. The most admired is the copious picture representing the Visit of the Virgin, S. Catherine, to the body of S. Agnes of Montepulciano: the others are executed in a similar taste. He unquestionably appears to have studied Raffaello with the greatest care; and there are heads and whole figures so lively, and with such a grace in the features, that, to some connoisseurs, they seem to possess the ideal beauty of that great artist. Nevertheless, Pacchiarotto is almost unknown beyond the limits of his native place, for he is only incidentally mentioned by Vasari; and his works have passed under the name of Perugino, or of his school.
Giannantonio Razzi, surnamed Il Sodoma, undoubtedly enjoyed the citizenship of Siena; but it is disputed whether he was born at Vergelle, a Sienese village, or at Vercelli, in Piedmont. Vasari expressly states, that he was invited to Siena by some of the noble family of Spannocchi, and that he was a native of Vercelli; in which opinion he is supported by Tizio, Giovio, Mancini, and all who wrote before Ugurgieri. I am confirmed in it by observing his carnations, his style of chiaroscuro, and other peculiarities of the old school of Milan, and of Giovenone, who flourished at Vercelli in the early years of Razzi; and of this style there appears to me traces in the works of Gio. Antonio; especially in those he executed shortly after he had left his master. I have not observed the historical pictures of S. Benedict, which he painted at Monte Oliveto about 1502, and are so ably described by Sig. Giulio Perini, secretary to the academy of Florence. I have seen those he executed at Rome in the pontificate of Julius II. He painted several in the Vatican, that were defaced, because they did not satisfy the Pope. Raffaello substituted other pictures, but spared the grotesques. Razzi afterwards executed some pictures from the life of Alexander the Great, in the Chigi, now the Farnese palace. The nuptials of Roxana, and the suppliant family of Darius, are the best of them. They do not exhibit the facility, grace, and dignified heads, that characterize the style of Vinci; but they shew much of his chiaroscuro, which was then greatly followed by the Lombards: perspective, their hereditary attribute, is there conspicuous; they abound in gay images, in little Cupids with their arrows, and a pomp that is captivating.
His works in Siena, the fruit of his studies in Rome, and of his mature age, are still superior. The Epiphany, in the church of S. Augustino, appeared wholly in the style of Vinci to an eminent foreign connoisseur, who mentioned it to me with rapture. The Flagellation of Christ, in the cloister of S. Francis, is preferred to the figures of Michelangiolo by those who are reckoned judges of the art: their unanimous opinion seems to be that Razzi never produced a finer picture. Some think as highly of his S. Sebastian, now in the ducal gallery, which is supposed to have been copied from an antique Torso. The Swoon of S. Catherine of Siena, which he painted in fresco in a chapel of S. Domenico, is a picture in the manner of Raffaello. Peruzzi greatly admired it, and affirmed that he had never seen a swoon so naturally represented. The air and varied expression in the heads of his picture, however, are not borrowed from any artist, and on this account he seems to have extorted the applause even of Vasari. His models, as was usual with the other artists of this school, were selected from among the Sienese, whose heads possess a great degree of innate gaiety, openness, and spirit. He painted frequently in a hurried manner, without any preparatory study; especially in his old age, when reduced to poverty at Siena, he sought for employment at Pisa, at Volterra, and at Lucca: but in all his pictures I discover traces of an able artist, who, though careless of excellence, never painted badly. Vasari, the great enemy of his fame, who generally styles him Mattaccio,[280] has ascribed to chance, to fortune, or to fancy, whatever he performed well; as if his usual style had been that of a bad painter. Here Vasari betrays a want of memory; for he confessed in the life of Mecherino, that Razzi "possessed the grand principle of design;" in another passage he has praised the brilliant colouring he brought with him out of Lombardy; and before noticing the works of his old age, he has often pronounced the others beautiful, or sometimes _most_ beautiful and wonderful: hence it may be said of him, _modo ait, modo negat_. Guided by public estimation, Giovio has written of Razzi in a different manner, when speaking of the death of Raffaello, he subjoins: "plures pari pene gloria certantes artem exceperunt, et in his Sodomas Vercellensis."[281] He who objects to the testimony of this eminent scholar, will receive that of a celebrated painter: Annibale Caracci, passing through Siena, said, "Razzi appears a very eminent master of the greatest taste, and (speaking of his best works at Siena) few such pictures are to be seen."[282]
During the many years that Giannantonio lived at Siena, he must have educated many pupils. A few of them only are noticed by Mancini in one of his Fragments;[283] and these are Rustico, the father of Cristofano, an excellent painter of grotesques, with which he filled Siena; Scalabrino, a man of genius, and a poet;[284] and Michelangiolo Anselmi, or Michelangiol da Siena, a painter claimed by several places. We shall consider him in the school of Parma, as he left no work in Siena, except a fresco in the church of Fonte Giusta, a production of his youth, and not worthy of so great a name. A scholar of Razzi, then his assistant, and finally his son-in-law, was Bartolommeo Neroni, otherwise called Maestro Riccio, who after the death of the four great pillars of the school of Siena, supported its reputation for many years, and probably educated one of its restorers. He may be recognized at the Osservanti, in a Crucifixion with three saints standing around, and people in the distance. But his masterpiece was a Descent from the Cross, much in the manner of Razzi, at the Derelitte. Some of his other pictures yet remain in the city, in which he sometimes appears to mingle the style of his father-in-law, with a certain resemblance to the manner of Vasari, in the distribution of his tints. He is known to have been very excellent in perspective, and particularly so in painting scenery; a specimen of which was engraved by Andreani. He was also greatly skilled in architecture, and had a pension from the magistrates of Lucca for his assistance in their public works. Some books include among his disciples Anselmi, who was rather his kinsman; and Arcangiolo Salimbeni, who finished some of his works after his death, and on this account only has been supposed his scholar. From him we shall commence a new epoch in this school.
Domenico Beccafumi derived the surname of Mecherino from a citizen of Siena, who, having remarked him when a shepherd boy designing something on a stone, augured favourably of his genius; and obtaining the consent of his father, brought him to the city, and according to Gigli, recommended him to Capanna as a scholar. He there employed himself in copying the designs of eminent artists, and in imitating the pictures of Pietro Perugino, whose manner he at first adopted; nor did he ever wholly get rid of it; and his works in the cathedral of Pisa exhibit a dryness, though they are the productions of his maturer years.[285] Having gone to Rome in the pontificate of Julius II., a new scene was opened to him in the specimens of ancient sculpture, of which he was a most sedulous designer, and in the pictures in which Michelangiolo and Raffaello had assayed their skill. After two years he returned home, and there continuing his close attention to design, he found himself strong enough to contend with Razzi; and, if we may credit Vasari, even to surpass him. He had acquired skill in perspective, and was fertile in invention as a painter. In Siena, Mecherino is ranked after Razzi; and the many places where they vied with each other, facilitates the comparison to those who are disposed to make it. At first he humoured his placid disposition by painting in a sweet style; at that time he made choice of beautiful airs for his heads; and very frequently inserted the portrait of his mistress in his pictures. In this style is his fine picture at the church of the Olivetines of S. Benedict; in which he has represented the titular saint, with S. Jerome, and the Virgin S. Catherine, and where he has added some circumstances of her life in small figures. The last annotator on Vasari prefers this work to many other pictures of Mecherino, and laments, that, captivated by the energy of Bonarruoti, he had deviated from his original manner. And, indeed, when he aspired to more vigour he frequently appears coarse in his proportions, negligent in his extremities, and harsh in his heads. This defect so increased in his old age that his heads of that period appeared without beauty even to Vasari.
