parte ii

. p. 10, where he informs us that Tintoret, in the maturity of his powers, being employed in painting for the church of La Trinita, Adam and Eve seduced by the Serpent, and the Death of Abel, "designed the figures from nature, placing over them a thin veil. To which figures he added a peculiar grace of contours, which he acquired from studying relievi."]

[Footnote 66: This date is pointed out by Boschini, and corresponds with the fortieth year of the artist, who, on the authority of Melchiori, made a noble copy of Giorgione's San Liberale, at Castelfranco, besides producing several original works in his native place and the vicinity. Specimens of his labours exist in water colours, taken from pictures in fresco executed by Paolo and by Zelotti, in different palaces belonging to Venetian noblemen. The cavalier Liberi, his Venetian master, aware of his singular talent for such species of painting, often employed him, to the no small advantage both of his art and his fortune.]

[Footnote 67: It would be too difficult to attempt to enumerate the names of his foreign imitators, particularly the Flemish, who were much devoted to his style, some of whose copies I have seen in collections believed to be originals. But the handle of their pencil, the clearness of colouring, and sometimes, the diminution of the figures, not common to the Bassani, afford means to distinguish them; not however with such a degree of certainty, but that connoisseurs themselves are of different opinions. This occurred in my own time at Rome, respecting a fine picture of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, in the Rezzonico collection. One of the best imitators of that style was David Teniers, who, by his exquisite skill acquired the surname of Bassano. To him I am happy to add another foreigner, Pietro Orrente di Murcia, whom Spanish writers give as a pupil to Jacopo; and were there no other authority, we might upon that of Sig. Conca, receive him as his very exact imitator. In his two pictures referred to (vol. i. p. 266) he is pronounced superior to the Bassani, meaning, perhaps, superior to the sons of Jacopo; it would be too absurd a proposition to prefer him to the head of the school.]

[Footnote 68: It is, as I am informed by Signor dalla Rosa, a picture of the Pentacost.]

[Footnote 69: He attained this effect by drawing these figures with rather bold contours, and the other parts after his works were completed. Owing to his knowledge, as well as his felicity and grace of hand, they are not in the least disagreeable to those who observe them near. (_Zanetti_, p. 181.)]

[Footnote 70: This was easily produced by his rapidity of execution, by which his tints always remained clear and simple. The artist who repeats his touches frequently, and uses much research, can with difficulty preserve freshness, to obtain which another method must undoubtedly be pursued. (_Zanetti_, p. 163.)]

[Footnote 71: It has been stated in his defence, that had he clothed the whole of his figures with those tunics and ancient mantles, he would have become monotonous, and consequently uninteresting in his great history pieces. But I am of opinion, that whoever is familiar with ancient statues and bassi relievi, will find means of varying his compositions. The Cavalier Canova has recently produced two bassi relievi, on the condemnation of Socrates. The Greek vests are two, the tunic and pallium; yet these are finely varied, though there are a number of spectators.]

[Footnote 72: According to Ridolfi, however, he is said to have attained his twenty-sixth year; but certainly not more.]

[Footnote 73: Father Federici has, in the course of this year, 1803, brought to light another scholar of Paul, and afterwards of Carletto, born, like Parrasio, in Venice. He calls him Giacomo Lauro, and Giacomo da Trevigi, because, having established himself in that city, with his family, while still a youth, no one could distinguish him by any other patronymic than that of Trevigiano. Thus speak several anonymous contemporaries, from whose MSS. the reverend father has extracted no slight information relative to the pictures executed by Lauro in his new country. There he enjoyed the friendship of the fathers of San Domenico, for whose church he painted his celebrated picture of St. Rocco, in which he exhibited, with great tragic power, the terrific scourge of the plague. It is honourable to this artist, who died young, that this altarpiece, as well as his other pictures, both in oil and in fresco, have, until lately, been attributed either to Paul or to Carlo, or to some less celebrated hands, but always to good and experienced artists.]

[Footnote 74: See Boschini, Carta, p. 160. Zanetti, p. 494.]

[Footnote 75: A class of artists so called, from their excessive use of deep shades and dark colours. _Tr._]

[Footnote 76: There was an attempt to revive it, made in Florence. Roscoe, in his "Life of Lorenzo de' Medici," (vol. ii. p. 220, 6th ed.) relates, that, with Gherardo, Lorenzo associated Domenico Ghirlandajo to work in mosaic at the chapel of San Zenobio: but that this undertaking, so admirably begun, was interrupted by Lorenzo's death; insomuch that "his attempts," observes the historian, "were thus in a great degree frustrated." This honour appeared to be reserved for Venice.]

VENETIAN SCHOOL.

THIRD EPOCH.

_Innovations of the Mannerists of the Seventeenth Century. Corruption of Venetian Painting._

A sort of fatality seems to prevail in all human things, rendering their duration in the same state of short continuance; so that after attaining their highest elevation, we may assuredly at no distant period look for their decline. The glory of precedency, of whatever kind, will not long remain the boast of one place, or in possession of a single nation. It migrates from country to country; and the people that yesterday received laws from another, will tomorrow impose them. Those who today are the instructors of a nation, will tomorrow become ambitious of being admitted in the number of its disciples. Numerous examples might be adduced in support of this proposition, but it would be quite superfluous. For whoever is even slightly acquainted with civil or literary history, whoever has observed the passing events of the age in which we live, will easily furnish himself with proofs, without the aid of writers to direct him. We have already traced the same revolution of affairs in the art of painting, in the two schools of Rome and Florence, which, arriving at the zenith of their fame, fell into decay precisely at the period when that of Venice began to exalt itself. And we shall now perceive the decline of the latter, during the same age in which the Florentine began to revive, in which the school of Bologna acquired its highest degree of reputation; and what is still more surprising, seemed to rise by studying the models of the Venetian. So indeed it was: the Caracci were much devoted to Titian, to Giorgione, to Paul Veronese, and Tintoretto, and thence formed styles, and produced pupils that conferred honour upon the whole of the seventeenth century. The Venetians, too, studied the same examples, and derived from them a certain mannerism reprehensible enough in them, but much more so in their disciples. These, devoting themselves in their first studies to more classical artists, and attaining a certain practice both in design and colouring, next aimed at displaying upon a grand scale, figures, not so much taken from life, as from engravings and pictures, or from their own imaginations; and the more rapidly these were executed, the better did they suppose they had succeeded. I am inclined to believe, that the examples of Tintoretto proved, in this respect, more prejudicial than useful. Few were ambitious of emulating his profound knowledge, which in some measure serves to veil his defects; but his haste, his carelessness, and his grounds, they more willingly adopted; while his great name was advanced as a shield to cover their own faults. And the earliest of these, not yet unmindful of the maxims of a better age, did not rush blindly into all these errors and excesses; but by their superiority of spirit, and by their tints, maintained their ground better than the mannerists of the Roman and Florentine styles. But to these succeeded others, whose schools degenerated still more from the ancient rules of art. We advance this without meaning the least imputation upon really good artists, who flourished even during this period; for an age rarely occurs in which good sense becomes altogether extinct. Even during the barbarity of the dark ages, we meet with specimens of some marble busts of the Caesars, and some of their medals, which approach a better taste; and thus also in the age we are describing appeared geniuses, who either wholly, or in great measure, kept themselves free from the general infection; "et tenuere animum contra sua saecula rectum." _Propert._

Jacopo Palma the younger, so called to distinguish him from the other Palma, his great uncle, was an artist who might equally be entitled the last of the good age, and the first of the bad. Born in 1544, after receiving the instructions of his father Antonio, a painter of a confined genius, he exercised himself in copying from Titian, and the best of the national artists. At the age of fifteen years he was taken under the patronage of the Duke of Urbino, and accompanied him to his capital. He afterwards spent eight years in Rome, where he laid a good foundation for his profession, by designing from the antique, copying Michelangiolo and Raffaello; and, in particular, by studying the chiaroscuros of Polidoro. This last was his great model, and next to him came Tintoretto; he being naturally inclined, like them, to animate his figures with a certain freedom of action, and a spirit peculiarly their own. On his return to Venice, he distinguished himself by several works, conducted with singular care and diligence; nor are there wanting professors who have bestowed on him a very high degree of praise, for displaying the excellent maxims of the Roman, united to what was best in the Venetian School. It is observed by Zanetti, that some of his productions were attributed by professors to the hand of Giuseppe del Salviati, whose merit, in point of design and solidity of style, has been already noticed. The whole of these are executed with peculiar facility, a dangerous gift both in painting and in poetry, which this artist possessed in a remarkable degree. Though he made the greatest exertions to bring himself into notice, he was little employed; the post was already occupied by men of consummate ability, by Tintoretto and Paul Veronese; and these monopolized all the most lucrative commissions. Palma, however, obtained the rank of third; chiefly by means of Vittoria, a distinguished sculptor and architect; whose opinion was adopted in the distribution of the labours even of artists themselves. Displeased at the little deference shewn him by Robusti and Paul, he began to encourage Palma, and to assist him also with his advice, so that he shortly acquired a name. We have related a similar instance in regard to Bernini, who brought forward Cortona against Sacchi, at Rome, besides several more, productive of the greatest detriment to the art. So true it is that the same passions prevail in every age, every where pursue the same track, and produce the same results.

