Part 15

Dionisio Battaglia distinguished himself by an altarpiece of Santa Barbara, mentioned by Pozzo as being at Santa Eufemia; no less than did Scalabrino by his two scriptural histories placed at San Zeno. Two other artists of the same period are very deserving of mention, both on account of their productions and their pupils; Niccolo Giolfino (in Vasari called Ursino) the master of Farinato; and Antonio Badile, the tutor and the uncle of Caliari. Giolfino, or Golfino, according to Ridolfi, partakes something of the dryness of the Quattrocentisti, less select and animated than the best of his contemporaries, his colours not very vivid, but pleasing and harmonious. Most probably educated by some one of these miniaturists, he succeeded better in pictures upon a small than upon a large scale, such as in his Resurrection of Lazarus, to be seen in the church of Nazareth. Born in 1480, Badile flourished during another eighty years, and was the first, perhaps, of any in Verona, to exhibit painting altogether free from traces of antiquity, while he excelled no less in external forms than in depicting the inward affections and passions of the mind. He was moreover the author, at the same time, of a peculiar softness, yet freedom of hand; though it is not known from whom he acquired it. He affixed to his works only the first syllable of his name, formed in a cypher. His picture of the raising of Lazarus, painted for San Bernardino, and another with some holy bishops at San Nazaro, both so much commended by Ridolfi, serve to shew from what source his two pupils, Paolo and Zelotti, derived that elegant manner, which they mutually improved by assisting one another. A similar style was for some years displayed by Orlando Fiacco, or Flacco, from which he is supposed to have been a scholar of Badile, though Vasari, who extols him particularly in portrait, gives him to another school. However this may be, it is certain he inclined to a boldness of style, approaching that of Caravaggio. He flourished but a short period, during which he acquired more merit than fortune.

This resulted from the too great abundance of good artists in Verona, a circumstance that induced many to seek better fortune in foreign parts. Orlandi, on the authority of Vasari, has inserted in the Abecedario a professor of the name of Zeno, or Donato, a native of Verona, who in the church of San Marino at Rimino, painted the titular saint with singular care. I saw it, and it displayed great simplicity of composition, good design, and still better colouring, more particularly in the dress of the bishop, which he laboriously ornamented with little figures of saints. He seems to have belonged to the golden period of art; and it is known that he left other works at the same place, and most probably never changed his residence, or at least did not return, so far as we know, to Verona. Two other artists, named Batista Fontana, much engaged at the imperial court of Vienna; and Jacopo Ligozzi, who long flourished at the court of Tuscany, as I have observed in its place, also adopted the resolution of quitting their native city. Of the former scarcely any thing remains there; though there are a few pieces by the hand of the second, among which at S. Luca a Saint Helena, who, surrounded by her court ladies, assists in the discovery of the Holy Cross, a picture displaying the best Venetian taste in its tints, and in the richness of its draperies; but certainly all the worst, in regard to transferring our own customs to more ancient times. Giovanni Ermanno had either a brother or other relation who approached him very nearly in point of merit, as may clearly be seen at the Santi Apostoli in Verona.

But those who had there obtained the ascendancy, when Paul Veronese first began to make himself known, were three fellow citizens, who still maintain a high character in their native place, inferior only to that of Paul himself. Their names are Batista d'Angelo, surnamed del Moro, as the son-in-law and pupil of Torbido; Domenico Ricci, called il Brusasorci, from his father's custom of burning rats; and Paul Farinato, likewise called degli Uberti. All three were invited by the Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga to Mantua, in order that each might exhibit in the cathedral an altarpiece; while together with these appeared Paul, the youngest of the whole; but who according to Vasari and Ridolfi, surpassed them in the competition. But it is not yet time to enter upon his merits, having first to treat of his rivals, before we venture upon him and his followers, so as not to have occasion for interrupting the remainder of this history, until we arrive at a new epoch.