His mode of colouring is not the most true; for it was mannered with a reddish hue, which is, however, fascinating and cheerful to the eye; it is neat, clear, and of such a body that it remains on walls at this day, in the highest preservation. A few of his works remain in Genoa, where he painted the palace of Prince Doria; they are not numerous at Pisa; but they abound in his native place, both in public and in private. His merit was greater in distemper than in oil colouring; and his historical frescos do him greater honour than his other paintings. His skill was great in distributing them to suit the place, and in adapting them to the architecture; he ornamented them with grotesque decorations in such a manner that he required not the aid of gilt stucco, or other gaudy trappings. These inventions have such felicity, that a single glance recals the story to the memory of one acquainted with its circumstances. He treats his subject copiously, with dignity, and with perfect nature: he imparts grandeur to it by his architectural views, and elegance by introducing the usages of antiquity. He peculiarly delighted in the more recondite principles of the art, which were then less generally employed; as peculiar reflections of fires and other lights; difficult foreshortenings, especially as applied to ceilings, which were then very rare in lower Italy. Vasari has minutely described his figure of Justice; the feet of which are in dark shadow, gradually diminishing to the shoulders, which are invested with a most brilliant celestial light: "Nor is it possible," says he, "to imagine, much less to find, a more beautiful figure ... amongst all that ever were painted to appear foreshortened when viewed from below." According to this verdict, Mecherino deserves the appellation of the Coreggio of lower Italy, in this very difficult branch of painting; for no modern artist had attempted so much before his time. The above mentioned figure is painted on the vaulted ceiling of the consistory of the government; and the artist has arranged below it various oval and square pictures, each representing some memorable exploit of a republican hero. He pursued the same idea in an apartment in the mansion now in possession of the Bindi family, which P. della Valle reckons his masterpiece. The figures resemble those in the _Logge_ of Raffaello: they are better coloured than those in the consistory, and being smaller are, on that account, better designed: for the style of Mecherino resembles a liquor which retains its qualities when shut up in a phial, but evaporates and is dissipated when poured into a larger vessel. This circumstance, however, was common to many others: his peculiarity consists in what he communicated to Vasari; that, "out of the atmosphere of Siena, he imagined he could not paint successfully;" an effect, according to P. Guglielmo, of the climate; which would be a happy secret for peopling it with painters. Perhaps it is to be explained by the greater degree of quiet and tranquillity that he enjoyed at home, in the society of his friends, among a people ready to encourage him by praise, not to chill him by reproach, and surrounded by all the spectacles and the lively genius of his country; objects eagerly desired by the natives of Siena, but not easily found in other places.
The style of Mecherino, now described, expired with him: for his pupil, Giorgio da Siena, became a painter of grotesques, and imitated Gio. da Udine, both in his own country and at Rome: Giannella, or Gio. da Siena, turned his attention from painting to architecture; and Marco da Pino, surnamed also da Siena, united a variety of styles. Baglione, and the historians of Siena, say, that he was there educated by Beccafumi, and Baldinucci adds, likewise by Peruzzi: P. della Valle, from his brilliant colouring, denies him to them, and assigns him to Razzi. All, however, are agreed that he obtained his knowledge principally from Rome, where he first painted from the cartoons of Ricciarelli or of Perino; and if we may credit Lomazzo, was also instructed by Bonarruoti. We cannot readily find any Florentine capable of following the precepts of Michelangiolo, without ostentation; but he acquired the principles without the affectation of displaying his knowledge. His manner is grand, select, and full of elegance: it is adduced by Lomazzo as a perfect model for the human figure, and for the just distribution of the light according to the distance of objects; a department of the art in which he shares the glory with Vinci, Tintoretto, and Baroccio. He painted little in Siena except a picture, with which I am not acquainted, in the mansion of the Francesconi family; and few of his works are to be seen at Rome, with the exception of a Pieta, in an altar of Araceli, and some frescos in the church Del Gonfalone. Naples was his field; and there he will again appear as a master and historian of that school.
If conjecture were allowable in assigning masters to painters of the old schools, I should be inclined to reckon Daniele di Volterra rather the scholar of Mecherino, than of Razzi or Peruzzi. We know for certain that he studied at Siena in early life, when those three artists kept an open academy. Peruzzi was wholly a follower of Raffaello; Razzi disliked the Florentine style; and Beccafumi alone aspired to be esteemed a faithful imitator of Bonarruoti: by regarding him, therefore, as the master of Daniele, we can best account for the already noticed predilection of the latter for the style of Michelangiolo. No artist was capable of initiating him better in the art of casting in bronze than Mecherino; or afford him more frequent examples of that strong opposition of bright and sombre colours that appears in some works of Daniele. Yet I will not depart from the more correct rule which forbids us in such doubtful points to depart readily from history: for each painter was always free to choose his style; he might be directed in one path by his master, and drawn a different way by his own genius, or by accidental circumstances.
Baldassare Peruzzi is one of the numerous individuals whose merit must not be measured by their good fortune. Born in indigent circumstances in the diocese of Volterra, but within the territory of Siena, and of a Sienese father,[286] he was nurtured amid difficulties, and through life was the perpetual sport of misfortune. Reckoned inferior to his rivals, because he was as modest and timid as they were arrogant and impudent; despoiled of his whole property in the sack of Rome; constrained to exist on a mere pittance at Siena, at Bologna, or at Rome,[287] he died when he began to be known, not without suspicion of being poisoned, and with the affliction of leaving a wife and six children almost beggars. His death demonstrated to the world better than his life the greatness of his genius; and the justness of his epitaph, in which he is compared to the ancients, is allowed by posterity. General consent ranks him among the best architects of his age; and he would also have been classed with the greatest painters, had he coloured as well as he designed, and had always been equal to himself; a thing he could not command during a life so chequered and wretched.
After Peruzzi had received the elements of the art in his native place from an unknown master, he went to Rome for the completion of his studies, in the time of Alexander VI. He knew, admired, and imitated Raffaello (of whom some suppose him a pupil), especially his Holy Families.[288] He approached him nearly in some works in fresco; such as the Judgment of Paris in the castle of Belcaro, which is deemed his best performance, and the celebrated Sybil foretelling the birth of Christ to Augustus, in the Fonte Giusta, of Siena, which is admired as one of the finest pictures in that city. He imparted to it such a divine enthusiasm, that Raffaello himself never surpassed him in treating this subject; nor Guido, nor Guercino, of whom so many Sybils are exhibited. In great compositions, such as the Presentation in the Pace at Rome,[289] he designs well, gives a faithful representation of the passions, and embellishes the subject by appropriate edifices. His oil paintings are very rare; those representing the Magi, which are shewn in many collections at Florence, Parma, and Bologna, are copies from one of his chiaroscuros, which was afterwards coloured by Girolamo da Trevigi, as we are informed by Vasari. I was told at Bologna, that the picture of Girolamo was lost at sea, and that the picture which the Rizzardi family of that place possess, is a copy by Cesi. His small altar-pieces are uncommonly scarce likewise: and I am unable to point out any of them but one, which contains three half-length figures of the Virgin, the Baptist, and S. Jerome, and is at Torre Babbiana, eighteen miles from Siena.