Nor was it long before Palma, overwhelmed with commissions, remitted much of his former diligence. In progress of time, he became even yet more careless, until upon the death of his eldest rivals, including Corona, who in his latest works had begun to surpass him, free from competition he asserted unquestioned sway, and despatched his pieces rapidly. His pictures, indeed, might often be pronounced rough draughts, a title bestowed upon them in ridicule by the Cavalier d'Arpino. In order to prevail upon him to produce a piece worthy of his name, it became requisite, not only to allow him the full time he pleased, but the full price he chose to ask, without further reference, except to his own discretion, in which truly he did not greatly abound. Upon such terms he executed that fine picture of San Benedetto, at the church of SS. Cosmo and Damiano, for the noble family of Moro. It resembled many of those he had produced in his best days at Venice, and in particular that celebrated naval battle of Francesco Bembo, placed in the Palazzo Pubblico. Other valuable specimens are found scattered elsewhere, in

## part mentioned by Ridolfi, and in part unknown to him. Such are his

Santa Apollonia, at Cremona, his San Ubaldo and his Nunziata, at Pesaro, and his Invenzione della Croce, at Urbino, a piece abounding in figures, and full of beauty, variety, and expression. His tints are fresh, sweet, and clear, less splendid than those of Paul, but more pleasing than in Tintoretto; and though scantily applied, they are more durable than those of certain foreign pictures more heavily laid on. In the animation of his figures he approaches the two preceding artists, particularly in his more studied works, as he has shewn in his Chastisement of the Serpents, a picture that seems embued with horror. In every other instance he has always sufficient art to please; and it is surprising how a man who led the way to the most corrupt period in Venice, as it has been observed of Vasari at Florence, and of Zuccaro at Rome, could thus exhibit so many attractions, both of nature and of art, calculated to feast the eye, and to fix the soul of the spectator. Both Guercino and Guido were sensible of the power of his pencil; and when examining one of his altarpieces, at the Cappucini, in Bologna, "What a pity," they exclaimed, "that the master of such a pencil should be no more." (Boschini, p. 383.)

In observance of my plan of accompanying each master with his train of followers, I set out with Marco Boschini, a Venetian, who flourished during this same deterioration of a nobler age. He was a pupil to Palma, and has left some memorials of the different professors of the third epoch, not to be met with in any other work. Professing the art of engraving, rather than that of painting, he had, nevertheless, so much merit in the latter, as to approach the manner of Palma, in his picture of the Supper of our Lord, in the Sacristy of San Girolamo; as well as that of Tintoretto, as we gather from a few of his altarpieces in the territory of Padua, and his pictures for private ornament, remaining at Venice, at least as far as I can learn. He was the author of several works recorded in the preface to this work, the most remarkable of which is composed in Quartine, with the following title; and, by this production, he is perhaps best known: "The Chart of pictorial Navigation, a Dialogue between a Venetian senator (a dilettante) and a professor of painting, under the names of Ecelenza and Compare, divided into eight _venti_, or winds, with which the Venetian vessel is borne into the deep Sea of Painting, as its Absolute Mistress, to the confusion of such as do not understand the loadstone and the compass."

Thus, much in the same manner as we judge from the facade of the style of a whole edifice in the gothic taste, the reader may gather, from this very loaded title, the exact nature of Boschini's work. It is, indeed, written in the most verbose style of the Seicentisti; a mixture of unsound reasoning, strange allegory, tame allusions, frivolous conceits invented on every name, and phraseology that surpasses even that of Ciampoli and Melosio; for these at least wrote in the Italian dialect, whereas Boschini protests that he does not pretend to a _foreign idiom_, but to speak like the Venetian people. From this undistinguishing kind of nationality arises his malevolence against Vasari, and the methods of the foreign schools, as well as his exaggerated praise of the Venetian artists, whom he prefers, as we learn from his title page, to all the painters in the world, not merely as respects their manner of colouring, but in point of invention and design. What is worse, he makes no distinction between the fine old painters and the mannerists of his own times, and speaks as if the masters of the former age were still flourishing, and teaching in their schools, or as if the modern possessed the same powers and the same reputation; a gross equivocation into which the tiresome _Compare_, or gossip, is continually falling, and which his credulous Excellency as frequently commends.

If, however, in treating of Vasari, I in some measure excused his

## partialities, in consideration of the prejudices acquired by his

education, which are afterwards with difficulty eradicated; I ought to make use of the same liberality in regard to Boschini, more especially as he possessed fewer opportunities of ridding himself of them, never having visited Rome or Florence, and giving his opinions upon foreign schools, from the hearsay relations of others. It is true that he cites in favour of the Venetians the opinion of many distinguished men; as that of Velasco, who protested to Salvator Rosa, that Raffaello was no longer a favourite with him after having seen Venice; or that of Rubens, who, after spending upwards of six years at Rome to little purpose, formed his style on the models of Titian. Albano likewise regretted that he had not commenced his studies in Venice, preferably to Rome; and Pier da Cortona having seen the works of the Venetian School, cancelled some of his labours, and ornamented afresh two chambers of the Palazzo Pitti, and one in the Casa Barberini. But these authorities, which he adduces along with others, taken chiefly from artists who preferred beauty of colouring to accuracy of design, do not prove much, and might be opposed by other authorities, even of great painters, more particularly English and French, who embraced a contrary opinion. Besides, the panegyrists thus cited by him, did not commend the modern so much as the ancient Venetian painters, so as by no means to possess the weight he would attribute to them. Moreover, in the present day, when so much has been written upon Italian painting, we shall not, on investigating what is to be admired and imitated, and what to be shunned or approved in the examples of the Venetians, appeal to the vain boastings of the sixteenth century, but to the critics of our own times. Still we do not mean to deny, but that the work in question, however strangely written, contains many valuable historical notices, and many pictorial precepts,

## particularly useful to such as cannot aspire to any thing beyond the

character of mere naturalists, incapable of drawing a stroke that does not appear in their model, and content with portraying the dimensions of any kind of head or body, provided they be of the human shape, inventing with infinite difficulty, slow in resolving, and quite incapable of forming a grand history, more especially of battles, of flights, in short of any objects they never saw. This sect, which at that period boasted many followers, and which is not even yet extinct, is there ridiculed in a vein it is impossible to surpass, and would that the party proceeding to the opposite extreme of mannerism, at that time triumphant in Venice, had not met with equal applause! But how difficult is it to observe the golden mean! though the artists of Bologna will point out the way in due time. At present we must return to those of Venice.

Numerous other artists very nearly approached the style of Palma. Boschini enumerates six, whose manner so extremely resembles him, as to impose upon those who have not tact enough to detect the peculiar characteristics of each; (and in Palma there is a mixture of the Roman and Venetian,) consisting of the names of Corona, Vicentino, Peranda, Aliense, Malombra, and Pilotto. The same author extols them as illustrious painters; and truly, besides the splendour of their colouring, they composed upon a magnificent scale, emulating, for the most part, the fire and the striking contrasts that produced such an impression after the time of Titian, executing pictures every way deserving of a place in good collections.