Giambatista was the least celebrated of the three, though each of his works obtained so much credit, that when Santa Eufemia had one of its walls demolished to make way for a new edifice, his picture of St. Paul before Ananias, that adorned it, was carefully preserved at considerable expense, and replaced over the door of the church; yet this was one of his earliest productions. He produced a great many others, both in oil and in fresco, not unfrequently in competition with Paul. He follows Torbido in point of diligence, and in his strong and unctuous colouring. He has more softness, however, of design; and, if I mistake not, more grace; of which he gave a distinguished specimen in an Angiolo at San Stefano, in the act of distributing the palms to the SS. Innocenti. He was employed, also, in Venice, where the most studied and animated production, going by his name, is not positively pronounced his by Ridolfi, but only _esteemed to be his_, while it is ascribed by Boschini to Francesco Alberti, a Venetian, known merely by this single production. It is an altarpiece in Santa Maria Maggiore, representing the Virgin between St. John and St. Mark, and several lords in ducal robes, with their sons, in the act of adoring her; very lively portraits of the Marcello family, for whom the altar was painted. Vasari gives a brief account both of him and his son Marco, his pupil and assistant, though he did not mention Giulio, brother to Batista, who distinguished himself alike in all the arts, and is called by Zanetti _dotto pittore_. Both, like Batista, exercised their talents in Venice, and whoever compares the four _Coronati_ of Giulio, placed at San Apollinare, with the _Paradiso_ of Marco at San Bartolommeo, will discover an elegance, a precision, and an arrangement of style, sufficient to mark them for disciples of the same school.

Brusasorci may be termed the Titian of this school. It is not known that he received the instructions of any other master besides Giolfino, but it is certain that he studied the works of Giorgione and of Titian, in Venice. He has exhibited the style of the latter in a few of his pictures with great accuracy, as we see in his _San Rocco_, in the church of the Padri Agostiniani at Verona, and in several other pictures for private persons, among which he has drawn nymphs and Venuses. An eye accustomed to the originals of the best Venetians, detects a diversity of tints which in the artist of Verona are less glowing. His genius could not confine itself to the imitation of a single model, like some of the Venetians; he became fond of Giorgione, and to judge from one of his pieces remaining at Mantua, also of Parmigianino. There in the ducal palace we meet with the Fable of Phaeton exhibited in different pieces, which, however much defaced by time, are still admired for the fancy and vivacity they display, no less than for their abundance of figures, and the difficult foreshortenings he has inserted. But his chief merit was shewn in his frescos, with which he decorated villas and palaces with the erudition of a fine poet and the execution of a fine painter. He produced, likewise, his histories; and the masterpiece of all I have seen is the procession of Clement VIII. and of Charles V. through Bologna, a picture exhibited in a hall of the noble casa Ridolfi, and which has been engraved. A nobler spectacle cannot well be imagined; and although other specimens, both of this and similar subjects are met with very generally at Rome, in Venice, and in Florence, none produce equal effect; combining in one piece, a large concourse, fine distribution of figures, vivacity of countenances, noble attitudes in the men and horses; variety of costume, pomp, and splendour and dignity, all bearing an expression of pleasure adapted to such a day. This piece may compete with another in the palazzo Murari at Ponte Nuovo, also in fresco, though this last is preferred in the estimation of many before that of the casa Ridolfi, as I have been informed by the learned Signor dalla Rosa.

Felice Riccio, otherwise Brusasorci the younger, and the son of Domenico, became an orphan before he had completed his studies with his father, which he continued under the care of Ligozzi, at Florence. On returning thence to Verona, he introduced a style very different to the manner of his father. It is extremely elegant and refined, as displayed in his Madonnas, with boys and beautiful cherubs, adorning various collections; and with features something resembling those of Paul Veronese, if not a little more spare. Nor is he deficient in strength where his subject requires it, as I remarked in a picture belonging to the Conti Gazzola, representing the forge of Vulcan, with Cyclops, designed in good Florentine taste, and powerfully coloured. Many of Felice's works are interspersed through the churches of Verona, among which his Santa Elena, belonging to the church of that name, is extremely beautiful. He did not exercise his talents, like his father, in fresco, nor had he equal genius; though he produced pieces on a large scale, the extreme of which was the Fall of Manna, painted for the church of S. Giorgio, a picture both vast and well conceived, and which received its last touches from Ottini and Orbetto, two of his best disciples, whose names I reserve to another epoch. Several little pictures, likewise, both on sacred and other subjects, executed on stone or marble, which he coloured with great skill, availing himself for his shades of the marble itself, are attributed to his hand. Even his portraits are in high esteem; though nearly equalled by those of his sister Cecilia, who acquired skill in the art from her father. Gio. Batista Brusasorci, brother of the preceding artists, and a scholar of Paul Veronese, presented Verona with several highly esteemed pictures; but passing into Germany he became painter to the emperor, in whose service he died.