What I have here related would have added to the glory of any other artist; but is little to the merit of Baldassare. The genius of this man was not limited to the production of excellent cabinet pictures and frescos. I have already said he was an architect; or, as Lomazzo has expressed it, a universal architect: and in this profession, the fruit of his assiduous study of ancient edifices, he ranks among the foremost, and is even preferred to Bramante. The encomiums bestowed on him by the most celebrated writers on architecture are mentioned in the third volume of the Sienese Letters.[290] No one, however, has done him greater honour than his scholar Serlio, who declares in the introduction to his fourth book, that, whatever merit his work possesses, is not due to himself, but to Baldassare da Siena, of whose manuscripts he became the heir, and the plagiarist, if we are to credit Giulio Piccolomini,[291] and his other townsmen. The declaration above stated absolves Serlio from this imputation, unless it is insisted that he ought to have affixed the name of Baldassare to every anecdote that he learnt or took from those manuscripts; a thing which it would be unreasonable to demand. He has, indeed, frequently mentioned him, and commended him for a sound taste, for facility, and elegance, both in designing edifices, and in ornamenting them. To say the truth, his peculiar merit lies in giving a pleasing effect to his works; and I have not observed any idea of his which in some way does not exhibit the stamp of a lively imagination. This character is apparent in the portico of the Massimi at Rome, the great altar of the metropolitan church of Siena, and the large gateway of the Sacrati palace at Ferrara, which is so finely ornamented that it is named among the rarities of that city, and, in its kind, even of Italy. But what chiefly establishes his reputation as a man of excellent and various genius, is the Farnese palace, which is "executed with such exquisite grace that it appears created by enchantment, rather than built by human hands."[292]
He was eminently skilled in ornamenting facades; in painting so as to represent real architecture, and basso-relievos of sacrifices, Bacchanalian scenes, and battles, which "serve to maintain the buildings sound and in good order, while they improve their appearance," according to Serlio.[293] He left fine specimens of this art at Siena and in Rome, where he was followed by Polidoro, who carried it to the summit of perfection. Peruzzi practised it at the Farnese palace in those pictures in green earth, with which he covered the outside, and still more in the internal decorations. Not to mention F. Sebastiano, Raffaello himself was employed in the same place: and in one apartment, finished without assistance, the celebrated Galatea. Baldassare painted the ceiling and the corbels with some fables of Perseus, and other heroes: the style is light, spirited, and resembles that of Raffaello, but is unequal to that of his model. Though inferior in figures he was not behind in some other branches. His imitation of stucco ornaments appears so relieved that even Titian was deceived by it, and found it necessary to change his point of view before he could be convinced of his error. A similar ocular deception is produced by the hall where a colonnade is represented, the intercolumniations of which make it appear much larger than it really is. This work induced Pietro Aretino to say, that the palace "contained no picture more perfect in its kind."[294] And if the scenes which he painted for the plays, represented in the Apostolical palace for the amusement of Leo X. had survived to our days, the perspective paintings of Peruzzi would have obtained greater fame than the Calandra of Card. da Bibbiena; and it would have been said of him, as of the ancient, that he discovered a new art, and brought it to perfection. The observation of Vasari, Lomazzo, and other old writers, that Peruzzi was not to be surpassed in perspective, has been recently confirmed by Sig. Milizia in the Memoirs of Architects. In this art he appears to me to have given the first and most classic examples. When I have occasion hereafter to notice celebrated perspectives in Rome, in Venice, or Bologna, we must recollect, that if others surpassed him in the vastness of their works, they never did so in their perfection. Maestro Riccio is praised in Siena as second to him in perspective, and was his scholar for some time; but afterwards he imitated the figures of his father-in-law.
The merit of Baldassare in grotesque is better seen at Siena than in Rome. This sort of painting, always the offspring of a whimsical fancy, was congenial to Mecherino and to Razzi; and both practised it with success. The latter seemed born to conceive and to execute it with unpremeditated facility; he painted in this style in the Vatican, and obtained the approbation of Raffaello, who was unwilling to cancel his grotesques as he did his historical compositions: he also executed some at Monte Oliveto that are highly facetious, and may be called an image of his own brain. Cristoforo Rustici and Giorgio da Siena obtained great fame in this style; but none of them equalled Peruzzi. This artist, graceful in all his works, was most elegant in grotesque; and amid the freedom that a subject wholly capricious inspires, he preserved an art which Lomazzo has studied, in order to comprehend its principles. He employs every species of idea; satyrs, masks, children, animals, monsters, edifices, trees, flowers, vases, candelabra, lamps, armour, and thunderbolts; but in their arrangement, in the actions represented, and in every other circumstance, he bridled his caprice by his judgment. He distorts and connects those images with a surprising symmetry, and adapts them as devices emblematic of the stories which they surround. This man, living in the brightest period of modern art, is in short, one of the individuals most interesting in its history. He had many pupils in architecture, but few in painting: among the latter are a Francesco Senese, and a Virgilio Romano, who are commended by Vasari for their frescos, and to whom grotesques, of uncertain origin, are sometimes attributed in Siena.
Somewhat later, but certainly before the complete revival of the art at Siena, I am disposed to class a fresco painter, whom Baglione and Titi call Matteo da Siena; but who is named Matteino in his native place, that he may not be confounded with the Matteo of the fourteenth century. He lived at Rome in the time of Niccolo Circignani, in whose pictures, and in those of artists of the same class, he inserted perspectives and landscapes. The efforts of his pencil may be seen at S. Stefano Rotondo, in thirty-two historical pictures of martyrs painted by Circignani, which have been engraved by Cavalieri. Many of his landscapes are in the Vatican gallery, which are beautiful, although in the old style. At the age of fifty-five he died at Rome, where he was established in the pontificate of Sixtus V. These circumstances make it appear to me unlikely, that he had painted in the Casino of Siena, about 1551, or in the Lucarini palace, along with Rustichino: the first period I consider too early, and the latter too late.
I shall now give some account of the chiaroscuros executed in mosaic, which owe their perfection to the school of Siena, during the epoch of which we are about to finish our account. I have already mentioned the erection of the magnificent cathedral of Siena, a work of many years; and may now add, that though it was grand in all its parts, nothing shewed such originality, or was so generally admired as the pavement around the great altar, all storied with subjects taken from the New Testament, of which the figures were surrounded by appropriate ornaments, which served to vary and divide the immense ground of the painting. A succession of artists always labouring to improve this work, carried it in a few years to an astonishing pitch of excellence. The nature of the stone quarries in the Sienese territory, afforded also facilities to the art which could not be so easily attained in other places. It originated like other arts from small and rude beginnings. Duccio commenced this ornamented pavement. The part which he executed is constructed of stones, in which the limbs and contours of the figures are scooped out: it is a dry but not ungraceful production of the thirteenth century. The young woman in the choir who kneels with her arms leaning on a cross, and, as an inscription informs us, implores the mercy of the Lord, is the work of Duccio: it probably represents Christian piety; and certainly both the attitude and the countenance are expressive of what she asks. Those who continued the pavement immediately after Duccio, are not so well known. We read of an Urbano da Cortona, and an Antonio Federighi, who designed and executed the two Sybils; the rest was in like manner the work of artists of little note. They all, however, improved the art in some degree, cutting the figures with the chisel, and filling up