Leonardo Corona, of Murano, who, from a copyist, succeeded in becoming a painter, was the rival of Palma, and nevertheless enjoyed the patronage of Vittoria; whether to keep alive the emulation of the former, or for some other reason, is uncertain. He sometimes prepared models in clay, to discover the best distributions of his chiaroscuro. By aid of these he painted his Annunciation, at SS. Giovanni and Paolo, a work very highly commended, as well as his picture at San Stefano, displaying a grandeur that arrests the eye, and reminds us more of Titian than any other model. In general, however, Corona exhibited more of Tintoretto, if not in his colouring, which in the present day appears to more advantage, at least in many other points. He produced a crucifixion so much in this artist's style, that Ridolfi has defended him with the utmost difficulty from the charge of theft. He availed himself likewise of the engravings of Flemish artists, particularly in the composition of his landscape. He did not long flourish; but left an excellent imitator of his style in Baldassare d'Anna, an artist of Flemish origin, who completed a few of his master's pieces. He also produced some original pieces for the Servi and other churches, which, though inferior to those of Corona in the selection of forms, yet surpass them in the softness, and sometimes in the force of their chiaroscuro.

Andrea Vicentino was, according to some writers, a Venetian, and pupil to Palma; not excelling in point of taste, he was nevertheless very skilful in the handling of his colours, and shewed great power of invention. Being employed in many labours, both within and without the boundaries of Venice, and even in depicting histories of the Republic, which still continue to adorn several halls in the Palazzo Grande, he was one of the most popular artists of his time. He rarely fails to exhibit in his works some perspective, or some figure borrowed, according to the custom of the plagiarists, from the best masters: including even Bassano, an artist of few ideas constantly repeated, and so far less easily pillaged with impunity. At the same time he bestows upon his plagiarisms a beauty of composition, and a general effect that does honour to his talents, applicable to every variety of subject. He could also employ a very delicate, tasteful, and effective pencil, when he chose to exert himself. In his grounds, however, he must have been less successful, many of his paintings being already much defaced. In collections, always more favourable to their duration than public places, we may find several in good preservation, and deserving of much commendation, as we gather from his Solomon Anointed on becoming king of Israel, preserved in the Royal Gallery at Florence. Marco Vicentino, son of Andrea, also acquired some celebrity by his imitations, and more by the name of his father.

Santo Peranda, a scholar of Corona and of Palma, and tolerably well versed in Roman design, having passed some time at Rome, aimed at a diversity of styles. His usual manner a good deal resembles that of Palma, while, in his large histories, which he produced at Venice and at Mirandola, he appears in a more poetical character of his own. Yet he was naturally of a more slow and reflective turn, and more studious of art, qualities that in the decline of age led him to adopt a very delicate and laboured manner. He was not ambitious of equalling his contemporaries in the abundance of his works; his aim was to surpass them in correctness; nor did he any where succeed better in his object than in his Christ taken from the Cross, painted for the church of San Procolo. Among his disciples, Matteo Ponzone, from Dalmatia, more

## particularly distinguished himself, assisting Peranda in his great works

executed at Mirandola. In progress of time he formed an original style, which surpasses in softness that of his master, though not equal to it in point of elegance. He was fond of copying from the life, without attempting much to add to its dignity. His scholar, Gio. Carboncino, pursued his studies at Rome also, where we do not, however, find mention of him,[77] owing probably to his speedy return to Venice. Among the few pieces produced by him for churches, there is a Bto. Angelo, at the Carmini, which has been much commended by Melchiori, and a San Antonio, at La Pieta, mentioned by Guarienti. Two others, named Maffei, of Vicenza, and Zanimberti, of Brescia, will come under consideration in their respective states.

Antonio Vassilacchi, called Aliense, a native of the island of Milo, inherited from the line climate of Greece a genius adapted to confer honour upon the arts, and particularly on works of a vast and imaginative character. Paul Veronese, struck with his first efforts, banished him, with a feeling of jealousy, from his studio, advising him at the same time to confine himself to small pictures. Aliense observing Paul engaged in reviving the examples of Titian, renewed as far as lay in his power those of Tintoretto. He studied casts taken from the antique, designing from them both day and night; he exercised himself in acquiring a knowledge of the human frame, modelled in wax, copied Tintoretto with the utmost assiduity, and, as if wholly to forget what he had learnt from Paul, he sold the designs made at his school. Yet he could not so far divest himself of them, but that in his earliest productions, remaining at the church of Le Vergini, he displayed the manner of Paul. He has been accused by historians of having abandoned this style for one less adapted to his genius; and moreover of having been misled by the innovations of the mannerists. Sometimes, however, he painted with extreme care, as in his Epiphany, for the Council of Ten, though in general he abused the facility of his genius, without fear of risking his credit, inasmuch as his rivals Palma and Corona pursued the same plan. In order better to oppose his great enemy Vittoria, he attached himself to another architect, who possessed much influence, named Girolamo Campagna, the disciple of Sansovino; and he moreover enjoyed the favour of Tintoretto. In this manner Aliense obtained many commissions, both for the public palace and the Venetian churches, besides being engaged in many works for other cities, more especially for Perugia, at S. Pietro, all upon a magnificent scale; yet without acquiring that degree of estimation which the felicity of his genius deserved. He was assisted by Tommaso Dolobella, of Belluno, a good practitioner, and well received in Poland, where he long continued in the service of Sigismond III. In his Life of Aliense, Ridolfi makes mention also of Pietro Mera, a Fleming, whose portrait Aliense painted, as being his friend; but neither from history, nor from his own style, can we gather that he was Aliense's disciple. He resided, and employed himself much in Venice, at SS. Giovanni and Paolo, at La Madonna dell' Orto, and elsewhere: while the judgment pronounced upon him by Zanetti is, that he appeared to have greatly attached himself to the Venetian artists, and to have derived sufficient profit.

Pietro Malombra, a Venetian by birth, deserves almost to be excluded from the list of Palma's disciples, and even from that of the mannerists. If he sometimes deviated from the right path, it must rather be attributed to human error, than to erroneous maxims. Born in a degree of comparative ease, he acquired from education a sense of the value of that excellent axiom, "that honour is better than gain." After employing himself in the studio of Salviati, where he obtained a good knowledge of design, he continued to paint for his own pleasure. But equally intelligent and docile, he never scrupled to bestow the utmost pains to bring his works to a higher degree of perfection, than was the usual practice of his times. Afterwards experiencing a reverse of fortune, he entered upon the art as his profession, and ornamented parts of the Ducal Palace. In his portraits and pictures upon a small scale, he was also very successful. He represented at San Francesco di Paola, various miracles of the saint, in four pictures; and his figures display a precision in their contours, a grace, and an originality which lead us to doubt whether they can belong, not merely to the epoch, but to the school of which we are here treating. Similar specimens he produced for galleries, sometimes enlivening with them his perspective views, in which he possessed equal skill and assiduity. Those in which he exhibited the grand piazza, or the great hall of council, representing in them their respective sacred or civil ceremonies, processions, ingresses, public audiences, great spectacles, to which the place adds an air of grandeur, extorted the plaudits of all ranks.

Girolamo Pilotto occupies the sixth place among those, who, in the opinion of Boschini, are apt to be confounded with Palma. Zanetti is content with observing, that he was a true follower of that style, and that in his works may be recognized the ideas of his master, conducted in a very happy manner. Venice boasts few of his pieces, although we are elsewhere informed that he died at an advanced age. His picture of the Nuptials of the Sea, painted for the public palace, is extolled in high terms by Orlandi, while others have greatly admired his San Biagio, which he produced for the great altar of the Fraglia, in Rovigo; a picture displaying great sweetness of manner, and signed with his name.

To attempt a full list of the rest of the mannerists, who followed more or less the composition of Palma, would only weary the reader with a repetition of names. From these I select, therefore, merely a few of the most remarkable in Venice and its vicinity, having to make mention of others in the respective schools of terra firma. Girolamo Gamberati, a scholar of Porta, acquired the art of colouring from Palma, upon whose model he painted at Le Vergini, and other places. It is still suspected, however, that the character displayed in his pieces, must have come from the hand of Palma, whose friendship occasionally assisted him. In the Guide by Zanetti, we find mention of a Jacomo Alberelli, a disciple of Palma, who painted the Baptism of Christ at the church of the Ognisanti. There is a slight allusion to him in Ridolfi, by whom he is entitled Albarelli; and he adds, that he produced the bust for the tomb of his master, in whose service he lived during thirty-four years. Camillo Ballini is also recorded among the Palmese mannerists, whether a native of Venice or of the state is not certain. In his manner he is pleasing, though neither spirited nor vigorous; and he was likewise employed in the Ducal Palace. Boschini moreover extols Bianchi, Dimo, and Donati, all Venetians, and his own friends; but I would omit them, finding no commendations in any other work. I omit also Antonio Cecchini da Pesaro, whose age, as reported in the index, cannot be brought to agree with the period of Palma's professorship.