Surviving the whole of these, and almost all the Caliari family, we meet with the name of Paolo Farinato, as grand an artist perhaps as his namesake was beautiful. After leaving the school of Giolfino, he is supposed to have studied the works of Titian and Giorgione, at Venice; and if we may judge also from his style, he must have received the instructions of Giulio Romano in design; though he made use of the Venetian tints, out of which he formed a system of his own. He survived till his eighty-first year, still preserving his natural good humour; and as is customary with men of so advanced an age, he prided himself upon it, affixing his name to a picture he produced at San Giorgio, placed opposite to one by Felice, stating he had painted it in his seventy-ninth year. It is a representation of the multiplication of loaves in the desert, abounding with very numerous figures, in part portraits of his own family, and in part ideal heads. He is one of the few painters whose merit did not deteriorate in advanced age, for though in some early pieces he betrays a certain dryness of manner, in this last he left nothing imperfect, neither in fulness of contours, in the fancy of his draperies and embellishments, nor in the study of his figures and landscape. His design has been much commended, which was the case with few others of his school; and even in the time of Ridolfi his sketches, the cartoons of his first studies, and his models of figures in wax, were all eagerly sought after for ornamental cabinets. A San Onofrio is pointed out at the church of San Tommaso, in a sitting posture, taken from the celebrated torso di Belvedere; which, as well as many other of his attitudes, and subjects where he introduced naked figures, discovers an acquaintance with the ancient style not common among the Venetians. To his fleshes he gives a bronze colour, which produces a pleasing effect, and harmonizes well with his tints, for the most part sober and even flat in his grounds; giving a repose to the eye which attracts without dazzling it. He is generally esteemed, however, a weak colourist, and better in his frescos than in oil. I know not whether it may be owing to partiality, or to the merit of this great man, but certain it is, that on my quitting Bologna he was the only artist, the whole of whose works I regretted not having seen; so much of all that is rare and beautiful did I meet with in those I saw. More likewise I beheld in Mantua, in San Sisto at Piacenza, in the Ducal Gallery at Modena, in Padua, and other places. I have sometimes observed a kind of snail that Paolo is said to have chosen for his device, remarking that he likewise bore his house upon his head.

His son Orazio practised the art only for a few years. His best praise is, that during that short period he made approaches towards the style and merit of his father. There is one of his pieces at San Stefano, representing the Faithful receiving the Holy Spirit from the Apostles;[68] and, if we except only Paul Veronese, it makes a distinguished figure, placed near some of the best artists of Verona.

Resuming here the thread of our former discourse, we must observe that Paul Caliari found the public prepossessed in favour of the three foregoing artists, and obtained little consideration in his own district while young. The world, ever disinclined to admit the claims of rising reputation, either knew not, or believed not, that in his competition with the Mantuan artists he had surpassed them all; insomuch that this youthful genius was compelled by penury to quit Verona, leaving behind him, upon an altar at San Fermo, a Madonna between two Saints, with a few other proofs of his early powers. He first went to Vicenza, and thence passed on to Venice. His genius was naturally noble, and even magnificent and vast, as well as pleasing; and no provincial city was capable of supplying him with ideas proportionate to his genius, like Venice. There he aimed at improving his style of colouring, upon the models of Titian and Tintoretto, as well as to surpass them, as it would appear, in elegance and variety of ornament. Hence his pupils were accustomed to say, that at that time he devoted himself to the study of casts taken from ancient statues, to the engravings of Parmigiano, and to those of Albert Durer. The first works that he produced for the sacristy of S. Sebastiano in Venice, present us only with the elements of that style he subsequently acquired, in the air of the heads, and in the variety of drapery and of attitudes. For the rest his pencil was still timid, inclined rather to unite his tints with care, than to a bold and free manner of handling. But it was not long before he displayed more freedom, and more attraction, in painting the ceilings of the same church, where he represented the history of Esther, a work whose novelty conciliated public admiration and became a stepping stone to very honourable commissions from the senate.