what was removed by the iron, with pitch or some black composition; and this was a rude sort of chiaroscuro. To them succeeded Matteo di Giovanni, who, from an attentive consideration of what his predecessors had done, fell on a method of surpassing them. He remarked a vein of the marble in the drapery of a figure of David, which formed a very natural fold, and by the contrast of the colours made the knee and leg appear in relief: in like manner he discovered in a figure of Solomon a shade of colour in the marble, well suited to produce effect. He then selected marbles of different colours; and joining them after the manner of an inlaying with stained wood, produced a work that was entitled to the name of a marble chiaroscuro. In this manner he executed without assistance a Slaughter of the Innocents, a composition which he frequently repeated, as we before remarked. He thus opened the path for Beccafumi's histories, who wrought in a superior style a large part of that pavement, which his exertions, says Vasari, rendered "the most beautiful, the largest, and most magnificent that was ever executed." This work employed his leisure hours till he attained to old age; and though painting interrupted his labours, he did not abandon it until his death, and hence, some of the historical compositions were completed by other hands, as is supposed from his cartoons. He executed the Sacrifice of Isaac, in figures as large as life; and Moses striking the Rock, with a crowd of Hebrews rushing to catch the water, and slake their thirst; besides several other subjects, which are described by Vasari; and more minutely by Landi.[295] I shall subjoin a few observations on the mechanism of the art. The first attempt of Beccafumi was to compose a picture of inlaid wood, which was long preserved in the studio of Vanni, and afterwards was in the possession of the Counts of the Delci family. He represented the Conversion of S. Paul in this piece, by employing wood of the colours only that were necessary to produce a chiaroscuro. After this model he selected white marble for the light parts of his figures, and the very purest for the catching lights; grey marble for the middle tints, black for the shadows, and for the darkest lines he sometimes employed a black stucco. He cut the pieces of these marbles, which are all indigenous, and inlaid them so nicely that the joinings are not easily discernible. This has induced some to believe that white marble is alone employed in this pavement, and that the middle tints and shadows are formed by certain very penetrating colours, capable of softening the marble and of colouring it throughout. We learn from a letter of Gallaccini, that this idea was adopted by some natives of Siena, and it appears from another of Mariette, that this great connoisseur was impressed with it, and gained over Bottari to his opinion.[296] Inspection overturns this supposition, for we may discover the seams between the different colours; and this circumstance induces the author of the Sienese Letters and the best informed persons, to disbelieve the artificial colouring of the marble. The truth is, the secret of colouring marble was not then known, but was afterwards discovered in Siena by Michelangiolo Vanni, who has transmitted the memory of his invention to posterity.[297] He erected a monument for his father, Cav. Francesco, with columns, ornaments, festoons, and figures of children; accompanied by a genealogy of the family, which were all designed on a white slab, and every part carefully and appropriately coloured, so as to resemble mosaic of different marbles. It is supposed that the colours were imparted to the marble by some mineral essences to impregnate it, because they penetrated a considerable way. He entitles himself the inventor of this art, in the monumental inscription. A secret of this nature was known to Niccolo Tornioli, of Siena, about the year 1640; and this artist is said to have painted a Veronica in that manner, the marble of which he caused to be sawed, and the same picture was found on each side of the section.[298] He was probably a scholar of Vanni; and the latter seems anxious by the inscription that he should not claim the honour of the invention. The connexion of the subject has led me to notice these two artists in this place. Their true place is in the third epoch of the Sienese school, to which I shall immediately proceed.
[Footnote 275: Baldinucci, in his Life of Antonio Veneziano, contends that this artist resided, during some time, at Siena; but the silence of the city historians as to such a fact, leads us to doubt the truth of his assertion.]
[Footnote 276: Vasari calls him "a pretty good master" in the Life of D. Bartolommeo: from the note of Bottari on this passage we collect that he flourished about 1500. Gigli makes him the master of Beccafumi.]
[Footnote 277: There is a Coronation of the Virgin by him at Fonte Giusta, and a picture, representing various saints, at Carmine, dated 1512.]
[Footnote 278: See _Lett. Sanesi_, tom. iii. p. 320, where the inscription of Signorelli on his pictures in the Petrucci palace is quoted, and Vasari is corrected.]
[Footnote 279: He is thus named by Baldinucci; but Vasari, in his Life of Razzi, mentions a Girolamo del Pacchia, a rival of Razzi himself; and this person appears to be Pacchiarotto. He also mentions Giomo, or Girolamo del Sodoma, who died young; and whom both Orlandi and Bottari have confounded with Pacchiarotto; when we ought rather to believe that he was a pupil of Razzi, and died while he was yet young.]
[Footnote 280: Mattaccio signifies a buffoon. Tr.]
[Footnote 281: In P. della Valle, in the Supplement to the life of Razzi, See Vasari, edit. of Siena, p. 297. In the following page there is a chronological error. He agrees with Baldinucci that Razzi was born in 1479, and says that his picture of S. Francis was executed in 1490, that is, when the artist was about eleven years of age.]
[Footnote 282: See also Perini, in his _Lettera su l' Archicenobio di Monte Oliveto_, p. 49, where he defends Razzi from the charge of indecorum made by Vasari, on a view of the grotesques and fancy subjects which he painted in that place.]
[Footnote 283: Tom. iii. p. 243.]
[Footnote 284: I am in doubt as to his native place. The name of one _Scalobrinus Pistoriensis_, a painter of merit, and belonging to the same age, is found inscribed at the church of S. Francesco, without the Tuscan gate, where he left seven specimens of altar-pieces. _Memorie per le belle Arti_, tom. ii. p. 190.]
[Footnote 285: See Sig. da Morrona, tom. i. p. 116. Mecherino there painted the Evangelists, and some historical pieces from the life of Moses: Razzi executed in the same place a Descent from the Cross, and an Abraham offering his Son, which are among his last, and not his best works.]
[Footnote 286: The Sienese historians prove this in opposition to Vasari, who makes him by descent a Florentine. See Lett. Sen. tom. iii. p. 178.]
[Footnote 287: For his labours in the cathedral of Siena he had thirty crowns a year; as the architect of S. Peter's, two hundred and fifty. He derived little advantage from private commissions, for people generally took advantage of his modesty, in either not paying him at all, or rewarding him scantily.]
[Footnote 288: I saw one in the possession of Cav. Cavaceppi in Rome, of which this great connoisseur used to say, that it might pass for a Raffaello, if it had been as like in colouring as in every thing else. The Sergardi family at Siena have another, and a Holy Family, by Razzi, as its companion. These are reckoned among their first performances, and are believed to have been painted in competition with each other. In that of Peruzzi one recognizes, even at that time, that elegance of design which he delighted afterwards to exhibit in his figures, especially in the Chigi, now called the Farnese palace.]
[Footnote 289: It is a fresco, and, though retouched, surprises at once by the novelty and expression of the figures. A. Caracci designed it for one of his studies.]
[Footnote 290: Lett. vii.]
[Footnote 291: Siena Illustre.]
[Footnote 292: The expression in the original is: "condotto con quella bella grazia che si vede-non murato, ma veramente nato." _Vasari._]
[Footnote 293: P. 191.]
[Footnote 294: Serlio, 1. c.]
[Footnote 295: _Lettere Senesi_, tom. iii. lett. 6. See also lett. 8. page 223, where there are many observations on the design of Mecherino, and on the execution committed to the Martini, brothers, and eminent sculptors of that period. For the prints from their works by Andreani and Gabuggiani, see the notes of Bottari on the life of Mecherino, p. 435.]
[Footnote 296: See Lett. Pittoriche, tom. i. p. 311, and tom. iv. p. 344. See also Notes on Vasari, tom. iv. p. 436. Ed. Fiorentin.]
[Footnote 297: He inscribed the monument, "Francisco Vannio ... Michael Angelus ... novae hujus in petra pingendi artis inventor et Raphael ... Filii parenti optimo m. p. a. 1656.]
[Footnote 298: See the note of Bottari on Gallaccini's letter. tom. i. p. 308.]
SIENESE SCHOOL.
EPOCH III.