In Trevigi, Ascanio Spineda, a noble of that city, is held in some estimation, and included among the disciples of Palma; from whom he is sometimes with difficulty distinguished. One of the most exact in point of design, he also colours with much sweetness and grace of tints; an artist deserving to be known in his native district, which abounds with the best of his works. He employed himself there, for many churches, succeeding perhaps better at San Teonisto than at any other place. No one surpassed him in the number of his pieces for public exhibition, if we except indeed one Bartolommeo Orioli, who, about the same period, displayed the talent of a good practiser, though with less repute. This last belonged to that numerous tribe who, in Italy, were ambitious of uniting in themselves the powers of poetry and painting; but who, not having received sufficient polish either in precept or in art, gave vent to their inspiration in their native place, covering the columns with sonnets, and the churches with pictures, without exciting the envy of the adjacent districts. Father Federici praises him for his portraits; a valued ornament, at that period, of large pictures, and well introduced by Orioli, in the church of St. Croce, where a numerous procession of the people of Trevigi appears, taken from the life. Burchiellati, a contemporary historian of the place, adds, as a companion to the foregoing, the name of Giacomo Bravo, a painter of figures and ornamental works, which are still held in some degree of estimation.

Paolo Piazza, of Castelfranco, who afterwards became a Capuchin by the name of Father Cosimo, is enumerated by Baglione among the good practisers, and the pupils of Palma. Yet he bears little resemblance to him, having formed a style of his own, not powerful indeed, but free and pleasing, which attracted the eye of Paul V., the Emperor Rodolph II., and the Doge Priuli; all of whom availed themselves of his ability. Both the capital and the state boast many of his pieces in fresco, and some altarpieces: nor is Rome without them, where, in the Palazzo Borghese, he painted those very fanciful ornaments in friezes, for various chambers, as well as histories of Cleopatra for the Great Hall, and in the Campidoglio at the Conservatori, a celebrated picture of Christ taken from the Cross. While residing in Rome he attended to the instruction of Andrea Piazza, his nephew, who in course of time entered the service of the Duke of Lorraine, by whom he had the honour of being made a cavalier. Upon returning to his own state, he produced his great picture of the Marriage of Cana, for the church of Santa Maria; one of the best pieces that adorn the place.

Matteo Ingoli, a native of Ravenna, resided from early youth, until the period of his immature decease, in the city of Venice. He sprung from the school of Luigi del Friso, and proposed for himself, says Boschini, Paul Veronese and Palma as his models. If I mistake not, however, he aspired to a more solid, but less beautiful style, as far as we can gather from one of his pictures at the Corpus Domini, from his Supper of our Lord at San Apollinare, and from others of his works; in all which we trace the hand of precision and assiduity. He was also a good architect, and terminated his days during one of those awful periods in which the Venetian state was visited by the plague, adding another instance of loss to the fine arts, similar to those which we have noticed in other schools.

Another victim to the same contagion was Pietro Damini, of Castelfranco, who, it is averred, had he survived a little longer, would have displayed the powers of a Titian; an expression we are to receive as somewhat hyperbolical. He acquired the art of colouring from Gio. Batista Novelli, a good scholar of Palma, who, more for amusement than for gain, ornamented Castelfranco and the adjacent places with several well executed pieces. Damini next devoted much time to the theory of the art, and to the study of the best engravings, upon which he modelled his design. By this method, it is said, that he freed himself from the shackles of the mannerists, though it gave to his colours a degree of crudity; and in truth this is a defect that strikes the eye in many of his productions. Numerous specimens remain at Padua, where he established himself at the age of twenty; several at Vicenza, at Venice, and still more in Castelfranco, where his altarpiece of the Blessed Simone Stoch at Santa Maria, is highly estimated, as well as the Tabernacle surrounded with twelve histories, from both the Old and New Testaments; a novel idea, and executed with real taste. His style is elegant and pleasing, but not uniformly excellent. He is observed to have frequently changed his manner, in aspiring to reach a higher degree of perfection in his art. We might, in some instances, pronounce him an excellent naturalist; in others more of an adept in ideal beauty, as we gather from his picture of the Crucifixion at Santo di Padova, which displays rare beauty and harmony combined, though he did not live long enough to produce others of equal merit. He died early, and at a short interval his brother Giorgio, seized by the same disorder, followed him to the tomb, an artist excellent in portrait, and pictures with small figures.

Subsequent to this period, (1630, 1631,) in which the deaths of a number of artists occur, the traces of the old Venetian style, in its best school, began still more to disappear; and the Venetian paintings produced after the middle of the century, display for the most part a different character. It is remarked by Signor Zanetti, that several foreign artists established themselves about this period in the city, and held sway over the art at their own discretion. Attached to various schools, and chiefly admirers of Caravaggio, in his plebeian manner, they agreed amongst themselves in nothing, perhaps, except two points. One of these was, to consult truth in a greater degree than had before been done; an extremely useful idea to render art, now degenerated into a paltry trade, once more real art. But the plan was not well executed by many, who were either incapable of selecting what was natural, or of ennobling it when found; while, at all events, they were too apt to mannerize it with an excessive use of strong shades. The other plan was to avail themselves of very dark and oily grounds, which were as favourable to despatch as injurious to the duration of paintings, as we have more than once had occasion to observe. Indeed this had so far come into vogue, in most places, as even to infect, in some degree, the great school of the Caracci. Hence it has arisen that in many of those pictures the lights only have remained durable, and the masses of shade, the middle tints having disappeared; insomuch that posterity has distinguished this class of artists by the new appellation of the sect of _Tenebrosi_, or the dark colourists. Boschini, who first put forth his _Carta del Navegar Pitoresco_ in 1660, is very severe, as we have before stated, upon the sect of mere naturalists, stigmatizing them generally, and upbraiding them for coming to seek their bread at Venice; while, at the time that they employed themselves in crying down the taste, the spirit, and the rapid hand of the Venetians, their own productions bore ample witness to the pitiable efforts by which they were produced. He gives no names; but it is not difficult to gather from the whole his aversion to the Roman and Florentine artists, of whom we shall shortly give an account. Upon these he certainly does not bestow encomiums, as he does upon all others at that period engaged in Venice, his commendations being sometimes extremely vague, and at others extravagant.

If we wish to avoid forming erroneous judgments, then, we must abandon his Painter's Chart of Navigation, and attach ourselves to the _Pittura Veneziana_, a very different guide to that of Boschini. In this the author takes care to distinguish, with the precision of a good historian, such as were followers of Caravaggio, like Saraceni; excellent pupils of Guercino, like Triva; fine colourists, however much accustomed to copy rather than invent, like Strozza, and though less select, his scholar Langetti; to whom we may add a third Genoese artist, who flourished during those times at Venice, though he left no public specimen of his labours; this was Niccolo Cassana. Of these, as well as of a few others, I shall treat in the schools to which they respectively belong. Several other names are omitted by the author, either on account of such artists having produced little in the city, or from his being unacquainted with their education and the place of their birth. Among these is Antonio Beverense, an artist who painted for the college of the Nunziata, the Marriage of the Virgin Mary, a picture that displays accuracy of design, superiority of forms, and a very fine chiaroscuro. He was, for the most part, a disciple of the Bolognese, and from his united taste and diligence fully deserving of being more generally known. I suspect, however, that he ought to be named a native of Bavaria, and to the circumstance of his speedy return into his own country, we are, perhaps, to ascribe the little notice he seems to have attracted. Returning to the authority of Zanetti, we find, that besides giving a favourable opinion of the authors just mentioned, he bestows equal commendation upon those who are soon to follow; explaining their respective excellences and defects, and detecting such as belonged to the class of _Tenebrosi_ through their own fault, and such as became so owing to the bad priming of those times; in treating of whom I follow the path he has pointed out.