In the meanwhile he enjoyed an opportunity of visiting Rome, in company with the ambassador Grimani, where, surrounded by its grand ancient and modern productions, "_al volo suo senti crescer le penne_," he felt his wings enlarging as he rose, of which he soon gave proofs in the Palazzo Pubblico, at Venice. Here his imagination seems to revel in every piece coloured by his hand; but particularly in that which may be called the apotheosis of Venice, in regal costume, seated on high, crowned by Glory, celebrated by Fame, attended by Honour, Liberty, and Peace. Juno and Ceres are seen assisting at the spectacle, as symbols of grandeur and felicity. The summit is decorated with specimens of magnificent architecture, and with columns; while lower down appears a great concourse of ladies with their lords and sons, in various splendid habits, all represented in a gallery; and on the ground are represented warriors upon their chargers, arms, ensigns, prisoners, and trophies of war. This oval picture presents us with an union of those powers, with which Paul so much fascinates the eye, producing a general effect altogether enchanting, and includes numerous parts all equally beautiful; bright aerial spaces, sumptuous edifices, which seem to invite the foot of the spectator; lively features, dignified, selected for the most part from nature, and embellished by art. Add to these, very graceful motions, fine contrasts and expressions; noble vestments, both for their shape and materials; with crowns and sceptres, magnificence worthy of so august a scene; perspective that gives distance to objects, without displeasing us when near;[69] the most lively colours,[70] whether similar or contrasted, and harmonized with a peculiar degree of art, such as is not to be taught. Not inferior to these was the handling of his pencil, which to the utmost rapidity unites the greatest judgment, that effects, decides, and achieves something in every stroke; gifts which he had at that age rendered familiar to him, and which form the character of his genius. Whoever has resolution enough to read Boschini (for it is not every one in Italy that can boast as much) will find at p. 643 and further, in addition to the description of this picture, the commendations he bestowed on it, along with Strozza, Mignard, and other able artists, as one of the rarest specimens in the world. Yet this did not obtain for him so high a reputation as his "Suppers." Whoever undertakes to describe his style, ought by no means to pass over a representation, perhaps the most familiar to him of all, having repeated it so many times, until by force of exercising his powers and varying it in different ways, the first sovereigns in the world became desirous of obtaining copies. Several I have seen upon a small scale, but always beautiful; one, the Supper of the Eucharist, at Santa Sofia, in Venice; another, upon the same subject, and of exquisite workmanship, at the Casa Borghese, in Rome; and the feast given by San Gregorio to the poor, belonging to the Serviti, in Vicenza; besides others in different collections. In Venice he painted four Suppers for the same number of refectories in religious houses, both large and rich in point of invention. The first representing the Marriage of Cana, is still preserved at San Giorgio Maggiore, thirty palms in length, copies of which every where abound, and which is highly estimable on account of the great number of the figures, amounting to one hundred and thirty, as well as for its portraits of princes and illustrious men, who flourished at the period. It was nevertheless executed for the price of only ninety ducats. The second is in better preservation, placed at San Giovanni and San Paolo, representing the supper prepared by Matthew for our Lord; and is very highly extolled for its heads, all of which Ricci, at a mature age, copied for his studio. The third is at San Sebastiano, consisting of the Feast of Simon. The fourth, along with the same Feast, formerly placed at the Refectory of the Servi, was presented to Louis XIV. of France, and deposited at Versailles; and this was preferred by Venetian professors to all the rest. For this reason numerous copies were presented by them to the world; although the artist himself took one for the refectory of the monks of SS. Nazario and Celso, along with the same Supper, now in the fine Doria collection at Genoa; and which, however inferior in size to the rest, is considered equal to any of the preceding, and has been engraved by the hand of the celebrated Volpato. Another, likewise of Simon, was sent from Venice to Genoa, which I saw in possession of the Durazzo family; with a Magdalen that may be esteemed a miracle of art; and I also met with an old copy in the Casa Paolucci, at Pesaro. What novel methods he adopted in all these to decorate the place with architecture, and how well he availed himself of them to add to the spectators at the festival! What passions depicted in each of the principal actors, and how appropriate to the period! What splendour in the preparation, luxury of dishes, and pomp of guests! Whoever considers these, will easily excuse such an artist for some occasional imperfection of design, and for inattention to ancient costume, in which he is always faulty.[71] Even Guido, an artist so highly celebrated, so far excused them, that he was accustomed to say, "were it given me to choose what painter I would be, I should prefer being Paul Veronese; for in others every thing appears the effect of art, but he alone seems all nature."

He continued to produce specimens until he was sixty years of age, though he cannot, like many others, be accused of having painted too much; each piece is worthy of Paul Veronese, and each has been multiplied by some copyist; an honour that artists have not bestowed upon the works of Tintoretto, or those of many others. His method of making use of clear grounds, and as much as possible of virgin colours, has greatly contributed to the preservation and freshness of his colouring. In Venice we meet with several of his pictures yet glowing with the peculiar grace he shed over them. A remarkable specimen is seen in that belonging to the noble house of Pisani, exhibiting the family of Darius presented to Alexander, which surprises as much by its splendour as it affects us by its expression. Equal admiration was at one time evinced for his Rape of Europa, which he drew upon a large scale, in various groups, much in the same manner as Coreggio, in his Leda. In the first she appears among her virgins in the act of caressing the animal, and desirous of being borne upon him: in the second, she is seen carried along, applauded by her companions, as she enjoys the scene riding along the shore. In the third, (the only one in grand dimensions) she cleaves the sea in terror, in vain desired and lamented by her virgin train. This work, ornamenting the Ducal Palace, suffered much from the effects of time, and has subsequently been restored.