_The art having declined in Siena through the disasters of the state, is revived by the labours of Salimbeni and his sons._
We have related the progress and best works of the Sienese school from the beginning, to about the middle of the sixteenth century; but we have not yet considered a circumstance that adds greatly to the merit of the artists and works of that period. If we search into the history of that half century, we shall find that all Italy groaned under the pressure of public calamities; but Siena, to a greater degree, and for a longer period than any other place, endured an accumulation of the most terrible evils. Famine, pestilence, and a suspension of commercial intercourse, afflicted other states, but here they seem to have exhausted their rage: civil commotions and external enemies agitated other states, but here, during a period of many years, they allowed not a moment of tranquillity. The republic of Siena, strong in the valour of her citizens, was feeble in every thing besides; and hence it resembled a gulph, where tempests are more frequent and more violent than on the ocean. The usurpation of the Petrucci, the dissensions between the nobles and the people, and jealousy of foreign powers, who sought her subjugation, kept Siena in constant alarm, and often incited to arms and to bloodshed. The remedy which they now expected in the protection of the emperor, at another time from France, only served to aggravate internal commotion and foreign aggression. Amid this perpetual agitation, I know not whether most to admire the genius of the people, ever directed to the decoration of their houses and public edifices, or the spirit of the artists, who could summon all the powers of their minds to such efforts: this I know, that similar instances are rare in other countries. The year 1555 at length arrived, when Cosmo I. deprived the Sienese of their long defended liberty. To any enemy but the Florentines they would have submitted with less reluctance; and on this account our astonishment is lessened on finding that, on this occasion, two thirds of the inhabitants abandoned their native soil, refusing to live subject to enemies so abhorred.
At this time, and in the disasters above alluded to, the city lost many able artists, and also several families, from whom eminent artists were descended, and whose Sienese origin is confirmed by history. Baglione says of Camillo Mariani, that he was born at Vicenza, and that his father was a native of Siena, who had expatriated himself on account of the wars; and he praises the cabinet pictures of this artist, who died at Rome with the reputation of an excellent sculptor. I likewise find at Bologna an Agostino Marcucci, of Siena, who is wholly unknown in that place, probably because he was the son of an emigrant. He was a disciple of the Caracci, till a schism arose in that school, which we shall notice in its proper place, when he ranged himself with the foremost adherents of Facini, the leader of the party, and they had the boldness to set up a new academy in opposition to that of the Caracci. He continued to reside in Bologna, and to teach to the time of his death, and is reckoned by Malvasia among "the first men" of that age. Of his scholars Malvasia mentions only Ruggieri, and he only notices one of his pictures at the Concezione;[299] to which several others, however, are added in the New Guide.
Siena, in the mean time, began to breathe from her misfortunes, and to be reconciled to the new government, which, through the prudence of Cosmo, appeared rather a reformation in the old, than a new domination. No long time elapsed before the void left in the city by the artists who had emigrated was filled up by others. Rustico had remained there, as well as his superior, Riccio, who painted the celebrated scene, already noticed, on the coming of Cosmo. Siena also possessed Tozzo and Bigio, whom Lancillotti reckons "among the most famous painters," I believe, in small figures; and it is not easy to distinguish between those two artists, who had an extraordinary similarity of style. Arcangiolo Salimbeni, who is expressly said by Baldinucci to be a "scholar of Federigo Zuccari," may have received the rudiments of the art from one of them. Perhaps, as the historian goes on to say, during his residence at Rome he might contract an intimate friendship with Zuccari; but the style of Salimbeni discovers very opposite principles from those of that master; and notwithstanding all researches, no one has succeeded in finding pictures of his that bear indications of that school. He loved precision more than fulness of design; and we may even observe in him an attachment to the manner of Pietro Perugino, as was observed by Della Valle with regard to a Crucifixion attended by six Saints, in the parish church of Lusignano. In his other pictures at Siena, especially in the S. Peter-Martyr, in possession of the Dominicans, he appears wholly modern;[300] but diligent, and free from the defects which we often observe in Federigo, who may be considered as a professed mannerist of that period. It was the good fortune of the Sienese school, that Riccio was succeeded by this artist, who, if he had not a lofty genius, possessed, at least, the judgment to avoid the faults of his contemporaries. Hence, amid the degeneracy of the neighbouring schools this remained uncontaminated, or but slightly infected; and the new disciples it sent forth contributed to the improvement of the art in Italy. They were not so much attached to home as Mecherino; they painted equally well beyond the territory of Siena; they visited very distant cities, and in them all left specimens of their art, both in public and in private, which are still preserved. After receiving the first instruction from Salimbeni, or some less known artist, each chose his own guide. We shall here proceed with their history.
After receiving the rudiments of the art at Siena, Pietro Sorri went to Florence, under Passignano, and became his son-in-law, and the associate of his labours in that place and in Venice. He emulated the style of Passignano, which partook, as we have observed, of the Florentine and the Venetian: he succeeded so well, that their works bear a perfect resemblance, and are held in equal estimation. He painted less expeditiously than his father-in-law; but his colouring was more durable, and, if I mistake not, his design more graceful. The convent of S. Sebastian, which was ornamented by a competition of the best Sienese artists of this epoch, has one of his pictures, which are rather uncommon in Siena; for his best years were spent in other places. He was much at Florence: and afterwards visited many other Tuscan cities; and there is scarcely any considerable place among them which cannot boast the efforts of his easy and graceful pencil; but particularly Pisa, the cathedral of which could not but attract such an artist. He there represented the Consecration of that church on one large canvas, and, on another, Christ disputing with the Doctors, which is inscribed with his name: and never did he approach nearer to the excellence of Paul Veronese in architecture and other accompaniments. He was employed in the Carthusian monastery of Pavia, and also in Genoa, where we shall find him as a preceptor in that school.
Casolani took his surname from Casole, the little town from which his family removed to Siena. In the ducal gallery of Florence there is a portrait of a lady with three men, in the same piece, which is said to represent Lucrezia Piccolomini, with her three sons, Alessandro Casolani, Francesco Vanni, and Ventura Salimbeni, whom she bore to different husbands, in the course of a few years. This makes Alessandro the stepson of Arcangiolo Salimbeni, and the uterine brother of Ventura and of Vanni. I cannot find this story in any author, except in Niccolo Pio, a Roman writer of no authority, whose manuscript, containing notices of two hundred and fifty artists, which was drawn up about 1724, is preserved in the Vatican library.[301] The old writers of Siena have taken no notice of so remarkable an event, and we cannot, therefore, give credit to Pio, a stranger, and a modern author. The relation then in which Alessandro stands to Arcangiolo is that of scholar; but he learnt more from Cav. Roncalli in Siena and in Rome. He remained long in the latter city: he designed the finest works it contained, and obtained some idea of different styles. This knowledge was increased by a journey which he made some years afterwards to Pavia, where he painted in the Carthusian monastery, and in other places. His manner is prodigiously varied. It exhibits traces of the best style of Roncalli, a good design, sobriety of composition, a modesty of colouring, and tranquil harmony. He seems also to have aimed at originality, for he was continually altering his style, mingling it with the graces of various artists, and sometimes striking out into a novel path. He possessed promptness of genius and of execution: he was quick in committing his ideas to the canvas; and when dissatisfied with his work, he often chose to cancel the whole, rather than to correct a part. Although unacquainted with ideal beauty, he was esteemed by Guido, who may be considered as the father of modern painters, and who said of him "this truly is a painter." Whoever would see his best work, may examine the martyrdom of S. Bartholomew, at the Carmine of Siena. It is a picture of considerable size, with great variety in the figures and in the expression, and altogether excites surprise. We are told that when Roncalli examined it, he at length exclaimed, that the art of that period was comprised in that picture. But the short life of Casolani prevented him attaining the excellence which this specimen promised. His works are in various cities of Tuscany, and also in Naples, Genoa, and Fermo, in the metropolitan church of which there is a picture of S. Louis of France, that is numbered among the choice paintings in that city.