Pietro Ricchi was an artist who resided for a long period at Venice, where he left a great number of works, and is generally known by the name of il Lucchese. It remains doubtful whether he deserves to be accused of having introduced the oily and obscure method of painting already mentioned. It is at least certain, that besides having made use of bad priming, he was in the habit of covering his canvass with oil whenever he applied his pencil, which has occasioned the loss of so many of his works that once produced an excellent effect, but which are now either defaced or perished. This is the case with those that remained in Venice, in Vicenza, Brescia, Padua, and Udine; some of which, indeed, are not greatly to be regretted; the production of mere mechanic skill, and that not always executed correctly. A few, however, are conducted with much care, as we find in his S. Raimond, at the Dominicans of Bergamo, and his Epiphany at the patriarchal church in Venice, both highly deserving of commemoration, no less for the union of their colours, than for the taste displayed in the whole composition. We may easily perceive that they are the productions of a scholar, or at least of an imitator of Guido; of one accustomed to consult the pictures of Tintoretto, and of the most celebrated Venetians. Another artist equal to Ricchi in the handling of his pencil, and more accurate in the union of his colours, will be found in Federigo Cervelli of Milan, who, on opening his school at a somewhat later period in Venice, obtained the celebrated Ricci for one of his pupils. At the school of San Teodoro, we meet with a history piece of that saint, from the hand of Cervelli; and in this we may trace all the features of the same style, that was afterwards continued by Ricci, who added dignity, however, to its forms, and executed them upon canvass and upon grounds better calculated to bear the effects of age.

The other artists to be enumerated in the same class, are Francesco Rosa, a pupil rather than follower of Cortona, for an account of whom we must refer the reader to the fifth book of the fifth volume; and Giovanni Batista Lorenzetti, whose composition, bold, rapid, and magnificent, displays a powerful and correct hand. The merit of the second is conspicuous in his frescos, exhibited at Santa Anastasia, in his native city of Verona, for which he received twelve hundred ducats, including only the decoration of the chapel. Add to these the name of Ruschi, or Rusca, a Roman, and a disciple of Caravaggio in his forms, and of his age in the mixture of his colours. He was wholly unknown at Rome, though he acquired some degree of reputation in the cities of Venice, of Vicenza, and of Trevigi. His paintings are admitted into collections, where several of his oblong pieces are to be met with in pretty good preservation. Contemporary with him was Girolamo Pellegrini, a native, of the same place, not mentioned in the Guide of Rome, but commemorated in that of Venice for some works, chiefly executed in fresco upon a large scale, in which he appears neither a very select, various, nor spirited painter, though of a sufficiently elevated character. Bastiano Mazzoni, a Florentine, is another artist unknown in his native city, belonging to the class of the naturalists, though possessed of a certain delicacy, roundness of style, and ease of handling. He was also an excellent architect, of whose talents the Cavalier Liberi availed himself in the erection of his fine palace at Venice, which appears to exceed the fortune of a painter. Count Ottaviano Angarano, a Venetian noble, if he did not altogether avoid the style then current, avoided at least its extravagance; and the Nativity which he placed at San Daniele, confers upon him double honour, having been both painted and engraved by his hand. Stefano Pauluzzi, a citizen of Venice, has been enumerated among the best belonging to this sect, if indeed he is to be included in it, as the deterioration of his pictures may be rather attributed to the badness of his grounds than to the artist. Niccolo Renieri Mabuseo also flourished at the same period, an artist, who at Rome, under Manfredi, a follower of Caravaggio, formed a taste partaking of his early Flemish and of his Italian education; very pleasing in the opinion of Zanetti, and in general displaying much strength of hand. He had four daughters who inherited their father's talents, all of whose productions were highly admired in Venice. Two of these, of the name of Angelica and Anna, remained with their parent; Clorinda entered into an union with Vecchia, and Lucrezia with Daniel Vandych, a Frenchman, who afterwards entered into the service of the Duke of Mantua, as the keeper of his gallery of pictures; himself a fine portrait painter, and by no means despicable in his histories. To his I add the name of D. Ermanno Stroifi, a Paduan, first a pupil, and an excellent imitator of Prete the Genoese, and afterwards of Titian though occasionally, owing to an excessive attention to the chiaroscuro, he deviated too much from the right path. We are informed by Boschini that he travelled for the purpose of observing other schools, and that on returning to Venice, he still continued to rise in the estimation of the Venetians. A Madonna from his hand is to be seen at the great altar of the Carmini in that city; and in Padua, his Pieta, placed at San Tommaso Cantuariense. I conclude this list with one Matteo, a Florentine artist, not commemorated in his own state, from the circumstance of having resided abroad; better known by the name of Matteo da' Pitocchi. He displayed most talent in his representation of Mendicants, heads of which class are to be met with in Venice, in Verona, in Vicenza, and elsewhere, as well as several burlesques and other fanciful pieces, in the galleries of many Italian nobles. He painted likewise for churches, more particularly in Padua, where he most probably died; and the Serviti are in possession of some on a larger scale, designed in the character of a mere naturalist. These names we trust will be found sufficient, however various and unequal both in point of style and merit, as affording examples of the taste of that age.

But inasmuch as it is difficult, as I have before observed, for an entire age to become wholly corrupt, so among the mannerists, who mark the character of this epoch, there nourished some good imitators of Titian, of Paul Veronese, and of Raffaello himself, both in the capital and its adjacent provinces. In the last, indeed, they were more numerous, because the artists of the terra firma did not so greatly abound in those masterpieces of the art, of which the Venetians themselves were enabled so easily to become the plagiarists, to the serious deterioration of the art. In the first rank then of supporters of the solid style, I must mention Giovan Contarino, who flourished in the time of Palma, a companion of Malombra, and an exact imitator of Titian's method. He did not always succeed in improving and embellishing the nature which he copied, though, at the same time, he displayed a soundness of taste that was truly that of Titian. He shewed exquisite skill in his foreshortening from above (di sotto in su), and in the church of San Francesco di Paola, he exhibited a Resurrection in the entablature, or ceiling, along with other mysteries and figures, so beautifully coloured, so distinct, and so finely expressed, as to be considered some of the most perfect of which the city can boast. He employed himself much for collections, even extending to Germany, by which he obtained from the Emperor Rodolph II., the collar of the order of cavaliers. His favourite subjects were such as he drew from mythology, being possessed of sufficient learning to treat them with classic propriety, and of these, in the Barbarigo collection, I saw a considerable number. He was so extremely accurate in his portraits, that on sending home one which he had taken of Marco Dolce, his dogs, the moment it appeared, began to fawn upon it, mistaking it for their master. His fame was nevertheless eclipsed in portrait by Tiberio Tinelli, at first his scholar, afterwards an imitator of Leandro Bassano, and raised to the rank of cavalier by the King of France. Pietro da Cortona, on beholding one of his portraits, exclaimed that Tiberio had not merely infused into it the whole soul of the original, but added his own also. I have met with several at Rome, bearing a very high price, and still more are to be seen in the Venetian state. Sometimes they are left unfinished, at the desire of the parties for whom they were taken, in order to diminish their price; sometimes they are thrown into an historical character; and a Venetian Lord, for instance, will appear as Marc Antony--his wife, as Cleopatra. Many of this artist's pieces for private ornament, of the portrait size, are very highly estimated: they are alternately borrowed from scripture and from fable. Such is that of his _Iris_, belonging to the Conti Vicentini, at Vicenza, simple in point of composition, very natural and pleasing; and what is still more surprising, quite original. He did not display equal facility in more copious compositions, requiring a larger portion of time and leisure than he ever enjoyed, in order to leave behind him a work which could give him full satisfaction.