A good many of his works in Siena shew traces of, and even whole figures by other hands; having been finished by Vanni, and Ventura Salimbeni, or by other artists, either of his own or of different schools. Ilario Casolani, his son, by a daughter of Rustici, finished the Assumption for the Church of S. Francis; and afterwards went to Rome, where he was "noticed by Cav. Pomaranci, out of respect to his father," says Mancini, as of a thing he knew, and adds, that Pomaranci had good hopes of him. Baglione and Pio called him Cristoforo, a name he, perhaps, received along with several others at baptism; and which probably the Sienese artist thought more becoming at Rome than Ilario, since he is named Cristoforo, by Roncalli. Under Pomaranci he became a proficient in his style in fresco, and imitated it particularly at Madonna de' Monti, in some pictures from the history of the Virgin, and in an Ascension on the ceiling; the best work, perhaps, produced in the short course of his life. Titi uniformly names him Cristoforo Consolano; but a consideration of the anecdotes of Mancini and Baglione leads us to convert it into Casolano. A Resurrection of Lazarus, begun by Alessandro for the church of S. Francis, was finished by Vincenzio Rustici; who was probably his scholar and his kinsman, and who is the least celebrated among this family of painters. One of his pictures, intended for Santuccio, was finished by Sebastiano Folli. The frescos of this artist are more numerous at Siena than his oil pictures: the ornamental parts of them are superior to his figures, in which he inclined to mannerism; his compartments are beautiful, his architecture finely conducted, his imitations of stucco deceive the eye, and he was expert in foreshortening what was to be seen from below. In 1608 he painted the frescos of S. Sebastian, in competition with various artists, and in this trial of skill he only yields to Rutilio Manetti. In the Guide of the Cav. Pecci I find mention made of designs of Casolani, executed in fresco by Stefano Volpi, whose name not unfrequently occurs in that work, and who was probably a scholar of that excellent artist.
Cav. Ventura, the son of A. Salimbeni, is reckoned the third scholar of that master, though his lessons from Arcangiolo must have been but few. The young man left his home early, and journeying through the cities of Lombardy, he studied the works of Correggio and others, whose taste began to be applauded in Tuscany. He went to Rome in the pontificate of Sixtus V. and raised a very favourable opinion of his genius, which, giving himself up to dissipation, he did not afterwards fulfil. In that city he left many frescos that are praised by Baglione, among which, the Abraham entertaining the Angels, in a chapel of the Gesu, appears, on the whole, the work of a consummate painter. It has something lively and graceful in the colouring and the countenances, which he always retained: it also shews attention to design and chiaroscuro, which, in a great measure, he afterwards neglected in his paintings. In conjunction with Vanni he executed some ceilings, and, perhaps, derived advantage from observing this painter, though his junior by eight years. In many of his works he undoubtedly resembles him in his imitation of Baroccio, and hardly yields to him in grace of contour, in expression, and in delicacy and clearness of colouring. He is admired in the church of S. Quirico, and in that of S. Domenick: in the one is his Appearance of the Angel at the Sepulchre; in the other a Crucifixion, with various Saints around, which are superior to the generality of his works. In several other places in Siena there are others of great merit, especially where he painted in the vicinity of the works of the best masters of his school. He likewise executed some beautiful historical pieces when he vied with Poccetti, in the cloister of the Servi at Florence, and in the cathedral of Pisa, where he was surrounded by such great painters. His Marriage of the Virgin, in the cathedral of Foligno, his S. Gregory, in the church of S. Peter at Perugia, his works in Lucca, in Pavia, and in various cities of Italy, justify the remark of Baglione, that Salimbeni was impatient of remaining long in any one place. In Genoa, however, his stay was not so short. The beautiful chamber in the Adorno palace, and other works which he there executed, are still in existence, while many others have perished. He went to Genoa at the same time with Agostino Tassi, who served him for an ornamental and landscape painter, and, perhaps, it was through him that Ottavio Ghissoni, of Siena, came to that place; an artist, if I am not mistaken, forgotten in the annals of his own country; in fresco he was more lively than correct. He studied at Rome under Cherubino Alberti; but his country, his style, and the time of his arrival at Genoa, afford ground to suspect that he had also received the lessons of Salimbeni. Soprani gives Ventura the surname of Bevilacqua, which is rather an addition to his name granted him by Cardinal Bevilacqua when he knighted him in Perugia.
Cav. Francesco Vanni, in the opinion of many, is the best painter of this school; and is reckoned one of the restorers of Italian painting in the sixteenth century. The early instruction of his genius is to be assigned with greater probability to his brother than to his stepfather. At sixteen years of age he went to Rome, for the purpose of designing after Raffaello and the best masters. He was for some time under the tuition of Gio. de' Vecchi, whose style he introduced into his native country. There are specimens of him in many churches, and it is related that they were not relished by his fellow citizens; a circumstance which might occasion him uneasiness at the time, but soon after afforded him a lasting source of satisfaction. It induced him to examine the pictures of Lombardy, as his brother had done: and having remained in Parma to design some of them, he afterwards went to Bologna, where he was assiduously occupied. Ugurgieri writes that he was at that place in 1667, at which time he was twelve years old: this I believe to be incorrect; for it was unknown to Mancini, who was acquainted with Vanni. Malvasia repeats it on the authority of Ugurgieri; but he can discover nothing further of Vanni, at Bologna, than his being there after he had arrived at manhood, and designing in the academy of Facini and Mirandola, to which he was probably introduced by his countryman Marcucci. He left some works at Bologna, in the style of the Caracci, if he is the painter of a Madonna, which was shewn me as a Vanni, in a cabinet of the Zambeccari collection. His Flight into Egypt, painted for the church of S. Quirico, in Siena, bears also undoubted marks of the Bolognese school.
Although he attempted other styles, he was not like Casolani an adherent to none. Vanni attached himself to the elegant and florid manner of Barocci, in which he was eminently successful. Of this, the Humiliation of Simon the Sorcerer, which he painted on a stone slab for the church of S. Peter at Rome, affords a proof; a picture which, though recently cleaned with little judgment, is still an object of admiration. Both the design and colouring are in the manner of Barocci; and it is prepared with a due regard to the humidity of that church; nor has it been found necessary to remove it, as has happened to other pictures. He also painted in Siena, and in other Italian cities, where he has approached the manner of Barocci more closely than Viviani, or any other pupil of that artist. His Marriage of S. Catherine, with a numerous group of angels, at the Refugio, is much praised in Siena: as is the Madonna, surrounded by saints, painted for the church of Monna Agnese; and the S. Raymond walking on the Sea, in the possession of the Domenican Fathers, which is supposed by some to be his best picture in Siena, where his works are very numerous. Among the finest pictures in the cathedral of Pisa, is the Dispute about the Sacrament, painted in emulation of his brother Ventura, who had surpassed his usual style in the altar-piece of the angels. At the Umilta of Pistoia, in the convent of the Camaldules of Fabriano, and in that of the Capuchins of S. Quirico, are some of his most exquisite works; and they are so numerous in other places, that I do not imagine a full catalogue of them has ever been made out. He is generally a follower of Barocci, as we have observed; and amateurs, deceived principally by his colouring, and the heads of his boys, which appear cast in the mould of Barocci, frequently confound the latter with Vanni: but one, well acquainted with Federigo, observes in him more grandeur of design, and greater freedom in the touches of the pencil. The pictures which Vanni executed negligently, or at low prices (of which there are several at Siena), can hardly be recognized as his.