Succeeding him, appears Girolamo Forabosco, a distinguished portrait painter, of Venetian origin according to Orlandi, though believed by the Paduans, to have been one of their fellow citizens. Two of the most celebrated schools contended for the honour of adding him to their respective ranks. He flourished in the time of Boschini, who bestowed upon him and Liberi the precedency over all other Venetians of the age. In order better to commend him in the spirit of his age, he puns upon his name, declaring Forabosco one of those who emerged _fuor del bosco_, or out of the wood, into full day; in other words that he rose out of obscurity into considerable note. We are to forgive similar conceits upon the part of Boschini, in consideration of the notices he handed down to us; and we may add likewise with Zanetti, that Forabosco possessed a noble and penetrating genius; a genius delighting the professed artist by its display of judgment; arresting the observer by its beauty; and which unites sweetness with refinement, beauty with force, studious in every part, but particularly in the airs of its heads, that appear endued with life. To form an adequate idea of these, we ought not so much to direct our inquiries to churches, which rarely boast any of his altarpieces, as to those collections which preserve his portraits; his half-length figures of saints, and his little history pieces, of which three are recorded in the catalogue of the Dresden gallery. Resembling Forabosco in diligence and delicacy of finish, though inferior to him in genius, we may mention his pupil Pietro Bellotti. By some he is reproached for his minuteness and dryness of style, which leads him to distinguish almost every hair, though always an exact and faithful transcriber of nature. Boschini considers him in the light of a prodigy, for having succeeded in uniting to so much diligence, a most exquisite delicacy in his tints, to a degree never before known. His compositions, more particularly his portraits and his caricatures, which are to be met with in galleries, are held in much esteem. Several I have seen in different places, even out of the limits of the state; two of them very excellent--portraits of an old man and an old woman, in possession of the Cavalier Melzi, at Milan, and such as are not to be exceeded by the most polished and exquisite specimens of Flemish art.

At the same period flourished the Cavalier Carlo Ridolfi, a native of Vicenza, but who received his education and distinguished himself at Venice. His natural good sense led him to shun the peculiar style of his times, no less in writing than in painting; and we may observe the same character that is displayed in his "Lives of the Venetian Painters," written with equal fidelity and judgment, preserved also in his pictures. Thus his _Vizitazione_, painted for the church of the Ognissanti at Venice, has been much extolled; a piece that exhibits some novelty in the adaptation of the colours; a fine relief, and exactness in every part. Other specimens of him are to be met with in public places, both in Venice and throughout the state; but a great part of his productions were for private persons, consisting of portraits, half-length figures, and historical pieces. Ridolfi imbibed excellent principles of the art from Aliense, which he afterwards improved in Vicenza and Verona, by copying the best models he could find, and attending to perspective, to the belles lettres, and to other pursuits best calculated to form a learned artist. Such he likewise appears in the two volumes of his "Lives," which are at present extremely rare, and deserving of republication, either with the plates which I heard were still in existence at Bassano, or without them, since it is no very serious loss after all to remain ignorant of the features of celebrated men, provided we become acquainted with their virtues. Upon a comparison of Ridolfi's style of writing with that of Boschini, we might suppose that these authors flourished at two different epochs, though they were very nearly contemporary. Bayle's observation, indeed, may be considered correct, as applied to them; that there exists a certain mental, as well as physical epidemic; and as, in the last, every individual is not seized with the disorder, so, in the former, good sense, as evinced in thinking and in writing, does not become altogether extinct. Thus the Cav. Carlo, as I before noticed, was not only a good writer, but one of the best biographers of artists we have. Not that he was wholly exempt from every kind of grammatical error, any more than Baldinucci himself, though one of the della Crusca academicians; but he knew how to avoid errors of judgment, into which others fell; such as relating old stories, fit only to amuse children when they first begin to draw eyes and ears; making inquisition into the life and manners of every artist, and wasting time in long preambles, episodes, and moral reflections, quite out of place. On the contrary he is precise, rapid, and eager to afford fresh information for his readers in a small space, with the exception of quoting largely sometimes from the poets. His pictorial maxims are just; his complaints against Vasari always in a moderate tone, and his descriptions of paintings and of grand compositions very exact, and displaying great knowledge, both of mythology and history. He concludes the work with an account of his life, in which he complains of the envy of rivals, and the ignorance of the great, too often combining together to trample upon real merit. His epitaph, as given by Sansovino, a contemporary writer, and afterwards by Zanetti, refers the year of his decease to 1658. Boschini, on the contrary, in his Carta, page 509, speaks of him as one of the living authors in 1660, in which year his book was given to the world. I am inclined to think that those verses in which Ridolfi is commended, were the production of Boschini while the former was still living, and that after his death he neglected to retouch them.

Two others, among the best of these imitators of a more solid taste, are Vecchia and Loth, fully entitled as much as the rest to the rank they hold. Pietro Vecchia sprung from the school of Padovanino, but he did acquire altogether his style, most probably because Padovanino, like the Caracci, gave an individual direction to the talents of his pupils, in the path he judged best adapted to their success. The genius of Vecchia was not at all calculated for lighter subjects. He had imbibed from his master an admiration of the ancients, as well as the art of imitating them; and with these principles he arrived at such a degree of excellence, that several of his pictures pass for those of Giorgione, of Licini, and even of Titian. It is true, that by dint of copying and exactly imitating old paintings, much darkened by time, he contracted the habit of colouring with considerable dulness of lights, affording an example for every young artist, that he should learn to tinge with lively colours, previous to taking copies of similar pictures. For though he, indeed, acquired the colouring of the ancients, he added neither much variety nor much choice of countenances; and he still remained a naturalist, limited in his ideas, and more inclined towards the burlesque than the serious. Some of his best productions consist of pictures for private ornament; of youths armed, or equipped and ornamented with plumes, in the manner of Giorgione, though not without some degree of caricature. One of these, an astrologer telling their fortune to some soldiers, is in possession of the senator Rezzonico at Rome, altogether of so beautiful a character that Giordano painted a companion to it; a little picture quite in the same taste. But although his humourous pieces please us in some, they disgust us in many of his other subjects, and more particularly in the Passion of our Saviour; a sacred mystery, in which the spectator ought never to be presented with cause for mirth. But Vecchia seemed to forget this, and introduces, like Callot, certain caricatures among his sacred pieces, of which specimens are to be seen in the church of Ognissanti at Venice; in possession of the Conti Bevilacqua at Verona, and in other places. In other points, with a style rather strong and loaded with shade than pleasing, he shewed himself an excellent artist, both in his naked parts and his draperies; which he designed and coloured at the same time in the academies. His fleshes are dark red, his handling easy, his colour thick and heavy, the effects of his light new and studied, and his whole taste so far from any degree of mannerism, and of such a composition, that to any one unversed in pictorial history, he would appear to have flourished at least two ages before his real time. Melchiori bestows

## particular commendation upon him for his talents in restoring old

pictures; and conjectures that he, in this way, acquired the appellation of Vecchia, his family name being, as we have noted in the index, that of _Muttoni_. He instructed several pupils in the art, none of whom pursued their master's career. Agostino Litterini, and Bartolommeo his son, were among these, both artists well known in Venice and the islands, and both distinguished for clearness and boldness of style, though the latter surpassed his father in this way. A specimen of his altarpieces at San Paterniano, displays an imitator of Titian, and of the better age. Melchiori likewise gives the reputation of an excellent artist to his daughter Caterina, though commendations of this sort ought always to be understood in reference to the time in which the artists flourished. The same reasoning might apply also to politics. The title of your Excellency used once to be applied to minor sovereigns, but it has since become applicable also to the great officers and ministers of state.

Gian Carlo Loth, an artist from Monaco, resided during a long period, and subsequently died, at Venice, in the year 1698, aged sixty-six years, as we find written in his epitaph. Both Orlandi and Zanetti are mistaken in giving him as a scholar to Caravaggio, who died before Carlo was born. It is probable, however, that he acquired his strong and loaded manner of composition, and his exact representation of nature without ennobling it, from the study of Caravaggio's pictures. And if he were really the pupil, as is supposed, of Liberi, he failed to make himself master of the lively and ideal character of that school; nor did he perhaps derive any thing from it, but a certain rapidity of hand, and an elevation of manner that distinguished him from the naturalists of his time. He took a rank among the first four painters of his age, all of whom bore the name of Carlo, as I have elsewhere observed. He was much employed in Germany for the emperor Leopold I., as well as in Italy for the churches, and still more for different collections. Many cabinet pictures from his hand are to be met with in every state, in the style of Caravaggio and Guercino, with histories; of which kind is the dead Abel, so much praised in the royal gallery at Florence. One in the best preservation I have seen, is to be found at Milan; a picture of Lot inebriated, in the Trivulzi palace, celebrated among men of taste as a museum of antiquities; newly arranged by the present young and accomplished marquis, and forming a collection not unworthy of a royal house. Daniele Seiter, a fine colourist, to whom we shall again allude, was instructed in the art by Loth, during a period of twelve years. He was distinguished both in Rome and at Turin; and was succeeded by Ambrogio Bono, one of the best disciples formed by the same master in Venice, where he left a variety of works, all executed in the taste he had so early imbibed.