By the example and lessons of Vanni, the honour of painting was long supported at Siena. He taught many pupils, who did not, however, rigidly adopt his style; but, as is usually the case, imitated the master most recently in vogue, or, in other words, followed the fashion of the time. We shall begin with his two sons, to whom he had given the names most celebrated in the art. Michelangiolo, the eldest, we have mentioned with applause, as the inventor of staining marble: but he did not attain much celebrity except in this art. I know not whether he ever was out of Siena, and there we find few of his paintings, except a S. Catherine in the act of praying with the Redeemer, which was painted for the Olivetine monks. Raffaele, the second, left an orphan at the age of thirteen, was recommended to Antonio Caracci, and in that school, according to Mancini, made such progress as even to surpass his father; but this is not the opinion of posterity. All allow that he possessed grandeur of design, and a fine taste in shadows and in colouring, with some resemblance to Cortona, who, in his day, drew after him even his contemporaries. The birth of the Virgin Mary, in the Pace at Rome, and several of his other pictures, have no small portion of the ideas and contrasts of the followers of Cortona. He lived long in Rome, and on that account is frequently mentioned by Titi. Tuscany is not deficient in his works. At the church of S. Catherine, at Pisa, there is a picture of the titular Saint; Florence possesses the pictures of the Riccardi saloon; and at the church of S. George, in Siena, is his Procession of our Saviour to Calvary. These are esteemed among his finest productions; and the last is characterized as his masterpiece. Both brothers had the honour of knighthood; but it was more worthily bestowed on the second than on the first.
Contemporary with the Cav. Raffaello, as well as his assistant at S. Maria della Pace at Rome, and in several places at Siena, we find the name of Bernardino Mei. I am unacquainted with that of his master; and P. della Valle, who saw several of his works, sometimes compares him to the Caracci, at others to Paul Veronese, and to Guercino, much as the eclectic philosophers adopt or change the maxims of the different schools. He commends him for the airs of his heads, and, as one of his best productions, alludes to a fresco in the Casa Bandinelli, with an Aurora in a ceiling, and with several other elegant figures and designs.
Francesco di Cristofano Rustici, called Rustichino, is better known in Siena than those just mentioned. He obtained the name of Rustichino, either because he was the last of a family that had produced three painters before him, or because he died in the outset of life. This circumstance, perhaps, has contributed to his reputation. All his remaining works are beautiful, which seldom happens to artists who live to a great age, and who abate in diligence as they advance in reputation and in years. He is a graceful follower of Caravaggio; and particularly excels in confined or candle lights, much in the style of Gherardo della Notte; but he is perhaps more select. The Dying Magdalen, in possession of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the S. Sebastian, cured by S. Irene, which belongs to Prince Borghese, in Rome, are in this style. But it was not the only one in which Rustichino painted. He had visited Rome, and had studied the works of the Caracci and of Guido, of which traces may be discovered in several of his works; but, at the same time, all of them possess a certain originality, and something peculiarly his own. The best of all his pictures at Siena is an Annunciation, in Provenzano, before which the Virgin, S. Catherine, prays, surrounded by a multitude of angels. If Rustichino pleases in other works, in this he enchants us. He began a work on the history of the city in the public palace, in which his father, whose figures were not equal to his decorations, was also employed, and it was finished by other artists.
Rutilio Manetti, or, as Pecci writes it, Mannetti, followed Caravaggio with less discrimination, but with greater force in the shadows. His pictures at Siena are easily recognized by invariably partaking of a certain sombre hue, which deranges the due balance and participation of light and shade. The same objection lies against many of his contemporaries of every school. The method of purifying colours, and of composing vehicles,[302] had degenerated; and the injury sustained from this defect was not observed in the pictures: the artist only looked to the grand effect, to which the age so much aspired. Manetti united an improved design to ideas above the common order, and beautiful architecture; and hence, at times, he approaches rather to Guercino than to Caravaggio. In the cathedral of Siena is his Elijah under the juniper tree, in which the historian of that church commends the force of the colouring, which is juicy and natural. Many of his works remain in the Carthusian monastery of Florence, and in several churches of Siena, the most admired of which is the Repose of the Holy Family, in S. Peter's of Castelvecchio. In private collections, where pictures are better preserved than in churches, we find very beautiful Madonnas by this artist; and there is a most exquisite Lucretia in the possession of the Bandinelli family. He sometimes departed from his usual manner, as in the Triumph of David, in the ducal gallery, in which the shadows are not so dark, and the tone of the whole is more lively. Mention is made in the _Lettere Pittoriche_,[303] of Bernardino Capitelli, a scholar of Manetti, and an etcher: and in the third volume there is casual mention of one Domenico Manetti, probably of the same family, but not to be mistaken for the great individual of the same name. He appears rather to have employed himself in ornamenting private collections, and painted a Baptism of Constantine for the casa Magnoni, that has been much commended.
Astolfo Petrazzi, as well as Vanni, was a pupil of the younger Salimbeni and of Sorri; and seems, more than any other, to have adhered to the manner of his master. He frequently aims at pleasing the eye, and not unfrequently chooses his models from the schools of Upper Italy. A Marriage-feast of Cana, by his hand, in a private house, brings Paolo strongly to our recollection. His Communion of S. Jerome, in the possession of the Augustine friars, partakes, perhaps, too strongly of the manner of the Caracci. This picture, which he painted at Rome, was much admired at Siena, and was the origin of his great employment in that city, where his pictures are always decorated with most pleasing choirs of angels. His cabinet pictures were also lively; witness the four Seasons at Volte, a seat of the noble family of Chigi. He kept an open academy for painting in his house, which was much frequented by natives of Siena, and honoured by the attendance of Borgognone, who stopt some months with Astolfo before he went to Rome. Hence, many of this artist's early battle-pieces and landscapes are to be met with at Siena: the house of Sig. Decano Giovanelli, a literary ornament of that city, abounded with them.
I find some other painters of this school who are known beyond the state of Siena. Antiveduto Grammatica, an eminent painter, of Sienese extraction, was known at Rome, where he was president of the academy of S. Luke. It is true that he was deprived of that office for attempting to substitute one of his own copies for a S. Luke, by Raffaello, which he had sold to a gentleman. He had a peculiar talent in the art of copying, especially heads, and, on this account, he was a good portrait painter. Although we are not certain that he had any master but one Domenico Perugino, a painter of little wooden scenes,[304] he obtained applause in large compositions. There is an Annunciation by Grammatica of a most brilliant colouring, in the hospital of the Incurables; and several of his other pictures, in different churches. He died at Rome in 1626.
Two other artists, unknown in their native place, are made known to me by their signatures. On a Last Supper, in the convent of the Angioli, below Assisi, I discovered _Franciscus Antonius Senensis_, 1614, or thereabouts. The style has enough of Baroccio to lead me to suspect that he was the scholar of Vanni, or of Salimbeni: nor must he be reckoned the meanest of that school, for he was master of expression in a degree superior to mediocrity. The figure of the departing Judas is the image of desperate resolve, and would be much better had he not given it the feet of a bat; a grotesque conceit. In the same neighbourhood, at the church of Foligno, I read, beneath a Holy Family, the name of _Marcantonio Grecchi_, and the date 1634. The style is solid, expressive, and correct; more resembling Tiarini di Bologna than any master of Siena. Niccolo Tornioli, lately mentioned, painted in the church of S. Paul, at Bologna, in various cities of Italy: in Siena he left, perhaps, no picture in public but the Vocation of S. Matthew, still remaining in the custom-house. Towards the close of the century, painting was practised at Siena chiefly by foreigners. Annibale Mazzuoli, a fresco painter of rapid execution but of little merit, was most employed: he afterwards went to Rome, and is the last name inserted in the Eulogies of Pio.