Other artists, about the same period, flourished in Venice, who by dint of imitating the most approved models, and also through their own talents, obtained easy access into the most choice collections. Jean Lys, from Oldenburg, came early among these, bearing along with him the style of Golzio. But, on beholding the Venetian and Roman schools, he adopted an exceedingly graceful style, partaking of the Italian in its design, and of the Flemish in its tints. He chiefly produced figures upon a middle scale, such as his Prodigal Son, in the royal museum at Florence; or of smaller dimensions, as in his various little pictures of village sports and combats, with similar subjects, in the Flemish mode of composition. Yet he produced a few pictures for churches, like his St. Peter, in the act of resuscitating Tabitha, at the Filippini, in Fano; and his more celebrated San Girolamo, at the Theatini, in Venice, where he died. Valentino le Febre, from Brussels, is a name omitted by Orlandi; while his very numerous engravings of Paul Veronese, and of the best Venetian artists, are ascribed by him to another artist of the same name. He painted little; and always pursued the track of Paul Veronese, of whom he was one of the most successful imitators and copyists known. His countenances bear no stamp of a foreign origin, and his colours none of the bad character of his age; while his touches are always strong, without offending our taste. His smaller pieces are full of research and finish; though he has less merit upon a larger scale, and is occasionally wanting in point of composition. We meet with another distinguished imitator of Paul, in Sebastiano Bombelli, from Udine; Guercino's scholar in the outset, and subsequently a fine copyist of the best works of Paul Veronese, which are scarcely to be distinguished from the copies he took; until he gave up the more inventive branches of the art, and devoted his attention to portraits. Here he restored the lost wonders of a former age; his portraits being remarkable for strong likeness, vivacity, and truth of colouring, both in the drapery and the fleshes. In his painting there is a happy union of the Venetian and the Bolognese manner; and in some specimens of his portraits that I have seen, he seems to have preferred the delicacy of Guido to the vigour of his own master. He was esteemed also beyond Italy; he was employed by the archduke Joseph at Inspruck; took the portraits of several German electors; of the King of Denmark, and of the emperor Leopold I., by whom he was largely honoured and rewarded. It is a matter of regret, that, owing to a peculiar varnish of pitch and gum,[78] which at the time produced a good effect, a great portion of his pictures should have become obscured; and that many by the more ancient masters, which he wished to restore, should have been altogether blemished or destroyed like his own. Among the imitators of Titian, of Tintoretto, and of Paul, one Giacomo Barri is likewise mentioned by Melchiori; though he is the sole authority we have upon the point. It is now easy to meet with his engravings in aqua fortis, but not with his pictures. He was also the author of a little work entitled by him _Viaggio Pittoresco d'Italia_, which has become somewhat rare, owing, I imagine, to its small dimensions, and to the researches made after it by those who preserve a series of pictorial works; for the rest, his authority is of a middling character.

In the changes which produced such an alteration in the state of painting at Venice, several cities of the provinces also in some measure partook, but in others many eminent geniuses arose, capable of resisting the moral contagion that invaded the capital, and of barring its entrance into their native provinces. The school of the Friuli, after the death of Pomponio Amalteo and Sebastiano Seccante, owing to the mediocrity of Sebastian's followers, or of the younger branches of his family, had declined, as we before stated, from its original splendour. It numbered, indeed, other pupils by different masters; limited in point of invention, dry in design, and somewhat hard in their colouring. None appeared capable of restoring the art, and succeeded only in furnishing the city with works reasonably well executed, more or less, and borrowed from familiar models. To this class belong Vincenzo Lugaro, mentioned by Ridolfi for his altarpiece of San Antonio, at the Grazie in Udine; Giulio Brunelleschi, whose _Nunziata_ in one of the Fraternities presents a good imitation of the style of Pellegrino; and Fulvio Griffoni, who received a commission from the city to produce a picture of the Miracle of the Manna, to be placed in the public palace near the Supper of Amalteo. Add to these Andrea Petreolo, who ornamented the panels of the organ, in the dome of his native town of Venzone, as well on the interior, where, in a very beautiful manner, he exhibited the histories of San Geronimo and San Eustachio, as on the outside, where, surrounded with fine architecture, he represented the Parable of the wise and foolish Virgins. Without dwelling upon the names of Lorio and Brugno, of whom there remain but few works, which obtained little celebrity, we shall newly record the name of Eugenio Pini, the last it may be said of those artists who but slightly addicted themselves to foreign methods. He flourished about the middle of the seventeenth century, was frequently employed at Udine, and in his own state; extremely diligent and skilled in every office of a painter, if we except, perhaps, his want of a more perfect harmony of tints. The Repose of Egypt, in the dome of Palma, and his San Antonio in that of Gemona, are pronounced by the Abbate Boni among his noblest productions.

During the period the latter flourished at Udine, Antonio Carnio, a native of a town of Portogruaro, came to establish himself in the city. Instructed in the art by his own father, a very able artist, he subsequently appears, as far as we may judge from his style, to have studied the works of Paul Veronese and Tintoretto. Next to Pordenone, the Friuli perhaps never produced a finer genius; equally original in all the branches of historic painting, bold in his design, happy in his colouring, more particularly of his fleshes; expressive in every variety of passion; and all these comprehended within the limits of a grand naturalist, though he frequently became a mannerist, in order to expedite his works. Several of his best productions are, at this period, lost to Udine, owing to the fault of the artist who retouched them; and among the most studied and the best preserved, there still remains his San Tommaso di Villanuova, adorning an altar of Santa Lucia. He produced likewise several histories for private ornament, half-length figures, portraits and heads in caricature, for which he displayed a peculiar talent, and which still exist at Udine. Both the city and province are well supplied with his pieces, few of which, however, are to be found coloured with strength of handling or very highly finished. He was never without numerous commissions, even though confining his talents to the Friuli; but either from want of prudence, or some other reason, he nevertheless died in penury near Portogruaro. A few of his pictures in that place are still pointed out; but those seen at San Francesco, among which are the Washing the Disciples' Feet, and our Lord's Last Supper, said to have been executed by him in 1604, either bear a false date, or are rather to be attributed to his father. For, at that period, Antonio could not have produced them, since he was still alive in the year 1680; and on this point we ought to admit the authority of Pavona, at one time his pupil, from whom Guarienti received his notices of Carnio, which he inserted in the Abecedario. This artist must not be confounded with another Carnio, named Giacomo, who flourished posterior to him, and was much inferior to Antonio in point of merit.

Sebastiano Bombelli was born at Udine, as I just observed, though he studied and resided at other places. He left no specimens of his art in the Friuli, if we except a few portraits and pieces for private ornament, along with some heads or busts of saints; while his altarpiece of the Redeemer upon the Cross, between some saints, in the parochial church of Tricesimo, is considered a very rare piece. He had a brother of the name of Raphael, whose labours were more abundant, but the whole of them, together with his name, were confined within the limits of the Friuli.

While the art thus declined in these parts of the Venetian dominions, it appeared equally to revive in others; from whence it arose, that though greatly diminished in the capital, the glory of the state did not become wholly extinct. The city of Verona was its greatest support; for in addition to having given birth to Ridolfi, to Turchi, and Ottoni, all of whom did honour to their country, it produced likewise Dario Varotari, who having established himself at Padua, laid the foundation of a very flourishing school. He exercised his talents under Paul Veronese, at Verona, to whom he has occasionally some resemblance, though his taste appears to have been chiefly formed upon other models. His design is very chaste, by no means an uncommon acquisition among the Veronese; though he shews some traces of timidity in the method of some of those pupils of the _quattro-centisti_,[79] who, whilst they draw their contours fuller than those of their masters, appear as if they were afraid in every line of departing too far from the models before them; and this he has exemplified in the pictures of San Egidio at Padua. In others, conducted at a more mature age, he seems to have aspired at imitating more modern artists, sometimes Paul Veronese, and sometimes Titian himself in point of design, particularly in the airs of the heads; although his colours, however true and harmonious, can boast neither the Venetian strength nor beauty. Dario painted in Venice, at Padua, and in the Polesine; yet he produced little in reference to the age in which he flourished. He educated several pupils, among whom was Gio. Batista Bissoni, whose life has been given us by Ridolfi. This last was also a scholar of Apollodoro, named di Porcia, a portrait painter of much celebrity, and the style which he formed for himself is exactly that of a good painter of portraits, with which he is fond of filling his pictures, clothing them in the manner of his time. We may observe this in his Miracles of San Domenico, placed in the church belonging to his order, drawn upon a large scale, as well as in other pieces, scattered throughout the city in almost every street.