Painting, however, came again into repute at Siena, about 1700, when its credit was restored by Cav. Giuseppe Nasini, a scholar of Ciro Ferri. Nasini possessed the qualities for which I have commended many of his nation, a fervid genius, a fertile imagination, and a poetic vein; but his poetry was of the species that prevailed in Italy during his younger days, a composition unrestrained by fixed rules. To this spirit we not unfrequently discover some analogy in his paintings, in which we could desire to find more order, a more choice design, and colouring less vulgar. He always shews, however, a taste for allegory, great command of pencil, and an imposing air on the whole; and the observation of Redi, that "he stuns the beholder," is not without some foundation.[305] This remark was made when Nasini had finished the cupola of the chapel of S. Anthony, in the church of the Apostles at Rome; in which chapel there is a picture by Luti. He afterwards entered into a competition with Luti, and the first artists then in Rome, in the large prophets of the lateran cathedral. His masterpiece is supposed to be the S. Leonard, in Madonna del Pianto, at Foligno, the ceiling of which he painted with good frescos. Siena contains some of his finest productions of every kind; above all, the pictures of the Novissimi, intended for the Pitti palace, but transferred from it to the church of the Conventuals of Siena. It contains a great number of figures neither so select nor so well arranged as to arrest the eye of the spectator; but he who would contemptuously overlook it, let him say how many painters then in Italy could have produced such a picture.
Giuseppe brought up two pupils in his house. He had a brother named Antonio, who was a priest, whose likeness is among the eminent portrait painters in the gallery at Florence. Cav. Apollonio Nasini, the son of Giuseppe, was inferior to his father in the profession; yet assisted him in his greatest works, and held an honourable rank among his contemporaries. Gioseffo Pinacci, of Siena, a disciple of Mehus in figures, and of Borgognone in battle-pieces, lived in the time of Nasini. He was a good painter of portraits, and made a considerable fortune, first at the court of Carpio, Viceroy of Naples, and afterwards in the service of the grand duke Ferdinand, at Florence, where several of his works remain. But his chief merit consisted in a knowledge of the pencilling of the old masters. Nicolo Franchini distinguished himself rather by restoring the work of other hands than by his own productions, and thus furnished Pecci with much convenient information for his City Guide; "by his skill," says the Cavaliere, "in restoring injured specimens to their original beauty, without applying to them a fresh pencil, and in supplying the faded colours with others taken from paintings of less value, he entitled himself, in fact, to the praise of a new discovery." We shall here conclude the school of Siena; and shall add in its praise, that if it did not produce painters of the very highest class, it at least boasts many artists, eminent when we consider their era, and few inferior, or not above mediocrity.[306] It indeed appears, that either a genius for painting is natural to that people, or that none of them have embraced the art who were not capable of prosecuting it successfully.
[Footnote 299: See Malvasia, tom. i. p. 571; and tom. ii. p. 355.]
[Footnote 300: It has his name and the year 1579, which date must be false. The widow of Arcangiolo married again, and bore Francesco Vanni in 1565. Consequently the latter could not be the scholar of Arcangiolo, though such an idea is very prevalent; and he could give lessons only for a short time to his son, Ventura, or to Sorri, and Casolani, if the period of their birth is true.]
[Footnote 301: See letter 127 in vol. v. of _Lett. Pittor._, in which there is a catalogue of those painters.]
[Footnote 302: The idea that the brilliant colouring of the Venetian school was owing to the use of a peculiar vehicle for the colours, or a certain varnish, has been long entertained by artists and connoisseurs; and the opinion has been sanctioned by great names: yet it is highly probable that the great secret of the Venetian painters consisted not in vehicles nor in varnishes, but in employing mineral colours, and in laying them on the canvas as little mixed as possible. No colour derived from the vegetable kingdom will stand well when mixed with oil, and our best colours are composed of metallic oxides, or earthy bodies highly charged with those oxides. When colours are much mixed on the palette they become invariably muddy, and to him who aims at brilliancy of colouring no maxim is of greater consequence than _to keep his palette as clean as possible_. The use of transparent colours in the shadows is another great cause of brilliancy, and this cannot be obtained by the use of mixed colours. It is produced by what is called glazing, or laying transparent colours one over another. In nothing is the effect of glazing, in giving transparency, more obvious, than in the astonishing clearness of the skies and water in the works of the best Dutch artists. That the magical effect of Kuyp's pictures is thus produced, I had an opportunity of knowing, from the blunder of a picture-cleaner, who thought he had made a great discovery when he found the _Rhine_ of a deep blue in a picture by this master; from which, along with the varnish, he had removed a thin coating of yellow, with which the blue was glazed over, to produce the beautiful greenish hue of the water. (_Note by_ Dr. Traile.)]
[Footnote 303: Tom. i.]
[Footnote 304: His name alone survives in Perugia; though it is believed that one of his pictures remains in the church of S. Angelo Magno, at Ascoli, where the figure of S. Giovanni is ascribed by Lazzeri, in his _Ascoli in Prospettiva_, to one Giandomenico da Perugia, and the landscape to Gio. Francesco da Bologna, that is to say, to Grimaldi. The figure is in the Guercino taste, according to the opinion of Sig. Orsini; but I cannot conceive how he or the Sig. Mariotti (p. 273) should not have remarked that it must be the production of Giandomenico Cerrini, of Perugia, contemporary with Grimaldi and Guercino, and not of that Domenico, the painter of wooden scenes, who lived about an age anterior to them.]
[Footnote 305: Lett. Pittoriche, tom. ii. p. 69.]
[Footnote 306: A few of the names that obtained least celebrity in Siena are pointed out by P. M. della Valle in the third volume of the Lettere Senesi, (p. 459,) among which are found Crescienzio Gamberelli Nasinesco, Deifobo Burbarini, a poor artist, Aurelio Martelli, called Il Mutolo, Gio. Batista Ramacciotti, a priest and connoisseur in painting; and the same may be said of Bernardino Fungai, and of the noble Marcello Loli, of Galgano Perpignano, with others of like merit, either omitted or slightly mentioned by Sig. Pecci. P. della Valle excuses himself from the task of treating of them in favor of happier writers, but as we do not pretend to aspire to that felicity, we shall leave others to avail themselves of the Father's liberality.]
END OF VOL. I.
J. M'Creery, Tooks Court, Chancery-lane, London.
Transcriber's Notes:
Archaic punctuation and spelling of words, names, titles, and places, were not changed. Minor punctuation errors were corrected. Inconsistent hyphenation was standardized. Footnotes were moved to the end of each chapter. A chapter heading was added to Florentine School, Epoch I, Section III, for consistency with remaining chapters. In the original, footnote 244 contains an oversized letter 'I' in the word 'COPISQVE,' to represent a double 'I' of the word 'COPIISQVE.' In the phrase 'signed _f_. 4 _s_', the figure '4' is rotated 180 degrees in the original text.
The following changes were made for consistency within the text.
'basso rilievos' and 'bassorilievos' to 'basso-relievos' 'mezzo-rilievo' and 'mezzorilievo' to 'mezzo-relievo' 'Pieta' to 'Pieta' 'Trinita' to 'Trinita' 'Winckelman' to 'Winckelmann' 'Zannetti' to 'Zanetti'
Other Changes:
Page reference for Epoch V in the Table of Contents corrected from 353 to 335. '1720' to '1790' based on another copy of the book and the sequence of events in the text. ...In the year 1790, Lanzi,... 'christian' to 'Christian' ...Lanzi was a good Christian,... 'Teofilos's' to 'Teofilo's' ...Teofilo's treatise is inserted... 'lamp blank' to 'lamp black' ...the ink (lamp black or printer's... 'Desart' to 'Desert' ...S. John in the Desert... 'croud' to 'crowd' ...and a crowd of devotees... 'cotemporaries' to 'contemporaries' ...and his contemporaries painted... 'Pysche' to 'Psyche' ...The features of Psyche have nothing... 'groupes' to 'groups' ...groups of boys...