We must not omit the name of his daughter, Chiara Dario, a lady extolled by Ridolfi for the beauty of her portraits, and fully deserving of the honour conferred upon her by the grand dukes of Tuscany, who placed one of herself in their noble series of painters, where it is still to be seen. Boschini seems to be of opinion that she gave public instructions in the same manner as the fair Sirani of Bologna; and that she initiated in the art Caterina Taraboti and Lucia Scaligeri, a niece of Bartolommeo. Yet the passage referring to this, (p. 526) in the Venetian poet, is somewhat ambiguous, and he perhaps only meant to assert that these two young women pursued the same career. But the chief honour and crown of Dario's reputation, was his own son and pupil, named Alessandro, who, though left an orphan at an early age, shortly after set out for Venice, where he soon began to distinguish himself. He there received the name of Padovanino, which he retained at an advanced age, and by which he is now generally known.

He first studied Titian's works in fresco, such as he found in Padua, and his copies still continue to attract the admiration of the greatest professors. In Venice he persevered in his assiduous attention to the same incomparable master, penetrating so far by degrees into his peculiar character, as to be preferred by many to any of Titian's other disciples. But comparison is invariably disagreeable, and I am inclined to think that those who personally received from the lips of great artists a few brief and sound rules, as to what ought to be avoided or achieved in order best to resemble them, are entitled to a high degree of respect: all the speculations of the finest genius upon their works are not half so valuable; for the second century is fast passing away, since the oral tradition of the best colourists wholly ceased, and we have been attempting to attain their method, in which we cannot succeed. Padovanino was always equal to the task of handling any subject that had before been treated by Titian; his softer ones with grace, his more powerful with strength, his heroic pieces with dignity; in which last, if I mistake not, he surpassed every other disciple of this master. "Le donne, i cavalier, l'armi, e gli Amori," these, and let us add to them his boys, were the favourite subjects of his pencil, which he exhibited to most advantage, and which he most frequently introduced into his compositions. And he knew how to treat landscape as well; which, in some of his small pictures, he has succeeded in admirably. He was familiar with the science of the sotto in su,[80] of which he gave the most favourable specimen in the church of San Andrea di Bergamo, in three admirable histories of that saint. It is a work embellished with beautiful architecture, and replete with graces in every part. He has approached equally near his model in the sobriety of his composition, in the very difficult use of his middle tints, in his contrasts, in the colour of his fleshes, in smoothness and facility of hand. But Titian was still to remain unequalled in his art; and Varotari is not a little inferior to him in animation, and in the expression of truth. Nor can I believe that his method of preparing his canvass, and of colouring it, was the same as that pursued by Titian's disciples, many of his pieces being much darkened, with the shades either deepened or altered. This is very perceptible even in Varotari's Dead Christ, at Florence, a painting which the prince not very long since purchased for his gallery there.

In other points he appears to me to have observed the same method, in regard to his model, as Poussin, who aimed at Raffaello's manner, without reaching it, either from want of ability, or from a dread of falling into servility. His masterpiece is said to be the Supper of Cana, a piece that has been engraved by Patina, among the _Select Paintings_. It was formerly in Padua, and is now at Venice in the Chapter of La Carita; with few figures in proportion to the place; a rich display of costume and ornament; dogs that appear like those of Paul, full of life; grand attendance, women of the most exquisite forms warmed with more ideal beauty than those of Titian, and drawn in the most graceful attitudes. Still it is not every one who will approve of his introduction of them for the service of such a table, in preference to men, as is the more general custom. The above picture cannot, however, boast such fresh and lucid tints as his four histories of the Life of San Domenico, which are to be seen in a Refectory of Santi Giovanni and Paolo, containing as it were the flower of Padovanino's best style. This very elegant artist spent his time between the capital and his native province, where alone his pictures abound in public; in other cities they are more rarely met with, and are scarce even in private collections.

In forming a judgment of his productions, it is necessary to be upon our guard against a variety of copies, many of his disciples having so happily imitated him, that Venetian professors themselves with difficulty distinguish their hand from that of their master.

Bartolommeo Scaligero ranks among the most celebrated pupils and imitators of Padovanino, an artist enumerated by the people of Padua among their fellow citizens, although they can boast little from his pencil; while the Venetians are in possession of his pictures in various churches, the most beautiful, perhaps, at the _Corpus Domini_. Gio. Batista Rossi, from Rovigo, produced one of his pictures for San Clemente at Padua; subsequently he flourished at Venice, executing few things for public exhibition, but which are much extolled by Boschini. Giulio Carpioni was accounted also among the pupils of Varotari, and acquired a reputation rather for his small than his larger compositions; but we shall have occasion to allude to him again. Maestri and Leoni are names recorded in the _Guida_ of Venice, distinguished for their works in fresco, exhibited at the Conventuali. The former was most probably a foreigner, as well as the latter, whom we shall find at Rimino. Were Boschini somewhat of a less profuse panegyrist, we might here add to this list the name of Dario, a son of Padovanino, uniting the character of the physician, the poet, the painter, and engraver. In the index to the _Carta del Navegar_, we find him placed in the rank of Dilettanti, from the circumstance of his producing little in the art, and this more with the object of presenting his pictures as gifts than of gain. Nevertheless we meet with an encomium upon them,[81] sufficient to satisfy the claims even of a good professor; besides which, several of his virtues and portraits, with an excellent body of colouring, are equally extolled for the spirit of their attitudes, and exquisite taste in the Giorgione manner.

We have next to treat of Pietro Liberi, an artist who succeeded Padovanino in sustaining the honour of his native place. He ranks among the great men of his art, and is esteemed by many the most learned in point of design, of all who adorned the Venetian School. From his early studies of the antique at Rome, of Michelangiolo, and of Raffaello, of Coreggio at Parma, and of all the most excellent masters in the city of Venice, he was led to form a style partaking of every school; a style that pleased in Italy, but far more in Germany, and which obtained for him the titles of Count and Cavalier, with wealth to support them handsomely in Venice. And, in fact, to estimate his merits rightly, we ought not to consider him as a painter in one style, but in many. For according to his own confession, he employed for the eye of true judges a free and rapid pencil, not very studious of finish; for the less intelligent he worked with a very careful one, which bestowed the last touch upon every part, distinguishing the very hairs in such a manner that one might number them; and these paintings he executed on panels of cypress wood. Most probably the fire of this man's genius became quenched whenever he attempted to paint slowly, and his pieces were certainly less perfect, which is known to have occurred to several painters in fresco. But with the exception of these enthusiasts, who are extremely rare, and always adduced by the indolent in defence of their haste, an observing diligence is the perfection of every artist; and even those two thunderbolts, let us call them, of art, Tintoretto and Giordano, where they most practised it, succeeded most in charming the eye of taste. The style of this artist may also be distinguished into the sublime and beautiful. He produced fewer specimens, however, in the former, of which Venice boasts a Slaughter of the Innocents, Vicenza a Noah just landed from the Ark, Bergamo the Great Deluge, in which the shore is said to have been the work of M. Montagne; the whole of them painted for churches, robust in their design, displaying fine variety of foreshortenings and of attitudes, with naked parts in grand character, and more in emulation of the Caracci than of Michelangiolo. He even abused the singular skill that he thus displayed; drawing the Supreme Deity by an unprecedented example, without the least drapery, in the church of Santa Caterina at Vicenza, an error of judgment which detracts from the worth of one of his most beautiful productions. In a lighter character he produced several pictures for private ornament, sometimes consisting of fables familiar to us, and sometimes of _capricci_ and allegorical subjects, too obscure even for OEdipus himself to unravel. Most frequently he drew naked figures of Venus, in the taste of Titian; and these are esteemed his masterpieces, which have acquired for him, indeed, the name of Libertino. It is asserted, that being unequal to the formation of the folds of his draperies, for the most